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The Internet Time Travel Database

Mad Scientists

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El AnacronĂłpete

English release: The Time Ship: A Chrononautical Journey Literal: He who flies backwards in time

by Enrique Gaspar
Mad scientist Don Sindulfo and his best friend Benjamin take off in Sindulfo’s flying time machine along with Sindulfo’s niece, her maid, a troop of Spanish soldiers, and a bordelloful of French strumpets for madcap adventures at the 1860 Battle of Téouan, Queen Isabella’s Spain, nondescript locales in the eleventh and seventh centuries, 3rd-century China, the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and a biblical time shortly after the flood.

After taking a year of Spanish at the University of Colorado, I undertook a three-year project of translating Gaspar’s novel to English, which is available in a pdf file for your reading pleasure. Even with the unpleasant twist at the end, it was still a fine, farcical romp through history.

— Michael Main
—Poco á poco—argumentaba un sensato.—Si el Anacronópete conduce á deshacer lo hecho, á mi me pasrece que debemos felicitarnos porque eso no permite reparar nuestras faltas.

—Tiene usted razón—clamaba empotrado en un testero del coche un marido cansado de su mujer.—En cuanto se abra la línea al público, tomo yo un billete para la vispera de mi boda.

“One step at a time,” argued a sensible voice. “If el Anacronópete aims to undo history, it seems to me that we must be congratulated as it allows us to amend our failures.”

“Quite right,” called a married man jammed into the front of the bus, thinking of his tiresome wife. “As soon as the ticket office opens to the public, I’m booking passage to the eve of my wedding.”

English
[ex=bare]El AnacronĂłpete | He who flies backwards in time[/ex] by Enrique Gaspar, in Novelas [Stories] (Daniel Cortezo, 1887).

The Atom-Smasher

by Victor Rousseau
We've got the evil Professor Tode (who modifies an atom-smasher into a time machine that travels to the Palaeolithic and to Atlantis), a fatherly older professor, his beautiful young daughter (menaced by evil Tode), casually written racist pronouncements (by Rousseau), and our hero scientist, the dashing Jim Dent. But my favorite sentence was the brief description of quantum mechanics, which I didn’t expect in a 1930 science fiction tale.
— Michael Main
The Planck-Bohr quantum theory that the energy of a body cannot vary continuously, but only by a certain finite amount, or exact multiples of this amount, had been the key that unlocked the door.
“The Atom-Smasher” by Victor Rousseau, Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May 1930.

Silver Dome

by Harl Vincent
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.
“Silver Dome” by Harl Vincent, in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930.

A Connecticut Yankee

by William M. Conselman, Owen Davis, and Jack Moffitt, directed by David Butler
This version of Twain’s story borrows some sf tropes from Shelley’s Frankenstein (a mad scientist) and Kipling’s “Wireless” (recovering sound from the past), although all that is small potatoes next to Will Rogers’ folksy wit. His character—Hank “Martin—is tossed back to Camelot when a bolt of lightning and a suit of armor knock him over at the mad scientist’s lab, and at the end, he returns via a similar timeslip. In between, we get one-liners, tommy guns, tanks, cars, characters that are eerily familiar from Martin’s present-day life—and a lot of time to debate whether this version has a real timeslip or is just a dream.
— Michael Main
Think! Think of hearing Lincoln’s own voice delivering the Gettysburg address!
A Connecticut Yankee by William M. Conselman, Owen Davis, and Jack Moffitt, directed by David Butler (at movie theaters, USA, 6 April 1931).

Wanderer of Infinity

by Harl Vincent
When Joan Carmody sends a plea to her ex-boyfriend Bert Redmond, he barrels from Indiana to upstate New York in a trice, only to see Joan and her borderline-mad brother Tom kidnapped by metal monsters from another dimension. Fortunately, a mourning, immortal wanderer through time and space also sees the abduction and fills in Bert with all the salient details and some unsalient ones, too.
— Michael Main
“We are here only as onlookers,” the Wanderer explained sadly, “and can have no material existence here. We can not enter this plane, for there is no gateway. Would that there were.”
“Wanderer of Infinity” by Harl Vincent, in Astounding Stories of Super-Science, March 1933.

Race through Time 1

A Race through Time

by Donald Wandrei
Evil Daniel kidnaps Ellen and takes her to the year 1,000,000 A.D. via metabolic speed-up! Not to worry. Good and compassionate Webster follows via relativistic time dilation!
— Michael Main
What I’ve done is to build a time-space traveler, working by atomic energy. Even as long ago as 1913, you know, Rutherford succeeded in partly breaking down the hydrogen atom. By 1933, others succeeded in partially breaking down atoms with high voltages of electricity. But they used up far more energy than they got back, or released. I’ve simply perfected the method to a point where, with an initial bombardment of fifty volts, I can break down one atom and get back thousands of times the energy I put in. There’s nothing strange or wonderful or miraculous about it. I don’t create energy of power from nothing. I simply liberate energy that already exists. Part of the power I use to break down another atom, and so on, while the rest is diverted to propel the torpedo by discharging through tubes—like a rocket. I’ve made one short experimental trip.
“A Race through Time” by Donald Wandrei, Astounding Stories, October 1933.

Weird Fantasy #15 (1950)

I Died Tomorrow!

by Gardner Fox and Jack Kamen
When a mad scientist with a time machine gets together with a power-crazed university president, the result is deadly (and time travel aspects of the plot makes little sense).
— Michael Main
I licked my lips greedily! I had to have that time-machine!
“I Died Tomorrow!” by Gardner Fox and Jack Kamen, Weird Fantasy #15 (EC Comics, September/October 1950).

Ijon Tichy

Ze wspomnień Ijona Tichego, pt. 4

Literal: From remembrances of Ijon Tichy, pt. 4

by Stanisław Lem
Ijon is unphased when Physicist Molteris lugs his time machine into Ijon’s sitting room, promising Ijon will be repaid for the colossal amount of electricity that will be consumed by the first trip.
— Michael Main
Zamierzałem, ale . . . widzi pan . . . ja . . . mój gospodarz wyłączył mi elektrycznoćś . . . w niedzielę.
I planned to, but, you see, I—my landlord turned off the electricity on Sunday.
English
[ex=bare]Ze wspomnieĹ„ Ijona Tichego, pt. 4 | From remembrances of Ijon Tichy, pt. 4[/ex] by StanisĹ‚aw Lem, in KsiÄ™ga robotĂłw (Iskry, 1961).

Journey into Mystery #86

On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man

by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Zarrko, a mad time-machine-building scientist from 2262, believes that our nuclear weapons will enable him to take over the world of his time. He comes back to 1962 to steal one, and the Mighty Thor pursues him back to 2262.

The plot suffers from Alpha Centauri syndrome, where the time traveler might as well be from Alpha Centauri as from the future, but seeing the emergence of Kirby’s high-perspective artwork gives this issue a boost. In addition, the story provides a powerful image of the pre-Vietnam cold war era and its prevailing assumptions about the roles of women in society.

— Michael Main
Ahhh—an ancient explosion of a nuclear bomb! The perfect device with which to conquer the twenty-third century!
“On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man” by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in Journey into Mystery 86 (Marvel Comics, November 1962).

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).

Clockstoppers

by Rob Hedden and Andy Hedden
According to the book’s preface, the novel was written by brothers Rob and Andy Hedden based on an idea from Rob’s son Ryan. The story was turned into a movie of the same name in 2002, and the book appear at roughly the same time. We’re listing the book as a novelization of the movie (rather than the movie being an adaptation of the novel) because that’s how it’s described on the book’s cover.
— Michael Main
The large clock appeared to be broken, its second hand stopped at thirteen seconds past the hour.
“Clockstoppers” by Rob Hedden and Andy Hedden (Simon Pulse, March 2002).

Clockstoppers

by Rob Hedden, J. David Stern, and David N. Weiss, directed by Jonathan Frakes
Teenager Zak Gibbs and his pals must protect a metabolism-speeding device from falling into the wrong hands and rescue Zak’s dad as well.
— based on Wikipedia
Zak: My dad consults on these super-secret projects, and I think this is one of them.
Francesca: So your watch stops time?
Clockstoppers by Rob Hedden, J. David Stern, and David N. Weiss, directed by Jonathan Frakes (premiered at an unknown movie theater, Los Angeles, 17 March 2002).

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).

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).

Backwards

BY Gregory Velloze
A short-lived species has memories of both the past and the future.
— Michael Main
For progeny and ancestors of the Retromens had communicated with their caretaker, studying him as he studied them, generation for generation.
“Backwards” BY Gregory Velloze, Daily Science Fiction, 28 October 2020 [webzine].
as of 3:07 a.m. MDT, 6 May 2024
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