Steve Nallon’s talk, ‘Telling the Tales of Time’, launched the DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL film season at the British Film Institute on the Southbank in October 2023. This keynote lecture was based on the book DESTINATION TIME TRAVEL, which Steve co-wrote with BFI archivist Dick Fiddy and which was published in the autumn of 2023.

‘Telling the Tales of Time’ is Steve’s personal reflection on time travel stories, drawing on his own early experiences of watching and reading science fiction as a boy growing up. The talk offers some fascinating psychological insights into the traumas of childhood and the way fantasy – and in Steve’s case time travel tales – can be used to navigate personal distress and anxiety. As with Steve’s sibling lecture on the time travel movie genre (‘Destination Time Travel: An Exploration in Film and Television’), ‘Telling the Tales of Time’ also explores the storytelling craft and tropes of time travel stories, the themes and philosophy of time travel, as well as the science of actual time travel.