January was Cryptozoology Month at Fandomania, and our parade of weird beasties concluded yesterday. You can still see all the featured articles from last month’s theme in our Cryptozoology section, but now it’s a new month and time for a new theme. Welcome to February, Fandomania’s Time Travel month!
All through this month you’ll see articles about time and traveling through it, in addition to the usual features, reviews, and coverage we provide. You can expect some new feature posts about some of your favorite time travel fiction, but we’ll also be discussing some of the theories, facts, and speculation about the notion of time travel. Every Fan Art Friday this month also will feature time travel in some way.
Time travel is a favorite plot device in science fiction and fantasy, but as with any fictional construct it does have some basis in reality. While we’re not quite ready to quantum leap around the decades Sam Beckett style, modern science makes time travel sound a lot more plausible than it ever has. In fact, relativity allows for the possibility of traveling into the future through the theory of time dilation. Travel into the past is unproven at best right now, but who knows what the future could hold? People who have traveled there and back, that’s who!
The idea of traveling into the past introduces all sorts of problems that don’t even have to do with getting back to the past, though. Paradoxes are inherent in that sort of thing, basically ruining most TV shows and movies about time travel if you think about them too much. Some of the more clever fiction uses the idea of branching timelines and multiple universes, though, potentially taking care of questions like, “What would happen if I killed my own grandfather before my dad was born?”
There are tons of intriguing angles to the ideas behind time travel, and its implications are vast and twisty. When it’s done the wrong way, time travel can obliterate all credibility in a story. When it’s handled properly, however, time travel can introduce fascinating possibilities and yield surprising and satisfying results.
So start up your DeLorean and prep your TARDIS for our journey through February as Time Travel Month begins!
