Well, "Time Trax" (7 p.m., Ch. 14) wasn't as bad as I was afraid it might be.
But on the other hand, I was expecting this new syndicated science-fiction series to be pretty bad.It's an interesting concept, and there are some fairly decent special effects in tonight's two-hour pilot. Unfortunately, the producers spent more money on the effects than they did on the script - which is full of holes.
The premise is this: Capt. Darien Lambert (Dale Midkiff), a super-cop of the year 2193, is frustrated that his criminal prey keep making amazing escapes. When one literally disappears from his high-security cell, Darien figures there's something up.
What he discovers is that a mad scientist by the name of Dr. Mordecai Sahmbi (Peter Donat) has invented a method of traveling back in time. Unfortunately, being the evil type and needing money to fuel his research, Sahmbi has been helping bad guys make their escapes by sending them 200 years into the past.
There, the 22nd-century crooks are plotting to take over the world.
(By the way, Trax is an acronym for Trans Time Research and Experimentation - if you care.)
When they figure all this out, the heroic (and rather stiff) Capt. Lambert volunteers to go back to the year 1993 himself, hunt down the bad guys and return them to the 22nd century.
Once the premise is established, there is no time travel for the hero of "Time Trax." He's in the 20th century to stay.
And compared to men of the 20th century, Darien is a physical marvel who nearly leaps higher than the tallest building and speeds faster than a locomotive, so there's plenty of slow-motion marvels of the sort "The Six Million Dollar Man" employed.
Of course, there's a rather large problem of logic in this plot. If all these crooks went back and actually succeeded in their evil designs, then the future would have been affected and Lambert wouldn't have been able to go back after them.
Darien is aided by a supercomputer the size and appearance of a credit card. And this helpful little gadget, by the name of Selma, can also project a holographic image of herself - inviting comparisons to "Quantum Leap." Comparisons in which "Time Trax" does not fare well.
What's particularly disappointing is that "Trax" was co-created by Harve Bennett, the man behind the second, third, fourth and fifth installments of the "Star Trek" movie series. He should have known better.
It's all pretty lame, but if you're looking for mindless entertainment you could do worse.