The computer display read 23 hours, 3 minutes and 22 seconds on Thursday March 30 of the year 30. We had “traveled back” a total of 17,019,289 hours. 

 What can I do to save us from ourselves? How to save my friends, my city, my state, my country, the entire world from this obsession with doom? Well, it was in my library late one night that my hand, searching along shelves, touched at last on an old and beloved book by H.G. Wells. His time device called, ghostlike, down the years. I heard! I understood. I truly listened. Then I blueprinted. I built. I traveled . . . 

 “What the? . . .” He tipped up the envelope. Ashes spilled onto the floor. 

 What’;s happening? I’ll tell you what’s happening. Those “films” you see flying off surfaces and hitting your eyes—that’s how our friend here thought visions worked. And now we’re seeing it happen, as though it’s true. 

 I’ve created the ultimate scientific masterpiece. I’ve done the impossible. I’ve invented a time machine! 

 A decade of peace and quiet and short hair was winding down; a time when people knew their place and stayed in it. For ten years nobody had wanted anything but a new car and a bigger TV set. Now all that was about to change. In a little over a year the Cuban missile crisis would send thousands of people into their back yards to dig bomb shelters, and “advisors” would start pouring into Southeast Asia. In another year the president would be dead. 

 Navy owes me 40 years back pay. 

 There must be as many different ways in which the world could have got into the state it is now as there are different ways in which it can develop into the future. 

 Well, you see, most kites fly in the three dimensions that we’re familiar with in our world, but some kites flyu in four or even five dimensions and go a little bit outward and a little bit inward into time. 

 Come with me if you want to live. 

—Kyle to Sarah at the Tech-Noir Club

 The past is changeable but self-correcting. Easy to change small things; harder to change big ones. 

 All innocence, she turned to the middle, opened the gatefold, held it out sideways, then vertically. I dropped the beer when she shouted, “Grandma!” 

1. A Time Traveler Interrupts Book Beat (1 Dec 1984): Time traveler Ed Begley, Jr., bursts in on an SNL skit because of a pressing need to see a particular young lady. “I’ve been looking for a young lady, Julie Louis-Dreyfus. Have you seen her?”
2. Time Machine Trivia Game (21 Dec 1985): Teri Garr and Randy Quaid play Trivial Pursuit with Nora Dunn and Jon Lovitz while the family teenager, Anthony Michael Hall, changes the answers with his time machine science project. “Ted Kennedy, Chappaquiddick, eight hundered secreetaries, really sorry.”
3. Presidential Debate (8 Nov 1988): Tom Hanks hosts Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey in the 1988 presidential election debate. “I’m glad you asked me that, Sam, because tonight I can reveal something that’s just been declassified. The key to SDI, to the whole concept, is a Time Machine.”
4. The Tooncinator (16 Nov 1991): Linda Hamilton herself tries to escape the robot cat Tooncinator while Terminator Phil Hartman tries to save SNL. “Not you again! I crushed you, then I melted you! What do I have to do, Cuisinart you?”
5. Dave Is Always Five Subjects Ago (11 Jan 1992): While dining with Beth Cahill and Mike Myers, Rob Morrow can never seem to think of a quick comeback or relevant remark until the moment has passed. “They probably show ’em The French Connection.”
6. Deep Thoughts: Time Travel Etiquette (16 Jan 1993): “It’s probably best to avoid eye contact.”
7. The Falconer: Time Travel (20 May 2006): Before he was Frank Underwood, Kevin Spacey traveler through time to meet his earlier self and try to save Donald. The saving plan went awry, but we got to see many more Falconers (though only one Donald and only one Abraham Lincoln). “To the time machine!”
8. George Washington Returns (12 Feb 2011): Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader may accept Russell Brand as our first president, but will they have the final word? “You will each have sixty seconds to make your case to him. At that point, President Washington will give his expert opinion: We will accept it.”
9. Statler and Waldorf (19 Nov 2011): While Jason Segel sings with the Muppets, Statler and Waldorf comment from the peanut gallery. “I hope Florence brought a time machine so we can go back to before we heard that song!”
10. Best Friends (10 Dec 2011): An odd assortment of best friends, including Abraham Lincoln and Marilyn Monroe, celebrate the holiday season. ♫Let’s turn it on and meet Abraham Lincoln.♫

 Bobby, are you altering human destiny after your father told you not to? 

 “Oh, my God! Tet Offensive!” McGregor stared from one of them to the other. “You’re not telling me that one’s based on fact?”