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The Internet Time Travel Database

Age of Reptiles (252 Ma to 66 Ma: Mesozoic/Triassic/Jurassic/Cretaceous)

Time Periods

Prehistoric Peeps

[writer unknown], directed by Lewin Fitzhamon
After falling asleep, Professor Chump finds himself being chased by dinosaurs and curvaceous cavewomen. Intended as a dream, I suppose. In any case, this is one of a series of live-action films based on E. T. Reed’s cartoons from Punch. I ran into several websites, including Palaeontology Online, that blamed this one movie for cementing the juxtaposition of dinosaurs and men in the cinema forevermore. According to IMDb trivia, the dinosaur special effects were accomplished with simple costumes.
— Michael Main
Prehistoric Peeps [writer unknown], directed by Lewin Fitzhamon (at movie theaters, UK, August 1905).

The Ghost of Slumber Mountain

written and directed by Willis H. O’Brien
Unk tells a story to his two nephews about the time when he and Joe visited the stone-covered grave and haunted cabin of Mad Dick where they (and their dog, Soxie) were able to view the prehistoric past through a queer looking instrument that accidentally allowed T. Rex onto Slumber Mountain. Sadly, at the end, Unk suggests that it was all a dream, but what does he know?!

The IMDb lists Herbert M. Dawley as a co-writer, but Wikipedia lists him as only the producer. The initial three-reel film premiered at the Strand Theater, but an unhappy Dawley cut it from over 40 minutes to about 12. Around six extra minutes were later restored by the Dinosaur Museum of Blanding, Utah, in 2016, but the full version no longer exists.

— Michael Main
Far, far away, at the foot of a cliff, a Thunder Lizard—which must have been at least one hundred feet long—appeared out of the mists of forty million years.
The Ghost of Slumber Mountain written and directed by Willis H. O’Brien (premiered at the Strand Theater, Dorcester, Massachusetts, 17 November 1918).

Sands of Time 1

The Sands of Time

by P. Schuyler Miller
Terry Donovan realizes that it’s possible to travel through time in 60,000,000-year increments, so naturally he travels back to the Cretaceous where he meets dinosaurs and aliens.

This story was under Tremaine’s Astounding editorship, but the sequel, “Coils of Time,” (May 1939) appeared after Campbell became editor.

— Michael Main
Incidentally, I have forgotten the most important thing of all. Remember that Donovan’s dominating idea was to prove to me, and to the world, that he had been in the Cretaceous and hobnobbed with its flora and fauna. He was a physicist by inclination, and had the physicist’s flair for ingenious proofs. Before leaving, he loaded a lead cube with three quartz quills of pure radium chloride that he had been using in a previous experiment, and locked the whole thing up in a steel box.
“Sands of Time” by P. Schuyler Miller, in Astounding Stories, April 1937.

Sands of Time 2

Coils of Time

by P. Schuyler Miller
You’ll need some patience with “Coils of Time," seeing as how it takes the hero, Rutherford Bohr Adams, twenty-some pages before you’ll realize that the story is a sequel to “The Sands of Time,” and it’s going to fall to space pilot Adams to travel through the 60-million-year coils of times into the future and the past, saving Earth from the evil Martians and their zombies, while also saving his own boss’s beautiful daughter from a fate worth than death.
— Michael Main
It’s another form of the space-time field that I use in the Egg to bridge the gap between the coils of time.
“Coils of Time” by P. Schuyler Miller, Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1939.

Time’s Arrow

by Arthur C. Clarke
Barton and Davis, assistants to Professor Fowler, are on an archaeological dig when a physicist sets up camp next door and speculations abound about viewing into the past—or is it only viewing?
— Michael Main
The discovery of negative entropy introduces quite new and revolutionary conceptions into our picture of the physical world.
“Time’s Arrow” by Arthur C. Clarke, in Science-Fantasy, Summer 1950.

Weird Fantasy #14 (1950)

The Trap of Time!

by Gardner Fox and Jack Kamen
Physicist Don Hartley has a plan to save his beloved Adele, who died in a car crash on a hot July night.
— Michael Main
You will be tampering with tremendous natural forces, Don! It is dangerous! You may unleash some awful catastrophe!
“The Trap of Time!” by Gardner Fox and Jack Kamen, Weird Fantasy #14 (EC Comics, July/August 1950).

Day of the Hunters

by Isaac Asimov
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.
“Day of the Hunters” by Isaac Asimov, in Future Science Fiction, November 1950.

Poor Little Warrior!

by Brian Aldiss
You are reading an artsy story, told in the second-person, about a time traveler from AD 2181 who hunts a brontosaurus.
Time for listening to the oracle is past; you’re beyond the stage for omens, you’re now headed in for the kill, yours or his; superstition has had its little day for today; from now on, only this windy nerve of yours, this shakey conglomeration of muscle entangled untraceably beneath the sweat-shiny carapice of skin, this bloody little urge to slay the dragon, is going to answer all your orisons.
“Poor Little Warrior!” by Brian Aldiss, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1958.

Gorgo 23

The Land of Long Ago

by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Montes
Charlton’s Gorgo comic was inspired by the the 1961 movie of the same name Unlike the movie, however, the comic book Gorgo had one adventure in time when Dr. Hobart Howarth rescues Gorgo from YaPa* by sending the giant reptile back to the late Jurassic. Sadly, as a child, I bought only one Gorgo comic, which was not the time-travel issue, although that one issue I had was drawn by Steve Ditko, hooray!
* Yet another Pentagon attack
— Michael Main
I will send Gorgo back into is own era in the stream of time. Here he is an anachronism . . . In his own time, he would be in harmony withhis surroundings!
“The Land of Long Ago” by Joe Gill [?] and Bill Montes, in Gorgo #23 (Charlton Comics, September 1965).

Breckenridge and the Continuum

by Robert Silverberg
Wall Street investor Noel Breckenridge has been summoned to the far future, possibly to tell stories, but is there a larger purpose?
— Michael Main
Am I supposed to tell you a lot of diverting stories? Will I have to serve you six months out of the year, forevermore? Is there some precious object I’m obliged to bring you from the bottom of the sea? Maybe you have a riddle that I’m supposed to answer.
“Breckenridge and the Continuum” by Robert Silverberg, in Showcase, edited by Roger Elwood (Harper and Row, June 1973).

Many Mansions

by Robert Silverberg
With eleven years of marriage behind them, Ted and Alice’s fantasies frequently start with a time machine and end with killing one or another of their spouse’s ancestors before they can procreate. So naturally, they each end up at Temponautics, Ltd. Oh, and Ted’s grandpa has some racy fantasies of his own.
In Silverberg’s Something Wild Is Loose (Vol. 3 of his collected stories), he posits that this story is “probably the most complex short story of temporal confusion” since Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” (1941) or “—All You Zombues—” (1959), but I would respectfully disagree. In particular, I would describe Heinlein’s two stories as the most complex short stories of temporal consistency in that there is but a single, static timeline and (in hindsight) every scene locks neatly into place within this one timeline. By contrast, Silverberg story involves multiple time travel choices by the characters in what I would call parallel universes. The confusion, such as it is, stems more from what appears to be alternate scenes in disconnected universes rather than temporal confusion per se.
— Michael Main
On the fourth page Alice finds a clause warning the prospective renter that the company cannot be held liable for any consequences of actions by the renter which wantonly or wilfully interfere with the already determined course of history. She translates that for herself: If you kill your husband’s grandfather, don’t blame us if you get in trouble.
“Many Mansions” by Robert Silverberg, in Universe 3, edited by Terry Carr (Random House, October 1973).

Dinosaur Machines 4

The Day of the Dinosaurs

by Eve Bunting
When one of them pulls the lever on the museum's dinosaur display, three children are transported back to a prehistoric dinosaur land.
— the Library of Congress
Allosaurus stopped as the water rushed over his feet. They could see the bulk of him, his neck and heavy legs; his tail that was flattenedon the sides. He was big as a full grown tree. Then he turned and Joe saw his teeth. They were jagged as steak knives.
“The Day of the Dinosaurs” by Eve Bunting (EMC, 1975).

Dinosaur Machines 3

Death of a Dinosaur

by Eve Bunting
Carmen, Joe, and Riley go back through time once more to witness the end of the dinosaurs.
— the Library of Congress
“Death of a Dinosaur” by Eve Bunting (EMC, 1975).

Dinosaur Machines 2

The Dinosaur Trap

by Eve Bunting
Joe and Riley go back to dinosaur land determined to bring back Carmen who stayed behind on their last trip. [Whew!]
— the Library of Congress
“The Dinosaur Trap” by Eve Bunting (EMC, 1975).

Dinosaur Machines 1

Escape from Tyrannosaurus

by Eve Bunting
Kids today are pandered to way too much in that every book they’re given to read presents an unrealistically rosie view of life. No, that’s not for me! Give my kids the harsh reality of life and time travel! Case in point: Three kids travel to the Cretcaeous where they meet a T. rex. Two return.
— Michael Main
“Escape from Tyrannosaurus” by Eve Bunting (EMC, 1975).

Ripples in the Dirac Sea

by Geoffrey A. Landis
A physics guy invents a time machine that can go only backward and must always return the traveler to the exact same present from which he left.
— Michael Main
  1. Travel is possible only into the past.
  2. The object transported will return to exactly the time and place of departure.
  3. It is not possible to bring objects from the past to the present.
  4. Actions in the past cannot change the present.
“Ripples in the Dirac Sea” by Geoffrey A. Landis, in Asimov’s Science Fiction, October 1988.

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e06)

A Sound of Thunder

by Ray Bradbury, directed by Pat Robins
Bradbury himself wrote the teleplay for this first on-screen adaptation of his famous story, and somehow he managed to do it without the word “butterfly” appearing in the script (though we do see the critter at the end).
— Michael Main
Travis: We might destroy a roach—or a flower, even—and destroy an important link in the species.

Eckles: So?

The Ray Bradbury Theater (s03e06), “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, directed by Pat Robins (USA Network, 11 August 1989).

The Magic Tree House 1

Dinosaurs before Dark

by Mary Pope Osborne
Eight-year-old prospective scientist Jack and his imaginative little sister Annie discover a tree house full of books, the first of which magicks them into the age of reptiles with a friendly Pteranodon they call Henry, a not-so-friendly T. Rex, and a drove of other dinosaurs.
— Michael Main
“Wow,” whispered Jack. “I wish we could go to the time of Pteranodons.”

Jack studied the picture of the odd-looking creature soaring through the sky.

“Ahhh!” screamed Annie.

“What?” said Jack.

“A monster!” Annie cried. She pointed out the tree house window.

Dinosaurs before Dark by Mary Pope Osborne (Random House, July 1992).

Scherzo with Tyrannosaur

by Michael Swanwick
The director of Hilltop Research Station extinguishes various fires while hosting a donor dinner in the Cretaceous and planning predatory behavior of his own to keep the donor funds flowing, all while ensuring that the mysterious beings known only as the Unchanging remain in the dark about a quagmire of time travel violations.
— Michael Main
It would bring our sponsors down upon us like so many angry hornets. The Unchanging would yank time travel out of human hands—retroactively.
“Scherzo with Tyrannosaur” by Michael Swanwick, Asimov’s Science Fiction, July 1999.

Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (s07e09)

It’s a Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Christmas

by Dan Kael, directed by Melissa Joan Hart
While on a Christmas trip to Florida, Sabrina and Salem travel back in time to see who robbed the condo where everyone is staying
— Inmate Jan
Oh, oh, oh—I think you went back a little too far!
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (s07e09), “It’s a Hot, Hot, Hot, Hot Christmas” by Dan Kael, directed by Melissa Joan Hart (The WB-TV, USA, 6 December 2002).

Spy vs. Spy Animated Segment #63

Black Spy and the DeLorean

[writer and director unknown]
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
“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).

The Chronicles of St. Mary’s 1

Just One Damned Thing after Another

by Jodi Taylor
Fresh from finishing her Ph.D., Madeline Maxwell (aka Max) runs into her high school mentor who encourages her to apply for a position with a cloistered group of historians called St. Mary’s Institute of Historical Research.
— Michael Main
Think of History as a living organism, with its own defence mechanisms. History will not permit anything to change events that have already taken place. If History thinks, even for one moment, that that is about to occur, then it will, without hesitation, eliminate the threatening virus. Or historian, as we like to call them.
Just One Damned Thing after Another by Jodi Taylor (Accent Press, June 2013).

One Giant Step

by John H. Dromey
A damaged time probe provides an ominous warning for human time travel.
— Michael Main
[. . .] all of the data-gathering instruments are kaput.
“One Giant Step” by John H. Dromey, in Chronos: An Anthology of Time Drabbles, edited by Eric S. Fomley (Shacklebound Books, August 2018).

Arthur Travels Back in Time

by Gene Lipen and Judith San Nicolas
Arthur the fearless dog travels to different times in a large blue cannister. The story is written in verse that ignores meter and uses rhymes that don’t quite work.
— Ruthie Mariner
With sights on events his eyes have never seen, Arthur is ready for his new time machine.
Arthur Travels Back in Time by Gene Lipen and Judith San Nicolas (Gene Lipen, November 2020).

The Magic Tree House: Graphic Novel 1

Dinosaurs before Dark: The Graphic Novel

adapted by Jenny Laird, Kelly Matthews, and Nicole Matthews
The adaptation and artwork are faithful and delightful, although I’m disappointed that commercial pressures resulted in a graphic novel for what was explicitly designed to engage early readers.
— Michael Main
Wow. I wish we could go there.
Dinosaurs before Dark: The Graphic Novel adapted by Jenny Laird, Kelly Matthews, and Nicole Matthews (Random House Children’s Books, June 2021) [print · e-book].
as of 7:03 p.m. MDT, 5 May 2024
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