When Wells goes to the pawn shop to get money for his jewelry, the clerk tells Wells, his check will be ready in a week. Wells response, "I don't have a week!"
Dude what do you mean you don't have a week??!!....You have a flippin' time machine.
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Maybe given that time travel was so new, he simply wasnt thinking in those terms.
shareAlso, he could have used his time machine to go back an hour and stop the Ripper from using the machine in the first place.
if he went back in time to an hour ago to stop the ripper the ripper might kill him or he may create a paradox, going back in time to stop the ripper from taking the machine would mean he wouldn't have a reason to use the machine in the first place. also in the future it would create a paradox if he tried to stop the murders after they've happened, wouldn't that mean he would have no reason to go back in time, plus he would interfere with what he did in the past, also he would be in two places at the same time, seems to be me a fixed timeline so changing it is impossible
"sir, sir, i gotta check and see if you've soiled yourself" Peter Griffin - Family Guy
There was the 60s The Time Tunnel series where our heroes keep going back in time but I can't remember why other than as part of an experiment (as observers with this new technology?)? They couldn't get too involved with events of course naturally because that would screw up history etc. I recall they ended up on the Titanic (that seems to happen a lot in these scenarios! in one episode and the drama was to not affect the outcome- that of course is the built-in drama of the entire time travel concept in stories.
The control of time is potentially the most valuable treasure that man will ever find.
Wells didn't have control of the machine anyway at the time did he? The Ripper had the key dude. So H.G.W. was always one step behind and time was a factor for him.
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Yeah I guess that's true but I think at the time he said that to the pawn shop guy he meant he didn't have much time in the conventional sense- real time was what he was forced to deal with then in stopping the Ripper. Isn't that true?
shareThe Ripper never had the key. If that were true, Wells wouldn't been able to follow him.
shareJeez I need to watch the dang film again before commenting further - but I thought when the two of them were in the Ripper's hotel room (filmed at the Hyatt Regency on the Embarcadero in S.F.) the Ripper got or had the key and they were tussling over it. Anyway I could have sworn at some point in the story the Ripper got hold of the key....
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The one that bugged me even more is later in the movie, when Wells says that they're too late to stop the first three murders. Come on, they just travelled back in time to try and stop the fourth and fifth murders, how could it not have occurred to them to travel a little further back in time so as to stop the first three.
Overall, Herbert just doesn't seem to have grasped the implications of time travel at all in this movie. Maybe that does make sense for the time he came from, though. In the Time Machine novel, Wells' time traveller only uses the time machine to travel to a different period of time. It never seemed to occur to him to travel within a single period to try to alter specific events. The only other nineteenth century time travel story that I've read is Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court." In it too, time travel is used only to move the character from a familiar setting into a different setting, much like any conventional travel story. I'm guessing that the sort of time travel story where the implications of time travel itself drive the story is relatively recent. Are there any time travel buffs who would care to comment on the development of the genre?
Yeah the Twain and H.G. Wells stories predated more modern concepts of time/time travel thanks to Einstein etc.
There was the 60s The Time Tunnel series where our heroes keep going back in time but I can't remember why other than as part of an experiment (as observers with this new technology?)? They couldn't get too involved with events of course naturally because that would screw up history etc. I recall they ended up on the Titanic (that seems to happen a lot in these scenarios! in one episode and the drama was to not affect the outcome- that of course is the built-in drama of the entire time travel concept in stories.
I imagine Rod Serling had to have done something on the Twilight Zone, or maybe it was a The Outer Limits show involving time/ time travel. Matter of fact he did, there was an episode with Dana Andrews going back in time to the old west and maybe even the Titanic per usual using a machine he had built.
I have to admit that there are some time travel loose ends so to speak in Time After Time, but the H. G. Wells time travel inventor's late 19th Cent world still predates Einstein and the new ways of thinking about time. But man he's invented a working time machine in his shop which is sort of a new concept in itself so you'd think he'd have thought while building the thing of trying out some new ideas and taking some baby steps like traveling back or forward in time like 5 hours or a day first! Then do the 10,000 yr forward or backward leaps. (<: But of course in this movie his initial trial run is a last minute chase after Jack the Ripper so details are quickly put aside for awhile.
Star Trek (original) had a couple of classic episodes that dealt with time travel. In one, Dr McCoy steps through a time portal and his ensuing actions destroy the rest of the crews present. Kirk and Spock have to travel back to 1930s earth to correct the mistake and restore the fabric of time.
In another, a slingshot effect throws the Enterprise back to earth 1967 or so. They have to deal with the complications and get back to their present. In this story there's more of an underlying fear that if they remain stranded with the possibility of 400 crewman affecting the timeline, the future is definitely going to be screwed.
I think the writers did a good job in keeping Wells' concepts of time and space limited to what he would have known in 1890s England, as well as keeping him in character as a utopian. Also, you have to keep in mind that he just learned that his dear friend is actually The Ripper; his response is to "protect the innocent future" from this madman... thus setting the whole premise for the story, as John/Jack points out to him after watching 5 minutes of the evening news. Wells now has to deal with his shattered delusions about the future as well as how to apprehend (not kill) his former friend and return him to their present.
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Is that a rumor or did you just make that up? -Mom
When Wells discovers that Jack the Ripper has escaped in his machine, he runs about frantically making short preparations and hurries off to the rescue. Why? He could have taken a year (or more) to stock up on supplies, raise money, take boxing lessons, etc., etc. Then, he just goes forward 89 years instead of 90, right? And, if he's late and something bad happens, well, he will in course demonstrate that he can go forward just a few days, so why not go back and try again? And again.
Clearly, for an absorbing plot, some rules were needed.
Said rules should not be entirely random. Just a "fudge factor," a noble tradition. Maybe plus-or-minus 2-3 days is the best you can do. And, once there, you can't jockey back and forth a few hours or days.
And I don't mean we stop the story for a lecture: just have somebody ask "Why can't you ... ?", and get "Because, blah-blah ... oops, no time for more!" It would go by most viewers. Now, years later when we raise the question, thry could state that "If you listen carefully at about 33 minutes into the film, he clearly says that you *can't* ... "
Can't we have a speech, totally in character, wherein our man sighs and says "I can't expect someone who isn't a scientist to fully undersatnd this, but the time required for acceleration through time and for decereration thereafter simply *dwarfs* the actual travel time. And that's why the very recent past and the very near future simply cannot be targeted. But, I go on and on. We have much to do. What time is it?"