The Trials of Time Travel

I'm a big fan of time travel stories. They're incredibly interesting to me...when done well. When done poorly...well, that makes me want to die in a fire, it hurts my head so much. Two of the best examples of time travel in cinema, I think, are Back to the Future I & II (I really don't remember III at all, at least in terms of time travel rules), and Terminator I & II.

Back to the Future established clear time travel rules: one requires certain things to make time travel possible (88mph, flux capacitor, presumably some type of vehicle); one may go forward or backward in time; and, the tricky part, one is able to change things, but those changes have real world effects. For example, in BttF I, Marty goes back in time, he must ensure that his parents do get together...and when it looks like they're not going to, Marty starts to disappear; real world effects of interfering with the past. It's also important to note that though the same outcome is achieved (Marty's parents do get together), the circumstances are different (originally it's when George fell out of the tree and met Lorraine, and in Marty's time travel adventure it's when George defends Lorraine from Biff); these different circumstances change the future, too. Instead of a crap life, the McFly's have a wonderful life, because of the changes caused by Marty. We don't return to 1985 (or whenever) where everything is the same; only the basics are the same, while the details have changed drastically. That's a clear cut understanding of the time travel problem.

Terminator, similarly, set up certain rules for time travel; one can only go backward in time, not forward, so when one goes back, one lives there; only organic material, so no weapons, vehicles, etc.; and changing events in the past will indeed change the future. Skynet sent back the original Terminator to kill Sarah Connor before she could give birth to John Connor, leader of the human resistance. That resistance sent back a soldier from the future, who became the father of John Connor (the whole causality thing, wherein Kyle Reese is John Connor's father, and so much be sent back in time, but if he's not sent back in time, then John Connor can't be born, is an endless circle of headache for me, so i don't think I'll be dealing with that). So right there, a clear indication of past changing the future; if the Terminator kills Sarah Connor, no human resistance leader; if the resistance doesn't send a soldier, then the Terminator kills Sarah, and Sarah never gets pregnant. The Terminator is defeated, and humanity gets its defender.

Terminator 2 operates within these rules...two Terminators are sent back, one to kill John Connor, the other to save him, and we have the same situation: if John is killed, the resistance has no leader. However, this film introduces the idea that, knowing the future, it can be changed, and John, Sarah and the good Terminator set out to do that. They destroy the company that builds Skynet, thus changing the future; the future is what we make it, they intone over and over. Perfectly executed.

Terminator 3 changes the rules, it seems; we can't change the future, and it introduces a sense of fatalistic destiny, something which cannot be avoided. So, presumably, no matter what action we take, the future is set, and will happen regardless of changes made in the past, thus throwing out the entire premise of Terminator 2. The TV series and the upcoming Terminator: Salvation movie continue this, though the movie gives me hope. The trailer line 'Something is changed, and I don't know if we can win this war' (or something like that) suggests that, though the future is set, details can be changed; so the events of T2 and T3 didn't change the basics of the future, just the details of it; the war still happens, but the details of the war are different. I'll be interested to see how it goes.

I write about this because I just saw Star Trek (SPOILERS), and that deals with time travel, also, and it got me thinking about it. They did a wonderful job with a 'travling in time creates an alternate reality' concept, of which I'm a big fan. Got me into Star Trek, which I wouldn't have thought was possible. However, I would not want to travel through time...with my luck I'd end up a meal for Morlocks, and no thank you to that.

-stephen