H.G. Wells wrote The Time Machine in 1895, a time well before time travel as we know it was even conceived of. In fact, I suspect that many would happily contend that The Time Machine is the original impetus for the concept that would spawn such popular media as Dr Who and the wider aspect of time travel seen in other science fiction. That being said, time travel isn’t the point of Wells’ novella. Instead, time travel is the frame through which he explores the particular anxieties of his time. Dystopia is a unique genre in that it at once explores the future while reflecting the present. The Time Machine is special in the long list of dystopias because it is one of the first. With that said, regardless of how early it is in the making of dystopia The Time Machine’s influence reverberates throughout future installments of the genre. (more…)