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Time Travel In Fiction: Literature, Films & Television

Another short film but I haven't watched it yet so apologies if it's crap .. it's supposed to have a few Back To The Future nods in it ...

 
This Low-Budget Time-Travel Thriller Looks Like Just The Right Amount of Goofy Fun

Here’s an exclusive clip from Paradox, a brand new time-travel movie where someone who’s about to travel through time is told that if anything goes wrong, “You will literally disappear up your own ass.” That is the exact attitude that messing with the fourth dimension calls for.

Paradox, starring Malik Yoba (Alphas) and Zoe Bell (The Hateful Eight), is about a guy who goes one hour into the future—only to discover that an hour from now, everybody is going to be dead.
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http://io9.gizmodo.com/this-low-budget-time-travel-thriller-looks-like-just-th-1766414840
 
Time-travel from H.G. Wells to “Version Control”

MUCH of what is good in science fiction is not about the future. Rather, the genre uses the future as a canvas on which to imprint its real concerns—the present. Counterintuitively, perhaps, time travel stories are often those tales that are most anchored in the present. As Sean Redmond argues in “Liquid Metal: the Science Fiction Film Reader”, time travel “provides the necessary distancing effect that science fiction needs to be able to metaphorically address the most pressing issues and themes that concern people in the present”.

One of the earliest time-travel novels, H.G. Wells's “The Time Machine”, can, for example, be read as reflecting contemporary anxieties about the effects of the industrial revolution on Britain's rigid class system. The elfin “upper class” Eloi are seemingly content, but are in fact easy prey for the ape-like “working class” Morlocks. The fear that a strong but supposedly inferior working class, empowered by industrialisation, could come for them would have resonated with many of Wells’s Victorian readers.

Robert Heinlein’s time and dimension-hopping novels featuring Lazarus Long, who lives for over 2,000 years, are rooted in the author’s rejection of the social norms of his times. With their enthusiasm for nudism and free love, the novels, which must have seemed provocative in the 1950s and 60s, can now feel dated.

Published earlier this year, Dexter Palmer’s “Version Control” takes time travel as social commentary a step further, perhaps, than any. Allusions to the present are in ample supply in this Russian doll of a novel. ...

http://www.economist.com/blogs/pros...ictionaltimetravelfromhgwellstoversioncontrol
 
Wonderful topic. Many people are fascinated by the concept of time travel in general; but from reading these recommendations there seems to be a couple of camps--those who like speculations about being in the future and those who desire the ability to travel to the past. I'd like to hear a few more tips on works that on going back in time. I'll start by mentioning that Stephen King's 11/22/63 is pretty good.
 
A while since I read it but I enjoyed Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. In the near future we discover time travel and send historians back into the past (to 1320, in this case).
 
Time travellers: please don’t kill Hitler
In almost any science-fiction scenario involving time-travel, the default action is to kill Hitler. As terrible a human being as he was, there are many reasons why this probably isn’t a good idea

If you find yourself suddenly gaining access to a time machine, what’s the first thing you’d do? If you said “kill Adolf Hitler”, then congratulations; you’re a science-fiction character. Actually, the whole “access to a time machine” thingsuggested that already, but the desire to kill Hitler clinches it. Any time-travelling sci-fi character (at least ones created by Western society) seems to want to kill Hitler, so much so that there’s a trope about how it’s impossible.

That attempting to kill Hitler has become such a common sci-fi plot device speaks volumes. What about Stalin? He was arguably worse, killing 20 million of his own people to fuel his ideology. But no, Stalin went about his business unmolested by time travellers, all of whom are busy targeting Hitler.

It’s understandable. Who wouldn’t want to prevent the holocaust? It’s probably the worst thing in history. And I only say “probably” because I don’t know all of history, and the human capacity to be awful should not be underestimated. But as noble as it seems, killing the Fuhrer via time travel is a terrible idea, for real-world reasons, not just those in fiction. So should you get hold of a time machine and make plans to kill Hitler, here are some reasons why you shouldn’t. ...

https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2014/feb/21/time-travellers-kill-adolf-hitler
 
I'd go back in time, pretend to be Jewish and buy loads of his dull old paintings.
He'd be happy, become a successful artist and wouldn't ever write Mein Kampf.
 
Nicholas Lyndhurst to appear in one-off Goodnight Sweetheart special
1990s time travel sitcom revived as part of season celebrating 60 years of BBC comedy
John Plunkett
Tuesday 5 July 2016 16.00 BST

Nicholas Lyndhurst will return to BBC1 in a revival of its 1990s time travel sitcom, Goodnight Sweetheart.
The comedy will return as a one-off special as part of the channel’s landmark sitcom season celebrating 60 years of laughter.

Lyndhurst, who is still best known for his role as Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, and latterly in BBC1 drama New Tricks, starred in Goodnight Sweetheart as accidental time traveller Gary Sparrow who ended up in second world war London.
In the new episode, written by its original creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, he ends up “somewhere he has never been before” after he is catapulted back into 21st century life.

The BBC sitcom season will also see revivals of classic comedies including Are You Being Served?, Porridge and a Keeping Up Appearances prequel, Young Hyacinth, along with a handful of new shows.


Lyndhurst will return to the role but it is not known if Dervla Kirwan, who played Gary Sparrow’s love interest, will also be back. The BBC said further casting would be announced in due course.

Marks and Gran’s other TV credits include The New Statesman, featuring Rik Mayall as Alan B’Stard, and Birds of a Feather, recently revived by ITV.

Shane Allen, controller of BBC comedy commissioning said: “The whole sitcom season is geared towards giving comedy royalty their due recognition and in Goodnight Sweetheart we have heavyweight writing and performing talents reunited in this hugely popular and fondly remembered show.
“The conceptual update is sublime and it was heart-skipping stuff to read – it’s an absolute belter.” :)

Jon Rolph, executive producer of Goodnight Sweetheart, added: “I’ve long been keen to catch up with the life and various times of Gary Sparrow, so it’s an absolute delight to see Goodnight Sweetheart take its place in the landmark sitcom season.”

Goodnight Sweetheart ran on BBC1 for six series, from 1993 to 1999.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/05/nicholas-lyndhurst-goodnight-sweetheart-bbc
 
rynner2 said:
Lyndhurst will return to the role but it is not known if Dervla Kirwan, who played Gary Sparrow’s love interest, will also be back.
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As I recall, Dervla Kirwan's role was recast part way through the programme's run, which coincided with me no longer be interested in it. Weird that!
 
PeteByrdie said:
As I recall, Dervla Kirwan's role was recast part way through the programme's run, which coincided with me no longer be interested in it. Weird that!
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I was watching it all the way through a few years ago but lost interest when I found out Rolf Harris appears as himself in a later series. Took the fun out of it for sure.
 
In almost any science-fiction scenario involving time-travel, the default action is to kill Hitler. As terrible a human being as he was, there are many reasons why this probably isn’t a good idea
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Doctor Who locked Hitler in the closet in a particularly dismal effort that added "Locking Hitler in the closet" to terms like "Jumping the shark" and "Nuking the fridge". :p
 
rynner2 said:
Nicholas Lyndhurst to appear in one-off Goodnight Sweetheart special
1990s time travel sitcom revived as part of season celebrating 60 years of BBC comedy
John Plunkett
Tuesday 5 July 2016 16.00 BST

Nicholas Lyndhurst will return to BBC1 in a revival of its 1990s time travel sitcom, Goodnight Sweetheart.
The comedy will return as a one-off special as part of the channel’s landmark sitcom season celebrating 60 years of laughter.

Lyndhurst, who is still best known for his role as Rodney in Only Fools and Horses, and latterly in BBC1 drama New Tricks, starred in Goodnight Sweetheart as accidental time traveller Gary Sparrow who ended up in second world war London.
In the new episode, written by its original creators Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, he ends up “somewhere he has never been before” after he is catapulted back into 21st century life.

The BBC sitcom season will also see revivals of classic comedies including Are You Being Served?, Porridge and a Keeping Up Appearances prequel, Young Hyacinth, along with a handful of new shows.


Lyndhurst will return to the role but it is not known if Dervla Kirwan, who played Gary Sparrow’s love interest, will also be back. The BBC said further casting would be announced in due course.

Marks and Gran’s other TV credits include The New Statesman, featuring Rik Mayall as Alan B’Stard, and Birds of a Feather, recently revived by ITV.

Shane Allen, controller of BBC comedy commissioning said: “The whole sitcom season is geared towards giving comedy royalty their due recognition and in Goodnight Sweetheart we have heavyweight writing and performing talents reunited in this hugely popular and fondly remembered show.
“The conceptual update is sublime and it was heart-skipping stuff to read – it’s an absolute belter.” :)

Jon Rolph, executive producer of Goodnight Sweetheart, added: “I’ve long been keen to catch up with the life and various times of Gary Sparrow, so it’s an absolute delight to see Goodnight Sweetheart take its place in the landmark sitcom season.”

Goodnight Sweetheart ran on BBC1 for six series, from 1993 to 1999.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/05/nicholas-lyndhurst-goodnight-sweetheart-bbc
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I used to like that and I've just found series 1 (I think) :)

 
Time travel to the future (but not back to the past) is certainly possible according to the Relativity theory, but we'd need a fast-flying spaceship to do it.

The film 'Interstellar' illustrates it nicely when McConaughey flies through a wormhole.

SPOILER ALERT- When he eventually returns to earth 70 "earth years" later he hasn't aged much at all but his young daughter who he left on earth is now an elderly woman
 
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Topic: Time Travel: Scientific Theories
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I've got a fun theory for what it's worth, namely that if somebody was to time-travel to the past in order to do something drastic to change subsequent history for the better, history cannot be changed no matter what he does, as if the universe will always find a way to keep history on track!

This episode of the New Twilight Zone explores the theme; a German-speaking woman is sent back to 1899 to get a job as nanny in the Hitler household so that she can kill the newborn baby Adolf and prevent WW2 from happening..

SPOILER ALERT- she kills him (and herself in the process), but the housekeeper substitutes another baby (which she buys from its jewish mother) without telling the family, and it grows up as Adolf Hitler and starts WW2..



Hey I've just remembered another "time-travellers cannot change history" episode of the New Twilight Zone called "The Once and Future King"..:)

SPOILER ALERT- A guy is accidentally thrown back in time to 1950's America and hitches a ride into town in a truck that just happens to be driven by a young as-yet-unknown Elvis Presley. Later, he accidentally kills Elvis, but an "Elvis Presley" goes on to become the famous star that we all know-


 
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rynner2 said:
Although Wells' 'Time Machine' is mentioned on several threads here, none of them seem suitable for this story:

HG Wells or Enrique Gaspar: Whose time machine was first?

... There are, of course, much earlier descriptions of travelling through time - usually in a dream, but occasionally by some kind of magic.
"Edward Page Mitchell's story The Clock That Went Backward (1881) is usually described as the first time-machine story, but I'm not sure that a clock quite counts."
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Personally, I support Mitchell's short story as the earliest time travel story involving a mechanism that enacts and controls access to a different time period. You can read it and judge for yourself:

http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff9/tachypmp.htm#clock
 
I’ve just finished reading this. I really enjoy it. I ended up staying up to 2am to finish it.

A Time To Change - Callie Langridge
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912175622/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_DoZrDbX0M6BRF
6371C126-8050-49A2-A3BF-D61BAF4B0E7F.jpeg
 
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This Live Science article provides a nice summary overview of the concept of time travel in various mythic / folkloric / literary narratives, dating back to circa 400 BCE. The article illustrates how certain extensions or additions to the notion of time travel emerged and become incorporated into its popular conceptualizations.
Where Does the Concept of Time Travel Come From?

The dream of traveling through time is both ancient and universal. But where did humanity's fascination with time travel begin, and why is the idea so appealing?

The concept of time travel — moving through time the way we move through three-dimensional space — may in fact be hardwired into our perception of time. Linguists have recognized that we are essentially incapable of talking about temporal matters without referencing spatial ones. "In language — any language — no two domains are more intimately linked than space and time," wrote Israeli linguist Guy Deutscher in his 2005 book "The Unfolding of Language." "Even if we are not always aware of it, we invariably speak of time in terms of space, and this reflects the fact that we think of time in terms of space."

Deutscher reminds us that when we plan to meet a friend "around" lunchtime, we are using a metaphor, since lunchtime doesn't have any physical sides. He similarly points out that time can not literally be "long" or "short" like a stick, nor "pass" like a train, or even go "forward" or "backward" any more than it goes sideways, diagonal or down.

Perhaps because of this connection between space and time, the possibility that time can be experienced in different ways and traveled through has surprisingly early roots. One of the first known examples of time travel appears in the Mahabharata, an ancient Sanskrit epic poem compiled around 400 B.C., Lisa Yaszek, a professor of science fiction studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, told Live Science

In the Mahabharata is a story about King Kakudmi, who lived millions of years ago and sought a suitable husband for his beautiful and accomplished daughter, Revati. The two travel to the home of the creator god Brahma to ask for advice. But while in Brahma's plane of existence, they must wait as the god listens to a 20-minute song, after which Brahma explains that time moves differently in the heavens than on Earth. It turned out that "27 chatur-yugas" had passed, or more than 116 million years, according to an online summary, and so everyone Kakudmi and Revati had ever known, including family members and potential suitors, was dead. After this shock, the story closes on a somewhat happy ending in that Revati is betrothed to Balarama, twin brother of the deity Krishna. ...
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FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/time-travel-origins.html
 
"Memoirs of the 20th Century" is, arguably, the first English language work of fiction to feature time travel.
Written in 1733 by Anglican clergyman Samuel Madden, it comprises a series of letters from future British representatives in Constantinople, Rome, Paris, and Moscow sent to a Lord High Treasurer, in service of King George VI.
Madden's gaze into the future scores a few notable hits - King George VI reigned from 1936 until 1952, the Ottoman Empire has fallen and Russia has become an expansionist empire. Given Madden's theological background though, he focuses mostly on the spread of Catholicism and the Jesuits, who Madden believed would come to dominate France.

madden.png


The entire pdf is available online:

https://monoskop.org/images/1/11/Ma...emoirs_of_the_Twentieth_Century_Prevision.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memoirs_of_the_Twentieth_Century
 
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Mack Reynolds (1917 – 1983) was an American author, who specialised in short stories for sci-fi magazines such as Fantastic Adventures and Science Fiction Quarterly. He also wrote the first full-length Star Trek novel "Mission to Horatius" (1968).
Time Travel was a recurring theme of his and several PDFs of his material can be downloaded free of charge.

Check out "The Compounded Interest" (featuring an idea that The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy later pinched) and "Unborn Tomorrow", but pretty well anything by Reynolds is worth a read for some great-paced short but memorable sci-fi with, invariably, a punchy ending.

Another time travel novel recommended to me is "The Lincoln Hunters" (1958) by Wilson Tucker. At 180 pages it's more mid-length novella than short story. I just downloaded the PDF and will give my verdict in a few days.
 
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