Thursday, 1 October 2026

Time Travel Series

Poul Anderson's "Flight to Forever" is a potential series. 

Imagine:

another small group constructs a time projector independently;

like Saunders, they learn that it is impossible to travel more than seventy years into the past and therefore they continue into the future;

they visit some of the same periods as he did but also others;

not trapped inside an Ixchulhi pyramid, they meet these interstellar conquerors;

each stop that they make is a complete adventure and an instalment of a series which can be continued indefinitely.

Is there any future for time travel series? 

In Anderson's Time Patrol series, each instalment features a different past (historical or prehistorical) period with discussion (or demonstration) of the consequences of temporal alterations.

The Doctor Who TV series began with a malfunctioning TARDIS (spacetime machine) which performed like a pendulum, swinging backwards and forwards between past Terrestrial and futuristic/extraterrestrial periods. Thus:

the stone age;
Skaro, the planet of Daleks and Thals;
back to the past, I can't remember when.

The two Doctor Who feature films changed the Doctor from an alien Time Lord into an English inventor, like Wells' Time Traveller, and re-presented the first two Dalek stories:

Skaro;
Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.

(Daleks and Thals a bit like Morlocks and Eloi; Daleks Invasion Earth a bit like The War Of The Worlds.)

Observations
(i) We notice Wells' influence.
(ii) Wells didn't do series but The Time Machine could have become one.
(iii) And "Flight to Forever" could have become a good additional series.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

What I thought was that Saunders should have been more cautious about testing his time machine, and wondered if he would have trouble returning to his "starting point." Start with going forward in time via five year increments and returning to see if there were any difficulties. It would not have taken long for Saunders to discover that 70 years past ward limit.

Ad astra! Sean

Anonymous said...

My though was he should have first tested going back in time, and returning to the 'present'. Make the 1st test merely minutes or hours, so that at worst he merely has to wait a short time to get to the 'present'. Then do longer jumps to check for limits.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Anonymous!!

That should work! And a better suggestion than mine. I think we would both agree 100 year jumps thru time would be too much for such an experimental device on the first occasions of it being used.

Ad astra! Sean