Time travel is one of the earliest and most appealing themes in Science Fiction writing. The dramatic potential being able to interact with people and places in the future or having some part to play in great events of the past present a rich vein of creative possibilities.
One of the challenges for writers working in this area is how to deal with the inescapable enigma of time travel commonly referred to as the “Grandfather Paradox”. (Essentially, if a person goes back in time and kills their own grandfather before their father is conceived, then they won’t be born. Therefore they won’t be able to go back in time to kill their own grandfather = Paradox)
In Edward Page Mitchell’s “The Clock That Went Backward”, one of the first time travel stories to include a mechanical device as cause, the three protagonists (sorry, spoiler alert) are propelled backwards in time by a mysterious clock and end up taking part in the siege of Leyden. Their knowledge of the history of the battle enabling them to become the heroes about whom they’ve read.
This concept of time travel, where the traveller becomes a part of history as it already exists is quite common, but has implications for the free will of the characters as it implies that they cannot choose whether or not to travel back in time as the consequences of their future actions have already happened. (It’s actually a variation of what scientists refer to as the Novikov self-consistency principle. – I love Wikipedia…)
In the classic 80’s film “Back to the Future” Marty and Doc Brown’s interventions in events both in the past and in the future actually change the course of history several times and create a world very different to the one they left. The fact that these changes seem to have no effect on the time travellers themselves is not properly explained but this is only one of many inconsistencies in the movie and only a pendant would allow these omissions to spoil their enjoyment.
The unnamed hero of H.G. Wells’ classic, genre defining story “The Time Machine” avoids addressing the problem altogether by only travelling forwards in time and never returning to a time before his original leaving point. Despite the potential advantage of doing so.
The attempt to add a reverse time element to the 2002 film version of the story only demonstrates what a mess can result from not thinking the paradox through. The question “Why can’t one change the past” has no meaning when concepts of past and future are interchangeable.
In my own book “The Captured Man”, I circumvent the issue by borrowing an idea from Dr. Schrödinger’s famous cat experiment. A bunker, deep underground in a remote area, is abandoned shorty before it is devastated by a nuclear attack. Since the air circulation systems are left running it is assumed that the bunker is flooded with radiation and is therefore abandoned.
Many years later it is suggested that if someone were to go back in time, to a point after the bunker is abandoned but before the nuclear attack, they could switch off the air circulation system and prevent the bunker from being irradiated. But until they return to the bunker to check, the effect of the time travel journey will not be known. Either outcome is equally possible and neither effects intervening events.
There are many ways of addressing the paradox and many hundreds of excellent books that use time travel as a starting point for their protagonist’s adventures. The great advantage is that any and all variations on the subject are equally valid as there are no actual facts to get in the way of a good story. (Despite the “genuine photos” that prove time travel exists)
Provided the writer maintains a constant path through the paradox the reader will happily accept any explanation that remains consistent and entertaining.
Now, where did I put the keys to my flying car?
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Paul Towson is the author of The Captured Man.
Accidentally ‘sampled’ while on a night out with his girlfriend, Michael’s unexpected arrival 272 years in the future is a surprise for everyone, not least the scientists involved. When things start to go wrong, it seems that only a man from the past can save the future.
