THE WHOLE ITTDB   CONTACT   LINKS▼ 🔍 by Keywords▼ | by Media/Years▼ | Advanced
 
The Internet Time Travel Database

Chases through Time

Time Travel Tropes

Journey into Mystery #18

The Man Who Went Back!

by Carl Wessler and Pete Tumlinson
When Jeff Martin floats downstream, he literally floats back in time. Now, if only those two pesky men would quit following him,
— Michael Main
It looks like there was something about that swim in the river that threw me back ten years!
“The Man Who Went Back!” by Carl Wessler and Pete Tumlinson, in Journey into Mystery #18 (Atlas Comics, October 1954).

Return of the Moon Man

by E. L. Malpass
During a surprise trip to the moon by Grandpa, Grandma is mad about being left behind and leaves town with another man with a time machine. Grandpa returns, finds another time machine, and strands Grandma in time and space.
— Dave Hook
We got the meal ready, and then someone said, “Where is Grandfather?”
“Return of the Moon Man” by E. L. Malpass, in The Observer, 2 January 1955.

Strange Tales #111

Face-to-Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo!

by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko’s second-ever story of the master of the mystic arts includes one panel that, based on Stan Lee’s caption, involves time travel. Even though it was just one panel, it got me wondering whether the phrase race through time could possibly have a meaning. What would it mean for one time traveler to arrive at the final destination before another? Isn't the whole set up kind of like Doc Strange saying to Baron Mordo, “I’ll bet I can think of a number bigger than you can.”
— Michael Main
Unseen by human eyes, the two mighty spirit images race thru time and space . . .
“Face-to-Face with the Magic of Baron Mordo!” by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, in Strange Tales 111 (Marvel Comics, August 1963).

Time after Time

written and directed by Nicholas Meyer
Apart from the hero in The Time Machine movie (1960), this is the earliest that I’ve seen of the H.G.‑Wells-as-time-traveler subgenre. Our hero chases Jack the Ripper into the 20th century.
— Michael Main
Ninety years ago I was a freak; today I am an amateur.
Time after Time written and directed by Nicholas Meyer (Toronto International Film Festival, 7 September 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).

Timestalkers

by Brian Clemens, directed by Michael Schultz
After the death of his wife and child, Dr. Scott McKenzie stumbles upon a tintype photograph from the Old West showing three corpses, a shooter, and a modern Magnum 357, leading him to develop a theory of time travel that is confirmed when a beautiful woman from the future appears and takes him back to the Old West to chase the shooter, save President Cleveland, and pursue other obvious plot developments.

Spoiler: At the end, I believe that Georgia uses her time crystal to send Scott back for a do-over on the day of his family’s death. This is disappointing since up until that point, the film has set up a perfect example of a single, nonbranching timeline.

— Michael Main
What if Cole came back to set off a chain of events that would eventually destroy the one man who stood in his way?
Timestalkers by Brian Clemens, directed by Michael Schultz (CBS-TV, USA, 10 March 1987).

Time Barbarians

written and directed by Joseph John Barmettler
In an ancient world of swords, sorcery, loin cloths, and bejeweled bikinis, an evil thief kills King Deran’s queen before escaping to modern-day Los Angeles. Since the thief also took a magic amulet with him, a loinclothless wizardess sends Deran after him to retrieve the amulet and avenge the queen’s brutal death.
— Michael Main
The man you seek is in this world no longer. You must travel to another time to find him.
Time Barbarians written and directed by Joseph John Barmettler (direct-to-video, USA, circa 1990).

W.A.R.P. #1

The Reluctant Assassin

by Eoin Colfer
When fourteen-year-old Victorian waif Riley shows up in the 21st century on seventeen-year-old FBI Agent Chevie Savano’s watch, the two of them pair up and head back to the late 19th century to escape Riley’s evil pursuer.

Although the book involves wormholes and scientists, it’s really a quantum fantasy, wherein an ordinary fantasy has the word “quantum” scattered throughout in key places, typically before the word magic, magician, or wormhole. Nevertheless, we’ve listed it as science fiction to match its publicity material.

— Michael Main
He discovered that Einstein’s quantum theory was essentially correct and that he could stabilize a traversable wormhole through space-time using exotic matter with negative energy density.
The Reluctant Assassin by Eoin Colfer (Puffin, April 2013).

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).

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).

Best. Scientist. EVER.

by Omar Velasco
You head out on a quick, rollicking ride back through time, with an unknown pursuer and an ambiguous conclusion.
— Tandy Ringoringo
You come to the conclusion that you can correct everything if you stop yourself before you steal the time machine.
“Best. Scientist. EVER.” by Omar Velasco, Daily Science Fiction, 8 December 2020 [webzine].

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].

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]).

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).
as of 3:04 p.m. MDT, 18 May 2024
This page is still under construction.
Please bear with us as we continue to finalize our data over the coming years.