Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Time Traveller Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 30, 2024

Note: This film is available on Blu-ray as part of The Nico Mastorakis Collection from Arrow Video.

Arrow Video has been cultivating a really rather sweet relationship with Greek writer and director Nico Mastorakis for several years, bringing out any number of Mastorakis' films, including .com for Murder , Nightmare at Noon, Death Has Blue Eyes, The Wind, The Zero Boys, Hired to Kill and Island of Death. It's perhaps worth noting that as with this release, Mastorakis tends to provide his own masters, which may "cut out the middle man" and facilitate releases. Mastorakis quite frequently uses some incredibly luscious Greek locations for films that might otherwise not be much above what the back cover of this release overtly mentions as "B movie" levels, and that's once again the case with the sextet of films offered in this nicely packaged new set. That said, even when the films stray from the stunning Greek locations, there's another kind of "scenery" regularly on hand in these films courtesy of a bevy of beautiful women, often in little to no clothing. This collection has a rather broad range of subject matter as well as tonal proclivities, and makes a pretty cogent case that Mastorakis can be at least decently facile in any number of genres.

Part of the whole "B movie" ambience mentioned above (by Arrow itself, it should be reiterated) is the fact that Nico Mastorakis outings can frequently not have a ton of automatic marquee power, but that's not the case with this effort starring Keir Dullea and Adrienne Barbeau in a science fiction tinged tale that has certain echoes of The Man Who Fell to Earth. As with that celebrated Nicolas Roeg feature, The Time Traveler (which bears an alternate title of The Next One) focuses on a woman who finds a strange, possibly alien, creature. In this particular case, widow Andrea Johnson (Adrienne Barbeau) is out for a walk with her son Timmy (Jeremy Licht) on a gorgeous if craggy Greek beach one day when the two find a naked unconscious man on the rock strewn coast.

Without spoiling some interesting if probably too confused and convoluted plot points, this amnesiac "stranger" adopts the name Glenn and then proceeds to both romantically woo Andrea while also repeatedly displaying some supernatural abilities. That ultimately plays into a somewhat heavy handed but still kind of interesting attempt to weave Glenn's story into Christianity, which may obviously evoke two other linked science fiction outings, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Stranger from Venus.

The Time Traveller Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Time Traveller is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet (really more of a pamphlet this time around) has the following generic information on all the transfers, which are lumped together on one informational page, as follows:

The Time Traveller, Sky High, Glitch!, Ninja Academy and The Naked Truth are presented in their original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo and 5.1 audio.

Terminal Exposure is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio with stereo audio.

The high definition masters were provided by Nico Mastorakis.

This is one of the more gorgeously scenic Greek set films in this collection, and the high definition presentation is often quite striking, at least in some outdoor material. There, the palette is very nicely suffused and natural looking, and fine detail can be excellent (see screenshot 2). Some of the interior material as well as a repeated use of blue grading to suggest night (see screenshots 6 and 9) may not fare quite as well frankly when it comes to fine detail, even if general detail levels tend to remain intact. While there is a grain field, it's really rather fine at times, and while this has no really egregious signs of filtering, I wouldn't be surprised if some "grain management" had been employed.

The Time Traveller Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Time Traveller features either DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 or LPCM 2.0 options, and both support a rather nicely designed soundtrack that has a lot of ambient environmental sounds in the many outdoor scenes, as well as a few other sound effects as Glenn's special powers make themselves manifest. The surround track definitely opens up the outside material as well providing a more spacious accounting of Stanley Myers' score. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Time Traveller Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged The Time Traveller and Sky High together on one disc. All of the films in this set feature "self interviews" by Mastorakis detailing that particular film's production, as well as other supplements, as follows:

• Nico's Self Interviews: The Time Traveller (HD; 23:48)


• Nico's Self Interviews: Sky High (HD; 18:24)


• Dan Hirsch: A Revealing Self Interview (HD; 11:22) features the Sky High actor.


• Trailers

  The Time Traveller (HD; 2:28)

  
  

  Sky High (HD; 3:42)

The Time Traveller Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Time Traveller probably tries too hard to shoehorn both a Greek sensibility and Christian iconography into one science fiction tinged story, but of all the films in this set, this may be the one that actually touches people the most. Technical merits are generally solid and as always Mastorakis is an engaging raconteur in his "self interviews". Recommended.