The Search

by A. E. van Vogt

When salesman Ralph Carson Drake tries to recover his missing memory of the past two weeks, he discovers he had interactions with three people: a woman named Selanie Johns who sold remarkable futuristic devices for one dollar, her father, and an old gray-eyed man who is feared by Selanie and her father.

Van Vogt combined this with two other stories and a little fix-up material for his 1970 publication of Quest for the Future.

— Michael Main

The Palace of Immortality was built in an eddy of time, the only known Reverse, or Immortality, Drift in the Earth Time Stream

“The Search” by A. E. van Vogt, Astounding, January 1943.

Factor, Unknown

by Sam Merwin, Jr.

In order to save the world, wealthy young Houghton travels back fifty years to set straight his great-uncle’s world-threatening mistakes, but it’s Alison—Houghton’s fiery tempered cousin-once-removed—who has a more genuine interest in saving the future than her father does.

— Michael Main

“This is most extraordinary,” he said in an unexpectedly high-pitched voice, regarding Houghton benignly from the tall white fortress of his collar. “You say that you have come back through time to instruct me how to arrange my affairs so that they will not be instrumental in destroying the world some fifty years hence.”

“Factor, Unknown” by Sam Merwin, Jr., Other Worlds Science Stories, June 1952.

Space Adventures #1

Time Skipper Visits the City of Brass

[writer unknown] and Art Cappello (art)

Charlton’s first issue of Space Adventures introduced Hap Holliday, the Time Skipper, who travels with Professor Eon Tempus to the far future to rescue Ula, queen of Futuropolis, from reptile people. The end of this installment assures us that we’ll learn more of Ula in the next issue, but alas, the second and final adventure of the Time Skipper was delayed until Space Adventures #3.

— Michael Main

Just skip along with Hap Holliday, the time skipper, in his “Year an Instant” yacht and learn what the world can be like in somebody else’s lifetime!!!

“Time Skipper Visits the City of Brass” [writer unknown] and Art Cappello (art), in Space Adventures 1, July 1952.

Space Adventures #3

The Time Skipper Travels to Ancient Rome

[writer unknown] and artist

At the end of the Time Skipper’s first adventure, Hap Holliday and the professor were hoping to convince Queen Ula to accompany them back to the past, and it seems they succeeded, since Ula is with them on the splash page. But in their return trip (via the ever-staunch Timejumper), they overshoot their mark and end up in ancient Rome where the trio meets Cleopatra and tries to save Caesar.

— Michael Main

Write Caesar a letter in your own hand, inviting him here tomorrow and we’ll have Ula deliver it. That will keep him from going to the Senate chamber!

“The Time Skipper Travels to Ancient Rome” [writer unknown] and artist, in Space Adventures 3, November 1952.

Of All Possible Worlds

by William Tenn

~~Max Alben~~ Mac Albin is genetically predisposed to survive time travel, so he’s the natural choice to go back in time and shift the course of a missile that shifted the course of history.

— Michael Main

Now! Now to make a halfway decent world! Max Alben pulled the little red switch toward him.

flick!

Now! Now to make a halfway interesting world! Mac Albin pulled the little red switch toward him.

flick!

“Of All Possible Worlds” by William Tenn, Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1956.

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 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).

The Voyages of Ijon Tichy 20

Podróż dwudziesta

English release: The Twentieth Voyage Literal: Journey twenty

by Stanisław Lem

After the time mish-mash of Ijon Tichy’s seventh voyage, it wasn’t clear whether Ijon would ever ply the channels of time again, but here he is, traveling back in time to persuade himself to go forward in time and take up the helm of THEOHIPPIP—a.k.a. Teleotelechronistic-Historical Engineering to Optimize the Hyoerputerized Implementation of Paleological Programming and Interplanetary Planning. It takes a few attempts for older Ijon to convince younger Ijon to head to the future on a one-man chronocykl, but when he does, the younger Ijon begins the unexpectedly hard task of righting history’s wrongs. As a sophisticated time traveler yourself, you’ll spot what’s happening early on, while you also get a tour of history from the formamtion of the Solar System to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. You’ll also recognize the fun Lem has at the expense of the bureaucracies of mid-20th-century Poland.

— Michael Main

Zresztą Bosch nie powstrzymał się od niedyskrecji. W „Ogrodzie uciech ziemskich,” w „piekle muzycznym” (prawe skrzydło tryptyku) stoi w samym środku dwunastoosobowy chronobus. I co miałem z tym robić?

Even so, Bosch couldn’t refrain from certain indiscretions. In the “Garden of Earthly Delights,” in the very center of the “Musical Hell” (the right wing of the triptych), stands a twelve-seat chronobus. Not a thing I could do about it.

English

[ex=bare]“Podróż dwudziesta” | Journey twenty[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Dzienniki gwiazdowe, expanded third edition, by Stanisław Lem, (Czytelnik, 1971).

The Amazing Mr. Blunden

written and directed by Lionel Jeffries

As in the The Ghosts, which formed the basis for the film, a mysterious Mr. Blunden arranges for a widow and her children to move to an old English house while the rightful heir to the house is tracked down. But in the film, young Lucy and Jamie are in 1918 rather than the 1960s, and the “ghost children” are from 1818 rather than the 1860s. Nevertheless, Lucy, Jamie, Sara, George, and Tom all have the same adventure in the past along with a cool Grandchild Paradox.

— Michael Main

Now is the time. Look straight ahead and don’t be afraid.

The Amazing Mr. Blunden written and directed by Lionel Jeffries (at movie theaters, UK, 30 November 1972).

Back to the Future II

by Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis

Doc Brown takes Marty and Jennifer from 1985 to 2015 to save their children from a bad fate, but the consequences pile up when Biff also gets in on the time-travel action.

— Michael Main

The time-traveling is just too dangerous. Better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe—women!

Back to the Future II by Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis (at movie theaters, USA, 22 November 1989).

Back to the Future III

by Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis

Marty and 1955-Doc travel back to the Old West where 1985-Doc is trapped along with various Biff ancestors and a possible love interest for Doc.

— Michael Main

Doc: [blowing train whistle] I’ve wanted to do that my whole life!

Back to the Future III by Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis (at movie theaters, USA, 25 May 1990).

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).

Time’s Arrow

by Geeoff Hart

A physicist with a dead girlfriend experiences various precognition episodes leading up to his attempt to travel to the past to undead the girlfriend, or at least plant the seeds for the precognition.

— Michael Main

I’m certain I didn’t send myself any mail recently, but then again, I have plans to do so in the near future—or near past, I suppose.

“Time’s Arrow” by Geeoff Hart, in Short Stories by Geoff Hart (no specified publisher, added 10 February 2009) [ongoing e-collection at www.geoff-hart.com/fiction/short-stories/, accessed 20 December 2021[/d[/ex].

Infinity Ring 1

A Mutiny in Time

by James Dashner

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

— Michael Main

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

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

D.N.E.: Do Not Erase

by Rudy Jahchan and Brian F. Otting, directed by Matthew Campagna

After Brian’s girlfriend walks out on him and he invents time travel, a parade of future Brians shows up with one dire warning after another.

If you have a nice girlfriend or boyfriend and you are trying to crack time travel, please take this short film as a warning.

— Michael Main

Brian: I am on the verge . . .
Sophie: . . . of cracking time travel, I know. Maybe when you do, we can go back in time and actually have all of the dates that you canceled.

D.N.E.: Do Not Erase by Rudy Jahchan and Brian F. Otting, directed by Matthew Campagna (DragonCon, Atlanta, Georgia, 1 September 2012).

Immortal Descendants: Original Series #1

Marking Time

by April White

Seventeen year-old Saira Elian’s mother has disappeared, as she does for a few days every couple of years. But this time, Saira ends up searching for her—in time. Along the way she makes friends for the first time in her nomadic life, and she learns that Vampires, Seers, and Shifters are real. But she also makes enemies, including Jack the Ripper.

— Tandy Ringoringo

I was tracing a design that was etched into the wall, and it started glowing and humming. And then my whole body was being stretched and pulled, like I was a giant rubber band. And there was a sound that vibrated through my skin and into my stomach, which is probably what made me want to puke—er, vomit.

Marking Time by April White (Corazon Entertainment, October 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).

A Swirl of Chocolate

by K. Esta

Charlie may be at a playground, but this is no laughing matter. People have disappeared.

— Tandy Ringoringo

. . . dragging space-time with it like a swirl of chocolate being stirred into a bowl of cream.

“A Swirl of Chocolate” by K. Esta, 365 Tomorrows, 11 May 2013 [webzine].

The Here and Now

by Ann Brashares

Teenager Prenna James and her mother are two of the survivors of a future plague who return to the early 21st century to live out a quiet life under strict non-interference rules.

— Michael Main

“And then I’ll be a proper early-twenty-first-century girl?” I ask. I feel like crying. I don’t want to be set.”

The Here and Now by Ann Brashares (Delacorte Press, April 2014) [print · e-book].

B4

by Patrick Ryder and James Hamblin, directed by Patrick Ryder

After Rupert Shaw’s wife dies, he starts receiving phone calls from a man who claims to be Rupert himself and claims that his wife is still alive.

— Michael Main

We can’t meet. Seeing each other physically. . . You have no idea what that would cause.

B4 by Patrick Ryder and James Hamblin, directed by Patrick Ryder (at limited movie theaters, UK, 24 October 2014).

12 Monkeys, Season 1

written by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, et al., directed by multiple people

Same pandemic backstory as the movie, similar names for the characters, no Bruce Willis, and a mishmash of time-travel tropes along with tuneless minor-key chords in place of actual tension and slowly spoken clichéd dialogue in place of actual plot. Random discussions of fate brush shoulders with an admixture of possible time travel models from narrative time (when a wound sprouts on old JC’s shoulder while watching young JC get shot), to skeleton timelines (JC thinks that his timeline will vanish if he succeeds), to a fascination with a single static timeline (you’ll see it in Chechnya) and time itself has an agenda. Primarily, we’d say that the story follows narrative time from Cole’s point of view.

By the end of the first season, one principal character has seemingly been trapped in the 2043, and Cole is stuck in 2015, having just gone against fate in a major way, but with a third principal character poised to spread the virus via a jet plane.

P.S. Whatever you do, whether in narrative time or elsewhen, don’t bring up this adaptation as dinnertime conversation with Terry Gilliam (but do watch it if you can set aside angst over a lack of a consistent model and just go with Cole’s flow).

— Michael Main

About four years from now, most of the human race will be wiped out by a plague, a virus. We know it’s because of a man named Leland Frost. I have to find him.

—from “Splinter” [s01e01]

12 Monkeys, Season 1 written by Terry Matalas, Travis Fickett, et al., directed by multiple people (SyFy, USA, 16 January 2015 to 10 April 2015).

Somewhere Between

by Stephen Tolkin et al., directed by Duane Clark et al.

After San Francisco suffers a week of terror at the hands of a serial killer ending with the death of Laura Price’s eight-year-old daughter Serena, Laura falls into a dark depression and attempts suicide. Next thing she knows, she’s waking up before that week, whereupon she teams up with ex-police detective Nico Jackson (who also got thrown back in time), hoping to change the week, catch the killer, save Nico’s brother’s life, and save Serena—all in a mere nine additional episodes.

— Michael Main

I’m not going to let anybody hurt you this time. I swear to you on my life.

Somewhere Between by Stephen Tolkin et al., directed by Duane Clark et al., 10 pts. (ABC-TV, USA, 24 July – 19 September 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 Ottoman Secret

by Raymond Khoury

Secret police agent Kamal teams with his sister-in-law Nisreen, fleeing through time from pursuing gunmen who killed Nisreen’s family because toprotect the secret that their world was created by a violent temporal disruptor who altered history in favor of an autocratic Islam theocracy.

— Michael Main

Nisreen: I want to know how it is different and why he wanted to change it. Don’t you see? That’s how the world was supposed to be.

Ramazan: Assuming no one else had gone back and changed things before he did.

The Ottoman Secret by Raymond Khoury (Michael Joseph, May 2019).

The Speed of Time

by Russ Nickel and William J. Stribling, directed by William J. Stribling

Johnny Killfire of the year 2055 (the buff version) comes back to 2020 to stop his younger self from making a killer pizza-delivery app.

— Michael Main

You know that pizza app you’re working on to reduce delivery times? You designed it too well.

The Speed of Time by Russ Nickel and William J. Stribling, directed by William J. Stribling (Youtube: Dust Channel, 17 September 2020).

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).

The Other Emily

by Dean R. Koontz

A decade after David Thorne’s wife goes missing on a solo trip to northern California, her exact duplicate shows up—without having aged a day and claiming not to be Emily—at a bar in one of David’s favorite restaurants.

— Michael Main

Equally in the grip of dread and amazement, David Thorne began to awaken to a previously unthought-of truth, the ramifications of which were devastating and numberless.

The Other Emily by Dean R. Koontz (Thomas and Mercer, March 2021).

Lost between the Plates

by Benjamin Abbott

A woman seems to be chasing someone via random jumps through time.

— Michael Main

I’ve been chasing him for years and forever. Spinning through time and space without a sail.

“Lost between the Plates” by Benjamin Abbott, Daily Science Fiction, 21 May 2021 [webzine].

Giving Up the Ghost

by Aeryn Rudel

An assassin jumps back into her 17-year-old body where she takes care of her mission and has a little time left over.

— Michael Main

My target is a few blocks from here, which is why the Department of Temporal Enforcement chose me for the assignment. Proximity is important. The less you move around, the less likely the time stream gets fucked up.

“Giving Up the Ghost” by Aeryn Rudel, in Flashpoint Science Fiction, 26 June 2021.