The Truths of Time Travel
January 3, 2012 5 Comments
I was thinking about my childhood fascination with the Doctor Who theme song the other night because, well, you’d think about it too if that was one of your childhood highlights, and also because I’ve finally been getting to the new Doctor Who. New. As in 2005.
Episode 8 of season 1 was called “Father’s Day” and dealt with the Doctor’s companion, Rose, fracking up Time with a Big T by saving her dad’s life, in 1987. Having gone through it myself, I’m not sure that being forced to live out 1987 would be a favor to anyone, but she seemed to think it was. 1987 was admittedly the year that “The Simpsons” started appearing on The Tracey Ullman Show, but the Simpsons were awesome because they were so different than everything else.
OK, so Rose’s intervention in Time causes a big screw-up, as the manipulation of Time for personal profit always does in science fiction stories. Why doesn’t she know this? Has Rose never paid attention to the lessons of science fiction? It’s one of the most moral genres out there, constantly interrogating the questions of good and evil.
As Ray Bradbury wrote, in the introduction to The Circus of Dr. Lao:
Science-fiction is the law-abiding citizen of imaginative literature, obeying the rules, be they physical, social, or psychological, keeping regular hours, eating punctual meals; predictable, certain, sure.
It was Bradbury’s short story “A Sound of Thunder” which introduced me to that cardinal rule of non-interference with the past. There’s some terrific science fiction out there like the new (old) Doctor Who and the writings of Bradbury, that work like intricate clockwork, telling stories which operate like puzzles, attempting to make sense out of the world. I may not understand the abstracts of science, but I can try to grasp the lessons that they teach.
I’m looking for more new works like this, so let me know if you’re aware of any good ones where you don’t have to be a SciFi aficionado. My knowledge of SciFi has always been behind the times, even when I was a child. Although apparently science fiction is for adults, too. There’s a science fiction themed brothel opening in Nevada, to be run by Dennis Hof of Cathouse fame. Alien probes, oh my…
About Matthew
I loves me a good time travel paradox.
I must admit, that was a good Dr Who episode… Although it’s not in anyway connected to time travel, the book ‘I, Robot’, by Isaac Asimov explains a large amount of the science you need to know in order to understand his writing. I find his idea of the three laws of robotics, in my opinion, fail-safes in the event of an emergency, are absolutely spectacular, especially when you consider the era he was writing in. So yeah. ‘I, Robot’ is a must read, I think…
I have vague recollections of reading “I, Robot” when I was a young teenager. It’s hugely influential, isn’t it? Thanks for reminding me! I wonder if my copy is in my sister’s basement, where many of my older books still live and collect mildew.
Easily my favourite Asimov book, although to be honest, I did only read that and Second Foundation…
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