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A Dialogue for the Year 2130: Extracted from the Album of a Modern Sibyl

by Thomas Henry Lister
John Clute at the SF Encyclopedia describes the short play as “almost predictive of H. G. Wells’s 1053 } The Time Machine,” with Eloi-like upper classes and Morlock-like lower classes—but apart from having such future beings, there are no actual time phenomena in the play. However, the play does mention mechanical horses, steam porters, and automata secretaries who, among other things, write notes of condelences and/or congratulations (sometimes mixing them up).
— Michael Main
It is amusing to look at the descriptions of manners as they existed in those times.
“A Dialogue for the Year 2130: Extracted from the Album of a Modern Sibyl” by Thomas Henry Lister, in The Keepsake for MDCCCXXX, edited by Frederic Mansel Reynolds (Hurst, Chance, and Co., and R. Jennings, late 1829).

The Clockwork Man

by E. V. Odle
A peculiar man with mechanical mannerisms appears at a cricket match spouting nonsense and later causing headaches throughout the village until Dr. Allingham finally talks to him and discovers that the origin of the man with clockwork devices implanted in his head is some 8000 years in the future.
“Perhaps I ought to explain,” he continued. “You see, I’m a clockwork man.”
The Clockwork Man by E. V. Odle (William Heinemann, 1923).

The Twonky

by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
A man, dazed from running into a temporal snag, appears in a radio factory, whereupon (before returning to his own time) he makes a radio that’s actually a Twonky, which promptly gets shipped to a Mr. Kerry Westerfield, who is initially quite confounded and amazed at everything it does.

Because of the story’s opening, I’m convinced the Twonky is from the future. The “temporal snag” that brought it to 1942 feels like an unexpected time rift to me, although the route back to the future is an intentional journey via an unexplained method.

— Michael Main
“Great Snell!” he gasped. “So that was it! I ran into a temporal snag!”
“The Twonky” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1942.

The Twonky

written and directed by Arch Oboler
Unlike in the original short story of “The Twonky,” the movie’s mad machine is a TV rather than a radio. Also, we never explicitly see the machine’s construction by a time traveler, but the professor’s discussions with the coach make it clear that they believe the machine is from the future, and that’s good enough for us. And finally, when you watch the wacky film, you’ll see that Arch Oboler devised a different fate for the Twonky than that of Kuttner and Moore’s original story.
— Michael Main
Kerry: Then it is from another world?
Coach Trout: No, from our world, centuries in the future.
The Twonky written and directed by Arch Oboler (at movie theaters, USA, 10 June 1953).

Jon’s World

by Philip K. Dick
First the Soviets and the Westerners fought. Then the Westerners brought Schonerman’s killer robots into the mix. Then the robots fought both human sides. You know all that from Dick’s earlier story, “Second Variety.” But now it’s long after the desolation, long enough that Caleb Ryan and his financial backer Kastner are willing to bring back the secret of Schonerman’s robots from the past to make their world a better place for surviving mankind, including Ryan’s visionary son Jon.
— Michael Main
And then the terminator’s claws began to manufacture their own varieties and attack Soviets and Westerners alike. The only humans that survived were those at the UN base on Luna.
“Jon’s World” by Philip K. Dick, in Time to Come: Science-Fiction Stories of Tomorrow, edited by August Derleth; Farrar (Strass and Young, April 1954).

Unusual Tales #11

Dream On . . . !

by Joe Gill [?] and Maxwell Elkan
Fred Cotton refuses to sleep because each of his nightmares later comes true!
— Michael Main
He fought sleep like a man fighting demons! But no man can stay awake forever! His eyelids began to close, heavy with fatigue, his head began to nod . . .
“Dream On . . . !” by Joe Gill [?] and Maxwell Elkan, Unusual Tales #11 (Charlton Comics, March 1958).

Fantastic Four #5

Prisoners of Doctor Doom!

by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott
The Marvel Comics Brand began in 1939 with the first edition of Marvel Comics. Throughout the ’40s and ’50s, some of the Timely and Atlas comics had the slogan “A Marvel Magazine,” ”Marvel Comic,” or a small “MC” on the cover. As for me personally, I was hooked when Marvel started publishing the Fantastic Four in 1961. During the sixties, I devoured as many Marvels as I could as they arrived at the local Rexall Drug Store or swapping comcs with my pals, and this is the first of those Marvel issues in the ’60s involved superhero time travel.

Nowadays, we all know that Doc Doom is far too smart to think the most profitable way to use his time platform is by sending three of the FF into the past with orders to bring back Blackbeard’s treasure (while keeping the fourth member of their team captive). And yet, the story has a charm that stems from the causal loop of Ben Grimm’s presence in the past actually causing the legend of Blackbeard, which in turn caused Doom to send the loveable lunk back.

And now I shall send you back. . . hundreds of years into the past! You will have forty-eight hours to bring me Blackbeard’s treasure chest! Do not fail!
“Prisoners of Doctor Doom!” by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Joe Sinnott, in Fantastic Four 5 (Marvel Comics, July 1962).

Avengers #11, December 1964

The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man

by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Chic Stone
This story is as close as Spidey ever got to time traveling in the Silver Age. He didn’t travel himself, but he did meet and battle Kang’s time traveling Spider-Man robot. On top of that, Don Heck gave us his interpretations of Ditko art taken from the pages of the Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1. Can you tell which is which?
Spider-Man! Well, much obliged to you, fella! I never knew you were so . . . cooperative!
“The Mighty Avengers Meet Spider-Man” by Stan Lee, Don Heck, and Chic Stone, in The Avengers 11, December 1964.

Avengers #56

Death Be Not Proud!

by Roy Thomas and John Buscema
Using Doc Doom’s time platform, the tag-3743 } Wasp sends Cap and the other three 1968 Avengers back to observe Bycky Barnes’s death at the hands of Baron Zemo.
— Michael Main
That’s just what’s begun to torure me! How can I be sure he’s dead? I saw only a single searing blast! If I somehow survived it . . . couldn’t he have, too?
“Death Be Not Proud!” by Roy Thomas and John Buscema, in The Avengers 56 (Marvel Comics, September 1968).

Star Trek (s03e19)

Requiem for Methuselah

by Jerome Bixby, directed by Murray Golden
The seemingly all-powerful Flint lives with the brilliant young Raina, hangs unknown [tag-3791 | da Vinci[/ex] paintings on his walls, and provides Mr. Spock with a modern-day Brahms waltz. Could his riches be ill-got via time travel or is there a mundane explanation?
— Michael Main
Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mr. Flint—they appear to have been recently painted.
Star Trek (s03e19), Requiem for Methuselah by Jerome Bixby, directed by Murray Golden (NBC-TV, 14 February 1969).

Terminator 1

The Terminator

by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, directed by James Cameron
Artificially intelligent machines from 2029 send a killer cyborg back to 1984 to kill Sara Connor because, in 2029, her son John will lead the resistance against the machines’ rule.

The story has a classic self-defeating act: The Terminator goes back in time to kill Sara Connor, causing Kyle Reese to follow and become romantic with Sara Connor, causing John Connor to be born and eventually lead the revolution, causing the Terminator to go back in time to kill Sara Connor, . . .

— Michael Main
Kyle: [to Sarah at the Tech-Noir Club] Come with me if you want to live.
The Terminator by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd, directed by James Cameron (at movie theaters, USA, 26 October 1984).

Sailing to Byzantium

by Robert Silverberg
Charles Phillips is a 20th-century New Yorker in a future world of immortal leisurites who reconstruct cities from the past.
— Michael Main
He knew very little about himself, but he knew that he was not one of them. That he knew. He knew that his name was Charles Phillips and that before he had come to live among these people he had lived in the year 1984, when there had been such things as computers and television sets and baseball and jet planes, and the world was full of cities, not merely five but thousands of them, New York and London and Johannesburg and Parks and Liverpool and Bangkok and San Francisco and Buenos Ares and a multitude of others, all at the same time.
“Sailing to Byzantium” by Robert Silverberg, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, February 1985.

The Time Guardian

by John Baxter and Brian Hannant, directed by Brian Hannant
When terminatoresque cyborgs attack a future Australian city (headed by Quantum Leap’s favorite scoundrel, Dean Stockwell, and defended by everyone’s favorite princess, Carrie Fisher), the scientists take them all back to 1988—a fine plan until the evil cyborgs follow.
— Michael Main
One city attempted to escape their onslaught by unraveling the secrets of time and travelling back in a desperate search for a safer age . . . they succeeded and time was their friend until the arrival yet again of their relentless enemy.
The Time Guardian by John Baxter and Brian Hannant, directed by Brian Hannant (at movie theaters, Australia, 3 December 1987).

Terminator 2

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

by James Cameron and William Wisher, directed by James Cameron
Once more, the machines from 2029 send back a killer cyborg, this time a T-1000 to kill young John Connor in 1995, but Resistance-leader Connor of the future counters by sending a reprogrammed original T-800 to save himself.
— Michael Main
The T-800: [to Sarah at the Pescadero State Hospital] Come with me if you want to live.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day by James Cameron and William Wisher, directed by James Cameron (premiered at an unknown movie theater, Los Angeles, 1 July 1991).

Sailor Moon (s02e36)

未来への旅立ち!時空回廊の戦い

Mirai e no tabidachi! Jikū kairō no tatakai English release: Journey to the Future: Battle in the Space-Time Corridor Literal: Departure for the future! Battle of the space-time corridor

by Sumisawa Katsuyuki, directed by Kosaka Harume
Sailor Moon and the gang travel to the Door of Space and Time where they hope to head to the future and rescue Chibiusa’s mommy. Sailor Pluto opens the Space-Time Door for them, which takes them to Planet Crystal Tokyo and a slew of baddies. Their adventure in the future is continued in the next few episodes, but we haven’t yet indexed those.
— Michael Main
So this is the Space-Time Corridor.
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Quantifying Trust

by John Chu
AI grad student Maya is attempting to train her prototype artificial neural net (named Sammy) so that it recognizes what to trust and what not to trust on the Internet, with the goal of building AIs free of human prejudice. Meanwhile, that new grad student Jake keeps saying and doing things that seem only to verify his ongoing joke that he’s an AI from the future.
— Michael Main
You got me. I’m an android sent back from the future.
“Quantifying Trust” by John Chu, in Mother of Invention, edited by Rivqa Rafael and Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet Press, September 2018).

The Umbrella Academy, Season 1

by multiple writers and directors
Of the 43 children born 1 October 1989 with no gestation period, the eccentric and sometimes cruel billionaire Reginald Hargreeves brought up seven of them and turned them into the super-powered group called the Umbrella Academy when they developed powers. Nearly thirty years later, after Hargreeves dies, the five surviving members of the group gather at their family home. Oh, and: Number Six died some time ago and only Number Four can see him; Number Five disappeared about seventeen years ago, but he’s back (and in his 13-year-old body) after living 45 years in a post-apocalyptic future that’s scheduled to start in eight days.
— Michael Main
As far as I could tell, I was the last person left alive. I never figured out what killed the human race. I did find something else: the date it happens. . . . The world ends in eight days, and I have no idea how to stop it.
The Umbrella Academy, Season 1 by multiple writers and directors, 10 episodes (Netflix, USA, 15 February 2019).

Terminator 6

Terminator: Dark Fate

by David S. Goyer et al., directed by Tim Miller
After the excitement of T2, you’d have thought that Sarah Connor and her son John could have settled down for a well-deserved, peaceful life. But, no: First a leftover T-800 Model 101 Terminator kills young John, and then 20 years later, Sarah meets two new characters—young Dani Ramos and an enhanced woman from the future—who are running from a new kind of terminator built by a new kind of Skynet. Certainly a fun T-romp, cast in the mold of T2, but really?!, if those johnny-come-lately millennial writers wanna live, they can’t be messing with the come-with-me line.
— Michael Main
Grace: [to Dani and Diego at the car assembly plant] Come with me or you’re dead in the next 30 seconds.
Terminator: Dark Fate by David S. Goyer et al., directed by Tim Miller (at movie theaters, UK and elsewhere, 23 October 2019).

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).

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]).

Star Trek: Picard, Season 2

by multiple writers and directors
After a catastrophic start to Season 2, Q steps in to pluck Picard’s crew and the Borg Queen from certain death only to insert them into a dystopian timeline that Q himself had created via a small change in 2024.
— Michael Main
Time? Of course, that’s how he did it. This is not another reality—this is our reality. He went back in time and changed the present.
Star Trek: Picard, Season 2 by multiple writers and directors (Paramount+, 3 March 2022 to 5 May 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).
as of 2:58 a.m. MDT, 6 May 2024
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