Robert C. Cooper: On Time (Travel)

"I've never been a big fan of time travel stories. They often seem to involve a cop-out at some point, where time travel simply undoes everything.

They also hurt my brain.

I'm still not quite right after the story breaking session for Moebius (Stargate SG-1's two-part season eight finale)....

I think it might be one of the best endings I've ever written.

When it comes to shooting Time, we made a vow to try not to do too many stories set in among trees as we had done on Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

We wanted Universe to feel more alien, at least starting out. So I set the episode in a jungle, and to up the creepiness, I wanted it to be set at night and to be raining."

 

-Robert C. Cooper, Stargate: The Official Magazine, #33, p.25-27-

 

 

Mission accomplished. With a nice nod to Alien (1979), to boot, Cooper genuinely creates a stellar time travel tale. And for the record, time travel stories hurt my head too. I'm not generally a big fan of them, but Stargate Universe Time is indeed one of my favorites within the sub-genre of science fiction. See my full analysis of the episode right here.

 

 

For those interested time travel themes are explored in a great many episodes of Stargate SG-1 and even the Star Trek franchise as a whole. I really must take time to notate all of those specific episodes.

 

For now, focusing exclusively on science fiction television, the time travel theme or device can be seen in the following series: Doctor Who, Land Of The Lost (1974-1976), Odyssey 5 (2002-2004), Lost (2004-2010), Torchwood (2006-2011), Heroes (2006-2010), Fringe (2008-2012), Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009), Flashforward (2009-2010), Terra Nova (2011), Continuum (2012-2015) and Outlander (2014-present).