Cold War

Tag Area: Real-World Event
Short Story

Day of the Hunters

A midwestern professor tells a half-drunken story of time travel and the real cause of the dinosaur extinction. —Michael Main
Because I built a time machine for myself a couple of years ago and went back to the Mesozoic Era and found out what happened to the dinosaurs.
A woman in a red bathing/space suit and thigh-high boots wields a ray gun while carrying off an unconscious man.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Comic Book

Unusual Tales #30

A Small Matter of Time

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!
In two large panels with spaceships and a large model of Earth, Professor Amos Shute explains a mission to four space pilots.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Debatable Time Travel
Comic Book

Journey into Mystery #86

On the Trail of the Tomorrow Man

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!
The Mighty Thor flies through a fading time machine with the Tomorrow Man inside.
  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Superhero
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek (s02e26)

Assignment: Earth

The Enterprise and her crew make their first intentional trip back in time to study historical aspects of 1968 and the Cold War, but unexpectedly, they intercept a transporter beam that brings the mysterious Gary Seven and his feline from a faraway advanced planet. —Michael Main
Humans of the 20th century do not go beaming around the Galaxy, Mr. Seven.
In a light grey suit, Robert Lansing (as Gary Seven) lies on a catwalk with steam in his face and a black cat on his back.
  • Eloi Gold Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Quantum Leap (s02e01)

Honeymoon Express

Sam pops into newly married Tom McBride (a New York policeman), who is headed to Niagara Falls with his new bride (a budding lawyer and the daughter of a senator). The two of them engage in the usual honeymoon activities—fighting off ex-boyfriend thugs, rolling underneath moving trains, studying for the bar exam—while unbeknownst to Sam, Al is at a Senate committee meeting in Washington, D.C., fighting for the life of Project Quantum Leap. Oh, yes, and it’s now official: Sam and Al believe that God has taken control of the project, although Al refuses to be pinned down as to which god she is. —Michael Main
This committee has decided that your 2.4 billion dollar funding request for Project Quantum Leap . . .
Dean Stockton (as Admiral Al Calavicci) sits at attention in his dress-white uniform.
  • Eloi Bronze Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Cartoon

Spy vs. Spy Animated Segment #63

Black Spy and the DeLorean

  • [writer and director unknown]
  • short segment of “Diary of a Wimpy Kid / Adjustment Burro,” from Mad [s03e11] (Cartoon Network, USA, 27 September 2012)
White Spy thinks he can win a drag race against Black Spy and his DeLorean, all in just thirty seconds of stop-motion animation! —Michael Main
88 MPH
The Black Spy from Mad Magazine reads a headline: Spy Challenges Spy to Drag Race!
  • Comedy
  • Satire
  • Audience: Families
  • Definite Time Travel
Audio Play Series

3 seasons

ars Paradoxica

—pending
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Season

The Umbrella Academy, Season 2

  • by multiple writers and directors
  • ten episodes (Netflix, USA, 31 July 2020)
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.”
All seven siblings of the Umbrella Academy walk in a straight line in their blue uniforms over a background of 1960s psychedelic black lines.
  • Eloi Silver Medal
  • Superhero
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel