another time travel question

[JWB]

In addition to the other time travel thread I would like to ask for your help on one of my problems in my time travel script.

My protagonist doesn't have a time machine or any other device to travel back in time. Instead she has an accident and almost died. Since then she is able to experience short visits into the past, almost like flashbacks. The link what brings her to those specific happenings is her family roots. She can only see/visit the events that surrounded the "bad thing" that happened to her parents/grand parents and she is trying to change the past in order to save her folks.

Most movies I know have a time machine or something to do that. But I thought of it more like the Twilight Zone way where most things "just happen" without too much explanation. Do you think that the accident (the trigger) and the family connection (the link) is enough to explain WHY she can go back in time?

Thanks!

[amandag]

Re: another time travel question

I think so JWB, as long as there are 'rules' and/or consistencies.

Have you seen Somewhere in Time? No machine there, but simple pre-established rules. Awesome movie!

If it's a mystery of how they wound up in another time, the 'rules' should unfold old over time, bc it becomes part of the conflict.

Terminator just gave a quick explanation, b/c the travel itself wasn't so much the point of the story. The cause/effect was.

Anyhoo, I missed the other thread, so sorry for any repitition.

[Charli]

Re: another time travel question

A lot of people get into accidents and don't travel through time. You'll need
to explain how it's possible. Must be plausible.

Charli

[Deus Ex Machine]

Re: another time travel question

The problem with accidental time travel, IMHO, is that it usually means the protagonist is not in control of his fate and nothing he does will change if or when he travels through time because it's all out of his power to influence.

In some Twilight Zone episodes, like the one about the tank crew that fins themselves at Little Big Horn, the story isn't really about time travel as much as it is them dealing with the fact that they are back in time - there is not effort on their part to get home and the story never takes them back. In these kinds of stories, the time travel is one way - which is the one kind of time travel story where no explanation of how the time travel works is required because it will only be used to start the story not to finish it.

The best explanation of how a time machine works is in the Terminator: "How should I know, I didn't build the fvcking thing!"

[Pipe]

Re: another time travel question

Have you seen The Butterfly Effect? You should probably check it out.

[gregsonfilm]

Re: another time travel question

JWB, does your protag have the ability to control WHEN and WHERE her flashbacks occur? If so, then you shouldn't be concerned with the problem Deus describes. See Butterfly Effect and Somewhere in Time. The Mothman Prophecies also has a very unscientific time-traveling element. Oh yeah, The Jacket too.

A feature I wrote and later produced with a friend dealt with Time Travel. Since the story itself had very much to do with time travel, we devised a solution to avoid too much science-babble and pardox headaches. Our Protog used chemicals to alter the perception in his brain; to be able to tap into the Holographic Universe. The great thing with this is that the protag was only able to SEE (not actually visit and potentially alter) other times. No time machine - just some chemicals.

If you could have a character shoot off an explaination of how Brain Damage can alter one's perception of the universe, I think you can take your audience halfway there. If she is able to actually change things... well, that's the other half you've got to figure out

[ihavebiglips]

Re: another time travel question

Frequency used the Aurora Borealis as a phenomenon having a role in that weird pseudo-time travel. You could always try to use one of those good old fashioned freaky natural phenomenons... (Um, none come to mind right now... so I'll shut the **** up...)

[JWB]

Re: another time travel question

Thank you all very much for your feedback. Your thoughts were a big help. Especially the term "accidental time travel" by Deus kept me thinking because that was exactly what happened in my story. Now I know I just need to have a "reason" why my protagonist can go back in time to exactly "that" place, at "that" time in the past. She just can't pop up randomly in time and places whenever it is needed for the story.

Butterfly Effect had Ashton Kutcher's diary, Frequency the natural phenomen and the radio, The Jacket had the chamber in which Adrian Brody were locked up - and know I found something for my story as well which works great. It even added another twist to the story, too, which I haven't thought of before.

Thanks again!

[Deus Ex Machine]

Re: another time travel question

Good luck.

[cvolante]

Re: another time travel question

In the book, The Time Traveller's Wife, the guy had a problem like epilepsy. Whenever he was watching TV or got stressed he'd involuntary travel in time. He couldn't control it and he never knew how long he'd be gone. What would happen was he'd vanish completely, leaving only a pile of his clothes. Then he'd appear wherever or whenever without any clothes. It's a GREAT book. Very romantic but not in a chick-lit-crap kind of way. It was great. I'm really into time travel love stories and this was really grounded in reality and really complex in an ordinary, easy-to-understand way. Read it. Really really good. Best book I've read since Harry Potter. I think it may be better than Somewhere in Time as far as time travel love stories go.

[Stephen Wegmann]

Re: another time travel question

In the book, The Time Traveller's Wife, the guy had a problem like epilepsy. Whenever he was watching TV or got stressed he'd involuntary travel in time. He couldn't control it and he never knew how long he'd be gone. What would happen was he'd vanish completely, leaving only a pile of his clothes. Then he'd appear wherever or whenever without any clothes. It's a GREAT book. Very romantic but not in a chick-lit-crap kind of way. It was great. I'm really into time travel love stories and this was really grounded in reality and really complex in an ordinary, easy-to-understand way. Read it. Really really good. Best book I've read since Harry Potter. I think it may be better than Somewhere in Time as far as time travel love stories go.

I think I own this book but I can't find it. Damn. I feel like I've heard of it before.

[velysai]

Re: another time travel question

THE JACKET was a really good time travel movie, too.

[Stephen Wegmann]

Re: another time travel question

I forgot about the Jacket. That was a good idea.

I'm just looking for the movie where the guy eats the Pop Tart and goes back in time 5 minutes with every bite - only to find himself eating his hand. Yeah.