Time Travel
I have loved time travel as a concept since I saw the first Back to the Future. I mean I was aware of time travel as a concept. The HG Wells novel the Time Machine turned into the movie starring Rod Taylor back in 1960. There was a short-lived series called Voyagers! I loved that show, but I have to say it was Back to the Future where my brain clicked and started thinking of this concept as a real possibility. How would time travel work? How would you keep the universe from unravelling? How would you not look so suspicious collecting all those lotto winnings? There were tons of things to contemplate with time travel. Over the years I would say time travel would be one of my favorite sub genres of science fiction. Movies like Time Bandits, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and The Terminator are all great movies. I mean terminator deals with its explanation of time travel the best I have ever seen. The police ask Reece “well how does the machine work?” to which Reece Replies “I Don’t know I didn’t, build the thing.” great because anything can happen, we just don’t know how this works. Rules are important to time travel movie and shows. what are my rules for time travel? Well, here are five movies and shows that have helped me build my idea of time travel.
This has got to be the most depressing marvel movie in existence. we pick up where we left off, having lost to Thanos in Infinity War, like I needed reminded of that. What a blow. Half of our heroes are gone and to make sure we know and remember we start off with Hawkeye, Jeremy Renner from Mayor of Kingstown and The Town, and the whole Barton Clan out having a little family fun then POOF they are all gone except Hawkeye. Right, we lost I remember. The entirety of the first act of this film we are dealing with the fallout from Infinity War. We got Ironman, Robert Downey jr. who you know from Less than Zero and 1969, and Nebula, Played by Karen Gillan from Dr. Who and the Jumanji remake, trapped on a ship and slowly running out of resources and clearly not going to make it. Next, we see Captain America, Chris Evans from Fantastic Four, running a support group for people who lost someone during the snap, I am assuming there are thousands of those. Very dark and depressing to watch and hear. Cap gives the advice that we need to somehow move on. Now we see the leadership of the avengers seems to have fallen to Black Widow, Scarlet Johansen from Lost in Translation. She is back at base behind the desk with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich getting in reports from all over.
Eventually Ironman and Nebula return to base with the help of Captain Marvel, played by Brie Larson from United States of Tara. Now we gear up for the Avenger’s movie, right? We get the team we discover where Thanos is and off, we go to destroy him, retrieve the infinity stones, and set right what Thanos has done. Except we discover Thanos has in fact destroyed the stones to keep anyone from undoing what he has done. Then Thor, Chris Hemsworth from Red Dawn remake, taking Thanos’s advice, goes for the head. Now we are stuck and just have to live in this new existence.
This is when Antman, Paul Rudd from Anchorman, returns from the quantum realm where he had been for the last five years. Of course, to him it was only five hours, you know quantum and all. After returning to his daughter, he heads for the Avenger’s compound with an idea. An idea of how to fix all this using the quantum realm, which sounds a little saner than just out right saying time travel, but that is exactly what he is talking about, time travel. We just need to figure out how to navigate the quantum realm. So, I am guessing the quantum realm is like an interdimensional highway system. Get off at the right off ramp and you are in the past. Don Cheadle, From Boogie Nights, then simply suggests since its time travel why not just kill baby Thanos? to which professor Hulk, Mark Ruffalo from the Last Castle, explains why you can’t just go back and kill baby Thanos. This is the arrow of time. Your past becomes the future as you travel forward making your present the past. Now I do disagree with the no paradoxes part but I think this will obviously limit the number of paradoxes that can occur.
Of course, the time traveler is always aware of the original timeline. Since they are operating outside of the timeline. This makes them immune to any changes that occur, at least perception wise. Things for them may change but it would feel foreign to them. imagine how at the end of back to the future Marty must feel. These people are all strangers to him. They may still have some common memories, but his memory is vastly different than what occurred.
Speaking of Back to the Future lets talk a little bit about paradoxes and Back to the Future two. Again, when you think about it. it is also a very dark film. Sure, we start off light and fun. Doc returns with the DeLorean and one of my favorite future tech pieces, Mr. Fusion, and why not. I mean it’s a time travel movie. We can do anything from any time. Why wouldn’t we all have a portable fusion generator that we can access easily converting our waste to powerful energy. Once we arrive back in 2015 things start to go wrong. First off there is the temptation to alter your own fortune. Here this is done with Grey’s Sports Almanac. Imagine having had access to every sports winner from the time you turned eighteen on. The money you could make; the things you could do. Marty, played by Michael J Fox from Family Ties, buys this guide with this in mind. What could it hurt. Everyone could use a little extra now and then, right?
Marty is actually in the future to stop a series of events that ruins his entire family. He does this with a replay of the skateboard scene from the first back to the future but now with a hover board. Man, 2015 looked awesome. Hoverboards, a ton of Jaws movies, and the Cubs winning a world series. All occurring only, what, eight years ago. Of course, old man Biff, Tom Wilson the PE Coach from Freaks and Geeks, recognizes the entire thing and discovers that Doc, the wonderful Chris Lloyd from Taxi, has a time machine. Biff steals the time machine and the sports almanac and takes it back to 1955 to give to Young Biff. Who does exactly what we would all do with it. not make small bets to make getting by a little easier, oh no he makes the big bets to take over Hill Valley and make it his own playground. This creates a dark dystopic 1985 for our characters. Marty’s dad is dead, Doc is committed, and Marty’s mom is married to Biff. Only one thing to do is travel back to when biff got the almanac and stop him. The fear here is running into your past self and creating a paradox.
Everything from the first movie has to occur, or that movie would fail to succeed in sending Marty back the future. This would then prevent the second return to the future, which of course solves the issue. This, however, is not the game we are playing. I honestly think this is the first place I heard of paradoxes in this context. Yes, I was a senior in high school, taking my SATs the next morning. I knew what a paradox was, I just had not thought about it in time travel. Of course, I bought into all the false tension. Like they were actually not going to succeed in the mission of getting the original Marty back to 1985 to end the first movie. Of course, I was a little concerned for how the second one was going to turn out. The dark 85 created by Biff was very concerning. And then how it actually ends with doc vanishing after a lightning strike was excellent. This would have been great to end with, then have the Western Union scene as an end credits scene would have been wonderful. I mean Ferris Bueller’s Day Off had done an end credits scene like three years earlier.
The television show 12 Monkeys is an adaptation of the movie 12 Monkeys. That is not even fair as these two share very little in common. Yes, several of the characters are there. Yes, there was a major plague wiping out 98% of the population but that is where it feels like it ends. The show 12 Monkeys follow a group of people using time travel to attempt to stop, or cure, the plague that has hit. Cole, Aaron Stanford from Nikita, is initially the only one who can survive the effects of the machine and is there fore sent back to run down clues gathered from research in the future. This is done with old newspapers and such. All of which are pinned up on the big board like a detective show. We start of looking for Leland Goines the head of the Markridge corporation. They believe he is responsible for the releasing of the virus. Dr. Jones, Barbara Sukowa from Atomic Blonde, heads up splinter program, this is what we call time travel in this universe. Her machine seems to only work with Cole. We even get past information on her experiments mutilating past “volunteers.” Cole’s best friend Ramse is played by Kirk Acevado, from fringe. Ramse is at Cole’s side for every moment he can be, they are like brothers and often refer to each other as such. This relationship is deep and tragic. Cassie, Amanda Schull from Suits, is a virologist who had been working to warn of a possible viral plague. She gets pulled into all of this by our heroes as they have found a message from her in the future. Cassie was working with the CDC trying to find a cure. Cole splinters into the first episode and kidnaps her. so, she eventually becomes part of the team.
I think my favorite paradox is needing time travel to invent time travel. 12 Monkeys does this one rather good. The episode is 113, Arms of Mine, where we find Ramse has been working behind the scenes and helping to fund the Splinter project, which is headed up by Mr. Dr. Jones in the past. Upon making a sizable investment Ramse is granted access to the splinter machine. Cole enters the room and he and Ramse discuss the concept of Atari
Cassie comes in with her weapon drawn on Ramse. She shoots Ramse, the security guard shoots Cassie, Cole shoots the security guard. This sets the events into play. Ramse slides a case holding the splinter tether, that which makes the machine work for people, to Cole. Cole immediately sends Cassie back to the future thus using time travel, as they come from the future where time travel exists, to invent time travel, in a past where they could only send plants forward with no idea if it was working. Not sure why I so enjoy this sort of circular effect of needing this loop to create this loop, but I so enjoy when I see it.
Ever wondered what would happen if the guy from Airplane tried to stop the Kennedy assassination? Well wonder no more. Let’s talk about how paradoxes only exist to show us that time travel should not be done at all. Running Against Time is I think a made for television movie. It stars Robert Hays, who you know from the Airplane movies as well as Cat’s Eye and a host of other things. He plays a history professor at a college teaching US history and would love nothing more than to stop his brother, and many other brothers, from dying in Viet Nam.
His Girlfriend Fiancé whatever is played by Catherine Hicks who you know from 7th heaven, Peggy-Sue Got married, and Child’s Play. She plays a television reporter who interviews a physicist who Robert Hays thinks has actually developed time travel.
The Physicist is played by Sam Wannamaker from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Raw Deal and Superman IV Quest for Peace. He has in fact cracked the code on time travel. Working in a basement lab at the university.
One night Robert Hays heading back to his office sees flashing lights in the physics lab and decides to investigate. This is where he sees a music box appear out of thin air and disappear again. He seems very puzzled by this and returns home to learn Katherine Hicks has actually gotten the interview with Sam Wannamaker. She invites Robert Hays to come along. The doctor, during the interview, assure both of them that practical application of time travel would be decades away. This is all theoretical and math based at this point.
A few nights later, I assume, Robert Hays talks his way through security and breaks into the dr.’s office to find if he really is working on time travel. This is where he finds the music box from his last adventure. Then all of sudden a dog appears out of nowhere. Now we are off to the races. Everybody is aware that the good doctor has in fact invented time travel. he asks Robert Hays “if you could go back what would you do?” Hays replies save the life of his brother, and many other brothers, by stopping the Kennedy assassination and keeping America out of Viet Nam. So, this is the point we are going to change.
Robert Hays is sent back twenty minutes before the assassination to the roof of the schoolbook depository. Of course he is locked out on the roof of the building and spends most of his time trying to get into the building, but he is too late. In fact, he struggles with Oswald and gets his hands on the riffle, now implicating himself as the assassin. He is arrested and killed by Jack Ruby. It would seem our hero has failed and what are we to do now?
We send the girlfriend back to stop our first-time traveler. Of course, she gets hit with a car and falls into a coma. She awakens at the hospital, but a day has passed, and she barely has time to steal a car and try to stop Robert Hays from being involved in the assassination. She is now listed as his accomplice for helping to escape. Two-time travelers have now been implicated in the assassination of Kennedy. On the run with no idea what to do. they decide to contact the doctor, in 1963 the younger version, to enlist his help. He listens to their fantastic story. they decide the key here is to stop Johnson from going into Viet Nam. They leave a message in the want ads of the newspaper being monitored in the future to get a film of the Johnson presidency sent back. Surely confronted with how the quagmire of Viet Nam stalled Johnsons domestic agenda, he would have no choice but to pull America from Viet Nam immediately. Johnsons decides the real issue is he did not do enough; he did not push hard enough.
Confronted with this in the future the doctor, from the future, goes back even earlier to stop Katherine hicks from being hit with the car, so they can stop Robert hays from being implicated in the assassination. This way they can set everything back to what it should be. I always love this thread in time travel movies. We have to set it back to right. Too many variables, paradoxes and what not to mess with.
If you want to see this movie the only thing I can tell you is I looked all over the internet for it. amazon wants $50 for a VHS copy; I no longer have a vcr. The best thing I could find was a bad YouTube video that was not even all of the movie. Only about two thirds of the movie. Trust me you are not missing much. If you have seen this, the memory will be better than the movie itself.
All time travel stories have a few things in common. They are all very personal stories. I mean sure we start off thinking greater good but when you dig in our heroes are always trying to set right some personal regret. Brining back a lost loved one, setting right a single mistake, or even just trying to make it as good as it once was. This is why the paradoxes exist. They are there to tell us to value what we have. So, the only thing that can be done to end any good time travel episode or movie is the machine must be destroyed or our very existence can be put in danger. I could choose just about anything for this, but I am going with a Star Trek episode. I love Star Trek Voyager. Not sure why it is the trek that gets picked on. One of the reasons I love it is there are several time travel episodes. That and many stories seem to reach for a larger concept. If you have not yet watched voyager, please do so. If you have and did not like it, I urge you to give it a second chance.
The show is centered on a lone star fleet ship that is sucked into the delta quadrant and trying to return home. At the core of the show is do you hold on to your star fleet principles or do you do what ever it takes to get home. Right from the start the premise throws you a moral quandary to be figured out. We also have a mix on the crew, some star fleet some Maquis, but all are trying to get home. This built-in tension dissipates far too soon for my liking, but we do get some better stories as we move deeper into the series.
A Year of Hell is one of my favorite time travel episodes from Voyager. It is a two parter, 408 and 409. It centers on one species who has temporal weapons and is engaged in an ongoing war trying to return themselves to their former glory by any means necessary. In the episodes opening we see an entire species wiped form existence and we meet Annorax the commander of the time ship, played by Kurtwood Smith. You know him from the 70’s show, Robocop, and Broken Arrow to only name a few. He is on a mission to return his civilization to its former glory. He will settle for nothing les than perfection. As long as him and his crew stay on their ship they will live forever in a state of temporal flux, immune to the changes in the timeline as well as remaining their age. he has been at this for over two hundred years. You can see the obsessive nature of having all the time you need to get it right.
During this voyager has been attacked by a krenum vessel, this is the civilization Annorax is from, and through their encounters eventually develop shields that block their temporal torpedoes. This also makes them immune to the changes created by the time ship as well. Now Voyager pops up on Annorax’s radar. They are now an issue to be dealt with. Annorax captures two of the crew, Tom Paris and Chakotay. Just a brief description here for those who do not know. Tom Paris is played wonderfully by Robert Duncan McNeil. Paris is the overconfident pilot of Voyager. Headstrong and tends to rush in with out thinking. Chakotay is played by Robert Beltran. Chakotay, a native American, which plays heavy n some episodes, is more calculating and planning. So, they are captured in the hopes that they will work with Annorax by revealing where they have been and what effects they have had in the quadrant so Annorax can account for them in his calculations. Annorax is meticulous and has to be when dealing with time.
Capt. Janeway, played by Kate Mulgrew who you know from Orange is the New Black, Warehouse 13 and she played Frasier’s mom on Cheers for an episode, eventually gathers a group to fight the krenum vessel. The odds are against our group, as usual. When all looks lost Janeway orders everyone to take the temporal shields offline as she rams the time ship. This, of course cause the time ship to be destroyed and generates one last time incursion. It resets the timeline. we erase the entire episode from existence. We start back at the beginning of the episode.
The machine must always be destroyed. It is the only way to set right all the wrongs it has created. I really disagree with the end of Back to the Future three because of this. Sure, Doc Brown is a great man and would not mess with the timeline but sometimes the temptation is just too great. No one can resist this kind of power. This is why I honestly feel the time machine must always be destroyed and it must right the wrongs in doing so. This is why I think these two episodes of Voyager are so well done.
There are my thoughts on time travel as told though some movies and television episodes. I love time travel and will always watch anything time travel related. As I have proven with some of the things on this list. What are some of your favorite time travel shows or movies? Let us know with the #thatandadollarpodcast on social media. Be sure and follow us on twitter at @thatandadollar. We are also on Instagram a @a_guy_named_chuck. Also don’t forget to join our Facebook group, that and a dollar podcast. be sure to check out the podcast, That and a Dollar, where ever you listen to podcasts. if you would like to support us please leave a tip at buymeacoffee.com . You can also purchase Merch at CaféPress.com
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