Ancestral Voices

by Nat Schachner

Time traveler Emmet Pennypacker kills one ancient Hun without realizing who will disappear from the racist world of 1935.

— Michael Main

The year of grace 1935! A dull year, a comfortable year! Nothing much happened. The depression was over; people worked steadily at their jobs and forgot that they had every starved; Roosevelt was still President of the United States; Hitler was firmly ensconced in Germany; France talked of security; Japan continued to defend itself against China by swallowing a few more provinces; Russia was about to commence on the third Five Year Plan, to be completed in two years; and, oh, yes—Cuba was still in revolution.

“Ancestral Voices” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, December 1933.

Vintage Season

by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore

More and more strange people are appearing each day in and around Oliver Wilson’s home; the explanation from the euphoric redhead leads him to believe they are time travelers gathering for an important event.

— Michael Main

Looking backward later, Oliver thought that in that moment, for the first time clearly, he began to suspect the truth. But he had no time to ponder it, for after the brief instant of enmity the three people from—elsewhere—began to speak all at once, as if in a belated attempt to cover something they did not want noticed.

“Vintage Season” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, Astounding, September 1946.

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).

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).

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).

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).

Si Morley 1

Time and Again

by Jack Finney

Si goes back to 19th century New York to solve a crime and (of course) fall in love.

This is Janet’s favorite time-travel novel, in which Finney elaborates on themes that were set in earlier stories such as “Double Take.”

— Michael Main

There’s a project. A U.S. government project I guess you’d have to call it. Secret, naturally; as what isn’t in government these days? In my opinion, and that of a handful of others, it’s more important than all the nuclear, space-exploration, satellite, and rocket programs put together, though a hell of a lot smaller. I tell you right off that I can’t even hint what the project is about. And believe me, you’d never guess.

Time and Again by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, 1970).

What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper

by Robert Silverberg

When all eleven families on Redford Crescent receive a newspaper from the middle of next week, the result is a hastily called neighborhood meeting and an assortment of get-rich-quick plans.

— Michael Main

Which sounds more fantastic? That someone would take the trouble of composing an entire fictional edition of the Times setting it in type printing it and having it delivered or that through some sort of fluke of the fourth dimension we’ve been allowed a peek at next week’s newspaper?

“What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper” by Robert Silverberg, in Infinity Four, edited by Robert Hoskins (Lancer Books, November 1972).

Closing the Timelid

by Orson Scott Card

Centuries in the future, Orion throws an illicit party in which the partygoers get to experience complete death in the past.

— Michael Main

Ah, agony in a tearing that made him feel, for the first time, every particle of his body as it screamed in pain.

“Closing the Timelid” by Orson Scott Card, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1979.

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).

From Time to Time

by Jack Finney

Finney’s sequel to Time and Again initially finds Si Morley living a happy life in the 19th century with his 19th century family, while The Project in the future never even got started because he prevented the inventor’s parents from ever meeting. But vague memories linger in some of the Project member’s minds, and Morley can’t stay put.

— Michael Main

They’re back there in the past, trampling around, changing things, aren’t they? They don’t know it. They’re just living their happy lives, but changing small events. Mostly trivial, with no important effects. But every once in a while the effect of some small changed event moves on down to the—

From Time to Time by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, February 1995).

Blood Trail

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch

Detective Wheldon, the top man in NYPD Homicide is approached by two FBI agents who offer to let him go back in time two weeks to observe the 4th killing by a serial killer.

This is the first story in Future Imperfect, a 2001 anthology of 12 original time-travel stories, co-edited by the prolific anthologist Martin H. Greenberg (1941-2011) who was also a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, Green Bay.

— Michael Main

When it became clear that time travel was even a remote possibility, the government bought a lot of scientists. Those who didn’t play got discredited.

“Blood Trail” by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in Past Imperfect, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff (DAW Books, October 2001).

Edelstein Trilogie, Book 1

Rubinrot

English release: Ruby Red Literal: Ruby red

by Kerstin Gier

Sixteen-year-old Gwendolyn Shepherd [Gwyneth in the English translation] always seems to be in the shadow of her cousin Charlotte Montrose, just because Charlotte—born the day before “Gwenny”—is prophesized to be the twelfth and final carrier of a rare time-travel gene passed down through the centuries. But Gwenny doesn’t mind, as she can’t think of anything worse than Charlotte’s carefully prescribed upbringing and the prospect of dizzy spells sending her uncontrollably through time. As the first book of the tightly connected Edelstein Trilogy, the plot plods through Gwenny’s anxious awakening to complicated family mysteries and to her feelings for the pompous Gideon de Villiers, aka time traveler #11.

— Michael Main

Es regnete fürchterlich. Ich hätte besser nicht nur den Regenmantel, sondern auch Gummistiefel angezogen. Mein Lieblings-Magnolienbaum an der Ecke ließ traurif sein Blüten hängen. Brevor ich ihn erreicht hatte, war ich schon dreimal in eine Pfütze getreten. Als ich gerade eine vierte umgehen wollte, riss es mich vollkommen ohne Vorwarnung von den Beinen. Mein magen fuhr Achterbahn und die Straße verschwamm vor meinen Augen zu einem grauen Fluss.

It was raining cats and dogs, and I wished I’d put on my wellies. The flowers on my favorite magnolia tree on the corner were drooping in a melancholy way. Before I reached it, I’d already splashed through three puddles. Just as I was trying to steer my way around a fourth, I was swept suddenly off my soggy feet. My stomach flip-flopped, and before my eyes, the street blurred into a grey river.

English

[ex=bare]Rubinrot | Ruby red[/ex] by Kerstin Gier (Arena Verlag, January 2009).

The Girl Who Leapt through Time #3

時をかける少女

Toki o Kakeru Shojo English release: Time Traveller: The Girl Who Leapt through Time Literal: Time-soaring girl

by 菅野友恵, directed by 谷口正晃

In this second sequel to Yasutaka Tsutsui’s 1965 novel 時をかける少女 em]The Girl Who Leapt through Time[/em, Naka Riisa plays the daughter, Akari, of a grown-up Kazuko (the original “girl who leapt through time”). Akari tries to leap back to the time of her mother’s first love, Kazuo, in hopes that he can bring her mom out of a coma induced by a car accident.

The actress Naka Riisa has another connection to time-leaping girls: In the first sequel to the original novel, , a 2006 anime adaptation, Riisa voiced the lead character, Makoto, who was Kazuko’s niece. So if I have this right: The original leaper is Kazuko; Kazuko’s niece Makoto is the leaper in the 2006 anime; and Kazuko’s daughter Akari is the leaper in the 2010 live-action movie. So in some sense, Riisa is her own cousin.

— Michael Main

So you believe me? You’re an SF geek, right?

[ex=bare]時をかける少女 | Time-soaring girl | Toki o kakeru shojo[/ex] by 菅野友恵, directed by 谷口正晃 (at movie theaters, Japan, 13 March 2010).

Every So Often

by Rich Larson

Victor is one of the many protectors of the timeline from rogue rewinders. In his case, his five-year mission is to protect a small dark-haired boy in 1894 Austria.

— Michael Main

“I’m maintaining the Quo,” he says simply.

“Every So Often” by Rich Larson, in Datafall: Collected Speculative Fiction [e-book] (Rich Larson, August 2012).

Monster High, Movie #10

Monster High: Freaky Fusion

by Keith Wagner, directed by William Lau

The animated gang of teen monsters travel centuries into the past to the first day ever at Monster High, but when they return they have each merged with another in the group creating freaky hybrid monsters all around. I’m not sure, but I’m betting that Mattel used this DVD release as an opportunity to also sell freaky hybrid fashion dolls.

— Michael Main

It’s 1814: They’ve never seen fashion styles like ours before.

Monster High: Freaky Fusion by Keith Wagner, directed by William Lau (direct-to-video, USA, 16 September 2014).

The Flash, Season 1

written and directed by multiple people

Time travel is implied right from the first episode of the CW’s rendition of The Flash where a newspaper from the future is seen in the closing scene. The rest of the first season builds a fine time-travel arc that includes a nefarious time traveler from the far future, a classic grandfather paradox with a twist (sadly not examined), a do-over day for the Flash (which Harrison Wells calls “temporal reversion”), and a final episode that sees the Flash travel back to his childhood (as well as a hint that Rip Hunter himself will soon appear on the CW scene).

— Michael Main

Wells: Yes, it’s possible, but problematic. Assuming you could create the conditions necessary to take that journey, that journey would then be fraught with potential pitfalls: the Novikov Principle of Self-Consistency, for example.

Joe: Wait—the what, now?

Barry: If you travel back in time to change something, then you end up being the causal factor of that event.

Cisco: Like. . . Terminator.

Joe: Ah!

Wells: Or is time plastic? Is it mutable, whereby any changes in the continuum could create an alternate timeline?

Cisco: Back to the Future.

Joe: Ah, saw that one, too.

The Flash, season 1 written and directed by multiple people (The CW, USA, 7 October 2014) to 19 May 2015).

The Flash, Season 2

by multiple writers and directors

After Barry aborts his mission to the past in Season 1 in order to prevent his own present from being erased, he finds that his travel has caused even bigger problems! Yep, a rift has been a-opened to a parallel world with an alternate Flash and an evil speedster and—it would seem—more time travelin’ and another attempt to save his mom and dad!

— Michael Main

No, that’s not how it works. In our timeline, Barry’s mother’s already dead, and her death is a fixed point. And nothing can change that.

The Flash, season 2 by multiple writers and directors (The CW, USA, 6 October 2015) to 24 May 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).

Invictus

by Ryan Graudin

After Farway Gaius McCarthy fails his final examination at the Central Time Travelers Academy, he puts together a rogue time travel crew to swipe valuable artifacts from the past at moments when they won’t be missed. And it’s all roses until a mysterious girl sidetracks them on the Titanic and steers them into a multiverse of fading timelines.

As you might guess, we enjoyed Far and his friends, but the thing that sealed an Eloi Bronze Medal was the fact that when a particular timeline actually managed to branch (not an easy feat) and the traveler then jumped to the future, she found her another self—the her that was born on that timeline—waiting for her. Most branching timeline stories ignore this issue entirely.

— Michael Main

“There’s nothing to return to.” Eliot’s knuckles bulged at the seams, but she didn’t yell. “When the Fade destroys a moment, it’s lost. Forever.”

Invictus by Ryan Graudin (Little, Brown, September 2017).

Amazing Stories (r2s01e05)

The Rift

by Don Handfield and Richard Rayner, directed by Mark Mylod

After a dogfight, a World War II plane flies through a time rift and into a 21st-century field near Dayton, where a single mom saves the pilot from the wreckage and her step-son saves the pilot from other dangers.

— Michael Main

Sir, I know it’s a doorway and all, and we gotta send everything back there, but in training they did not really tell us what happens if we don’t.

Amazing Stories (v2s01e05), “The Rift” by Don Handfield and Richard Rayner, directed by Mark Mylod (Apple TV, 3 April 2020).

ドロステのはてで僕ら

Dorosute no hate de bokura English release: Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes Literal: We at the end of the Droste

by 上田誠, directed by 山口淳太

For the first sixty minutes, a perfect static timeline seemed to be emerging from Kato’s video stream from two minutes in the future. We might even get some philosophical commentary on free will! Alas, that was not to be as the final ten minutes presented a more commonplace ending, although the single-take nagamawashi was executed with perfection and garnered this fun film an Eloi Medal.

P.S. Don’t skip the end-credits!

— Michael Main

Your monitor and the shop’s TV are linked with a two-minute delay.

[ex=bare]ドロステのはてで僕ら | We at the end of the Droste | Dorosute no hate de bokura[/ex] by 上田誠, directed by 山口淳太 (at limited theaters, Japan, 5 June 2020).

Vacation in Sunny Future

by Terence Kuch

The narrator takes a vacation to the future, since going to the past is sensibly banned.

— Michael Main

Like all those stories where the world goes to hell because of some tiny stupid thing I might do back then.

“Vacation in Sunny Future” by Terence Kuch, Daily Science Fiction, 4 November 2021 [webzine].

The Adam Project

by Jonathan Tropper et al., directed by Shawn Levy

In 2050, time jet pilot Adam Reed steals a jet and heads back to 2018 to save his stranded wife, but he gets waylaid in 2022 where his 12-year-old self is the only hope to save the mission.

— Michael Main

Young Adam: I mean if this is happening to me, that means that it already happened to you—right?—unless it works more like a multiverse where each ripple creates an alternate timeline—
Middle-Age Adam: It isn’t a multiverse! My god, we watch too many movies.

The Adam Project by Jonathan Tropper et al., directed by Shawn Levy (Netflix, worldwide, 11 March 2022).