Fiddling With History

Hey look, no promo today (I know you’re thrilled to hear that :giggle: )

So we’re watching Life On Mars, one of the new shows of the season. Haven’t decided whether I’m going to stick with it or not yet. The premise is this NY cop in 2008 is hit by a car just as he’s chasing a serial killer who’s after his girlfriend, who’s also a cop. And when he wakes up, he’s in 1973 NY, 35 years earlier. And he’s the same person, still a cop, has the badge and the job and everything.

Okay, cool premise. But he doesn’t know whether he’s in a coma and just dreaming all this, whether he’s time traveled, or living in some alternate universe or what. Easy way for the producers to escape the ‘you’ve time traveled and everything you touch could possibly irrevocably change history’ thing.

But still, I can’t get past the changing history and being able to manipulate history thing. I mean, he wakes up in 1973 and the first things he sees are the twin towers of the World Trade Center standing high above the NY skyline. Whoa. Talk about an opportunity there. And what about wars and politics, and potential murders, not to mention the opportunity to make yourself stinkin’ rich down the road?

My husband and I got into this long discussion after the first show about what could happen if someone were propelled back in time. If you paid any attention at all to current events and history, you’d have a motherlode of information with which to change the course of events and to make yourself pretty damn wealthy. But then you also take the risk of manipulating, and possibly changing, the future.

I’m wondering if this series is going to go there at all, make this guy think at all that if he’s time traveled every person he saves in these shows might be someone that should have died, and because he was there they didn’t. What can saving one person’s life do to change the course of events?

Interesting thoughts to ponder if you let your mind wander about what could change if someone who ‘knew’ things could go back in time, huh?