Time Travel

This week, we are writing about time travel! We started by sharing where in time we would travel to if we could - with answers ranging from the 1970s to Victorian England, pre-partition India to the 1500s to see an original Shakespeare play, and antiquity being most interesting, but 1000 years in the future a safer bet in terms of living a comfortable life!

Next, we talked about famous time travellers in literature, film and TV - from Doctor Who to Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, Hermione Granger and Groundhog Day!

Then, the writers invented their own time travelling character (could be based on an existing character of theirs). They considered; how do they travel? Is there an object, a time machine, a place they have to go to, something they have to say? Is it a choice? Is it inconvenient? Does it lead to problems in their life? Why have they been chosen to time travel? Have they always had the ability or did it suddenly happen? Do they travel alone or with a companion? Where's the best place they've travelled to?

After sharing a range of exciting ideas, we read an extract from H. G. Wells' 1960 novel, The Time Machine, and discussed the descriptions of the experience of time travel. Inspired by this, the writers wrote the start of their own time travel story - describing how and where their traveller journeyed!

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Tess’ Story

Daisy sighed heavily. Another 100 words added onto her never ending literature review... And this was only chapter one of her 15000 word thesis. She couldn't believe that after all the hard work she had put into uni in the past 4 years she still had to undergo such a huge effort to get her diploma.

She looked over at the library's clock again, 10 past 4. She had told herself that she'd stay here until at least 5. So only 50 minutes left, really. Her gaze drifted to the high windows, out onto the library's beautiful gardens. If only I was there right now. She thought. I wish I was free, and done with my thesis. She puffed out some air, blowing her loose hairs off of her beloved dandelion pen which rested on her notebook.

Then, she felt a very weird sensation. A sort of cramp in her head. Almost as if she were starting her period, but in her brain instead. Daisy closed her eyes, a flash of darkness coming over her. Suddenly she was surrounded by bright light, she could feel it behind her closed eyelids.

Slowly, she opened them. Why on earth was she lying on the grass? Since when was it so bright outside? How did she even get here? With a groan she sat up. Her laptop and school bag were gone, her thesis notebook no longer underneath her hand. She got up quickly. A spell of dizziness hit her but she forced through it, wanting to get back to her belongings in the library. But the door to the library was shut. A sign on the door read "closed for summer".

"Summer?" Daisy said aloud. "It's barely June!"

The people walking past behind gave her a strange look. She looked down at herself and realised she was wearing only shorts and a t-shirt. Was she going mad? Time to head home.

The suitcase wasn’t exactly pleasant looking so to say the class were a bit anxious about entering was an understatement! Nearly every thread was hanging off and the casing was just as bad! The whole class looked at each other, bewildered at where their teacher had actually gone. Most of them thought it was some sort of hoax and he was standing elsewhere in the room. Raven, however, kept an open mind.

“Well?” A voice echoed around the classroom seemingly coming out of nowhere. “Are you coming or not?”

The whole class gulped as one. Then the case opened. A hand came out. Pointed at the case and beckoned them over. Well at least they knew where he was now.

“You go first Raven. You’re braver than the rest of us and you know the most.” Chloe was grabbing at straws at this point.

“If you don’t come along this insistent I shall come out there and throw you in!” The voice bellowed again, the hand, seeming cross, wagged its finger at the teenagers.

Raven took a deep breath, closed her eyes and opened the case. She then jumped into the case, hearing gasps of shock coming from her classmates.

The experience wasn’t exactly how she planned. True she never really planned to go back in time before. Noises surrounded her as she seemed to just float downwards like something out of Alice in Wonderland. She opened one of her eyes and peaked around her. Colours swirled giving the impression of a spinning top. Her hair floated out behind her with her shoes feeling very heavy all of a sudden. Then as she continued downwards, the noises became voices and bangs. One scared her life out of her because it seemed so close. She then stopped in mid air. Before she could breath however, she was sent spiralling downwards and landed with a thump on the ground.

“Yes, heavy landings always happen on the first two or three times of travelling. Now come on, where are the others? " Mr Wilson held out his hand to help Raven up.

Raven held his hand as she got off the ground. There was grass underneath her feet and mud, lots of mud. Chloe wasn’t going to be happy. Her head was banging and her vision a little blurry. She then heard thumping as her classmates caught up with her.

“There we are. Not so bad after all, was it?” Mr Wilson didn’t seem to care about the various answers he received, most of them negative.

Raven’s vision finally came into focus as another bang sounded near them. There were what seemed to be blue figures moving across the ground in front of her. Some red but mainly blue. She then realised she was on a hill as she nearly fell down it!

“Where the hell are we?” Will demanded an answer from their teacher, as Mr Wilson gathered the suitcase back up again.

“Well let’s see. Around 12:15. A Sunday, June.” Even Mr Wilson didn’t sound too sure where they were. “Oh and France in 1815 to be exact.”

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Time Travel