CT: Time Travel Top Three
Oh readers, you know how I like it when a title comes together. Just look at that glorious alliteration. It makes the grammar nerd in my heart positively overjoyed.
Okay, okay, on to the post. If you've spent more than about five minutes with me (or you're a regular around these parts), you know that there's not a whole lot I like more than a good time travel story.
Time travel is complicated, and it's one of the elements of Science Fiction that I feel like you can explore and explore, and still someone will find something new to do with it. I always, always feel a little bit of anxiety when I'm reading or watching a time travel story, because the idea that you could change something that ruins your world is always, always a threat.
So what I thought I'd do today is give you a little sampling of my favorite time travel stories. This is by no means a comprehensive list (because I could literally talk about this for days), but a Top Three of the stories that I come back to time and time again. The ones that are complicated in unique ways, or do something a little extra magical with the concept. So without further ado...
Doctor Who - Blink
Okay, so Doctor Who is kind of a gimme here. He is literally a character that does nothing but travel around in time. He's the Time Lord. So I guess you could just call this one for the entire series, which yes, of course I am obsessed with.
But Blink is something special. It's one of those episodes that stands out, and it's gotten all kinds of recognition. Blink is what's called a "Doctor Light" episode, which means that it's an episode that the Doctor is part of, but it's not centered on him. Instead we follow a girl named Sally Sparrow, played by the insanely talented Carrie Mulligan. Sally finds herself going up against what turns out to be one of the scariest villains in the Doctor Who canon, the Weeping Angels.
I'll be honest, it would take a whole post to lay down the plot to Blink and so instead let's talk about why I like it so much. This episode lets time travel be just as messy and confusing as it should be. The past and the present link together in loops, with Sally's actions in the present connecting back to the Doctor in the past, so that they're somehow able to communicate and fight the Angels. It's complex and difficult, but never to the point that you can't understand what's happening. Which is why I've watched it more times than I can count, and I feel like I figure out a new piece to the puzzle every time.
Connie Willis - To Say Nothing Of The Dog
I've talked before about how much I love Connie Willis, and the Oxford Time Travel books in particular. Willis uses time travel as a device to tell real, human stories in unique ways, which I feel like is what all of Science Fiction is doing at its heart.
I love To Say Nothing Of The Dog most because it is genuinely funny even while it's making my brain hurt. It's about an exhausted graduate student who is sent back to Victorian England to rest, and given one job to complete while he's there. The problem is that he's so exhausted that he doesn't quite catch all the particulars of the job before he leaves. So of course the whole thing becomes such a tangle that before long he's sure that he's ripped a whole in the space/time continuum. And during all of this, he's trapped in the insane world of manners that is the Victorian Era.
Willis balances the science of her time travel with the humanity of her characters so well that the world becomes a fully formed, tangible thing. This book is charming and sweet and hysterical, and I can basically guarantee that I'll be re-reading it again before the year is up.
Madeleine L'Engle - A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Yes, this one is technically Young Adult, but there's just no way that this list would be complete without one of Madeleine L'Engle's books. These were my first real exposure to time travel narratives, and it's no secret that I consider L'Engle as one of my favorite writers period. The thing is, in her work the science and the mystical are so intertwined that they all seem to come from the same place. Without doubt, her Young Adult books shaped me as both a person and an artist.
Honestly, I went back and forth about whether to focus on A Swiftly Tilting Planet or An Acceptable Time here. Both deal with time travel, both feature characters that I love, both have a sense of adventure at their core that I just love. In the end, though, the idea that changing something in the past will ripple through to the future is one of my favorite parts of time travel, and that comes straight from A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
So those are the Top Three that I come back to over and over, but there are so many more good, important time travel stories. Ray Bradbury's The Sound Of Thunder defined the genre in some ways. And I'm reading Stephen King's 11-22-63 right now and it's so, so good. Also, if you have a time travel story that you love, I am always open to suggestions!
Happy Reading and Watching!
CT
Okay, okay, on to the post. If you've spent more than about five minutes with me (or you're a regular around these parts), you know that there's not a whole lot I like more than a good time travel story.
Time travel is complicated, and it's one of the elements of Science Fiction that I feel like you can explore and explore, and still someone will find something new to do with it. I always, always feel a little bit of anxiety when I'm reading or watching a time travel story, because the idea that you could change something that ruins your world is always, always a threat.
So what I thought I'd do today is give you a little sampling of my favorite time travel stories. This is by no means a comprehensive list (because I could literally talk about this for days), but a Top Three of the stories that I come back to time and time again. The ones that are complicated in unique ways, or do something a little extra magical with the concept. So without further ado...
Doctor Who - Blink
Okay, so Doctor Who is kind of a gimme here. He is literally a character that does nothing but travel around in time. He's the Time Lord. So I guess you could just call this one for the entire series, which yes, of course I am obsessed with.
But Blink is something special. It's one of those episodes that stands out, and it's gotten all kinds of recognition. Blink is what's called a "Doctor Light" episode, which means that it's an episode that the Doctor is part of, but it's not centered on him. Instead we follow a girl named Sally Sparrow, played by the insanely talented Carrie Mulligan. Sally finds herself going up against what turns out to be one of the scariest villains in the Doctor Who canon, the Weeping Angels.
I'll be honest, it would take a whole post to lay down the plot to Blink and so instead let's talk about why I like it so much. This episode lets time travel be just as messy and confusing as it should be. The past and the present link together in loops, with Sally's actions in the present connecting back to the Doctor in the past, so that they're somehow able to communicate and fight the Angels. It's complex and difficult, but never to the point that you can't understand what's happening. Which is why I've watched it more times than I can count, and I feel like I figure out a new piece to the puzzle every time.
Connie Willis - To Say Nothing Of The Dog
I've talked before about how much I love Connie Willis, and the Oxford Time Travel books in particular. Willis uses time travel as a device to tell real, human stories in unique ways, which I feel like is what all of Science Fiction is doing at its heart.
I love To Say Nothing Of The Dog most because it is genuinely funny even while it's making my brain hurt. It's about an exhausted graduate student who is sent back to Victorian England to rest, and given one job to complete while he's there. The problem is that he's so exhausted that he doesn't quite catch all the particulars of the job before he leaves. So of course the whole thing becomes such a tangle that before long he's sure that he's ripped a whole in the space/time continuum. And during all of this, he's trapped in the insane world of manners that is the Victorian Era.
Willis balances the science of her time travel with the humanity of her characters so well that the world becomes a fully formed, tangible thing. This book is charming and sweet and hysterical, and I can basically guarantee that I'll be re-reading it again before the year is up.
Madeleine L'Engle - A Swiftly Tilting Planet
Yes, this one is technically Young Adult, but there's just no way that this list would be complete without one of Madeleine L'Engle's books. These were my first real exposure to time travel narratives, and it's no secret that I consider L'Engle as one of my favorite writers period. The thing is, in her work the science and the mystical are so intertwined that they all seem to come from the same place. Without doubt, her Young Adult books shaped me as both a person and an artist.
Honestly, I went back and forth about whether to focus on A Swiftly Tilting Planet or An Acceptable Time here. Both deal with time travel, both feature characters that I love, both have a sense of adventure at their core that I just love. In the end, though, the idea that changing something in the past will ripple through to the future is one of my favorite parts of time travel, and that comes straight from A Swiftly Tilting Planet.
So those are the Top Three that I come back to over and over, but there are so many more good, important time travel stories. Ray Bradbury's The Sound Of Thunder defined the genre in some ways. And I'm reading Stephen King's 11-22-63 right now and it's so, so good. Also, if you have a time travel story that you love, I am always open to suggestions!
Happy Reading and Watching!
CT
Comments
Post a Comment