Time Travel in Digital Media

## **Video Games**

Video games involving time travel have a long history, including approximately 200 popular games and from the 1980s, about 20 years after the first known video game, to the present day.The following is a short sample of the vast world of videogames as time travel narratives.

### Time Traveler (1980) on TRS-80, Apple II, and Commodore PET

* is the first recorded videogame involving time travel
* A text adventure game in which the player goes back in time to different places and times to obtain 14 rings
* Time Traveler (1980)

### The Magic of Scheherazade (1987) on the NES

* The first game involving time travel as a gameplay mechanic and controlling the actions of the character

* Allows the player to time travel between five different time periods
* It is an action role-playing game
* The game follows a descendant of the great magician Isfa, who goes on a quest to defeat the evil wizard Sabaron and restore peace to the land.
* The Magic of Scheherazade (1987)

### Chrono Trigger (1995) originally on the SNES and PS1, later rebooted several times

* Very popular role-playing game which featured time travel as one of its main features.
* Original version sold more than 2.36 games in Japan and around 290,000 throughout the rest of the world
* On popular game review sites, Chrono Trigger scored at lowest an 8.5/10 on GameSpot to a perfect score
* of 10/10 on Nintendo Life and 5/5 on GamesRadar.
* Very complicated story, summarized here:
* Chrono Trigger (1995)

Portal series (2007 and 2011)

* Video game in which the user uses a machine to apply linked portals to surfaces to teleport from one blue to one orange portal.

* A promotional comic shows estranged Aperture Science employee Doug Rattmann, who

used graffiti to guide the player in the first

* Portal, placing the main character Chell into suspended animation to save her life, until the beginning of Portal 2.

## **Movies**

### Back to the Future (1985)

* an American comic science fiction movie

* the movie follows an aspiring teenage musician whose scientist friend creates a time machine in the form of a DeLorean, who is attacked and murdered while the protagonist escapes through time into
* the past. He meets his mo
* ther and inadvertently becomes her romantic interest, and must make sure she and his father meet to ensure his birth,
* while also finding a way to refuel the time machine to get back home, and also attempting to prevent the death of his scientist friend.
* The movie premiered on July 3rd, 1985, and spent 11 weeks as the number one movie in the box office.
* Worldwide the movie grossed $383.87 million
* Has several sequels
* Back to the Future
* IMDB

### **Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)**

* an American science fiction comedy buddy film

* this movie follows two close friends, Bill and Ted. A man named Rufus travels back in time from a utopian future, based on the ideals of Bill and Ted’s future rock band. Bill and Ted are in the present failing a history class, and if they do Ted’s father will ship him off to a military school, ending their band, and so they are given a time machine to allow them to observe the history first hand to be able to get an A+ on their history project, so they can pass the class and create the utopian future.
* This movie strays from most time travel narratives in that there is a successful utopia.

* premiered on February 17th, 1989
* The film grossed around 40.4 million
* Has one sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey
* Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
* IMDB

### **Groundhog Day (1993)**

* an American fantasy comedy film
* follows Phil Connors, an arrogant weatherman who is caught in a time loop when he is on an assignment covering
* Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Eventually, he tries to improve himself and become kinder, and the time loop is broken.
* Though not the first film to feature an unexplained time loop (the first being Turn Back The Clock in 1933) it definitely is known for it and popularized the trope in film and television.

* premiered on February 12, 1993
* was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress
* grossed 70.9 million in North America
* Groundhog Day
* IMDB

### The Terminator (1984)

* American science fiction action film
* A human-looking indestructible cyborg is sent from 2029 to 1984 to assassinate a waitress, whose unborn son will lead humanity in a war against the machines, while a soldier from that war is sent to protect her at all costs.
* '''' ***''''***
* explores the potential dangers of artificial intelligence
* premiered October 26, 1984
* considered one of the best films of 1984
* was selected by the National Film Preservation Board for preservation in the Library of Congress
* grossed around 78.4 million
* The Terminator
* IMDB

## **TV**

·             Time Travel is a commonly used trope in different TV series. Though the meathods of traveling back in time differ from one another, the time travel story lines are found appealing by audiences of all genres. One example of a TV series that commonly uses time travel as a trope is the show "Supernatural". The main characters Sam and Dean are transported back in time many different times but the writers manage to make every time travel episode different and interesting. One of the most common ways that Sam and Dean travel back in time is because of a supernatural being using its powers against them. Angels and demons play big parts in the show and are both portrayed as protagonists and antagonists. In the epoisode "Mystery Spot", the angel Gabriel puts Sam in a time loop, making hi, rematch his brother die every single day. Alternatively, in the episode "The End", the angel Zachariah transports Dean to the future of August 1, 2014. He tries to persuade him to change the fate of the world by changing his mind on an important decision.

     Another example of a TV show that uses Time Travel as a common trope is "Star Trek". This trope is used over 40 times throughout the six different series. Common uses of the trope are: the crew is transported into a parallel universe where time moves differently like in the episode "All Our Yesterdays", one of the crew messes up the future of the universe and they have to fix the problem like in "The City on the Edge of Forever", and saving their younger selves like in "Yesteryear". Though not entirely focused on time travel, "Star Trek" used original ideas to create an original storyline.

     Though some TV shows used the trope multiple times, there are many shows that only used it once. Disney Channel has used this trope in many of thier shows. In "The Suite Life of Zach and Cody", Zach and Cody travel to an alternate universe in a phonebox and return back to the moment they left. This also alludes to the show "Doctor Who". There was also a Disney Channel show called "Phil of the Future" that dealt with a family being trapped in the past after they're spaceship crash landed and fell apart. Many other shows have used this trope including "The Simpsons" and the anime "Sailor Moon"

     The show "Doctor Who" has been around for over 50 years. First airing in 1962, it was meant to be an educational show catered towards children. The time travel episodes were meant to be history lessons and the space travel episodes science lessons. As the show grew more popular, the educational aspect was pushed to the side and by the time the renewal of the series aired in 2003, it was all but forgotten.

     The show is focused around an alien called The Doctor who travels around time and space in a Police Box called the TARDIS. He originates from a species called the Time Lords of Gallifrey. This means that he has two hearts and when in mortal danger from a wound, he regenerates into a new personality. This is the main reason that the show has survived for so long.

     The first Doctor was played by William Hartnell. As the Doctor regenerated into his multiple personalities, he created classic characters that were both eccentric and heroic. Some of the most popular personalities of the doctor are the fourth regeneration played by Tom Baker, the ninth regeneration played by Christopher Eccleston, the tenth regeneration played by David Tennant, and the eleventh regeneration played by Matt Smith.

     The Doctor likes to travel with a companion, whether it be alien or human. Some of the relationships have been family or friends and some have been romantic interests. The Doctor usually travels with the same companion for several seasons but there have been exceptions. Some companions even come back after they have left the show as side characters. The writers of the show make sure to give each relationship a new aspect and give the Doctor different sides of personality.

     The Doctor and the TARDIS can travel anywhere in time and space so every single episode is in a different place. The show can bring together different historical figures like in the episode "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship". The episode takes place in the future but the Doctor brings Queen Nefertiti of Egypt, a big game hunter from the African plains, and dinosaurs together. The episodes with historical figures usually bring aliens or alien technology into historical context.

## **Music**

·        *Rocky Horror Picture Show*"Time Warp"

·        Songs called "Time Travel"by-

o   Blouse

o   Dead Prez

o   Never Shout Never

·        Songs called "Time Machine" by-

o   Black Sabbath

o   Coil

o   Dzyan

o   Grand Funk Railroad

o   Mick Softley

o   Rick Wakeman

o   Robyn

o   T-Pain

·        Huey Lewis and the News "Back in Time"

·        Jonas Brothers "Year 3000"

The idea of time travel not only inspires television, but music as well. Artists use different different styles of music to make time travel music an unclear genre.

## **Pop Culture**

Time travel has been used in many well known stories including comic books. One of the most famous time travel plot arcs of comics is in Captain America. Steve Rogers, after being experimented on by a scientist develops a superhero physique and starts defending the world against the covert Nazi operation- Hydra. Since he has a scientifically enhanced body, when he takes his plane down in the arctic, he is cryogenically frozen. When he wakes up he is no longer in his time of the 1940s but in the modern age.

     Another comic book arc that features time travel is in the X-Men universe. When the world is overrun with robots looking for mutants, Wolverine's mind is transported into his younger body and he uses his knowledge to stop the impending doom of the X-Men.

     Time travel is used in classic stories spanning the globe. Some popular fairy tales, like "Rip Van Winkle" are descendants of classic time travel stories. Time travel can be found in myths of almost every empire or religion. In the holy book, Maharahba, a King Revaita travels across universes to meet a superior being and comes back to a different age in time. In the Talmud, a man goes to sleep and wakes up 70 years later to a time where his grandchildren are parents of their own children. A Japanese folktale written in the Nihongi tells of a man named Urashima Taro And his travels to an undersea colony. He stays for three days but when he returns to land, three hundred years have passed and everything he knew is gone. Even in British culture, there is a fairy tale of a king and his hunting party being transported into the future by a harlequin.

  Time travel in the media is a diverse genre however, there are common tropes that show up in multiple works. A popular trope for media to use is the protagonist needing to change the past. An example of this trope is *Harry Potter and the Prizoner of Azkaban.*Harry and Hermione use a device called the time-turner to go back in time and help a falsely accused murderer. Another commonly used trope is the protagonist trying to prevent a bad future like in *X-Men Days of Future Past*in which Wolverine goes back in time to stop the killing of mutants for human protection. Finally the trope where the main character finds fulfillment when they travel back in time. In *A Christmas Carol,*Ebanezer Scrooge finds the Christmas spirit in his past, present, and future.