For the second day running, you can thank William, of the Warthog Report, for a prompt! This time the question is ‘favourite time travel story’, but what – or when (heh) – is the answer?
It is tempting to reach for the low-hanging fruit of Doctor Who. Time travel is a defining element of the show, so much so that sometimes it fades into the background, becoming incidental, though occasionally the writers put time travel mechanics to extra-special use.
Hot Tub Time Machine makes clever use of time travel, as does Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Hot Tub Time Machine also features one of the unluckiest squirrels in film history, but I digress. Meet the Robinsons is one of Disney’s lower-profile films, but it too has some great use of time travel, and also features possibly one of the best, random lines of any Disney film (‘I don’t even need a duck’).
If I were to choose my absolute favourite time travel story (that isn’t the on-going saga of Doctor Who), I’d pick The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day.
You may be wondering why I don’t reference the sequels, and that’s because whilst some of them are entertaining films, I cannot help but feel that the first two films form a complete story, that makes clever use of the time travel mechanic. Also, the first two films are great films in their own right, so different from one another, yet both so good in their own way. I find them both to be tremendously watchable, and the way they complement each other is fantastic. The themes of fate, and destiny, and whether it’s possible to control your destiny, make for a compelling adventure.