In the pilot of ABC’s “Time After Time,” a young H.G. Wells (Freddie Stroma) uses his time machine to travel to present-day New York City, where he finds himself, dressed in a 19th-century-style three-piece suit, in the middle of Times Square while in pursuit of Jack the R🌄ipper (Josh Bowman).
This being New York,🌞 the show’s star says he attracted no more attention while filming than the other costumed characters in Times Square.
“What’s funny is that people didn’t really notice too much. I looked a little like a hipster,” Stroma, 30, tells The Post. “Wearing a glued-on mustache and chops, I thought, ‘I look ridiculous,’ a﷽nd then I started looking around and noticing other men with similar facial hair and I thought, ‘OK, maybe not.’”
In “Time After Time” (Episode 3 airs Sunday at 9 p.m.), the period suit and hair don’t last𝔍 long as Wells and Jack (real name Dr. John Stevenson) engage in a cat-and-mouse game. The moralistic Wells wants Stevenson to return to 1893 London to serve justice for murdering a prostitute. The doctor, however, finds he’s quite content to keep killingꦕ in a future that is plagued with war, violence and political divisiveness.
While their characters were friends before 🅘Jack’s killing spree made t💛hem enemies, Stroma (“UnReal”) was surprised to discover that he and Bowman, 29, (“Revenge”) — who both grew up in England — also have a shared past.
“Apparently when I was nine years old, we went to the same school [St. John’s Beaumont in Berkshire],” he says. “He was one y꧒ear below me, in my brother’s year. He recognized my rea🍬l name [Sjöström], because it’s a confusing Swedish name. It’s funny that we’re playing two people who don’t really know each other but once upon a time, we were friends.”
People didn’t really notice too much. I looked a little like a hipster.
- Freddie S𓆏troma on♐ wearing period costumes while filming in New York
The drama’s serial killer plot line is lightened by comedic moments, as when Wells is befuddled by modern technology, such as iPhones and electric razors๊. Along the way, he also meets and begins to fall for a pretty assistant museum curator, Jane (Genesis Rodriguez), which will complicate his pursuit of justice in the first season.
“There’s definitely the arc of trying to [make] Jack the Ripper pay for what he’s done. We also have a love story, which makes it difficult for H.G. to even want to go back, even though he has to,” says Stroma, who is married to his “UnReal” co-star Johanna Braddy. “And then we have some other people who know about the time machine, which then ties us in to some of [Wells’] novels, specifically ‘The Island of Doctor Moreau.’
“We’ll have some moments where Jack the Rip🥃per and I have a common enemy and we might have to put some differences aside,” he adds.
Time-travel shows have proved an especially prevalent genre this season, though unlike entries such as NBC’s “Timeless” and Fox’s “Making History,” “Time After Time” won’t jump through the decades every episode. 🗹As to why TV suddenly has time-warp fever, Stroma is stumped.
“I hones🍷tly don’t know [why],” he says. “To me, it’s a fun platform for that escapism where you can say ‘what if’ of other characters — what they would think of our society, what we would think ༒of theirs.”
“Time After Time” 9 p.m. Sunday on ABC