The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1986



   Conrad Stargard’s Adventures
by Leo Frankowski
First book: Feb 1986

Conrad Stargard, 20th century Polish engineer, stumbles through a time portal that was accidentally left open by those meddlers in the Historical Corps, and finds himself in 13th century Poland, whereupon he does any Connecticut Yankee proud.

One night when we were playing duplicate bridge, Bryan Campbell told me that this was the favorite time-travel series of a friend of his, which goes to show that just because my rating of a story is low, doesn’t mean that you (or Bryan’s friend) won’t enjoy it.
  1. The Cross-Time Engineer (Feb 1986)
  2. The High-Tech Knight (Mar 1989)
  3. The Radiant Warrior (Jul 1989)
  4. The Flying Warlord (Oct 1989)
  5. Lord Conrad’s Lady (Sep 1990)
  6. Conrad’s Quest for Rubber (Dec 1998)
  7. Conrad’s Time Machine (Sep 2002)
  8. Lord Conrad’s Crusade (Aug 2005)

 “This country and this century are in horrible shape because of the lack of socialism!”
   “You are absolutely right, Sir Conrad! What is socialism?” 




  Dragonriders of Pern #8
Nerilka’s Story
by Anne McCaffrey
First publication: Mar 1986

The time of sickness, first told in Dragonlady of Pern, is recounted from the viewpoint of Nerilka, Lady Holder of Hold Ruatha.

 Desdra also tole me, since she knew me to be discreet and trustworthy, how the dragonriders had managed to make so many deliveries. This had contributed to their total exhaustion, a major factor in the tragedy: Dragons could go as easily between one time and another as one place to another. Moreta and Holth had overtaxed their strength this way. For only by stretching time in this bizarre fashion, or rather doubling back on themselves, could MOreta and Holth manage to deliver serum to all the holds on the Keroon plains. 




   “The Pure Product”
by John Kessel
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, Mar 1986

A cynical psychopath from the future takes a road trip (sometimes with random blood, sometimes with trite tripping) across 20th-century North America.

 “I said, have you got something going,” she repeated, still with the accent—the accent of my own time. 




   Highway of Eternity
by Clifford D. Simak
First publication: June 1986

Jay Corcoran and Tom Boone are trying to track down a missing client when the building they are in is demolished and the two of them jump into a time machine that takes them to one of the pockets of rebels from the far future who are resisting the decorporealization of man.

 Horace, the hardheaded, practical lout, the organizer, the schemer. Emma, the moaner, the keeper of our consciences. Timothy, the student. Enid, the thinker. And I, the loafer, the bad example, the one who makes the others feel virtuous. 




   Flight of the Navigator
by Mark H. Baker, Michael Burton and Matt MacManus (Randal Kleiser, director)
First release: 30 Jul 1986

Twelve-year-old David Freeman stumbles down a ravine and wakes up eight years later without having aged, but that’s not the time travelin’ in this movie, which occurs only after he becomes the pilot of a small space ship that’s been collecting specimens from around the galaxy.

Janet said that I had to mention I fell asleep during this one.

 This is totally rad. You’re like my big little brother. 


   “Landscape with Giant Bison”
by Avram Davidson
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Sep 1986

Never is it easy to discern what’s in the mind of the indiscernable Avram Davidson, but I suspect that he was on a train journey with a plethora of tourists—perhaps the California Zephyr, which enters the majestic Rockies at a point just outside of Eldorado State Park—and he thought to himself, “Just what would it take to pull my fellow travelers away from that there card game?”

 A wooly rhino appeared out of nowhere on the right side of the track, its red hide caked with mud and dust, and paced the car for two miles; then it slackened and turned away, was lost to sight. 




   Lazer Tag Academy
produced by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears
First episode: 13 Sep 1986

Young Jamie Jaren, the Lazer Tag champion of 3010, travels back to 1980 to protect her distant teenaged ancestors from the evil Draxon Drear who was unwittingly released into that earlier era.

 As Drear races through time in his quest to conquer the future, he is pursued by Jamie Jaren. Jamie must team with her ancestors Tom, Beth and Nicky Jaren. Join us now in their adventure through time to preserve the past, save the future, and keep the peace established by . . . the Lazer Tag Academy! 




   Peggy Sue Got Married
by Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner (Francis Coppola, director)
First release: 10 Oct 1986

Middle-aged Peggy Sue has two grown children and an adulterous husband whom she married at 18, so will she do things the same when she finds herself back in 1960 in her senior year of high school?

 Well, Mr Snelgrove, I happen to know that in the future I will not have the slightest use for algebra, and I speak from experience. 




   Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
by Gene Roddenberry, Leonard Nimoy, Have Bennett, et. al. (Nimoy, director)
First release: 26 Nov 1986

As the brave crew of the Enterprise are returning to Earth to stand trial for the events of the previous movie, Spock determines that Earth’s demise is imminent unless they can return to 1986 and retrieve a humpback whale (which they then proceed to do).

I saw this in the theater with Deb Baker and Jon Shultis during a winter trip to Pittsburgh for a small computer science education conference.

 McCoy: You realize that by giving him the formula you’re alterning the future.
Scotty: Why? How do we know he didn’t invent the thing? 




   Muppet Babies
created by Jim Henson
First time travel: 27 Dec 1986

As babies, all the muppets are occasionally looked after by Nannie. They first time traveled by taking Gonzo’s supersonic snowmobile trike back to rescue Nanny’s ruined yearbook in “Back to the Nursery.”
  1. Back to the Nursery (27 Dec 1986) trike to the past
  2. Romancing the Weirdo (11 Nov 1989) a time machine in Gonzo’s novel
  3. The Next Generation (15 Sep 1990) Rowlf visits his future grandson

 But how can we replace a picture taken a zillion years ago? 

—“Back to the Nursery”



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Tangents” by Greg Bear, Omni, Jan 1986 [4D spacial topology ]

  House by Ethan Wiley, 28 Feb 1986 [ghost story ]

  Dragonriders of Pern #8.1: “The Girl Who Heard Dragons” by Anne McCaffrey, May 1986 [no time travel ]

 

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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)