One of the most prevalent ideas in all of science based fiction is that of time travel. It just so happens that I have more than a slight fascination with the topic.
Time travel has been treated in many different ways by different shows throughout the years. In the BBC show Doctor Who, it is used simply as a plot device to get the main characters to a time and place where an adventure can take place and a story can build. Thus, in most episodes of Doctor Who, the time machine is only used at the very beginning and end. By contrast, the American show Heroes often uses time travel as a way to directly affect the plot. Often, the writers lean on Hiro Nakamura (the time traveler in the show) as a way to get information to places where it needs to be.
In Journeyman and Life on Mars, the protagonists find themselves having involuntarily traveled through time to a specific place, and must figure out their situation and their destiny. In Quantum Leap, the protagonist jumps around to various points in time, as constricted by his own lifespan. In Sliders, the characters travel to different dimensions that comprise the many different realities of Earth. And, of course, we must not forget the hit Cartoon Network animated program Code Lyoko. In that one, the plucky kids use time travel at the end of every episode as a way to invalidate any progress that was made in the course of the narrative.
As a culture, we seem to keep coming back to this concept and reinventing it, rethinking it, deciding how it should work. Even though it rarely works out, (peruse this wikipedia list of time travel programs and take a look at all the bombs) it still seems to fascinate and tantalize us when it's done right. Is this simply because it provides a wide range of possible stories? Do people just like history? Or perhaps it is because it feeds a deeper part of the human condition: the desire to go back and do something over again, to relive or rediscover something we once had but now is gone?
2 comments:
Good post!
I like Life on Mars...it's subtle and I enjoy the cultural clash of now vs. then. I also used to enjoy the episodes of Star Trek when they'd go back in time to the 20th century or earlier...
Then there's Donnie Darko. If it had not been such a self-contained story it would have made a great TV series, in the right hands. Here's hoping the rights never get sold.
There is a fascinating short story in Harlan Ellison's Again, Dangerous Visions anthology called "Time Travel for Pedestrians". In it, the protagonist ingests morning glory seeds and experiences a prolonged experience of time travel by way of hallucinatory masturbation fantasy...as with many other stories in the volume, it was deemed "inappropriate" for most of the publishing outlets at the time (1960s).
You bring up a very interesting point concerning the issue of time travel used as a plot device in many television shows. I've only seen the first few episodes of Heroes (I know.. I should watch more) but from what I remember a lot of those episodes revolved and depended upon what Hiro did in the present, past, or future.
I personally find shows more interesting that explain key aspects of the story by beginning at the ending and thus telling it backwards from the more typical narrative layout, Such as Lost which I can't wait for Thursday's episode. Although at this point, it's nothing new in story telling.
I never really thought of why I find time travel so fascinating but you bring up an excellent point of it being in our human instincts to go back and change something differently then we did the first time.
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