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Time travel is a plot device which has become a recognized staple of science fiction and fantasy. It involves sending people and/or objects from one time to another. No analog of time travel has ever been known to exist in documented reality.

Time travel in "The Barbecue, the Movie, & Other Unfortunately Not So Relevant Material"[]

Sometime between the 500th and 600th centuries, time travel permission was rationed out to certain individuals for a variety of reasons. For example, graduate student Lasoporp Rof was permitted to travel to 13th-century Mongolia to interview Genghis Khan. However, he mistakenly landed in 1980s Los Angeles in the office of a different Genghis Kahn.

Time travel in Broadway Revival[]

The key to time travel was discovered in the mid-21st century. It was limited to only traveling back in time; going forward was still impossible in 2079. Time travel was controlled by a multinational organization, dubbed the Rippers (a nod to Rip van Winkle), which kept all but the basics of the process a secret.[1]

One of the loudest opponents of time travel was the government of the People's Republic of China. Indeed, the Chinese government worked very hard to keep even the concept of time travel out of popular culture. However, there was little doubt that the Chinese government had built its own time machine separate from the international body.[2]

During the course of their travels, the Rippers learned that changes in the past did not rewrite the present. Instead, changes created parallel timelines, dubbed Splinterverses. The first Spinterverse was formed in Germany in September 1524. The second was formed in England in 1796. These were both accidents, and were first formed/detected by the Rippers in 2074. The third, a world where Franz Ferdinand was not assassinated, was deliberately created with the financial backing of France.[3]

David Greenbaum created a fourth Splinterverse when he traveled back to 1934 in to try to prevent the premature deaths of several key figures of Broadway theatre.[4] He was largely successful, and the main timeline began to obtain the projects that were unique to that Splinterverse. In response, in 2089, the German government created a Splinterverse where Wolfgang Mozart didn't die at age 35. The entertainment world began proposing Splinterverses centered on a number of artists throughout history who died prematurely.[5]

Time travel in "The Catcher in the Rhine"[]

Regin Fafnirsbruder discovered the magic of time travel, and used it to transport a young 20th-century man, whose name sounded like Hagen Kriemheld, to ancient Isenstein. Regin's plan was to drive the young man like a wedge between Brunhild and Siegfried, but this did not work out.

Time travel in "Character"[]

Fictional character Steve, who knew he was a fictional character, was initially irritated that his author decided to use Steve in a time travel story, as he was of the opinion that there was nothing new to add to the "drop-someone-into-the-past" genre. However, after he spent the story in medieval Japan inside the body of the legendary Benkei, Steve appreciated the journey.[6]

Time travel in Crosstime Traffic[]

Although Galbraith and Hester invented travel between alternate present days in the mid 21st century, travel back and forth in time remained eternally elusive from science.

Time travel in "Death in Vesunna"[]

The Time Patrol was the official arbiter of time travel, but outlaw commerce also existed.

Mark Alvarez and Lou Muller traveled back in time from 2059 to 147 in the Roman Empire, evading the Patrol. Intending only to purchase lost works of literature, they wound up murdering a local, and were captured by period law enforcement.

Time travel in The Guns of the South[]

Time travel was possible by 2014 in the original timeline whence the "Rivington Men" of "America Will Break" (a group of Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging members) originated. The machine had a limitation in that it could send people and things exactly 150 years back and forward in time. In 2014 they stole a machine and imported men and materiels to 1864 to alter the course of the American Civil War.

The Rivington Men succeeded in creating a Confederate victory in the "Second American Revolution". However, they were unable to maintain their hold on the government in the post war years and rebelled. In the government's hunting down of the terrorists, all of the AWB men were killed or captured, and their time machine was destroyed in the battle.

Time travel in "Hatching Season"[]

Time travel was commonly used to study animals of the Mesozoic Era.

Time travel in "Hindsight"[]

Michelle Gordian traveled from 1988 to 1949 to save America from its dark history in the intervening decades of the original timeline. By 1953, she had popularized several true stories of her world's 1960s and '70s in the form of pulp fiction, but history as a whole had not yet shown any appreciable signs of change.

Time travel in Household Gods[]

In 1999, obscure Roman deities Liber and Libera were more than happy to grant Nicole Gunther's wish that she could live in the days whence they came, instead of modern Los Angeles. The two gods, taking the wish for a real prayer, obliged by sending Gunther to ancient Carnuntum, and placing her consciousness into the body of a local woman in the year 170.

After a year and a half of living in the 2nd century, Gunther begged the two gods to return her to the 20th century. Though puzzled, as they regarded Roman times as much the better period of the two, the good-natured gods again granted her wish.

Time travel in Justin Kloster Stories[]

Justin Kloster invented time travel in 2018 based on the theory of superstrings.

Time travel in "Lure"[]

Time travel made the San Diego Cenozoic Zoo possible.

Time travel in "A Massachusetts Yankee in King Arthur's Court"[]

In 1963, disgusted with the idea that the Kennedy Administration had taken the nickname "Camelot", a young British druid named Duncan Morris cast a spell that sent Kennedy back in time to the original Camelot. Kennedy had an erotic misadventure in the past with Guinevere, wife of the absent King Arthur. Guinevere and Kennedy blackmailed Merlin the magician into sending Kennedy back to his own time, and he returned to the exact instant he had left.

Time travel in "Under Coogan's Bluff"[]

After time travel was invented in the 21st century, it became a fad for modern baseball teams to go back into the past to play against historic legends. An example was the game where the Los Angeles Angels from 2040 faced off against the New York Giants on their home turf in 1905.[7]

Time travel in "We Haven't Got There Yet"[]

An unknown force sent a troupe of actors performing on London's stages from 2066 to 1606.

References[]

  1. Broadway Revival, pg. 6, loc. 54, ebook.
  2. Ibid.
  3. Ibid. pg. 76, loc. 1084.
  4. Ibid.
  5. Ibid., pg. 456, loc. 6638.
  6. Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March/April 2021
  7. https://sabr.org/journal/article/under-coogans-bluff/
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