This is the first of my blogs about time travel in both books and other media. I love time travel movies and I’m a fool for romance. Yes, even for a guy. Time travel and romance just seem to go together. Sure, I like the purely sci-fi time travel stories, like Minority Report, 12 Monkeys or Loopers, but the greatest stories have romance.
I have noticed that romance in time travel has changed over the years. Today it seems to be Scottish men with burly chests, written by women, such as Diane Gaboldon with her Outlander series, and there is nothing wrong with this. I will address these another time. But today, I want to focus on one of the greatest time travel romance stories ever created. It was written by a man named, Richard Matheson and titled, Somewhere in Time. Matheson started out writing horror films and Twilight Zone episodes. Remember the one with the Gremlin on the airplane wing with William Shatner, later portrayed by John Lithgow?
I have noticed that romance in time travel has changed over the years. Today it seems to be Scottish men with burly chests, written by women, such as Diane Gaboldon with her Outlander series, and there is nothing wrong with this. I will address these another time. But today, I want to focus on one of the greatest time travel romance stories ever created. It was written by a man named, Richard Matheson and titled, Somewhere in Time. Matheson started out writing horror films and Twilight Zone episodes. Remember the one with the Gremlin on the airplane wing with William Shatner, later portrayed by John Lithgow?
The book, Somewhere in Time was originally published in 1975 with the title, Bid Time Return. The movie adaptation was made by director Jeannot Szwarc and released by Universal pictures in 1980. It starred:
Christopher Reeve
Jane Seymour
Christopher Plummer
Teresa Wright
Christopher Reeve
Jane Seymour
Christopher Plummer
Teresa Wright
The book was great and I truly loved the film adaptation. Along with a great story, cinematography, and acting, it had the best musical score ever put to film. This hauntingly beautiful score was composed by John Barry who is famous for such movie compositions as, Born Free, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, Chaplin, most James Bond movies and Body Heat. The list goes on and on. He even composed two time travel scores with Peggy Sue Got Married and what I consider his swan song, Somewhere in Time.
The movie starts out in Chicago and ends up on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel, although the hotel is not supposed to be on Mackinac, and this becomes evident when the protagonist Richard Coulier (Christopher Reeve) drives up to it in his sports car.
The movie starts out in Chicago and ends up on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel, although the hotel is not supposed to be on Mackinac, and this becomes evident when the protagonist Richard Coulier (Christopher Reeve) drives up to it in his sports car.
I am not going to relay the entire story here, but I will tell you how he sees a beautiful portrait of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) hanging in the hotel and becomes obsessed with her. So much so, he finds a way to travel back in time to 1912 to be with her. The feelings he has for her, is what I would call “desperate love”. That love, along with the stunningly beautiful John Barry score, makes this the most wonderful time travel romance movie of all time. Nothing has done more to influence me in my own writing than this story. Coulier is taught to use the power of his own mind to make himself believe he is in 1912, therefore; he is able to actually transcend the physical and finds himself there. To me, this is the most plausible means to time travel. It may not be the most fun way, but in my opinion, it is the most believable.
Great book, great movie.
For some of my time-travel books, click on the pictures below:
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