SF + Historical(Period)?

[Jetfire]

Is mixing SF & Historical(Period) elements a good idea?

Like a person from the future(with tech) ending up in the 1800's Or Vampires and such in the 1930/40's or Alien race coming to earth and observing humans... possibly interacting with them in Roman times???

Or could this only lead to bad story telling?

 

[sojourner]

There are many books in this vein. I like Conrad's "The Cross Time Engineer" series. There are no bad settings in my opinion, just bad stories.

 

[Mr. Sin]

Certainly DOCTOR WHO has crossed this road a few times. In fact, the original concept behind WHO was 'edutainment', having the Doctor and his companions visiting various historical eras and meeting cavemen, Napoleon, Marco Polo,etc. However this concept pretty much went out the window when the Daleks became popular. There's been plenty of episodes where they cross historical times, but mostly this involves an alien threat of some kind (Such as the recent WWII episode with Churchill and the Daleks)

 

[Christopher]

I'm currently reading through Poul Anderson's Time Patrol series, which uses the premise of a time-travelling organization that travels through history to protect it from alteration by irresponsible or malicious time travellers, but that's basically just an excuse for Anderson to indulge in his love of history and folklore and explore various ancient cultures in detail.

And of course the whole steampunk genre is a merger of SF and historical storytelling.

 

[FreezeC77]

I know you said Vampires in the 30s/40s and then Aliens visiting Ancient Rome, but 30s/40s and aliens were so close together in the sentence it made me think of Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series where Aliens invade the planet during the early months of World War II

 

[clint g]

Enterprise did this once with the episode Carbon Creek. I certainly enjoyed it. If done well, I think it could make for a great story

 

[Skywalker]

Is mixing SF & Historical(Period) elements a good idea?

Like a person from the future(with tech) ending up in the 1800's Or Vampires and such in the 1930/40's or Alien race coming to earth and observing humans... possibly interacting with them in Roman times???

Or could this only lead to bad story telling?

It worked for Mark Twain.

 

[Jetfire]

Is mixing SF & Historical(Period) elements a good idea?

Like a person from the future(with tech) ending up in the 1800's Or Vampires and such in the 1930/40's or Alien race coming to earth and observing humans... possibly interacting with them in Roman times???

Or could this only lead to bad story telling?

It worked for Mark Twain.

Will it work now? I know it has been successful in the past...but it seems popular to deal with the present day and things happening on other worlds. *cough* Avatar *cough*

 

[Myasishchev]

Avatar happens in a relatively distant future. Long-term manned missions to Alpha Cen, consciousness swapping, and superhuman-bodies-made-to-order are not exactly twenty seconds from now.

 

[Jetfire]

and things happening on other worlds.

I wasn't saying the events in Avatar were present day. SF now seems geared toward the future...not the past.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Is mixing SF & Historical(Period) elements a good idea?

Like a person from the future(with tech) ending up in the 1800's Or Vampires and such in the 1930/40's or Alien race coming to earth and observing humans... possibly interacting with them in Roman times???

Or could this only lead to bad story telling?

It worked for Mark Twain.

Will it work now? I know it has been successful in the past...but it seems popular to deal with the present day and things happening on other worlds. *cough* Avatar *cough*

Just because its not currently popular doen't mean it wont work.

 

[Trent Roman]

Avatar happens in a relatively distant future. Long-term manned missions to Alpha Cen, consciousness swapping, and superhuman-bodies-made-to-order are not exactly twenty seconds from now.

I didn't think Avatar was all that far off into the future. Some obvious technological innovations, but the culture was essentially the same as the present, right down to dress. Even with the lack of social vision of most sci-fi, this was very close to modernity. With breakthroughs providing the shift in location and materiel, I'd say a century, a century-and-a-half into the future; two hundred years at most.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Skywalker]

There's a popular series of alternate history novels by Eric Flint, starting with 1632, which details an entire modern West Virginia town being transported back in time to Germany in 1632, and the ramifications (both social and technological) that occur afterward. There was also another series of books with a similar premise by S.M. Stirling, about the island of Nantucket being transported back to the Bronze Age. So that particular genre isn't exactly dead.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Avatar happens in a relatively distant future. Long-term manned missions to Alpha Cen, consciousness swapping, and superhuman-bodies-made-to-order are not exactly twenty seconds from now.

I didn't think Avatar was all that far off into the future. Some obvious technological innovations, but the culture was essentially the same as the present, right down to dress. Even with the lack of social vision of most sci-fi, this was very close to modernity. With breakthroughs providing the shift in location and materiel, I'd say a century, a century-and-a-half into the future; two hundred years at most.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

145 years into the future (2154 AD), according to the time codes in Jake Sully's video logs.

 

[Checkmate]

There's tons of great (and not-so-great) stories along these lines, both past and present. You have to pretty much have your head buried in the sand to not notice that. Hell, Doctor Who did it last week. Many of Star Trek's most memorable episodes revolved around it, too. Back to the Future is a shining example as well. All off the top of my head, and I know there's been tons of other examples in the last few years, too.

Kind of a silly question to ask. Especially the "can it work now?" part. /boggle

 

[Kelso]

Is that Rita Hayward? Stunning image. Where's it from?

Oh, and something about history and scifi.

 

[Christopher]

It worked for Mark Twain.

Will it work now? I know it has been successful in the past...but it seems popular to deal with the present day and things happening on other worlds. *cough* Avatar *cough*

As I said already, steampunk is very popular now and it's exactly the sort of thing you're describing.

 

[Jetfire]

Is that Rita Hayward? Stunning image. Where's it from?

Oh, and something about history and scifi.

Yes it is Rita Hayworth. It is from a black and white photo that was colorized with photoshop...amazing work...think I found it on flikr.

Christopher As for the whole steampunk thing...it is popular...but I don't like it...alot seems more about fantasy than modern SF meeting historical(period).

 

[Kelso]

Rita Hayworth.

Gah! Fail.

It is a wonderful image, though.

 

[Greg Cox]

Is that Rita Hayward? Stunning image. Where's it from?

Oh, and something about history and scifi.

Yes it is Rita Hayworth. It is from a black and white photo that was colorized with photoshop...amazing work...think I found it on flikr.

Christopher As for the whole steampunk thing...it is popular...but I don't like it...alot seems more about fantasy than modern SF meeting historical(period).

Nah, steampunk is very much sf, albeit in the tradition of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. Check out THE ANUBIS GATES by Tim Powers, for instance. Or pretty much every other time-travel novel. Mixing history and science fiction isn't "bad storytelling." It's often a great idea.

Heck, BONESHAKER by Cherie Priest, which is a sf novel set in alternate version of Old Seattle, is currrently up for the Hugo, the Nebula, and the Locus Awards for Best Novel . . . . .