'Outlander' cast lives in the past - and the far past

SAN DIEGO – Time travel is a tricky business.

Caitriona Balfe can vouch for that, playing a woman who is transported two centuries into the past in Starz's Outlander (Aug. 9, 9 p.m. ET/PT).

In the 16-episode drama, which is based on Diana Gabaldon's best-selling book series, Balfe's Claire Randall is a 1940s British combat nurse traveling in Scotland when she is suddenly catapulted to the 1740s. There, she finds herself in the middle of a brutal conflict between the Scottish and the English. In the process, she is separated from her husband, Frank Randall (Tobias Menzies), and forced to marry a Scottish warrior, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan).

"How does someone navigate their way through one time and then, when they're completely transported, what are the challenges that arise?" Balfe says, during a quick Comic-Con breakfast chat that also included Menzies and Heughan. "Claire, even in the 1940s, is a very modern woman, kind of a timeless character. Going back to the 1700s, she's constantly battling against societal norms she doesn't agree with."

Asked if Outlander, which mixes romance, science fiction, history and adventure, will feature flashbacks of the transported Claire's life in the 1940s, Balfe corrects the questioner: "Flash-forwards."

Menzies also has a time-twister of a task, playing Frank in the 1940s and one of his ancestors, "Black Jack" Randall, a cruel English military officer, in 18th-century Scotland.

"I haven't had to do both characters on the same day. I feel like it's going to happen," he says. As far as separating characters, "The costumes and scripts help a lot. You have to trust the story to a certain extent. Part of the job is to imagine myself in two different head spaces and find the similarities and differences" between the characters.

Heughan, who was born in Scotland, says his native land provides a vivid setting for the TV series, which features Battlestar Galactica's Ronald Moore as executive producer.

"There are a few episodes quite early on where they go on the road and there's some amazing stuff. We still had snow on the mountains. It's really panoramic and dramatic," Heughan says. "The light is very special there. The colors are, (too). Quite early on when (Claire) is at Castle Leoch and out picking flowers, all the trees have these amazing autumnal colors. It looks like a painting."

Menzies adds: "Scotland's a total star in the show."