Time travel has been a recurring theme for me over the last few weeks in literature, film and television. I’m sure there are many people who have made careful study of this field of inquiry, but my blog description does promise “ill-formed opinion” so I hate to disappoint.

Doctor Who of course has been a highlight of the television viewing week and sadly comes to a close this Sunday evening. Last weekend I finished watching my way through the Back to the Future trilogy on DVD. And this week I finished reading The Eyre Affair.

I don’t know if this recent focus on time travel says anything specific about me at this point in time, but it is interesting to think about the various uses of time travel as a device in fiction. Based on this very small sample of three texts I’m prepared to make a sweeping generalisation that the British time travellers are altruistic. They’re all about saving the world, setting wrongs to right for the future of the human race. There’s always a bigger picture at stake, combined with the personal stories of the protagonists. Whereas with Back to the Future, time travel is a rather more selfish mechanism, for individual fulfilment. Sure it can spin the world on its axis as well, but really the main motivation for the characters seems to be to set the own personal worlds back heading the right direction. While there was a lot of talk about “disrupting the space-time continuum” and the dire effects this could have for society, you never really get the sense that this is a priority. It’s more important for Marty and the Doc to keep their family histories in line so their own peaceful futures are secured and they can go on living the American dream.

Perhaps it’s simply a question of emphasis, and it’s most likely not a national distinction at all.