Discuss Time After Time
Discuss → TV Shows → Time After Time → General
Enjoyed first two Episodes, but one Niggle
posted by warrior-poetSTAFFMOD on March 6, 2017 at 12:24 PM
When they leave the past the machine disappears, meaning the machine itself is travelling through time. So why do they appear in the machine it's in future version sitting in the museum? What happened to the past version of the machine? Either the machine itself is travelling through time, or it sends/receives its occupants between two points in time. It can't be both. If the machine itself is moving through time (which is what I'm sure was the intention, and hearkens back to the original movie) there should be two iterations of it, the past version that moved into the future in his basement, and the future version in the museum.
Or does it work to combine both concepts? Maybe we could say that the machine will only go to a time where it still exists in a functioning manner, meaning it cannot go into the past to a time prior to it being first activated, and cannot go into the future further than when it still exists and is functional, and that it only disappears from the original time it was first used (reappearing if it goes back to that exact same original time), always ending up wherever it geographically exists in another time, but that doesn't seem to be how things are set up, and doesn't fit established H.G. Well's time machine mythology.
Perhaps more info will clear it up as episodes progress, but right now there appears to be an inconsistency with how the machine itself functions. Other than that, however, I quite enjoyed the show, bringing back memories of the old '79 version with McDowell and Steenburgen and Warner.
Reply by Momsacorn
on March 6, 2017 at 6:39 PM
I don't think they ever really explained in the 1979 version why the machine appeared in SF, CA, half a world away from its original location. Sure, it moves "through time," but why a location change (unless over the century the earth shifted somehow and the physical "space" from 1893 morphed into that of 1979).
Reply by warrior-poet
on March 6, 2017 at 7:08 PM
You're right, I'm sure they're just going off what the movie presented (which was pretty much nothing scientifically if I recall, although I'd have to watch it again to be sure) since the point of it was to put H.G. Wells and The Ripper into a modern context, but it still bugs me (even if I can come up with my own explanation I'm satisfied, but right now what's presented in the show conflicts with a good explanation).
The Earth spins in space, rotates around the Sun and moves through space with the rest of the solar system at 20 kilometers per second. The machine must accommodate those changes if it's able to control a geographical destination, or even stay in the same location relative to Earth during transports. If it used an algorithm that fixated on the Earth itself as a reference, this can be explained (using sci-fi mumbo jumbo).
The problem is with the consistency of the machine's behavior. It either moves through time and space (i.e. spacetime) itself, or it doesn't. But in the show it disappeared from the past and merged with it's future self in 2017. If the show doesn't attempt to explain this I'm willing to concoct my own theory, but I think we'll need to see more of what it does exactly during transports in future episodes.
I just have a bad feeling a good explanation won't be possible. We shall see. Despite that technical detail, though, so far I'm enjoying it story-wise.