The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1972



   There Will Be Time
by Poul Anderson
First publication: 1972

The doctor and confidant of Jack Havig relates Jack’s life story from the time the infant started disappearing and reappearing to the extended firefight through time with the few other time travelers that Havig encountered.

 No, no, no. I suppose it’s simply a logical impossibility to change the past, same as it’s logically impossible for a uniformly colored spot to be both red and green. 


   “When We Went to See
the End of the World”
by Robert Silverberg
First publication: Universe 2, Feb 1972

Nick and Jane are disappointed when they discover that they are not the only ones from their social group to have time-tripped to see some aspect or other of the end of the world.

 “It looked like Detroit after the union nuked Ford,” Phil said. “Only much, much worse.” 




   “Against the Lafayette Escadrille”
by Gene Wolfe
First publication: Again Dangerous Visions, Mar 1972

I’m a little surprised at how much I am enjoying Gene Wolfe’s stories. This is a fantasy of a man who builds an exact replica of a Fokker triplane; then, one day on a flight, he sees a beautiful girl in a vintage balloon, an event that seems explicable only via time travel. The story puts me in the mood of Jack Finney’s wonderful non-time-travel story, “Home Alone.”

 I circled her for some time then, she turning slowly in the basket to follow the motion of my plane, and we talked as well as we could with gestures and smiles. 




   Slaughterhouse-Five
adaptation by Stephen Geller
First release: 15 Mar 1972

Billy Pilgrim’s life, unstuck in time, is faithfully brought to the big screen, including fellow patient Mr. Rosewater who, I believe, is reading a Kilgore Trout story.

 I have come unstuck in time. 




   “The Man Who Walked Home”
by James Tiptree, Jr.
First publication: Amazing, May 1972

After an accident at a temporal research facility in Idaho, a manlike monster shows up once a year at the same time every year.

As early as the 1930s, stories have addressed the issue of the Earth moving to a different position when a time traveler moves through time. This story addresses the issue by saying that the time traveler appears only once per year, but that doesn't really solve the problem for so many reasons, starting with the fact that a given position on the surface of the Earth will not be at “the same” position in the subsequent year.

 HE APPEARS ON THIS SPOT IN THE ANNUAL INSTANTS IN WHICH HIS COURSE INTERSECTS OUR PLANET’S ORBIT AND HE IS APPARENTLY ABLE TO TOUCH THE GROUND IN THOSE INSTANTS. 


   “Forever to a Hudson Bay Blanket”
by James Tiptree, Jr.
First publication: Fantastic, Aug 1972

At 75, heiress Loolie Aerovulpa travels back to her nubile teenaged body to throw herself at her one true love, Dovy Rapelle.

 “Do you like me? I’m attractive, am’t I?” She opened the blanket to look at herself. “I mean, am I attractive to you? Oh, Dovy, s-say something! I’ve come so far, I chartered three jets, I, I,—Oh, Dovy d-darling!” 


   “Proof”
by F.M. Busby
First publication: Amazing, Sep 1972

Jackson, a reporter, wants proof that a time machine really works, and he also wouldn’t mind proof about who killed Seantor Burton 20 years ago.

 The Time Chamber. with its loose-hanging power cables and confused-looking control panel, didn’t look much like Mr. Wells’ crystal bicycle. 




  
 Dancers at the End of Time #1
An Alien Heat
by Michael Moorcock
First publication: Oct 1972

The time machine from Moorcock’s earlier “Behold the Man‘ allows Jherek to pursue his romantic interest, Amelia Underwood, from Jherek’s own time to her Victorian age.

According to the alien Yusharisp, Jherek’s time is at the end of the universe, which allows this story to be billed as the last love story of the universe. However, the phrase ’last story’ might be slightly inappropriate for the first story of a series that includes three other novels and five short stories. The first three novels, including this one, are gathered in an omnibus edition called The Dancers at the End of Time.

 “Yes,” said Jherek. “I have already met the time-traveller. Last night. At the Duke of Queens’. I was so impressed by the costume that I made one up for myself.” 






   The End of Time Series
by Michael Moorcock
First book: Oct 1972

Every now and then, a time traveler finds his way to the End of Time where a small group of decadent immortals manipulate matter and energy with power rings.
  1. 1. An Alien Heat, Oct 1972 Dancer Trilogy 1
  2. 2. The Hollow Lands, 1974 Dancer Trilogy 2
  3. 3. Pale Roses, 1974 in New Worlds 7
  4. 4. The End of All Songs, Jul 1976 Dancer Trilogy 3
  5. 5. White Stars, Mar 1975 in New Worlds 8
  6. 6. Ancient Shadows, Nov 1975 in New Worlds 9
  7. 7. Legends from the End of Time, 1976
         aka Tales from the End of Time includes 3,5,6
     
  8. 8. Transformation of Miss Mavis Ming, Feb 1977
         aka A Messiah at the End of Time Expands Constant Fire
     
  9. 9. The Dancers at the End of Time, 1981 includes 1,2,4
  10. 10. Elric at the End of Time, Sep 1981 in Elsewhen
  11. 11. The Murderer’s Song, Aug 1986 in Tales/Forbidden Planet

 Our time travellers, once they have visited the future, are only permitted (owing to the proerties of Time itself) at best brief returns to their present. 


   “(Now + n, Now - n)”
by Robert Silverberg
First publication: Nova 2, Oct 1972

Investor Aram Kevorkian has the unique advantage that he can communicate with himselves 48 hours yore and 48 hours hence, until he falls in love with Selene who dampens his psychic powers and his trading profits.

 “Go ahead, (now + n),” he tells me. ((To him I am (now + n). To myself I am (now). Everything is relative; n is exactly forty-eight hours these days.)) 


   “Stretch of Time”
by Ruth Berman
First publication: Analog, Oct 1972

Sylvia Fontis at Luna University has built a working time machine—she calls it the Dimensional Revolver—but she’s too scared to use it until Professor Kent comes up with an idea for an experiment.

 So what did you do, bring back the results of the Centauri Probe? Kill your grandmother? 




   The Brady Kids
directed by Hal Sutherland
First time travel: 16 Dec 1972

The kids, sans Alice and parents, starred in their own cartoon show with magical adventures including at least one time-travel incident where Marlon the wizard bird changes places with Merlin—all directed by Hal Sutherland, the soon-to-be director of the animated Star Trek.

 Boys: ♫Meet three sisters,
Girls: Now meet their brothers,
Marcia: Greg’s the leader and a good man for the job.
Jan: There’s another boy, by the name of Peter,
Cindy: The youngest one is Bob.
Boys: See our sisters: They’re all quite pretty.
Greg: First there’s Marcia, with her eyes a sparklin’ blue.
Peter: Then there’s Jan, the middle one, who’s really groovy,
Bobby: And sister Cindy, too.
Boys: Let’s get set now, for action and adventure, as we see things we never saw before.
Girls: We’ll meet Mop Top and Ping and Pong, the pandas, and Marlon who has voices by the score.
All: The Brady kids, the Brady kids, it’s the world of your friends the Brady kids!♫ 




   “The Greatest Television Show on Earth”
by J.G. Ballard
First publication: Ambit, Winter 1972/73

Wildly popular global tv stations are desperate for new material for their viewers, so the discovery of time travel in 2001 will be a fortuitous boon if it can live up to its hype.

 These safaris into the past cost approximately a million dollars a minute. After a few brief journeys to verify the Crucifixion, the signing of Magna Carta and Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, the government-financed Einstein Memorial Time Centre at Princeton was forced to suspend operations.
Plainly, only one other group could finance further explorations into the past—the world’s television corporations. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  Green Darkness by Anya Seton, Nov 1972 [reincarnation ]

 

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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)