Does Every Time Traveler Need a TARDIS?

 

I never gave it much thought until one of my editors said that the only purpose that the parents of my protagonists Ryn and Aeden (Light Riders and the Morenci Mine Murder) serve is to transport the kids from one place to another so that the siblings can find a way to time travel. Yep, these nameless adults (so far, anyway) have a lot in common with Doctor Who’s time machine, the “TARDIS.” 

Just like the original Doctor (yeah, I’m that old) having no control over where the machine will take him, Ryn and Aeden have little control over their parents’ actions. So far, they’ve wound up in Waddell, Arizona and Paris, France. (second book in the series to be released this fall).

Every good time traveler needs transport. But the major difference is that Doctor Who relied on the TARDIS to enter the time-space continuum. Ryn and Aeden found their own way through Snell’s Law of Refraction, they just needed a starting point, and that’s where the parents come in. 

My editor was right. The parents are merely a vehicle to “get the kids where they are going.” But Doctor Who fans will tell you, that as the series continued, the Doctor got more proficient with the “TARDIS.” This won’t be the case for Ryn and Aeden. They’ll go places, all right. But only at the whim of their parents. From that point, they’ll be on their own and who knows where time will take them.