Methods of Time Travel

Methods of Time Travel

## Genetic Ability

Time travel is sometimes a natural ability, with many characters being born with or gaining the power to time travel without the aid of the traditional time traveling machine or object. These abilities are usually explained as a genetic variable or a supernatural power. In Niffenegger’s novel The Time Traveler’s Wife, Henry travels in time involuntarily due to a genetic condition that is termed as chrono-impairment. Similarly, in the Ruby Red Trilogy by Kerstin Gier, the protagonist Gwendolyn Shepherd begins jumping through time uncontrollably when she turns sixteen and discovers that she has a time traveling gene that runs in her family. In the Japanese animated movie, Toki o Kakeru Shōjo or the Girl that Leapt Through Time, Makoto Konno also mysteriously gains her power to leap through time and learns of it from her aunt who also has the same ability. Many characters gain superpowers that involve controlling time, such as Hiro Nakamura from the television show Heroes or Homura Akemi from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, who both wield space-time manipulation and can stop time, slow time, or travel through time. In the movie The Butterfly Effect, Evan has memory power which allows his present self to inhabit his younger body and change his actions to alter his future.

## Suspended Animation

Many characters not gifted with time traveling abilities opt to force their bodies into an unchanging state for a prolonged period of time, either by sleeping or being frozen and then being awoken at some time in the future. For example, in the novels Looking Backward: 2000-1887 and Golf in the Year 2000 the main characters fall into a deep sleep and wake up hundreds of years later. Also in the movie Demolition Man and one episode of the television series Doctor Who, characters are cryogenically frozen and restored to life years into the future when circumstances have drastically changed.

## Technology/Mechanical

The traditional method of time traveling is using some form of a machine or technology as means of traveling through time. Most commonly used technologies include portals and machines that come in many different forms. Examples of portals that facilitate time travel in different narratives are the Galactic Entity Time Sphere from the television show Futurama, the Guardian of Forever Time Portal from the television version of Star Trek, time holes in the movie Time Bandits, the Time Tunnel in the show Gilligan’s Island, and wormholes in the novel A Wrinkle in Time. Machines are even more widely used, such as the traditional time machine that can be seen in the book The Time Machine, the show Phil of the Future, and the movie The Terminator. Other forms of the time machine include the time helmet from the Twilight Zone, the time traveling cars in the movies Timecop and Meet the Robinsons, the hot tub in Hot Tub Time Machine, the time traveling chair in the movie Twelve Monkeys, the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space) concealed as a phone box in Doctor Who, and the Delorean in Back to the Future.

## Supernatural/Fantastical

Time travel is often explained by employing supernatural causes instead of scientific ones. For example, in Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge is forced to revisit his past and witness his bleak future due to ghosts that send him there against his will. Additionally, in the show Lost the mysterious island constantly moves through time and space and the Time Turner in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is powered by magic.

## Mental Mind Travel

Another method of time travel is through hallucinations or memory such as the time traveling through Self Hypnosis, the main character in Somewhere in Time travels back in time to 1912 to find love. In Twelve Monkeys, the characters use hallucination to travel back in time. It is very dangerous. In Just Visiting, a wizard uses hallucination to send himself to the future to fix everything he messed up in a previous visit to the future. The main character in The House on the Strand takes drugs which turn on an enzyme in his brain that gives him access to memories from the fourteenth century.

## Traveling Faster Than Light

Traveling faster than the speed of light can allow for a jump through time and this concept has been utilized in many scientific fictions. The Slingshot Effect in Star Trek also known as the Light Speed Breakaway Factor says that if a person goes fast enough they will start going back in time. In Interstellar, A Gravitational Pull would pull people into a black hole that would take them to the future. In the first Superman movie, Superman flies around the world so fast the Earth begins to turn the other way, turning back time.

## Time Traveling Objects

Many time objects that can time travel are used in movies and TV shows. Time Traveling Boxes in Primer transport objects placed in the box from the time the box was turned on to the time it was turned off. The Dagger of Time manipulates time and allows the person who uses it to control time. The Time Turner in Harry Potter works by magic. If you turn it back you back an hour in time. If you turn it forward you go forward an hour in time.

## Communication Between Time Periods

Time travel can also include communication between two different time periods. A time warped mailbox in The Lake House delivers letters four years into the past. In Frequency, a cross-time radio link connects people across thirty years.

## Unexplained

Many methods of time travel are unexplained such as in Stephen King's 11/22/63 is about a man who uses a storeroom to travel back in time to stop JFK's assassination. Also in the TV show Supernatural there are many unexplained ways that Sam and Dean time travel, often with the help of angels. In the movie Groundhog Day, the time loops that occur happen for unexplained reasons.

## Works Cited

Brad Kane. "How to Time Travel (Without Destroying the Universe) Part One." Torcom How to Time Travel Without Destroying the Universe Part One Comments. N.p., 06 Nov. 2013. Web. 13 June 2015.

Charlie Feldmen. "10 ALL TIME Best Methods Of Time Travel." SMOSH. N.p., 2013. Web. 13 June 2015.

"Fictional Methods of Time Travel - Time2timetravel." Time2timetravel. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 June 2015.

Gaye Birch. "25 Ways to Travel through Time: A Catalogue of Choices." Den of Geek. N.p., 9 May 2010. Web. 13 June 2015.

"List of Time Travel Science Fiction." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 13 June 2015.

"Top 5 Time Travel Methods from the Movies : DNews." DNews. N.p., 12 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 June 2015.