ecl@mtgzz.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (06/08/85)
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN:
Alternate History in the Visual Media
Some thoughts by Evelyn C. Leeper
The idea of an alternate history is not rare in science fiction--a
recent article the THE PROPER BOSKONIAN cited a bibliography over over a
thousand stories! Why then, when it comes to visual science fiction, is it
so rare? An examination of the few examples one can find may help answer
that question.
Strangely enough, there seems to be only one film (as distinguished
from television shows or other visual media) that deals with alternate
history that has achieved any popularity in this country, and that film is
QUEST FOR LOVE. Based on John Wyndham's "Random Quest," this British film
begins with a physicist transferred to an alternate reality as a result of a
laboratory accident. In this alternate world, he is not a physicist, but a
playwright--or rather, his counterpart is. (The details of the transfer are
a little vague.)
Now, admittedly, if one examines most science fiction premises too
closely, they tend to fall apart. But this one falls apart faster than
most. In this alternate world, World War II never happened (more on this
later). This would explain the profession change--it was to a great extent
the atomic bomb that inspired the then current generation of scientists (the
film was made in 1971). And the main character appears to have been born
before the alteration (to borrow Kingsley Amis's term), so the question of
"would his parents have met, etc.?" does not really arise. But the
background doesn't make sense.
Problem #1 is the base premise--that the alternate branched off from
ours in 1938. By 1938, Hitler had been in power for five years and Japan
had occupied Manchuria for two, so that the prevention of World War II at
that time was highly unlikely. In fact, the general consensus seems to be
that the seeds of World War II were sown by the Treaty of Versailles, so
this film is about twenty years late in its placement. One might call this
problem the ignorance of causes.
Problem #2 is trickier. One of the little touches that gives the main
character a hint of what's going on is a headline indicating that John
Kennedy has become the new head of the League of Nations. Since the
internal time of the film is post-1963, our protagonist finds this a bit
odd, to say the least (never mind the League of Nations bit). But it's even
odder than he thinks--one of the factors that got Kennedy into the public
eye was his war record. Another was his good showing against Nixon's poor
one in the debates. Nixon, in turn, was running because he served as Vice-
President under Eisenhower, who certainly was elected on the basis of HIS
war record. One might claim that Kennedy would have gone into a political
career anyway, but I think that his age (or rather, lack of it--he would
have been only 51 years old when the film takes place) would have delayed
his career considerably. This sort of problem might be called the ignorance
of effects.
At this point, the difficulty becomes clear--to do a good alternate
history, one must understand history not merely as a set of dates and
events, but as a chain of causes and effects. This is more depth than film
producers usually have to deal with.
American TV hasn't done much better. There exist a few stories dealing
with this topic. TWILIGHT ZONE's "The Parallel" has Astronaut Robert Gaines
go up into orbit and black out, only to find himself back on earth (having
somehow soft-landed the capsule!). But it's not quite the earth he
remembers: he's now a colonel, not a major, Kennedy isn't the President, his
house has acquired a picket fence, etc. The story never really deals with
any implications of these changes--the man who built the Panama Canal in the
alternate world is not the same as in this one (Gaines is checking items in
an encyclopedia), but future history after that seems remarkably similar to
our own. STAR TREK's "The City on the Edge of Forever" deals with alternate
history as a sub-species of time paradox story. If Kirk saves Edith Keeler
in 1930's New York, her pacifist activities will keep the United States out
of World War II until it's too late, and the Axis will win (why the Japanese
don't bomb Pearl Harbor, or why their bombing doesn't cause our entry into
World War II, is never made clear). OUTER LIMITS touched upon the idea in
"The Man Who Was Never Born." And I can't help but feel that ONE STEP BEYOND
must have done something similar. But the one-hour (or half-hour) format
seems to be too limiting for this theme.
The best visual alternate history piece I have seen is a BBC television
play, AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE. Made as three 50-minute episodes, it has time
to develop the ideas that the concept (the Germans invaded Britain in 1940
and won the war) imply. In addition, its setting--that of the production of
a television series set in Britain in the late Thirties and early Forties--
gives the author a chance to do some explaining to his audience without
appearing to lecture.
It's the small touches that make AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE work. For
example, it has been pointed out that the drab clothing can be attributed to
the lack of the "Mod revolution" that swept our Britain in the Sixties. And
the cars parked in the background of the outdoor scenes are Volkswagens and
such. There is some discussion of how the United States stayed out of the
war (again, this ignores the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, which wouldn't
seem to be connected to Germany's success or failure in invading England),
but the concentration is much more on the present, and how the characters
cope with the ever-present totalitarian government. There is a semblance of
the old structure, but it is firmly under the control of the Third Reich.
With the passing of time, the Reich has changed somewhat (the old timers are
gone, and a new generation of leaders has replaced them), but the reminders
of the beginnings remain: the "inferior races" have been exterminated or
sent to labor camps, the racial purity laws are still in effect, etc. There
is, of course, an Underground (no, not the subway!). They want to use the
television show AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE as a means of passing messages--after
all, everyone watches it. The government wants to use it also--to convince
everyone that everything has turned out for the best. Yes, the British were
brave during the war, etc., but when the time came, they saw what was right,
laid down their arms, and joined forces with the Germans to bring law and
order back to Britain. The main character, Peter Ingram (played by Kenneth
More), is the author of the television show AN ENGLISHMAN'S CASTLE, and
needless to say, he has problems keeping everyone happy, or at least not
ready to kill him.
As an alternate history, it is well thought out, and succeeds in large
part because it doesn't spend a lot of time trying to dazzle the viewer with
all the changes. It sneaks up on you, the same way the truth snuck up on
the main character in QUEST FOR LOVE. Little comments that the characters
make seem "off", and then you finally realize what is going on. (I read the
entire novel THE DRAGON WAITING feeling that things were a bit "off", but it
wasn't until the afterword that I realized that it was an alternate history.
This is a little more obvious than that.)
So why are there so few good alternate history stories in the visual
media? Simply put, it takes more thought than most producers are willing to
give it. Even if a writer turns in a good script, he ends up having to
explain it to a producer, who really wants something he can sign Tom Selleck
and a bunch of teen-age girls in wet T-shirts for.
Evelyn C. Leeper
...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl