The Time Travelers
- written and directed by Ib Melchior
- Feature Film
- Science Fiction
- Adults
- Definite Time Travel
- English
- The Time Travelers, written and directed by Ib Melchior (theatrical release, USA, 29 October 1964).
Using their time viewer, three scientists see a desolate landscape 107 years in the future, at which point the electrician realizes that the viewer has unexpectedly become a portal. All four jump through, only to have the portal collapse behind them, whereupon they are chased on the surface by Morlockish mutants who are afraid of thrown rocks, and they meet an advanced, post-apocalyptic, underground society that employs androids and is planning a generation-long trip to Alpha Centauri.
The film draws in at least four important additional time travel tropes: suspended animation, a single consistent timeline (with the corresponding inability to go back and change it), experiencing the passage of time at different rates, and a trip to the far future. And according to the SF Encyclopedia, the film was originally conceived as a sequel to the 1960 film of The Time Machine.
The film draws in at least four important additional time travel tropes: suspended animation, a single consistent timeline (with the corresponding inability to go back and change it), experiencing the passage of time at different rates, and a trip to the far future. And according to the SF Encyclopedia, the film was originally conceived as a sequel to the 1960 film of The Time Machine.
—Michael Main
Isn’t it obvious? The war did happen. You never did go back with your warning.
Tags
(20)
- Time Periods
- Circa AD 1960 to 1969: the travelers’ home time: 5 July 1964
- Circa AD 2000 to 2099: 107 years in the future
- Far Future: near the beginning and at the end
- Timeline Models
- Foretold or Seen Future Is Inevitable
- Single Consistent Timeline
- Viewing the Future: viewed through a rectangular screen
- Viewing the Past: viewed through a rectangular screen
- Time Travel Methods
- Chronoscopes
- Time Portal: The machine was intended only as a time viewer, but it turns out to be a time portal: It looks like you could step right into it.
- Themes
- Differing Time Rates: When the travelers return to 1964, their younger selfs are moving at a vastly slower rate.
- Fix the Present!: The travelers hope to go back to warn their own time about the coming war.
- Long Sleep, Cryogenics, Etc.: for the interstellar trip
- Self-Visitation: The four travelers arrive back in 1964 before their younger selves have left.
- Fictional Tags
- Future Wars: A nuclear war destroyed civilization.
- H. G. Wells’ Time Machine Universe: Not really in Wells’s world, but according to the SF Encyclopedia, it was originally conceived as a sequel to the 1960 film The Time Machine.
- Mutants
- Post-Apocalyptic and Post-Holocaust Worlds
- Robots, Androids, and Cyborgs: Don't be alarmed: The androids won’t hurt you.
- Groupings
Variants
(1)
- The Time Travelers, written and directed by Ib Melchior (theatrical release, USA, 29 October 1964).
Derived Works
(1)
- Journey to the Center of Time, written and directed by David L. Hewitt (a forgettable day in 1967).