HG Wells’ character in the Time Machine, could control his time travel and we tend to think of this as the first time travel saga. There was also the dream/time travel tale of the Great Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee At King Arthur’s Court.
However, arguably, the Dickens character Ebenezer Scrooge was the first literary time traveller, albeit only able to view the past, and see possible futures and within his own lifetime. It seems fitting that the Doctor should be in a Christmas Carol drama, being the UK’s premier, adopted, time traveller. Able to travel through time but not entirely under his own control either, due to the vagaries of the Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.
George Bailey, in It’s A Wonderful Life, was given a chance to see a world in which he had never existed, in an American update on the Christmas Carol theme. Where as Scrooge was shown how the world could be if he continued in his present ways, George Bailey was shown what would have happened if he had never had any influence at all. It’s a Wonderful Life was not particularly popular with audiences at the time of its release.
Possibly due to the supernatural element of angels, and the main character travelling to a time in which he didn’t exist, a parallel universe.
Film Noir, was a popular genre in immediate post war cinema and yet this was a piece of smalltown, apple pie, whimsy. Except, as David Thomson * points out, it becomes a Film Noir like nightmare for George.
The subsequent re emergence of It’s A Wonderful Life, through TV re runs, and the support of more recent filmmakers, Speilberg for example, has helped lead into the present era in which Sci-Fi and Fantasy/Horror, movies and literature are more than common place, they are the norm. These genres are no longer just a male preserve, if they ever really were. Harry Potter and the Twilight series, and the Time Travellers Wife attest to this.
What each of these tales have in common are characters travelling in time/struggling in parallel universes yet never the less, waging the age old battle of good against evil. Fantasy and Science (fiction) applied in our worlds against these perennial opposing religious forces.
Whether it’s the first time traveller Scrooge mending his ways and crossing the divide, or the selfless actions of George Bailey, ensuring Bedford Falls survives, or the Doctor pitting wits against the Evil Daleks and guaranteeing that our world never descends into a form of dystopia - Pottersville. They are never completely in control of their time travel, but they are engaged in this age old battle.
* A Biographical Dictionary Of Film – David Thomson
Time travelling - why can't cool people be time travellers? Why is it always the fringe dweller or weird one from science class suddenly able to take on a god like ability to move from past present future because they sat in a car or spilt contents of a lab beaker all over themselves? Having said that, why don't time travellers simply own up to being gods - able to pre-destine people's lives - and use it for their own mysterious purpose - aka pre-destination? Its kind of like the creators of these stories and ideas are not wanting to subsribe to an existing religion but prefer to make up their own - I believe its called Scientology.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure followers and supporters of the Doctor’s would not agree with you that he is ‘not cool’, especially in his last three incarnations. (Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor not with standing). Never the less I take your point that time travellers do often appear to be geeks or nerds. Probably due to the nature of time travel and its close relationship with science, and those who excel at it. Remember though, no less than President Obama himself described himself as a nerd due his comic book interests.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, time traveller does seem to be a particularly male preserve, females seem to prefer fantasy, or perhaps horror. I wonder if this reflects the wider society gender divide on science or is something else at work.
Regarding pre- destination, I assume you are referring to the Calvinistic theological tenet, which explains that God is all powerful and all knowing, and yet human beings have free will, and free choice. If human beings have genuine free will, ie are the real authors of their own destiny, then it cannot be known in advance with 100% certainty
what their choices will be. Anything else is linguistic nonsense.