The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator

by Murray Leinster

Pete Davidson has inherited all the properties of an uncle who had been an authority on the fourth dimension, including the Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator that can pull copies of matches, coins, dollar bills, fiancées, and kangaroos out of the past.

— Michael Main

“These,” said Pete calmly, “are my fiancée.”

“The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator” by Murray Leinster, Astounding, December 1935.

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 #2

Don’t Look!

by an unknown writer and Jay Scott Pike

Yep, the mirror that Harold Whitney got from an odd old man really does let you see what people will look like in the future—a situation that we’d normally mark as a mere time phenomenon and tag as a simple kind of chronoscope. But the story also has a twist at the end that makes me wonder whether the old man was also a time traveler.

— Michael Main

I have here a strange invention, a mirror that will let you see how anyone will look at anytime in the future.

“Don’t Look!” by an unknown writer and Jay Scott Pike, in Journey into Mystery #2 (Atlas Comics, August 1952).

Journey into Mystery #2

The Pact

by an unknown writer

Frances Conrad learns the dark truth about an unholy pact made by his ancestor from the horse’s mouth itself.

— Michael Main

The year is 1693, the month is June, and the day is the fifteenth. Come and watch with me.

“The Pact” by an unknown writer , in Journey into Mystery #2 (Atlas Comics, August 1952).

The End of Eternity

by Isaac Asimov

Andrew Harlan, Technician in the everwhen of Eternity, falls in love and starts a chain of events that could lead to the end of everything.

— Michael Main

He had boarded the kettle in the 575th Century, the base of operations assigned to him two years earlier. At the time the 575th had been the farthest upwhen he had ever traveled. Now he was moving upwhen to the 2456th Century.

The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, August 1955).

“—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.

The Twilight Zone (r1s01e05)

Walking Distance

by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Stevens

Stopped at a gas station outside of his boyhood hometown, burnt-out executive Martin Sloan decides to explore the town, which surprisingly has not changed at all in twenty-some years.

— Michael Main

I know you’ve come from a long way from here. . . a long way and a long time.

The Twilight Zone (v1s01e05), “Walking Distance” by Rod Serling, directed by Robert Stevens (CBS-TV, USA, 30 October 1959).

La jetée

English release: La Jetée Literal: The pier

written and directed by Chris Marker

In a world made uninhabitable by the Third World War, a prisoner is chosen as being the only person with vivid enough memories of the past to travel through time and return with salvation.

This 28-minute photo montage with about 1,200 words of narration has a nice seed of an idea, but I find it insulting to other talented filmmakers that Time magazine ranked this sketch of a film as #1 in their 2010 list of best time travel movies.

— Michael Main

Tel était le but des expériences : projeter dans le Temps des émissaires, appeler le passé et l’avenit au secours du présent.

Such was the purpose of the experiments: to project emissaries into Time, to summon the Past and the Future to the aid of the Present.

English

La jetée written and directed by Chris Marker (at movie theaters, France, 16 February 1962).

The Voyages of Ijon Tichy 11

Podróż siódma

English release: The Seventh Voyage Literal: Journey seven

by Stanisław Lem

What do you do when your one-man spaceship loses an argument with a meteor, and the only way to repair the rudder demands two people? “The Seventh Voyage” is the eleventh tale of Stanisław Lem’s space traveler Ijon Ticvhy, but I believe it’s the first where the hero also wrangles with time.

— Michael Main

— Zaraz — odparł wolno, nawet nie ruszając palcem. — Dzisiaj jest wtorek. Jeżeli ty jesteś środowy i do tej chwili we środę jeszcze nie są naprawione stery, to z tego wynika, że coś przeszkodzi nam w ich naprawieniu, ponieważ w przeciwnym razie, ty, we środę, nie nakłaniałbyś już mnie do tego, abym ja, we wtorek, wspólnie je z tobą naprawiał. Więc może lepiej nie ryzykować wyjścia na zewnątrz?

“Just a minute,” I replied, remaining on the floor. ”Today is Tuesday. Now if you are the Wednesday me, and if by that time on Wednesday the rudder still hasn’t been fixed, then it follows that something will prevent us from fixing it, since otherwise you, on Wednesday, would not now, on Tuesday, be asking me to help you fix it. Wouldn’t it be best, then, for us to not risk going outside?”

English

[ex=bare]“Podróż siódma” | Voyage seven[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Niezwyciężony i inne opowiadania by Stanisław Lem (Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1964).

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).

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).

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 Ray Bradbury Theater (s01e02)

The Playground

by Ray Bradbury, directed by William Fruet

Charles visits his boyhood playground, at first on his own and then with his own son. There, he sees Ralph, the bully who tormented him, who’s still a boy and who still seems to be tormenting Charlie.

Perhaps Ralph was meant to be a ghost bully, perhaps the curly haired boy is young Charlie, perhaps Charlie switches bodies with his own son, or perhaps there’s time travel invovled. We doubt that even Captain Kirk could sort out all those perhapses in this TV version of Ray Bradbury’s story starring William Shatner. But clarity can be had if you read the original story, which takes about the same amount of time as watching the TV episode but shows the rich inner life of Charles Underwood and leaves no ambiguity about what’s up with “Ralph.”

— Michael Main

Ralph? The bully. When I was a kid, he used to wait for me on the corner every day.

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s01e02), “The Playground” by Ray Bradbury, directed by William Fruet (HBO, USA, 4 June 1985).

The Turning Point

by Isaac Asimov

In exactly 100 words, Madison goes back in time to meet himself at the turning point of his young life.

Thanks to Marc Richardson for sending this one to me.

— Michael Main

He was a clerk.

“The Turning Point” by Isaac Asimov, in The Drabble Project, edited by Rob Meades and David B. Wake (Beccon Publications, April 1988).

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.

Bill & Ted I

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure

by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, directed by Stephen Herek

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!

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, directed by Stephen Herek (at movie theaters, USA, 17 February 1989).

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).

Cloche vaine

English release: Empty ring Literal: Vain bell

by Francine Pelletier

At the end of her long successful writing career, a woman is still haunted by her sister’s death four decades earlier.

— Michael Main

We had talked about SF literature, books on the theme of going back in time. This was related to the activities of the day. During the convention, one of the guest scientists had stated that time travel was impossible.

[ex=bare]“Cloche vaine” | Vain bell[/ex] by Francine Pelletier, in Solaris 109, Spring 1994.

12 Monkeys

by David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples, directed by Terry Gilliam

In the year 2035, with the world devastated by an artificially engineered plague, convict James Cole is sent back in time to gather information about the plague’s origin so the scientists can figure out how to fight it.

— Michael Main

If you can’t change anything because it’s already happened, you may as well smell the flowers.

12 Monkeys by David Webb Peoples and Janet Peoples, directed by Terry Gilliam (premiered at an unknown movie theater, New York City, 8 December 1995).

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.

Harry Potter 3

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

by Steve Kloves, directed by Alfonso Cuarón

Compared to the books, I find the Harry Potter movies drawn-out and boring, but I rewatched this one during the pandemic and found that I enjoyed all three thirteen-year-olds as well as Hagrid, Sirius, Snape, Lupin, and—most of all—the fact that the filmmakers didn’t blithely destroy the single static timeline out of a misplaced sense that time travelers are meant to change the timeline willy-nilly.

— Michael Main

Hang on! That’s not possible. Ancient Runes is at the same time as Divination. You’d have to be in two classes at once.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by Steve Kloves, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (premiered at an unknown movie theater, New York City, 23 May 2004).

The Santa Clause 3

The Escape Clause

by Ed Decter and John J. Strauss, directed by Michael Lembeck

Now that Santa and Mrs. Claus have the North Pole running smoothly, the Counsel of Legendary Figures has called an emergency meeting on Christmas Eve! The evil Jack Frost has been making trouble, looking to take over the holiday! So he launches a plan to sabotage the toy factory and compel Scott to invoke the little-known Escape Clause and wish he'd never become Santa.

— from publicity material

This is the part where I’m transported through time and everything goes back to the way it was, like I’d never become Santa at all.

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause by Ed Decter and John J. Strauss, directed by Michael Lembeck (at movie theaters, Germany, 2 November 2006).

Artemis Fowl, Book #6

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

by Eoin Colfer

When fourteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl realizes that the only cure for his mother’s case of Spelltropy lies in a species of lemur that Artemis made extinct eight years ago, there is only one solution: Grab your 80-year-old, elfin-police-captain-friend Holly Short and trick her into traveling back in time to stop your formerly evil, ten-year-old self from killing off the last of the all-cure lemurs.

Author Eoin Colfer does a masterful job presenting a single nonbranching, static timeline, complete with three consistent causal loops (further described in our tag notes for this story). But really, Eoin, you missed the shuttle on “the kiss”! With the help of N°1, Artemis can time travel, so if you're intent on his first romantic kiss coming from Holly Short, couldn’t N°1 have brought Holly’s actual fourteen-year-old self into the story? Might have even presented an opportunity for a fourth causal loop: Fourteen-year-old Holly kissees fourteen-year-old Artemis, but only because fifteen-year-old Artemis had already told thirteen-year-old Holly that they would enjoy it.

— Michael Main

Oh, bless my bum-flap. You’re time travelers.

The Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer (Hyperion Books for Children, July 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).

On the Bus

by William Grewe-Mullins

A man on a bus gives advice to his younger self.

— Michael Main

You’re going to need a lot of dog food.

“On the Bus” by William Grewe-Mullins, in Black is the New Black, 28 June 2010.

SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 68

Lessons Learned

[writer and director unknown]

SpongeBob and faithful Patrick use the boxy time machine from “SB-129” to travel back and give advice to their younger selves.

— Michael Main

Patrick, with this time machine, we can go back to the past and make our young selves wiser!

“Lessons Learned” [writer and director unknown] (SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 68, Nickelodean (USA, 14 June 2011).

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].

Dating Rules [.s1]

Dating Rules from My Future Self I: Lucy

by Wendy Weiner and Sallie Patrick, directed by Elizabeth Allen

Nice and nerdy Lucy gets romantic advice from her future self via text messages.

Fellow ITTDB indexer Janet found this one on the web, and we watched a daily installment with tea during my first September up in the ITTDB Citadel.

— Michael Main

Lucy: tell me who this is.
Unknown: I’m u 10 years in the future.

Dating Rules from My Future Self I: Lucy by Wendy Weiner and Sallie Patrick, directed by Elizabeth Allen (Youtube: Alloy Channel, 9 January 2012 to 27 January 2012 [9 parts]).

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).

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).

The Loneliness of Time Travel

by George R. Shirer

A twist on how meeting yourself for coffee interacts with how time travel works in your universe.

— Michael Main

You have no idea how many of my younger selves freak out when I show up.

“The Loneliness of Time Travel” by George R. Shirer, 365 Tomorrows, 25 November 2012 [webzine].

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].

Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Time-Travel Trouble!

by Billy Wrecks

A short picture book of the 2014 Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie. The images are all from the movie’s CGI (or at least generated by the same process).

— Michael Main

Sheman was supposed to keep the time machine secret, but he broke the rules. He took his friend Penny back in time to ancient Egypt.

Time-Travel Trouble! by Billy Wrecks (Random House Children’s Books, July 2014).

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).

Displacement

written and directed by Kenneth Mader

Brilliant physics student Cassandra Sinclair finds herself running from the evil Initiative Organization—which includes her childhood friend Josh and a posh lady with an English accent—who are after the equations in her thesis notes that somehow (she’s not quite sure how) launched her on multiple slips back in time (we counted eight) that may or may not result in destroying yourself by getting too close to yourself, a closed timelike curve, quantum entanglement, and/or solving the Grandfather Paradox (without ever having anything that resembles the Grandfather Paradox, quantum entanglement, or a closed timelike curve). We suspect that writer/director Kenneth Mader had been reading “Experimental Simulation of Closed Timelike Curves,” but the actual science didn’t fully translate from the lab to the silver screen.

Handy Hint: The movie is eminently more watchable in a late-night group where everyone shouts “Great Scott!” whenever a character spews a sequence of pseudoscientific quantum mumbo jumbo that vaguely resembles an English sentence.

— Michael Main

We’ve been running simulations to resolve the Grandfather Paradox, and we experienced an unusual electromagnetic pulse at the school that was triggered remotely. We were able to locate the source, but I suspect someone may have taken our simulations a step further. . . . The equation in your daughter’s thesis notes may have actually solved the paradox. But they’re untested and now they’re missing, and you said Charles has been absent. Could he have taken them and induced an entanglement?!

Displacement written and directed by Kenneth Mader (Boston SciFi Film Festival, 7 February 2016).

I Hate Time Travellers

by Lee J Isserow

Turns out the Luke is one of the few people on Earth who didn’t get involuntarily evolved into a time traveler.

— Michael Main

All of them except Luke Denton and around a thousand other souls who’d been left behind whilst the rest of the human race were evolved against their will, by a force conspiracy theorists around the world had put down to anything from governmental to extra terrestrial tinkering.

I Hate Time Travellers by Lee J Isserow (ABAM.info, March 2016) [audio reading].

A Little Something

written and directed by Brett Eichenberger

A time-traveling salesman brings a gift to a woman who’s about to begin cancer treatment.

— Michael Main

I just googled woolly mammoth, babies, clones . . .

A Little Something written and directed by Brett Eichenberger (Roswell Film Festival, 21 May 2016).

Shakesville

by Adam-Troy Castro and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro

Fifty future versions of a man show up in his apartment (49 of whom are corrupted) to warn him of an impending fateful decision that he must make correctly.

— Michael Main

It’s not anything fatal. You know it can’t be anything fatal, because if it was, then there would be no future self who could be sent back to warn you.

”Shakesville” by Adam-Troy Castro and Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Analog Science Fiction and Fact, March/April 2017.

1989

by Shakir Ameed, directed by Shakir Ameed and Rifat Mohammed

What are you to do when you fail your high school final exams? In Shakir’s case, he decides to get his friend’s friend to send him back in time a few months to give himself a copy of the exam papers, which seems like a good plan if only he would listen to the warnings about not returning before he leaves.

— Michael Main

What do we do now? Your exams are already over, right?

1989 by Shakir Ameed, directed by Shakir Ameed and Rifat Mohammed (Youtube: Shakir Ameer Channel, 29 June 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).

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.

Paradoxes of Time Travel

by Ryan Wasserman

Ryan Wasserman’s philosophical book is one of two books* that need to live on your nonfiction shelf. One by one and with complete reference to the past literature, he presents all the major paradoxes of time travel along with different models of time travel and arguments against time travel even being possible. Just get it and read it cover-to-cover. As a bonus, Professor Wasserman, who is on the Philosophy faculty at Western Washington State University, will cheerfully have discussions about time travel issues via e-mail with those of us up in the nearby ITTDB Citadel.

* The other, of course, is Paul J. Nahin’s Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics and Science Fiction, Second Edition.

— Michael Main

Each of the foregoing cases involves a self-defeating act—an act such that, if it were performed, it wold not be. Self-defeating acts are obviously impossible, since the performance of such an act would imply a contradiction. Yet time travel seems to make such acts possible. This suggests the following line of argument against backward time travel:

(P1) If backward time travel were possible, it would be possible to perform a self-defeating act.

(P2) It is impossible to perform a self-defeating act.

(C) Backward time travel is impossible.

Paradoxes of Time Travel by Ryan Wasserman (Oxford University Press, 2018).

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).

2nd Door

written and directed by Umesh Verma

Two men—a garage shop owner and a mad scientist—loop through 13 days, meeting and shooting each other and themselves, but not so that we could understand much (beyond that there was a time portal made of hubcaps and blue electricity).

— Michael Main

This freak made a mess of our garage.

2nd Door written and directed by Umesh Verma (Youtube: 2nd Door Channel, 8 December 2017).

See You Yesterday

by Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol, directed by Stefon Bristol

Up in the ITTDB Citadel, our first attraction is naturally to the time travel aspects of any movie, even when the result is an incomprehensible time wreck resulting from a pair of teenage geniuses. That’s what’s on the surface here, but it also seems to be a metaphor for the even bigger train wreck of the racist society in the 21st-century United States.

— Michael Main

You’re missing the big picture here: If time travel were possible, it would be the greatest ethical and philosophical conundrum of the modern age.

See You Yesterday by Fredrica Bailey and Stefon Bristol, directed by Stefon Bristol (Tribeca Film Festival, New York City, 3 May 2019).

The Future of Another Timeline

by Annalee Newitz

Tess is a geologist (because, of course, geologists control the time travel of the giant ancient machines) and a member of the Daughters of Harriet (Senator Harriet Tubman, that is, from 19th-century Mississippi). On the surface, the Daughters are time travel scholars, but in reality, Tess and her fellow Daughters are fighting a pitched changewar for women’s rights against the oppressors known as the Comstockers. One more thing: While she’s at it,Tess also hopes to also save the souls of her teenaged self and her underground feminist punk friends in the 1990s, with a particular focus on their vigilante killing spree and young Beth’s abortion.

— Michael Main

All five Machines had limitations, but the hardest to surmount was what travelers call the Long Four Years. Wormholes only opened for people who remained within twenty kilometers of a Machine for at least 1,680 days.

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz (Tor, September 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).

Press Start! 9

Super Rabbit Boy’s Time Jump!

by Thomas Flintham

A superhero rabbit from a low-resolution handheld video game fights his arch-nemesis, King Viking, who plans to stop Baby Rabbit Boy from ever getting superpowers.

— Michael Main

I built this Super Mega Robot Time Machine to use the Time Crystal’s power. That means I can travel through time!

Super Rabbit Boy’s Time Jump! by Thomas Flintham (Branches, September 2020) [print · e-book].

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).

2067

written and directed by Seth Larney

The cinematic vision of writer/director Seth Larney was beyond his grasp in this story of a Philip K. Dick-esque future where all plant life has been killed off, an evil corporation has cornered the market in artificial oxygen, and a lowly utility worker with a dying wife is called four centuries into the future by a successfully executed causal loop accompanied by the usual kind of unexplained skeleton timeline.

— Michael Main

You want to shoot me into oblivion with no way to get home.

2067 written and directed by Seth Larney (at limited theaters (USA, 2 October 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).

Solos [s1.e01]

Leah

by David Weil, directed by Zach Braff

While talking to her mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, brilliant scientist Leah Salavara’s subconscious brings up just the idea that’s needed to video chat with herself in other times and eventually complete the final step that leads to actual time travel with a surprisingly complex set of motives.

— Michael Main

Okay, so in order to run a reverse dimensional location search, I need to know what the interdimensional VIN is on your computer.

Solos (s01e01), “Leah” by David Weil, directed by Zach Braff (Amazon Prime, 21 May 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]).

What If `. . .` ? [s1e04]

What If . . . Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

by A. C. Bradley, directed by Bryan Andrews

As we all know, when the world’s formost surgeon, Doctor Strange, lost the use of his hands in a car wreck, it prompted him to search out mystic treatments and eventually become the Master of the Mystic Arts. But what if he had lost something else in that wreck?

— Michael Main

The Ancient One: Her death is an Absolute Point in time.
Dr. Strange: Absolute?
A.O.: Unchangable. Unmovable. Without her death, you would never have defeated Dormamu and become the Sorcerer Supreme—and the guardian of the Eye of Agamotto. If you erase her death, you never start your journey.

“What If . . . Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” by A. C. Bradley, directed by Bryan Andrews, What If. . . ? [s01e04] (Disney+, worldwide, 1 September 2021).

Fantasy Island (r3s01e07), pt. 2

The Bromance

by Mary Angelica Molina and Adam Belanoff, directed by Laura Belsey

Brian Cole, a hard-core survivalist, faces his greatest challenge: working with and understanding his own young self.

— Michael Main

I might be you, but I’m not a moron.

Fantasy Island (v3s01e07), seg. 2, “The Bromance” by Mary Angelica Molina and Adam Belanoff, directed by Laura Belsey (Fox-TV, USA, 14 September 2021).

Your Cat

by Beth Cato

You travel back in time to save your childhood cat in exactly the way that you know she was saved.

— Michael Main

You have traveled thirty years back in time to save your cat.

“Your Cat” by Beth Cato, Daily Science Fiction, 21 September 2021 [webzine].

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).

Paean for a Branch Ghost

by Filip Wiltgren

In the far future, a woman who had lived through the Sobibor extermination camp manipulates the system to go back and rescue the rest of her family.

— Michael Main

“Twentieth century,” said Davos, and I whistled, long, and low, and falling. “Special assignment,” he said, and I whistled again. I’d never heard of anyone going that far back.

“Paean for a Branch Ghost” by Filip Wiltgren, Future Science Fiction Digest #14, March 2022 [e-zine · 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).

The Blacklist (s09e19)

The Bear Mask

by Noah Schechter, directed by Matthew McLoota

Under severe stress, Agent Aram Mojtabai decides to try psychedelic therapy. Not realizing that he’s tripping, he finds himself repeating a violent time loop.

— Tandy Ringoringo

Aram: You know, when I first heard about psychedelic therapy, I imagined something a bit more—
Dr. Idigbe: —tie-dye and trance music?

The Blacklist (s09e19), “The Bear Mask” by Noah Schechter, directed by Matthew McLoota (NBC-TV, USA, 6 May 2022).

The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift

by Nika Murphy

Audra Cobb is pulled through time rifts from one parallel universe to another with a bit of time travel thrown in. I think the parallel universes are a literary mechanism to explore daydreaming about what might have been while under the spell of limerence.

— Michael Main

The egg yolk path glistens in my periphery and my fingertips tingle. Once the rift closes, we go back. Back to before the rift ruptured. Back to when Joseph first moved in and before we . . .

“The Art of Navigating an Affair in a Time Rift” by Nika Murphy, Clarkesworld #189, June 2022 [print · e-zine · webzine].

Lightyear

by Jason Headley and Angus MacLane, directed by Angus MacLane

Despite having relativistic time dilation, actual time travel, and a nice treatment of various time travel tropes, the story of Buzz Lightyear (the movie character) who was the basis for Buzz Lightyear (the toy) fell far short of infinity in terms of plot and fun.

— Michael Main

Time dilation is quite simple. As you approached hyperspeed, your time slowed relative to our own, so during your mission, you aged only minutes, while the rest of us have aged years. Simply put, the faster you fly—

Lightyear by Jason Headley and Angus MacLane, directed by Angus MacLane (at movie theaters, Philippines et al., 15 June 2022).

The Umbrella Academy, Season 3

After stopping the JFK-induced apocalypse in Season 2, the six Umbrella siblings return to 2019 where they no longer exist and their still-living father has founded The Sparrow Academy in their stead.

— Michael Main

Well, someone killed our mothers, so we shouldn’t exist, but clearly we do exist, and the universe can’t handle it, which is a problem.

The Umbrella Academy, Season 3 (Netflix, 22 June 2022).