Tidsrejsen

Tidsrejsen (literally "The Time Travel" or "The Voyage through Time" in Danish) is a Danish television series in the form of a Nordic Christmas calendar that was shown over the Christmas period by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in 2014. As per tradition for Nordic Christmas calendars, the series premiered on 1 December 2014 and ran for 24 episodes. It was written by Poul Berg and directed by Kaspar Munk. "Tidsrejsen" was filmed mostly in the town of Dragør on Amager, south of Copenhagen. The series has science fiction elements, such as a time machine, and has themes of young love and general love, as well as family, the idea that actions have consequences and the idea that people decide their own fate in life.
The Danish Broadcasting Corporation described the Christmas calendar series as ""Back to the Future" meets the romantic comedy", and there are indeed many references to the popular film trilogy, among other time travel films.
The series was rewritten into a novel by the main writer Poul Berg, and was released the same year in 2014. It follows the script for the TV series faithfully but with some added details.
Plot.
The Christmas calendar is about the 13-year-old girl Sofie (Bebiane Ivalo Kreutzmann). Her greatest desire is that her parents, who had divorced after last year's Christmas, get back together so they can celebrate Christmas as a family.
On 1 December, Sofie's paternal grandfather gives Sofie a "calendar present" ("kalendergave", a Nordic tradition) – an invention called a "gyro", which he wants her to finish building, and which under the right conditions can warp space and time, I.E. be used as a time machine. The same day Sofie is visited by the new boy in her class, Dixie (Hannibal Harbo Rasmussen). He seems to be unusually interested in the gyro, knows many things about Sofie that he can't possibly know, and is furthermore being chased by two secret agents.
One night, where Sofie wants to find out who Dixie is and what he wants with her, the secret agents follow after her to the shack where Dixie is staying, after which he has to escape. Sofie travels back to 1984 with him, where he tells her that he is from the future, and that the secrets agents are chasing him because time-travelling is illegal in the future. Furthermore, Sofie invented the time machine that people use in the future.
In 1984, Sofie takes the opportunity to change her parents' past, so that they will remain together in the present. However, this action ends up having dire consequences.
Production.
"Tidsrejsen" is written by Poul Berg and directed by Kaspar Munk and is based on a concept developed by Nordisk Film TV A/S by Peter Hansen, Adam Neutzsky-Wulff, Philip LaZebnik and Lars Feilberg. When the main characters travel back in time to 1984, several things appear and/or are referenced from Danish 80's culture, including the use of the song Dig og mig by Dieters Lieder and references to the disk jockey Kim Schumacher.
The sound designer, Peter Albrechtsen, helped to create most of the sound for the series from scratch. For the technology that came from the future of 2044 he used many bird calls, warping them to sound like computerized sounds, and many sounds from NASA's archive on SoundCloud was also used. Almost all foaly was created by Finnish Heikki Kossi.
The series is primarily filmed in Dragør over the course of seven months. The theme song of the Christmas calendar is sung by Caroline Castell.
Reception.
"Politiken" gave "Tidsrejsen" 5 out of six hearts, writing that the series is suspenseful and have a good plot. "Politiken" believes that it is alright for a children and young adult's TV series to seriously deal with present time culture in regards to divorce and how children view them in divorced families. On average, 1.02 million people watched "Tidsrejsen", and had a viewership of about 47%, which made it the most successful Nordic Christmas calendar in Danish television in 11 years.
"Tidsrejsen" was criticised for its portrayal of the school teacher Ragnar, the only apparently Christian character, as a nasty and condescending type of person, and a fanatic, who wants to prevent scientific progression. Some people did not believe Christianity was taken seriously by the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. This view was shared by both Pernille Vigsø Bagge from the Socialist People's Party and Charlotte Dyremose, church spokesperson of the Conservative Party. However, DR producer Piv Bernth commented that the character was obviously a caricature in a series that is already fantastical, and that he develops from a fraud into a kind man throughout the series.
Awards.
"Tidsrejsen" won the prize for "Best short format television series" at the Robert Awards in 2015.