The World Next Door: 5 SFF Stories That Travel to Alternate Earths

[james_davis_nicoll]

The World Next Door: 5 SFF Stories That Travel to Alternate Earths

Comments

[petrea_mitchell]

I have to mention one of my all-time favorite classic Doctor Who episodes, "Inferno". Exiled to Earth with his knowledge of critical functions of how the TARDIS works blocked, the Doctor is trying to repair the TARDIS anyway and winds up going "sideways" to an alternate Earth where the UK is part of a Nazi empire formed in the 1940s. A project which is going to inadvertently destroy the world is further along there, and ultimately is not stopped in time.

This story made a big impression on me as a kid, not just because it depicts the actual destruction of (alternate) Earth, but also for making the point that the society one grows up has a huge effect on people turn out, as we meet versions of recurring characters that have grown up in Nazi Britain.

[dwight_benjamin_thieme]

Late to the party but ... no love for the Amber series? Or is that one too well known to merit mentioning?

[james_davis_nicoll]

I didn't finish the second book. I don't seem to have Amber receptors.

[james_davis_nicoll]

Tor dot com article 322, 2022 article 41