- Marcy Warton: "He's addicted to heroin."
- Grant MacLaren: "He's what?"
- Marcy Warton: "He inherited it from his host."
- Grant MacLaren: "Why would the Director put you in the body of a heroin addict?"
- Philip Pearson: "The historical record said that he died after the first time that he used."
- Trever Holden: "His parents were probably in denial."
- — The team discussing Philip Pearson's recklessness.[src]
Philip Pearson (Traveler 3326) is the Historian of the Core Traveler Team. Placed in the body of a drug addict due to misleading historical records, his gifts of eidetic memory, empathy and foreknowledge constantly test his faith in the Director and the Grand Plan to save humanity.
Averted Death[]
On March 8, 2017 around 11:35 PM, Philip and his friend Stephen get high on heroin, with Philip preparing the drugs. However, these turn out to be from a bad batch, and the pair historically died of overdose. Traveler 3326's consciousness arrives in Philip just before he's about to inject the needle into himself.
History[]
3326 Future History[]
Little is known about his past life in the future, mainly due to Protocol 2. He did mention that he has a clear memory of Shelter 41 collapsing when he was a child and he can describe it in some detail.
He was chosen to be a Historian when he was an infant so he could be specifically trained and serve in the Traveler Program. This made him feel like an experiment while other times he felt like a superhuman. He'd been under the Director's care for his entire life.
While under the influence of heroin and under duress, 3326 claimed his mother was Traveler 2144. (S1E05: Room 101)
Host[]
Philip Pearson was a 20-year-old unemployed heroin addict. He was mostly friendless, except for Stephen, who was also his roommate and fellow junkie. Philip also wasn't close to his family, whose involvement in his life essentially ended after his prevented overdose.
In the historical record, Philip's parents had him listed as a first-time drug user, not an ongoing addict. Trevor Holden supposes that Philip's parents were probably in denial. (S1E03: Aleksander)
Traveler 3326[]
After transferring into Philip's body, Traveler 3326 stops himself from injecting the heroin which would've killed his host. He watches Stephen undergo dying convulsions, unable to help because of Protocol 3. Instead, he gets his things and runs off.
Philip goes to an internet cafe in the morning to set up an encrypted chatroom on the deep web for his Traveler cell. After announcing his successful consciousness transfer there, Detective Gower arrives and wants him to submit for questioning at the police station regarding Stephen's death. Gower wants to determine if Philip is liable for manslaughter, but Philip is beginning to realize he transferred into an addict undergoing withdrawal, so he requests legal representation to get it over with. The lawyer Ray Green arrives to take on his case, and Philip identifies him as a fellow addict in need of a fix.
To that end, Philip proposes a deal: winning horse race bets in exchange for no jail time. Ray reluctantly agrees, but the ensuing payout convinces him to get Philip out of his legal jam and offer his services as a retainer. Afterward, Philip uses his freedom to win further amounts of money from lottery tickets.
The next morning, Phillip is pestered by Ray for more winning horse races, but the former is unwilling to do so. Ray abandons him near Gower, who's also surveilling him in light of his suspicious financial windfall. Gower chases him into an alley, but the exertion induces a heart attack. Again, Philip is unable to help, and he can only tearfully explain to the dying detective that he was considered to be a host candidate but the heart attack was inevitable. He leaves Gower's body in the alley.
Later that night, Philip meets up with the rest of his Traveler team for the first time in the 21st century. Minus their leader, they prevent Jonas Walker from going on a rampage by killing him. FBI agent Grant MacLaren arrives at the scene following an investigative lead into the Travelers, and Philip helps explain their nature and mission before their leader Traveler 3468 downloads into MacLaren, overwriting his consciousness. (S1E01: Travelers)
The team's first real mission is to prevent an antimatter explosion by stealing the material in transit. After successfully swapping the antimatter with conventional explosives and concealing their involvement, Marcy Warton volunteers herself and Philip to handle the second part of the mission in the morning, with the latter pointing out that the other members of the team have their own social lives to settle into first. Philip takes the portable antimatter containment unit and retires to the new operations center he purchased with his winnings.
That morning he wakes up to a comm notice from Marcy, but suffers from withdrawal, forcing him to take a little heroin to stave off the effects. The second leg of the mission becomes complicated when the Traveler Philip and Marcy's supposed to be handing the antimatter off to dies almost immediately after transferring. After ruling out a few courses of action, Philip helps Trevor extend the portable unit's battery life. However, Philip's drug tremors causes him to short out the device's power supply, sending him flying and nearly killing him. This leave the portable unit with less time instead of more.
With the team deciding to return the antimatter to Van Huizen Corporation, Philip hacks the facility to instigate a coolant leak and fabricates the team's credentials in order to pose as cleanup crew from Futura Reclamation. He acts as a lookout from a van, and warns the team when Major Gleason arrives to speak to the facility's head Delaney. (S1E02: Protocol 6)
With the antimatter crisis over, Philip turns his attention to personal matters. He attends Stephen's funeral from a distance and tries to apologize to Marion and Greg, but they are too angry at his perceived inaction during their son's overdose. Philip finds he cannot function properly without taking a hit, and begins periodically dosing himself, though he soon hallucinates Stephen admonishing his failure to save him. Philip weakly justifies it with the restrictions of his Traveler training. He commiserates a bit with Marcy, as she was also sent into a physically compromised host based on misleading records, though Marcy warns him to take only enough heroin to keep himself functional; any more risks further addiction. He meets up with Ray, willing to overlook his stunt with Gower, and tasks him to win a few horse races and send the majority of the cash to Gower's family and Marion.
In the team's next mission Philip provides the coordinates to meet an incoming Traveler, but it is canceled midway to the destination. Choosing one historical event from his capacious memory, Philip tasks the team to save Aleksander Andrieko, a boy fated to die to abusive kidnapper "parents". He claims the information is sent through Messenger, though later during the mission itself Aleksander is turned into a Messenger warning the team they are off-mission. Grant tries to abort, but Philip insists on rescuing Aleksander, as his abductors historically would have killed more children after him. The kidnappers turn hostile and attempt to fight with guns, forcing the Travelers to neutralize them and save Aleksander anyway. Philip is shot, though he recovers.
In the aftermath, Grant scolds him for taking matters into his hands, as Philip has also been sending anonymous anti-crime tips to the FBI. Pointing to his scribbles on the wall door of Ops, Philip says these are historical deaths and wonders why they can't prevent some of them. Grant rages on him for presuming to know better than the Director, forcing Marcy to intervene and divulge Philip's crippling addiction issue. In light of this new information, Grant tasks Marcy to help Philip gradually wean off from the drugs. (S1E03: Aleksander)
Weeks after the completion of the Helios mission, Philip is aimless and adrift. Ray finds him wandering about in a drug-induced stupor and decides to spend some time with him. Philip buys a pet, a turtle he names Poppy, then goes to an AA meeting at Ray's urging. (S1E07: Protocol 5)
Trivia[]
- Numerous actors in Travelers also had roles in the Stargate franchise, both of which had Brad Wright as an executive producer. Reilly Dolman portrayed Jason in Stargate Universe.