00:00I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
00:08The history of science fiction is the history of the imagination.
00:17I mean, wow!
00:19The true seed of any great science fiction story is the idea.
00:24What if? What if?
00:26This series explores the four corners of science fiction.
00:30The ultimate threat of alien invasion.
00:33They're coming to get us.
00:36Aliens should be mean. They should be out to kick our asses.
00:39Time travel. A world of infinite possibilities.
00:43Time travel is the coolest thing in the world. I wish it was real.
00:47The fantasy of it is eternally appealing, I think.
00:50Being able to go to other times is the most exciting form of escapism.
00:55Space exploration journeys into the unknown.
00:58What's out there? Cosmos and the mystery of space.
01:02Space, the final frontier.
01:04Other cultures, other places, other dimensions.
01:07And the mysteries of artificial life, where technology and humanity collide.
01:13It's as close as we get to touching immortality,
01:16and that can sort of be a scary thing as well as an exciting thing.
01:19Will technology be how we live forever, or will it destroy us?
01:23The spine-tingling, blood-chilling story that stuns your emotions.
01:27It's a lion!
01:32Our guides are the men and women who fell to Earth.
01:35The people who created the real history of science fiction.
01:46My God, it's full of stars.
01:51In the history of science fiction, there is no more intriguing idea,
01:55no bigger danger, no greater source of wonder than time travel.
02:01People love the idea of being able to go to the future.
02:04Or in the past, where would you go?
02:06You know, everybody, I think it's just a really deep kind of human thought.
02:14You know, what if, what if?
02:18It remains a remote scientific possibility.
02:22One that has inspired writers, filmmakers, and TV producers
02:25to imagine incredible time machines and intrepid time travellers.
02:34Our story begins in 1895, at the end of the Victorian era,
02:39when English novelist Herbert George Wells published a story
02:43that would become a landmark in science fiction,
02:46The Time Machine.
02:57The story of an inventor who builds a device
03:00that hurls him thousands of years into a future
03:02where humans have evolved into new species
03:05has been adapted for radio, TV, and film.
03:08But Wells originally wrote it to tap into the curiosity
03:11or the Victorian age.
03:14The Victorian age was an age of discovery,
03:17fascination with new species, new animal forms,
03:20new continents, new peoples.
03:22So if you can find new lands,
03:24why can't we find new vistas in time as well?
03:28And during the Victorian times,
03:30people were fascinated about the future.
03:32And here was a machine,
03:34a machine that could transport you
03:36into that future that you were fascinated with.
03:39I gave it the last tap, tried all the screws again,
03:42put one more drop of oil on the quartz rod
03:44and sat myself in the saddle.
03:47The laboratory got hazy and went dark.
03:49The night came like the turning out of a lamp.
03:52And in another moment came tomorrow.
03:59He was the first to popularize it,
04:02the first to make a glorious, great time machine-y thing.
04:08It's like this ultimate horsey, bicycle-y thing
04:10that you can climb on and around you.
04:15Time is flickering and the nights and the days
04:18are following each other in a faster and faster turn.
04:21And now the seasons are moving.
04:23H.G. Wells drew up the science fiction blueprint
04:26for time travel.
04:27An inventor, a machine,
04:29and a destination in time.
04:38All three were combined to comic effect in 1985
04:41in the most iconic time travel film of them all,
04:45Back to the Future.
04:55Devised by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis,
04:58the film follows the adventures
04:59of high school student Marty McFly
05:01and Doc Brown, an eccentric inventor
05:04who has built his own time machine.
05:08Original iteration of the time machine
05:09was a cross between a refrigerator and a telephone booth.
05:13And Bob Zemeckis said,
05:15you know, wouldn't it be better
05:16if the whole thing was just built into a car?
05:20Then it would be mobile.
05:22And the John DeLorean trial was recently in the news
05:26and he said, let's use a DeLorean.
05:28Are you telling me that you built a time machine?
05:32Out of a DeLorean?
05:33The way I see it,
05:34if you're gonna build a time machine into a car,
05:36why not do it with some style?
05:39When Marty is accidentally transported back to the 1950s,
05:42Doc Brown faces his biggest challenge yet.
05:47That kind of excitement,
05:49Doc Brown, that's what he's all about.
05:51I mean, he's constantly thinking of new things,
05:55trying out new stuff.
05:57He's relentless.
05:59There's never a moment when it's not in crisis mode.
06:03Every moment is a crisis.
06:05Marty, do this.
06:06Marty, why don't...
06:07You know,
06:08because at any moment,
06:10there's going to be a calamity.
06:12Next Saturday night,
06:13we're sending you back to the future.
06:16Back to the Future took H.G. Wells' blueprint
06:19and added an extra dimension
06:21by exploring the possible consequences of time travel.
06:25By setting foot in the past,
06:27Marty McFly threatens to upset the course of preordained events,
06:31a conundrum known as the Grandfather Paradox.
06:36The Grandfather Paradox is when you go backwards in time,
06:39meet your grandparents before you're born,
06:41and then you kill them.
06:42But if you just killed your grandparents before you're born,
06:45then how can you be born to go backwards in time
06:49to meet your grandparents before you're born?
06:51That's the paradox.
06:52You change the past
06:54so that the present becomes a logical impossibility.
06:58In Back to the Future,
07:00Marty's problems are amorous rather than murderous,
07:03when his mother falls in love with him instead of his father,
07:07threatening the very future of the McFly family.
07:10Just as I thought.
07:11This proves my theory.
07:12Look at your brother.
07:14His head's gone.
07:16It's like it's been erased.
07:18One of the devices that we use in Back to the Future
07:21is the disappearing photograph.
07:24And we came up with that because it was a great visual device
07:29for the audience to know that time was running out.
07:34Erase from existence.
07:39Narratively, it makes absolutely perfect sense.
07:42You get it. You see it and just...
07:44everything that would take, like, you know,
07:4720 minutes to sit there with a blackboard and explain in terms of time limbs,
07:50you instantly get,
07:51OK, he's mucking up his parents getting together,
07:53he's losing the future, it's disappearing.
07:56Logically, it makes no sense at all.
07:58Why would the Polaroid start vanishing piece by...
08:01Why would his arms start fading away?
08:03Why would he still have the Polaroid?
08:05But the narrative logic just completely steamrolls the draconian logic,
08:11and it completely works.
08:13The idea that a time traveler's actions in the past
08:16might have grave implications of the future
08:18has become a science fiction staple.
08:23But it was first explored by writer Ray Bradbury
08:26in a short story published in 1952,
08:29A Sound of Thunder.
08:31In it, big game hunters go back in time to track and kill dinosaurs.
08:37But it's the simple act of stepping on a butterfly
08:39that ends up changing the course of history.
08:43It fell to the floor, an exquisite thing,
08:46a small thing that could upset balances
08:49and knock down a line of small dominoes,
08:52and then big dominoes,
08:53and then gigantic dominoes,
08:55all down the years across time.
08:58Eccles' mind, world, couldn't change things.
09:02Killing one butterfly couldn't be that important.
09:06Could it?
09:07A Sound of Thunder is the idea that if we go back into the past,
09:11even the smallest alteration in the past
09:14might have vast ramifications when you come back to your own time.
09:18In other words, history has a sensitive dependence on initial conditions,
09:23which is a phrase out of chaos theory
09:25that was only introduced to the public, say, 40 years after Bradbury wrote his story.
09:31Bradbury's cautionary tale has become associated with the phrase
09:34The Butterfly Effect,
09:36where the beat of a butterfly's wings can cause a tornado.
09:40It's an idea taken to comic extremes in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,
09:45where the tiny event that might change the course of history
09:48is a simple homework assignment that two high school students have to complete.
10:03Greetings, my excellent friend.
10:07Do you know when the Mongols ruled China?
10:10Wow.
10:13Perhaps we could ask them.
10:16When we first conceived of Bill and Ted,
10:18it was Bill and Ted bombing around time in a van.
10:20And it was originally, even before it was called Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure,
10:23our rough draft was Bill and Ted's time van.
10:26Then, Back to the Future came out,
10:29and there was the DeLorean,
10:31so we had to change the car.
10:32So the director, Steve Herrick, said,
10:35what if we made it a phone booth?
10:36And we went, okay.
10:38From a production standpoint, it was a complete nightmare.
10:41I mean, you know, it's like,
10:43I mean, Reeves and I, I think we called it the death box,
10:45you know what I mean?
10:46Ah!
10:49This was not the height of sort of the CGI era,
10:52you know what I mean?
10:53So, like, this booth was upended,
10:56it was welded to a hydraulic,
10:57it was like something out of a KISS concert,
10:59you know, it was like a really bad 70s stage show,
11:02and then shot in front of a green screen,
11:03and honestly, half the time we thought we were going to die.
11:06You know, we would just be on this thing,
11:07and it'd be kind of like, you know,
11:08grinding away this way and that way,
11:10and we were like, dude, we're so dead.
11:13With the antics of people like Billy the Kid and Socrates
11:16landing everyone in jail,
11:18scriptwriters Ed Solomon and Chris Matheson
11:20were faced with a dilemma.
11:22We had no way to get the guys out of jail,
11:25so we're trying to come up with all sorts of ways
11:27to do it, and finally we just said,
11:29well, what if they time travel, but not in the scene?
11:33Ted, good thinking, dude.
11:35After the report will time travel back to two days ago,
11:38steal your dad's keys and leave them here.
11:40Where?
11:41I don't know.
11:42How about behind that sign?
11:44That way, when we get here now,
11:46they'll be waiting for us.
11:50See?
11:51Whoa, yeah!
11:52It was a time travel scene that had no time travel.
11:56It was just the conceptual, you know,
11:58the idea of time travel.
11:59Like, to me, that was the most fun, actually,
12:03coming up with those kinds of conundrums.
12:09Gentlemen,
12:12we're history.
12:16There are hapless and accidental time travelers
12:19in science fiction,
12:20and then there are the masters of time.
12:23They are known as time lords,
12:25and they count among their number
12:26one of British television's best-loved characters.
12:30Did you miss me?
12:33There are hapless and accidental time travelers
12:35in science fiction,
12:36and then there are the masters of time.
12:39They are known as time lords,
12:41and they count among their number
12:43one of British television's best-loved characters.
12:47Did you miss me?
12:51At the forefront of British science fiction
12:53for over 50 years,
12:54Doctor Who is the story
12:55of a maverick alien time traveler.
12:59I'm the Doctor.
13:01I'm a time lord.
13:03I'm from the planet Gallifrey,
13:04in the constellation of Kasturbaros.
13:06I'm 903 years old,
13:07and I'm the man who's gonna save your lives
13:09and all six billion people
13:10on the planet below.
13:16You got a problem with that?
13:17No.
13:19In that case,
13:20allons-y!
13:22The Doctor is fated
13:24to be an eternal time traveler
13:25as he hurtles across time and space
13:28in an unpredictable device
13:29called the TARDIS.
13:32What makes the Doctor unique
13:34as a time traveler
13:34is the only time traveler
13:35I can think of
13:35who lives in a time machine.
13:37Other time travelers
13:38might pop into one occasion
13:39or use one for a specific purpose.
13:40The Doctor actually lives in one.
13:43It's his home.
13:44So for him,
13:45all of time is happening at once.
13:47He isn't traveling
13:47from one time to another.
13:49He's aware that outside those doors,
13:50every moment in history
13:51is simultaneously available.
13:54Where are we?
13:55No, sorry.
13:56I've got to get used to this.
13:57A whole new language.
13:59When are we?
14:00Mind out.
14:00Oh, day, Lou!
14:02Which one where?
14:03Before they mentioned the toilet.
14:05Sorry about that.
14:09First appearing on British TV screens in 1963,
14:12Doctor Who was originally intended
14:13as a family-friendly sci-fi serial
14:16with an educational dash of science and history
14:20as the Doctor pitched up everywhere
14:21from the French Revolution
14:22to Dickensian London.
14:24Good day there, boy.
14:25What day is this?
14:26It was Eve, sir.
14:27What year?
14:28Year of our Lord, 1851, sir.
14:30Right.
14:31Yet the secret of its enduring appeal
14:33lies in the complex character of the Doctor
14:37as played by a host of actors.
14:41I think what reeled me in as a child
14:46was the idea of this hero
14:48who wasn't a superman.
14:51He wasn't a kind of jock.
14:53He wasn't the strongest man in the room.
14:55He was slightly anarchic.
14:58He was just cleverer than everyone else.
15:00And yet he wore that genius rather lightly
15:03and rather anarchically.
15:05And I think that's part of what makes him so appealing,
15:08that he's not an authority figure at all.
15:11And yet he has authority over everyone
15:12because of his intellect,
15:15because of his brilliance.
15:16You have no way of resisting!
15:19Well, you got me there.
15:21Although, there is always this.
15:24A sonic probe?
15:26That's screwdriver.
15:28It is harmless.
15:29Oh, yes.
15:31Harmless is just the word.
15:32That's why I like it.
15:33Doesn't kill, doesn't wound, doesn't mine.
15:35The Doctor is militantly unarmed
15:38and goes into danger without protection.
15:41And with the assumption that people will be nice to him,
15:43it generates so much more tension
15:45when you're with the Doctor,
15:46who's barmy and kind
15:48and undefended and unprotected.
15:51If you go into action with him,
15:53you are frightened
15:54because anything could happen to him.
16:00The Doctor's adventures invariably start with the appearance
16:03of one of the most endearing time machines in science fiction.
16:07The TARDIS.
16:09Here we are then.
16:10London!
16:11Earth!
16:11It's a brilliant invention
16:13because I think one of the things
16:15that makes Doctor Who kind of sing
16:17is the juxtaposition of the banal with the extraordinary.
16:21And for whatever reason,
16:24that original team decided
16:25that the TARDIS should be a police box,
16:27you know,
16:28because it was an easy prop
16:29to get in and out of small sets,
16:31because it was something that, you know,
16:32could be flat-packed,
16:33as it still is today.
16:34I think that sums Doctor Who up,
16:37you know,
16:37a small wooden box
16:38that opens up
16:39into extraordinary,
16:41magical,
16:43impossible places.
16:48The single most thrilling thing
16:49about the TARDIS
16:51are those wonderful words
16:52bigger on the inside.
16:53It's bigger on the inside
16:53than it is on the outside.
16:55I remember the first time
16:56I encountered that as a child.
16:57It was the most thrilling idea ever.
16:59And we've got used to it.
17:00We've got used to the idea
17:00that the TARDIS is bigger on the inside,
17:01but it is still
17:02the most wonderful,
17:04magical idea
17:05that inside this
17:07smallish, shabby blue box
17:09is this technological wonder,
17:12this eye-twisting splendor.
17:14That is one of the all-time
17:16magical ideas.
17:17It's all of Narmia
17:18in one box.
17:20Okay.
17:21Okay.
17:22Where are we?
17:24What is happening?
17:26We are leaving the universe!
17:27How could you leave the universe?
17:29With enormous difficulties...
17:30The set, it's amazing.
17:32It's like the home base
17:33of the whole TV show.
17:34It's kind of...
17:35Oh, it feels living
17:36and breathing in its own way.
17:38Whoa!
17:42And also,
17:42TARDIS acting is the best
17:44when you have to pretend
17:44that it's going through
17:45the time vortex
17:46and you throw yourself around.
17:48It's like,
17:48we would do that
17:49and I was like,
17:49I can't believe this is my job.
17:58I always think the TARDIS
17:59is the Doctor's greatest love.
18:01The bond between the Traveller
18:02and his machine
18:03is a powerful one
18:04and just like HG Wells' hero
18:06who chooses to carry on
18:08journeying through space and time,
18:10the Doctor is destined
18:11to go in search of new adventures.
18:15Look at you, Pear.
18:17It's always you and her,
18:18isn't it?
18:19Long after the rest of us
18:20have gone.
18:20A boy in his box
18:21off to see the universe.
18:23Well, you say that
18:24as if it's a bad thing.
18:25But honestly,
18:26it's the best thing there is.
18:28Such a beautiful line
18:29and it's just,
18:30it kind of sums up
18:31the whole relationship
18:31right there in one sentence.
18:40The Doctor might have his TARDIS
18:42but science fiction
18:43has often acted
18:44as a time machine itself,
18:46transporting all of us
18:47with its visions of the future.
18:51The world depicted in Blade Runner
18:53had its origins in the story
18:54Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
18:57by Philip K. Dick,
18:59a science fiction writer
19:00with a dark and disturbing
19:01vision of the future.
19:04From its earliest days,
19:06science fiction has wondered
19:07what the future might look like.
19:11The first feature-length
19:12science fiction film
19:13swept its audience
19:14into a startling future.
19:19Released in 1927,
19:21Metropolis depicted
19:22a city of tomorrow
19:23inspired by German director
19:24Fritz Lang's first glimpse
19:26of New York.
19:33The idea that we would one day
19:34build grand new worlds
19:36to live in
19:36would recur in films
19:37like THX 1138
19:39and Logan's Run.
19:43Now, Logan's Run
19:44was this clean,
19:46everything's white,
19:47you know,
19:48sort of a boring movie,
19:50sort of a boring movie,
19:52In Logan's Run,
19:53the future is still something
19:54that is clean and new.
19:56But for his 1982 film
19:58Blade Runner,
19:59director Ridley Scott
20:00wanted a much darker
20:01vision of the future
20:02and hired Sid Mead
20:04to provide it.
20:05Ridley said,
20:06this is not
20:07going to be Logan's Run.
20:10Ridley Scott pictured
20:11a detective
20:12hunting down rogue androids
20:13in a decaying,
20:15dilapidated,
20:15film noir world.
20:20Basically,
20:21the noir side
20:22of the sets,
20:23right,
20:24were,
20:24were,
20:25Ridley going,
20:28it looks too new.
20:30Can you do something to it?
20:32Take a sledgehammer to it.
20:37So,
20:38I read the script
20:39and got the definite idea
20:40that it was sort of
20:41a crappy world.
20:42So,
20:43I thought,
20:43well,
20:44I can do that,
20:45you know,
20:45I'm a designer,
20:46I can manufacture
20:48a dystopian world.
20:51It's a vision where
20:53not everything works
20:54very well,
20:55but we know that.
20:57That's why
20:58would the future
20:59be different
21:00from now?
21:01Half the things
21:02we make don't work
21:03or are nonsense.
21:05It's a mess,
21:06you know.
21:07Life's a mess.
21:09It wasn't
21:10a brand new idea.
21:12Even Star Wars
21:12got some of it in.
21:13Things were old
21:14and beat up
21:15in some places
21:15but Ridley
21:16caught that sense
21:17of the future
21:19is already old.
21:21The name we came up
21:22was Retro Deco
21:25and the other one
21:26was Trash Chic.
21:28It was a look
21:29that made Blade Runner
21:30the benchmark
21:30for all visions
21:31of the future
21:32but it also turned out
21:34to be very convenient.
21:37When the spinner
21:38lifts off in the rain,
21:40the reason he had rain
21:41is because it comes
21:42down vertically
21:43and it helped
21:44to hide the wires
21:45holding the prop up.
21:48The vision of the future
21:50in Blade Runner
21:50even extends
21:51to how the people
21:52of tomorrow
21:52might speak.
21:55When shooting started,
21:56actor Edward James Olmos
21:58had devised
21:59a whole new language
22:00for his character,
22:01Gaff,
22:02to speak.
22:03When I walked in there
22:04I talked gibberish.
22:06You go,
22:06gee,
22:06I have a...
22:09What?
22:10Of course,
22:11nobody understood me.
22:13Deckard,
22:13played by Harrison Ford,
22:15is equally bemused
22:16by Gaff's strange words
22:17but in reality,
22:19Olmos was speaking
22:20a mix of phrases
22:21and swear words
22:22from a jumble
22:23of European
22:23and Asian languages.
22:26The Hungarians
22:27were the ones
22:27who probably got
22:28the biggest jolt
22:29because I say,
22:31Lo Faust,
22:31Neho ichmar,
22:32te wadja Blade Runner
22:34which means
22:35all big horse
22:36you are the Blade Runner.
22:38The people
22:39who moved the languages
22:40would just roll
22:41on the ground
22:42and fall out.
22:43They couldn't believe
22:44that somebody
22:45had said that,
22:46you know?
22:48With its melting pot
22:49of languages
22:50and dystopian vision
22:51of a future Los Angeles,
22:53Blade Runner
22:53explored a growing anxiety
22:55and uncertainty
22:55about America's present.
22:59As to the time
23:00that it came out,
23:02America was losing
23:03its innocence.
23:05We were becoming
23:06a more urban society.
23:10Instead of this
23:11great nation
23:12that we had always
23:14thought we were becoming,
23:17all of a sudden
23:18it was disintegrating
23:20at the very time
23:21that we had reached
23:22what we had thought
23:23was our zenith.
23:24I mean,
23:25we were America.
23:26We thought that we had won
23:27the Second World War.
23:28We thought that
23:29we were going to have
23:30skyscrapers
23:31everywhere.
23:32Everyone was going
23:33to be fed.
23:34Everyone was going
23:34to be beautiful.
23:35Everything,
23:36everybody was going
23:37to be wealthy.
23:38And at the same time,
23:39the American dream,
23:40I think,
23:40was starting to crumble.
23:41And I think that
23:42that's what happened
23:43with Blade Runner,
23:44that it came out
23:45right at that time.
23:46So I call it
23:47perfect timing.
23:50The world depicted
23:51in Blade Runner
23:52had its origins
23:53in the story
23:53Do Androids Dream
23:54of Electric Sheep?
23:56by Philip K. Dick,
23:58a science fiction writer
23:59with a dark
23:59and disturbing
24:00vision of the future.
24:03Philip K. Dick
24:04was a marvelous
24:05science fiction writer.
24:06He had an uncanny intuition
24:08for turning contemporary America
24:11and the global situation
24:13in the 60s and 70s
24:14into science fiction metaphor.
24:17He uses the ordinary devices
24:19of science fiction
24:20like robots,
24:22time travel,
24:23aliens,
24:23telekinetic powers
24:25and the like
24:25all jumbled together
24:27in a mash
24:28that doesn't make
24:29logical sense
24:29and feels sort of
24:31like a dream
24:31and yet it seems
24:32to capture
24:33the way life felt
24:34both in the 1960s
24:36and even now.
24:38There will come a time
24:39when it isn't
24:40they're spying on me
24:41through my phone anymore.
24:43Eventually it will be
24:44my phone
24:46is spying on me.
24:48He was really prescient.
24:50Currently we have drones,
24:51right?
24:51and drones are now
24:52being made
24:53as small as flies
24:54and in Philip K. Dick
24:55in the 1960s
24:56there were these
24:57little robot drone flies
24:59buzzing around your head
25:00saying you'd like to buy this,
25:01you'd like to buy that
25:02advertising drones.
25:04Well, I expect
25:05we're only just a few years
25:06away from that.
25:07He had a wonderful
25:11ability
25:12to translate reality
25:14into vivid dreams
25:15and there's really
25:17nothing quite like it.
25:19Philip K. Dick's
25:20dreams of the future
25:21may seem like
25:23a nightmare vision
25:24of where society
25:25is heading.
25:26But time travel
25:28offers a fascinating
25:28possibility.
25:31What if someone
25:32came from the future
25:34to give us a warning?
25:36We started to talk
25:37about what it would be
25:39like to do the movie
25:41from the point of view
25:45of one of those guys
25:46you meet on the street
25:47who tells you
25:48the world's coming
25:49to an end
25:49and all of this stuff.
25:54At its darkest,
25:56science fiction
25:56has even imagined
25:57an apocalyptic future
25:58where mankind
25:59has been destroyed
26:01and our only hope
26:02of salvation
26:03lies with the time traveler.
26:05But how will they
26:06be received?
26:07If I were to encounter
26:09somebody who told me
26:10they came from the future,
26:11I'd be very dubious.
26:13If I were to actually
26:14believe that they
26:15came from the future,
26:16I think I'd be alarmed
26:17and worried about
26:18the change of the rules
26:19and what they knew
26:21and what they could do
26:22and what I couldn't do.
26:24In Terry Gilliam's
26:25film Twelve Monkeys,
26:26humanity has been
26:27all but wiped out
26:28by a virus.
26:29It falls to
26:30Bruce Willis' character
26:31to travel back in time
26:33to try and avert catastrophe
26:35if anyone would believe him.
26:39We started to talk
26:40about what it would be
26:42like to do the movie
26:44from the point of view
26:48of one of those guys
26:50you meet on the street
26:51who tells you
26:51the world's coming
26:52to an end
26:52in all of this stuff
26:55and looking at him
26:56you think that's absurd
26:57and everything
26:58but what if you were
26:58in his shoes?
27:01David and I both
27:02had worked
27:03as very young people
27:04in state institutions
27:06not completely different
27:08from the one
27:09that is in Twelve Monkeys
27:11and it was often
27:13very difficult
27:14to tell
27:14who was sane
27:16and who was insane.
27:19Our main character
27:21could have
27:22come from
27:24the future
27:25or he could have
27:27simply invented
27:28this construct
27:30that allowed him
27:32to survive.
27:33The real root
27:34of why Twelve Monkeys
27:35is so compelling
27:36is because
27:37it plays with themes
27:38of madness
27:40and the strangeness
27:42of the present
27:43to someone
27:43who comes back
27:44from this terrible future.
27:46In a dark twist
27:47the killing of Bruce Willis'
27:49time traveler
27:50is actually witnessed
27:51by his boyhood self.
27:54The idea of the man
27:57seeing his own death
27:59is a powerful
28:01dramatic trick
28:03that came from
28:05La Jetée.
28:07La Jetée is an
28:09avant-garde French film
28:10from the 1960s.
28:12It's made up almost entirely
28:14of still photographs.
28:16He ran towards her
28:19and when he recognized
28:20the man who had
28:21trailed him
28:21since the camp
28:23he knew there was
28:24no way out of time
28:26and he knew
28:27that this haunted moment
28:28he had been granted
28:29to see as a child
28:31was the moment
28:32of his own death.
28:38But what if you met
28:39yourself face to face
28:40when you traveled
28:41back in time?
28:42That's the idea
28:43behind Looper.
28:45Looper also really
28:46plays with this idea
28:47of a terrible future
28:48coming back
28:49to our present
28:50and messing with us
28:52but in Looper
28:53it's much more personal
28:54because it's your own
28:55future self
28:56coming back
28:57and fighting with you
28:59in a sense.
29:00Looper features
29:01an assassin
29:02whose targets
29:03are sent back
29:03to him
29:03through time.
29:09Then one day
29:10the victim
29:11that's sent back
29:11is him.
29:22There's an element
29:23of it that is
29:24about violence
29:26and about the notion
29:27of the secular nature
29:28of solving problems
29:31through violence
29:33but then a lot
29:34of it is also
29:34just the danger
29:36of feeling like
29:39you're in a position
29:40of wisdom
29:41that you've got
29:43into a next phase
29:44or that you've evolved
29:45somehow in your life
29:46when in fact
29:48you're just repeating
29:49a different version
29:50of the same patterns
29:50you were in.
29:53science fiction
29:54science fiction
29:54had shown us
29:55how we might react
29:55to meeting someone
29:56from the future
30:00but what would happen
30:01to a time traveler
30:01who became trapped
30:03in the past?
30:04In each episode
30:05our hero finds himself
30:06trapped in the body
30:07of a different person
30:08in a different time.
30:10To keep leaping forward
30:11he must correct
30:12a mistake made
30:13in the past
30:13an experience
30:15that opens his eyes
30:16to a wide range
30:17of issues.
30:20The idea that time travel
30:22might allow us
30:22to change the past
30:23taps into a profound
30:25human emotion.
30:27One of the enduring
30:29appeals of time travel
30:30stories is the idea
30:31that if you could do it
30:32all over again
30:33if you could somehow
30:34right or wrong
30:35if you could change
30:36the past
30:37then the present
30:38would be so much better.
30:40And so science fiction
30:41is not just about machines
30:43it's not about equations
30:44and Einstein's
30:45theory of relativity
30:46science fiction
30:47is about us.
30:53In the spring of 1989
30:55TV viewers
30:57were introduced
30:57to a time traveler
30:58whose very mission
30:59was to correct mistakes
31:00in the past.
31:03It all started
31:04when a time travel
31:05experiment I was conducting
31:06went
31:06a little caca.
31:10Dr. Sam Beckett
31:11the brains behind
31:13a secret government project
31:14Quantum Leap.
31:18My character
31:19Sam Beckett
31:19invented
31:20this ability
31:21to travel in time
31:24because funding
31:25is being cut short
31:26something everybody
31:27can relate to
31:27he's forced
31:28to jump into
31:30the machine
31:31before it was really
31:32tested
31:33and can't get
31:34home again.
31:36anyway
31:37here I am
31:38bouncing around
31:39in time
31:40putting things right
31:40that once went wrong
31:41a sort of
31:42time traveling
31:43lone ranger
31:44with Al
31:45as my tanto
31:45and
31:46I don't even
31:47need a mask.
31:49Oh boy.
31:52In each episode
31:53our hero
31:54finds himself
31:54trapped in the body
31:55of a different person
31:56in a different time.
31:58To keep leaping forward
31:59he must correct
32:00a mistake made
32:01in the past
32:02an experience
32:03that opens his eyes
32:04to a wide range
32:05of issues.
32:07You know
32:07there's an episode
32:08where I was pregnant
32:10now all of a sudden
32:11though I'm in
32:12the body of a cadet
32:13who may or may not
32:15be gay
32:16and there
32:18in the premise
32:18of that episode
32:19you have social issues.
32:25Social themes
32:26resonated
32:27throughout the series.
32:32There's got to be
32:33some mistake.
32:34Biggest mistake
32:35you'll ever make boy.
32:36Ain't that right toad.
32:38But his most
32:39controversial leap
32:40was inspired
32:40by a real life
32:41encounter
32:42on a military base
32:43between producer
32:44Donald Paul Bellisario
32:45and one of the most
32:46notorious characters
32:47in American history.
32:50And so I went
32:51into the supply shed
32:52and sitting
32:53cross-legged
32:54on the floor
32:54behind the counter
32:56was a man
32:58and he was
32:59reading Pravda.
33:00Now this is
33:031959 January.
33:06You're a marine
33:07you're not
33:08reading Pravda
33:09in 1959 January.
33:13And I asked him
33:14why he was
33:14reading it
33:15and what he was
33:16getting out of it.
33:17And he starts
33:18spouting all this
33:20communist propaganda
33:21and he and I
33:22almost got into
33:23a fight over it.
33:24I had another guy
33:26grab me and say
33:26hey hey hey
33:28come on
33:29and he said
33:30to me
33:30we ignore him
33:31he's harmless.
33:32I'll never forget that.
33:34We ignore him
33:34he's harmless.
33:36That harmless man
33:37was Lee Harvey Oswald.
33:41And although Sam
33:43and his psychic Al
33:44cannot prevent him
33:44killing President Kennedy
33:47Sam learns
33:48later in the episode
33:49that he's been
33:50responsible for
33:51saving Jackie
33:51from the assassin's bullet.
33:52was hit in the head
33:54President's wife
33:55Jackie Kennedy
33:55was not hurt.
33:56She brought
33:57him to the hospital.
33:59Thanks.
34:01Throughout the series
34:02Sam is driven
34:03by the belief
34:03that if he can
34:04keep putting things
34:05right
34:05he might one day
34:06return home
34:07to the present.
34:10It's a recurring theme
34:11in time travel stories
34:13and it's used
34:14to comic effect
34:15in the story
34:15of a disgruntled
34:16weatherman
34:17who also finds
34:18himself trapped
34:19in time
34:19when he keeps
34:20waking up
34:20and reliving
34:21one particular day
34:24Groundhog Day.
34:34Okay campers
34:36rise and shine.
34:38Honestly
34:38the whole point
34:40of it to me
34:41was what if
34:41a person lived
34:42longer than
34:43one lifetime.
34:44Any movie
34:45can show a person
34:45living one lifetime
34:46and do they
34:47what if they're still
34:48they're 70, 75,
34:5080 years old
34:51and they're still
34:51acting like
34:52a teenage adolescent
34:53they never got it
34:55they never outgrew it
34:56they never got beyond it
34:58and so I was saying
34:59oh okay
34:59for some people
35:00it's like that
35:01but what if they had
35:01another lifetime
35:02and another one
35:03after that
35:03how if a person
35:05could actually
35:05live that long
35:07would they change
35:08or are they condemned
35:09to be who they are
35:10no matter what
35:10so that was the nature
35:11of my thinking
35:13going into it.
35:14I loved Groundhog Day.
35:18It was both
35:19a morality tale
35:21and a romance
35:24and sometimes
35:25when a film
35:26uses any device
35:28over and over again
35:29you get tired
35:30but each time
35:31they just did it
35:33so that it was
35:34better and better
35:35as our guy
35:36learns his lesson
35:38finally.
35:42At last
35:43Phil Connors
35:44learns to live
35:45his Groundhog Day
35:45differently
35:46more considerately
35:52only then
35:52is he able
35:53to escape
35:53the time trap
35:54and no longer
35:55wakes up
35:56alone.
36:01Oh
36:02it's too early
36:06one of the
36:06takeaways for people
36:07is just a realization
36:09that this first day
36:10that he experienced
36:11that was so awful
36:12that was so terrible
36:13that was the worst
36:15day of his life ever
36:16was the same day
36:17that he experienced
36:18at the end
36:19the same day
36:20that it was presented
36:21to him
36:21that turned out
36:22to be one of the best
36:23days of his life
36:24and the only thing
36:25that changed
36:26was him.
36:27At the time
36:27that I was thinking
36:28about all this
36:29this was 1997
36:31and the race
36:32to decode
36:33the human genome
36:35was very much on
36:36and it was in the news
36:38all the time
36:38and I thought
36:38yeah that's it
36:39it's a genetic disease.
36:41In the history
36:42of science fiction
36:42it's the time
36:43traveller's adventures
36:44that often take
36:45centre stage
36:47but in recent years
36:48writers have begun
36:49to explore the concept
36:50on a more personal level
36:53wondering how time travel
36:55might actually affect
36:56the traveller
36:56and those closest
36:58to him.
36:59This was the premise
37:00of a 2003 novel
37:02called The Time Traveller's Wife
37:03which told the intimate
37:05story of the relationship
37:06between an artist
37:07named Claire
37:07and Henry
37:08a librarian
37:10who is afflicted
37:10with an extraordinary
37:11illness
37:11that he cannot control.
37:20Suddenly you are
37:21intensely nauseated
37:22and then you are gone.
37:24You are throwing up
37:25in some suburban geraniums
37:27or a wooden sidewalk
37:28in Oak Park, Illinois
37:29circa 1903.
37:31I imagine time travel
37:32as a very stressful thing.
37:38The diseases that I had
37:39in mind were epilepsy
37:40and schizophrenia
37:41both of which take
37:43a strong toll physically.
37:46It did seem as though
37:48something so extreme
37:50as a shift through time
37:52a bodily shift
37:53would not be comfortable.
37:56it would have to be
37:57wrenching
37:58and unnatural.
38:01At the time
38:02that I was
38:04thinking about all this
38:05this was 1997
38:07and the race
38:08to decode
38:09the human genome
38:10was very much on
38:12and it was in the news
38:13all the time
38:14and I thought
38:14yeah that's it
38:15it's a genetic disease.
38:18Henry has no control
38:19over a genetic disorder
38:21that can suddenly transport
38:22him through time
38:23without warning.
38:25And while he fends
38:26for himself
38:27in another time
38:28and place
38:28a woman he loves
38:30can only wait
38:31and wonder
38:32whether he will ever return.
38:34I had this
38:35very strong
38:37visual
38:39notion
38:39about this
38:40old woman
38:41in a room
38:42with a cup of tea
38:43waiting for somebody.
38:45the idea
38:46that time travel
38:47might have
38:47an emotional impact
38:48on the traveller
38:49and those closest to him
38:50has also been explored
38:51in Doctor Who
38:52in recent years.
38:55How many of us
38:56have there been
38:56travelling with you?
38:57Does it matter?
38:58Yeah it does
38:58if I'm just at latest
38:59in a long line.
39:00As opposed to what?
39:03I thought you and me
39:04were
39:06obviously got it wrong.
39:08And like the time traveller's wife
39:09come with me
39:11it's the doctor's relationship
39:12with his human companions
39:13that offers
39:14a more profound insight
39:15to the price
39:16a time traveller might pay
39:17for his remarkable gift.
39:22Andy, you'll still
39:23give us me the creeps.
39:28He can have
39:28these very intense relationships
39:30with his companions
39:33and yet
39:33he will always outlive them.
39:35I've been to the year
39:36five billion right
39:36but this
39:38this is really
39:39seeing the future
39:39you just leave us behind.
39:41So he can have
39:42these relationships
39:43that give him
39:44solace and comfort
39:45for a while
39:46but ultimately
39:47he will always be
39:48wandering alone
39:50through eternity.
39:51Well the essence of Doctor Who
39:53is in some ways
39:54kind of tragic
39:56because
39:57the doctor
39:58will always have
39:59companions.
40:01The doctor will always
40:02find these wonderful strays
40:04and bring them
40:05onto the TARDIS
40:06or try and build up
40:07some life with them
40:08and he always knows
40:09that
40:11they'll die
40:12like pets.
40:13I don't age
40:15I regenerate
40:18but humans decay
40:20you wither
40:21and you die
40:23imagine watching that
40:24happen to someone
40:25with you.
40:26What Doctor?
40:30You can spend the rest
40:31of your life with me
40:35but I can't spend
40:36the rest of mine
40:36with you
40:37I have to live on
40:39alone.
40:40The only constant
40:42is the boy
40:43and the big blue box
40:45and they're going off
40:46to see the universe.
40:50The Doctor is destined
40:52to keep on travelling
40:53through time
40:53and his endless journey
40:55reflects our continuing
40:56fascination
40:57with the possibility
40:58of time travel.
41:00Ever since H.G. Wells
41:02Traveller first cranked
41:03up his time machine
41:04science fiction
41:05has beguiled us
41:06with marvellous contraptions
41:07and bewildering paradoxes.
41:13Visions of the future
41:16and dire warnings
41:17about what might
41:18lie ahead.
41:21Stories that question
41:23what we truly value
41:24and who we really are.
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