Time Travel

Stories dealing with Time Travel allow the protagonists to travel through time in either direction usually to a time of their choice. The most usual direction is from the present of the protagonist to the past though the TV series Doctor Who could basically end up in virtually any time location. In a way, Doctor Who is not a real time traveller in the standard sense, merely using the device of time travel to get himself and his companions to the location of the story. Once there they usually remain in that location for the duration of the story.

Many authors have written stories involving time travel; Dr Asimov has the point of view character in 'Pebble in the Sky' travel into the far future where he stays. He has also written a book, 'The End of Eternity', where the protagonist is a member of the Eternals who spend their lives calculating what changes are needed to give Humanity a happy and peaceful life.

In my opinion, I would consider a true time travel story to be one where the protagonist can move between times more-or-less at will. A couple of the more fun examples of this are Connie Willis' 'Doomsday Book' (though not particularly fun in it's own right) and 'Nothing but the Dog'.

The soldiers in Simon Hawke's 'The Time Wars' series are also sent careering through time at the command of their political masters. Fearing the effects of a proper shooting war in their own time, the politicians send their soldiers back in time to past conflicts to determine who wins on the basis of the numbers of troops who survive the primitive battlefields. The assurances of the scientists who said time could not be changed were found to be disastrously over-confident as the time stream turned to taffy.

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