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Time Fiction and Time Opera

intrinsical

Commodore
Commodore
I am coining a new term for an existing sub-genre of science fiction, "Time Fiction".

Sure there have been time travel shows in the past, but even in most science fiction shows prior to the year 2000, time travel is usually limited to a handful of standalone episodes. In the past few years, I am noticing a jump in the use of time travel as an integral plot element in many main stream television shows and movies. Enterprise, Lost, Heroes, The 4400, Primeval and Being Erica for example.

And as writers create new twists, its increasingly harder to call these shows "time travel" shows, since the "travel" portion is becoming optional (eg, The Lake House. And arguably Doctor Who's Blink as well as the Time Traveler's Wife, where the lead characters never actually travel through time).

Thus for convenience's sake and to cover all possible time travel scenarios, lets just label these as "Time Fiction" or "Time Opera" stories. PS: I Googled around and everyone uses "time travel fiction", no one uses the term Time Fiction.
 
The Time Tunnel, Quantum Leap, Voyagers, plenty of shows had time travel on a weekly basis even before 2000, and thousands of books. Sorry, the popular term has been and is "time travel".
 
And Time travel seems to actually describe wants happening. Time Fiction sounds like it's about a forward progression. Or waiting.

Time Travel fiction, I think, is here to stay.
 
Today is my sister's wedding and I am all excited. And when I'm excited I get zany thoughts and do zany stuff. For some reason I felt compelled to do this earlier on, so just ignore me, I'm crazy today.
 
It is interesting to note though that in the last ten years or so, the idea that time travel is more plausible than warp drive has taken hold in popular belief and, as such, become more popular in mainstream science fiction stories.

And, although I haven't seen last week's episode yet, I am willing to bet that The Event is going to fall into this subgenre as well.
 
Today is my sister's wedding and I am all excited. And when I'm excited I get zany thoughts and do zany stuff. For some reason I felt compelled to do this earlier on, so just ignore me, I'm crazy today.

You'll never fit in here till you're crazy every day. :p

Have fun at the wedding, Mr. Time Opera.

And, although I haven't seen last week's episode yet, I am willing to bet that The Event is going to fall into this subgenre as well.
At this point, I'd say we're lucky if The Event manages to be even as interesting as using hoary old time travel as the big plot twist. :wtf:
 
Anybody remember the ending to 1964's The Time Travelers? Now THAT was time travel.

An endless loop!
 
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