Utopian World

Tag Area: Fictional Setting
Novella

The Great Romance

  • as by The Inhabitant
  • 2 vols. [plus a possible lost third volume] (Ashburton Guardian and Dunedin Daily Times [publishers], 1881)

The book‘s opening scene portrays the protagonist, John Hope, awakening from a sleep of 193 years. Hope had been a prominent mid-twentieth-century scientist, who had developed new power sources that enabled air travel and, eventually, space exploration. In the year 1950, Hope had taken a “sleeping draught” that put him into a long suspended animation, as part of a planned experiment. When he wakes in the year 2143, he is met by Alfred and Edith Weir, descendants of John Malcolm Weir, the chemist who had prepared the sleeping draft Hope had taken in 1950.

The original edition of The Great Romance is one of the rarest books extant, with single copies of Parts 1 and 2 existing in New Zealand libraries. After a century of neglect, the book was reprinted by editor Dominic Alessio, first in Science Fiction Studies #61 in 1993 (Part 1) and then in a separate volume in 2008 (Parts 1 and 2, plus Alessio’s commentary on the influence the writing may have had on Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward. ). An additional part of the story is thought to have been written, but no copy is known to exist.

Considerable detective work has been applied to the question of the identity of the pseudonymous Inhabitant, although with no definite result. Nevertheless, we lean toward the theory of one “Honnor of Ashburton” because of an annotation to this effect in the only known original copies of the first two volumes of the work. —based on Wikipedia
In the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty my dearest friend, John Malcolm Weir, the greatest chemist of his day, had given me the sleeping draught: it should tie up the senses—life itself—for an indefinite period; and when the appointed years were over life might again be awakened.
Black-and-white photo of the two-story Ashburton, New Zealand, Borough Chambers
                and Public Library with clock tower, circa 1880.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Novella

The Time-Journey of Dr. Barton: An Engineering and Sociological Forecast Based on Present Possibilities

  • by John Hodgson
  • serialized in The Star Review, April to December 1929

Dr. Barton travels to the year 3927 where the world’s population has grown to an unimaginable eight billion, but fear not! The utopian society has eliminated waste from poor economic systems of the past, and all inhabitants now work (by choice) for but one month per year. —based on Frank J. Bleiler
We crossed over the centre of Lake Victoria and so northward, parallel to the well “trained” banks of the Nile. The Sudd region had been drained and embanked, thus saving the evaporation of millions of tons of water annually.
Text-only, yellow cover for The Star Review, June 1929.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Silver Dome

  • by Harl Vincent
  • in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930

In an underground city, Queen Phaestra uses a past-viewing machine of vague nature to show the destruction of Atlantis to two good-hearted men. But Atlantis itself is not visited, and there are no time phenomena apart from the viewing. —Michael Main
This is accomplished by means of extremely complex vibrations penetrating earth, metals, buildings, space itself, and returning to our viewing and sound reproducing spheres to reveal the desired past or present occurrences at the point at which the rays of vibrations are directed.
Pen-and-ink drawing of a guide, dressed only in a short skirt, shows two modern
                men the view of a city of four-storey hexagonal buildings.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
Short Story

The Retreat from Utopia


A newspaper reporter from 2175 describes his strict, puritan world where nobody is happy because nothing ever happens, and even the criminals off in Borneo refuse to rejoin that society, so the story’s 1934 narrator visits the future to set things right. —Michael Main
You twentieth-century folks don’t know how lucky you are.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Comic Book

Journey into Mystery #52

Travelers in Time!


Hollywood writer Norman Crane pitches an idea for a crazy new show to his boss. —Michael Main
Yes sir! It’s a story about time travel . . . time travel and haunted houses!
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Bill & Ted I

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure


The Two Great Ones, Bill S. Preston, Esq., and Ted “Theodore” Logan, are the subjects of time-traveler Rufus’s mission, but instead they end up using his machine to write a history report to save their band, Wyld Stallyns. —Michael Main
Most excellent!
Alex Winter (A K A Bill) and Keanu Reeves (A K A Ted) sit on top of a phone
                booth crammed with Napoleon and other historical figures in orbit around Earth.
  • Eloi Silver Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Bill & Ted II

Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey


Two Evil Robots from the future are out to destroy Bill & Ted and their babes. After all that, the Two Great Ones begin a journey that starts with Death and ends with Two Little Ones. —Michael Main
Look, after we get away from this guy, we use the booth. We time travel back to before the concert and set up the things we need to get him now.
Alex Winter (A K A Bill) and Keanu Reeves (A K A Ted) pressed up against a pane
                of glasss in this pre-release poster.
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel