On the myclasses portal where this learning episode was found there were links for an episode from Star Trek: Enterprise and Primer. The following text with links was offered to the students, excluding images from the movie and episode, due to copyright concerns. Citations for the texts are available in the Readings and Further Links and Resource List.
Students attending a face-to-face class for this study watched the DVD versions of the two texts using the class computer and overhead projector, while students studying as flexible learning were offered a copy of the film on CD-ROM, copied under the special provisions of local Copyright laws.
The second podcast for the fate and predestination theme area was also offered, covering later short stories and other texts after learning episode six.
The points at the start of these notes are to be discussed in the Forum area. You are asked to jump to the Forum area, using the link here and making a comment in the appropriate Forum thread. Please remember, your participation in discussions is expected in this study, as part of your overall participation.
Forum topics for discussion: |
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| How successful is the literary device of the time machine in texts you have studied? | |
| What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of the time travel story? | |
| Please comment on your best ever time travel narrative in the SF genre. |
As you might remember from Podcast I and Podcast II as well as early readings about time travel, some critics believe that the time travel device in SF has led to a lowering of value of the SF genre as a whole. Nicholls and Clute (1995) say that the time travel machine is a convenient literary device for moving the narrative backwards and forwards in time. Many writers followed HG Wells' idea of time travel with a machine, some travelling into the far future and some into the past. Travels into the past to hunt dinosaur, or to meet Christ, or to assassinate Hitler became commonplace and Stanislaw Lem (1974) believes the rush of time travel or time loop stories hurt the genre, mostly because they were trying to create sensational effects with silly or inconsistent stories. We studied some examples of time travel loops in this theme area by Clarke, Heinlein, Le Guin and Rade and it is up to you if you think these slight, silly or sensational.
With examples based in Einstein's theories of relativity, some physicists such as Thorne and others believe that time travel is possible, through the manipulation of wormholes. Examples of how such a device could be built can be found (Gribben, n.d.; NOVA, 1999). Use of a series of wormholes for travel in time and space can be seen in Sagan's Contact as filmed by Zemeckis (1998).
Some scientists even define a time machine as a "closed timelike curve." (NOVA, 1999) that could only be used to travel backwards to the point in time when the time machine was itself invented. As a result, they argue, that is why there are no time travellers here and now, because the machine has not been invented, yet.
Other critics say that time travel is a "stock convention of science fiction" (Luckhurst, 2005) that could be used to criticise existing society from the perspective of a far future society, as in HG Wells' The Time Machine (1894). SF writers could be speculating about a much better time yet to come, and this practise is called 'euchronianism' (Alsford, 2000). James Gunn (2003) believes that most SF writers are strong believers in Darwin's theories of evolution but with the notable inclusion that humans are still evolving, perhaps improving mentally and even morally. After the First World War other writers were disillusioned and took a much more cynical view of the future, such as in Huxley's Brave New World (1932), and George Orwell's 1984 (1948), for example (Alsford, 2000:107). This notion is discussed in much more detail in the 'Shape of Things to Come' theme area.
Learning episode nine looks briefly at two, more minor narratives, to see how the device of time travel is used in these stories. The first use is from Star Trek: Enterprise from an episode called 'Twilight' (McNeill, 2003) and the second is an entire short film called Primer (Caruth, 2004). It is the argument of this learning episode that here in these examples we can see the fundamental problem of the use of time travel as a literary device - it makes a story muddled, difficult and annoying because the time travel process itself can always be used to fix any possible problem.
What is meant here by a 'muddied' text is a film, in this case, with a confused and disjointed narrative. There have been many films that changed the narrative structure from the chronological beginning, middle and end. Many directors like to flash backwards or forwards in time and can often start a film with a crisis that occurs later in the action to draw in the audience, especially with television movies where the viewer can change channels so rapidly unless there is a sense that something exciting is going to happen.
It is different with the time travel narrative of course, because by its very nature the story can jump around with little regard to chronology, that is, the time the events took place when time is considered as an arrow from past to future.
In the two film texts noted here we see the idea of time travel explored in such a fashion that this writer believes there are fundamental problems for the viewer. The problem of making sense of the disjointed and multi-threaded narrative is especially evident in the film Primer, but can also be seen in part in 'Twilight', with an additional risk that the audience does not believe the solution to the many and various problems seen in the episode from Star Trek: Enterprise.
In 'Twilight' (McNeill, 2003) the Enterprise starship is caught within the Rift, a vast expanse of created space/time where the interventions in the Rift have caused many time anomalies or problems. This is often manifested as a sort of bucking wave that passes through the ship and causes explosions, problems with motors and the instruments malfunctioning, and so on.
In the case of 'Twilight' the Enterprise hits a severe warp and a wave of space/time that is said to be a wave of tachyon particles moves through the ship. The Captain of the Enterprise saves the life of the Vulcan officer and in so doing is hit by the wave of tachyon particles.
The narrative moves straight forward to the Captain now much older, being cared for by the Vulcan officer, also older and living in a small house, not the starship Enterprise.
The narrative is explained in part by the Vulcan officer who tells the Captain that the time wave wrecked his memory so that he can only ever remember about twenty-four hours of time, then his memory is washed clean and he awakens again remembering nothing but the accident of the time wave hitting the ship.
Through a series of rapid jumps in narratives, showing the Captain trying to run the ship without any memory of events past, scenes of attacks by the hostile Xindi, disasters for the Enterprise and eventually the destruction of the Earth by the Xindi death planet, the audience learns that the time wave has meant the Captain had to give away his position and the Vulcan officer took over, then eventually she cares for the Captain on a little planet while the Xindi hunt and exterminate the last of humanity.
Clearly, the narrative has moved many years into the future through a series of rapid jump scenes with explosions, the Captain ordered from the command desk by the Vulcan, and so on, including an excellent CGI animation sequence of the total destruction of the Earth.
The story restarts in a future where humanity has little hope. The Enterprise starship is now run by the past engineer and its job is to cruise around the last vestiges of humanity and protect them from Xindi. Once the Captain has understood the situation he also understands that the original time wave caused his loss of Captaincy and perhaps even the actual destruction of the Earth and humanity.
He returns to the Enterprise where he is treated with compassion and it is at this time that the Xindi discover the last scraps of humanity and stage an attack. The Enterprise and humanity are doomed against superior force.
Loyal and caring to the last, the Vulcan officer stays to assist the Captain because the past doctor of the Enterprise believes he has finally found a cure that will remove the disability from the Captain by eradicating the tachyon particles located in his brain.
Curiously, while the focused beam does obliterate the tachyon particles one by one, as the last of humanity die in the Xindi attack around him, it is also apparent that earlier scans of the Captain show the tachyon particles are also erased backwards in time.
The Vulcan officer and the doctor give their lives trying to save the Captain from the tachyon particles during the Xindi attack and ... this writer will leave the narrative there to keep the ending undisclosed and the resolution of this enormous problem a mystery.
The use of the 'Twilight' episode here is intended to show the two fundamental problems of the time travel narrative. The first problem is the necessarily disjointed narrative. In this case the past is shown as a series of rapid scenes explaining how the Captain came to be old, with no memory and now living a quiet life in domestic partnership with the beautiful Vulcan officer. In fact, these scenes make the sexual relationship of the Vulcan and Captain ambiguous, with hints that they may have slept together but indications also that the Captain can not remember this, if it did occur.
The many jumps in time in the beginning of the episode are mirrored by frequent jumps between scenes when the Captain returns to the lame Enterprise and it is under attack from the Xindi, who attack as a wave of killer starships attacking all human remnants. Necessarily, this means many and rapid shots of battles in space, characters being killed and so on. The episode becomes a series of jumps with only one, long scene where the Captain's loss of memory is explained and the sexual ambiguity implied.
This series of flashbacks and forward are often found in SF narratives using the major idea of time travel and in some ways it is easy to see why it happens. After all, the main idea is a series of breaks in chronology, so the result must be a fractured narrative. The difficulty is then in helping the audience follow the story and more importantly, for the audience to enjoy the disjointed story.
It is the view of this writer that 'Twilight' is too disjointed to enjoy and that the long scene explaining the cause of the disjointed scenes is too static and dull.
The second major problem for 'Twilight' is the problem of knowing what has happened and what are the limits of time travel. In this story the time travel device is the collection of tachyon particles lodged in the skull of the Captain. Use of the time travel device is accomplished by eliminating the tachyon particles, one by one. With all the particles gone, time returns to the point where the time wave hits the Enterprise but in this time line, the Captain is unaffected.
For the audience, then, a great deal has happened (including the destruction of the Earth) but for the characters on the Enterprise, nothing has happened. They have no memory of the events as they did not occur. So what happened? How is the continuing story arc of Enterprise battle with the Xindi in the Rift advanced? The answer is not at all. The major problem with this narrative strategy for this writer is then that the story episode seems to be a non-episode. Nothing happens, not even a sexual relationship between characters. The viewer might even feel cheated from watching an episode where the sum total of amazing and literally world-shattering events is nothing at all.
This problem also can be seen with other time travel narratives. If the time travel device is used to fix a problem in time, only the audience knows there was ever a problem. The wonderful time travel series Doctor Who avoids this problem by having the Doctor and his assistant outside of the narrative so that they always know what happened - how they saved the Earth - even if no-one else does. This insulation of some characters helps the audience avoid feeling cheated by a narrative that otherwise results in no change overall, at all.
Primer (Caruth, 2004) is a very intriguing narrative where the sole idea is the creation and use of a time travel device by two young, modern males.
Made on a very low budget and both written and directed by Caruth, this SF film had a very brief run in local cinemas but received several awards.
The story shows a small group of science graduates who are trying to raise money from their scientific knowledge through a series of schemes to create and direct-sell scientific devices. Initially, their group numbers five young men who have been friends and they all meet in a garage and in different homes to package and send off simple scientific devices for profit. They are making very little money from this small scale enterprise but they do have enough money to experiment, in this case with superconductivity at room temperature and with common materials, a great scientific dream.
Inadvertently, they create a device that changes space time within the mechanism so that the time passed in the Earth differs from that passing inside the device. There are immediate tensions as the two main experimenters decide to keep their discovery secret from the others, after they have proven what the device can do. Instead, they use the device for their own immediate profit but say they will bring the others in on it after its problems are resolved. The process is dangerous and includes the need for the young men to take barbiturates and breathe oxygen from tanks within the simple crates that are the time devices, held in a storage bunker out of town.
The dialogue and events in Primer are most unusual, not just because of the very cheap sets and poor quality of film. The scientific basis to the devices is established clearly, tested and proven, then the main protagonists decide to obey the rules of space time by making sure that their time travelling selves can not possibly meet with their 'present' selves.
They spend a good deal of time ensuring that they cannot meet themselves in another time loop but of course the temptation to undo past, poor events and to make money from the devices is too much and one of the characters actively collaborates with himself in another time line to accomplish events. This is seen also in Timescape, where the combination of the same character in two time loops is used to save the community from destruction, but in Primer it is a necessary solution to a problem that otherwise is not able to be explained in the story.
Primer follows chronology as faithfully as possible, keeping the audience in the 'present' but necessarily the movements in time of the main characters mean their entrances and exits are very confusing, especially because it is only made clear near the end of the film that one of the characters was breaking the rules and doubling-up to accomplish his ends.
The inventors of the time device profit very little from their work in the end, and it does mean the destruction (of sorts) of one marriage, with the future use of the device left unclear and great doubt left over more attempts to change the past/future using the system.
Primer is bold and very ambitious because of its intense scientific nature, its failure to explain details to the audience until the end, and its one simple idea without the usual SF effects and razza-matazz. The audience has to work hard to understand the narrative and, as with 'Twilight' there is always the possibility that the audience will feel cheated by the narrative. Primer does not return to a static position of nothing having happened, as in 'Twilight'. Instead, there is disaster and tragedy as a result and there seems to be a time anomaly left at the end of the film, but again the text does run the risk of being just too fragmented and difficult for most audiences.
As with 'Twilight', the Primer narrative also leaves the audience worrying that the time travel device can be used again, and again - and then what happens to the characters that we have come to care about? This sense of audience worry and disquiet from the time travel narrative may be its worst aspect.
The argument over the nine learning episodes looking at time travel in SF is that this literary device can be used for many purposes: to explore the future and compare societies; to examine social problems over time; to cheat destiny and fate for individuals and communities; and to simply make a narrative more exciting or interesting.
It should be noted from the two examples in this learning episode that time travel as a literary device should be used with great care. It can be successful and entertaining, as in the Back to the Future series, or mind-boggling as in the Heinlein stories, or thought-provoking as in Timescape, or thrilling as in The Time Machine, but it can also be annoying, baffling and unsatisfactory.
In other words, time travel is a literary device in SF that should be used very sparingly and very carefully.
Please respond to the following topic for discussion:
1) SF critic and writer Stanislaw Lem argues that time travel stories have hurt SF because they are so often written with the main point being the sensational idea of travelling back to the Age of the Dinosaurs or to change individual destiny.
In your view, what are the problems and the rewards for the reader in SF narratives that involve a time travel device?
Discuss with reference to at least two short stories and one other text (short story or film) studied for the mySF Project.
Please submit your final draft only. You may use either paper and pen or the internet submission system but remember to save and backup your work.
Thanks!
Michael
Alsford, M. (2000). What If?: Religious Themes in Science Fiction. Darton, Longman & Todd: London.
Caruth, S. (2004). Primer. Written by Steve Carruth. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, DVD Version, 2005.
Gribbin, J. (n.d.) 'Time Travel for Beginners'. Retrieved 17 August, 2006, from http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/John_Gribbin/Time_Travel.html
Gunn, J. (2003). The Science of Science Fiction Writing. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
Lem, S. (1974). 'The Time-Travel Story and Related Matters of SF Structuring'. Science Fiction Studies. Number 3, Volume 1, Spring, 1974. Retrieved 17 August, 2006 from http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/3/lem3art.htm
McNeill, R. (Director). (2003). 'Twilight'. Written by Sussman, M. Star Trek: Enterprise. Season 3, Episode 8. DVD Version. Paramount Pictures, 2005.
Luckhurst, R. (2005). Science Fiction. Chapter 8, ‘The 1970s’. Polity Press: Cambridge, UK. ISBN 0-7456-2892-3.
Nicholls, P., & Clute, J., (Eds.) (1995). Grolier Science Fiction: the multimedia encyclopaedia of Science Fiction. Danbury, Danbury, CT: Grolier Electronic Publishing.
NOVA Online (1999). Time Travel. Retrieved 17 August, 2006, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/
Zemeckis, R. (Director) (1998). Contact. Written by Carl Sagan. Warner Home Video. DVD Version, 2002.
ends
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