I am madly in love with time travel plots. It is a narrative which manages to frequently be riddled with plot holes, yet still manages to present itself as a work of unfathomable genius all at the same time.
Most time travel stories will contradict themselves on one point or another. The more you think about the logical sides of these tales, the more their flaws begin to boil your mind. These types of stories are often teeming with paradoxes; making the whole story entirely implausible. But then none of that really matters, because on the surface, an entire maze of a story can be unraveling itself in all kinds of weird and wonderful ways.
These types of nonsensical magic can be the perfect canvas to try out all kinds of bizarre and unique concepts.
The words above may sound as though I'm accusing time travel plots to be nothing more than superficial crap. That I'm claiming that such stories are the fables of sheer brainless idiocy; sugar coated in a quirky manner which is designed to fool its audience. However nothing could be further from the truth.
Take Doctor Who [the new] series six for example. The story arc for this series is based around an event that spans across countless time periods; filled with all sorts of different character's timeline's overlapping and running in the opposing directions of one another. In this arc, a mother is known to be younger than their daughter for a majority of their on-screen time; characters form core relationships despite them forever meeting in reverse orders; and narratives manage to flow from beginning to end whilst simultaneously jumping all over time and space.
This is a series of pure chaos and contradiction, yet the story starts to slide fittingly into place throughout its 13 episode run; making this one of the most engrossing science fiction thrillers of 21st century television. It is a story that has been built and executed meticulously. To construct such a structure as the one seen here requires a mind of rare brilliance and creativity.
It's a sort of like William Shakespeare on speed.
Labyrinth style epics such as this one are not the only kinds of time travel stories which exist out there, as there are also story structures which are known to tweak the rules of a preexisting universe; allowing a series or franchise to both evolve into something completely new whilst simultaneously acknowledging its own history.
A marvelous example of this is J.J. Abram's 2009 Star Trek reboot.
A reboot - in its traditional sense - is naturally carried out as a business maneuver in the film and television industry. If a franchise is beginning to run out of steam, then the studio with the rights to that said film/tv show will take that entire concept back to the drawing boards and start from scratch.
Most often, a new creative force will be employed to help reinvent and redesign the concept. It is in the interest of the studio to find new angles and styles to apply to this series in order to revive interest amongst the viewers of the earth's nations.
When I say start from scratch, I mean this in the most literal sense imaginable. Reason being because reboots more or less erase the entire existence of all previously established material; setting the story in a completely segregated reality all together.
Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, for example, is set in a completely different universe to Tim Burton's and Joel Schumacher's previous four Batman flicks. Everything about Nolan's reboot is 100% incompatible with the previous film series. The narrative, aesthetics, character development and gravitas function on an alternative plain to that of the gothically camp Burton/Schumacher portrayal.
Star Trek (2009), on the other hand, is set in the exact same universe as the original series (well, as close as a reboot can get to a previous universe at the very least). The only difference with the 2009 version is that the Trek universe timelines have been perverted by the film's villain - Nero.
The story in the 2009 version of Star Trek revolves around Nero - a member of the Romulan species - traveling back in time to enact revenge upon [the original] Spock. Spock, at some point after the events of the original TV/film lineup inadvertently destroyed Nero's home world. As of this, Nero decides to wipe out Spock's home world at an earlier point in Spock's personal time stream.
During Nero's mission of vengeance, he comes into contact with an earlier version of the enterprise that is then captained by George Kirk - father of James T. Kirk. Nero destroys this version of the enterprise and murders Kirk Sr. in the process; re-writing the time stream of Kirk Jr.
In essence, from 2009 onward, Star Trek takes place in a tangent universe. Instead of belonging to a reality that had no contact with the previous, it is simply a branched off timeline that runs loosely alongside the original.
Despite any flaws which habitually crop up in the 2009 feature, this is an excellent concept which can serve to help out both the fans of the new and old sagas.
Those who loved the original, yet loathed the reboot, can simply write of these new events as a potential-yet-nonexistent string of events. They can stick to the classic 'un-meddled' universe; identifying the 2009 version of events as a hypothetically aborted timeline which never was. To them, the reboot can exist in a dead universe, whilst the events of their beloved original can live on in their primary time frame.
For contemporary fans, on the other hand, Star Trek 2009 can allow a new generation to jump on board; learning to admire and understand the Star Trek legacy from an alternative (and potentially, dare I say it, up-to-date) perspective.
Finally, for the fans of both versions, each universe can happily co-exist alongside one another; both having had happened at one stage or another. These fans can watch both the classic and the new, viewing them as Star Trek stories of a primary and a secondary universe.
Say what you will about this film, but in my opinion, this is an incredible creative move which helps to semi-revolve the messy situation of punching that emergency reset button on a massively successful and iconic franchise.
This is another post I agree with entirely, and I have often admired the device of time travel and parallel universes used in the last Star Trek film to bring in an all new audience while satisfying die hard fans. It's a notion I'm jealous not to have conceived.
ReplyDeleteI'm calling it quits on this blog for the night, if I don't, I may be here until sunrise but your personal blog had me thinking you were an interesting person, this one just has me thinking you're awesome.