The new NBC program Journeyman, Mondays at 10 p.m. EDT, is an attempt at a mystery series with a difference: the protagonist is involuntarily thrown back through time at unpredictable intervals.

It’s an interesting concept, basically a simpler, more direct variation on the idea behind the 1989-1993 series Quantum Leap, starring Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell.

In Journeyman, Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd) suddenly and quite unexpectedly finds himself twenty years in the past. Neither he nor the audience understands precisely why or how he has been thrust back into time. Just as unpredictably and mysteriously, he returns to his normal time a few hours later—with a good deal of explaining to do, to his wife and others, and which he does quite inadequately because he has no idea what is really happening to him and why.

The next day, he is thrust ten years back into the past, seeing the characters from his first journey, now ten years later into their lives. It soon becomes clear that he is being drawn back into the past in order to accomplish something affecting these people. 

His inexplicable absences from home during the time trips puts pressure on his marriage, as well they might, but in a very nice touch, he ingeniously finds a way to prove to his wife that he’s telling her the truth, and he achieves a reconciliation with her. Of course, it’s likely that future episodes will continue to create problems for him at home, but the couple’s strong loyalty to each other gives tehm a good chance to overcome the problems. That’s something very unusual for television these days.

The use of popular music from the various periods he travels to also helps set the scene and anchor the trips in a reality most viewers will recognize.

We may also greatly appreciate that unlike most new drama series, Journeyman does not take place largely at night in the rain. The use of real San Francisco locations and recognizable places gives the show a much stronger sense of reality than it would otherwise have, and that is especially important when the narrative is as fantastic and potentially alienating as this.

In the pilot episode, the story keeps moving nicely and the mystery element is strong throughout. In addition, the plot becomes satisfyinglyy twisty and tricky as the episode progresses.

An unusual angle to the story is the fact that the protagonist prevents a woman from getting an abortion she is planning, and then he later prevents a double murder. In the end it turns out that the young man whom he twice saved from being killed saves the lives of several children after a bus crash. Vasser makes clear his understanding that someone or something sent him back into the past deliberately, in order to save the young man so that he could save those children’s lives.

As this precis indicates, the story plays out in an uncommonly wholesome way, and the show has a very decent spirit behind it.