A very careful and quite observer of history could probably discretely blend into the background and go unnoticed. But that is generally not the type stories that are told or want to be seen by the audience.
Time After Time: Season 1
- Thread starter Aragorn
- Start date
Well, physical law says that "changing history" is a contradiction in terms. Nothing you do can possibly "erase" a timeline that already exists; the most you could do is branch off a parallel timeline alongside it. Fiction prefers to assume that the timeline can be erased/overwritten because that creates more danger, but it's scientifically absurd and impossible.
And there have been a number of successful time-travel stories based on an immutable-history model, from The Time Tunnel to Gargoyles to the movie version of 12 Monkeys to The Time Traveler's Wife to Outlander, and plenty of others.
I totally understand the theory of branching time lines. But there is no more real proof to that than actual time travel to the past being possible at all. Which until some majority new discovery comes along all time travel to the past is fantasy.
Science is not just about observing known things. It's about prediction. Scientific theory works by determining the processes that underlie known phenomena, so that we can use that understanding to predict how physics would behave in situations not yet observed. After all, all physics is connected. The same laws operate throughout nature, the same equations apply. Once we know the equations underlying how things work, we can apply them to new situations and predict what would happen.
This is how we know what we know about time travel. It's not guesswork, it's calculation. It's math. It's based on the equations of General Relativity, worked out by Einstein a century ago and confirmed by every imaginable experiment. We know General Relativity works. We know its equations, so we can plug in numbers to see what would have to happen to produce a given result. So we know what kind of physical processes and phenomena would have to be created to make time travel possible. Ditto with quantum mechanics. It's been confirmed by countless experimental results, we know the equations that govern it, so it's simply a matter of applying those equations to time travel and seeing what results come out. It's wrong to call it fantasy, because it is not arbitrarily made up, it is rigorously calculated. It is a prediction that arises from existing theory, which is exactly what science is for.
And yes, everything we know about physics tells us that traveling into the past is probably impossible. But we can make pretty reliable predictions about what would happen if it were possible. And we know that if an event happened, it happened. It can't be made to have never happened, because that would be an irreconcilable physical and logical contradiction. The idea of an event being erased altogether is one that can only exist in fantasy; it's fundamentally counterphysical. Time travel is probably impossible, but if it could happen, then the only physically and logically valid possibilities are either a single fixed timeline or a branching multiverse.
Scraping the barrel of my current media, I was about to start crying, or consider going to bed early.
As soon as I wake up, Doctor who is there.
That's a pretty wicked ##cking compulsion for a good nights rest.
Fate has other plans.
So instead, I'm going to have a very late night, AGAIN, and finish of the season of Time after Time.
Tootles.
As soon as I wake up, Doctor who is there.
That's a pretty wicked ##cking compulsion for a good nights rest.
Fate has other plans.
So instead, I'm going to have a very late night, AGAIN, and finish of the season of Time after Time.
Tootles.
I was surprised to see advertised through The Flash’s Twitter feed that all 12 produced episodes are now available to watch on the CW SEED app. Only the first 5 aired in the United States on ABC before it was cancelled. Apparently the remaining episodes were broadcast on a Spanish language channel the following summer.
It must of been a Warner Bros production to be on CW seed. The original film was too.
What we did see of the show was nothing great. But I am curious to check out the 7 episodes we never saw. Thought others might be too.
It must of been a Warner Bros production to be on CW seed. The original film was too.
What we did see of the show was nothing great. But I am curious to check out the 7 episodes we never saw. Thought others might be too.
Oh, thanks for the heads-up. I'm mildly curious myself.
Took me nearly a month before I bothered to get around to watching the remaining 7 episodes, and I'm not sure it was worth bothering. The last episode before cancellation made me hope that the show was improving, but it didn't last. This show was relentlessly mediocre overall. I don't think I've ever seen a time travel show with so little time travel. Only about half the episodes involve any time travel at all, and only one (besides the pilot) goes further back than 1980. The plotline ultimately centers more around Jack the Ripper and the "Dr. Moreau"-type people seeking to exploit him than it does around Wells and his time machine -- and I found the idea that Jack the Ripper was some sort of superhuman to be rather distasteful. It rather negated Jane's cool moment in the opening storyline where she put John in his place by pointing out that the only special thing about Jack the Ripper was his anonymity.
And a lot of the plotting was weak and contrived. Like the episode where Jack tried to break H.G. and Jane up by revealing that he'd lied to her, and then she broke up with him at the end for an entirely different reason, and then she was back on the team 20 minutes into the next episode, making the whole cliffhanger breakup just a fakeout. Not to mention the bit earlier in that episode where the police brought in Wells as a person of interest in a homicide even though there were dozens of witnesses who could testify that the victim staggered out of the crowd and just fell at his feet. That whole episode was a mess.
All in all, this took what had been a pretty cool movie and turned it into a very run-of-the-mill conspiracy thriller that didn't add anything particularly worthwhile to the concept. Really quite a disappointment.
And a lot of the plotting was weak and contrived. Like the episode where Jack tried to break H.G. and Jane up by revealing that he'd lied to her, and then she broke up with him at the end for an entirely different reason, and then she was back on the team 20 minutes into the next episode, making the whole cliffhanger breakup just a fakeout. Not to mention the bit earlier in that episode where the police brought in Wells as a person of interest in a homicide even though there were dozens of witnesses who could testify that the victim staggered out of the crowd and just fell at his feet. That whole episode was a mess.
All in all, this took what had been a pretty cool movie and turned it into a very run-of-the-mill conspiracy thriller that didn't add anything particularly worthwhile to the concept. Really quite a disappointment.
Yeah, watching the remaining episodes felt like a waste of time. I watched shortly after first posting. I think I fell asleep about halfway through and missed an episode woke up and keep watching.
I was hoping the last produced episode was going to resolve Jack the Ripper and setup a cliffhanger for a new idea. Not surprising ABC did not bother airing any more than they did. I agree with you on everything. That Jack the Ripper was a superhuman is just horrible on every level. Clearly the way they ended it, that was what they wanted the real focus of the show to be. Jack the Ripper - Super-Villian! With every season being a new variation of him vs Wells. I am glad they cancelled it!
I was hoping the last produced episode was going to resolve Jack the Ripper and setup a cliffhanger for a new idea. Not surprising ABC did not bother airing any more than they did. I agree with you on everything. That Jack the Ripper was a superhuman is just horrible on every level. Clearly the way they ended it, that was what they wanted the real focus of the show to be. Jack the Ripper - Super-Villian! With every season being a new variation of him vs Wells. I am glad they cancelled it!
Yeah -- I was expecting Wells to end up in the far future or something. This show's makers just didn't have enough imagination.
