Gary Varner
How To Write a Time Travel Story That Keeps Making Sense, Part 1
Here in Part 5, I offer an approach that allows for time travel without obvious giant plot holes
Time Travel in Science Fiction: Now For Some Examples That Work…
Here in Part 4, we look at how to make time travel work as either soft or hard magic
Time Travel: The Threat of Escalation in the Terminator Series
Part 3: The Terminator series writers never new whether there would be a sequel, and that had implications for how they plotted time travel
Time Travel: How and Why the Terminator Series Worked—Then Didn’t
Part 2: Time travel works well enough as a soft magic system but time-travel stories run into problems when it is treated as a hard magic system
The Pluses and the Perils of Time Travel in Science Fiction
Time travel can be treated as a form or hard or soft “magic” but it is important not to confuse the two
Time Machine 2002: When the Good Guy Somehow Becomes the Bad Guy
In this final part of my six-part review, I look at a basic problem: The movie is pretentious without ultimately having anything to say
Time Machine (2002): When the Bad Guy is Nicer Than the Good Guy…
In Part 5 of my extended review, we get an answer to the story question: Can the traveler save Emma?
Review: Time Machine 2002 — Hold On Again. That Snarky AI Returns
In Part 4 of my review, we look at plot devices and holes. How DID that AI survive the destruction of New York?
Time Machine (2002) — A Gordian Knot of Freshman Philosophy
In Part 3 of my extended review, I look at the film’s effort to tease apart the philosophy of fighting vs, accepting one’s fate
Review: Time Machine 2002 — Hold On. Someone’s Destroyed the Moon
Part 2: The Eloi we meet in this film are radically different from H.G. Wells’s Eloi and that of the 1960 film version
Review: Time Machine 2002 – Wells’ Tale Gets an Unneeded Makeover
Part 1: This doesn’t seem like the same story as H.G. Wells’s 19th-century tale! But there's still a time machine, Eloi and Morlocks here, so let’s look at it anyway
Time Machine (1960) Back to the Past, and Then Fast Forward Again
In Part 4, we look at why the movie was, in many ways, better than the book
The Time Machine (1960): The History of the Eloi and the Morlocks
In Part 3 of my four-part review, we look at the difference the Cold War made to how the Eloi and the Morlocks are portrayed
The Time Machine (1960): The Evolution of the Future
Part 2: The movie portrays the Eloi — future humans — much differently from the film, probably because the script writers had different aims from those of H. G. Wells
The Time Machine (1960): Two Meetings and One Big Flashback
In Part 1 of my four-part review of this time travel classic, I look at the 19th century novel that started the genre and the movie that followedOver the last several months, I’ve talked about time travel. Originally, I’d planned to discuss the trope in more detail — when and how to use it, when and how not to use it, and whether it was better to rely on fate as a stabilizing force in the narrative. Or is it better to play around with various paradoxes? But then I realized that no in-depth discussion about the trope would be complete without reviewing the novel and subsequent movie that started it all. The Time Machine (1895) by H.G. Wells (1866–1946) can only be described as the most notable work on time travel. In fact, Wells is often thought of as the man who invented science fiction itself. Read More ›
Sound of Thunder: The Writers Are Committed to Their Story
In this final part of my review, I look at the way the writers did not flinch from the hard choices that their premise requires, which is a virtue
Sound of Thunder: How To Fix a Mess When Everyone Forgot About It
In Part 6 of my continuing review of the 2005 sci-fi classic, we look at efforts to go back in time and fix the disastrous timewave problem
Sound of Thunder: Can Chance and the Butterfly Effect Coexist?
In Part 5 of my review of the sci-fi classic, I look at whether the effect could really upend evolution, however evolution is understood