The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1982

   Bound in Time
by D.F. Jones
First publication: 1982

Mark Elver, a terminally ill doctor, agress to be the first time traveler with a destination some four centuries in the future. His first contact upon arrival is with a pair of children, but the world has more beyond them.

 The birthplace of time-travel, a collection of huts huddled together well away from the main campus, did not look impressive. A cheap sign nailed to the paint-hungry door stated ‘Dept., of Physics—Project Four’, below that a thumb-tacked notice, the lettering faded added a little more information: ‘Go away. If you must, ring bell.’ 


   “Fish Night”
by Joe Lansdale
First publication: Specter!, 1982

Rather more frequently than I’d like, it’s hard to tell whether a story involves time travel or not. This could just be a ghost fish story, but there are some indications that the old toothless door-to-door salesman might be traveling back to the time of the early fish.

 Millions and millions of years ago this desert was sea bottom. Maybe even the birthplace of man. Who knows? 




   “The Winds of Change”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: Speculations: 17 Stories . . ., 1982

Jonas Dinsmore is not half the physicist as his colleagues, the politically astute Adams and the brilliant Muller, but in their presence, he claims to have figured out how to interpret Muller’s Grand Unified Theory to allow time travel.

 Time-travel, in the sense of going backward to change reality, is not only technologically impossible now, but it is theoretically impossible altogether. 




  Humboldt Series #2
The Humboldt Effect
by Delia Huddy
First publication: Jan 1982

Years ago, in Time Piper, Luke discovered that Tom Humboldt, the boss of his summer research project, had a time machine. Now Luke is on a submarine version of the machine. One crew member has disappeared overboard, and the time machine has grabbed a noted Biblical man.

  




   Miss Switch to the Rescue
created by Barbara Brooks Wallace
First aired: 16 Jan 1982

After the Miss Switch children’s book and cartoon, there was a longer ABC Weekend Special (“Miss Switch to the Rescue”) where a pirate who’s been stuck in a bottle for centuries takes one of Miss Switch’s students (Amelia) back to his time, and the teacher-cum-witch and another student (Rupert) go back to rescue her.

 Kinda mysterious, ain’t it, Amelia. 


   “Clap Hands and Sing”
by Orson Scott Card
First publication: The Best of Omni Science Fiction 3, Feb 1982

Ancient Charlie sees a momentary vision of young Rachel, barely into her teens, and the moment with her that was never to be.

I’ve read other Card stories where he portrays the dark side of a character in realistic and frightening form that I could deal with, but for me, the seeming comfort that the character gets at the end is more disturbing than anything else Card has written.

 He almost stops himself. Few things are left in his private catalog of sin, but surely this is one. He looks into himself and tries to find the will to resist his own desire solely because its fulfillment will hurt another person. He is out of practice—so far out of practice that he keeps losing track of the reason for resisting. 


The story was reprinted in this 1982 collection.

   “The Thousand Cuts”
by Ian Watson
First publication: The Best of Omni Science Fiction 3, Feb 1982

Alison, Don, and Hugh have philosophical discussions on what it means when the entire world skips two or three days at a time and then picks up at some random moment in the future. In the blackout period, amazing progress is made in arms control and hostage negotiations. Time travel? Maybe not, but certainly a fun read with some echos of Sturgeon’s “Yesterday Was Monday.”

 God has decided to cut reality and re-edit it. 






   The Oxford Time-Traveling Historians
by Connie Willis
First story: Asimov’s Science Fiction, 15 Feb 1982

In the first short story of the series, an Oxford graduate student travels back to the World War II bombing of St. Paul’s for his history practicum. This launched a series of novels, the first of which has Kivrin Engle being sent to 14th century England, but when she arrives, she can’t remember where and when her pickup will be. The second book incorporated more comedy, and the last two returned to World War II.
  1. “Fire Watch” (15 Feb 1982) Asimov’s
  2. The Doomsday Book (1992) Kivrin Engle to 1320 Oxford
  3. To Say Nothing of the Dog (1998)    Ned Henry to 1888 Oxford
  4. Blackout (2010) Michael, Polly and Merope to WW II England
  5. All Clear (2010) continuation of Blackout

 “But I’m not ready,” I’d said. “Look, it too me four years to get ready to travel with St Paul. St Paul. Not St Paul’s. You can’t expect me to get ready for London in the Blitz in two days.” 


   “Park Your Car on Baychester Road Tonight”
by Bill Bickel
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, 15 Mar 2015

In the process of parking his car on a Wednesday night—always a difficult proposition—a man is approached by a time traveler who offers him two gold bars if he’s park in a No Parking zone.

 My friend Selka and I have devised a game in which we carefully alter the stream of time, to cause some subtle change in our own time period. This particular round, for example, concerns itself with the location of our city’s capitol building. 


   “Amy, at the Bottom of the Stairs”
by John M. Ford
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apr 1982

Warnke, a time traveler who has visited the moment of a past death more than once, comes to the house of Lady Amy Dudley née Robsart) on the eve that she is fated to fall down the stairs in an accident that her husband, Robert Dudley (an accused but reprieved conspirator in the taking of the English throne by Jane Grey) will be suspected of arranging so that he would be free to marry Elizabeth I.

 I’m not a seer. I’m a . . . traveler. From one time to another. Do you understand? I know when you’ll die, and where, and how, because it’s all written down in a history book. 


   The Aquila Trilogy
by S.P. Somtow (aka Somtow P. Sucharitkul)
First time travel: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apr 1982

In an alternate second century where Romans rule a swathe of North America as far as the Dakotas, Titus Papinianus meets the Lakota chief Aquila who first teaches him a new way to fight the hoards from Asia and then leads him on adventures (including the time-traveling Central Dimension Patrol Authority) from modern-day Mexico to China.
  1. 1. “Aquila the God’ (Jan 1982) Asimov’s
  2. 1. “Aquila’ (Jan 1982) Asimov’s
  3. 2. “Aquila the God’ (Apr 1982) Asimov’s
  4. 3. “Aquila Meets Bigfoot’ (Jan 1983) Amazing
  5. 4. “Aquila: The Final Conflict’ (May 1983) Amazing
  6. 5. The Aquilad (Dec 1983) combines 1-4
  7. 6. Aquila and the Iron Horse (May 1988) Volume II
  8. 7. Aquila and the Sphinx (Dec 1988) Volume III

 I understood very little of what he was saying, but he went on to say that he was from the far future and that they had come in search of certain criminals who had to be brought to trial, who were guilty of attempting to tamper with the past . . . . 




   No Enemy But Time
by Michael Bishop
First publication: Apr 1982

After a falling out with his parents over their commercialization of his Pleistocene dreams, John Monegal changes his name to Joshua and finds a way to actually travel to the Pleistocene where he lives with the Homo zarakalensis, fathers a daughter, and eventually brings her back to the twentieth century and beyond.

 Until the moment of my departure, you see, my life had been a slide show of dreams divided one from another by many small darknesses of wakeful dread and anticipation. 


   “Valhalla”
by Gregory Benford
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Apr 1982

A nameless traveler from the future appears in Hitler’s bunker moments before the Führer’s suicide. Hitler interprets the man as a Valkyrie, come to escort him to a higher place, but the man (who is made up to look exactly like Hitler) has plans that don’t exactly include a Nordic heaven in Hitler’s future.

 Immortality, Führer! That is what I offer. I have come to you from the future! 




   The Flying House
directed by Masakazu Higuchi and Mineo Fuji
First episode: 5 Apr 1982

While playing in the woods, Justin Casey and his pals Angie and Corkey stumble upon a house owned by Professor Humphrey Bumble and his robot Solar Ion, whereupon the professor reveals that the house is a time machine and the entire gang visits various Biblical happenings from the New Testament.

 ♫ We were having fun, playing hide-and-seek, then a summer storm appeared. Corkey got afraid, when it started to rain, then we came upon a house—should we go insiiiiide? ♫  


   “All the Time in the World”
by Daniel Keyes Moran
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, May 1982

Seven centuries after the Big Crunch atomic war, one of the clan of Huntresses learns to travel back in time after talking with aliens and perhaps sensing the man who would be negative entropy.

 Here we have a time traveller, and her name is Jalian. Yes, Jalian d’Arsennette, except that there have been some changes. 


   “Azimuth 1,2,3...”
by Damon Knight
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jun 1982

Shortly after genius Azimuth Backfiler (yes, that’s his real name) finds a way to travel back in time, Azimuth 2 appears and hands him next week’s newspaper causing some sort of feedback that create Azimuth 3, Azimuth 4, . . .

 Therefore, he was not surprised to see himself emerge from the chamber, wearing this very suit, a moment after he had formed the decision. 


The story also appeared in this 1989 collection of time-travel fiction taken from Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.   “The Comedian”
by Tim Sullivan (as by Timothy Robert Sullivan)
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Jun 1982

A projected vision from the future takes on the forms of various 20th century comedians from Charley Chaplin to Don Rickles, and he’s also making wildlife manager Chris Reilly kidnap children.

 The comedian looked just like a living, breathing, three-dimensional human being, the reincarnation of Lenny Bruce, come to see the unhappy world end. 




   Voyagers!
created by James D. Parriott
First episode: 3 Oct 1982

Bright, young orphan Jeffrey and ladies’ man Phineas Bogg leap from one moment in history to another, righting those moments that have gone wrong in this Quantam Leap progenitor.

 This isn’t 1942. Where’s Columbus, kid? 


   “Good Golly, Miss Molly”
by Steven Bryan Bieler
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Nov 1982

When Dr. Demented Physicist Particle Breakdown bets his entire life savings on a horse race and the campus’s best handicapper picks Miss Molly instead, the good Dr. Breakdown has no choice but to further handicap Miss Molly.

 Locating his car, Dr. Breakdown extracted from the trunk a Phillips-head screwdriver, a toothbrush, his spare tire, five felt pens, and a plumber’s helper. With these materials he constructed a duplicate of the time machine in the university physics lab. 




   The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang
narrated by Wolfman Jack
First publication: 8 Nov 1982

Before Marty McFly went to the 50s, this 50s gang traveled through time using a time machine brought to them by a future chick name o’ Cupcake, all in 24 episodes where they desperately try to get back to 1957 Milwaukee.

 Oh, now the gang got zapped into that time machine, and they’re, like, travelin’ through time. My, my, they do not dig where that machine is goin’, but they sure hope to get back to 1957 Milwaukee! 


   “Coming Back”
by Damien Broderick
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec 1982

Physics-lab flunkie Eddie Rostow knows that the glory that his professor is claiming over localized time-reversal should rightly be Eddie’s own; and then, there’s Jennifer who let him have his way with her one night and now ignores him. So what, forsooth, will he do when the time contraption throws him into a 34-minute time loop?

 I’m not trapped. I thought I was a prisoner, but I’m the first man in history to be genuinely liberated. Set free from consequence. Do it. If you don’t like the results, scrub it on the next cycle and try again. 




   Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann
by Michael Nesmith (William Dear, director)
First release: 11 Dec 1982

Now that I know that one of the Monkees wrote this time-travel yarn (motorcycle racer goes back to the old west), the universe begins to make sense.

 You shot it. What a bunch of dumb sons of bitches. You shot it—a machine, you butt-heads! 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  Port Eternity by C.J. Cherryh, 1982 [parallel universe ]
  aka Involutions

  Voyage from Yesteryear by James P. Hogan, Apr 1982 [despite title, no time travel ]

  “Lazarus Rising” by Gregory Benford, Asimov’s, Jul 1982 [long sleep ]

  “The Boy Who Waterskied to Forever” by James Tiptree, Jr., F&SF, Oct 1982 [no definite time travel ]

  “Dr. Time” by Sharon N. Farber, et. al., Asimov’s, Oct 1982 [despite title, no time travel ]

 

27 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)