How To Craft A Time Travel Story
Key ingredients to spice up your brand
Hello friend,
How are you? I hope you’re doing well.
I don’t know about you, but I’ve always had a sweet spot for time travel stories.
Maybe it’s the element of escapism, the mystery of going back or forward in time, and of course the implications for the protagonists.
The first time travel story I was obsessed with growing up was by far The Time Tunnel TV series (1967-1968) broadcasted on ABC.
It’s an American classic created by Irwin Allen and the musical theme was done by the great John Williams who as you know is behind all the memorable soundtracks in all of Steven Spielberg’s blockbusters.
I am re-watching the series these days on Amazon Prime Video and it’s quite interesting to see from a decades distance the elaborate set they had built in the ‘60s based on their predictions of what future tech may look like.
Scenes, where a team member asks the computer - ChatGPT style - questions, appear quite often.
Although the output is always printed on paper, like a receipt :)
The story’s premise was simple.
Project Tic-Toc (sounds familiar?) represents a classified initiative by the U.S. government to construct a pioneering time machine, often referred to as "The Time Tunnel" due to its elliptical corridor-like shape.
This project is headquartered in an expansive underground facility in Arizona that spans 800 levels and has over 12,000 expert staff members.
The leadership of this endeavor consists of Dr. Douglas Phillips (played by Robert Colbert), and Dr. Anthony Newman (portrayed by James Darren) who enter the tunnel and run into adventures as they time-travel from one historical milestone event to another.
Looking back
These days, you don’t have to build a time machine, all you need is to search YouTube for AI-enhanced films (4k 60fps) from your favorite bygone era, and get yourself whisked to the time, location, and people.
Like this beautifully restored and colorized video featuring different neighborhoods in New York of the 1930s: look at the store signs, the people’s facial expressions, fashion, transportation, and architecture.
Regarding the latter, what I find interesting is that you can see in this video the familiar building types; prewar, loft, high rises, and townhouses that I bet still stand today.
It’s just that people have changed…
This reminds me of the book “Time and Again (1970)” by Jack Finney which takes place in the famed Dakota building in New York City.
The time travel logic is that if the apartment decor and outside Central Park view match a point in the past, you can trick the brain and go back in time.
How about traveling back to late 1890s Paris to get a feel of what it was like walking down the street, natural sounds, people watching, bewildered stares at the movie camera that was recently invented, and fashion styles?