Now and Then We Time Travel: Visiting Pasts and Futures in Film and Television

by Fraser A. Sherman

Overview

More than 400 films and 150 television series have featured time travel--stories of rewriting history, lovers separated by centuries, journeys to the past or the (often dystopian) future. This book examines some of the roles time travel plays on screen in science fiction and fantasy.

Plot synopses and credits are listed for films and TV series from England, Canada, the UK and Japan, as well as for TV and films from elsewhere in the world. Tropes and plot elements are highlighted.

The author discusses philosophical questions about time travel, such as the logic of timelines, causality (what's to keep time-travelers from jumping back and correcting every mistake?) and morality (if you correct a mistake, are you still guilty of it?).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476626437
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	02/06/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	280
File size:	7 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

A former Florida reporter, Fraser A. Sherman has contributed articles to such publications as Newsweek, Boys Life and Movie Marketplace and is the author of four previous film books and more than two dozen published speculative-fiction short stories. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.
A former Florida reporter, Fraser A. Sherman has contributed articles to such publications as Newsweek, Boys Life and Movie Marketplace and is the author of four previous film books and more than two dozen published speculative-fiction short stories. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
One. A Century of Screen Connecticut Yankees
Two. Time of the Time Machine
Three. Enjoying the Exotic: Travel from the Present to Other Times
Four. Bouncing Around Time, Getting Lost and Doing the Time Warp
Five. Strange Visitors from Another World: Travel to the Present from Other Times
Six. Changing History: When Time Is Up for Grabs
Seven. Shaping the Future by Changing the Past That Is Our Present
Eight. If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Changing Personal History
Nine. Love in a Time of Time Travel
Ten. Time Cops: Policing the Time Stream (or) Putting Right What Once Went Wrong
Eleven. Déjà Vu All Over Again: Time Loop Films
Appendices
delete Appendix I: Film Credits
delete Appendix II: Television and ­Direct-to-Video Series Credits
delete Appendix III: Television Specials
delete Appendix IV: Films and Television Series with Minor Time Travel Elements
delete Appendix V: The Rest of the World
delete Appendix VI: Interesting Short Films
delete Appendix VII: Movies About Parallel Lives
delete Appendix VIII: Time Travel Porn Films
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Provides countless examples of films and series centered on time travel...excellent”—ARBA; “A very thorough annotated catalog of a wide range of stories of time travel told through moving images. Sherman has put in lots of hard work and produced a very useful reference that is fun to sample”—SFRA Review.

From the Publisher