Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Time Travel is a Sorry Excuse for Quality Storytelling

I've come to the conclusion that 95% of time travel stories are a weak excuse for quality storytelling.

It seems like a good idea in theory. It allows you to introduce fun, alternate versions of the characters we all know & love. It allows you to introduce horrible environments that do not exist in the present. It allows you to reanalyze time periods that we've come to mythologize. It allows you to discuss the moral implications of mucking up the past & altering ones own present.

Why do I think time travel stories are a weak excuse for storytelling?

Its an investment issue.

When some friggin' science fiction franchise produces some villain who travels back to my character(s)'s own past & then SUCCEEDS in altering his future, its not respecting what's come before it. It makes changing the present to easy & is without consequences. If no character that "I" know, not even one, aren't going to remember the effected changes, then what's the point of telling the story in the first place?

Take Marvel Comics for example. I know you guys made a big push to get Peter Parker back to his single guy worry roots but you couldn't have thought of a better storyline than having Pete's 25-year marriage to Mary Jane Watson evaporated by a snap of the fingers? You mean to tell me you guys have never heard of, y'know, a thing called a divorce? You could've done that & have her move to Hollywood (she is an actress after-all) & then have Pete lives the single life you guys want him to. By magically erasing his marriage, you also changed Pete's bombshell of a coming out party that occurred in "Civil War" (probably your best company wide storyline in years). Whoops, sorry audience, that didn't happen either.

Or take the most recent Star Trek movie. You have a villain from Picard & Janeway's time period traveling back in time, creating havoc in Kirk & Spock's Academy days (a period of like 150-175 years in the past). Nevermind that you glossed over why he's ticked off. Nevermind that his reasons don't make sense, even to him. If they don't make sense to the character himself, why in the hell would they make any sense to the audience?

I know franchise reboots & origin stories are the rage right now but give me a friggin' break. Its one thing for some James Bond villain threatening to blow up the world, its another for him to actually do it. By telling that particular story w/o even a hint of a reset or a way to make things right. If things are not going to be fixed, why tell the story to begin w/?

There's no "Amok Time", no awesome deliciously suave evilness that is Khan, no cat & mouse hunt that is the "Balance of Terror", no "Menagerie" or "the Cage", no Borg, the entire Next Generation, DS9, & Voyager series are all shot (they all had prominent Vulcan & Romulan deeply woven into the fabric of their mythos). You get the idea.

The sad thing is is that they could have used the EXACT same plotline (pissed off villain traveling back to his enemy's past), placed it in Picard & Janeway's time period, introduce us to a familiar yet new crew (its not like it conflicts w/ any Star Trek projects going on right now because there are none), & it would have been perfectly acceptable. Hell, you could have kept Old Spock in the mix to draw roots from the Original Series. Instead we get the abortion that is the Star Trek "Reboot". Don't get me wrong, it had its moments like the different takes on old motifs: being chased by weird creatures, retarded yet fun fight scenes, new takes on old sound effects, the really nice nod to retro set designs but updating them for a unique look. *sigh*

I hope JJ Abrams someday gets stabbed by a liquid metal Terminator. Thank you for wasting like a 20-year emotional investment.

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In other news...
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This here is a shot of Shylah & Brad.

This shot came off more like an engagement picture than I ever intended but it still works. I particularly like how their hands are positioned because A. its all their doing & B. whenever I try to place the hands, I completely screw it up. They were both a fun bunch to work w/.

Photobucket

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