Time Patrol 1

Time Patrol

by Poul Anderson

In the first of a long series of hallowed stories, former military engineer (and noncomformist) Manse Everard is recruited by the Time Patrol to prevent time travelers from making major changes to history. (Don’t worry, history bounces back from the small stuff.)

— Michael Main

If you went back to, I would guess, 1946, and worked to prevent your parents’ marriage in 1947, you would still have existed in that year; you would not go out of existence just because you had influenced events. The same would apply even if you had only been in 1946 one microsecond before shooting the man who would otherwise have become your father.

“Time Patrol” by Poul Anderson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1955.

Many Mansions

by Robert Silverberg

With eleven years of marriage behind them, Ted and Alice’s fantasies frequently start with a time machine and end with killing one or another of their spouse’s ancestors before they can procreate. So naturally, they each end up at Temponautics, Ltd. Oh, and Ted’s grandpa has some racy fantasies of his own.
In Silverberg’s Something Wild Is Loose (Vol. 3 of his collected stories), he posits that this story is “probably the most complex short story of temporal confusion” since Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” (1941) or “—All You Zombues—” (1959), but I would respectfully disagree. In particular, I would describe Heinlein’s two stories as the most complex short stories of temporal consistency in that there is but a single, static timeline and (in hindsight) every scene locks neatly into place within this one timeline. By contrast, Silverberg story involves multiple time travel choices by the characters in what I would call parallel universes. The confusion, such as it is, stems more from what appears to be alternate scenes in disconnected universes rather than temporal confusion per se.

— Michael Main

On the fourth page Alice finds a clause warning the prospective renter that the company cannot be held liable for any consequences of actions by the renter which wantonly or wilfully interfere with the already determined course of history. She translates that for herself: If you kill your husband’s grandfather, don’t blame us if you get in trouble.

“Many Mansions” by Robert Silverberg, in Universe 3, edited by Terry Carr (Random House, October 1973).

Time Patrol 3

Gibraltar Falls

by Poul Anderson

As part of an crew assigned to crew to observe the filling of the Mediterranean from the Atlantic in the late Micene, Patrolman Tom Nomura breaks the rules to use time travel to rescue Feliz a Rach when she’s swept over the falls.

— Michael Main

The Mediterranean floor lay ten thousand feet below sea level. The inflow took most of that drop within a fifty-mile strait. Its volume amounted to ten thousand cubic miles a year, a hundred Victoria Falls or a thousand Niagaras.

“Gibraltar Falls” by Poul Anderson, in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1975.

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.

Trancers I

Trancers

by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, directed by Charles Band

In the first of six (really!) Trancer movies (plus a “lost” short), heroic trancer-hunter (and newly anointed time cop) Jack Deth follows evil trancer-maker Martin Whistler from 2247 to 1985 via drug-induced time-travel that can take you back only to the body of an ancestor.

— Michael Main

Greetings to the council. As you may have gathered, I have survived the pathetic trap set by Trooper Deth on Mecon 7. For twelve long years, you have hunted my disciples like dogs. Now, my day of vengeance is at hand. I’ve synthesized a time drug, and in a moment shall retreat down the dark corridors of history. Know that it is I who is solely responsible for your demise. One by one, your ancestors shall be murdered, and you, their progeny, shall cease to exist. Then shall I return, join my legion, and claim the seat of power for my own. Adieu . . . adieu . . .

Trancers by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo, directed by Charles Band (at movie theaters, UK, 7 November 1984).

Scherzo with Tyrannosaur

by Michael Swanwick

The director of Hilltop Research Station extinguishes various fires while hosting a donor dinner in the Cretaceous and planning predatory behavior of his own to keep the donor funds flowing, all while ensuring that the mysterious beings known only as the Unchanging remain in the dark about a quagmire of time travel violations.

— Michael Main

It would bring our sponsors down upon us like so many angry hornets. The Unchanging would yank time travel out of human hands—retroactively.

“Scherzo with Tyrannosaur” by Michael Swanwick, Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 1999.

The Hat Thing

by Matthew Hughes

A nameless man tells another how to spot time travelers.

— Michael Main

Sure. Researchers. Tourists. Criminals altering their present by manipulating the past. Religious pilgrims. Collectors. Who knows what motivates people in a million years from now?

“The Hat Thing” by Matthew Hughes, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, September 2004.

No Time

by Andrew Bale

A battlefield plunderer meets his own dead self.

You get attacked, you have no backup, so you become your own.

“No Time” by Andrew Bale, 365 Tomorrows, 13 August 2011 [webzine].

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).

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).

Marley and Marley

by J. R. Dawson

Somewhat jaded 28-year-old Marley comes back through time to take care of 12-year-old orphaned Marley.

— Michael Main

He told me all the horrible things that would happen if I broke any Time Laws. Worlds would collapse. I would turn inside out. Important people would die and important things wouldn’t happen.

“Marley and Marley” by J. R. Dawson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November/December 2017.

Here and Now and Then

by Mike Chen

When time travel agent Kin Stewart finds himself rapidly losing his memory and stranded in 1996, he writes a journal of his life in the future and proceeds to break every rule in the book by creating a new life and family in his new present. . . until a retriever shows up in 2014.

— Michael Main

Science fiction. She thought the journal was filled with tales, like her Doctor Who or Heather’s Star Trek shows.

Here and Now and Then by Mike Chen (Mira, January 2019).

Agent 3203.7

by Eliezer Yudkowsky

The seventh incarnation of Agent 3203 is once again tasked with preventing a thoughtful assassin from carrying out a political mission for the good of humanity.

— Michael Main

He’s destroying my world!

“Agent 3203.7” by Eliezer Yudkowsky, in Shtetl-Optimized, 20 September 2020).

Miniseries

시지프스: The Myth

Sisyphus: The Myth English release: Sisyphus: The Myth Literal: Sisyphus: The myth

by 전찬호 and 이제인, directed by 진혁

Young genius Han Tae-sul is the focus of dangerous people and a mysterious woman—Gang Seo-hae—from a war-torn near future.

Sadly, the story comes close to being a slick static timeline, but alas, the writers could not follow through.

— Michael Main

The Downloader is a real piece of work. There’s only a ten percent chance of success, eh? And even if they make it, half of them get caught by the Control Bureau.

[ex=bare]시지프스: The Myth | Sisyphus: The myth | Sijipeuseu: The myth[/ex] by 전찬호 and 이제인, directed by 진혁, 16 untitled episodes (JTBC-TV, Korea, 17 February to 8 April 2021).

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]).

A Smell of Jet Fuel

by Andrew Dana Hudson

On the 107th floor of the South Tower on 9/11, time travel tour guide Brad Eckelson meets Sitra Velasco, a woman who couldn’t possibly be there.

— Michael Main

Well, she wasn’t a contemporary, that much was clear.

“A Smell of Jet Fuel” by Andrew Dana Hudson, in Lightspeed 134, July 2021.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s02e03)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by David Reed, directed by Chris Fisher

A mysterious, bloody man appears and warns La’an of an attack in the past, after which she races to the bridge, only to find herself in an alternate timeline with a young James T. Kirk at the helm. A trip to the past seeems in order.

— Michael Main

There’s going to be an attack. It’s going to change the timeline. We have to stop it.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by David Reed, directed by Chris Fisher (Paramount+, USA, 29 June 2023).