Time travel has been used by science fiction and alternate history writers to drive their stories for well over a hundred years. Most trace the start to HG Wells 1895 novel, “The Time Machine”. However, in that one the protagonist ventured into the future, observing the changes mankind wrought upon themselves. Most time travel stories move back in time to affect some event in their present or from the future to cause havoc in our present.
The impact of travelling into the past and altering history was best exemplified by Ray Bardbury’s 1952 short story, “A Sound of Thunder”. It made the term “the butterfly effect” well known even outside the sci fi community. It showed how changing a single miniscule event in the past could have a chilling impact on the world as we know it.
Those types of tales are fascinating to me because they basically ask the question “What if?” It forces the reader to see history as a living series of events and not some cold static fact. The impact of a few events in time radically changed the world as we know it. Exploring those twists that switch the path of history onto a new trail is at the core of most of my novels.
I conducted a short survey among friends and family and came up with a long list of popular movies and books that fit in this category.
- Edge of Tomorrow
- The Time Traveler’s Wife
- Back to the Future
- Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure
- Mr. Peabody and Sherman (featuring his aptly named, Wayback Machine)
As you can see from this compilation, the time travel encompasses a wide gamut of storylines. I’m sure with a little thought you could add several to this list.
For me, the most memorable time traveler was Ebenezer Scrooge in the Christmas Carol. Observing himself, and others, in the past and the future made him declare, “I’m not the man I was.” Hence changing the course of (his) history.