The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1980



   Barney Miller
created by Danny Arnold and Theodore J. Flicker
First time travel: “The Child Stealers,” 24 Jan 1980

In the sixth season, one episode of the show had a man named Mr. Boyer who claimed to be a time traveler from the future. The show never settled whether he was an actual time traveler or merely a candidate for Bellevue Hospital’s psych ward, but consider this: Just how else did he get on top of the Washington Arch> And wasn’t he dead on about the price of gold which crashed from an all-time high of over $2000 per troy ounce on the day of the show’s airing to about $350 over the next two decades. So even if Mr. Boyer was not a time traveler, he saved Sgt. Harris a bundle of money. The precint also got Boyer`'s thoughts on the price of Zinc, the future of gay rights, and the Denver Broncos.

 I had no intentionof jumping, you know. The only reason I was up there is my coordinates were off. 






Three collections of the puzzles were published in the 1980s.		   Martin Gardner’s SF Puzzles
by Martin Gardner
First time travel puzzle: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Feb 1980

Growing up, I read every Martin Gardner science book that I could lay my hands on. Janet even claims that I ignored her on our honeymoon in order to read Gardner’s Relativity for the Million (which is absolutely not true—it was The Ambidextrous Universe). Gardner was a colleague and friend of Asimov’s, which led to a series of sf puzzle stories beginning in the first issue of IASFM and continuing through November of 1986. There was a mention of tachyons in the Mar/Apr 1978 puzzle (“The Third Dr. Moreau”), and the May 1979 puzzle (“How Bagson Bagged a Board Game”) had a device to view the past, but the first actual time travel didn’t occur until February of 1980, quickly followed by another in July 1980 (which coincidentally was the month of the disputed honeymoon).
  1. Professor Cracker’s Antitelephone (Feb 1980) reverse-time phone
  2. The Backward Banana (Jul 1980) fruit travels in time
  3. The Queer Story of Gardner’s Magazine (Aug 1980) magazine from 2556
  4. Parallel Pasts (26 Oct 1981) to the past in a parallel world

 Somewhere in the text is a block of letters which taken forward spell the last name of a top science fiction author who has written about time travel. 

—“The Backward Banana”




Sadly, Galactica 1980 had neither Laurette Spang . . .

nor Jane Seymour

   Galatica 1980
created by Glen A. Larson
First time travel: 10 Feb 1980

I eagarly awaited the reboot of Battlestar Galactica in 1980, shortly before I left to join my soon-to-be wife in England. Sadly, the reboot was a disappointment: poor plots, poor characters, the same few seconds of special effects and explosions endlessly repeated—and not even Cassiopeia (Laurette Spang, whom I was in love with in 1978) or Serina (Jane Seymour, whom I am in love with now).

However, I later discovered one redeeming feature: Time travel in Part Three of the 1980 Galactica pilot show, when the warriers follow an evil scientist back to 1944 and foil his plot to give modern technology to the Nazis. I think this was the only hint of time travel in the Galactica franchise, although the same future wife whom I went to meet in 1980 now tells me that this bit of time travel may have planted a seed in writer Donald P. Bellisario for his later series, Quantum Leap.

 The great ship Galactica, majestic and loving, strong and protecting, our home for these many years we endured the wilderness of space. And now we near the end of our journey. Scouts and electronic surveillance confirm that we have reached our haven, that planet which is home to our ancestor brothers. Too many of our sons and daughters did not survive to share the fulfillment of our dream. We can only take comfort and find strength in that they did not die in vain. We have at last found Earth. 




   Thrice Upon a Time
by James P. Hogan
First publication: Mar 1980

In answer to his least favorite question, James Hogan explained (in the Jan 2006 Analog) that the idea for this novel came from an all night conversation with Charles Sheffield about the classic time-travel paradox of what happens if you send something back in time and the arrival of that thing is the very cause of you not sending said thing back in time. Much of the novel is a similar conversation between physicist Murdoch Ross, his friend Lee, and Murdoch’s Nobel Prize winning grandfather Charles who has invented a way to send messages through time.

 Suppose your grandfather’s right. What happens to free will? If you can send information backward through time, you can tell me what I did even before I get around to doing it. So suppose I choose not to? 


   “A Touch of Petulance”
by Ray Bradbury
First publication: Dark Forces, Aug 1980

On his way home on the train, Jonathan Hughes meets Jonathan Hughes + 20 years and receives a warning that his marriage to a lovely young bride will end in murder.

 Me, thought the young man. Why, that old man is . . . me. 




   The Final Countdown
by Thomas Hunter, Peter Powell, David Ambrose, et. al. (Peter Vincent Douglas, director)
First release: 1 Aug 1980

Observer Warren Lasky is aboard the U.S.S. Nimitz when a storm takes her back to World War II, and then they are returned to the present before they can do anything vaguely cool.

 Today is December 7, 1941. I’m sure we are all aware of the significance of this date in this place in history. We are going to fight a battle that was lost before most of you were born. This time, with God’s help, it’s going to be different. . . . Good Luck. 






   The Muppet Show
created by Jim Henson
First time travel: 5 Aug 1980

The most excellent Muppet Show, its successor Muppets Tonight, the short Muppet Movie Mania episodes, and the online From the Balcony couldn't totally ignore time travel.
  1. Chris Langham (5 Aug 1980) working on a time travel aparatus
  2. Michelle Pfeiffer, (8 Mar 1996) Dr. Honeydew bippie time manipulation
  3. The Kerminator (1999) The title says it all.
  4. From the Balcony #27, (Jun 2006) Superman reverses time

 Aparatus travel time a it’s. Moment the at on working I’m what is this. Hello! 

—Guest host Chris Langham


   “Appointment on the Barge”
by Jack Ritchie
First publication: Microcosmic Tales, Sep 1980

After Professor Bertoldt delivers a speech about his theories on how to send a person back to an earlier incarnation, he gets two visitors wanting to go back in time because they claim to be Cleopatra and Anthony.

 I have hesitated to use a human until I can be positive that no psychic harm will result to my subject. However, I do believe that last week I did succeed in sending a chimpanzee back several generations. How far back, I can't be certain. We had a bit of difficulty in communication. 


German edition of Microcosmic Tales   “Murder in the Nth Degree”
by R.A. Montana
First publication: Microcosmic Tales, Sep 1980

An insurance agent from Cleveland is selected as the representative of Earth in a galactic trial for multiple crimes against life, but it’s not until the verdict that you’ll see the time travel angle.

 Representative? I’m an insurance agent from Cleveland, Ohio! I got a wife and three kids and about the worst thing I’ve ever done was voting Republican in the last election. How can I be a representative? 


1992 paperback edition   “Package Deal”
by Donald Franson
First publication: Microcosmic Tales, Sep 1980

Vernon Lewis has a theoretical idea for a time machine, but no money to build it, so he hatches a plan to send himself various money-making artifacts from the future and use the money to build the machine that will send the items back—and one day, in the afternoon mail, the package arrives.

 He ripped the tape off, unwrapped the brown paper. There it was—an almanac. 




   Cosmos: A Personal Journey
hosted by Carl Sagan
First publication: 28 Sep 1980

Carl Sagan’s original 13-part PBS series introduced us to the Ship of the Imagination. Although it was used only in the first episode, each of the other episodes also took us on a journey through space and time.

 We’re going to explore the Cosmos in a ship of the imagination, unfetered by ordinary limits on speed and size, drawn by the music of cosmic harmonies: It can take us anywhere in space and time. 




   The Number of the Beast
by Robert A. Heinlein
First publication: Oct 1980

Semi-mad scientist Jake Burroughs, his beautiful daughter Deety, her strong love interest Zeb Carter, and Hilda Corners (“Aunt Hilda” if you prefer) use Gay Deceiver to visit many time periods in many universes (including that of Lazurus Long), soon realizing the true nature of the world as multiperson pantheistic solipsism.

 Sharpie, you have just invented multiperson pantheistic solipsism. I didn’t think that was mathematically possible. 


   “Prairie Sun”
by Edward Bryant
First publication: Omni, Oct 1980

On the Oregon trail west of Laramie in 1850, 13-year-old Micah Taverner asks two scavenger men from the future to cure his sister Annie from the smallpox.

Janet and I heard this read by James Whiteman in 2004 at a series of dramatic readings called Colorado Homegrown Tales. The other stories at the February session were “Hungry” by Steve Rasnic Tem, “The Dream of Houses” by Wil McCarthy, and my own “Childrey Green” read by Debbie Knapp.

 The road was lined with all manner of belongings thrown away by the exhausted, overburdened men and women barely halfway along their arduous journey. 




   Somewhere in Time
by Richard Matheson (Jeannot Szwarc, director)
First release: 3 Oct 1980

A woman presses a pocketwatch into a man’s hand, beseeching him to come find her in time, so he does.

Wayne Winsett, owner of Time Warp Comics, tells me that this is his favorite time travel movie. I can’t argue with his predilection for Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

 Come back to me. 




   “Eight Ball Blues”
by Jack C. Haldeman II
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Dec 1980

A time traveler from the 21st century comes to a Florida bar to talk with pool shark Tucker “Skeeter” Moore about his choices in marriage and about saving the world.

 Now wait a minute! I married—er, I’m going to marry—Betty-Ann? 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Travels” by Carter Scholz, Asimov’s, Apr 1980 [no definite time travel ]

  “Trans Dimensional Imports” by Sharon N. Farber, Asimov’s, Aug 1980 [alternate timelines ]

 

17 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)