The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1988



   The Devil’s Arithmetic
by Jane Yolen
First publication: 1988

In fifth grade, Hannah read this intense novel of a young modern Jewish girl thrown back to the concentration camps of World War II Germany.

 Hannah was stunned. It was as if she’d suddenly been transported to a movie set. 






   One Life to Live
created by Agnes Nixon
First time travel: 1988

In a 1988 plot line (“Buchanan City”), Clint ends up back in 1888 where he falls in love and is betrothed to Viki’s look-alike ancestor Ginny!

Apart from Dark Shadows (which, as we all know, was more than a soap opera), this is the first time travel that I’ve spotted in a soap.

 Ginny: I was staring up at the night sky trying to find that extra planet that you claimed was there when I was giving the children their astronomy lesson today.
Clint: Why can’t you just take my word for it?
Ginny: Because brilliant scientists have studied the heavens and deduced that there are only a certain number of planets in our solar system—eight, just eight. And then you come along and throw the whole system out of question! 




   Lightning
by Dean Koontz
First publication: 1988

Right from her birth, Laura Shane has had a quick wit, a fateful loss of those close to her, and a time-traveling guardian angel who is himself chased by his evil compatriots.

 One of the things he had learned from the experiments in the institute was that reshaping fate was not always easy. Destiny struggled to reassert the pattern that was meant to be. Perhaps being molested and psychologically destroyed was such an immutable part of Laura’s fate that Stefan could not prevent it from happening sooner or later. 




   “The Turning Point”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: The Drabble Project, 1 Apr 1988

In exactly 100 words, Madison goes back in time to meet himself at the turning point of his young life.

Thanks to Marc Richardson for sending this one to me.

 He was a clerk. 


   “Fire, Fire”
by Allison Prince
First publication: A Haunting Refrain, May 1988

When young Emma falls behind her parents on a country outing, she finds herself at a Neolithic funeral pyre.

 Emma, we can’t keep waiting for you all the time. We"re nearly at the top—see you up there, all right? It’s not far. 


   “Many Mansions”
by Alexander Jablokov
First publication: May 1988

Working for an alien time cop, Mattias jumps through fixed wormholes in time, heading to medieval France, North America in the last ice age, ancient Egypt, 17th-century Persia, and probably a few other places that he and I are having trouble remembering. We both need a vacation.

 It took most of Isaac Newton’s Principia to snap him out of it. 




   Star Trek: The Next Generation
created by Gene Roddenberry
First time travel: 2 May 1988

I watched the premier with Harry and Cathy just four weeks before Hannah was born. In the seven seasons, there were 12 time-travel episodes.
  1. We’ll Always Have Paris (2 May 1988) repeated seconds
  2. Time Squared (3 Apr 1989) back six hours
  3. Yesterday’s Enterprise (19 Feb 1990) Enterprise C from 2344 to 2366
  4. Captain’s Holiday (2 Apr 1990) Vorgans from 27th century
  5. A Matter of Time (18 Nov 1991) historian from 26th century
  6. Cause and Effect (23 Mar 1992) time loop
  7. Time’s Arrow I/II (15 Jun / 21 Sep 1992) to 1890s San Francisco
  8. Tapestry (15 Feb 1993) Picard’s earlier life
  9. Firstborn (25 Apr 1994) Worf’s son from 40 years ahead
  10. All Good Things I/II (23 May 1994) jumping between three times

 Make it so. 




   Gumby Adventures
created by Art Clokey
First time travel: 25 Jun 1988

In the 1988 episode “Lost in Chinatown,” Gumby’s claymation sister Minga travels through a magic tapestry to ancient China, and Gumby must rescue her!

 Wow: a picture on silk! It looks real old. I wonder what life in China was like in those days. While waiting for Grandma, I’ll go and find out. 




  Dragonriders of Pern #8.1.A2
Dragonfire
aka A Crossroads Adventure in the World of Anne McCaffrey’s Pern: Dragonfire
by Jody Lynn Nye
First publication: Jul 1988

Nye wrote two choose-your-own-adventure books in the world of Pern. I didn’t spot any time travel in the first (Dragonharper), but one of the branches of this second book involves the heroine, Mirrim, and her green dragon, Path, timing it back in three possible ways.

 Path crooned deep in her throat . . . 


   “The Grandfather Problem”
by Andrew Weiner
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Aug 1988

Purely as a scientific experiment, physicist Harold Levett decides to go back in time to kill his grandfather.

 “It’s nothing personal,” I say. “It’s strictly a scientific question . . .” 


   Insurance Fraud
by Mark Heath
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Aug 1988

 Full coverage in event of death due to suicidal, time-traveling grandsons . . . 




   “Ripples in the Dirac Sea”
by Geoffrey A. Landis
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Oct 1988

A physics guy invents a time machine that can go only backward and must always return the traveler to the exact same present from which he left.

 

  1. Travel is possible only into the past.
  2. The object transported will return to exactly the time and place of departure.
  3. It is not possible to bring objects from the past to the present.
  4. Actions in the past cannot change the present.
 

   “On the Watchtower at Plataea”
by Garry Kilworth
First publication: Other Edens II, Nov 1988

Miriam and her fellow time travelers, John and Stan, set up camp in an abandoned watchtower to observe and record the siege of the walled city-state Plataea in the Peloponnesian War.

 It was a shock to find that the expedition could go no further back than 429 BC; though for some of us, it was not an unwelcome one. Miriam was perhaps the only one amongst us who was annoyed that we couldn't get to Pericles. He had died earlier, in the part of the year we couldn’t reach. So near—but we had hit a barrier, as solid as a rockface on the path of linear time, in the year that the Peloponnesian War was gaining momentum. 




   The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
by Geoff Chapple, Kely Lyons and Vincent Ward (Ward, director)
First release: 15 Dec 1988

To ward off the Black Death, young Griffin, local hero Connor, and others from their village plan to dig a whole through the Earth where they'll give an offering to the powers that be, but instead, they end up digging a tunnel to a marvelous twentieth-century city.

 Think how much power you’d need for all that! 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  Waxwork by Anthony Hickox, 17 Jun 1988 [secondary worlds ]

  “The Fort Moxie Branch” by Jack McDevitt, Full Spectrum, Sep 1988 [no definite time travel ]

  Dragonriders of Pern #9: Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey, Oct 1988 [no time travel ]

 

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)