The Theory of Time Travel

In the real world, time travel only happens in one direction - from the past into the future. However, in a number of fictional universes, it is possible to travel the other way as well. The Transformers comic universe is one of those fictional universes, but there has been a lot of controversy over whether - and how - it is possible to change history in this universe. This page looks at the main theories of time travel, and which one best fits Transformers.

• "Closed Book" Theory
• "Rewrite History" Theory
• Combination Theory
• Parallel Universe Theory
• The Evidence
• Conclusions

"Closed Book" Theory

The "Closed Book" theory of time travel basically states that, to quote an early Doctor Who episode, "You can't rewrite history. Not one line!" (although in the Doctor Who universe, that isn't true). In this theory, history is a closed book. Anything you do in the past has already happened before you travel back in time. A very good example of this sort of time travel is seen in Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern books - particularly Dragonflight and All the Weyrs of Pern. Any attempt to change recorded history will fail - assuming, of course, that history has been accurately recorded. This can lead to Causal Loops - somebody going back in time because of what their future self has already done in the past (there are several examples of this in the aforementioned book Dragonflight).

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"Rewrite History" Theory

This is the one that all the mad scientists believe - by travelling back in time, you can rewrite your own history. Your time travel diverts the course of events onto a new track. This appears to be what happens in Star Trek and Back to the Future. This type of time travel has the potential to create huge paradoxes. The most famous of which is called the Grandfather Paradox. Basically, this paradox happens if you go back in time and kill your grandfather before he met your grandmother, thus ensuring that you don't exist.

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Combination Theory

This theory is a combination of the previous two theories - you can make small changes to history quite easily, but you have to be careful about big changes - they could cause serious damage to the fabric of reality. This appears to be the theory followed by Doctor Who (although as a big Doctor Who fan I have a more complicated theory for that universe). It seems to me that this is far more realistic than either of the two theories it combines. In this case, it is probably possible to have a causal loop, but creating a grandfather paradox is likely to seriously damage the universe.

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Parallel Universe Theory

This is the form of time travel most likely to actually be possible, and can appear to be any of the previous three forms from a participant's perspective. Basically, when you travel back in time you either visit or create a parallel universe that is very similar to your own. Anything you do there affects the future of that universe without affecting your own universe. Temporal paradoxes of any type are impossible because you are not travelling into your own history. It is certainly possible to create the illusion of a grandfather paradox, but not possible to create a causal loop, although it might be possible to fool yourself into thinking that you have done so. This is the form of time travel that appears to happen in the Marvel Universe. It may be possible when returning home to end up in the future of the parallel universe instead of your own (making it look like you have altered history).

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The Evidence

From #78 through to #205, the UK Transformers comic featured the saga of the amazing time-travelling Transformer Galvatron. It provides lots of hints as to how time travel works in the Transformers universe. So here are some points in favour of the various theories (along with issue references):

Closed Book Theory

• Unicron's summary of Galvatron's plans in Target: 2006 (#88) suggests that history is back on course and Unicron seems to think that the time which Galvatron travelled back to is his own past. It might be worth noting that more recent Transformers continuities have claimed that Unicron is the same being existing in multiple parallel universes here.
• Rodimus Prime remembers becoming a Targetmaster on Nebulos in #133, though this doesn't rule out any other theories

Rewrite History Theory

• In Target: 2006 (#79, 84), Galvatron doesn't remember Megatron's actions during this period - so it hasn't happened to him (although given that there are two Megatrons in UK continuity, Galvatron could be descended from the other Megatron)
• Ultra Magnus's appearance on Earth in Target: 2006 (and, indeed, in several later UK stories) never happened in Galvatron's timeline (#80) - though it is possible that Megatron simply didn't know about them, as neither Megatron actually meets Magnus during his time on Earth.
• Optimus Prime's trip to Cybertron between #96 and #104, and Ultra Magnus's trip to Earth following these events is at least partly due to Galvatron's interference in the timeline, and Magnus isn't supposed to have been on Earth until Autobot City was built in 2003.

Combination Theory

• In Target: 2006 (#79, 84), Galvatron doesn't remember Megatron's actions during this period - so it hasn't happened to him (although given that there are two Megatrons in UK continuity, Galvatron could be descended from the other Megatron)
• Ultra Magnus's appearance on Earth in Target: 2006 (and, indeed, in several later UK stories) never happened in Galvatron's timeline (#80) - though it is possible that Megatron simply didn't know about them, as neither Megatron actually meets Magnus during his time on Earth.
• Unicron's summary of Galvatron's plans in Target: 2006 (#88) suggests that history is back on course and seems to think that the time Galvatron travelled back to is his own past. It might be worth noting that more recent Transformers continuities have claimed that Unicron is the same being existing in multiple parallel universes here.
• Optimus Prime's trip to Cybertron between #96 and #104, and Ultra Magnus's trip to Earth following these events is at least partly due to Galvatron's interference in the timeline, and Magnus isn't supposed to have been on Earth until Autobot City was built in 2003.

Parallel Universe Theory

• In Target: 2006 (#79, 84), Galvatron doesn't remember Megatron's actions during this period - so it hasn't happened to him (although given that there are two Megatrons in UK continuity, Galvatron could be descended from the other Megatron)
• Ultra Magnus's appearance on Earth in Target: 2006 (and, indeed, in several later UK stories) never happened in Galvatron's timeline (#80) - though it is possible that Megatron simply didn't know about them.
• Galvatron believes that his apparent destruction of Starscream in Target: 2006 (#87) creates a parallel universe
• Optimus Prime's trip to Cybertron between #96 and #106, and Ultra Magnus's trip to Earth following this is at least partly due to Galvatron's interference, and Magnus isn't supposed to have been on Earth until Autobot City was built.
• Death's Head's history tapes placed the Decepticon base in the Wyoming Coal mine when the Decepticons had already moved to the Florida Island - although this could be a minor inaccuracy over the in the records about the date of the move, or Death's Head could have just got the date he's travelled to wrong by a few months.
• The future version of Shockwave comments that Galvatron is quite content to stay in the past (#133) - he doesn't seem to remember his encounters with Galvatron, or being told that Cyclonus and Scourge killed him (#189). He also doesn't wonder why Galvatron - having fled to the past - isn't still around in the present, having lived through that past.
• There are quite a few Transformers walking around in 2006 who were killed off (apparently permanently) before then, including some killed by Galvatron in the Time Wars

There are also a few facts that seem to specifically contradict the Closed Book theory:

• Ultra Magnus spending time on Earth before 2003, as mentioned several times above.
• The only example of a future character remembering anything about events involving time travellers is an insane Galvatron during Time Wars. Given that several characters who are present during these events are important in the future timeline, this can't be explained away easily.
• In the future story Ark Duty (1987 Annual), the Ark is still in Mount St Hillary in 2003, and dialogue suggests that it never left, despite what we see from Child's Play (US #35/UK #141-142) onwards. Besides, the Ark was destroyed during the Generation 2 series.

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Conclusions

The parallel universe theory seems to me to fit the evidence better. The stories set after the movie are unaffected by anything that happens in the present day until the rift in Time Wars, which is caused primarily by Cyclonus and Scourge being in their past without mass-substitutes, rather than by any changes to history. There are easily enough discrepancies between the history mentioned in the future stories and events in present day stories to discount them being the same timeline. Furthermore, there is no evidence of changes to the timeline in the present day having any impact on the future Transformers.

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You visited Target: 2006 at 11:23 pm BST on Monday 6th September 2010