The History of Time Travel (2014)

1. ANNOUNCER You're watching, History Television.

2. NARRATOR In 1895 writer H.G. Wells published his science fiction masterpiece "The Time Machine."

3. This novel would be one in a long line of literature, motion pictures, and television shows

4. depicting man breaking the laws of time and space to travel beyond his present existence.

5. One of the great struggles, if not the greatest struggle, has been man versus time.

6. I mean, we always want more.

7. We are prisoners to time. Mankind has always been fascinated with the idea of escaping from it.

8. To be able to go back in time and fix a mistake or change the outcome of a future event.

9. It's a tantalizing prospect.

10. Could it even be possible? Well what did Einstein think?

11. NARRATOR Due to the extraordinary work of two men,

12. Edward Page, his son Richard,

13. and the personal tragedy that drove them, time travel became a reality.

14. Anne told me that Edward worked for the government,

15. but even she didn't know what he did.

16. Time Travel? I always that that sounded like a bunch of bull—-.

17. I can only imagine what it must have been like...

18. to have been there when he actually did it.

19. We're no longer bound to the rules of time,

20. but what of the rules of morality?

21. It changed everything.

22. NARRATOR Storytellers hold a special place in the history of mankind.

23. From the fables of Aesop to the Brothers Grimm,

24. we look to storytellers to give us truth about human nature and our place within the world.

25. To discuss the genre of time travel,

26. it's place within science fiction, and how it ultimately became a reality,

27. we talked with noted author and screenwriter Kevin Ulrich.

28. Ulrich is the creator of the popular time travel series "Nic of Time."

29. We meet up with him at a book signing in Los Angeles, California.

30. Time travel had already been a popular genre even before science fiction.

31. You have fantasy stories where someone is magically transported to the past

32. like Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"

33. or they wake up in the future like "Rip Van Winkle."

34. Even Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has elements of time travel with Christmas Past, Present, and Future.

35. NARRATOR To discuss the history of science fiction becoming science fact

36. we talked with Professor Edward Yarborough of Harvard University.

37. Prof. Yarborough is a professor of American History

38. and one of the world's foremost authorities on the history of time travel.

39. Before time travel became a reality mankind was always intrigued with how it could possibly work

40. and many ideas and theories were purposed.

41. For many years I subscribed to the multiverse theory.

42. Which is that there can be numerous timelines

43. and parallel universes running concurrently with our own.

44. For an example...

45. if I go back in time and stop the Lincoln assassination

46. I would immediately create a new timeline which branches off from the old one.

47. It is within this timeline that Lincoln would live.

48. If I were to travel into the future,

49. it would be the future of that new alternate timeline not the one I originally came from.

50. Another possibility was the fixed timeline theory.

51. Now in the fixed timeline theory if you were

52. to go back in time and accidentally kill someone you haven't altered the course of history,

53. you were already a part of it.

54. You were always meant to go back in time and accidentally kill that person.

55. Your future was already a part of the past, and you couldn't change it.

56. NARRATOR To discuss the hard science of time travel and the possibility of paradoxes

57. with meet with Dr. Jack Fincher of Yale University.

58. Dr. Fincher is an astrophysicist specializing in quantum mechanics

59. and the author of two New York Times bestselling books on the subject.

60. An interesting side effect to the fixed timeline theory is the infinite loop.

61. Now for example, say we take my grandfather's pocket watch...

62. lets say I go back in time and I lose the watch.

63. Later on my grandfather finds the watch and many years later gives it to me.

64. Now the question becomes, where did the watch originally come from?

65. Had I not gone back in time and lost the watch

66. my grandfather never would have found it in order to give it to me,

67. my grandfather couldn't have given it to me if I hadn't lost it.

68. So the pocket watch has now become stuck in an infinite loop.

69. NARRATOR The final aspect of time travel we will explore is the moral implication of altering time.

70. We meet with philosopher Dr. Adam Lindquist,

71. international lecturer and a highly regarded voice in the world of ethics.

72. Most people had a basic understanding of what time travel was,

73. or what it could be, from movies, TV shows, and books.

74. They also realized the moral can of worms it would open.

75. But we were all unprepared for when it actually happened.

76. NARRATOR August 2, 1939, Physicists Leo Szilard and Albert Einstein,

77. concerned by Nazi Germany's research into nuclear weapons,

78. send a letter to American President, Franklin D. Roosevelt.

79. The "Einstein-Szilard Letter" warned President Roosevelt about the Nazi nuclear program

80. and urged him to create our own program to counter the threat from Germany.

81. NARRATOR One month latter Nazi Germany invades Poland

82. and plunges Europe into war.

83. But it isn't until early 1942, when America has entered the war,

84. that research into our own program begins in earnest.

85. NARRATOR However by this time Adolph Hitler has already turned his attention to something beyond nuclear fusion.

86. In July of 1942 Einstein writes another letter to President Roosevelt.

87. Einstein was made aware, by sources back in Germany,

88. that the Nazis were experimenting in the manipulation of time and space.

89. Einstein was very concerned about the Nazis actually becoming successful in doing this.

90. He considered it and even bigger threat then the Atomic bomb.

91. NARRATOR After receiving Einstein's letter President Roosevelt meets with him in secret.

92. Soon after the president establishes a top secret

93. research initiative code named "The Indiana Project".

94. The project's main objective: To produce a machine

95. capable of traveling through and altering time.

96. The Indiana Project begins in secret in a small facility just outside Portland, Indiana.

97. Initially the program consists of a small group of scientists

98. but it soon expands to included several hundred workers.

99. Only a select few know about the project's true objective.

100. Washington was spending millions of dollars

101. to fund the Indiana Project over the course of the war

102. and the Pentagon was not happy with the lack of, tangible, results.

103. NARRATOR By 1944 the tide had turned in Europe and an Allied victory over Nazi Germany was inevitable.

104. To offer insight into the Indiana Project's importance

105. and place within the Pentagon we talked with General Douglas Sanborn.

106. When Germany fell and the Nazi threat was subdued

107. the Pentagon couldn't decide what to do with the Indiana Project.

108. The project had it's supporters but some saw no reason why they should continue funding it.

109. They felt the money could be better spent in preparation for the invasion of Japan.

110. NARRATOR On August 6, 1945 the United States drops

111. an atomic bomb upon the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

112. Steadfast the Japanese government refuses to surrender.

113. Three days later a second bomb is dropped over Nagasaki.

114. On August 14th Japan surrenders and the second world war ends.

115. With the war now over many government projects are either shut down or severely cut,

116. but the Indiana Project manages to survive due to it's supporters in the Pentagon.

117. They argued that the research could be useful down the line.

118. NARRATOR The Indiana Project's budget is cut and many of the scientist leave for other employment.

119. Among the researchers who remains with the project is a young physicist named Edward Page.

120. Edward Charles Page was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 3rd 1916.

121. He grew up in an upper middle class family the son of a doctor and socialite mother.

122. He developed a love for reading, especially the science fiction stories of Jules Vern,

123. H.G. Wells, and the adventures of Robert Louis Stevenson.

124. His love of science fiction would lead to an interest in becoming a scientist himself.

125. After graduating high school Edward enrolled at MIT.

126. He graduated from MIT in the Spring of 1942,

127. he was immediately offered a job from the government to work at the Indiana Project.

128. In addition to government resources and equipment, he was offered a full salary

129. and a house for both himself and his wife Anne.

130. NARRATOR Anne Havard was born in Paterson, New Jersey on May 25th, 1921.

131. A precocious child Anne had a love of nature and science at an early age.

132. Anne moved with her parents to Boston when she was around six years old.

133. She attended Brighton High School, graduated valedictorian

134. and then was accepted to MIT in the fall of 1939.

135. NARRATOR Anne was working as a research assistant at MIT when she met Edward.

136. Spending long hours in the lab together their relationship soon turned to romance.

137. Edward and Anne would marry in June of 1941.

138. When Edward was offered the government job Anne was pregnant and not in the best of health.

139. She had wanted to stay on the East coast to be near her parents,

140. but being the devoted wife she went with Edward to Indiana.

141. She hoped the war would end quickly so they could come home.

142. NARRATOR Soon after arriving in Portland, Anne gave birth to their son, Richard.

143. Due to complications the birth had been quite difficult and Anne remained bedridden for several weeks.

144. Edward wasn't particularly good with the baby

145. and after a few days Anne called me to come stay with them until she was well.

146. NARRATOR Anne's health improved and she grew fond of motherhood and raising young Richard.

147. When the war was over Anne hoped they would move back to Boston.

148. But in early 1946 Edward accepted the position of head researcher for the Indiana Project.

149. He took it very seriously and devoted himself completely to it,

150. and as a result his relationship with Anne would begin to strain.

151. Edward was spending more and more time in the lab.

152. Due to the limited funds he ran a very tight ship

153. and Edward ended up doing most of the lab work himself.

154. Anne wrote me a letter in the fall of forty-eight about how lonely she felt.

155. Edward was spending more time in the lab and Richard had started elementary school.

156. She confided in me that she hoped to have another baby.

157. NARRATOR Unfortunately another child was not in her future.

158. In the summer of 1949 Anne had become sick and was bedridden once more.

159. At first Anne just thought she had the flu and so she stayed in bed,

160. but Edward was never really good at taking care of anyone especially when they were sick

161. so Anne sent for her friend Dorothy to come out and help.

162. I came as soon as I heard.

163. When I got there she was already frail and was having difficulty breathing.

164. I just had a feeling she wasn't going to make it though the night.

165. I tried to call Edward at his office but there was no response.

166. I decided to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital.

167. Apparently Edward had taken the phone off the hook so that he wouldn't be disturbed.

168. So Dorothy sent her husband Mike to the Indiana Project to get Edward

169. and bring him to the hospital.

170. By the time Mike drives him to the hospital Anne had already died.

171. Edward was devastated.

172. It wasn't until after she died that we found out she was suffering from polio.

173. NARRATOR Dr. Helen Cagle of John Hopkins University is a specialist in the treatment of infectious diseases.

174. We met with her to talk about the polio epidemic in America during the 1940s and 50s.

175. In the summer of 1949 there was a serious polio epidemic that swept through Indiana.

176. All public activities and gatherings were banned to prevent the spread of the disease.

177. We think of polio as something affecting young children, and infants,

178. but adults could contract the disease as well.

179. Unfortunately Anne was one of the unlucky ones who did.

180. Edward had no idea how sick she really was.

181. I told him he wasn't home enough to notice.

182. I thought Anne's death would change him but it only made him worse.

183. NARRATOR Haunted by the death of his wife Edward completely withdrew from everyday life

184. and spent his time in the lab.

185. Edward blamed himself for his wife's death.

186. I mean here he was a man of science and he couldn't even save his own wife.

187. If he could invent a time machine he could go back and save Anne.

188. He thought he could cheat death through science.

189. All he needed was time.

190. NARRATOR Driven by remorse and regret Edward would

191. spend the next twenty years of his life trying to find a way to travel through time.

192. By the 1960s the Indiana Project was all but forgotten, due to the space race.

193. I mean, here we have NASA spending billions,

194. to beat the Russians to the moon, but over here in Indiana still Edward working in his little lab.

195. NARRATOR In the Fall of 1960 Edward's son Richard follows in his father's footsteps when he's accepted to MIT.

196. Richard and his father had an unusual relationship since Anne's death.

197. Richard admired Edward, as a scientist, and respected him as his father, but they were never truly close.

198. Not as close as Richard wanted them to be.

199. Deep down I think becoming a physicist

200. was a way that Richard thought that he could really connect with his father.

201. He had to get inside his world.

202. NARRATOR Richard graduates from MIT in 1968 and accepts a research position at the University of Indiana.

203. When the space race was going on NASA overshadowed everything, including the Indiana Project.

204. It managed to survived just simply by being under the radar.

205. But by the early 70s, with the space race over

206. and Vietnam bleeding the Pentagon dry, cuts had to be made.

207. That's when the Indiana Project ending up on the chopping block.

208. NARRATOR Despite numerous letters from Edward asking them to reconsider the idea

209. the Pentagon shuts down the Indiana Project in the Fall of 1975.

210. To them they saw Edward as a relic of the past, a crackpot, and they thought his research was just a joke.

211. Edward was devastated. His decades of research, his work, all gone.

212. It was like losing his wife all over again.

213. He couldn't take it.

214. NARRATOR On November 5th, 1975 Edward Page suffers a major heart attack and dies the following day.

215. He was 59 years old.

216. Richard takes the death of Edward very hard.

217. He waited his whole life, he worked his whole life,

218. to have an opportunity to spend some meaningful time with him and it doesn't happen.

219. NARRATOR Richard returns to Portland after Edward's death to sell his parent's home.

220. While cleaning out his parent's house Richard makes an extraordinary discovery.

221. So Richard is boxing up his father's personal belongings

222. when he finds a loose floorboard under the bed.

223. Inside is his father's personal journal detailing all of his research into time travel.

224. Richard is blown away by his father's journal.

225. He knew that Edward had been working for the government and that his job was classified,

226. but he had no idea that this, was what he was devoting his whole life toward.

227. In the journal Richard finds a picture of his mother.

228. Written on the back, in his father handwriting, is the message "In time, I will save you."

229. That night Richard just pours over his father's journal

230. and he realizes his father was very close to making time travel a possibility.

231. This research was his father's legacy

232. and Richard took it upon himself to prove his father right.

233. NARRATOR Taking up the challenge of his father's work would prove to be more difficult then Richard realized.

234. He would spend the next decade trying to achieve his father's goal.

235. The idea of time travel is very seductive.

236. Richard started out to prove his father's theories correct but it soon became a personal obsession.

237. Like his father Richard withdrew from society to completely focus on his work.

238. He rarely, if ever, seen outside the lab.

239. His students became very frustrated he never showed up to class to lecture he just showed up on test days.

240. Had Richard not continued his father's journal this important period in his life, and history itself,

241. would be a lost to us.

242. November 6th, 1985. I have completed my father's legacy.

243. Forty years of combined research has led me to construct a machine to move man

244. backwards and forward through time.

245. Today I became the first person to do so.

246. We know what Richard created and we know that it worked.

247. But what we don't know, even to this day, is how he did it.

248. He never reveals the secrets in his journal.

249. I can only imagine what it must have been like...

250. to have been there when he actually did it.

251. The only thing we do know about that night comes from the video camera that Richard set up.

252. First there's the time machine itself.

253. It's surprisingly small, it looks like two VCRs stacked on top of each other with a controller.

254. NARRATOR Inspired by H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine"

255. Richard wanted something round that could be turned either direction to control the device.

256. His ultimate choice was quite appropriate for the 1980s.

257. Richard Page built a time machine out of an Atari!

258. NARRATOR Using the control knob of an Atari gaming

259. system Richard could move himself through time.

260. Turning the controller to the right sends you into the future.

261. Turning the knob to the left sends you into the past.

262. The first time Richard uses the device he decides to make only a very small jump.

263. He turns the knob and is sent one minute into the future.

264. However Richard reappears to us only a second latter.

265. This Richard is from the future.

266. Now this "Future Richard" waits exactly one minute for the arrival of "Past Richard."

267. This "Future Richard" then tells "Past Richard" to travel back in time one minute.

268. "Past Richard" travels back in time to become "Future Richard."

269. Wrap your head around that.

270. Richard in his excitement of time traveling and meeting himself, decides to go back even further.

271. Without thinking it through Richard decides to go back in time one day.

272. He turns the knob to the left, vanishes.

273. When he goes back in time one day Richard fails to take into account

274. that there will not be a time machine waiting for him because he has yet to complete it.

275. So he ends up spending the night in a broom closet waiting for his past self to finish the machine.

276. Richard quickly learned the dangers of using such a device.

277. He realized that the machine must be portable,

278. otherwise you could stuck in the past with no way to come back.

279. To call Richard's achievement ground breaking would be an understatement.

280. We are no longer bound to the rules of time.

281. But what of the rules of morality?

282. A machine that can alter history is power that could be very dangerous in the wrong hands.

283. NARRATOR Aware of the potential danger in such a device Richard vows not to go back in time and change things.

284. But he just can't help himself.

285. Pandora's Box has just been opened.

286. There was one thing that Richard always wanted, and that was to see his mother again.

287. He has a machine that can do that

288. and not only can he see her again, he doesn't have to lose her at all.

289. At the time that she died the Polio vaccine was still several years away,

290. but in the 1980s that's no longer an issue.

291. Richard thinks long and hard about what he plans to do.

292. He weighs the options, the pros, the cons, but in the end he decides to do it.

293. NARRATOR Richard works for several months to make a portable version of the time machine.

294. Unable to make it any smaller

295. Richard determines that the machine would be something you wear like a backpack.

296. Now the machine only moves you through time, not space.

297. You can't start off in New York and go back in time to ancient Rome.

298. In order to do that you would have to physically be in Italy.

299. Anne was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey

300. before her family moved to Boston so Richard would need to go there first.

301. So he makes some calls and tracks down the house she grew up in.

302. NARRATOR Acquiring a series of polio and booster shoots.

303. Richard will travel back to the 1920s and inoculate his newborn mother.

304. December 13th 1985. I am currently sitting in a motel near my Mother's childhood home.

305. Polio vaccination and booster shots lay on the table next to me.

306. In a few minutes I will use them to cure my mother's illness and save her from death.

307. I write this with the knowledge that my actions today may yield unintended ramifications.

308. I only pray that it works.

309. It works. The time machine works.

310. December 5th 1987 will go down in history as one of the most important dates for mankind.

311. Richard and Aden have finally fulfilled their father's work.

312. It wasn't just a triumph for mankind but a personal triumph as well.

313. NARRATOR However the triumph was to be short lived.

314. Immediately after their first successful test Richard passes out.

315. Aden rushes his brother to his hospital and begins treating him.

316. Even though he was a well respected doctor Aden is stumped by his brother's sudden illness.

317. He was concerned it might be a side effect of the machine.

318. Now you have to remember that Aden has only been working with the device for the past few months.

319. Richard had been working on it for thirteen years.

320. Aden was worried that there might be some correlation with long time exposure to the device.

321. Richard was in a comatose state for three days. Aden was baffled.

322. On the third day Richard literally jumps out of bed and happily embraces his brother.

323. Aden was taken aback. He said Richard hugged him as if they haven't seen each other in years.

324. NARRATOR Aden runs some test but finds nothing medically wrong with his brother and releases him that evening.

325. Returning to the lab Richard tells his brother about a dream he had while he was in the hospital.

326. It's a dream about their mother and what their life would have been like had she not died giving birth to Aden.

327. It's the one thing they both have always wanted.

328. Aden more so because he never knew her.

329. It's the reason why he became a doctor.

330. Richard tells him, if a doctor had been there when their mother went into labor she wouldn't have died.

331. Aden begins to figure out where Richard is going with this train of thought.

332. And he wants nothing to do with it.

333. He had a hard enough time with the fact that his brother had actually built a working time machine.

334. But to go back in time and deliver yourself? It was just too much.

335. It's actually not that crazy if you really think about it.

336. Richard and Aden debate throughout the whole night until Aden reappears. The machine works!

337. Aden has now become the first person to travel through time.

338. Richard asks Aden what it felt like to travel through time

339. but before he can say anything Aden inexplicably passes out.

340. NARRATOR Richard takes Aden to the hospital where he spends the next three days in a coma.

341. When Aden wakes up from his coma he is by all accounts perfectly healthy.

342. The doctors can't find anything wrong with him.

343. Medically speaking the cause of Aden's coma remains unknown. There's just very little evidence to go on.

344. The only rational explanation is the time machine.

345. Curiously Richard is not at his brother's bedside during those three days.

346. He only returns on the day that Aden wakes up from the coma.

347. It's almost as if he knew what was going to happen.

348. Considering he built a time machine, maybe he did.

349. January 29th, 1990. I arrived at the hospital this morning anticipating the Aden would soon recover.

350. A few minutes after I entered his room Aden wakes from his coma.

351. He told he understood what had happened to him and what we needed to do.

352. Those fourteen years that Richard and Aden

353. spent while working together on the time machine were leading up to an ultimate goal.

354. When Anne died they were left with a cold and distant father.

355. They thought if only they could go back in time and change one thing, just one,

356. everything else would work itself out.

357. Using the time machine they would go back in time to 1953 and stop the car accident that killed their mother.

358. They we're unprepared for what was about to happen.

359. The time machine was on and it was stable.

360. NARRATOR Sixteen years after their father's death his sons had completed his life work

361. and built the world's first time machine.

362. It is one of the great moments, if not the greatest moment in the history of science.

363. The word history takes on a whole new meaning now.

364. History is a living science because of what they did.

365. NARRATOR Despite their accomplishments personal tragedy casts a long shadow over their work.

366. Their mother's suicide in 1955 haunted them for the rest of their lives,

367. and I think it's what really drove them, just like their father, to try and create the time machine.

368. Edward was so obsessed with the machine that he completely overlooked the warning signs with Anne.

369. All her life she had been plagued by terrible nightmares.

370. She had this reoccurring nightmare where she was being repeatedly stabbed with needles.

371. She never understood why.

372. Even though Anne was a lovely person and a wonderful mother she had a dark side that was tormenting her.

373. After narrowly surviving a car wreck in 53 Anne became a different person.

374. She confided in me that she never understand why she was still here.

375. She thought she should have died in the accident.

376. Edward quite sadly is oblivious to his wife's pain and suffering.

377. He is so obsessed with creating the time machine that he is squandering the time he has.

378. In Edward's mind once he has the machine built he'll have all the time in the world.

379. NARRATOR Unfortunately for Edward time ran out.

380. On February 29, 1956 after sending Richard and Aden to school Anne commits suicide.

381. She was 35 years old.

382. She left a note saying it was the only way to cure her illness.

383. Richard and Aden come home from school and find their mother dead.

384. Richard was fourteen and Aden was only five.

385. I can't imagine what that does to you, psychologically

386. and I have no doubt that it was on their minds as they were finishing the machine.

387. The temptation was certainly there for them to go back and to try and stop it

388. but Richard realize that the best way to save their mother was through their father.

389. March 6th 1994. After much debate Aden and myself have concluded that the reason

390. our mother committed suicide was the that our father was never there for her.

391. His obsession with the machine caused her to feel alienated and alone.

392. Had my father been able to complete his research in her lifetime things may have turned out differently.

393. We can only speculate what might have happened had they actually tried to go back.

394. NARRATOR July 1944. Racing against time the Indiana Project

395. works around the clock trying to find the break through they desperately need.

396. The Manhattan Project was making great strides with the atomic bomb

397. but the Indiana Project was falling way behind, until Edward Page comes along.

398. NARRATOR Edward Page, a young researcher who had been working in the Indiana Project for several years,

399. stuns his colleagues when he not only creates a series of equations that would produce time travel

400. he builds a functioning prototype as well.

401. Edward's research was years ahead of it's time.

402. We're still not sure how he was able to reach the conclusions that he did.

403. People would ask him and he just would say "It came to me."

404. As far as the military was concerned we now possessed the power to rewrite history as we saw fit.

405. They wanted to immediately go back in time and assassinate Hitler. End the war before it even starts.

406. NARRATOR Now in control of a power far greater then the atomic bomb

407. the United States prepares to alter history and avoid the horrors of World War II.

408. However President Roosevelt has second thoughts and he orders the Indiana Project to stand down.

409. He felt that altering time was too risky and could have unintended ramifications.

410. Roosevelt was right that we shouldn't be playing God.

411. Our responsibility was to see that time travel doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

412. NARRATOR However it was already too late.

413. On January 17th, 1945 Soviet agents, who had infiltrated the Indiana Project,

414. steal Edward's prototype along with all of his research.

415. They plant a bomb that destroys several buildings at the facility.

416. The spies manage to make their way back to Moscow with the time machine.

417. If you thought the idea of Hitler with an atomic bomb was a bad idea,

418. then Stalin with a time machine was terrifying.

419. The Indiana Project was in shambles.

420. They say not to put all your eggs in one basket, well the Indiana Project did.

421. The Soviets now had the golden goose.

422. Surviving the explosion with minor injuries Edward was tasked with rebuilding the prototype.

423. Unfortunately most of his research and notes were either stolen or destroyed

424. and he claimed it would take several years to rebuild it.

425. Several years they did not have.

426. NARRATOR From the ashes of World War II a new conflict rose.

427. The Cold War.

428. The United States and the Soviet Union had emerged from the war as the two dominant superpowers.

429. Immediately a battle for ideological and military supremacy began.

430. With the time machine the Soviets clearly had an unbelievable advantage over us.

431. Fortunately for us we still had Edward.

432. Unfortunately Edward had not yet built a functioning prototype.

433. Everyone was wondering what was going on.

434. Edward kept saying his research has been set back by several years

435. but by 1947 the Pentagon began to become deeply concerned.

436. Edward had built a time machine before. Why couldn't he do it again?

437. Suspicion was beginning to mount. What was he hiding?

438. People began to suspect that Edward could be working for the Soviets.

439. They pointed to the fact that once the prototype was stolen he conveniently forgot how to build it.

440. The FBI and the newly formed CIA had both begin monitoring Edward's activity.

441. Anne wrote me in the fall of 47 about how how strange Edward's behavior had been of late.

442. He had become quite paranoid and was convinced that people were following him.

443. NARRATOR On June 20th, 1948 Edward resigns from the Indiana Project

444. and takes a teaching job at Marshall College in upstate New York.

445. Edward claimed he wanted to spend more time with his family.

446. Anne was expecting their second child and he wanted to move back East so she could be closer to her parents.

447. The Pentagon was very troubled when Edward left the Indiana Project.

448. Especially going into academia where they felt he might run into communist sympathizers.

449. In fact many of them felt it was only a matter of time before Edward ended up in Moscow.

450. NARRATOR Meanwhile recent developments had convinced the Pentagon

451. that the Soviets were already altering time for their own purposes.

452. We really can't comprehend what the Soviets did to the fabric of time.

453. All that we know is that they beat us at everything, things they shouldn't have even known about.

454. Time travel was the only possible explanation.

455. With the time machine the Soviets could have gone back in time and prevented America from ever existing.

456. But they were smarter then that.

457. They realized that if they alter the past previous to Edward Page inventing the time machine,

458. that he might never invent it at all.

459. Recent history however would be up for grabs.

460. The Soviets found the time machine to be an invaluable tool for espionage.

461. The Pentagon would be developing a new secret weapons system

462. and somehow the Soviets would have one first.

463. We would be developing a new aircraft and before we could even approve a prototype

464. the Soviets would be flying the damn thing.

465. It became quite clear what the Soviets were doing.

466. They would wait for us to develop something, a new tank, missile system, whatever,

467. and Soviet spies would smuggle the design back to Moscow.

468. Then the Soviets would use the machine to go back in time and "invent" it before we did.

469. Sputnik was based from an entirely American design.

470. The day the blueprints were finalized was the same day the Soviets launched it into orbit.

471. The Pentagon was understandably going ballistic but there wasn't anything we could do about it.

472. The Indiana Project was lost without Edward, but there wasn't really anyone who trusted him.

473. NARRATOR Soon after Edward begins his new career as a college professor in upstate New York

474. Anne gives birth to their second son, whom they name Aden.

475. This was a relatively happy period for the Page Family, despite the shadow of suspicion hanging over Edward.

476. Edward was still convinced that he was being followed and his paranoia frightened Anne

477. but as long as he was working in the basement with the boys his delusions would subside.

478. Richard and Aden loved working in the basement with Edward.

479. They would spend all their time together. They love being Dad's assistants.

480. NARRATOR Richard and Aden would follow in their father's footsteps

481. and become physicists as well, both graduating from MIT.

482. When Richard and then Aden moved out of the house to go to college

483. Edward was left alone in his lab. His paranoia had again returned and Anne became concerned.

484. Especially after the moon landing.

485. This is a special report from KRNK News. The space race is over.

486. Man has landed on the Moon.

487. I've just been handed an update.

488. We have a message from, Yuri Gagarin, the first man to set foot upon the moon.

489. It reads...

490. "It's one small step for Russia, one giant leap for Communism."

491. It was bad enough to have lost the Vietnam War in 68

492. but to have them beat us to the moon, it was just salt in the wound.

493. It one of those moments you just don't forget,

494. like when President Nixon was assassinated in Dallas. We all remember where we were.

495. NARRATOR What was suppose to be America's greatest triumph had become a national nightmare.

496. The moon landing really galvanized Edward to want to rebuild the time machine.

497. America had started its decline, Soviets had become the dominant superpower

498. and Edward was determine to rebuild the machine, go back in time, and stop them.

499. NARRATOR As Edward secretly begins rebuilding the time machine in his basement

500. Anne becomes ever increasingly concerned.

501. Edward would spend all of his time down in the basement, Anne told me.

502. She would ask him what he was up too and he wouldn't tell her.

503. He would become very defensive.

504. He told her that as long as she doesn't know anything they couldn't hurt her.

505. She didn't know who "they" were.

506. Edward's concerns were actually reasonably justified.

507. He had kept a low profile since leaving the Indiana Project but the CIA still had an open case file on him

508. and were waiting for him to do something to raise a red flag.

509. The Soviets had also been keeping an eye on Edward.

510. They had hoped that the bombing of the Indiana Project back in 45 would have killed him as well,

511. but when he survived they feared he would rebuild another time machine.

512. When Edward left the Indiana Project under a cloud of suspicion the Soviets determine

513. that he would not attempt to rebuild the machine.

514. But if he ever did he would become a major threat.

515. NARRATOR Edward's work progresses but without government resources

516. he lacks access to equipment he desperately needs.

517. Edward decides to contact his sons for help.

518. By the mid 1970s Richard and Aden were both working for MIT.

519. Richard was a teacher in the physics department and Aden was a researcher working at the university.

520. Edward needed access to equipment at MIT in order to continue his experiments

521. but he'd have to tell Richard and Aden what he was up to.

522. Edward tells them about the Indiana Project and his involvement in the creation of a time machine.

523. Richard and Aden aren't sure what to believe.

524. Now here's the part wherethe story takes a really strange turn.

525. Edward tells Richard and Aden that he did not invent the time machine.

526. They did.

527. Edward tells Richard and Aden that back in 44

528. when he was working for the Indiana Project that two time travelers from the future

529. gave him the time machine as well as their research papers.

530. He tells Richard and Aden that they were the two time travelers.

531. Richard and Aden believed their dad had gone crazy.

532. His paranoia had turned into a full fledged delusion.

533. Edward asked if he could run some experiments in Richard's lab. Richard said no.

534. So Richard and Aden take their father home.

535. They talk with their mother about Edward's mental state and how he needs psychiatric help.

536. Edward keeps insisting he's not crazy, but no one will listen.

537. Edward was not going to take no for an answer.

538. NARRATOR On the night of July 28th, 1975 Edward is caught breaking into Richard's lab at MIT.

539. Edward is booked with breaking and entering and is taken to the police for questioning.

540. When Edward was question by the police they asked him what was he doing in the lab

541. and he told them he was gathering things for a time machine.

542. He told them about the Indiana Project, the time travelers,

543. and how KGB and CIA were keeping tabs on him.

544. Edward's arrest certainly drew the attention of the CIA and the KGB.

545. The police records indicated that he talked to them about the Indiana Project.

546. Now whether the police believed it or not was irrelevant.

547. Edward was now a liability and the Pentagon was afraid he would go to the press.

548. But who would believe him?

549. NARRATOR Edward is released into Richard and Aden's custody and they take him home to Anne.

550. They discuss the possibility of having Edward committed.

551. The next day Richard and Aden meet with the university president

552. to discuss having the charges against Edward dropped.

553. Richard and Aden are able to have the charges dropped on the condition that Edward gets psychiatric help.

554. They return to their parent's home to tell them the good news...

555. and that's when they found them.

556. They found Edward first in the kitchen.

557. One bullet to the temple. They found Anne in a bedroom closet where she had been hiding.

558. Richard and Aden were devastated. They took the death of their parents very hard

559. but circumstances remained unclear.

560. NARRATOR The police investigation into Edward and Anne's death

561. ruled that the crime was a murder suicide carried out by Edward,

562. a man suffering from serious delusions.

563. Aden and Richard remained skeptical.

564. Despite Edward's delusions Richard and Aden just couldn't believe

565. that their father would murder their mother and then kill himself.

566. It just didn't make sense. Too many things just didn't add up.

567. This was no suicide. This was clearly a coordinated hit on a high value target.

568. They never found finger prints on the gun.

569. Edward shoots himself in the head and then wipes his own fingerprints from the gun?

570. Give me a break. This was a complete cover up.

571. The only question is who was behind it. The KGB or the CIA?

572. NARRATOR While the cause of Edward and Anne's death would be shrouded in controversy

573. for Richard and Aden there was little for them to do but try to move on with their lives.

574. NARRATOR Twenty years later Richard and Aden are contacted by a realtor about selling their parent's home.

575. After their parent's death Richard and Aden never went back.

576. The house was abandoned. It fell into disarray as did much of the surrounding neighborhood.

577. A corporation came in and begin buying a lot of the property to build a factory

578. and Richard and Aden agreed to sell.

579. NARRATOR Richard and Aden return to their parent's home the day before it is scheduled to be torn down.

580. They spend several hours looking around the house to see if anything is worth saving.

581. In their parent's bedroom, Richard, makes an extraordinary discovery.

582. After stepping on an uneven floorboard and prying it loose Richard finds his father's journal.

583. Richard and Aden are floored by what they read.

584. Their father had been telling them the truth, the whole time,

585. about The Indiana Project, about the Soviets, the spies, the KGB, time travelers, everything.

586. NARRATOR Inside the journal Richard and Aden find a photo of their parents.

587. Written on the back is the message “In time you will save us.”

588. Richard and Aden realize what they must do.

589. Richard and Aden begin the task of rebuilding the time machine.

590. Edward's journal would provided the basic blueprints for building the machine

591. but they would have to fill in the blanks.

592. The reason Edward was not able to rebuild

593. the time machine was because he never had a chance to reverse engineer it before the Soviets stole it.

594. The journal was just a holy grail of information but it was incomplete.

595. It would be up to then to finish their father's work.

596. They used whatever they could find to help build the machine.

597. Spare parts, old machines, things that the university wouldn't miss.

598. They would have used an Atari if they had one.

599. NARRATOR Richard and Aden's activity draws the attention of the university.

600. It also draws the attention of both the CIA and the KGB.

601. After Edward and Anne's "death" the KGB kept tabs on Richard and Aden's activity.

602. For twenty years they monitored them waiting on them to make a move.

603. Richard and Aden both begin to spend all of their waking hours working on the time machine

604. and their colleagues and students at MIT begin to take notice.

605. Students complained that Aden only showed up to class to give tests.

606. Richard, his colleagues very worried about him,

607. that he was spending way too much time on non-university related projects.

608. The blackout is what really got them in trouble.

609. NARRATOR On the evening of March 8th, 1995 at approximately 7:43pm

610. a power surge causes the MIT campus to go dark.

611. The source of the power surge is traced back to Richard's lab

612. Richard and Aden are both brought before the university President

613. and reprimanded for misusing school equipment for their own purposes.

614. They're both placed on temporary suspension.

615. The blackout makes national headlines

616. and a CIA investigation concludes that Richard and Aden are building a new time machine.

617. That's when they decided to pay a visit.

618. On their way home from the meeting with the university president

619. both Richard and Aden are intercepted by the CIA and taken to an undisclosed location.

620. The CIA inform Richard and Aden that they know they are trying to rebuild the time machine.

621. They warn them that the KGB is aware of their activities and will try to kill them.

622. The CIA offers them protection and funding in exchange for the time machine.

623. Richard and Aden really don't have a choice.

624. It's an offer they can't refused.

625. NARRATOR The Indiana Project which had been defunct for decades is reopened

626. as Richard and Aden set up a new research lab.

627. Richard and Aden make great strives towards

628. completing the machine but they're under extreme pressure from the Pentagon to do so.

629. They now know the intense scrutiny their dad was under when he was in their position all those years ago.

630. NARRATOR With unlimited government resources Richard and Aden are able to fill in the gaps in their father's research.

631. The problem that Edward was having when he originally tried to reverse engineer the machine

632. was that many of the components were beyond the limits of 1940s technology.

633. Richard and Aden were able solve these problems with relative ease.

634. NARRATOR On November 12th, 1996, fifty years after Edward's time machine was lost

635. Richard and Aden successfully rebuild it.

636. Richard and Aden had no intention of turning the machine over to the Pentagon when they finished it.

637. Edward's journal made it very clear what they should do.

638. Richard tells Aden that he himself must do it alone.

639. The only question is would it work?

640. That's the question that we'll never know the answer to.

641. NARRATOR The explosion that brought an end to Edward's prototype also brought an end to the Indiana Project.

642. With their research set back by years and the war drawing to a close

643. the Pentagon permanently shuts the project down.

644. Once the war was over the Pentagon saw no reason to keep funding the Indiana Project.

645. Time travel?

646. I always thought that sounded like a bunch of bull—-.

647. Edward's research into time travel had been the most promising

648. and had it not been for that accident it could have been a much different story.

649. Who knows what could have happened?

650. There's so many unknowns, so many possibilities, so many might have beens.

651. The Indiana Project teaches us what is truly important about time and that is making every second count.

652. The accident really woke Edward up to what his priorities were,

653. and that was spending time with the ones he loved.

654. NARRATOR Edward and his family move back to Boston

655. where he accepts a teaching position at MIT.

656. After giving birth to their second child, Aden, Anne return to research work in the late 1950s.

657. Richard would follow in his father's footsteps and become a physicist.

658. Aden becomes a doctor specializing in neurology.

659. After a short battle with cancer Edward dies peacefully in his sleep at the age of 77.

660. Anne passes away two years later.

661. In 1996 after a failed experiment Richard suffers a stroke

662. and slips into a coma where he remains to this day under the watchful eye of his brother.

663. We were so close to making time travel a possibility.

664. It would have changed the world, but will we rediscover it?

665. I think it's only a matter of time.

666. And when we do there's going to be a lot of questions to answer.

667. One of the great things about being a science fiction writer is the possibilities of "What if?"

668. What if Edward Page had invented time travel?

669. How would that effect us?

670. We experience time as we perceive it, but if time could be altered

671. and was being altered would we perceive that? Would we? That's the big question.

672. Would we even notice?

673. NARRATOR But until such a time when man is able to leave the boundaries of time and space

674. the history of time travel will remain within the realm of science fiction.

675. For Science Fiction Television this has been The Theory of Time Travel.