Why could Gary time travel?

[jobsta]

We know the reason that is presented at the end of the series, which I won't give away in case there are new viewers, but what are some of the other reasons why Gary could have been given the gift of time travel?

Ryan brought up in another thread that perhaps it was to improve Phoebe's life.

Any other thoughts?

[jrichard88]

It could've been, in part, to bring Reg and his son together. We know that both his son and grandson eventually followed in his footsteps, but had Gary never went back in time, this wouldn't have been possible. So, you could argue it was part of Gary's destiny right from the beginning.

[rhort]

I take it from this you're suggesting that some form of higher power was responsible for actively allowing Gary to access the portal, or even set the portal up specifically for the purpose? Myself, I think it was just a random accident, and it's all to do with frequencies, as is investigated in the episode where the guy comes to close the malfunctioning portal.

The human body generates a bio-electrical field, and everyone's field is slightly different. Given that it seems some people can pass through the portal (if only temporarily), and others cannot (again, sometimes only temporarily), it seems to make sense that certain people have a bio-electrical field that is (sometimes temporarily) in harmony/disharmony with the portal they're passing through and this is what allows them to 'use' it or denies them use of it.

I was thinking that the reason for what happens to the portal at the end of the series is down to Gary becoming acclimatised in the past, and being ever so slightly out of sync with the portal. I believe this is because he knows (perhaps subconsciously) that 1945 is where he belongs (perhaps because he knows he adds value to Phoebe's life whereas he's something of an accessory in Yvonne's), so his bio-electrical field has altered to make his existence more predisposed towards being there. Over time, this then became more and more disparate from the harmony that was required to allow him to pass through the portal, until eventually, he became sort of 'locked' in one time period.

[jrichard88]

That's actually a very interesting theory, rhort - I would've liked to have seen them try and explain that in the show, perhaps in the episode where the portal was almost closed. Although, using that theory, how would you explain the first half of season 5, where Michael, Phoebe, and even Ron were able to pass through the portal?

[jobsta]

That's an interesting thought Rhort! Would this mean that should Gary ever become dissatisfied with life in to 40's, 50's etc...it could open up again?

[nostradamus]

An absolutely fascinating take on Gary and his extraordinary abilities.

I feel this thread has plenty of mileage in it!

[brainwobbler]

Sept 26, 2011 11:20:27 GMT -5 rhort said:

I take it from this you're suggesting that some form of higher power was responsible for actively allowing Gary to access the portal, or even set the portal up specifically for the purpose? Myself, I think it was just a random accident, and it's all to do with frequencies, as is investigated in the episode where the guy comes to close the malfunctioning portal.

The human body generates a bio-electrical field, and everyone's field is slightly different. Given that it seems some people can pass through the portal (if only temporarily), and others cannot (again, sometimes only temporarily), it seems to make sense that certain people have a bio-electrical field that is (sometimes temporarily) in harmony/disharmony with the portal they're passing through and this is what allows them to 'use' it or denies them use of it.

I was thinking that the reason for what happens to the portal at the end of the series is down to Gary becoming acclimatised in the past, and being ever so slightly out of sync with the portal. I believe this is because he knows (perhaps subconsciously) that 1945 is where he belongs (perhaps because he knows he adds value to Phoebe's life whereas he's something of an accessory in Yvonne's), so his bio-electrical field has altered to make his existence more predisposed towards being there. Over time, this then became more and more disparate from the harmony that was required to allow him to pass through the portal, until eventually, he became sort of 'locked' in one time period.

Fascinating stuff, this is actually along the lines of how I think of the GS time portal too, again I refer back to the classic 1970's show Timeslip, here, just like with Gary in GS only some people could go through because they had a certain sensitivity, Peter Farley the late great children's science correspondent came on the first showing of Timeslip back in 1970 to introduce it, this was very unusual and many wondered what on earth he was doing on it and how what he was saying connected with the show but the reason why he was interested was because the whole idea of time bubbles/portals/barriers etc was...if you like singing from the same hymn sheet as a real life scientific theory that was being worked on back then, it wasn't exactly the same but in his own words it was "very close", that was the point he was making.

The idea for Timeslip actually came originally from the book 'An Experiment with Time' by J. W. Dunne which is a most interesting publication, they were all very closely based on the same ideas and principles, the time travel in GS is very much a part of that gamut of time travel theories, so spinning from that one possibility is that what Gary may have actually went into was a time bubble which is stored energy from a past time that gets captured, the clue is in the fact that he always went back to the same time as opposed to going to a different time and place on each trip like in other time travel shows, time bubbles are a natural phenomena, therefor, unlike a built time machine that is controlled by a traveler a time bubble is just static, a one trip pony so to speak, so Gary perhaps was not so much able to go back in time or time travel per say, what he was able to do was to enter a time bubble.

It is believed that such a time bubble could be created where there has been an enormous release of energy, this is their origin, if this is true then in all seriousness 1940 would be perfect for such a time bubble to be formed because we were at war, lots of conflict, bombs, fighting etc, the East End of London took a severe pounding back then, right in those very places where GS was based and filmed, an old lady whom my late mother was friends with told me years ago all about the Doodle Bombs over East London, she's long gone herself now but I was so glad she was able to tell me about these things and it certainly made me think.

Some say the past is dead and gone and is no more tangible than a dream you had last night, I can understand that perspective, however, what I'm not so sure about is whether I can confidently agree with it, I can't explain it easily but I have always felt that somewhere, in a way that we can't see the past continues on, in some form of energy or echo, maybe occasionally it does manifest itself to some, maybe these are the people who say they have seen "ghosts" etc, just a thought, this is what I like about time travel/slide/bubble shows such as GS, in an entertaining way they explore many of these concepts, the stories are fiction but often the ideas that they are based on are ones which many credible Physicists take seriously.