The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1999

   David Brin’s Out of Time Series
created by David Brin
First book: 1999

The 24th century needs heroes—teenaged heroes from our time.
  1. Yanked! (1999) Nancy Kress
  2. Tiger in the Sky (1999) Sheila Finch
  3. The Game of Worlds (1999)    Roger MacBride Allen

 But now you need to prepare yourself for a great shock. You’re not in New York, and you’re not in 1999. This is the future. 

—Yanked!




   Timeline
by Michael Crichton
First publication: 1999

Three bland archaeology graduate students, one of whom envisions himself as a knight, are sent back to 14th-century France to rescue their professor. The novel mentions a multiverse model of time-travel, but gives no explication (nor does it enter the plotline); the most interesting characters and developments appear for a few pages and are never again heard of (at least not in this universe).

 I don’t mean time travel at all. Time travel is impossible. Everyone knows that. 




   Stargate SG-1
created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner
First time travel: 5 Mar 1999

Premise: Ancient visitors to Earth have left a gateway to the stars and to other Egyptian-like civilizations. I watched the movie and the first two seasons on Amazon, but never fully got pulled in to the gate, not even when they traveled back in time to 1969 and made a cool reference to “Tomorrow Is Yesterday.”
  1. 1969 (5 Mar 1999) back to 1969
  2. Window of Opportunity (4 Aug 2000) time Loop
  3. 2010 (3 Jan 2001) from alternate 2010 to 2001
  4. 2001 (31 Aug 2001) continuation of “2010” plot
  5. It’s Good To Be King (4 Jan 2005) discover a time machine
  6. Moebius, Part 1 (15 Feb 2005) back to origin of the gate
  7. Moebius, Part 2 (22 Feb 2005) continuation

 Thornbird: I’m Major Robert Thornbird. And you are?
O’Neill: Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise. 




   The Devil’s Arithmetic
adapted by Robert J. Avrech (Donna Deitch, director)
First aired: 28 Mar 1999 (made-for-tv)

Hannah Stern, reluctant to listen to her elders’ talk of their Jewish heritage, finds herself thrown back to the time World War II Germany in this made-for-tv movie.

 You should know my parents are still alive, and I want to go back to New Rochelle. 


   “Remembrance of Things to Come”
by Lawrence Watt-Evans
First publication: Analog, Apr 1999

As a first experiment in a new technology, the memories of English Professor Richard Williams are sent back in time into the mind of writer Dorrie Ledbetter right before her untimely death to see if those memories can cause her to leave a clue about the meaning of an ambiguous story.

 We think we have a way to record the quantum state of a present-day brain onto a brain somewhere in the past in such a way that the patterns in the receiving brain will duplicate those in the source brain, and that as a result the receiving brain will acquire the memories of the source brain. 




   Family Guy
created by Seth MacFarlane
First time travel: 25 Apr 1999

Nikolaus Correll turned me on to time travel in Family Guy.
  1. Mind over Murder (25 Apr 99) Stewie tries to avoid teething
  2. Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005 dvd)    Stewie meets adult self
  3. Meet the Quagmires (20 May 07) Peter goes back to age 18
  4. Road to Germany (19 Oct 08) back to Nazi Germany
  5. The Big Bang Theory (8 May 11) Bertram tries to kill da Vinci
  6. Back to the Pilot (31 Nov 2011) back to Family Guy’s 1st episode
  7. Viewer Mail #2; Internal Affairs (20 May 2012)    to save Kurt Cobain
  8. Yug Ylimaf (11 Nov 2012) Stewie might not be born!
  9. Valentine’s Day (10 Feb 2013) Stewie gets a date in the 60s
  10. Christmas Guy (15 Dec 2013) saving Brian
  11. Excellent Adventure (4 Jan 2015) history homework help

 It’s called a temporal causality loop. The universe created me, so that I could create it, so it could create me, and so on. 

—Stewie in “The Big Bang Theory”




   A Very Strange Trip
by L. Ron Hubbard and Dave Wolverton
First publication: May 1999

As an alternative to doing a stretch in jail, West Virgina moonshiner Everett Dumphee joins the army and ends up driving a time machine from New Jersey to Colorado—er, well, not just driving it.

As one of the winners of the Writers of the Future contest, Dave Wolverton was asked to write this novel based on a full-length comedy screenplay that Hubbard wrote before his death. The result is a definite departure from Battlefield Earth.

 We’ve got some pinhead mathematicians in Denver who can explain it to you better than I could. 


   The Smedley Faversham Stories
by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre
First story: Analog Science Fiction, Jun 1999

If a particular conclusion is a good one, what makes you think that only one person will think of it? That’s why Smedley Faversham, in his first time-travel escapade, ran into more than one other time traveler. In all, the punster has had five adventures, each sillier than the last.
  1. Title Publication
  2. Time Lines (Jun 1999) Analog
  3. A Real Bang-Up Job (Jul 2000) Analog
  4. “Put Back That Universe!” (Oct 2000) Analog
  5. Schrödinger’s Cat-Sitter (Jul/Aug 2001) Analog
  6. A Deadly Medley of Smedley (Apr 2003)    Analog
  7. Annual Annular Annals (Jan/Feb 2004) Analog

 When Smedley Faversham traveled back in time to Munich in 1919, the first thing he saw was a large sign reading “THIS WAY TO KILL HITLER.” 




   Austin Powers in The Spy Who Shagged Me
by Mike Myers and Michael McCullers (Jay Roach, director)
First released: 11 Jul 1999

After Dr. Evil escapes from his cryogenic orbit around Earth, he invents a time machine to return to 1969 and attack Austin Powers while he sleeps.

 Using this <airquotes>time machine</airquotes>, I shall go back to the 1960s and steal Austin Powers’ mojo. 


   “Tempora Mutantur”
by H.G. Stratmann
First publication: Analog, Jul/Aug 1999

While dining at his favorite quiet rib joint, a private man is interrupted by billionaire businessman Rem Caesar who is being chased by time travelers.

 If someone built a time machine, they’d be famous for all time. A magnet for every time traveling historian, media-type, tourist—or just “fans” with no lives of their own, coming back to bask in their idol’s luminous prescence. 




   Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
by J.K. Rowling
First publication: 08 Jul 1999

In the third Harry Potter book, (among other things) Harry’s friend Hermione uses a time-turner amulet to travel short distances in time so she can attend more classes, and the device also proves useful when Harry and friends must rescue Sirius and Buckbeak.

 Mysterious thing, time. Powerful . . . and when meddled with, dangerous. 

—Professor Dumbledore


   “Rappaccini’s Other Daughter”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: The Compleat Boucher, 1 Aug 1999

You know of Nathanial Hawthorne’s tale of “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” but do you know of the second, equally beautiful, daughter who had a significant effect on all time travelers?

 And that is why our time machines are not permitted to travel back farther than the middle of the twentieth century. 


   “. . . And Three to Go”
by Ken Cowley
First publication: Miscellany Macabre, Sep 1999

A recently retired historical researcher visits a 900-year-old inn and cannot stop himself from researching its past.

 The area was too gloomy for close examination, but surely there should be rope marks. 




   Walker, Texas Ranger
created by Albert S. Ruddy, et. al.
First time travel: 16 Oct 1999

Somebody has to say it: Chuck Norris doesn’t travel to the 19th century after a 1999 encounter with a Shaman (“Way of the Warrior”); the 19th century travels to Chuck Norris.

 The shaman sent for me. He brought me here to help you. 




  Time Traders #6
Echos in Time
by Andre Norton and Sherwood Smith
First publication: Nov 1999

In a new spirit of detente, Murdock and his new wife Eveleen Riordan join with the Russians to track down a group of missing scientists on a planet in the past.

 Moments later the ground seemed to shake slightly: an illusion, Ross knew, a response of the mind to the distorted probability waves sweeping out from the apparatus as it catapulted the two agents into the distant past. 






   The Justin Counting Stories
by Harry Turtledove
First story: Asimov’s and Analog, Dec 1999

At twenty-one, Justin Kloster has it made: one more year of college and then happily ever after with his sweetheart Megan. Then his forty-year-old self shows up to prevent Justin from making terrible mistakes that will lead to an eventual nasty divorce with Megan.

Turtledove tells the story twice: Once from the POV of Justin-21 (“Twenty-One, Counting Up”) and once from the POV of Justin-40 (“Forty, Counting Down”). I loved this technique when Orson Scott Card used in Ender’s Shadow, but for me, it fell flat with Justin, perhaps because the stories didn’t add much to each other.

 I was stupid. I didn’t know enough. I didn’t know how to take care of her. 




   Blackadder: Back and Forth
by Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson (Paul Weiland, director)
First release: 6 Dec 1999

Rowan Atkinson’s historically funny Blackadder character comes to the big screen for a final 30-minute episode. Each of the earlier tv series followed one of Lord Edmund Blackadders many ancestors in a famous time period, but now the modern-day Blackadder announces to his dinner party that he’s just built a time machine based on DaVinci’s specification, after which he wagers each of guests £10,000 that he can use the machine to retrieve any named object from history. Of course, Blackadder himself thinks it’s all going to be nothing more than the best New Year’s Eve prank ever, but the dinosaurs, Queen Elizabeth I, Will Shakespeare, Robin Hood, Maid Marion, Napoleon, Wellington, Hadrian, and others have different ideas.

Now, if only we could get Mr. Bean in a time machine.

 Elizabeth: How on Earth can one look at the past? You can’t see something that’s already happened.
The Bishop: Unless you’re on the lavatory.
The Viscount: Uh! Good point, Bish!
Blackadder: Yes, or . . . or unless one’s got a time machine. 




   Galaxy Quest
by David Howard and Robert Gordon (Dean Parisot, director)
First release: 25 Dec 1999

Some tv shows (we won’t mention any names) live on for their fans decades after cancellation. The result might be that aliens think the heroes of these shows are real, in which case the aforementioned heroes could be kidnapped to rescue the aforementioned aliens (and to figure out whether the Omega 13 will destroy the universe in 13 seconds or reverse time for that aforementioned amount of seconds).

Tim and I watched this at Lake Cushman during a trip to the northwest in 2003, and I was as surprised as anyone about how much we laughed at Tim Allen’s parady.

 Larado: Your orders, sir? [pause] Sir, your orders?
Commander Taggart: Activate the Omega 13. [To be continued . . .] 




   1999 Time Travel Romance

A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis

 The heat intensified, and the room seemed to tilt beneath her feet. She gripped the table, praying she wouldn’t pass out up here, alone in a deserted house with nothing but insects and critters for company. 

—A Time to Dream by Sherry Lewis



Romance Time Travel of 1999
Bodice rips are a more workaday mode of time travel than time ships.
  The Con and the Crusader by Margaret Benson

  MacKendimen 2: A Matter of Time by Terry Brisbin

  Conyn's Bride by Ingrid Caris

  Time Travel 3: Sunrise on the Mediterranean by Suzanne Frank

  Viking II 2: Truly, Madly Viking by Sandra Hill

  Viking II 3: The Very Virile Viking by Sandra Hill

  And the Groom Wore Tulle by Lynn Kurland

  Highlander 1: Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning

  Highlander 2: To Tame a Highland Warrior by Karen Marie Moning

  A Bride Most Common by Angela Ray

  The Confused Stork (aka Timeswept Baby) by Eugenia Riley




No Time Travel. Move along.
  Restless Spirits by Fail Collins and Semi Chellas (David Wellington, director), 1 Aug 1999 [flying dutchman ]
  aka Dead Aviators

  Now and Then, Here and Now by Hideyuki Kurata, 14 Oct 1999 [no definite time travel ]

 

32 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)