Murder in the Time World

by Malcolm Jameson

Karl Tarig plans to murder his kindly cousin, Dr. Claude Morrison, who took Karl in when nobody else would. Then he'll toss cousin Claude’s body into the time machine that Claude built. Lastly, he’ll sell all of Claude’s valuables and run away in time with the indomitable Ellen Warren. The perfect crime!

— Michael Main

To hell with the law! For he had thought out the perfect crime. There could be no dangerous consequences. You can’t hang a man for murder with a body—a corpus delicti. For the first time in the history of crime, a murderer had at his disposal the sure means of ridding himself of his corpse.

“Murder in the Time World” by Malcolm Jameson, Amazing Stories, August 1940.

Weird Fantasy #13 (1950)

Only Time Will Tell

by Al Feldstein et al.

Start by reading Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” (1941), and then read this one. You’ll enjoy both and stretch your mind around the first ex nihilo idea that we’ve spotted in comic books. Note that the half blueprint itself does have an origin, and you can trace it’s timeline from that origin to the past and back again. It’s only the concept expressed in the blueprint that has no origin.

— Michael Main

—are the same piece!

“Only Time Will Tell” by Al Feldstein et al., Weird Fantasy #13 (EC Comics, May/June 1950).

Journey into Mystery #13

What Harry Saw

by an unknown writer and artist

If you (or Harry, of course) should happen to see your wife with another man in your chronoscope, be careful about how you proceed.

— Michael Main

I turned on the futurescope and saw her kissing Edmund, a man I work with!

“What Harry Saw” by an unknown writer and artist, in Journey into Mystery #13 (Atlas Comics, December 1953).

“—All You Zombies—”

by Robert A. Heinlein

A 25-year-old man, originally born as an orphan girl named Jane, tells his story to a 55-year-old bartender who then recruits him for a time-travel adventure.

— Michael Main

When I opened you, I found a mess. I sent for the Chief of Surgery while I got the baby out, then we held a consultation with you on the table—and worked for hours to salvage what we could. You had two full sets of organs, both immature, but with the female set well enough developed for you to have a baby. They could never be any use to you again, so we took them out and rearranged things so that you can develop properly as a man.

“‘—All You Zombies—’” by Robert A. Heinlein, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1959.

Unusual Tales #20

The Time Cap

by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno

Phil Winship, an executive at an American company in Iran, finds an odd cap in the desert that transports him to a strange laboratory.

— Michael Main

Now I realize what happened! This cap is some sort of time-travelling device!

“The Time Cap” by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno, Unusual Tales #20 (Charlton Comics, January 1960).

Unusual Tales #20

The Forbidden Camera

by Joe Gill [?], Charles Nicholas, and Vince Alascia

Archeologist Wayne Banford ignores the sanskrit warning to leave the camera where he found it in a cave with an idol.

— Michael Main

He who would claim this camera as his own will have a life of woe heed this warning.

“The Forbidden Camera” by Joe Gill [?], Charles Nicholas, and Vince Alascia, Unusual Tales #21 (Charlton Comics, March 1960).

The Twilight Zone (r1s01e26)

Execution

by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon

Back in the 1880s, just after a man without conscience is dropped from a lone tree with a rope around his neck, a scientist pulls him into 20th-century New York City.

Serling wrote this script based on a George Clayton Johnson’s bare bones, present-tense treatment for a TV script, complete with an indication of where the commercial break should go. For this episode, Serling filled in the flesh and cut the fat from a bare bones, present-tense treatment by George Clayton Johnson. The treatment appeared in Johnson’s 1977 retrospective collection of scripts and stories, and in Volume 9 of Serling’s collected Twilight Zone scripts, Johnson commented that “Rod took my idea and went off to the races with it. He had a remarkable knowledge of what would and wouldn’t work on television, and he took everything that wouldn’t work out of ‘Execution’. He worked like a surgeon; a little snip here, a complete amputation over there, move this bone into place, graft over that one. When he was done, my little story had grown into a television script that lived and breathed on its own.” Serling also added a nice twist at the end that, for us, warranted the TV episode an Eloi Honorable Mention.
Rod Serling wrote this script based on a 1960 Twilight Zone episode of the same name, but I’m uncertain whether the story was published before Johnson’s 1977 retrospective collection.

— Michael Main

Caswell: I wanna see if there are things out there like you described to me. Carriages without horses and the buildings that rise to—

Professor Manion: They’re out there, Caswell.. . . Things you can’t imagine.

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e26), “Execution” by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon (CBS-TV, USA, 1 April 1960).

The Boy and the Pirates

by Lillie Hayward and Jerry Sackheim, directed by Bert I. Gordon

Young Jimmy Warren asks a genie to send him from present-day Massachusetts to the time of Blackbeard, and the genie obliges! But now, in order to avoid becoming a genie himself, Jimmy must trick the pirate into returning to Massachusetts.

— Michael Main

This is a funny lookin’ bottle—yeah, neat. But I bet if I took it home, Pop would say, “It’s just another piece of junk.” Nobody let’s me do anything I want to. I wish I was far away from here; I wish I was on a pirate ship.

The Boy and the Pirates by Lillie Hayward and Jerry Sackheim, directed by Bert I. Gordon (at movie theaters, USA, 13 April 1960).

The Twilight Zone (r1s01e30)

A Stop at Willoughby

by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Parrish

On a snowy November evening during his train commute home from New York City, John Daly falls asleep and, perhaps in a dream, sees a simpler life with bands playing in the bandstand, people riding penny farthings through the park, and kids fishin’ at their fishin’ holes the 1888 summertime of idyllic Willoughby.

— Michael Main

Willoughby, sir? That’s Willoughby right outside. Willoughby, July, summer. It’s 1888—really a lovely little village. You ought to try it sometime. Peaceful, restful, where a man can slow down to a walk and live his live full-measure.

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e30), “A Stop at Willoughby” by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Parrish (CBS-TV, USA, 6 May 1960).

The Time Machine

by David Duncan, directed by George Pal

The Traveller now has a name—H. George Wells (played by Rod Taylor)—and Weena has the beautiful face and talent of Yvette Mimieux.

— Michael Main

When I speak of time, I’m speaking of the fourth dimension.

The Time Machine by David Duncan, directed by George Pal (at limited movie theaters, Rome, 25 May 1960).

Beyond the Time Barrier

by Arthur C. Pierce, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer

Major Bill Allison flies the experimental X-80 into the year 2024 where a plague has turned most humans into subhuman mutants and the rest are mostly deaf, dumb, and sterile. Once there, the leaders of an underground citadel (not to be confused with the ITTDB Citadel) have plans for him to marry the beautiful telepathic (and possibly non-sterile) Princess Trirene, and thereby re-populate the world. But together with Trirene and a small group of scientists, he devises a plan to return to his own time and prevent the plague from ever occurring.

The flight to the future is explained by scientific gibberish that contains a high concentration of mumbo jumbo, but the gist of it is that the speed of Allison’s plane (around 10,000 mph) added to the rotational speed of the Earth plus the speed of the Earth’s orbit around the sun plus the speed of the Solar System around the center of the galaxy plus maybe another speed or two, managed to bring his total speed close to that of light, which brought him to the future. Apparently, reversing his plane’s path is all that’s needed to return him to the past (ideally with Trirene beside him).

A self-defeating act paradox is set up nicely (if Alison stops the plague, then the citadel in the, future won’t be there to send him back to stop the plague), but the issue is never explicitly discussed and the ending of the film is inconclusive on the matter. Nevertheless, I commend the film for being the first to raise the issue of time travel paradoxes, albeit in the background.

— Michael Main

I may be able to prevent it: Is that what you mean?

Beyond the Time Barrier by Arthur C. Pierce, directed by Edgar G. Ulmer (at movie theaters, USA, circa July 1960).

The Six Fingers of Time

by R. A. Lafferty

The story does not involve time travel, but it does have speeded-up time as in “The New Accelerator” by H. G. Wells.

— Fred Galvin

I awoke this morning to some very puzzling incidents. It seemed that time itself had stopped, or that the whole world had gone into super-slow motion.

“The Six Fingers of Time” by R. A. Lafferty, If, September 1960.

Unusual Tales #25

The Confederate Girl

by Joe Gill [?] and Steve Ditko

Civil War mythbuster Hiram White moves to a small Georgia town where the townspeople believe that Confederate ghosts still ride through the dusk.

— Michael Main

Miss Belle Herbert once lived here! During the Civil War she was a southern spy and captured by Major Joshua White!

“The Confederate Girl” by Joe Gill [?] and Steve Ditko, Unusual Tales #25 (Charlton Comics, December 1960).

The Twilight Zone (r1s02e09)

The Trouble with Templeton

by E. Jack Neuman, directed by Buzz Kulik

The trouble with aging actor Booth Templeton is that he sees life as useless even decades after his young wife died. The answer to his trouble may lie in the people he meets—including his dead wife, Laura!—in what appears to be his hangouts from some thirty years ago. Actual time travel or something more fantastical? You be the judge.

— Michael Main

Laura! The freshest, most radiant creature God ever created. Eighteen when I married her, Marty, . . . twenty-five when she died.

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e09), “The Trouble with Templeton” by E. Jack Neuman, directed by Buzz Kulik (CBS-TV, USA, 9 December 1960).

The Twilight Zone (r1s02e10)

A Most Unusual Camera

by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich

Petty thieves Chet and Paula Diedrich are frustrated, angry, and in a bickering mood when they find nothing but cheap junk in the 400-lbs. of stuff they lifted from a curios store in the middle of the night, . . . until that boxy looking camera with the indecipherable label—dix à la propriétaire—produces a photo of the immediate future.

— Michael Main

Yeah, it takes dopey pictures—dopey pictures like things that haven’t happened yet, but they do happen.

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e10), “A Most Unusual Camera” by Rod Serling, directed by John Rich (CBS-TV, 16 December 1960).

The Twilight Zone (r1s02e13)

Back There

by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon

An engineer in the 1960s slips back to the night of Lincoln’s assassination.

— Michael Main

I’ve got a devil of a lot more than a premonition. Lincole will be assassinated unless somebody tries to prevent it!

The Twilight Zone (v1s02e13), “Back There” by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon (CBS-TV, 13 January 1961).

Unusual Tales #26

Where Is Amelia?

by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia

At a happenin’ party, a beatnik puts Amelia into a trance, sending her to, like, the the 25th century!

— Michael Main

Sleep, chick, sleep deep! You will like go into another world. A world without squares. A world where everyone is like real sweep people!

“Where Is Amelia?” by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia, Unusual Tales #26 (Charlton Comics, February 1961).

Unusual Tales #27

Look into the Future

by Joe Gill [?] and Steve Ditko

Decades ago, a prescient dream gave a young man confidence to ruthlessly pursue his ambitions.

— Michael Main

The mine did cave later . . . but mining is a dangerous business and some always die! The important thing is, I got production!

“Look into the Future” by Joe Gill [?] and Steve Ditko, Unusual Tales #27 (Charlton Comics, April 1961).

Unusual Tales #29

Where Does It Go?

by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia

J. L . Standish finds himself unexpectedly on a flying bus to the future where the automata have a job for him.

— Michael Main

But what would I do? If your automated processes are as efficient as I believe, a mere mortal cannot be important to you!

“Where Does It Go?” by Joe Gill [?], Bill Molno, and Vince Alascia, Unusual Tales #29 (Charlton Comics, August 1961).

Unusual Tales #30

A Small Matter of Time

by Joe Gill [?] and Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio

The title suggests that Professor Amos Shute’s intrepid travelers are going back in time to four planets that are identical in every way to our own, but then again, perhaps those four planets were merely at earlier times to begin with. We won’t say one way or another, but we are glad that the Spanish Flu pandemic, World War I, World War II, and World War III were all averted on some Earth.

— Michael Main

In what time period will you find yourselves when you land at your particular destinatoin!

“A Small Matter of Time” by Joe Gill [?] and Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio, Unusual Tales #30 (Charlton Comics, October 1961).

The Three Stooges Meet Hercules

by Elwood Ullman, directed by Edward Bernds

Before George Pal’s version of The Time Machine hit the silver screen, actual time machines were a rarity in film. But afterwards, even Moe, Larry, and Curly could throw one together in an afternoon to take them, their pal Schuyler, and their Lady friend Diane back to ancient Greece where, among other things, they restore Ulysses to the crown, kill a pair of conjoined Cyclopes, impersonate Hercules, and attract the wrath of the real Hercules.

Side note: The trio of stooges are also the first time travelers we’ve seen in film who fret over changing the course of history. Who woulda thunk?

— Michael Main

We helped the wrong army. We put a skunk on the throne of Ithaca.

The Three Stooges Meet Hercules by Elwood Ullman, directed by Edward Bernds (premiered at an unknown movie theater, New York City, 26 January 1962).

Unusual Tales #32

Out of “Ur”

[writer unknown]

A man and his future wife show up in the 20th century with a bag of diamonds and a fabulous story of ancient royalty.

— Michael Main

I refuse to make any statement about whether or not those two crossed a Time Barrier.

“Out of ‘Ur’” [writer unknown], Unusual Tales #32 (Charlton Comics, February 1962).

Unusual Tales #33

Death of a Hot Rod

by Joe Gill [?], Charles Nicholas, and Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio

After high school, young Joe Bragan is offered a job driving his hot rod around the deserts of Libya.

— Michael Main

He looks for real! So does the chariot!

“Death of a Hot Rod” by Joe Gill [?], Charles Nicholas, and Rocco “Rocke” Mastroserio, Unusual Tales #33 (Charlton Comics, mAY 1962).

Tyrannosaurus Rex

by Ray Bradbury

We could have told special effects meister John Terwilliger that the only way to get a truly monstrous T. rex on film is to build a time machine, but alas, he relied solely on stop-motion animation with no time travel, and look at the abuse he gets for his efforts from the renowned producer Joe Clarence.

— Michael Main

Step by step, frame by frame of film, stop motion by stop motion, he, Terwilliger, had run his beasts through their postures, moved each a fraction of an inch, photographed them, moved them another hair, photographed them, for hours and days and months.

“The Prehistoric Producer” by Ray Bradbury, in The Saturday Evening Post, 23 June 1962.

Fantastic Four #5

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott

The Marvel Comics Brand began in 1939 with the first edition of Marvel Comics. Throughout the ’40s and ’50s, some of the Timely and Atlas comics had the slogan “A Marvel Magazine,” ”Marvel Comic,” or a small “MC” on the cover. As for me personally, I was hooked when Marvel started publishing the Fantastic Four in 1961. During the sixties, I devoured as many Marvels as I could as they arrived at the local Rexall Drug Store or swapping comcs with my pals, and this is the first of those Marvel issues in the ’60s involved superhero time travel.

Nowadays, we all know that Doc Doom is far too smart to think the most profitable way to use his time platform is by sending three of the FF into the past with orders to bring back Blackbeard’s treasure (while keeping the fourth member of their team captive). And yet, the story has a charm that stems from the causal loop of Ben Grimm’s presence in the past actually causing the legend of Blackbeard, which in turn caused Doom to send the loveable lunk back.

And now I shall send you back. . . hundreds of years into the past! You will have forty-eight hours to bring me Blackbeard’s treasure chest! Do not fail!

“Prisoners of Doctor Doom!” by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott, in Fantastic Four 5 (Marvel Comics, July 1962).

Journey into Mystery #86

On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

Zarrko, a mad time-machine-building scientist from 2262, believes that our nuclear weapons will enable him to take over the world of his time. He comes back to 1962 to steal one, and the Mighty Thor pursues him back to 2262.

The plot suffers from Alpha Centauri syndrome, where the time traveler might as well be from Alpha Centauri as from the future, but seeing the emergence of Kirby’s high-perspective artwork gives this issue a boost. In addition, the story provides a powerful image of the pre-Vietnam cold war era and its prevailing assumptions about the roles of women in society.

— Michael Main

Ahhh—an ancient explosion of a nuclear bomb! The perfect device with which to conquer the twenty-third century!

“On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Journey into Mystery 86 (Marvel Comics, November 1962).

Lem’s Star Diaries

Czarna komnata profesora Tarantogi

Literal: Professor Tarantoga's black room

by Stanisław Lem

Professor Tarantoga saves human civilization! After using his chronopad to investigate the leading scientists and artists in history, Tarantoga concludes that without exception they are lazy drunkards. So naturally, he sends smart young people into various eras to invent differential calculus, to paint the Mona Lisa, etc.—all while a pair of police inspectors have their eye on him.

— based on Wikipedia

[ex=bare]Czarna komnata profesora Tarantogi: Widowisko telewizyjne | Professor Tarantoga’s black room: Television show[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963).

Lem’s Star Diaries

Dziwny gość profesora Tarantogi

Literal: Professor Tarantoga’s strange guest

by Stanisław Lem

I’d bet my last złotych that Lem is carefully satirizing the rule of the Polish United Workers’s Party in this story of a fourth-millennium man who hails from Mars and has room in his brain for two or three different personalities (Kazimierz Nowak, Hipperkorn, and possibly a dreaded Nanów), the first of which leapt from a touring chronobus in the 20th century where he hoped to find the inventor of time travel, Professor Tarantoga.

— Michael Main

W kilku słowach: w naszym społeczeñstwie decyduje o losie człowieka ranga intelektualna. Ludzie wartoœciowi, o zdolnoœciach wybitnych, mają prawo do całego, własnego ciała. Ja właœnie byłem takim, byłem samodzielnym, suwerennym meżczyznę!

Briefly, in our society the fate of a person depends on his intellectual level. Valuable people with outstanding abilities have the right to their entire body. I was just that, I was an independent, sovereign man!

English

[ex=bare]Dziwny gość profesora Tarantogi: Widowisko telewizyjne | Professor Tarantoga’s strange guest: Television show[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963).

Lem’s Star Diaries

Wyprawa profesora Tarantogi

Literal: Professor Tarantoga’s voyage

by Stanisław Lem

Oh, tensor! Oh, turbulent perturbation! Some time before Professor Tarantoga invented a time machine and met a schizophrenic man from the fourth millennium, he apparently invented a transporter that took him and his new assistant Chybek to a series of progressively more advanced civilizations, the last of which included a barefaced cook who had an embarrasing accident in the cosmic kitchen, resulting in mankind (and indirectly resulting in time travel for the professor and Chybek).

— Michael Main

I znów mi się przypaliło—jedno spiralne ramie, od spodu, na trzysta parseków—i znowu wybiegła mi słonecznica, i ścięło się, i będzie zgęstek, i powstanie białko, przeklęte białko! I znowu będzie ewolucja, i ludzkość, i cywilizacja, i będę się musiał tłumaczyć, usprawiedliwiać, składać we dwoje, przepraszać, że to niechcący, że przez przypadek . . . Ale to wy, nie ja!

And I got burned again—one spiral arm, underneath, three hundred parsecs—and again a sunflower came out of me and it was choked and there will be a bundle of white, cursed protein! And there will be evolution again, and humanity and civilization, and I will have to justify, justify, put together, apologize that it’s accidentally, that by accident . . .

English

[ex=bare]Wyprawa profesora Tarantogi: Widowisko w sześciu częściach | Professor Tarantoga’s voyage: A television show in six parts[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963).

Strange Tales #111

Face-to-Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo!

by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

Steve Ditko’s second-ever story of the master of the mystic arts includes one panel that, based on Stan Lee’s caption, involves time travel. Even though it was just one panel, it got me wondering whether the phrase race through time could possibly have a meaning. What would it mean for one time traveler to arrive at the final destination before another? Isn't the whole set up kind of like Doc Strange saying to Baron Mordo, “I’ll bet I can think of a number bigger than you can.”

— Michael Main

Unseen by human eyes, the two mighty spirit images race thru time and space. . .

“Face-to-Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales 111 (Marvel Comics, August 1963).

Tales of Suspense #44

The Mad Pharoah!

by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Don Heck

Iron Man’s suit changes from grey to gold, and the golden Avenger is kidnapped and taken back to ancient Egypt where he upsets the plans of the consistently misspelled Mad Pharoah by winning the throne back for Cleopatra.

— Michael Main

For though I do not know your real identity . . . I, Cleopatra, have lost my heart to you!

“The Mad Pharoah!” [sic] by Stan Lee, Robert Bernstein, and Don Heck, in Tales of Suspense 44 (Marvel Comics, August 1963).

Fantastic Four #19

Prisoners of the Pharoah!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“Prisoners of the Pharoah!” i]sic[/i by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Fantastic Four 19 (Marvel Comics, October 1963).

Fantastic Four #23

The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Fantastic Four 23 (Marvel Comics, February 1964).

Journey into Mystery #101–102

Zarrko Rides Again!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“Zarrko Rides Again!” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Journey into Mystery 101–102 (Marvel Comics, February to March 1964).

Strange Tales #123

The Challenge of Loki!

by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

“The Challenge of Loki!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales 123 (Marvel Comics, August 1964).

Fantastic Four Annual #2

The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Chic Stone

“The Final Victory of Dr. Doom!” by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Chic Stone, in Fantastic Four Annual 2 (Marvel Comics, September 1964).

Avengers #8

Kang, the Conqueror!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“Kang, the Conqueror!” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Avengers #8 (Marvel Comics, September 1964).

Strange Tales #124

The Lady from Nowhere!

by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

“The Lady from Nowhere!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales 124 (Marvel Comics, September 1964).

Farnham’s Freehold

by Robert A. Heinlein

Hugh Farnam makes good preparations for his family to survive a nuclear holocaust, but are the preparations good enough to survive a trip to the future?

In his blog, Fred Pohl wrote about how Heinlein’s agent gave permission for Pohl publish the novel in If and to cut “five or ten thousand words in the beginning that were argumentative, extraneous and kind of boring” (and Pohl agreed to pay full rate for the cut words). But apparently, Heinlein “went ballistic” when he saw the first installment, so much so that when the book appeared as a separate publication, Heinlein made sure people knew who was responsible for the previous cuts by adding a note* that “A short version of this novel, as cut and revised by Frederik Pohl, appeared in Worlds of If Magazine.”

* The version of Heinlein’s note that Pohl recalled was much funnier than Heinlein’s actual note in our timeline, but sadly, we have lost track of where we saw Pohl’s version.

— Michael Main

Because the communists are realists. They never risk a war that would hurt them, even if they could win. So they won’t risk one they can’t win.

Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, October 1964).

The Time Travelers

written and directed by Ib Melchior

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 creatures 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 nonbranching, static 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.

The Time Travelers written and directed by Ib Melchior (at movie theaters, USA, 29 October 1964).

Avengers #10

The Avengers Break Up!

by Stan Lee] and [exn]Don Heck

“The Avengers Break Up!” by Stan Lee] and [exn]Don Heck, in Avengers 10 (Marvel Comics, November 1964).

Unusual Tales #47

The Unwelcome Guest

by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno

After a car accident, Steve Teller stumbles into a house that takes him from one time to another.

— Michael Main

Open up! I’ve had enough of this! Whatever crazy explanation there is, I want it now!

“The Unwelcome Guest” by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Molno, Unusual Tales #47 (Charlton Comics, November 1964).

Journey into Mystery #122

Where Mortals Fear to Tread!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“Where Mortals Fear to Tread!” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Journey into Mystery 122 (Marvel Comics, November 1964).

Avengers #11, `December 1964`

The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man

by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Chic Stone

This story is as close as Spidey ever got to time traveling in the Silver Age. He didn’t travel himself, but he did meet and battle Kang’s time traveling Spider-Man robot. On top of that, Don Heck gave us his interpretations of Ditko art taken from the pages of the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. Can you tell which is which?

Spider-Man! Well, much obliged to you, fella! I never knew you were so. . . cooperative!

“The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man” by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Chic Stone, in The Avengers 11, December 1964.

Fantastic Four #34

A House Divided!

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“A House Divided!” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Fantastic Four 34 (Marvel Comics, January 1965).

Strange Tales #129

Beware . . . Tiboro! The Tyrant of the Sixth Dimension!

by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

“Beware . . . Tiboro! The Tyrant of the Sixth Dimension!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales 129 (Marvel Comics, February 1965).

Strange Tales #134

The Challenge of . . . the Watcher!

by Stan Lee and Bob Powell

“The Challenge of . . . the Watcher!” by Stan Lee and Bob Powell, in Strange Tales 134 (Marvel Comics, July 1965).

Fantastic Four Annual #3

Bedlam at the Baxter Building!

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta

“Bedlam at the Baxter Building!” by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Vince Colletta, in Fantastic Four Annual 3 (Marvel Comics, September 1965).

Gorgo 23

The Land of Long Ago

by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Montes

Charlton’s Gorgo comic was inspired by the the 1961 movie of the same name Unlike the movie, however, the comic book Gorgo had one adventure in time when Dr. Hobart Howarth rescues Gorgo from YaPa* by sending the giant reptile back to the late Jurassic. Sadly, as a child, I bought only one Gorgo comic, which was not the time-travel issue, although that one issue I had was drawn by Steve Ditko, hooray!
* Yet another Pentagon attack

— Michael Main

I will send Gorgo back into is own era in the stream of time. Here he is an anachronism . . . In his own time, he would be in harmony withhis surroundings!

“The Land of Long Ago” by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Montes, in Gorgo #23 (Charlton Comics, September 1965).

Avengers #23–24

The Epic of Kang vs. the Avengers Quartet!

by Stan Lee and Don Heck

“The Epic of Kang vs. the Avengers Quartet!” by Stan Lee and Don Heck, in Avengers 23–24 (Marvel Comics, December 1965 to January 1966).

October the First Is Too Late

by Fred Hoyle

Dick, a composer, and his boyhood friend John, now an eminent scientist, find themselves in a patchwork world of different times from classical Greece to a far future that humanity barely survives.

My favorable impression is no doubt reflective of the time when I read it (the summer of 1970, nearly 13, while moving from Washington State to Alabama). Perhaps the fiction doesn’t hold up as well decades later up, but the issues of time that it brings up still interest me and it was my first exposure to the idea of a geographic timeslip. And, similar to Asimov, Hoyle served to cultivate my interest in the natural sciences.

— Michael Main

To the Reader: The “science” in this book is mostly scaffolding for the story, story-telling in the traditional sense. However, the discussions of the significance of time and the meaning of consciousness are intended to be quite serious, as also are the contents of chapter fourteen. —from Hoyle’s preface

October the First Is Too Late by Fred Hoyle (William Heinemann, 1966).

Tales to Astonish #75–78

Hulk, against a World!

by Stan Lee et al.

“Hulk, against a World!” [unofficial title] by Stan Lee et al., in Tales to Astonish 75–78 (Marvel Comics, January to April 1966).

Avengers #28

Among Us Walks a Goliath!

by Stan Lee and Don Heck

“Among Us Walks a Goliath!” by Stan Lee and Don Heck, in Avengers 28 (Marvel Comics, May 1966).

Strange Tales #148—150

Kaluu!

by Denny O’Neil, Roy Thomas, and Bill Everett

When Kaluu triumphantly sends the all-powerful Book of Vishanti back to the time of its origin, it falls to Doc Strange and the Ancient One to banish it to a timeless period so that it will never again fall into the wrong hands.

— Michael Main

We approach the time-space continuum of ancient Babylonia— It is there that the book which we seek was created milenniums [sic] ago!

“Kaluu!” by Denny O’Neil, Roy Thomas, and Bill Everett, in Strange Tales 148–150 (Marvel Comics, September to November 1966).

Jessamy

by Barbara Sleigh

Visiting with the caretaker of an empty old mansion, orphaned Jessamy emerges from the nursery closet into the world of 1914 when her namesake lived in the same house and left her adventures and a mystery to be solved again in the present.

— from publicity material

Somehow I’ve become another Jessamy in a different time! It must be a different time because of the clothes. Nobody wears long skirts like Matchett and Aunt now—I mean that—oh, I don’t know what I mean!

Jessamy by Barbara Sleigh (Bobbs-Merrill, 1967).

Star Trek (s01e19)

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

by D. C. Fontana, directed by Michael O’Herlihy

Darn those high-gravity black stars! Always accidentally throwing starships hither and yon through time. Although in this case, the crew of the Enterprise manages to correct all the problems they caused by beaming 1960s Air Force pilot Captain John Christopher on board.

— Michael Main

Spock: Fifty years to go. Forty. Thirty.
Kirk: Never mind, Mr. Spock.
Spock: [silence]

Star Trek (s01e19), “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” by D. C. Fontana, directed by Michael O’Herlihy (NBC-TV, USA, 26 January 1967).

Thor #140

The Growing Man

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

“The Growing Man” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Thor 140 (Marvel Comics, May 1967).

Not Brand Echh #2

Magnut, Robot Biter!

by Roy Thomas and Don Heck

“Magnut, Robot Biter!” by Roy Thomas and Don Heck, in Not Brand Echh 2 (Marvel Comics, September 1967).

Journey to the Center of Time

written and directed by David L. Hewitt

The writer, David L. Hewitt, took chunks of plot and script from The Time Travelers (1964), swapped the blonde for a brunette, swapped the accidental time gate for an accidental time rift that drags the whole lab through time as if it were a time ship, added a anachronistic dinosaur, and ended up with an unwatchable movie.

Like the 1964 version, this version has a brief mention that it’s impossible to change events that have already happened, but unlike the original, the montage at the end of the film is mere chaos that no longer reinforces the idea of a single deterministic, nonbranching timeline. Despite that, I enjoyed the consequences of the villainous character running into himself, but at the same time, I dismayed at the discussion of how meeting yourself could instantly cause a disastrous explosion or implosion or maybe something-or-other (the audio was unintelligible at 1:12) would cease to exist. (I pray that the space-time continuum wasn’t in peril).

— Michael Main

Well, isn’t it obvious, Manning? The war did happen. We didn’t get back with our warning.

Journey to the Center of Time written and directed by David L. Hewitt (at movie theaters, USA, a forgettable day in 1967).

Star Trek (s02e26)

Assignment: Earth

by Art Wallace, directed by Marc Daniels

The Enterprise and her crew make their first intentional trip back in time to study historical aspects of 1968 and the Cold War, but unexpectedly, they intercept a transporter beam that brings the mysterious Gary Seven and his feline from a faraway advanced planet.

— Michael Main

Humans of the 20th century do not go beaming around the Galaxy, Mr. Seven.

Star Trek (s02e26), “Assignment: Earth” by Art Wallace, directed by Marc Daniels (NBC-TV, USA, 29 March 1968).

Avengers Annual #2

. . . and Time, the Rushing River . . .

by Roy Thomas, Don Heck, and Werner Roth

After the Scarlet Centurion waylays the Avengers on their way back from the 1940s, they find themselves in an alternative 1968 where the five original Avengers stayed together under the thumb of the Scarlet Centurion.

The story includes flashbacks and previously unknown explanations of the team’s previous trip to the ’40s in Avengers #56, and at the end of the story, Goliath uses Dr. Doom’s Time Platform to banish the Scarlet Centurion back to his time—and we think this is the only time travel that actually appears in the story (apart from the flashbacks). We don’t know what happens to the alternative 1968 (now known as Earth-689, but the traveling Avengers return to the universe that we all knew and loved in the 1960s (a.k.a. Earth-616), with their memory of the whole affair wiped by the Watcher.

— Michael Main

Time is like a river! Dam it up at any one point. . . and it has no choice but to flow elsewhere. . . along other, easier routes!

“. . . And Time, the Rushing River. . .” by Roy Thomas, Don Heck, and Werner Roth, in The Avengers Annual 2 (Marvel Comics, September 1968).

Avengers #56

Death Be Not Proud!

by Roy Thomas and John Buscema

Using Doc Doom’s time platform, the tag-3743 } Wasp sends Cap and the other three 1968 Avengers back to observe Bycky Barnes’s death at the hands of Baron Zemo.

— Michael Main

That’s just what’s begun to torure me! How can I be sure he’s dead? I saw only a single searing blast! If I somehow survived it. . . couldn’t he have, too?

“Death Be Not Proud!” by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, in The Avengers 56 (Marvel Comics, September 1968).

Iron Man #5

Frenzy in a Far-Flung Future!

by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska

“Frenzy in a Far-Flung Future!” by Archie Goodwin and George Tuska, in Iron Man 5 (Marvel Comics, September 1968).

All the Myriad Ways

by Larry Niven

Detective-Lieutenant Gene Trimble suspects that the recent spate of suicides and violent crime is somehow connected to the discovery that the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics is real and each of those worlds can be traveled to.

— Michael Main

There were timelines branching and branching, a mega-universe of universes, millions more every minute. Billions? Trillions? Trimble didn’t understand the theory, though God knows he’d tried. The universe split every time someone made a decision. Split, so that every decision every made could go both ways. Every choice ever made by every man, woman and child on Earth was reversed in the universe next door.

“All the Myriad Ways” by Larry Niven, in Galaxy, October 1968.

The Ghosts

by Antonia Barber

In the 1960s, a solicitor—Mr. Blunden—arranges for a widow and her children to move to an English house while the rightful heir is tracked down. The two children, Lucy and Jamie, soon meet two orphans, Sara and Georgie, who are living in the house—with their own version Mr. Blunden—exactly one century before! The orphans need help, so with the aid of a magic potion, Lucy and Jamie go back in time to the very day before the orphans will die in a fire (according to the gravestone that Lucy and Jamie found). They definitely have a fix-the-past mission, and they definitely succeed, but in the process, an amazing twist on the grandfather paradox arises (see the spoiler below).

The story has a kind of reverse grandfather paradox: [spoiler Lucy and Jamie’s great-great-grandparents are Sara and Tom (a boy who died trying to save Sara and George). So, initially, Lucy and Jamie actually have no grandparents (at least not on that side), and it’s only by Lucy and Jamie going back in time to save Sara and George (as well as Tom) that Sara and Tom live long enough to have offspring. So where did Lucy and Jamie come from initially in order to be able to go back in time and create the conditions so that they will be born? This is almost a single nonbranching, static timeline, except for the fact that initially, Sara, Georgie, and Tom did die (as evinced by what Lucy and Jamie see and hear in the graveyar), so Lucy and Jamie did change things. I think we need a new name for it, perhaps the grandchild paradox.[/spoiler]

— Michael Main

Lucy found it very confusing. “I don’t think I really understand this Wheel of Time business even now,” she said.

“Oh, I don’t understand it,” said Jamie cheerfully, “but then I don’t understand television either. But when you’ve seen it working, you can’t help believing in it.”

The Ghosts by Antonia Barber (Jonathan Cape, 1969).

Marvel Super-Heroes #18

Earth Shall Overcome!

by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan

“Earth Shall Overcome!” by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, in Marvel Super-Heroes 18 (Marvel Comics, January 1969).

Marvel Super-Heroes #20

This Man . . . This Demon!

by Larry Lieber et al.

“This Man . . . This Demon!” by Larry Lieber et al., in Marvel Super-Heroes 20 (Marvel Comics, May 1969).

tag-3934 Silver Surfer #6

Worlds without End!

by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Sal Buscema

“Worlds without End!” by Stan Lee, John Buscema, and Sal Buscema, in tag-3934 Silver Surfer 6 (Marvel Comics, June 1969).

Only Yesterday

by Ted White

Near the start of the Great Depression, a man waits for college student Donna Smith—someday to be Donna Albright—at the trolley stop near her rural Virgina home.

— Michael Main

Nervously fingering his narrow lapel, he broke the silence, saying, “I’d like to tell you some things . . . Totally outrageous things. You have to promise me just one thing first.”

“Only Yesterday” by Ted White, Amazing Stories, July 1969.

Aviary Hall 3

Charlotte Sometimes

by Penelope Farmer

Two young, boarding-school students—Charlotte in 1963 and Clare in 1918—swap minds through time every night, until one day the bed that’s causing all this magic gets moved to the hospital ward, and they are stuck in each other’s times.

— Michael Main

“But I’m not Clare,” Charlotte began to say hopelessly, then stopped herself, explanation being impossible, especially since this girl seemed to think so incredibly that she was Clare.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (Chatto and Windus, September 1969).

Avengers #69–71

The Epic of Kang vs. the Avengers Nonet!

by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema

“The Epic of Kang vs. the Avengers Nonet!” by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema, in Avengers 69–71 (Marvel Comics, October to December 1969).

The Twilight Zone [s1e30] (treatm.ent)

Execution

by George Clayton Johnson

Back in the Old West, just after outlaw Jason Black is dropped from a lone tree with a rope around his neck, two scientists pull him into the 20th century. The story isn’t your typical short story; instead, it’s a treatment that Johnson presented to Rod Serling for a Twilight Zone episode that aired on 1 April 1960.

Listen to me. There is a strange world outside that door. Without us to help you, anything can happen to you. This is the twentieth century, don’t you understand?

“Execution” by George Clayton Johnson, in A Collection of Scripts and Stories written for “The Twilight Zone” by George Clayton Johnson, limited edition of 100 looseleaf copies (Valcour and Krueger, 1977).

Twilight Zone: The Movie

Time Out

written and directed by John Landis

The Twilight Zone anthology movie reprises three of the original show’s stories along with one new story, “Time Out” by John Landis, in which disgruntled bigot Bill Connor finds himself as a Jew in World War II German occupied Europe, a black man facing the clan in mid-20th century America, and a man in a Vietnamese jungle during the Second Indochina War.

— Michael Main

Ray, help! Larry! It’s me!

“Time Out” written and directed by John Landis (at movie theaters, USA, 24 June 1983).

Peggy Sue Got Married

by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner, directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Middle-aged Peggy Sue has two grown children and an adulterous husband whom she married at 18, so will she do things the same when she finds herself back in 1960 in her senior year of high school?

— Michael Main

Well, Mr Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future I will not have the slightest use for algebra, and I speak from experience.

Peggy Sue Got Married by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner, directed by Francis Ford Coppola (New York Film Festival, 5 October 1986).

Ripples in the Dirac Sea

by Geoffrey A. Landis

A physics guy invents a time machine that can go only backward and must always return the traveler to the exact same present from which he left.

— Michael Main

Travel is possible only into the past.
The object transported will return to exactly the time and place of departure.
It is not possible to bring objects from the past to the present.
Actions in the past cannot change the present.

“Ripples in the Dirac Sea” by Geoffrey A. Landis, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, October 1988.

Quantum Leap (s01e01–02)

Genesis

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by David Hemmings

Physicist and all-around good guy Sam Beckett rushes his time machine into production—funding is about to be cut!—and as a consequence, he leaps into the life of a USAF test pilot, where Sam and his holographic cohort Al have a moral mission. And after setting things right in that pilot’s life, Sam—“oh, boy”—takes a few moments to win the big baseball game in 1968.

— Inmate Jan

One end of this string represents your birth, the other end your death. You tie the ends together, and your life is a loop. Ball the loop, and the days of your life touch each other out of sequence, therefore leaping to one point in the string to another. . .

Quantum Leap (s01e01–02), “Genesis” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by David Hemmings (26 March 1989) [double-length broadcast].

Quantum Leap (s01e06)

Double Identity

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Sam does a double leap at one location: First into hitman Frankie LaPalma at the moment when he and Don Geno’s former girlfriend are in the sack together, and then as Don Geno himself.

— Michael Main

Who ever heard of one lousy hairdryer blacking out all of the East Coast?

Quantum Leap (s01e06), “Double Identity” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt (NBC-TV, USA, 21 April 1989).

Quantum Leap (s01e08)

Camikazi Kid

by Paul Brown, directed by Alan J. Levi

It seeems that the only way Sam can fulfill his mission of stopping 17-year-old Cam Wilson’s older sister from marrying shithead Bob is to race Bob “for pinks” in hopes that Bob will lose his cool and show his true self, but that’ll only work if Sam (as Cam) and his buddy Jill can soup up Cam’s pink mommobile with a blast of nitrous oxide at exactly the right moment of the race.

— Michael Main

Older Brother: Come on, Mikey, we gotta rehearse.

Mikey: [waving] Bye-bye!

Quantum Leap (s01e08), “Camikazi Kid” by Paul Brown, directed by Alan J. Levi (NBC-TV, USA, 10 May 1989).

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e03)

The Lake

by Ray Bradbury, directed by Pat Robins

The TV adaptation of Bradbury’s “The Lake” focuses more on the adult man, who’s now thirty-something Doug, but the story structure and pathos of his lost childhood love remain intact.

— Michael Main

If I finish it, will you come?

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e03), “The Lake” by Ray Bradbury, directed by Pat Robins (USA Network, 21 July 1989).

Millennium

by John Varley, directed by Michael Anderson

Cheryl Ladd plays Louise Baltimore opposite Kris Kristopherson’s Bill Smith in this movie adaptation of Varley’s novel (1983), although on-screen credit is given only to his earlier short story “Air Raid” (1977).

— Michael Main

For one thing, paradoxes can occur. Say you build a time machine, go backwards in time and murder your father when he was ten years old. That means you were never born. And if you were never born, how did you build the time machine? Paradox! It's the possibility of wiping out your own existence that makes most people rule out time-travel. Still, why not? If you were careful, you could do it.

Millennium by John Varley, directed by Michael Anderson (at movie theaters, West Germany, 24 August 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e01)

Honeymoon Express

by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt

Sam pops into newly married Tom McBride (a New York policeman), who is headed to Niagara Falls with his new bride (a budding lawyer and the daughter of a senator). The two of them engage in the usual honeymoon activities—fighting off ex-boyfriend thugs, rolling underneath moving trains, studying for the bar exam—while unbeknownst to Sam, Al is at a Senate committee meeting in Washington, D.C., fighting for the life of Project Quantum Leap. Oh, yes, and it’s now official: Sam and Al believe that God has taken control of the project, although Al refuses to be pinned down as to which god she is.

— Michael Main

This committee has decided that your 2.4 billion dollar funding request for Project Quantum Leap . . .

Quantum Leap (s02e01), “Honeymoon Express” by Donald P. Bellisario, directed by Aaron Lipstadt (NBC-TV, USA, 20 September 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e04)

What Price Gloria?

by Deborah Pratt, directed by Alan J. Levi

Sam leaps into the body of executive secretary Samantha Stormer during a time rife with sexual harrassment that hadn’t yet been challenged or even given a name.

— Michael Main

You know, this is degrading. First he chases me around the office, then he says I gotta wear lipstick

Quantum Leap (s02e04), “What Price Gloria?” by Deborah Pratt, directed by Alan J. Levi (NBC-TV, USA, 25 October 1989).

Quantum Leap (s02e05)

Blind Faith

by Scott Shepard, directed by David G. Phinney

Who knew that if Sam leaped into a blind pianist’s body that he’d be able to see with his own eyes and stop a Central Park killer?

— Michael Main

He says he wants to play.

Quantum Leap (s02e05), “Blind Faith” by Scott Shepard, directed by David G. Phinney (NBC-TV, USA, 1 November 1989).

The Moment Universe Stories 1

Some Like It Cold

by John Kessel

Sure, others have pulled that 20th century actress forward to make modern films with spectacular failure, each attempt spawning a branch universe unconnected to the 21st century of time traveler Det Gruber, but none of the others took into account the psychological factors in the way that Det’s employers have done.

— Michael Main

She may be a wreck, but she wants to be here. Not like Paramount’s version.

“Some Like It Cold” by John Kessel, Omni, Fall 1995.

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (s02e08)

Inna-Gadda-Sabrina

by Sheldon Bull, directed by Gary Halvorson

In a crossover involving all four of ABC’s Friday night family-friendly shows, Salem eats Sabrina’s time ball, sending their world back to the 1960s and sending each of the other shows’ characters to a different decade as well. You could argue that the time ball causes the whole culture to experience the world as if it were back in the 1960s rather than producing actual time travel.

— Inmate Jan

You hold it and your surroundings become whatever decade you think of.

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (s02e08), “Inna-Gadda-Sabrina” by Sheldon Bull, directed by Gary Halvorson (ABC-TV, USA, 7 November 1997) \pt. 1 of the 1997 TGIF Crossover].

Finalizing History

by Richard K. Lyon

In early 1960, Perry Mason author Earl (not Erle) Stanley Gardner and his wife host John W. Campbell, Robert Heinlein, Clifford Simak, Edward Teller, Ronald Reagan, Douglas MacArthur and Jackie Kennedy to discuss a shared dream in which a time-traveling alien requires them to pick one person to eliminate from history as a prerequisite to a final revision of mankind’s history.

— Michael Main

If one of these people dies young, that will pay your debt.

“Finalizing History” by Richard K. Lyon, in Analog, June 2008.

SpongeBob SquarePants [s7:e09A]

Back to the Past

by Casey Alexander, Zedus Cervas, and Dani Michaeli, directed by Casey Alexander et al.

SpongeBob, Patrick, and their two superhero friends head back to the days when the old superheroes were young. Can you guess who it was back in that past who ate all of Mermaid Man’s tartar sauce, unintentionally altering the future? Note: The old superheroes were voiced by Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway; their young counterparts were Adam West and Burt Ward.

— Michael Main

This device allows us to transport into the future or past, at a date or destination of our choosing. Unfortunately, the consequences of altering the order of history are so dangerous [thunder], we’ve chosen to leave it alone. So you mustn’t touch!

“Back to the Past” by Casey Alexander, Zedus Cervas, and Dani Michaeli, directed by Casey Alexander et al. (Nickelodeon (USA, 15 February 2010).

SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 69

And Krabs Saves the Day

[writer and director unknown]

This episode has implied time travel in that we see a tartar-sauce sated Patrick licking his lips and burping after young Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy discover that their barrel of quick-dry tartar sauce is empty (as also happened in “Back to the Past”).

— Michael Main

Now prepare for a heaping helping of quick-dry tartar sauce!

“And Krabs Saves the Day” [writer and director unknown] (SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 69, Nickelodean (USA, 14 June 2011).

Men in Black 3

by Etan Cohen, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld

When Boris the Animal escapes from lunar prison and returns to 1969 to kill Agent K and expose Earth to attack, Agent J must follow to save Agent K and all of Earth!

Tim and I saw this on Fathers Day Eve in 2012.

— Michael Main

This is now my new favorite moment in human history.

Men in Black 3 by Etan Cohen, directed by Barry Sonnenfeld (premiered at an unknown movie theater, Berlin, 14 May 2012).

Todd Family 1

Life after Life

by Kate Atkinson

In one instantiation of her life, Ursula Todd dies just moments after her birth in 1910. Fortunately (for the sake of the novel), time seems to be cyclic, so she and the rest of the world get many chances at life. At times, she partially recalls her other lives, resulting in many consequences to history and her personal development.

— Michael Main

So much hot air rising above the tables in the Café Heck or the Osteria Bavaria, like smoke from the ovens. It was difficult to believe from this perspective that Hitler was going to lay waste to the world in a few years’ time.

“Time isn’t circular,” she said to Dr. Kellet. “It’s like a palimpsest.”
“Oh, dear,” he said. “That sounds very vexing.”
“And memories are sometimes in the future.”

Life after Life by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, March 2013).

The Boy in His Winter

by Norman Lock

After Huck Finn and Jim fall asleep on an appropriated raft in Hannibal, Mo., they find themselves floating down the Mississippi for decades without ever aging a day themselves.

— Michael Main

We came by the raft dishonestly. We’d only meant to do a little fishing. It was cool and nice under the big willow with its whips trailing over the water. Christ, it was a scorcher of a day. The whole town must have fallen asleep, along with Jim and me. When we finally did wake, if we ever did, the raft was too far along in space and time to return it. We could no longer reverse ourselves, our motions in all five dimensions, than fly to the moon.

The Boy in His Winter by Norman Lock (Bellevue Literary Press, May 2014).

The Age of Adaline

by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz, directed by Lee Toland Krieger

Adaline lives most of the 20th century and into the 21st, all at age 29 with no actual time travel.

— Michael Main

Tell me something I can hold onto forever and never let go.

The Age of Adaline by J. Mills Goodloe and Salvador Paskowitz, directed by Lee Toland Krieger (at movie theaters, Belgium, 8 April 2015).

Million Eyes 0.04

Paul

by C. R. Berry

“Paul” by C. R. Berry, in Storgy Magazine, November 2016.

The Rift

by Don Handfield, Richard Rayner, and Leno Varvalho

The crash of a 1941 World War II plane in a 21st-century Kansas field sets off a chain of plots and subplots involving the pilot, a mother on the run, a precotious young boy, a government agency, and multiple jumps through a time rift.

— Michael Main

Smoke billows into a bright blue sky scarred by a rip in the heavens—what we’ll come to know as . . . The Rift

The Rift, 4 pts. by Don Handfield, Richard Rayner, and Leno Varvalho (Red 5 Comics, January–April 2017).

7 Splinters of Time

written and directed by Gabriel Judet-Weinshel

While on medical leave for his mental health, police detective Darius Lafaux is called back in to investigate a case that turns into multiple murders of men who look exactly like himself.

— Michael Main

Alise: You died ten years ago.
Darius: I was born ten years ago.

7 Splinters of Time written and directed by Gabriel Judet-Weinshel (Cinequest, 3 March 2018).

The Umbrella Academy, Season 1

by multiple writers and directors

Of the 43 children born 1 October 1989 with no gestation period, the eccentric and sometimes cruel billionaire Reginald Hargreeves brought up seven of them and turned them into the super-powered group called the Umbrella Academy when they developed powers. Nearly thirty years later, after Hargreeves dies, the five surviving members of the group gather at their family home. Oh, and: Number Six died some time ago and only Number Four can see him; Number Five disappeared about seventeen years ago, but he’s back (and in his 13-year-old body) after living 45 years in a post-apocalyptic future that’s scheduled to start in eight days.

— Michael Main

As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive. I never figured out what killed the human race. I did find something else: the date it happens.. . . The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it.

The Umbrella Academy, Season 1 by multiple writers and directors, 10 episodes (Netflix, USA, 15 February 2019).

The Umbrella Academy, Season 2

by multiple writers and directors

Five’s plan for the Umbrella siblings to escape the apocalypse by going into the past ends up scattering them throughout different years of Dallas in the 1960s. They manage okay on their own until shortly after 11/22/63, when secondary effects from changes to the timeline cause a nuclear holocaust that can be averted only by recently arrived Five jumping back to 11/15/63 to exert his unique charm into getting the gang to work together.

— Michael Main

Hazel to Five: If you want to live, come with me.”

The Umbrella Academy, Season 2 by multiple writers and directors, ten episodes (Netflix, USA, 31 July 2020).

Fantasy Island (r3s01e04)

Once Upon a Time in Havana

by Dailyn Rodriguez, diected by Laura Belsey

Finally! Some Actual Time Travel™ as Elena takes young drummer Alma Garcia back to 1967 Havana to learn the real story of the musical grandfather who abandoned his family decades ago—and the role Alma played in that single, static timeline.

— Michael Main

Grandfather: Who are you? Where do you really come from? Elma: Just an Americana who plays the drums.

Fantasy Island (v3s01e04), “Once Upon a Time in Havana” by Dailyn Rodriguez, diected by Laura Belsey (Fox-TV, USA, 31 August 2021).

Flashback

written and directed by Caroline Vigneaux

After high-powered lawyer Charlie Leroy gets her client cleared from a rape charge by claiming that the accuser’s lacy underwear was consent to have sex, Charlie finds herself transported by a divine cabdriver to historical moments that were key for women’s rights.

— Michael Main

Attends . . . si maman n'épouse pas papa, je vais pas naître. Je viens de me tuer.

Wait . . . if Mom never marries Dad, I won’t be born. I just killed myself.

English

Flashback written and directed by Caroline Vigneaux (Amazon Prime, 11 November 2021).