The Corridors of Time
- Publication: TV Sci-Fi Monthly
- Date: no. 7 (July 1976)
- Author:
- Page: 13
- Language: English
The next time you are waiting for a bus take a long hard look at the man standing next to to you in the queue. It is just possible that this tall inconspicuous looking gentleman with a briefcase is a Time Traveller. Outwardly he will look no different to you or I and he will certainly not respond to the name Doctor Who. For in the 81 years that have elapsed since H.C. Wells wrote the Time Machine, there has developed on Earth an ever growing band of men who can claim to have travelled in Time.
However, unlike Doctor Who, these Time Travellers have only moved forward in Time, and their progress is measured in minutes and seconds rather than in the thousand year jumps of the good Doctor. Before you call the police to arrest this lonely looking man standing next to you, 1 had better tell you that he is no alien, but a man who was once an astronaut, or a pilot of a high speed plane.
In 1971 it was shown conclusively that by moving through Space fast enough, one can move through Time as well. But only forward. The experiment which demonstrated this was conducted by two American physicists who made two journeys around the world in jet aircraft. On board were four atomic clocks, instruments so accurate that they can measure time in hundreds of billionths of seconds. On both flights, one eastward and the other westward, the airborne clocks were checked against a master atomic clock in Washington. Comparison of the clocks after the flights showed that the men had aged a fraction of a second more slowly than if they stayed at home.
One of the implications of this astounding discovery which was predicted by Einstein's Specialy Theory of Relativity, is that the planetary explorers of the future in fast moving spacecraft will age much more slowly than Earthbound humans. A man who spends forty years away from Earth travelling at very high speeds will return home to find all his friends and family dead, in their place will he their descendants who will probably never even have heard of him. He will be a man from the past and unlike Doctor Who would be totally incapable of understanding the new society he finds himself in.
The possibilities of Time Travel have intrigued Sci-Fi writers for many years. The best example of a successful Time Traveller rests on the shoulders of Doctor Who. His time machine is the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) and it was built by the Time Lords, a race of super-intelligent beings with a highly advanced technology. In the history of the Time Lords only two of these machines have ever been stolen, one was taken by Doctor Who and the other by the Master. Both of these men are Time Lords. Apart from its ability to fly backward and forward in Time, the TARDIS has a number of other unusual capabilities. According to the Doctor it is 'dimensionally transcendental' which means it's far bigger on the inside than it appears to be from the outside. The second peculiar characteristic of the TARDIS which has never been operative for Doctor Who, is its ability to change shape and colour. It was when it was in for repairs for this particular defect that the Doctor stole it, unfortunately there was also a fault in the guidance systems which means that he is incapable of directing the Time Machine where and when he wants.
Time Travel has also turned up in the STAR TREK series on television. In the episode entitled ASSIGNMENT: EARTII, Captain Kirk and the Enterprise return to the year of 1969. In this programme Kirk is especially aware of the danger of time travel: the danger that the tiniest of false moves could change the future and in the process wipe out Kirk, the Enterprise -and even the Federation itself. If Kirk were to accidentally shoot the President of America, a President that had died a normal death in Kirk's history books, then history would be changed to such an extent that in all probability Kirk would never have even been born. In the instant of shooting, Kirk, the Federation and billions of people would cease to exist.
The voyagers of SPACE 1999 have also had their share of problems with the passage of Time. In one episode they encountered a Black Hole (see issue 4 TV Sci Fi Monthly) and as they fell into the centre of the phenomenon Time froze. All clocks stopped, heart beats ceased and lungs remained inactive. How long they remained in this state before coming out the other side is al meaningless question. It may have been seconds or eons, but for Koenig and his colleagues there was no way of determining the length of Time spent in Zero Time.
There is another aspect to Time Travel which we've all no doubt witnessed during the Apollo Moon Missions. In any conversation between an astronaut on the Moon and Mission Control Houston, there is always a slight time delay in the reply arriving back at Control from the Moon. This is due to the fixed speed of light and radio waves and the fact that it takes time to bridge the gap between the Moon and Earth and vice versa. Although the time delay is only a matter of seconds between the Earth and Moon it is far greater when we consider transmitting messages to the stars.
Light travels at 186 thousand miles per second and in one year it will travel 6 billion miles (1 use the English billion, which is a million million). If we were to transmit a message to the Pleides galactic cluster in the constellation of Taurus it would take 410 years for it to reach them. If they were to reply with a message also travelling at the speed of light, it would take another 410 years before we received the reply. A conversation on this basis would be extremely boring and lengthy and if they receive the message 410 years after we've sent it they are effectively receiving a message out of our past. Currently we know of no way of sending them a message which will be modern and up-to-date when they receive it. There is also the possibility that this massive galactic cluster in Taurus ceased to exist 200 years ago, but we will not know about it for another 210 years. If it ever happens it will be a very topical subject for the BBC's Late News.
The possibility of Time Travel exists for all of us, for if we can fly at high speed in a jet plane or if we become astronauts, then we can all move forward at least a few seconds in Time. Unfortunately the only value of this small saving is to enable us to wait just a little more patiently at the bus stop. waiting for the bus that's always late.
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- APA 6th ed.: (no. 7 (July 1976)). The Corridors of Time. TV Sci-Fi Monthly p. 13.
- MLA 7th ed.: "The Corridors of Time." TV Sci-Fi Monthly [add city] no. 7 (July 1976), 13. Print.
- Chicago 15th ed.: "The Corridors of Time." TV Sci-Fi Monthly, edition, sec., no. 7 (July 1976)
- Turabian: "The Corridors of Time." TV Sci-Fi Monthly, no. 7 (July 1976), section, 13 edition.
- Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=The Corridors of Time | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/The_Corridors_of_Time | work=TV Sci-Fi Monthly | pages=13 | date=no. 7 (July 1976) | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=19 May 2024 }}</ref>
- Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=The Corridors of Time | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/The_Corridors_of_Time | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=19 May 2024}}</ref>
