Tuesday 1 December 2015

Time Traveling Companions

Poul Anderson, "Flight to Forever" IN Anderson, Past Times (New York, 1984), pp. 207-288.

HG Wells' Time Traveler travels alone on a one-man vehicle, almost like a bicycle.

The Time Patrol has timecycles for one or more than one and also larger time shuttles.

The Doctor, with his TARDIS larger inside than out, has had innumerable implausible "companions." (At last one has died. That is going to happen if untrained and unprepared personnel are continually taken into danger.)

In Poul Anderson's The Dancer From Atlantis, a malfunctioning temporal vehicle collects unwilling passengers en route.

In "Flight to Forever," Martin Saunders' time projector is almost the opposite of the TARDIS. Most of its thirty feet of length house the dimensional projector and battery banks. Two men squeeze into the small forward cabin. Saunders embarks with Sam Hull, later travels with Belgotai of Syrtis and ends his journey alone. Like the Doctor, he changes his companion, although not as often. So what becomes of Hull and Belgotai? Time will tell but probably not tonight.

No comments: