The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1964



   “Waterspider”
by Philip K. Dick
First publication: If, Jan 1964

Aaron Tozzo and his colleague Gilly travel back to a 1950s science fiction convention (to them, a Pre-Cog Gathering) to ’nap Poul Anderson because they believe that sf writers have pre-cognition of their own time that can solve their current space travel problem. A cute story with descriptions of many writers of the time, but the ending takes that turn that I never like of Tozzo slowly losing his memory of the original world after they inadvertantly change something.

 “Yes,” he said to Poul, “you do strike me as very, very faintly introve—no offense meant, sir, I mean, it’s legal to be introved.” 




   Herbie, the Fat Fury
created by Richard E. Hughes (as by Shane O’Shea) and Ogden Whitney
First time travel: Herbie 1, Apr/May 1964

Herbie Popnecker was the prototypical cool nerd before there were cool nerds, and his lollipops and grandfather clock took him to different eras 13 times, the first episode being in the first issue of his own comic (after five monotime appearances in ACG’s Forbidden Worlds). He also had an early cameo in a time-travel story in Unknown Worlds #20 (Jan 1963). All in all, the fat fury time traveled in Herbie numbers 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, and the odd issues in 9 through 23 (not to mention a 1994 cameo in Flaming Carrot 31).

 Civil War . . . wonder how it’s going to turn out? 




   Farnham’s Freehold
by Robert A. Heinlein
First publication: If, Jul to Oct 1964

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

 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. 


   “The Second Philadelphia Experiment”
by Robert F. Young
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jul 1964

No, the first Philadelphia experiment wasn’t the one you’re thinking of. Instead, it was Ben Franklin’s first kite-flying escapade. Bet you didn't know he had a second kite that produced a message that Franklin struggled to interpret.

 —to the Dick the Disk Show, brought to you by W-D-U. 


   “A Bulletin from the Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Research at Marmouth, Massachusetts”
by Wilma Shore
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Aug 1964

After Dr. Edwin Gerber’s death, a tape recording surfaces that purportedly has him interviewing a man from the year 2061.

 Q. How does it feel to go back a hundred— 




   Charlton Comics (Superheroes)
First time travel: Blue Beetle 2, Sep 1964

When I turned 10, Steve Ditko broke my heart by leaving Marvel and rejoining Charlton Comics, which published only two superheroes at that time. I loyally bought the new Blue Beetle (aquired from Fox Comics in the ’50s) and Captain Atom (whom Ditko had first drawn in 1960’s Space Adventures), but I no longer have them and I can’t remember whether they had any time travel in the ’60s. Nevertheless I know of a few possible time-travel moment in the ’60s Charlton superhero comics: the pre-Ditko Blue Beetle 2 (Sep 1964) features on its cover the Man of Dung vs. a mammoth and a saber-tooth tiger; Charton Premiere 1 (Sep 1967), which (among other items) has Pat Boyette’s time traveling Spookman; and Hercules 9 (Feb 1969) with Thane of Bagarth vs a 21st century time traveler.

 The mightiest man battles reds from today, and monsters from yesterday! 

—from Blue Beetle 2, Sep 1964




   The Great Time Machine Hoax
by Keith Laumer
First publication: Sep 1964

When Chester W. Chester inherits an omniscient computer, he and his business partner Case Mulvihill arrange to promote the machine as if it were a time machine.

 Now, this computer seems to be able to fake up just about any scene you want to take a look at. You name it, it sets it up. Chester, we’ve got the greatest side-show attraction in circus history! We book the public in at so much a head, and show ’em Daily Life in Ancient Rome, or Michelangelo sculpting the Pietà, or Napoleon leading the charge at Marengo. 






   The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
aka Alfred Hitchcock Presents
created by Alfred Hitchcock
First time travel: 28 Sep 1964

As a kid, I knew of the iconic theme song and profile of Alfred Hitchcock, but it wasn’t until 2013 that I spotted one episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour with time travel—namely, their adaptation of John Wyndham’s “Consider Her Ways.”

 This evening’s tale begins with a nightmare-like experience, but that is only a prelude to the terrifying events which follow. And now, speaking of terrifying events . . . 




   The Time Travelers
by Ib Melchor and David L. Hewitt (Melchor, director)
First release: 29 Oct 1964

When group of time travelers accidentally see that the world will be desolate 107 years in the future, an electrician, two scientists and finally the curvaceous blonde technician all jump through the portal, only to have the portal collapse behind them, whereupon they are chased on the surface by Morlockish creatures who are afraid of thrown rocks and they meet an advanced, post-apocalyptic, underground society that employs androids and is planning a generation-long trip to Alpha Centauri.

 Keep an eye out for them. Get as many rocks as you can. 




   “When Time Was New”
by Robert F. Young
First publication: If, Dec 1964

At the behest of a paleontological society, adventurer Howard Carpenter, heads back to the Age of Dinosaurs to scope out an anachronistic fossil, where among other things, he runs into two terrified kids from Mars and a gang of Martian kidnappers.

 79,061,889 years from now, this territory would be part of the state of Montana. 79,062,156 years from now, a group of paleontologists digging somewhere in the vastly changed terrain would unearth the fossil of a modern man who had died 79,062,156 years before his disinterment—Would the fossil turn out to be his own? 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Gunpowder God” by H. Beam Piper (paratime), Analog, Nov 1964 [alternate timelines ]
  aka “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen”

 

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Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)