Time travel enables revisiting the reader to view the past with a modern perspective. It enables going to the far future and witnessing events that transpire long after we and our society are gone. It enables interacting with famous people who are dead. It enables changing a major decision and witnessing how this would have affected us or our society. It enables creating complex, intricate stories, where past and present interact in unpredictable ways: excellent setting for mystery stories.
I have always been (almost) obsessed in reading time travel novel and watching movies. In fact, I've read so many that at some point I realized there are many sub-genres to Time Travel, admittedly, a sub-genre of Science Fiction. Here I try to classify the sub-genres of Time Travel. Note that obviously, some stories could have more than one classification. I also tried to pick a movie example (since these are best known) when I could think of one.
Alternate Reality: or the 'What If?' scenario. In this category, it is examined how making a change to a point in time - at times a very minor change - can have wide repercussions that dramatically change the present. The point is, normally, to see how every decision, no matter how small, may matter.
Anthology: a collection of multiple short stories or 2-3 medium sized stories. Although this is not specific to time travel, I feel obligated to mention this since this is one of the classifications that can be used for time travel.
Effects of Time Travel Technologies on Society: in these novels and movies, time travel is not actually achieved. However, something related does happen: certain knowledge is being transferred from the past or the future to the present. This knowledge is so important, so radical, that it affects every person on the world - and changes society. For example: Knowing (Nicholas Cage's new movie).
Fantasy: there are numerous fantasy novels where time travel takes place (can't think of a movie though). Although in many ways this should not make a difference, my personal feeling is that it does. Since time travel (often) enables the reader to examine a future version of our world - or conversely - see the world as it used to be, I don't feel that using it in a fantasy setting has the same meaning. Consequently, I've given these novels their own classification.
Future Reality: in this type of novel, something happens to the protagonist - could be a time machine, moving close to the speed of light, or even being cryogenically frozen - to cause him to find himself in the future. In some novels, this process can occur multiple times, so the protagonist sees multiple futures, some very futuristic. Examples: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine.
Historical Characters: in this type of novels, the focus is on certain types of real historical characters that have existed at some point in time (and normally have been dead for a while). These historical characters are either transported to the present or the future, or simply put in contact with people from our present. The point of this sub-genre is to get (or more accurately, speculate) on what the perspective of these characters would be with regards certain issues. Example: (perhaps not the best one): Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Past and Future Time Travel: the focus of these novels is normally exploring a variety of different time periods: the past, the present, the future, the very far future, the unimaginably far future. Usually the point is the adventure, witnessing a crazy variety of societies and situations. If done well, this can be really good.
Past Time Travel: in this type of novel, a character is transported to the past, many times never returning to the future. Even though it may seem that the time travel aspect is unnecessary here, the point is to use the character's modern perspective to view the historical setting. In addition, this gives the author plenty of opportunities to create paradoxes, a plot device favored by many authors. Examples: Timeline, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the Time Tunnel.
Personal Alternate Reality: this type of novel uses the 'Alternate Reality' concept, however, it is applied only to a single - or a group - of people rather than the whole of society. In general the point here is to demonstrate how a single decision at a given point of time, could have changed a person's entire life. This is a very popular movie theme. Examples: Groundhog Day, Back to the Future.
Personal Time Travel: in this type of novel, a similar concept to 'Personal Alternate Reality' is applied: the protagonist often has some kind of ability to travel to his own future and past, at times he has the ability to actually make changes (and see how this would've affected his life), but other times he cannot make any changes and is simply doomed to relive certain events over and over. Movie example: The Butterfly Effect, Novel: The Time Traveler's Wife.
Plot Device: in these novels, time travel is an important aspect of the plot, though usually just a plot device - a way to get to the plot to a certain point. This category also includes novels which have some kind of temporal effect, not exactly time travel (i.e. the ability to freeze time).
I have always been (almost) obsessed in reading time travel novel and watching movies. In fact, I've read so many that at some point I realized there are many sub-genres to Time Travel, admittedly, a sub-genre of Science Fiction. Here I try to classify the sub-genres of Time Travel. Note that obviously, some stories could have more than one classification. I also tried to pick a movie example (since these are best known) when I could think of one.
Alternate Reality: or the 'What If?' scenario. In this category, it is examined how making a change to a point in time - at times a very minor change - can have wide repercussions that dramatically change the present. The point is, normally, to see how every decision, no matter how small, may matter.
Anthology: a collection of multiple short stories or 2-3 medium sized stories. Although this is not specific to time travel, I feel obligated to mention this since this is one of the classifications that can be used for time travel.
Effects of Time Travel Technologies on Society: in these novels and movies, time travel is not actually achieved. However, something related does happen: certain knowledge is being transferred from the past or the future to the present. This knowledge is so important, so radical, that it affects every person on the world - and changes society. For example: Knowing (Nicholas Cage's new movie).
Fantasy: there are numerous fantasy novels where time travel takes place (can't think of a movie though). Although in many ways this should not make a difference, my personal feeling is that it does. Since time travel (often) enables the reader to examine a future version of our world - or conversely - see the world as it used to be, I don't feel that using it in a fantasy setting has the same meaning. Consequently, I've given these novels their own classification.
Future Reality: in this type of novel, something happens to the protagonist - could be a time machine, moving close to the speed of light, or even being cryogenically frozen - to cause him to find himself in the future. In some novels, this process can occur multiple times, so the protagonist sees multiple futures, some very futuristic. Examples: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Planet of the Apes, The Time Machine.
Historical Characters: in this type of novels, the focus is on certain types of real historical characters that have existed at some point in time (and normally have been dead for a while). These historical characters are either transported to the present or the future, or simply put in contact with people from our present. The point of this sub-genre is to get (or more accurately, speculate) on what the perspective of these characters would be with regards certain issues. Example: (perhaps not the best one): Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.
Past and Future Time Travel: the focus of these novels is normally exploring a variety of different time periods: the past, the present, the future, the very far future, the unimaginably far future. Usually the point is the adventure, witnessing a crazy variety of societies and situations. If done well, this can be really good.
Past Time Travel: in this type of novel, a character is transported to the past, many times never returning to the future. Even though it may seem that the time travel aspect is unnecessary here, the point is to use the character's modern perspective to view the historical setting. In addition, this gives the author plenty of opportunities to create paradoxes, a plot device favored by many authors. Examples: Timeline, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, the Time Tunnel.
Personal Alternate Reality: this type of novel uses the 'Alternate Reality' concept, however, it is applied only to a single - or a group - of people rather than the whole of society. In general the point here is to demonstrate how a single decision at a given point of time, could have changed a person's entire life. This is a very popular movie theme. Examples: Groundhog Day, Back to the Future.
Personal Time Travel: in this type of novel, a similar concept to 'Personal Alternate Reality' is applied: the protagonist often has some kind of ability to travel to his own future and past, at times he has the ability to actually make changes (and see how this would've affected his life), but other times he cannot make any changes and is simply doomed to relive certain events over and over. Movie example: The Butterfly Effect, Novel: The Time Traveler's Wife.
Plot Device: in these novels, time travel is an important aspect of the plot, though usually just a plot device - a way to get to the plot to a certain point. This category also includes novels which have some kind of temporal effect, not exactly time travel (i.e. the ability to freeze time).
About the Author:
The concepts used in this article are a result of reading an enormous number of novels of time travel and viewing nearly every related movie. This enabled the author to create this sub-genre classification of the time travel genre. If you find this interesting, please visit our website, Ultimate Time Travel, which aims to review every novel, movie or TV show linked to time travel.
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