SciFi Exploration: Time Travel

How many times have you heard the word IMPOSSIBLE erupt  after a discussion of time travel is introduced? I guess in some ways you would have to allow yourself some degree of geekiness and daydreaming in class - which is NOT what good students do. I wasn't a good student.

We have been told that the reason why time travel cannot occur is because time is linear and everything that has happened has happened and the only thing to do is move forward (apparently whether you like it or not). Even in movies where this has been explored, like my favored choice Back to the Future, time is considered linear.

Marty's mother falls in love with him and he has to find a way to make her meet his father so he can be born. The now famous "Grandfather Paradox" which is the theory that you cannot travel back in time because if the situation arose that you killed your grandfather, then it would mean that you would not be born and therefore could have not been there to travel in the past to kill him in the first place. Fine, my explanation rambles. Check it out on Wikipedia.

A scientist has come out and WIPED the slate clean. By studying the way particles behave, it seems that events would orchestrate themselves in such a way that you would NEVER be able to kill your grandfather even if you tried it.

With this new information about time travel, we do not have to tremble in our boots when the members of SG-1 suddenly find themselves in ancient Egypt, or somewhere in the 1970s and have to keep absolutely mum about the 21st century in order not to affect the timeline.

Captain Janeway can relax the rules of the Prime Directive regarding time travel and do what she needs to do to get her crew home.

I'm excited to see what new theories will arise in movies and how they will tackle this new information. I hope they do!

What is your favorite Sci-Fi time travel movie or tv show?