ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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I'm rather proud of this elaborate and (I think) interesting post below. Click on the title below to go to the thread and add a reply.

This, of course, is how it works for ALL the Featured Threads. Everybody knows that . . . right?


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The Time Machine (1960) (<— link)
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I had a spirited debate recently with an intelligent member of All Sci-Fi who dislikes time travel stories which included paradoxes.

He contested my claim that ALL time travel stories included paradoxes.

In fact, he insisted that The Time Machine includes no paradoxes caused by story elements which altered the timeline.

But after giving the matter considerable thought, I believe I can prove this is not correct.

However, before I address that issue I'd like to point out how the screenplay cleverly avoids several potential dangers that time travel can cause.
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Danger #1 - George could have returned to 1900 and appeared at the same spot in his laboratory from which he departed . . . thus causing two time machines to occupy the same space!





Fortunately, the Morlocks moved the time machine into the sphinx, which caused George to materialize outside his lab when he came back.





Danger #2 - According the Filby's closing dialog, George intended to returned to the future and materialize just outside the Morlock sphinx, right where Weena and the Eloi were standing when he vanished from inside the sphinx.





However, doing this might have caused him to appear in the same spot as one-or-more of the Eloi, and that would result inthe fusion of the poor Eloi with George in his time machine!

Based on the scene in which George first arrived outside the sphinx, we know that he learned (the hard way ) to avoid "stopping too fast" — because doing that causes his machine to spin around and then tip over.





For this reason, George would be careful to "decelerate gradually" as he approached the moment in the future when he wished to arrive.

Hopefully this would have caused a brief "visible manifestation" at his arrival point — and the frightened Eloi would leap out of the way before the time machine became completely solid!

Actually, George did slow down gradually when he came back to 1900. Obviously he learned from his previous mistake.




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As for the actual temporal paradox this movie includes, it is caused by the fact that George tells Filby he's going to die in 1916. If we explore the ramifications of this single plot element, we're lead to a startling conclusion!

Here's what I mean.

At the beginning of the movie, George shows up and startles his dinner quests.





He begins the story of his journey in the time machine, which includes his brief stop in 1917, where he meets Jamie Filby (David's son) and mistakens him for his friend, David. Jamie informs George that his father died "in the war" (WWI), one year earlier.





David Filby, sitting at the dinner table in 1900, learns that he'll die in sixteen years.





At the end of the movie, as the dinner guest are leaving, David says goodbye to his friends while they board a carriage, and then he goes back into the house to have words with George. But he hears the strange sound of the time machine, and he rushes into the workshop . . . right after George has vanished.

Speaking to Mrs. Watchett, David figures out why the garden doors are open, as well as why there are scratches on the floor. He concludes that George dragged the time machine back into the house so that when he journeys back to the distant future, he will appear outside the sphinx to be reunited with Weena and the Eloi.

So . . . David now knows that the time machine is real, and that George's description of his journey through time was the truth.

And, of course, this means George actually did talk to David's son — who informed George that David will die in 1916.

Gentlemen, the important question is this: Wat will David Filby do with this knowledge?

Knowing that WWI is coming (thanks to George's detailed description of his journey), David realizes that he might be able to prevent his death in 1916 by remaining in the area near George's house — simply because he knows (thanks again to George's story) that this area of London won't be bombed by the Germans before George's 1917 visit.

Remember, David is the owner of the small "department store" right across the street from George's house. Jamie inherited the store, and expanded it. Notice the vertical sign on the corner of the large building which is located in the upper right of this screenshot.

It says, "FILBY's"!





With this plan in mind, David waits patiently for his friend to show up in 1917 and meet Jamie (as we see in the movie). But on the day George arrives, he finds both Jamie and his father waiting for him!

David tells George the strange story about how he knew that George would stop 1917, based on what George related to his friends at dinner in 1900.





This new timeline would drastically alter what George would choose to do next, because David Filby could warn George about the nuclear devastation which will later occur — an event which Jamie probably will not survive.







So,, there you have it, folks! I submit that The Time Machine does include a temporal paradox caused by story elements which change the existing time line.

Gentleman . . . I rest my case.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)