THREE MOST POPULAR FORMS OF TIME TRAVEL

THREE MOST POPULAR FORMS OF TIME TRAVEL

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 THREE MOST POPULAR FORMS OF TIME TRAVEL:

                 THE LOOP, SCOOT AND BOOGIE

Before I begin this article I’d like to clarify one thing: Time travel is not an exact science at this point. The only form that is scientifically possible is that of Time Dilation. Don’t believe me? Look it up, you skeptics. You know who you are.

Because the subject of time travel is not based on fact, writers have the license to make up their own rules.  Even then the rules they make up must hold true throughout their story as much as the complexities of time travel will allow. 

For this exercise, I have chosen to focus on the three of the most common forms of time travel used by writers; otherwise, we will be here all day and I’m sure you have better things to do… like eating… or sleeping… or watching an episode of “Firefly”.

 

1) THE LOOP

 Like the word depicts, this is a closed circuit of time where the character is connected to a point in the past, either in his own, or further back in history. This timeline is fixed. Any action by the time traveler will not change it. In fact, his actions may have caused the ‘event’ to happen that led to ‘the loop’. Paradoxes are usually at a minimum since the problem is fixed by the action of the character. An example of this scenario can be found in Michael Crichton’s Timeline.

Or the loop can remain continuous as in Robert A. Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold.

Sometimes the loop is intertwined with a Predestination Paradox (or causal loop) such as found in “By His Bootstraps”, a short story also written by Heinlein where the main character interferes with his past self in a twist of loops to create the person he is to become in the future. Complicated? You bet. 

2) THE ONE WAY TRIP (THE SCOOT)

 

This form is pretty much self-explanatory and the easiest to write. Once the trip is made, there is no going back. (Pun intended) Paradoxes and other complications don’t come into play.  You can find the one-way trip in romance novels where the beautiful heroine gets transported back in time, falls in love with the Scottish Laird and decides to stay. The end.

In Science fiction the Scoot happens mostly in a forward motion. One example of this is found in John Varley’s Millennium.  Although the female protagonist travels back and forth through time (after all that is her job), the male protagonist, and those that are rescued travel in one direction, to the future.

 

3) THE ALTERNATIVE TIMELINE (THE BOOGIE)

The Boogie is the most common form of time travel used in writing and the most complicated. Here the time traveler, by his actions or even by his appearance in the past, can alter the future and create a whole new scenario for himself and the world he lives in. 

  A good example of this is the “Back to the Future” series where the main character interferes with his parents past and returns to find an alternate future, a better one, only to destroy it by going back a second time and altering the past again. Does this mean his former timeline has been erased?  Or did he create a parallel universe, and both are running side-by-side? Don’t think too hard. There are no real answers.

Also worth mentioning are the following: The Door Into Summer by Robert Heinlein, Thrice Upon a Time by James P. Hogan, and Replay by Ken Grimwood. There are many more great novels out there. I’m sure you have your favorites, but time and space do not allow me to list them all here. I apologize for this.

4) IN THEIR OWN CATEGORY

I’ve added a fourth category because in my research for this article, I came across a few novels that fit no particular form or rule of time travel. It took me by surprise, for anyone who is a science fiction buff knows that there are certain rules that need to be followed. Well, no more. We have a few rule-breakers out there who have shown us that anything can work if it is well written. One of these is The Time Travelers Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. She dared to write with no rules and no consequences and achieved this with great success.

 Slaughterhouse-Five also deserves a spot in this category.  In this 1969 novel, Kurt Vonnegut wrote a strong cocktail mix of time travel, aliens, and the fourth dimension. He served it on a platter of controversy that is still felt forty-four years later.  Odd as it sounds, Varley’s mix worked.  This again proves that writers can break the rules as long as we are careful to stay within the framework we create for our time traveler characters.

Now that you have learned the steps to the Loop, Scoot and Boogie of time travel, go out and practice the dance on the pages of your mind. Mix them up together, or just concentrate on one form. Or better yet, throw them out the window and create your own set of rules. Whatever the case, have fun with it, and let your imagination take the lead on a merry dance through time.  

 Remember, anything is possible in the world of science fiction.

Cheers.

Jean