No, because they are traveling through the time/SPACE continuum. Time and space are inseparably linked.
Time travel.
- Thread starter doubleohfive
- Start date
No, because they are traveling through the time/SPACE continuum. Time and space are inseparably linked.
This is certainly my favorite kind of time travel, and the most sensible.
- You are in a new parallel universe. Just the act of appearing in the past caused this timeline to be created.
- No paradoxes, since you actually do not travel in your own timeline (except when moving forward)
- No silly stuff like you cannot touch your younger self, etc... Matter is continually exchanged in bodies, there is nothing magical about an atom that happens to be part of you at this moment.
The only other kind I find interesting is the closed loop one... But it is too darn depressing.
I guess "Being Erica" largely falls under type 1 time travel?
I remember this episode where Erica had sex with this guy in the past and the guy remembers it in the future. And of course there's Leo. Erica found her whole life completely altered after saving Leo's life in the past.
However, there do seem to be social rules against changing the timeline... Doctor Tom has mentioned many times that major changes to the past is "Not Allowed". So does this make it type 2 time travel?
I remember this episode where Erica had sex with this guy in the past and the guy remembers it in the future. And of course there's Leo. Erica found her whole life completely altered after saving Leo's life in the past.
However, there do seem to be social rules against changing the timeline... Doctor Tom has mentioned many times that major changes to the past is "Not Allowed". So does this make it type 2 time travel?
I read a short story years ago called "The Men Who Killed Mohammed." In this story a man goes back in time to kill his wife's lover. He returns to his own time to see that nothing has changed. He goes back in time again and kills both wife and lover, only to discover that his own timeline STILL remains unchanged.
He then goes on this massive timeline killing spree murdering famous people from history. The traveler's timeline is unchanged BUT the traveler himself has disappeared completely and is nothing more than a disembodied spirit. He then encounters another disembodied spirit that turns out to be another time traveler that did the same thing as the first. The story ended with these two travelers relating to each other who they went back in time to kill.
He then goes on this massive timeline killing spree murdering famous people from history. The traveler's timeline is unchanged BUT the traveler himself has disappeared completely and is nothing more than a disembodied spirit. He then encounters another disembodied spirit that turns out to be another time traveler that did the same thing as the first. The story ended with these two travelers relating to each other who they went back in time to kill.
Checkmate
Commodore
I never understood the whole "don't touch yourself" stipulation, either. I mean, even if you did, and assuming all the same atoms where in tact (which they wouldn't, as mentioned earlier in the thread), the matter still wouldn't be occupying the same space. Your past/future self is occupying that space.
Not to mention that I can't think of a single instance that included that rule where it was demonstrated to be true.
Not to mention that I can't think of a single instance that included that rule where it was demonstrated to be true.
It was used in the movie Timecop. I never saw it used before, and after it was never demonstrated.
Best to ignore that 'rule.'
This is a good example of a time travel story. Thrice Upon a Time and the Accidental Time Machine were mediocre, at best. I highly suggest By His Bootstraps by Heinlein for an example of paradoxes at work, The Technicolor Time Machine for a commentary on casuality and The Man Who Shot Lincoln for an analysis of paradox consequences.
Got the title wrong
Its The Lincoln Hunters by Wilson Tucker.A few others I enjoyed:
Time and Again-jack Finney
The Armageddon Blues by Daniel Keyes Moran
The Company series by the late Kage Baker
Poul Anderson's Time Patrol
Lest Darkness Fall by L Sprague DeCamp
Run, Come See Jerusalem by Richard C Meredith
Up the Line by Silverberg
And if Marty going back in time changes everything, and him playing "Johnny B. Good" is what inspired Chuck Berry to record it, how did Marty know the song in the original timeline?
I like 12 Monkeys time travel: You can't change it, it already happened. Most other time travel stories don't do much for me.
--Justin
I'd say Being Erica is probably type 2a. It's pretty clear that major changes to the timeline can happen, but for most people events just always happened that way... witness the season 1 finale, or the episode where she lives a setback free life. Of course, Erica herself and the other therapists can tell that the timeline has been changed, hence it being 2a.
People who question the supposed "plot holes" in Back to the Future obviously have no idea how the Flux Capacitor works. 
I'm not so certain its type 2a. Most of the time Doctor Tom is showing Erica that her original instincts were correct all along. For example, her original decision not to join Literati was the correct choice because Literati would have changed her into lying, cheating backstabber. Or that despite the attraction Erica felt for Cassidy, deep down Erica knew she could never give herself fully to another woman. In these cases, its Erica herself who is choosing not to change things because she would have turned into someone she wouldn't like (hence the show's title "Being Erica"). There is no mysterious "universal force" that keeps the timeline unchanged.
The only event where I could potentially see the hand of an universal force is adult Leo's car accident in the alternate timeline. However, my interpretation of the finale is that the therapists killed Leo to somehow "balance" Erica saving Leo in the past. So once again, it is humans who are enforcing the balance rather than some universal force.
Of course he's there 30 years in the future, because by then he's already had his adventure and returned home. It hasn't happened in his personal timeline as the 1985 Marty, but it will.
The paradox of how did he know Johnny B Good is because he already went back and created it by 1985. Umm.. kinda...maybe not... not sure..
Well, it's like the Terminator paradox. Where did the technology come from? In T2 is was stated that it was built on the remains (chip and arm) from T1... which then went back in time and was found and...
So it originated itself.
Last edited:
Checkmate
Commodore
The big problem in Back to the Future 2 is that Marty should have known he was going to be there. Especially when he got fired; that would have been a huge reminder. But they never showed any sign of awareness on his part at all.
Also, there's no evidence that he actually created Johnny B. Goode. For all we know, Chuck Berry could have been fuming on the other side of that phone as he heard some punk ass bitch playing the song he was working on when his cousin called.
Also, there's no evidence that he actually created Johnny B. Goode. For all we know, Chuck Berry could have been fuming on the other side of that phone as he heard some punk ass bitch playing the song he was working on when his cousin called.
All true, but I do get the sense that Erica could change the past if she really wanted to—it's just that most of the time, she realizes the path she was on originally was the correct one all along.
YES. No one ever gets this. In the original timeline Chuck invented it in, let's say 1957. In the new timeline he invents it in 1955. No matter how you slice it, Chuck came up with it first.
That's how it had to have worked. There's no way Marty could have invented it.
I've read that some people think that part is racist because it claims Chuck Berry had to steal his music from a white kid. That idea always bothered me because there's no logical way Chuck DIDN'T invent the song in the first place.
Except in the altered timeline, Chuck Berry doesn't come up with it. He takes it from Marty. On the other hand, Marty doesn't invent it, either. He takes it from Chuck Berry. I hate temporal mechanics.
I've read the charge of racism in a couple of academic texts, and it always amuses me, because if anything is clear, it is that Marty isn't posited as the inventor of rock and roll.
I've read the charge of racism in a couple of academic texts, and it always amuses me, because if anything is clear, it is that Marty isn't posited as the inventor of rock and roll.
Checkmate
Commodore
Proof?
All we know is that his cousin called him and he may have been able to hear a tiny bit of it on the phone. We have no idea if he was already working on it, if he had already thought it up, or anything else. All we know is his cousin was excited and gave him a ring.
Even if Chuck Berry was inspired by what little he heard through a low quality telephone call, he still came up with the brunt of it all on his own. It's also an issue that wouldn't come up due to the speed in which changes in the future take place. Marty would have had a week or longer to let Chuck Berry hear it and then invent it before he (or, more likely, the song in his head) would fade away... which gave him plenty of time to play the song and inspire Chuck Berry to create it without any noticable changes in the timeline.
Similar threads
