Are ‘They’ Time Travelers?

This is a doodle I made on my sketchbook some time ago. I’m not sure what specifically inspired it, but the concept of the UFO phenomenon being somehow linked with what we understand as ‘time travel’ is something that’s interested me for quite a while.

Perhaps that interest was prompted by the viewing of an old 1993 movie called Official Denial starring Parker Stevenson —for those of you out there not worried about having your prostate examined anytime soon, he was the star of a very popular TV show called The Hardy Boys which my sisters used to watch.

[SPOILERS] In the movie, Parker plays the role of an alien abductee who gets contacted by the US government because they have managed to capture a live alien and they suspect Parker might have some sort of ‘connection’ which might make it easier to communicate with it. Beside being a low budget made-for-TV film I would still recommend it, especially because I believe it represents one of the first examples of popular content in which aliens are not portrayed as extraterrestrial visitors, but actually they are travelers from a distant future in which our planet’s ecosystem is decimated, and our descendants have been forced to genetically alter themselves in drastic ways in order to survive.

In this scenario, the purpose of abductions is not very different from the typical ETH-oriented explanation, but instead of seeking to reinvigorate their genome using ours to repopulate their planet (or even plan a long-term colonization of Earth, like Budd Hopkins or Ted Jacobs proposed) the ‘aliens’ are simply seeking to regain the part of their DNA which is still present among their past ancestors —meaning us.

Another movie that appeared even before Official Denial which shared a similar plot was Millenium (1989) starring Kris Kristofferson. In this movie, time travelers are sent to the past with the purpose of snatching victims of air crashes and other catastrophes before they die, so they can be sent back to the future —yes, I did love the opportunity to add that phrase— without risking any nasty paradoxes. Not a great film, but still worth checking it out.

Another movie in which the UFO mythos and time travel are mixed is The Last Mimzy (2007), which deals with two children (a brother and a sister) finding a couple of super advanced toys which greatly affect their mental abilities. Although in the original short story it is based on the ‘super toys’ are not really from the far future, I feel the movie adaptation worked really well, and I for one really enjoyed it, perhaps because it reminded me of the 80’s sci-fi films I used to watch in which kids like myself were the main protagonists.

Is time travel the ultimate solution to the UFO mystery? Although researchers like Michael Masters seems to think it is, I personally have my doubts. What I personally suspect is that the phenomenon originates from a source outside the normal space/time stream; the same place reached by some lucky individuals when they are brave enough to take what Terence McKenna called ‘a heroic dose’ of psychedelics.

But I guess Time will tell…

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