TV REVIEWS : ‘The Living Clock’ on KCET’s ‘Infinite Voyage’

If you are still suffering from the recent time change, you’ll probably find reassurance in the premise of “The Living Clock”: Our lives really are lived by the clock--an internal timer that affects our bodies and our minds.

An “Infinite Voyage” segment airing tonight at 8 on Channel 28, “Clock” explores the relatively new science of chronobiology, the study of the impact time has on us. Writer/producer Gail Willumsen has delivered a well-paced, absorbing documentary helped out by some excellent graphics.

The show’s segments range from the very obvious (jet lag, affecting about 300 million jet passengers a year) to the subtle (the proof that time--after millennia of exposure to the cycle of day and night--is now genetically encoded).

Unfortunately, the weakest segment is on the area closest to every worker’s heart: the effects of skewed work shifts on our health. “Clock” demonstrates the ill effects of work schedules that are out of sync with natural body rhythms but offers almost no solutions, a rare slip in this well-written show.

But that’s a small quibble. On balance, the show’s segments are solid and informative. Perhaps the most interesting is one on medical treatments geared to the rhythms of internal time. We watch the treatment of a woman whose cancer is being shrunk without chemotherapy’s typical nasty side effects because her medication is automatically delivered by an internal pump at specific times throughout the month; we see a doctor who has uncovered a correlation between the timing of breast cancer surgery and the patient death rate.

“Clock” ends on an optimistic note for those who just can’t seem to stay awake or alert. Says one doctor: “We found . . . that the human internal clock can be reset.”

Good news indeed--if true. Try that next time you’re late for work: “Sorry boss. Gonna have to reset this darned internal clock.” Sure.