The idea of hyperspace is totally one of those ridiculous, nothing-could-be-further-from-the-truth concepts made up in science fiction, like being able to fire lasers in the vacuum of space (and them making any sort of noise). Right? Well, perhaps not, since believe it or not NASA are currently in the process of building technology similar to the sort that let the Millenium Falcon jump from one point in the universe to another, light years away, in a matter of seconds. Although hopefully there's won't have a propensity to dump you in an asteroid field or the mouth of a giant space worm hiding in a moon crater. it's still a relatively fringe science, but the fact that an official, government-sanctioned and funded organisation is working on a warp drive makes it seem less like science fiction, and more like science fact. The Innovative Advanced Concepts lab has a group of physicists seriously considering the possibility of faster-than-light travel, something which should theoretically be impossible. Because how could you possibly move faster than the speed of light? That's, like, the fastest thing. Like Usain Bolt riding a cheetah whilst strapped to a rocket. Which isn't how they're doing it, by the way; the current proposal for a warp drive doesn't involve going really fast, but limiting the distance a vessel has to travel. Which means that it actually creates space-time expansion behind the ship, and compresses it in front, essentially carrying the ship forward on a wave made of space-time. Now there's some Doctor Who wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff that's actually real.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
