03/28/2005 Archived Entry: "Time Travel in Science Fiction - Part 3: The Time Ships"

Although Wells’ book deals with time travel, it never addresses issues that can appear due to time travel; issues such as what happens when one significantly alters the past? These and other questions were left to later authors to explore. One such author is Stephen Baxter who, in 1995, wrote the official sequel to Wells’ “The Time Machine” entitled “The Time Ships”.

“The Time Ships” extensively discusses the structure of time and multiple universes. The time traveler from Wells’ book continues his trip in the sequel, going back to the year 802701. He is shocked to discover that he has returned to a world that is completely unlike the one he had left. He finds that the Morlocks are no longer underground dwelling savages but have instead evolved tremendously to the point where they have built a Dyson Sphere, a giant habitat enclosing the sun. It is hypothesized by the characters that the time traveler inadvertently changed the future when he went home and told his friends of his adventures. His story was able to set into motion a chain of events that resulted in this new future.

From there, the book relates that instead of actions changing a given timeline, it is instead that actions create new timelines entirely. That is, when the time traveler went back to tell of his adventures in the future he created a new and distinct future such that there were now two timelines co-existing, the one from “The Time Machine” and the new one with the advanced Morlocks. The time traveler continues his journey through time creating more fractures as he travels but he can only exist in the new timelines he creates and cannot move to older ones. The author, however, does have instances where the characters travel to the past without altering the future they came from and is never clear on which actions cause change and which don't (but I think the guy's just being inconsistant. Some major stuff happens at some points that dont change the timeline). With a multitude of realities existing all at once, the time traveler eventually encounters technology advanced enough to allow him to step into whichever timeline he desires and ends up going to the original 802701 of Wells’ book.

The book suggests that time travel creates alternate realities and that the time traveler’s invention and its successors are the reasons behind the existence of a multi-verse – a universe of possible universes. Temporal paradoxes do not exist under this model since timelines are never changed, new ones are made instead.

Replies: 2 comments

Hmm...never knew there was a sequel to The Time Machine...then again, I haven't read nor seen The Time Machine...can't seem to find the time for this time stuff...;)

Posted by dAN @ 03/29/2005 05:19 PM EST

The Time Ships is actually pretty good. Also, there are actually a few sequels to The Time Machine, they just happen to be unofficial

Posted by Rayne @ 04/05/2005 02:40 PM EST