(And Why I’ve Always Been Obsessed With Them)
There’s something about time travel that’s always pulled at my imagination.
Maybe it’s the idea of fixing what went wrong.
Maybe it’s the curiosity to see what’s ahead.
Maybe it’s the hope that somewhere, in some version of reality, we figured it out.
Whatever the reason, time travel, along with its twin concepts of parallel universes and the multiverse, has always in my opinion made great science fiction even better.
The Best Stories Bend Time. Some of the most iconic episodes and films in sci-fi history involve time in motion:
Tomorrow is Yesterday (Star Trek, the original series) is a simple, elegant time loop.
Yesterday’s Enterprise (The Next Generation) is the story of a rift in the timeline with enormous emotional weight.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and First Contact, easily two of the most popular Star Trek films, and both use time travel not just as a gimmick, but as a storytelling engine.
Even outside Star Trek, shows like Stargate SG-1 and Atlantis explored these ideas brilliantly. Ripple Effect gave us infinite SG-1 teams crossing timelines. The Daedalus Variations dropped a familiar crew into a kaleidoscope of parallel realities.
These weren’t just clever plots. They made the universe feel bigger. They raised the stakes. They gave us a sense that time, like space, is something we could explore.
And yes, really, it is grounded in science. As wild as it seems, time travel and multiverse theory aren’t just sci-fi tropes. They’re rooted in real physics. Einstein’s theory of relativity, wormholes, quantum mechanics, these all lay the groundwork for how time might behave under extreme conditions. Scientists have spent decades debating whether time is fixed or fluid. Whether other versions of us could exist in parallel timelines. Whether travel to the past violates causality or simply spawns a new reality.
Science fiction didn’t just borrow from these theories. It fueled them. Writers before me imagined the impossible, and in doing so, they inspired researchers to chase it down. When I was a kid, I used to daydream about being transported to the future, to a time when humanity had left the solar system and was exploring the galaxy. But I also imagined going backward. To witness the great milestones of history. To walk among those who came before us, the way Marty McFly did with a pair of Nikes and a DeLorean. Whether forward or back, the concept never stopped inspiring me. Will you find time travel or parallel universes in Galaxy’s Child? Let’s just say… you’ll have to read the book to find out. After all, spoilers disrupt the timeline 😉
David P. Lloyd 