El Anacronópete

English release: The Time Ship: A Chrononautical Journey Literal: He who flies backwards in time

by Enrique Gaspar

Mad scientist Don Sindulfo and his best friend Benjamin take off in Sindulfo’s flying time machine along with Sindulfo’s niece, her maid, a troop of Spanish soldiers, and a bordelloful of French strumpets for madcap adventures at the 1860 Battle of Téouan, Queen Isabella’s Spain, nondescript locales in the eleventh and seventh centuries, 3rd-century China, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and a biblical time shortly after the flood.

After taking a year of Spanish at the University of Colorado, I undertook a three-year project of translating Gaspar’s novel to English, which is available in a pdf file for your reading pleasure. Even with the unpleasant twist at the end, it was still a fine, farcical romp through history.

— Michael Main

—Poco á poco—argumentaba un sensato.—Si el Anacronópete conduce á deshacer lo hecho, á mi me pasrece que debemos felicitarnos porque eso no permite reparar nuestras faltas.

—Tiene usted razón—clamaba empotrado en un testero del coche un marido cansado de su mujer.—En cuanto se abra la línea al público, tomo yo un billete para la vispera de mi boda.

“One step at a time,” argued a sensible voice. “If el Anacronópete aims to undo history, it seems to me that we must be congratulated as it allows us to amend our failures.”

“Quite right,” called a married man jammed into the front of the bus, thinking of his tiresome wife. “As soon as the ticket office opens to the public, I’m booking passage to the eve of my wedding.”

English

[ex=bare]El Anacronópete | He who flies backwards in time[/ex] by Enrique Gaspar, in Novelas [Stories] (Daniel Cortezo, 1887).

The Devil of the Western Sea

by Philip M. Fisher

I was always drawn to the idea behind [Error: Missing '[/exn]' tag for wikilink]

— Michael Main

But the main point I desire to make is that this neutralization was to be effected by a combination of the ordinary wave impluse with the Callieri Cool Wave. The combination, you understand. It had never been tried on a large scale—it was a virgin experiment.

So the professor was given a free hand, and went below. It was past nine o’clock.

I remained on the bridge enjoying a cigar with the officer of the deck, and chatting over a coming boar hunt we were to have south of the canal during the coming weekend. we had been talking for perhaps ten minutes in the darkness of the bridge, with the black satin of the Caribbean spreading out ahead and about the ship, and the diamond stars projecting just above our heads as though ready for any plucking hand, when suddenly we found ourselves half blinded by a dazzling light in the west.

“The Devil of the Western Sea” by Philip M. Fisher, in Argosy, 5 August 1922.

The Road to Yesterday

by Jeanie MacPherson, Beulah Marie Dix, and Howard Hawks, directed by Cecille B. DeMille

Bickering newlyweds Kenneth and Malena Paulton are thrown back to previous lives in Elizabethan England where they are a knight and a gypsy. The film is loosely based on the earlier play of the same name by Dix and Sutherland.

Safety note: Do not attempt this movie’s method of creating a timeslip—via a fiery train crash—at home.

— Michael Main

I know I love you, Ken! But today—during the marriage service—something seemed to reach out of the Past that made me—afraid!

The Road to Yesterday by Jeanie MacPherson, Beulah Marie Dix, and Howard Hawks, directed by Cecille B. DeMille (at movie theaters, USA, 15 November 1925).

Time Flies

by J. O. C. Orton, Ted Kavanagh, and Howard Irving Young, directed by Walter Forde

After Susie Barton’s husband invested their nest egg in Time Ferry Services, Ltd., it appears that the only way she’ll ever get anything out of it is by giving a performance in Elizabethan times.

This is the earliest appearance of a time machine—the “Time Ball”—in film that we know of. And based on the name Time Ferry Services, Ltd, it may also be the earliest film mention of a time travel agency.

— Michael Main

Normally, we drift with the current and travel downstream and into what we call the future. Now, if we equip our little boat with a motor, we can speed our passage downstream into the future or, breasting the current, travel upstream to view again those selfsame scenes that were passed by humanity ages ago.

Time Flies by J. O. C. Orton, Ted Kavanagh, and Howard Irving Young, directed by Walter Forde (at movie theaters, UK, 8 May 1944).

Unusual Tales #5

The Man Who Changed Times

by Joe Gill [?] and Dick Gordano [?]

A prisoner, Vincent Rand, is offered a way out of his ten-year sentence.

— Michael Main

Wouldn’t you prefer being free, even five hundred years in the past, to serving out a ten year sentence in this prison?

“The Man Who Changed Times” by Joe Gill [?] and Dick Gordano [?], Unusual Tales #5 (Charlton Comics, September 1956).

The Nonsuch Lure

by Mary Luke

— based on publicity material

Timothy spoke. “Are you there? In 1536?” He avoided using Andrew’s name. If there was to be an answer, any name would be unfamiliar at the moment. “Do you wish to tell me, my friend, what you see?”

The Nonsuch Lure by Mary Luke (Coward, McCann and Geoghegan, September 1976).

Jubilee

written and directed by Derek Jarman

In this early punk movie, John Dee, advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, calls forth the spirit Ariel who transports Dee and the queen to an anarchistic and largely unintelligible) England not far beyond the 1970s.

— Michael Main

Now shall one king rise up against another. And there shall be bloodshed throughout the whole world, fighting between the devil, his kingdom, and the kingdom of light.

Jubilee written and directed by Derek Jarman (at movie theaters, UK, February 1978).

Non ci resta che piangere

Literal: We just have to cry

by Roberto Benigni, Giuseppe Bertolucci, and Massimo Troisi, directed by Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi

While stranded in a thunderstorm in Tuscany, lifelong friends Mario and Saverrio find themselves unexpectedly in 1492, whereupon they fall in love a few times, pretend to be the composer of “Yesterday” and other modern-day hits, and come to the conclusion that they must stop Columbus from discovering America (either to prevent the genocide of the Native Americans or to prevent Mario’s sister from having her heart broken, depending on who you believe), and try rather pitifully to explain trains and other modern marvels to da Vinci, including a proposal to split the proceeds “thirty-three, thirty-three, and thirty-three!”

An extended director’s cut also expands the story of one of their heartthrob-esse, an Amazon named Astriaha[/ex], but we don’t know the details of its release or whether an English-subtitled release of the film exists.

— based on Wikipedia

Trentatré, trentatré e trentatré!

Thirty-three, thirty-three, and thirty-three.

English

Non ci resta che piangere by Roberto Benigni, Giuseppe Bertolucci, and Massimo Troisi, directed by Roberto Benigni and Massimo Troisi (at movie theaters, Italy, 20 December 1984).

Invaders

by John Kessel

The story tells us of two sets of invaders—the 16th-century Spaniard Pizarro, who violently invaded the Incan Empire, and the Krel, who economically and culturally invaded 21st-century Earth—and we briefly hear of one man’s use of Krel tech to travel from the 21st century to the 16th.

— Michael Main

Sf is full of this sort of thing, from the power fantasy of the alienated child to the alternate history where Hitler is strangled in his cradle and the Library of Alexandria is saved from the torch.

“Invaders” by John Kessel, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1990.

Isabella of Castile Answers Her Mail

by James Morrow

A lovely series of letters between Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella—as conveyed by messenger albatross in 1492!—describing a modern-day NYC, wondrous yet horrifying.

— Dave Hook

“Isabella of Castile Answers Her Mail” by James Morrow, Amazing Stories, April 1992.

Magic Tree House: Merlin Mission 10*

Monday with a Mad Genius

by Mary Pope Osborne

Jack and Annie travel 500 years back in time to Florence, Italy, and spend a day helping Leonardo da Vinci in the hope of learning another secret of happiness.

— based on fandom.com

Monday with a Mad Genius by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, August 2007) [print · e-book].

Infinity Ring 1

A Mutiny in Time

by James Dashner

This first book of the multi-author series tells of how teens Dak (a history buff and odd duck), Sera (a science nerd), and Riq (a member of the secret Hystorians society) end up as the only ones who can save the world by fixing breaks in time that changed what was meant to be. Their first mission—saving Columbus from a mutiny that was meant to fail—is a disquieting choice that I would not choose as an introduction of history to children. For starters, they are choosing to save the man who brought genocide to the Americas. And to boot, in the broken world where the mutiny succeeded, his three ships still completed their voyage with no noticable change to subsequent centuries (apart from Columbus resting at the bottom of the Atlantic).

— Michael Main

Time had gone wrong—this is what the Hystorians believed. And if things were beyond fixing now, there was only one hope left . . . to go back in time and fix the past instead.

“A Mutiny in Time” by James Dashner (Scholastic, August 2012).

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Time-Travel Trouble!

by Billy Wrecks

A short picture book of the 2014 Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie. The images are all from the movie’s CGI (or at least generated by the same process).

— Michael Main

Sheman was supposed to keep the time machine secret, but he broke the rules. He took his friend Penny back in time to ancient Egypt.

Time-Travel Trouble! by Billy Wrecks (Random House Children’s Books, July 2014).

How to Stop Time

by Matt Haig

As a 400-something-year-old member of the Albatross Society, Tom Hazard ages less than a month for each year of life. But now, after falling in the 21st-century and butting heads with the Society, he seems to be on a mental trip that covers his entire life (but not an actual time traveling trip).

— Michael Main

But as time goes by, at birthdays or other annual markers, people begin to notice you aren’t getting any older.

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Canongate Books, July 2017).

Arthur Travels Back in Time

by Gene Lipen and Judith San Nicolas

Arthur the fearless dog travels to different times in a large blue cannister. The story is written in verse that ignores meter and uses rhymes that don’t quite work.

— Ruthie Mariner

With sights on events his eyes have never seen, Arthur is ready for his new time machine.

Arthur Travels Back in Time by Gene Lipen and Judith San Nicolas (Gene Lipen, November 2020).

Da Vinci’s Cat

by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

As a hostage to Pope Julius II in 1511 Rome, 11-year-old Federico is lonely until he receives a visit from a tawny cat, an art collector from the 20th century, and an 11-year-old kid named Bee from the 21st century.

— Michael Main

All we need is to get Raphael to draw me and make sure he signs it.

Da Vinci’s Cat by Catherine Gilbert Murdock (Greenwillow Books, May 2021) [print · e-book].

Unredacted Reports from 1546

by Leah Cypess

An 18-year-old history student hopes to show that her research subject, 16th-century poet Lucia of Gonzaga, was a modern woman supressed by her time period, but as the traveling student sends messages back to her 21st-century mentor, she reveals more than just history as she’d hoped it would be.

— Michael Main

You were wrong about my age, though. In the sixteenth century, I’m an adult. I am physically mature and able to bear children, and that’s all that matters. No one cares about the completeness of my frontal lobe.

“Unredacted Reports from 1546” by Leah Cypess, Future Science Fiction Digest #11, June 2021 [e-zine · webzine].

Loki, Season 1

by Michael Waldron et al, directed by Kate Herron

Hang on to your Tesseracts! Apparently, in Endgame[/em], when the Avengers traveled back to 2012 to swipe various things from the 2012 Avengers, they inadvertantly started a branch in time where Loki ended up with the Tesseract. Of course, once that occurred, the Time Variance Authority quickly spotted him as a Deviant and quickly recruited him to help in their fight against even more deviant Deviants.

— Michael Main

Appears to be a standard sequence violation. Branches growing at a stable rate and slope. Variant identified.

Loki, Season 1 by Michael Waldron et al, directed by Kate Herron (Disney+, worldwide, 9 June 2021 to 14 July 2021 [6 episodes]).