The Time Machine

by Wallace Bennett, directed by Henning Schellerup

Release: 5 November 1978
Format: Feature Film
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

For me, the update to the 1970s took this made-for-TV movie too far away from the original novel. For example, the Traveller (now a rocket scientist called Neil Perry) explains the workings of the machine with gibberish, whereas the original Traveller expressed himself with up-to-date mathematical terminology. The travel to the Salem witch trials and the California gold rush were also off the mark, as was the dreamy Weena who immediately speaks English.

— Michael Main

Well, in principle, it utilizes a electromagnetic force field to molecularly reconstruct the space-time continuum.

DEBUT

The Time Machine (NBC-TV, USA, 5 November 1978).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

PRIOR WORKS: based on The Time Machine by H. G. Wells (1895)

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Time Travel Methods

Wellsian Time Machines

Real-World Tags

Fictional Tags

Post-Apocalyptic and Post-Holocaust Worlds

Groupings

Cited in Worlds Enough and Time, edited by Gary Westfahl ()

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From circa 1978 ⋙ to Salem, MA, 1692. Note: the witch trials.
From Salem, MA, 1692 ⋙ to northern California, 1871. Note: California gold rush.
From northern California, 1871 ⋙ to circa 1978.
From circa 1978 ⋙ to the far future. Round trip. Note: comes back to warn humanity.
From circa 1978 ⋙ to the far future. Note: . . . but returns when he’s not believed.