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पायासिसुत्तं

Payasi sutta English release: Payasi Sutta Literal: Payasi teaching

attributed to the followers of The Buddha

The Buddhist canon, called the Tipitaka in Pali, comprises categories of scriptures, the largest of which contains discourses and sermons of the Buddha and his followers. This sermon, the “Payasa Sutta”, believed to have been formulated after the Buddha’s death, tells the experience of Prince Payasi who doubted the truth of reincarnation and the principle of Karma. As he seeks guidance, the Reverend Kumara asks him to consider the Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, where time passes at a different rate than in our world. Not actual time travel, but it is the earliest definite mention of a related time phenomenon that we know of.
— Michael Main
‘‘किञ्‍चापि भवं कस्सपो एवमाह, अथ खो एवं मे एत्थ होति – ‘इतिपि नत्थि परो लोको, नत्थि सत्ता ओपपातिका, नत्थि सुकतदुक्‍कटानं कम्मानं फलं विपाको’’’ति। ‘‘अत्थि पन, राजञ्‍ञ, परियायो …पे॰… ‘‘अत्थि, भो कस्सप, परियायो…पे॰… ``यथा कथं विय, राजञ्‍ञाति? ‘‘इध मे, भो कस्सप, मित्तामच्‍चा ञातिसालोहिता पाणातिपाता पटिविरता अदिन्‍नादाना पटिविरता कामेसुमिच्छाचारा पटिविरता मुसावादा पटिविरता सुरामेरयमज्‍जपमादट्ठाना पटिविरता, ते अपरेन समयेन आबाधिका होन्ति दुक्खिता बाळ्हगिलाना। यदाहं जानामि – ‘न दानिमे इमम्हा आबाधा वुट्ठहिस्सन्ती’ति त्याहं उपसङ्कमित्वा एवं वदामि – ‘सन्ति खो, भो, एके समणब्राह्मणा एवंवादिनो एवंदिट्ठिनो – ये ते पाणातिपाता पटिविरता अदिन्‍नादाना पटिविरता कामेसुमिच्छाचारा पटिविरता मुसावादा पटिविरता सुरामेरयमज्‍जपमादट्ठाना पटिविरता, ते कायस्स भेदा परं मरणा सुगतिं सग्गं लोकं उपपज्‍जन्ति देवानं तावतिंसानं सहब्यतन्ति। भवन्तो खो पाणातिपाता पटिविरता अदिन्‍नादाना पटिविरता कामेसुमिच्छाचारा पटिविरता मुसावादा पटिविरता सुरामेरयमज्‍जपमादट्ठाना पटिविरता। सचे तेसं भवतं समणब्राह्मणानं सच्‍चं वचनं, भवन्तो कायस्स भेदा परं मरणा सुगतिं सग्गं लोकं उपपज्‍जिस्सन्ति, देवानं तावतिंसानं सहब्यतं। सचे, भो, कायस्स भेदा परं मरणा सुगतिं सग्गं लोकं उपपज्‍जेय्याथ देवानं तावतिंसानं सहब्यतं, येन मे आगन्त्वा आरोचेय्याथ – `इतिपि अत्थि परो लोको, अत्थि सत्ता ओपपातिका, अत्थि सुकतदुक्‍कटानं कम्मानं फलं विपाकोति।
“Well then, chieftain, I’ll ask you about this in return, and you can answer as you like. A hundred human years are equivalent to one day and night for the gods of the Thirty-Three. Thirty such days make a month, and twelve months make a year. The gods of the Thirty Three have a lifespan of a thousand such years. Now, as to your friends who are reborn in the company of the gods of the Thirty-Three after doing good things. If they think, ‘First I’ll amuse myself for two or three days, supplied and provided with the five kinds of heavenly sensual stimulation. Then I’ll go back to Pāyāsi and tell him that there is an afterlife.’ Would they come back to tell you that there is an afterlife?”
English

[ex=bare]पायासिसुत्तं | Payasi teaching | “Payasi sutta”[/ex] attributed to the followers of The Buddha, in तिपिटक (traditional Buddhist scriptures, circa 400 BC).

Frayre de joy e sor de plaser

Literal: Brother of joy and sister of pleasure

[writer unknown]

This early version of Sleeping Beauty opens with the death of Sor de Plaser, the daughter of the emperor of Gint-Senay. She is mourned throughout the empire and entombed in an impenetrable moated tower. With the help of magic skills learned from Virgil, the enamored young prince Frayre de Joy manages to reach her, and once inside, the youth exchanges rings with her, rapes her body, and impregnates her. Through prayer and the help of a parrot, the girl is magically brought back to life only to discover she has not only lost her virginity, but she now has an illegitimate son.
— based on a Rachel D. Gibson synopsis
Car una dona ab cors gen
M’a fayt de prets un mandamen,
Qu’una faula tot prim li rim,
Sens cara rima e mot prim
A lady of noble body
gave me a valuable commission
to rhyme for her a neat fable
without rich rhymes nor subtle words
English

[ex=bare]Frayre de joy e sor de plaser | Brother of joy and sister of pleasure[/ex] [writer unknown] (medieval tale told in verse, circa AD 1300).

An Anachronism, or Missing One’s Coach

[writer unknown]

A man, waiting for a coach in Newcastle, finds himself taken through time and face to face with Saint Bede, whereupon a philosophical conversation about time and the future ensues.
— Michael Main
It must suffice then to say that, at the point where I come again into perfect possession of my consciousness, the venerable monk and I were conferring, in an easy manner, upon various points connected with his age, or with mine, and both of us having a clear understanding, and perfect recollection of the fact, that, at this same moment, he was actually living in the eighth century, and I as truly in the nineteenth; nor did this trifing difference of a thousand years or more—this break, as geologists would call it—this fault in the strata of time—perplex either of us a whit; any more than two friends are molested by the circumstance of their happening to encounter each other just as they arrive from opposite hemispheres.

“An Anachronism; or, Missing One’s Coach” [writer unknown], in The Dublin University Magazine, June 1838.

A Christmas Carol

by Charles Dickens

According to my Grandpa Main’s notes (which formed the basis of the first version of the ITTDB), he struggled with what he called the Carol Question as long ago as 1916. Is there actual travel through time in “A Christmas Carol” or not? It’s easy to see why the Carol Question is central to the ITTDB. On the one hand, Scrooge does take a clear trip to the past:
They walked along the road, Scrooge recognising every gate, and post, and tree; until a little market-town appeared in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river. Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields were so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to hear it!

Now if that’s not time travel, what is? Ah . . . “Not so fast!” says Ghost!
“These are but shadows of the things that have been,” said the Ghost. “They have no consciousness of us.”

Even Ghost Himself admits there’s no interaction with the past. Observation is permitted, but not interaction. They might as well be watching a movie! In general, if you can’t interact with the past and the past can’t see you, then there’s no actual time travel!

Fair enough, but what about Future Ghost? Isn’t He bringing information from the future to Scrooge? Transfer of information from the future to the past may be boring compared to people-jumping, but it is time travel, so the Carol must be granted membership in the list after all, don’t you think? Ah, not so fast again! At one point, Scrooge asks a pertinent question:

“Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,” said Scrooge, “answer me one question. Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?”

The answer is critical to whether time travel occurs. The difference between things that May Be and things that Will Be is like the difference between Damon Knight and Doris Day: Both are quite creative, but (as far as I know) there’s only one you go to for a rousing time travel yarn. Future Ghost never clear answers the question, and moreover, Scrooge appears intent on not having the future he sees come true. So, I want to say that Scrooge saw only a prediction or a prophecy or a vision of a possible future—which is, at best, debatable time travel.

Thus speaketh the ITTDB.

— Michael Main
If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die.

A Christmas Carol in Prose: Being a Ghost Story of Christmas by Charles Dickens (Chapman and Hall, December 1843).

Lumen

by Camille Flammarion


Lumen by Camille Flammarion, 5 pts., unknown publication details, 1866 to 1869.

Translyvania

[writer unknown]

The November 1866 issue of The Cornhill Magazine had a travelogue about Transylvania with an early use of the phrase “travel through time,” perhaps the first use of the phrase.
— Michael Main
This charm of travelling would become perfect if we could travel in time as well as in space—if, like a character in one of Andersen’s fanciful stories, we could sometimes take a fortnight in the fifteenth century, or, still more pleasant, a leap in to the twenty-first. It is possible to accomplish this object more or less in imagination—not by reading historical novels, in which characters are always obtrusively reminding us of their nineteenth-century origin—but by a journey beyond the reach of railways and newspapers. Those are the links which always bind us down offensively to the present. The scream of an engine or a sheet of The Times carries us forcibly back to London from the ends of the earth. It is the rattling of the chain which reminds us that we are, after all, prisoners to certain conditions of space and time. But once beyond their influence we can shake ourselves fairly free. It is possible, indeed, to make “the forward flowing tide of time” recede a little too far. Sir Samuel Baker, when he was in the kingdom of Katchiba, must have felt that he was almost in a geological epoch. He was back in the period when, according to Mr. Darwin, man was just emerging out of the gorilla and learning to walk upon his hind legs. But a leap backwards for a century or two would be intensely enjoyable; and to those who can appreciate it, that is precisely the pleasure obtained by a journey in Transylvania.

Translyvania [writer unknown], in The Cornhill Magazine, November 1866.

The Great Romance

as by The Inhabitant

The book‘s opening scene portrays the protagonist, John Hope, awakening from a sleep of 193 years. Hope had been a prominent mid-twentieth-century scientist, who had developed new power sources that enabled air travel and, eventually, space exploration. In the year 1950, Hope had taken a “sleeping draught” that put him into a long suspended animation, as part of a planned experiment. When he wakes in the year 2143, he is met by Alfred and Edith Weir, descendants of John Malcolm Weir, the chemist who had prepared the sleeping draft Hope had taken in 1950.

The original edition of The Great Romance is one of the rarest books extant, with single copies of Parts 1 and 2 existing in New Zealand libraries. After a century of neglect, the book has been reprinted by editor Dominic Alessio, first in Science Fiction Studies in 1993 (Part 1) and then in a separate volume in 2008 (Parts 1 and 2).[9] (A third part of the story is thought to have existed, but no copy has yet been found.) The two extant volumes were reprinted in 2008, along with commentary by Dominic Alessio on the influence the writing likely had on Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward.

Considerable detective work has been applied to the question of the identity of the pseudonymous Inhabitant, although with no definite result.
Nevertheless, we lean toward the theory of one “Honnor of Ashburton,” because of an annotation to this effect in the only known original copies of the first two volumes of the work. Additionally, of the two title leafs found with Volume 1, the Ashburton page was printed on paper that matches that of the volume itself, and the volume contained advertisements for Ashburton businesses. This explains the photo we’ve attached to the story, which depicts the Ashburton Borough Council and Public Library, circa 1881. So far as we know, the clock tower has no connection to the lightning storm of 12 October 1955

— based on Wikipedia
In the year one thousand nine hundred and fifty my dearest friend, John Malcolm Weir, the greatest chemist of his day, had given me the sleeping draught: it should tie up the senses—life itself—for an indefinite period; and when the appointed years were over life might again be awakened.

The Great Romance as by The Inhabitant, published in two volumes (with a possible third lost volume), the Ashburton Guardian and Dunedin Daily Times [publishers] 1881.

The New Accelerator

by H. G. Wells

The narrator and Professor Gibberne test the professor’s potion that will speed up their metabolisms by a factor of a thousand or more.
— Michael Main
I sat down. “Give me the potion,” I said. “If the worst comes to the worst it will save having my hair cut, and that I think is one of the most hateful duties of a civilized man. How do you take the mixture?”

“The New Accelerator” by H. G. Wells, Strand Magazine, December 1901.

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).

When Knights Were Bold

by Harriet Jay and Robert Buchanan

The plot of . . . “When Knights Were Bold,” is more or less original as modern comedies go. It circles round the love affair of a man and a maid. In the first act, a very twentieth century one, the hero, despite the pronounced encouragement of the heroine, fails to screw up his courage to the proposing point. When alone he can declare his love manfully enough, but in the maid’s presence he becomes as shy as an early Victorian school miss. As the curtain falls, he writes himself down as an ass, takes a big drink, smokes a cigarette, and—dreams.

Act II represents the dream. It is the medieval age—the age of chivalry, of bold, bad barons and gallant knights. An ancestor of the hero is one of these latter. His love story is depicted vividly. There is nothing lackadaisical about the lovemaking. The bold knight finally seizes the maiden in his arms and carries her off bodily to the altar in the face of strenuous opposition.

In act III the twentieth century again appears. There hero wakes up and follows, so far as modernity will let him, the example of his ancestory shown him in the second act.

— San Francisco Call, 14 December 1906

Sadly, we haven’t tracked down the script (possibly because it was never published), but we know from several reviews that the modern day Sir Guy loathes the very mention of days of old.

When Knights Were Bold by Harriet Jay and Robert Buchanan (at the Theatre Royal, Nottingham, UK, 17 September 1906).

A Christmas Carol

[writer and director unknown]

Naturally, we have no interest in the fact that this is the first American film adaptation of the Dickens’ classic. None at all. We just want to know one thing: Does Scrooge actually travel through time in this one? According to a contemporaneous review in Moving Picture World:
[list]
[*] Looking into a fire, Scrooge sees a vision of his boyhood and his lost sweetheart, but does not (from the description) interact with them.[/*]
[*] Scrooge then follows the spirit to the homes of Cratchett and his nephew, but these sound to be in the present. He does, however, interact with each, showering them with money and promising to devote himself to the happiness of others.[/*]
[/list]
Based on this, the conclusion up in the ITTDB Citadel is that the 1908 version has no more than illusory time travel.
— Michael Main

A Christmas Carol [writer and director unknown] (at movie theaters, USA, 9 December 1908).

The Connecticut Yankee

[writer and director unknown]

We have not found any definitive information about a possible 1910 version of Twain’s classic, although we presume (based on the year) that it was a short film. The earliest mention we’ve seen was in William V. Mong’s 1940 obituary in the New York Times, which ran under the headline “William V. Mong; Ex-Actor Made Screen Debut in ‘Connecticut Yankee’ in 1910.” The text stated that Mong entered the movies in 1910 in “The Connecticut Yankee.” Coincidentally, Mong played Merlin in Emmett J. Flynn’s 1921 version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

In any case, we don’t know whether the 1910 film used the just-a-dream ending—or perhaps the film itself was just a dream of a 1940 obituary writer.

— Michael Main

The Connecticut Yankee [writer and director unknown] (at movie theaters, USA, 1910).

Il cavaliere del silenzio

Literal: The silent knight

[writer unknown], directed by Oreste Visalli

We have sparse information about this silent film apart from a note in Alan Goble’s The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film, which lists the 1907 [sic] play When Knights Were Bold as the source of the 1180-meter film, directed by Oreste Visalli, released by Aquila Film, and featuring Jeanne Nolly, Giulio Del Torre, and Claudia Zambuto.
— Michael Main

Il cavaliere del silenzio [writer unknown], directed by Oreste Visalli (at movie theaters, Italy, June 1916).

Felix the Cat Trifles with Time

[writer unknown], directed by Otto Messmer

Perhaps the first time travel in a theatrically released cartoon is Felix in “Trifles with Time,” where the silent, surreal cat negotiates with Father Time for a trip to a better age. After appropriate payment, Father Time obliges and Felix goes back to a stone age with dinosaurs.
— Michael Main
A cat can’t live nowadays—turn me back to a better age, just for a day.

Felix the Cat Trifles with Time [writer unknown], directed by Otto Messmer (at movie theaters, USA, 23 August 1925).

When Knights Were Bold

[writer unknown], directed by Tim Whelan

This is a very free adaptation of the merry farce in which James Welch made so great a success, and with the greater scope of the screen, with some characters omitted and new ones introduced, there remains little beyond the main idea to make any comparison with the original more than a matter of antiquarian history. As, however, the majority of modern picture audiences will never have seen the original play, the film will be judged on its own merits, and there is little doubt that its fantasy and quaint humour will recommend it to popular favour.

— The Bioscope, 6 February 1929


When Knights Were Bold [writer unknown], directed by Tim Whelan (at movie theaters, UK, February 1929).

Portrait of Jennie

by Robert Nathan

In 1938, painter Eben Adams struggles to find his muse and put food on the table until a young girl named Jennie appears to him from some two decades earlier, beseeching him to wait for her. Over the next few months of visitations in Eben’s time, Jennie grows into her twenties, and Eben falls in love with his muse.
— Michael Main
Never before had it occurred to me to ask myself why the sun should rise each morning on a new day instead of upon the old day over again; or to wonder how much of what I did was really my own to do. It may be that here on this earth we are not grateful enough for our ignorance, and our innocence. We think that there is only one road, one direction—forward; and we accept it, and press on. We think of God, we think of the mystery of the universe, but we do not think about it very much, and we do not really believe that it is a mystery, or that we could not understand it if it were explained to us.

Portrait of Jennie by Robert Nathan (Alfred A. Knopf, 1940).

The Infinite Invasion

[writer unknown]


“The Infinite Invasion” [writer unknown], in [Error: Missing '[/ex]' tag for wikilink]

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.

Rescue Party

by Arthur C. Clarke

Only a smidgen of unimportant time phenomena in the first paragraph of this ominous first contact story.
— Michael Main
But Alveron and his kind had been lords of the Universe since the dawn of history, since that far distant age when the Time Barrier had been folded round the cosmos by the unknown powers that lay beyond the Beginning.

“Rescue Party” by Arthur C. Clarke, Astounding Science Fiction, May 1946.

The Time Machine

by Robert Barr, [director unknown]

The first TV broadcast of The Time Machine, a little less than an hour, came live from the BBC’s Studio A at Alexandra Palace on 25 Jan 1949 with a second revised broadcast on 21 Feb 1949.

Seeing as how there are no recordings of the broadcast, I wish I had my own time machine so I could send my Betamax® back to 1949.

— Michael Main
Thomas Sheridan in Fantasy Review: In the first showing, after a brief interval in which the hands of the wall-clock recorded the passing of many hours, the lights began to dip and rise to indicate the passage of the days, and as this effect speeded up the walls of the room gradually dissolved. In the second performance this was cut out, killing the impression of fast-moving time. But, outside, the sun moves ever more swiFTLy across the sky until it is a continuous band of light, rising and falling to indicate the equinoxes, and throwing into vivid relief the changing shapes of successions of buildings which become more startlingly futuristic as the Traveller flashes through the ages.

The Time Machine by Robert Barr, [director unknown] (BBC Television, UK, 25 January 1949).

Journey

by Gene Hunter


“Journey” by Gene Hunter, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1951.

Nice Girl with 5 Husbands

by Fritz Leiber

On an artist retreat, a man gets blown 100 years into the future where, among other things, group marriage and group parenting are the norm.
— Michael Main
“Who are you talking about?”

“My husbands.” She shook her head dolefully. “To find five more difficult men would be positively Martian.”


“Nice Girl with 5 Husbands” by Fritz Leiber, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1951.

The Choice

by Wayland Hilton-Young

In about 200 words, Williams goes to the future and returns with the memory of only one small thing.
— Michael Main
How did it happen? Can you remember nothing at all?

“The Choice” by Wayland Hilton-Young, in Punch, 19 March 1952.

Space Adventures #1

Time Skipper Visits the City of Brass

[writer unknown] and Art Cappello (art)

Charlton’s first issue of Space Adventures introduced Hap Holliday, the Time Skipper, who travels with Professor Eon Tempus to the far future to rescue Ula, queen of Futuropolis, from reptile people. The end of this installment assures us that we’ll learn more of Ula in the next issue, but alas, the second and final adventure of the Time Skipper was delayed until Space Adventures #3.
— Michael Main
Just skip along with Hap Holliday, the time skipper, in his “Year an Instant” yacht and learn what the world can be like in somebody else’s lifetime!!!

“Time Skipper Visits the City of Brass” [writer unknown] and Art Cappello (art), in Space Adventures 1, July 1952.

Journey into Mystery #2

Don’t Look!

by an unknown writer and Jay Scott Pike

Yep, the mirror that Harold Whitney got from an odd old man really does let you see what people will look like in the future—a situation that we’d normally mark as a mere time phenomenon and tag as a simple kind of chronoscope. But the story also has a twist at the end that makes me wonder whether the old man was also a time traveler.
— Michael Main
I have here a strange invention, a mirror that will let you see how anyone will look at anytime in the future.

“Don’t Look!” by an unknown writer and Jay Scott Pike, in Journey into Mystery #2 (Atlas Comics, August 1952).

Journey into Mystery #2

The Pact

by an unknown writer 

Frances Conrad learns the dark truth about an unholy pact made by his ancestor from the horse’s mouth itself.
— Michael Main
The year is 1693, the month is June, and the day is the fifteenth. Come and watch with me.

“The Pact” by an unknown writer , in Journey into Mystery #2 (Atlas Comics, August 1952).

There Is a Tide

by Jack Finney

A sleepless man, struggling with a business decision, sees an earlier occupant of his apartment who is struggling with a decision of his own.
— Michael Main
I saw the ghost in my own living room, alone, between three and four in the morning, and I was there, wide awake, for a perfectly sound reason: I was worrying.

“There Is a Tide” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 2 August 1952.

Lux Radio Theater [s1:9e1]

I’ll Never Forget You

by S. H. Barnett, [director unknown]

In this radio play, Tyrone Powell reprises his role of Peter Standish from the 1951 film version, which was originally titled The House in the Square. As in the film (but not the 1926 play Berkeley Square or the 1917 Henry James’ novel The Sense of the Past), Standish is an atomic scientist before being thrown back into an ancestor’s body.
Greetings from Hollywood. Ladies and gentlemen: I think you’ll be as intrigued with our play tonight as I was when I discovered it was a most unusual love story, the story of a modern scientist in love with a girl whom he meets in another century.

Lux Radio Theater (s19e24), “I’ll Never Forget You” by S. H. Barnett, [director unknown] (CBS Radio, USA, 22 September 1952).

Journey into Mystery #3

Hands Off!

by an unknown writer and Bill Benulis

Eugene Varo makes a dark deal with a visitor from the past who wants Varo’s perfectly crafted artificial hands. This is the first story in Journey into Mystery to have definite time travel.
— Michael Main
I have come out of the dim past to bargain for those hands . . . and take them back with me . . . they are too beautiful for this age.

“Hands Off!” by an unknown writer and Bill Benulis, in Journey into Mystery #3 (Atlas Comics, October 1952).

Space Adventures #3

The Time Skipper Travels to Ancient Rome

[writer unknown] and artist

At the end of the Time Skipper’s first adventure, Hap Holliday and the professor were hoping to convince Queen Ula to accompany them back to the past, and it seems they succeeded, since Ula is with them on the splash page. But in their return trip (via the ever-staunch Timejumper), they overshoot their mark and end up in ancient Rome where the trio meets Cleopatra and tries to save Caesar.
— Michael Main
Write Caesar a letter in your own hand, inviting him here tomorrow and we’ll have Ula deliver it. That will keep him from going to the Senate chamber!

“The Time Skipper Travels to Ancient Rome” [writer unknown] and artist, in Space Adventures 3, November 1952.

Journey into Mystery #4

The Bewitched Bike!

by an unknown writer and Tony DiPreta

When small-time crook Spider steals a time-traveling bike, all he can think to make a profit from it is to rob, murder, and escape to the future. No wonder he’s small-time!
— Michael Main
I can be the biggest! I can rob, murder . . . do anything! Then all I have to do is jump on my bike an’ presto, I’m 40 years in the future.

“The Bewitched Bike!” by an unknown writer and Tony DiPreta, in Journey into Mystery #4 (Atlas Comics, December 1952).

Zero Hour

by John Russell Fearn


Zero Hour by John Russell Fearn, Star Weekly, 13 December 1952.

Astonishing #23

Doom of Ages

by an unknown writer 

Three arctic explorers are thankful for the life-saving meat they’ve stumbled across in a frozen mammoth, until they start to wonder what killed the proboscidea.
— Michael Main
“I wonder what killed it?” Hafton wondered curiously, cutting swiftly through the thick masses of mastodon meat.

“Doom of Ages” by an unknown writer , in Astonishing #23 (Atlas Comics, March 1953).

Journey into Mystery #8

Time Reversal

by an unknown writer 

A blackmailer demonstrates his ability to send an entire city back to prehistoric times.
— Michael Main
We received a note telling us that unless we paid the sum of three million dollars this great city would be taken back to prehistoric days.

“Time Reversal” by an unknown writer , in Journey into Mystery #8 (Atlas Comics, May 1953).

Paycheck

by Philip K. Dick

Apparently, Jennings agreed to work as a specialized mechanic for two years at Rethrick Construction, having his memory wiped at the end in return for 50,000 credits—except instead of a bag full of credits, the memory-wiped Jennings is left holding a bag of seven trinkets and no idea why he would have agreed to such a thing.
— Michael Main
But the big puzzle: how had he—his earlier self—known that a piece of wire and a bus token would save his life? He had known, all right. Known in advance. But how? And the other five. Probably they were just as precious, or would be.

“Paycheck” by Philip K. Dick, Imagination, June 1953.

Journey into Mystery #9–10

Zadixx from Dimension X!

by an unknown writer and Jerry Robinson

Professor Wilbur Thompson is the only human still outside of frozen time[/d]. Oh, yes: He’s also the only human who can save humanity from the Zadixx.
— Michael Main
But I’ll restore mankind somehow! I’ll find a way! I swear it!

“Zadixx from Dimension X!” [unofficial] by an unknown writer and Jerry Robinson, in Journey into Mystery #9–10 (Atlas Comics, June to July 1953).

Journey into Mystery #13

What Harry Saw

by an unknown writer and artist

If you (or Harry, of course) should happen to see your wife with another man in your chronoscope, be careful about how you proceed.
— Michael Main
I turned on the futurescope and saw her kissing Edmund, a man I work with!

“What Harry Saw” by an unknown writer and artist, in Journey into Mystery #13 (Atlas Comics, December 1953).

Journey into Mystery #14

The Man Who Owned a World

by an unknown writer, Vic Carrabotta, and Jack Abel

Evil stepfather George intercepts a build-a-world kit from the future.
— Michael Main
Somewhere in the future, a postal error had been made and a package destined for a yet as unborn grandson had been lost in time and delivered to this house!

“The Man Who Owned a World” by an unknown writer, Vic Carrabotta, and Jack Abel, in Journey into Mystery #14 (Atlas Comics, February 1954).

Journey into Mystery #16

The Question!

by an unknown writer and Vic Carrabotta

Computer genius and jealous husband Paul Jessup builds a mechanical brain that can answer any question about the future. 
— Michael Main
The brain can foretell events for approximately 24 hours in the future!

“The Question!” by an unknown writer and Vic Carrabotta, in Journey into Mystery #16 (Atlas Comics, June 1954).

Time Patrol 1

Time Patrol

by Poul Anderson

In the first of a long series of hallowed stories, former military engineer (and noncomformist) Manse Everard is recruited by the Time Patrol to prevent time travelers from making major changes to history. (Don’t worry, history bounces back from the small stuff.)
— Michael Main
If you went back to, I would guess, 1946, and worked to prevent your parents’ marriage in 1947, you would still have existed in that year; you would not go out of existence just because you had influenced events. The same would apply even if you had only been in 1946 one microsecond before shooting the man who would otherwise have become your father.

“Time Patrol” by Poul Anderson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1955.

The Time Machine

by Ray Bradbury

Charlie takes his pals Douglas and John to visit the old Colonel who—says Charlie—has a time machine that travels in the past.
— Michael Main
War’s never a winning thing, Charlie. You just lose al the time, and the one who loses last asks for terms. All I remember is a lot of losing and sadness and nothing good but the end of it.

“The Last, the Very Last” by Ray Bradbury, The Reporter, 2 June 1955.

Journey into Mystery #28

They Wouldn’t Believe Him!

by unknown writers and Pete Tumlinson

To escape a forced marriage, a woman in the future tries to disappear into the pase, but her fiance tracks her down.
— Michael Main
I’ll marry you, Everest! But first may I go on a short time-vacation?

“They Wouldn’t Believe Him!” by unknown writers and Pete Tumlinson, in Journey into Mystery #28 (Atlas Comics, November1955).

Unusual Tales #2

Madam Futura

by Joe Gill [?] and Mark Swayze [?]

Madam Futura has an infallible knack for seeing the future—a knack that businessman Ben Gainer plans to exploit, even though he figures her for a fake.
— Michael Main
That Madam Futura knows everything! She can see the past, the present, and the future!

“Madam Futura” by Joe Gill [?] and Mark Swayze [?], Unusual Tales #2 (Charlton Comics, January 1956).

Journey into Mystery #31

Dark Room!

by unknown writers and Ed Winiarski

In a Chinese tea shop, thirty-something Andrew Wilson wishes he could do everything all over again so that he wasn’t such a financial failure and Jo Clark would marry him.
— Michael Main
If I could just go back to my youth, start over! I wouldn’t make the same mistakes I made then!

“Dark Room!” by unknown writers and Ed Winiarski, in Journey into Mystery #31 (Atlas Comics, February 1956).

Unusual Tales #3

Don Alvarado’s Treasure

[writer unknown]

Young Frank Winston has everything a man could ever want, but for the past three months, he's been unable to move on in his ideal life because he’s haunted by dreams of a band of 18th-century Spanish soldiers who buried a treasure chest in the desert north of Mexico.
— Michael Main
"Oh, Professor," half chided Helen Crane, "You don’t mean to say that you believe in these dreams. That the past can actually come back into the present."

“Don Alvarado’s Treasure” [writer unknown], Unusual Tales #3 (Charlton Comics, April 1956).

Journey into Mystery #35

Fallon’s Folly!

by unknown writers and Paul Reinman

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!

“Fallon’s Folly!” by unknown writers and Paul Reinman, in Journey into Mystery #35 (Atlas Comics, June 1956).

Journey into Mystery #35

The Long Journey

by unknown writers

College janitor Tad Sheen has discovered a chemical formula that he believes will take him through time.
— Michael Main
Tad was certain that if he mixed ammonia with a chemical he had brewed called Dyproxylin, then heated this mixture in a flask to boiling, chilled it suddenly, you could, by breathing the fumes, project yourself forward in time.

“The Long Journey!” by unknown writers, in Journey into Mystery #35 (Atlas Comics, June 1956).

Journey into Mystery #35

Turn Back the Clock!

by unknown writers and Jay Scott Pike

After turning back the hands on the campus clock tower, star athelete Ambrose McCallister finds himself at a stadium in ancient Greece with no memory of who he is.
— Michael Main
I saw this move somewhere . . . If I could just remember!

“Turn Back the Clock!” by unknown writers and Jay Scott Pike, in Journey into Mystery #35 (Atlas Comics, June 1956).

Journey into Mystery #36

Something Is Happening in There

by unknown writers and Carl Hubbell

Yes! They had sf nerds even back in the 1950s, but they called them “born fools.” In this case, the born fool is Ebenezer, who believes that a secretive new stranger is building a time machine.
— Michael Main
It’s just like this picture . . . of a time machine!

“Something Is Happening in There!” by unknown writers and Carl Hubbell, in Journey into Mystery #36 (Atlas Comics, July 1956).

Journey into Mystery #38

Stone Face!

by an unknown writer and John Giunta

When Richard Dell buys a stone statue and puts it in his side show, he doesn’t realize that aliens turned their compatriot to stone for a good reason centuries ago.
— Michael Main
Step right up, folks! See the wonder of the century!

“Stone Face!” by an unknown writer and John Giunta, in Journey into Mystery #38 (Atlas Comics, September 1956).

Journey into Mystery #40

I Saw a Demon!

by an unknown writer and John Giunta

When Dr. Morgan succeeds in playing back sound from ancient Egyptian rocks, an ancient Egyptian demon unexpectedly appears.
— Michael Main
I forgot! Sounds could be etched on this rock by voices in its vicinity over the ages, since it was first formed!

“I Saw a Demon!” by an unknown writer and John Giunta, in Journey into Mystery #40 (Atlas Comics, November 1956).

Journey into Mystery #40

The Question That Can’t Be Answered!

by an unknown writer and John Forte

Reporter Ned Parker tries to expose a fraudulent hypnotist, but instead he ends up being hypnotized and sent into his look-alike descendant 500 years in the future.
— Michael Main
It was Ned who fell under the hypnotic trance . . . and Ned who responded to the commands of Jiminez!

“The Question That Can’t Be Answered!” by an unknown writer and John Forte, in Journey into Mystery #40 (Atlas Comics, November 1956).

Journey into Mystery #41

He Came from Nowhere

by an unknown writer and Gray Morrow

As a government scientist makes a breakthrough discovery, he’s confronted out of nowhere by a time traveling kidnapper from a future government.
— Michael Main
Your work, this house, everything must be destroyed!

“He Came from Nowhere” by an unknown writer and Gray Morrow, in Journey into Mystery #41 (Atlas Comics, December 1956).

Of All Possible Worlds

by William Tenn

Max Alben Mac Albin is genetically predisposed to survive time travel, so he’s the natural choice to go back in time and shift the course of a missile that shifted the course of history.
— Michael Main
Now! Now to make a halfway decent world! Max Alben pulled the little red switch toward him.
flick!
Now! Now to make a halfway interesting world! Mac Albin pulled the little red switch toward him.
flick!

“Of All Possible Worlds” by William Tenn, Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1956.

Journey into Mystery #42

He Saw the Future

by unknown writers

A bump on the head from a falling (small) bag of concrete gives Harry the ability to see the future in exactly the way he needs.
— Michael Main
So it wasn’t too surprising that Harry just happened to be passing by the new building going up when a small bag of cement fell from the second story scaffolding.

“He Saw the Future” by unknown writers, in Journey into Mystery #42 (Atlas Comics, January 1957).

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.

MUgwump Four

by Robert Silverberg

Oh, dear! Albert Miller has dialed a wrong number on the Mugwump-4 exchange, and the mutants who answered have decided that the only solution is to catapult him into the future where he won’t be able to upset their plans for World Domination.
— Michael Main
At this stage in our campaign, we can take no risks. You’ll have to go. Prepare the temporal centrifuge, Mordecai.

“Mugwump Four” by Robert Silverberg, Galaxy Magazine, August 1959.

A Christmas Carol

[writer unknown], directed by Robert Hartford-Davis

The Daily Cinema of 21 November 1960 says this 28-minute black-and-white presentation of the Carol “relates the familiar story as economically as possible, managing to retain the spirit without dwelling in detail on the background” (cited in Guida).
— Michael Main

A Christmas Carol [writer unknown], directed by Robert Hartford-Davis (at movie theaters, USA, circa November 1960).

Unusual Tales #32

Out of “Ur”

[writer unknown]

A man and his future wife show up in the 20th century with a bag of diamonds and a fabulous story of ancient royalty.
— Michael Main
I refuse to make any statement about whether or not those two crossed a Time Barrier.

“Out of ‘Ur’” [writer unknown], Unusual Tales #32 (Charlton Comics, February 1962).

When You Care, When You Love

by Theodore Sturgeon

Sylva—an heiress who is used to getting her way—devises a plan to (sort of) save her terminally ill lover, Guy Gibbon.
— Michael Main
But lots of things were crazier and some bigger, nd now they’re commonplace.

“When You Care, When You Love” by Theodore Sturgeon, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1962.

Lem’s Star Diaries

Czarna komnata profesora Tarantogi

Literal: Professor Tarantoga's black room

by Stanisław Lem

Professor Tarantoga saves human civilization! After using his chronopad to investigate the leading scientists and artists in history, Tarantoga concludes that without exception they are lazy drunkards. So naturally, he sends smart young people into various eras to invent differential calculus, to paint the Mona Lisa, etc.—all while a pair of police inspectors have their eye on him.
— based on Wikipedia

[ex=bare]Czarna komnata profesora Tarantogi: Widowisko telewizyjne | Professor Tarantoga’s black room: Television show[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963).

Тайна Гомера

Tayna Gomera English release: Homer’s Secret Literal: Homer’s secret

by Александр Полещук


[ex=bare]Тайна Гомера | Homer’s secret | “Tayna gomera”[/ex] by Александр Полещук, in [ex=bare]Фантастика, 1963 год || Fantastika, 1963 god,[/ex] edited by [exn=bare]Кирилл Андреев | Kirill Andreev[/exn] ([ex=bare]Молодая гвардия || Molodaya gvardiya[/ex], 1963).

Lem’s Star Diaries

Wyprawa profesora Tarantogi

Literal: Professor Tarantoga’s voyage

by Stanisław Lem

Oh, tensor! Oh, turbulent perturbation! Some time before Professor Tarantoga invented a time machine and met a schizophrenic man from the fourth millennium, he apparently invented a transporter that took him and his new assistant Chybek to a series of progressively more advanced civilizations, the last of which included a barefaced cook who had an embarrasing accident in the cosmic kitchen, resulting in mankind (and indirectly resulting in time travel for the professor and Chybek).
— Michael Main
I znów mi się przypaliło—jedno spiralne ramie, od spodu, na trzysta parseków—i znowu wybiegła mi słonecznica, i ścięło się, i będzie zgęstek, i powstanie białko, przeklęte białko! I znowu będzie ewolucja, i ludzkość, i cywilizacja, i będę się musiał tłumaczyć, usprawiedliwiać, składać we dwoje, przepraszać, że to niechcący, że przez przypadek . . . Ale to wy, nie ja!
And I got burned again—one spiral arm, underneath, three hundred parsecs—and again a sunflower came out of me and it was choked and there will be a bundle of white, cursed protein! And there will be evolution again, and humanity and civilization, and I will have to justify, justify, put together, apologize that it’s accidentally, that by accident . . .
English

[ex=bare]Wyprawa profesora Tarantogi: Widowisko w sześciu częściach | Professor Tarantoga’s voyage: A television show in six parts[/ex] by Stanisław Lem, in Noc księżycowa (Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1963).

Farnham’s Freehold

by Robert A. Heinlein

Hugh Farnam makes good preparations for his family to survive a nuclear holocaust, but are the preparations good enough to survive a trip to the future?

In his blog, Fred Pohl wrote about how Heinlein’s agent gave permission for Pohl publish the novel in If and to cut “five or ten thousand words in the beginning that were argumentative, extraneous and kind of boring” (and Pohl agreed to pay full rate for the cut words). But apparently, Heinlein “went ballistic” when he saw the first installment, so much so that when the book appeared as a separate publication, Heinlein made sure people knew who was responsible for the previous cuts by adding a note* that “A short version of this novel, as cut and revised by Frederik Pohl, appeared in Worlds of If Magazine.”

* The version of Heinlein’s note that Pohl recalled was much funnier than Heinlein’s actual note in our timeline, but sadly, we have lost track of where we saw Pohl’s version.

— Michael Main
Because the communists are realists. They never risk a war that would hurt them, even if they could win. So they won’t risk one they can’t win.

Farnham’s Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, October 1964).

Основание цивилизации

Osnovaniye tsivilizatsii English release: Foundation of Civilization Literal: Foundation of civilization

by Ромэн Яров

A story of time travel racing and the founding of civilization.
— Dave Hook

[ex=bare]Основание цивилизации | Foundation of civilization | “Osnovaniye tsivilizatsii”[/ex] by Ромэн Яров, in [ex=bare]Фантастика 1965 || Fantastika 1965,[/ex] vol. 2, edited by [exn=bare]Аркадий Стругацкий | Arkady Strugatsky[/exn] ([ex=bare]Молодая гвардия || Molodaya gvardiya[/ex], mid-1965).

Нашествие

Nashestviye English release: Invasion Literal: Invasion

by Роман Подольный


[ex=bare]Нашествие | Invasion | “Nashestviye”[/ex] by Роман Подольный, in [ex=bare]Фантастика 1966 || Fantastika 1966,[/ex] vol. 1, edited by [exn=bare]Еремей Парнов | Yeremey Parnov[/exn] ([ex=bare]Молодая гвардия || Molodaya gvardiya[/ex], early 1966).

Light of Other Days

by Bob Shaw

On a driving holiday in Argyll, Mr. and Mrs. Garland hope to find a way out of their hateful marriage, but instead they find a field of slow glass harvesting the light of other days.
— Michael Main
Apart from its stupendous novelty value, the commercial success of slow glass was founded on the fact that having a scenedow was the exact emotional equivalent of owning land.

“Light of Other Days” by Bob Shaw, Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1966.

Минотавр

Minotavr Literal: Minotaur

by Геннадий Гор


[ex=bare]Минотавр | Minotaur | “Minotavr ”[/ex] by Геннадий Гор, in [ex=bare]НФ: Альманах научной фантастики 6 || NF: Al’manakh nauchnoy fantastiki[/ex], edited by [ex=bare]Евгений Брандис | Evgeny Brandis[/ex] and [ex=bare]Владимир Дмитревский | Vladimir Dmitrevsky[/ex] (Знание, 1967).

Aviary Hall 3

Charlotte Sometimes

by Penelope Farmer

Two young, boarding-school students—Charlotte in 1963 and Clare in 1918—swap minds through time every night, until one day the bed that’s causing all this magic gets moved to the hospital ward, and they are stuck in each other’s times.
— Michael Main
“But I’m not Clare,” Charlotte began to say hopelessly, then stopped herself, explanation being impossible, especially since this girl seemed to think so incredibly that she was Clare.

Charlotte Sometimes by Penelope Farmer (Chatto and Windus, September 1969).

What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper

by Robert Silverberg

When all eleven families on Redford Crescent receive a newspaper from the middle of next week, the result is a hastily called neighborhood meeting and an assortment of get-rich-quick plans.
— Michael Main
Which sounds more fantastic? That someone would take the trouble of composing an entire fictional edition of the Times setting it in type printing it and having it delivered or that through some sort of fluke of the fourth dimension we’ve been allowed a peek at next week’s newspaper?

“What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper” by Robert Silverberg, in Infinity Four, edited by Robert Hoskins (Lancer Books, November 1972).

Le temps incertain

English release: Chronolysis Literal: The uncertain time

by Michel Jeury


“Le temps incertain” by Michel Jeury (Robert Laffont, 1973).

Topolino #911

Zio Paperone e la scorribanda nei secoli

English release: Money is the Root of Upheaval Literal: Uncle Scrooge and the scavenger gang through the centuries

by Jerry Siegel, Romano Scarpa, and Sandro Del Conte

After waking an Egyptian pharaoh from a millennia-long sleep, Uncle Scrooge summons Donald and Gearloose, eventually realizing that they can restore the pharoah to his rightful throne via a trip to ancient Egypt in Gearloose’s not-quite-finished time machine. That doesn’t go quite as planned, and on the way home, they manage to turn the future into a money-mint-land or somnethin’?.
— based on Duck Comics Revue
Il veicolo aveva bisogno di una messa a punto! Comunque, siamo sulla “strada” giusta! Tenetevi forte!
Keep your seat belts buckled at all times! In the unlikely event of a water landing, your seat cushion doubles as a flotation device.
English

[ex=bare]“Zio Paperone e la scorribanda nei secoli” | Uncle Scrooge and the scavenger gang through the centuries[/ex] by Jerry Siegel, Romano Scarpa, and Sandro Del Conte, Topolino [Mickey Mouse] #911 (Mondadori, 13 May 1973).

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).

Lem’s Star Diaries

Die seltsamen Begegnungen des Prof. Tarantoga

Literal: The strange encounters of Professor Tarantoga

[writer unknown], directed by Charles Kerremans

We have no details on the German remake of Wyprawa profesora Tarantogi except that Lem adaptation was humorless.
— Michael Main

[ex=bare]Die seltsamen Begegnungen des Prof. Tarantoga | The strange encounters of Professor Tarantoga[/ex] [writer unknown], directed by Charles Kerremans (ZDF, West Germany, 4 December 1978).

Timescape

by Gregory Benford and Hilary Benford


Timescape by Gregory Benford and Hilary Benford (Simon and Shuster, August 1980).

Unsound Variations

by George R. R. Martin

Peter Norten and his wife Kathy already had a rocky marriage before heading up to Bruce Bunnish’s Colorado mansion for a ten-year reunion with Bruce and two other members of the Northwestern University B Team that Peter captained to a near-win at the North American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. But will Peter and Kathy’s marriage survive the trip, and just how did Bruce end up as the only member of the team to go on to success?
— Michael Main
Time is said to be the fourth dimension, but it differs from the other three in one conspicuous way—our consciousness moves along it. From past to present only, alas. Time itselfdoes not flow, no more than, say, width can flow. Our minds flicker from one instant of time to the next. This analogy was my starting point. I reasoned that if consciousness can move in one direction, it can move in the other direction as well. It took me fifty years to work out the details, however, and make what I call a flashback possible.

“Unsound Variations” by George R. R. Martin, in Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1982.

Bunjee II

The Return of the Bunjee

by Malcolm Marmorstein, [director unknown]

Finding a mate for Bunjee and a mother for the Bunjee babies takes the gang back to the Middle Ages.
— Michael Main

The Return of the Bunjee by Malcolm Marmorstein, [director unknown] (ABC-TV, USA, 6 April 1985).

Star Trek: The Original Series Books

Timetrap

by David Dvorkin

Determined to discover what the Klingons are doing in Federation space, Captain Kirk beams aboard their ship with a security team, just as the stormflares to its highest intensity. As the bridge crew watches in horror, Mauler vanishes from the Enterprise’s viewscrreen. And James T. Kirk awakens . . . one hundred years in the future.
— from publicity material
His age, his century, his civilization—they were all gone. This was now his universe. The fact was irreversible. So be it. I will adjust.

Timetrap by David Dvorkin (Titan Books, June 1988).

Time Was

by Nora Roberts

Time travel via a spaceship that got too close to an uncharted black hole. Our hero, Caleb Hornblower, survives to have a romance with Liberty Stone, a woman from a couple hundred years before he was born. The romantic element is definitely stronger than the science, but there are some interesting discussions about past versus future technology and different social norms. There’s also a fun ride on an aircycle! And a bit of comedy when Liberty’s parents arrive unexpectedly. But only the one time travel event is documented, so this remains heavier on the Romance than the Time Travel.

The story continues in a 1990 sequel, Times Change.

— Tandy Ringoringo
The cockpit lights went out, leaving only the whirl of kaleidoscopic colors from the instrument panel. His ship went into a spiral, tumbling end over end like a stone fired from a slingshot. Now the light was white, hot and brilliant. Instinctively he threw up an arm to shield his eyes. The sudden crushing pressure on his chest left him helpless to do more than gasp for breath.

Time Was by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, November 1989).

Times Change

by Nora Roberts

Jacob (J.T.) Hornblower, astrophysicist, deliberately travels back a couple of centuries to shake some sense into his brother Caleb, who had foolishly (in J.T.’s opinion) decided to stay in the past. A little more science than the first book in this duology, but still heavier on the romance angle, as J.T. finds himself strongly attracted to Sunbeam (Sunny) Stone. Both J.T. and Sunny are opinionated and bullheaded, as well as having blackbelts, so there is also more conflict in this book. The documented return trip to the future includes a brief description of physical side-effects.
— Tandy Ringoringo
And now he stood and wondered. If he dug for it, he would come upon the same box. The box that he had left with his parents only days before. The box would exist here, beneath his feet, just as it existed in his own time. As he existed.

If he dug it up now and carried it back to his ship, it would not be there for him to find on that high summer day in the twenty-third century. And if that was true, how could he be here, in this time, to dig it up at all?


Times Change by Nora Roberts (Silhouette, January 1990).

The Hemingway Hoax

by Joe Haldeman

Literature professor John Baird and conman Sylvester Castlemaine hatch a plan to get rich forging Hemingway’s lost stories, but before long, Baird is confronted by an apparent guardian of the many timelines in the form of Hemingway himself.
— Michael Main
I’m from the future and the past and other temporalities that you can’t comprehend. But all you need to know is that yiou must not write this Hemingway story. If you do, I or someone like me will have to kill you.

“The Hemingway Hoax” by Joe Haldeman, Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1990.

Time Travel through the Bible

by Arden Albrecht and Don Hall, [director unknown]

Despite the title (and having Jonathan Frakes as the narrator) these Bible stories have no time travel.
— Michael Main
But as it is with your dreams and mine, sometimes you have to be strong and fight for them.

Time Travel through the Bible by Arden Albrecht and Don Hall, [director unknown] (direct-to-video, USA, 1 October 1990).

Dracula Unbound

by Brian Aldiss


Dracula Unbound by Brian Aldiss (HarperCollins, March 1991).

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).

Dinosaur Valley Girls

written and directed by Donald F. Glut

Action-movie hero Tony Markham is tossed by a magic talisman into a time of dinosaurs, cavemen, and sex-starved cavewomen (including one named Buf-Fee) who shave their legs with clam shells. Someday I must decide whether movies with simultaneous dinosaurs and cavemen can be classified as time travel or must always be relegated to mere fantasy.
— Michael Main
That skull you saw, those slabs and more, are all carbon-dated at less than a million years old. My only explanation is that there once existed a place I call Dinosaur Valley, where unknown forces somehow brought together creatures from different times and places.

Dinosaur Valley Girls written and directed by Donald F. Glut (unknown release details, 1996).

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.

Children of the Red King #2

Charlie Bone and the Time Twister

by Jenny Nimmo

In 1916, young Henry Yewbeam’s lily-livered cousin tricks him into staring at the Time Twister marble, sending Henry ninety years into the future, where the cousin is still alive at over a hundred years and just as lily-livered as ever. The other children of time, some of whom are endowed with magic powers from an ancestor, are neatly divided into nice kids and horrid kids. There is never a doubt about which is which, although there are plenty of doubts about whether a rational model of time travel underlies the two (or possibly three) time travel instances. Please see the book’s tags for a short discussion of the issues.
— Michael Main
“People can’t go back. You can’t change history Think about it! When my father was five years old, he lost his brother. It changed his life. He became an only child, grew up as an only child. All his memories are of being an only one. You can’t change that now, can you?”

“No,” Charlie said quickly. “I’m sorry.”

His uncle hadn’t finished. “Henry’s parents mourned him, just as they mourned poor little Daphne. James was their only child and, as a result, he was probably spoiled. His father died in the war and his mother left everything to him, including her lovely cottage by the sea. You can’t change that, can you?”


The Time Twister by Jenny Nimmo (Egmont Books Ltd, April 2003).

The Egg

by Andy Weir

After a man dies, he meets God, upon which he doesn’t find out the meaning of life, but he does discover something about time and the meaning of the universe.
Seriously? You’re asking me for the meaning of life? Isn’t that a little stereotypical?
English

“The Egg” by Andy Weir, in Creative Writings of Andy Weir (Galactanet, added 15 August 2009) [ongoing e-collection].

The Time Traveller: Voyage across the Four Winds

by Irving Ravetch, [director unknown]

Using the Four Winds Sims animation packet and pieces of the Radio Theatre Group’s audio play of The Time Machine (based on the 1948 Escape radio program), Celestial Elf produced an eight-minute animation. Looks like they had fun.
— Michael Main
with grateful thanks to H.G. Wells for his Inspiration & to Koshari Mahana for use of Four Winds

The Time Traveller: Voyage across the Four Winds by Irving Ravetch, [director unknown] (Vimeo: Celectial Elf Channel, 26 September 2010).

SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 69

And Krabs Saves the Day

[writer and director unknown]

This episode has implied time travel in that we see a tartar-sauce sated Patrick licking his lips and burping after young Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy discover that their barrel of quick-dry tartar sauce is empty (as also happened in “Back to the Past”).
— Michael Main
Now prepare for a heaping helping of quick-dry tartar sauce!

“And Krabs Saves the Day” [writer and director unknown] (SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 69, Nickelodean (USA, 14 June 2011).

SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 68

Lessons Learned

[writer and director unknown]

SpongeBob and faithful Patrick use the boxy time machine from “SB-129” to travel back and give advice to their younger selves.
— Michael Main
Patrick, with this time machine, we can go back to the past and make our young selves wiser!

“Lessons Learned” [writer and director unknown] (SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 68, Nickelodean (USA, 14 June 2011).

SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 67

Time Machine

[writer and director unknown]

In the first of three time travel mini-episodes—each around one minute long—SpongeBob and Patrick put their hot tub time machine through the works, hoping to find Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy in their prime.
— Michael Main
Will they get it right? Will SpongeBob and Patrick get to see their superheroes in their super-prime?

“Time Machine” [writer and director unknown] (SpongeBob SquarePants Mini 67, Nickelodean (USA, 14 June 2011).

Infinity Ring 1

A Mutiny in Time

by James Dashner

This first book of the multi-author series tells of how teens Dak (a history buff and odd duck), Sera (a science nerd), and Riq (a member of the secret Hystorians society) end up as the only ones who can save the world by fixing breaks in time that changed what was meant to be. Their first mission—saving Columbus from a mutiny that was meant to fail—is a disquieting choice that I would not choose as an introduction of history to children. For starters, they are choosing to save the man who brought genocide to the Americas. And to boot, in the broken world where the mutiny succeeded, his three ships still completed their voyage with no noticable change to subsequent centuries (apart from Columbus resting at the bottom of the Atlantic).
— Michael Main
Time had gone wrong—this is what the Hystorians believed. And if things were beyond fixing now, there was only one hope left . . . to go back in time and fix the past instead.

“A Mutiny in Time” by James Dashner (Scholastic, August 2012).

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).

College Humor Originals

Killing Hitler

[writer unknown], directed by Brendan Banks

Three office nerds. Three shots at killing Der Füh·rer.
— Michael Main
I invented a time machine to make the world a better place, which is why I’m going to travel back and kill Adolf Hitler.

Killing Hitler [writer unknown], directed by Brendan Banks (College Humor Originals, 11 October 2012).

Todd Family 1

Life after Life

by Kate Atkinson

In one instantiation of her life, Ursula Todd dies just moments after her birth in 1910. Fortunately (for the sake of the novel), time seems to be cyclic, so she and the rest of the world get many chances at life. At times, she partially recalls her other lives, resulting in many consequences to history and her personal development.
— Michael Main
So much hot air rising above the tables in the Café Heck or the Osteria Bavaria, like smoke from the ovens. It was difficult to believe from this perspective that Hitler was going to lay waste to the world in a few years’ time.

“Time isn’t circular,” she said to Dr. Kellet. “It’s like a palimpsest.”
“Oh, dear,” he said. “That sounds very vexing.”
“And memories are sometimes in the future.”


Life after Life by Kate Atkinson (Doubleday, March 2013).

Connections Academy

[writer unknown]

Wait a minute! What’s that disclaimer about “Actor Portrayal” at the bottom of each commercial? Does that mean that if I go to Connections Academy that I don’t actually get to use a time machine to meet my future self?
— Michael Main
And I’m Grace when she was in fourth grade.

Connections Academy [writer unknown] (circa May 2015).

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

by Lev Grossman

This novelette version of Mark and Margaret living August 4th over and over preceded the Amazon movie by about three years, but the charm of both teens and their growth through the repeating day was evident even in this original version. If you read the standalone Kindle version of the story, you’ll be rewarded with an epilogue where Gooseman talks about the path he took from the novelette to his first screenplay that became the movie, which we awarded a Gold Eloi Medal.
— Michael Main
“Look, I don’t know how to put this exactly,” I said, “but would you happen to be trapped in a temporal anomaly? Like right now? Like there’s something wrong with time?”

“The Map of Tiny Perfect Things” by Lev Grossman, in Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, edited by Stephanie Perkins (St. Martin’s Griffin, May 2016).

A.N.E.W

written and directed by Godwin Josiah and Raymond Yusuff

After his broken watch causes embarrassment, a boy orders a new watch that takes him back to the embarrassing moment more than once.
— Michael Main
My watch is not working.

A.N.E.W written and directed by Godwin Josiah and Raymond Yusuff (Youtube: Critics Company Channel, 24 February 2020).

Paris Magic

[writer unknown], directed by Mary Anne Spier, produced by Laine Cummings

I love that show! A young woman time-travelling her way through the French Revolution!
— Laine Cummings
♫ I traveled back in time and love has come my way. ♫

Paris Magic [writer unknown], directed by Mary Anne Spier, produced by Laine Cummings (Moosehead Theater, Greenville, Maine, 3 July 2020).

Aunty Bhaya Tick

writer and director pending


Aunty Bhaya Tick writer and director pending.

Dirty Machines: The End of History

writer and director pending


Dirty Machines: The End of History writer and director pending.

Don’t Time Travel to 2020

writer and director pending


Don’t Time Travel to 2020 writer and director pending.

Double Trouble

writer and director pending


Double Trouble writer and director pending.

Dumbtime

writer and director pending


Dumbtime writer and director pending.

Einstein-Rosen

writer and director pending


Einstein-Rosen writer and director pending.

Engalai patri yosi

writer and director pending


Engalai patri yosi writer and director pending.

Exit Strategy

writer and director pending


Exit Strategy writer and director pending.

Flash!

writer and director pending


Flash! writer and director pending.

Frankie

writer and director pending


Frankie writer and director pending.

Get Rich or Try Dying

writer and director pending


Get Rich or Try Dying writer and director pending.

Glitch

writer and director pending


Glitch writer and director pending.

Grandfather Paradox

writer and director pending


Grandfather Paradox writer and director pending.

Green Grass

writer and director pending


Green Grass writer and director pending.

Hard Reset

writer and director pending


Hard Reset writer and director pending.

Hidden Nowhere

writer and director pending


Hidden Nowhere writer and director pending.

Invest in Yourself

writer and director pending


Invest in Yourself writer and director pending.

Iteration 1

writer and director pending


Iteration 1 writer and director pending.

It’s About Time

writer and director pending


It’s About Time writer and director pending.

Journey 17

writer and director pending


Journey 17 writer and director pending.

The Jump

writer and director pending


The Jump writer and director pending.

Kaalayatri

writer and director pending


Kaalayatri writer and director pending.

கடிகாரம்

Katikaram Literal: Clock

writer and director pending


[ex=bare]கடிகாரம் | Clock | Katikaram[/ex] writer and director pending.

The Last One

writer and director pending


The Last One writer and director pending.

The Leap

writer and director pending


The Leap writer and director pending.

Leaping

writer and director pending


Leaping writer and director pending.

Live and Let Die

writer and director pending


Live and Let Die writer and director pending.

Loop

writer and director pending


Loop writer and director pending.

Lost Time

writer and director pending


Lost Time writer and director pending.

Love Has No Sound

writer and director pending


Love Has No Sound writer and director pending.

The Machine

writer and director pending


The Machine writer and director pending.

Man Out of Time

writer and director pending


Man Out of Time writer and director pending.

Memory Lane

writer and director pending


Memory Lane writer and director pending.

Microwave Time Machine

writer and director pending


Microwave Time Machine writer and director pending.

The Misinventions of Milo Weatherby

writer and director pending


The Misinventions of Milo Weatherby writer and director pending.

மீட்டமை

Mittamai Literal: Restore

writer and director pending


[ex=bare]மீட்டமை | Restore | Mittamai[/ex] writer and director pending.

Nura: Theory 1

writer and director pending


Nura: Theory 1 writer and director pending.

Outta Time

writer and director pending


Outta Time writer and director pending.

Paradox

writer and director pending


Paradox writer and director pending.

Paradox

writer and director pending


Paradox writer and director pending.

Paradox

writer and director pending


Paradox writer and director pending.

The Paradox

writer and director pending


The Paradox writer and director pending.

Passed Mistakes of the Future

writer and director pending


Passed Mistakes of the Future writer and director pending.

The Past in My Hands

writer and director pending


The Past in My Hands writer and director pending.

Penciled

writer and director pending


Penciled writer and director pending.

Plurality

writer and director pending


Plurality writer and director pending.

Pointless Time Travel

writer and director pending


Pointless Time Travel writer and director pending.

Portal

writer and director pending


Portal writer and director pending.

Prayanam: The Time Travel

writer and director pending


Prayanam: The Time Travel writer and director pending.

Pre-Destined Custard Pie

writer and director pending


Pre-Destined Custard Pie writer and director pending.

Press Cook

writer and director pending


Press Cook writer and director pending.

Professor Layton

writer and director pending


Professor Layton writer and director pending.

Quantum Bridge

writer and director pending


Quantum Bridge writer and director pending.

Reality

writer and director pending


Reality writer and director pending.

The Redo

writer and director pending


The Redo writer and director pending.

Refill

writer and director pending


Refill writer and director pending.

Repeat

writer and director pending


Repeat writer and director pending.

Reset

writer and director pending


Reset writer and director pending.

ReStart

writer and director pending


ReStart writer and director pending.

ReWrite

writer and director pending


ReWrite writer and director pending.

Room 88

writer and director pending


Room 88 writer and director pending.

समय यात्रा

Samay yaatra Literal: Time travel

writer and director pending


[ex=bare]समय यात्रा | Time travel | Samay yaatra[/ex] writer and director pending.

Second Chance

writer and director pending


Second Chance writer and director pending.

See Yourself

writer and director pending


See Yourself writer and director pending.

Shame & Everything’s a Nail

writer and director pending


Shame & Everything’s a Nail writer and director pending.

The Story of Time

writer and director pending


The Story of Time writer and director pending.

Stuck in a Time Travel Loop

writer and director pending


Stuck in a Time Travel Loop writer and director pending.

Tempus

writer and director pending


Tempus writer and director pending.

Tempus

writer and director pending


Tempus writer and director pending.

Ten Minute Time Machine

writer and director pending


Ten Minute Time Machine writer and director pending.

The Tent

writer and director pending


The Tent writer and director pending.

Tick

writer and director pending


Tick writer and director pending.

Time

writer and director pending


Time writer and director pending.

The Time Agent

writer and director pending


The Time Agent writer and director pending.

Time and Again

writer and director pending


Time and Again writer and director pending.

The Time Machine

writer and director pending


The Time Machine writer and director pending.

The Time Machine

writer and director pending


The Time Machine writer and director pending.

Time Machine

writer and director pending


Time Machine writer and director pending.

टाइम मशीन

Time machine Literal: Time machine

writer and director pending


[ex=bare]टाइम मशीन | Time machine | Taim masheen[/ex] writer and director pending.

Time Paradox

writer and director pending


Time Paradox writer and director pending.

Time Sculpture

writer and director pending


Time Sculpture writer and director pending.

Time Travel

writer and director pending


Time Travel writer and director pending.

Time Travel

writer and director pending


Time Travel writer and director pending.

Time Travel

writer and director pending


Time Travel writer and director pending.

Time Travel: A Love Story

writer and director pending


Time Travel: A Love Story writer and director pending.

Time Travel Academy

writer and director pending


Time Travel Academy writer and director pending.

Time Travel Alaparaigal

writer and director pending


Time Travel Alaparaigal writer and director pending.

Time Travel Taxi

writer and director pending


Time Travel Taxi writer and director pending.

Time Traveller

writer and director pending


Time Traveller writer and director pending.

The Time Traveller’s Journal

writer and director pending


The Time Traveller’s Journal writer and director pending.

Time Warped

writer and director pending


Time Warped writer and director pending.

Time Watch

writer and director pending


Time Watch writer and director pending.

Timeless

writer and director pending


Timeless writer and director pending.

Timeless Man

writer and director pending


Timeless Man writer and director pending.

Timeline

writer and director pending


Timeline writer and director pending.

Timeloop

writer and director pending


Timeloop writer and director pending.

TimeTravel

writer and director pending


TimeTravel writer and director pending.

Travelooper

writer and director pending


Travelooper writer and director pending.

Tree House Time Machine

writer and director pending


Tree House Time Machine writer and director pending.

TRIPLE TIMe

writer and director pending


TRIPLE TIMe writer and director pending.

Unstuck

writer and director pending


Unstuck writer and director pending.

Wastelands

writer and director pending


Wastelands writer and director pending.

Woo Hoo!

writer and director pending


Woo Hoo! writer and director pending.

You Can’t Change

writer and director pending


You Can’t Change writer and director pending.

as of 7:37 p.m. MDT, 5 May 2024
This page is still under construction.
Please bear with us as we continue to finalize our data throughout 2023.