H. G. Wells Would Have Approved

Today (December 8) is Pretend to be a Time Traveller Day.  (I like my travellers with two L's, which is the British spelling.)  H. G. Wells would have approved, I'm sure, of pretending to travel through time.  After all, he wrote a novel about the subject.

The Time Machine (1895) remains a vivid dystopian novel about the dangers of over-reliance on technologies, as well as social and economic segregation (prominent in 19th century England, although the story is set in the distant future).  The book was intended as social and political commentary--Wells was a progressive activist in his day and wrote fanciful tales analyzing contemporary social attitudes and economic injustices--but today it is considered classic science fiction.

Naturally, we have a book trailer that tells you all about the novel.

MPL Book Trailer #18

The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells

MEG-A-RAE, one of my Library's video blogs (vlogs), has a half-hour episode devoted to all things Doctor Who.  If you're unfamiliar with this long-running British television series, there's a wiki for that, and Wikipedia has a decent entry for the show.  The original Doctor Who began in 1963 on BBC (ending its original run in 1989), and after a failed attempt to revive the franchise in the U.S. (in 1996, by Steven Spielberg), the series returned (by way of BBC America) in 2005.

Okay, let's clear the air about the title character's name.  He is The Doctor.  Doctor Who is the TV series title--it's intended as a question, as in the following dialogue exchange (paraphrasing from a couple of different episodes with the fifth Doctor, played by Peter Davison):

Actor 1 (say, the Brigadier, played by Nicholas Courtney):  "I'm expecting the Doctor to arrive at any minute."

Actor 2:  (his subordinate officer):  "Doctor who?"

Actor 1 (Brigadier):  "Well, uh, I don't actually know his name.  Curious, that.  But I've seen him regenerate twice."

The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey.  He travels through space-time in his TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimension in Space).  That opens up a lot of plot scenarios, providing billions of years as a universal playground.

In 2013 the TV show turns 50 years old.  Better order the cake and candles now.

Oh, I forgot about the MEG-A-RAE Doctor Who episode.  Here it is.  Remember, it's a half-hour long.  That's a television program all in itself!

I could go on ad nauseum about time travel television shows and movies such as:

• Irwin Allen's The Time Tunnel (1966-1967), which was a marketed-to-preteens science fiction TV variation of You Are There (1953-1957), a documentary-style history series on TV and radio (1947-1950).
• All of the Back to the Future movies.
• Quantum Leap (1989-1993, TV series).
• So many more that I don't have time or space to talk about them.  Fortunately, somebody else has.

Pretending to be a time traveller is fun.  Dress up in costume.  Act peculiar.  Eat strange foods.  Leave bizarre money (from other planets?) as tips in restaurants.  I saw the fifth Doctor do that in one episode.

For Moi, It's Time For a Nap, Definitely,

Cauli Le Chat

MPL Roving Reporter

Time Travel News Beat

P.S.  One of my favorite lines from Doctor Who came from the episode "The Three Doctors" (December 1972-January 1973), in which Sergeant Benton sees the inside of the TARDIS for the first time.  (The outside looks like a British police call box, but the inside is--well--more spacious.)  The third Doctor, played by Jon Pertwee, delivered the zinger.