Nerd World Top 10: Portals to Other Worlds

TARDIS

I can’t remember if the TARDIS is just a space/time vehicle or actually a portal to another dimension?

Not sure if this exactly qualifies, but I’m throwing it out there anyway. Besides I like to make Stephenson references wherever possible.
– The goggle/computer setup that Hiro Protagonist uses in Snowcrash to enter the Metaverse.

I don’t know if I would actually want to go through this portal, but it would certainly make life interesting.
– The twisted redstone arch from WOT that leads to the Aelfinn and the Eelfinn.

From Stargate SG-1′s season one episode, ‘There But For The Grace of God,’ the Quantum Mirror, which allows travel to parallel universes. Seen again in season three’s episode, ‘Point of View.’

From Star Trek: The Original Series episode, ‘City on the Edge of Forever,’ the Guardian of Forever, a time portal to the past.

-The Warrens in “The Malazan Book of the Dead” series by Steven Erikson, which are both portals AND other worlds.
-The Trans-dimensional Ironwood Doors in the Dark Tower novels by Stephen King.

The cheap grape wine that Jack uses in The Talisman to get to the Territories until he learns how to do it himself. And if it doesn’t work, keep drinking until you THINK you’ve transported to another world.

Does the Labyrinth count as a portal, or was it that glass orb thing David Bowie had? It’s the only one I can think of off hand that someone hasn’t listed already. Except maybe the looking glass in Alice Through the Looking Glass.

Oh! The doors the chick from Neverwhere can open, that’s a pretty good one.

All books are like portals… to a world of fun and adventure, using your imagination!

The Pattern in the Amber series by Roger Zelazny.

You’re all missing an important one. The Dark Portal created by Medivh himself. Otherwise, how else could the Orcs have crossed into Azeroth?

oh, good call on the dark tower doors. and i think the leaky cauldron (the entryway to diagon alley in the HP books) deserves a nod.

Just the plain old “Stargate” from the Stargate shows – they come in normal, short-range rings, intergalactic, and Ori Supergate Strength – and when instantaneous travel isn’t fast enough, there’s also Ba’al’s Time Traveling Gates.

The portal to Pylea on “Angel”! I suppose the Hellmouth on Buffy counts too.

Ummm… the wormhole in DS9? Sisko uses it routinely to meet with the Prophets towards the end of the series.

I was going for the Quantuum Mirror from SG-1 as well, but beaten to the punch.

The Pattern in the Amber series by Roger Zelazny.
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Ooooh, good call.

The eye in the hand in Faith No More’s video of EPIC.

Hey, I wrote a book (with my dad) that hase portals as a main plot element. I actually wrote them, and I think they’re pretty awesome, but that’s just me.

The Portal to ToonTown in Roger Rabbit!
The Boom Tube to the Fourth World!
Mario’s Wondrous Warp Pipes!

The gates in Anathem. C’mon.

Okay, dragged a couple more out of my dormant synapses:
- The portal conjured at the end of Evil Dead II, which pulls Ash into the world in Evil Dead III: The Army of Darkness (which technically is meant to be the past, but it is “Other Worldy” enough for me)
- The device in Sliders…how the hell could I have forgotten that!

Oh, yeah, the Sliders dealie – that’s a good one. I completely forgot that show existed!

Oh, oh, oh, the weird glowing red space-storm from “Land of the Giants” that the Spindrift flew through and ended up in…the “Land of the Giants” (Which was pretty much exactly like earth, but 12 times bigger)

The hole in the wall in Stardust and then there’s Cloak’s cloak, a gateway to the Darkforce Dimension

@rco012 – ooo, good call – they’re great gates. Don;t want to say more in case people haven’t read it yet.

The letter box on the front door of the children’s urban home in ‘Elidor’ – when the letterbox buzzes with the vibration of passing traffic, rather than opening onto the steet, it looks out onto the High Places in Elidor.

Scared me for years, that did, such a mundane portal.

FF

The BLUE PILL.

Oh, I’ve got one! The Thirdspace portal from Babylon 5, which connects the 23rd century with a blandly-rendered Lovecraftian universe of eldritch horrors!

In Star Trek, the beamers malfunction at least twenty times, leading to other universes. I’ve got the Alternate realities collective, so I could count, but I don’t want to.

Do any of them lead to a place where people still care about Star Trek? ‘Cuz that’s a place it’s best to stay away from.

LAST!

TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.
Dr Who rocks. Especially when you’re buzzed. But that was many moons ago.
bloggit

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