Fix the Future!

Tag Area: Time Travel Trope
Feature Film

The Twonky

  • written and directed by Arch Oboler
  • (at movie theaters, USA, 10 June 1953)
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 in 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.
A red ball shoots out of the sky as four startled people cower below.
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Definite Time Travel
Comic Book

Journey into Mystery #35

Fallon’s Folly!

Professor Fallon’s research into artificial suns may not be taken seriously today, but there are other times where it could be the very thing that’s needed. —Michael Main
Research has to be along practical lines! The trustees demand it!
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  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Comic Book

Adventure into Mystery #2

Among Those Missing!

Earth’s finest scientific minds are being taken to the future to save a crumbling society. —Michael Main
Here is a chart of the fifty outstanding brians in our country! You will notice that thirty-two have disappeared to date!
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  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Castle (s06e05)

Time Will Tell

A murder investigation leads to a suspect (Doyle) who says he traveled back in time to stop a catastrophe that will result in at least half the people on the planet dying. —Tandy Ringoringo
Ryan: I thought it was kind of derivative.
Esposito: Like a mash-up of 12 Monkeys and Terminator.
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  • Mystery and Crime
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Captain Nova

Captain Nova Kester travels back from a devastated future to warn an energy mogel about the impending climate cataclysm, but only young Nas takes her seriously. That happens when time travel causes you to revert to 12 years old. —Michael Main
Luister, jongedame: De mensen denken al eeuwen dat ze leven in het einde der tijden. Het zou handig ziln als je jezelf ietsje minderbelangrijk maakt.
translate Listen, young lady: People have thought for centuries that the end of time is drawing near. It would help everyone if you showed just a little less . . . self-importance.
Kika van de Vijver (as young Nova Kester) and three costars pose in front of a merged background of 2025 and the future.
  • Science Fiction
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s01e10)

A Quality of Mercy

A despondent Captain Pike considers warning two future cadets about the accident that will kill them and maim Pike himself, but before he can write to them, his older self shows up to transport young Pike to the future that the warnings will create. —Michael Main
Young Pike: How am I supposed to believe . . . ?
Old Pike: . . . that I’m really you?
Young Pike: You ever gonna let me get a word in edgewise?
Old Pike: I knew you were gonna say that. Does that help?
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s02e03)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

A mysterious, bloody man appears and warns La’an of an attack in the past, after which she races to the bridge, only to find herself in an alternate timeline with a young James T. Kirk at the helm.

A trip to the past seeems in order. —Michael Main
There’s going to be an attack. It’s going to change the timeline. We have to stop it.
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  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel