A Cyclops Freebie – An Untold Observation

[William Latham]

Here’s a little something that’s NOT in the book.

Omega and Alpha are not really stories about time travel, although you could argue that with the Future Alphans, there’s something of a paradox going on – there is an alternate future and the suggestion that events in the Alphans’ current present changed events in the Alterverse’s future is certainly valid. This brings up an interesting topic worth considering – tales where events in one timeline impact events in another timeline.

Harlan Ellison is often credited with capturing this particular genie in a bottle (as nods to Ellison in the James Cameron Terminator films’ credits generally underscore). The classic Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” is perhaps the most well-known story where a timeline is severely altered by an event changed in the past. The Back to the Future film series certainly used this concept as a core element of its overriding story.

There’s another author whose name is typically forgotten when discussing significant changes in a timeline based on events in the present, namely, Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol is generally not considered science fiction but clearly, Dickens portrayed a possible future to Ebenezer Scrooge, encouraging Scrooge to change his future by changing his present. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come reaches into the future to show Scrooge where Scrooge is headed and Scrooge changes his path.

The scene in the Alterverse near the end of Space:1999 Alpha was written in December of 2009, just about a year ago. It was the very last scene written in the two books, and since it was December, while I can’t say I was intentionally trying to bring in a little bit of Dickens (or was even thinking about him), I’ll bet money I watched “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” with my daughter right around the time that scene was written. Another mysterious unknown force at work, the spirit of Christmas, perhaps? One never knows. But our peek into the Alterverse at least mirrors Scrooge’s peek into his own future.

Perhaps young Koenig was actually named for Bob Cratchit!

Anyway, just some food for thought at this festive time of year for those of you who celebrate Christmas.

Enjoy!

[William Latham]

I’ve also just discovered that in the Amazon.com MP3 library, you can actually get the soundtrack to Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol, which has my toes tapping! All good things to those who wait…

[Steve Foster]

Interesting thoughts Bill… thanks for sharing them with us 🙂

Makes me want to read CTC even more now that I’ve read them! 😉

[Mark Spalding]

I printed it out to insert into the book as a supplement. 🙂

[Author]

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