The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1969



   “The Future Is Ours”
by Edward D. Hoch (as by Stephen Dentinger)
First publication: Crime Prevention in the 30th Century, 1969

Hoch was a mystery and detective story writer who sent two stories to the Crime Prevention anthology, so this one was published under his Dentinger pseudonym. In the story, a modern-day detective is sent forward to the year 2259 so he can bring back future crime fighting methods, but what he finds is rather less than impressive.

 I understand that it can transport me three hundred years in the future to study techniques of crime prevention and law enforcement. 




   Slaughterhouse-Five
or the Children’s Crusade
by Kurt Vonnegut
First publication: 1969

Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and sometimes zoo occupant on a far-off planet, lives one moment of his life, then he’s thrown back to another, then forward again, and so on amidst the sadness of what men do to each other in this deterministic and fatalistic universe.

 All this happened, more or less. The war parts, anyway, are pretty much true. One guy I knew really was shot in Dresden for taking a teapot that wasn’t his. Another guy I knew really did threaten to have his personal enemies killed by hired gunmen after the war. And so on. 


   “Praiseworthy Saur”
aka “If”
by Harry Harrison
First publication: If, Feb 1969

At least three lizards from the future (Numbers 17, 35 and 44) project themselves into the past to protect their remote ancestor.

 The centuries will roll by and, one day, our race will reach its heights of glory. 




   Magnus, Robot Fighter
created by Russ Manning
First time travel: Magnus, Robot Fighter 26, May 1969

There were times in the 60s when there simply weren’t enough Marvel comics, so I picked up the occassional issue of Magnus, including issue 26 where the nemesis of robots was stranded in the distant future.

 No robot may harm a human, or allow a human to come to harm . . . 

—from the splash page of Magnus 1. By the 60s, Asimov’s first law had become so ingrained that the good doctor was not cited as the source of the law


   “Nine P.M., Pacific Daylight Time”
by Ronald S. Bonn
First publication: Venture Science Fiction, May 1969

Mad scientist Maxwell Scheinst gives a science writer a paradox: If time travel is possible, then where are all the time travelers? Scheinst also provides an answer: They haven’t arrived yet because nobody has built a receiver . . . until now!

Mathematician Fred Galvin from Kansas University pointed me to this gem, which also got me wondering who was the first to pose the paradox. Both Clarke and Hawking have mentioned the problem, but where did it originate? I'm working on tracking that down. Let me know if you have any leads!

 I’d say the reason that no time traveler has ever arrived from the future is precisely the same reason that Galileo failed to discover radio astronomy. 


   “The Timesweepers”
by Keith Laumer
First publication: Analog, Aug 1969

I haven’t yet read this short story that Laumer expanded to the novel Dinosaur Beach in 1971, though perhaps some day I will spot the Ballantime paperback, Timetracks, that collected it along with four other stories.



   Woody Woodpecker
created by Bugs Hardaway, Walter Lantz and Alex Lovy
First time travel: 1 Sep 1969

I found one cartoon where the screwball woodpecker travels back in time: “Prehistoric Super Salesman” from 1969 where Professor Grossenfibber needs a subject for his time tunnel.

 Now my time machine is all ready for the experiment. All I need is somebody . . . is somebody . . . ah, the woodpecker, ya! 




   Land of the Giants
created by Irwin Allen
First time travel: 21 Dec 1969

When a suborbital ship gets caught in a space storm, it ends up on a planet where everything and everyone is twelve times bigger than normal, providing fodder for adventure and at least two treks through time (“Home Sweet Home” on 12 Dec 1969, and “Wild Journey” on 8 Mar 1970).

The writing, acting and sets had little appeal to me, though I did enjoy Batgirl (Yvonne Craig) in “Wild Journey”, aka Marta, the green Orion dancer from the third season of Star Trek.

 But don’t you see: If we never take that flight out, there would have never been a crash, and the others would have never been stranded on this planet. 

—from “Wild Country”



No Time Travel. Move along.
  The House on the Strand by Daphne Du Maurier [viewing the past ]

  H.R. Pufnstuf (the Clock family's time machine) produced by Sid Krofft and Marty Krofft, 6 Sep 1969 [bizarre aging ]

  “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones’” by Samuel R. Delany, New Worlds, Dec 1968 [despite title, no time travel ]

 

11 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
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)