The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 2003



   “O. Henry’s Incredible Time-Travel Adventure”
by Lucas Gattuso
First publication: Gattuso’s English 127 Portfolio, circa 2003

Someone is killing those damnable authors who use only their initials, and only H.G. Wells and his time machine can save O. Henry and the rest.

 e.e. cummings at your service 




   The Time Traveler’s Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
First publication: 2003

Due to a genetic disorder, Henry DeTamble reacts to stress by jumping to important and unimportant moments of his life, including many visits to his once and future wife.

To me, the story owes a lot to one of F.M. Busby's stories (“If This Is Winnetka, You Must Be Judy”)—a debt that Niffenegger might be acknowledging in the quote below.

 Could I? Do I have kids, Henry? In 2006 do I have a husband and a house in Winnetka and 2.5 kids? 


   “Train of Events”
by James L. Cambias
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan 2003

Jeremy Calder has been told by time travelers that he will cause the release of a deadly virus. No one is allowed to stop him—for he hasn’t done anything yet—and he seems to accept his fate without believing that he can change future history.

 Since the history books all agreed that he was going to kill six hundred people on June 25, 2038, Jeremy Calder was careful to get up early that day. 


   “Legions in Time”
by Michael Swanwick
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Apr 2003

Ellie Voigt’s job is to sit and watch a door, until one day she gets angry enough at Mr. Tarblecko that she steps through the door into a time war.

 One man with a sunstroker can be overwhelmed by savages equipped with nothing more than neutron bombs—if there are enough of them, and they don’t mind dying! 


John Allemand’s
interior illustration		   “The Day the Track Stood Still”
by John C. Bodin and Ron Collins
First publication: Analog, May 2003

Did I spot a smidgen of time travel in this delightful story of a race where Babs the car is certainly in love with the driver and vice versa, all in the tense context of knowing that if the race is lost, then the car will be forfeited?

 I tried not to think about what was at stake. The pressure was bad enough without telling her this was for all the marbles: if we lost this Indy 500, she was gone. Sayonara muchacha. Hasta la bye-bye, and good night, Babs. That’s the way it is when you race the B’arada. They put up a piece of tech, you put up a piece of tech. Winner takes all, Indy 500 style. 


   “Get Me to the Job on Time”
by Ian Randal Strock
First publication: Analog, May 2003

A man tells the story of his coworker who had a rather mundane use for his discovery of time travel.

 Wally didn’t need to see the pyramids getting built, or sail with Columbus, or even watch JFK’s assassination. What Wally wanted to do, more than anything, was get to work on time. 




   The Low Budget Time Machine
aka Space Babes Meet Monsters
by Buddy Barnett, Kathe Duba-Barnett, Brad Linaweaver, et. al. (Duba-Barnett, director)
First release: May 2003

The main question in my mind as I watched this was how destitute did Patrick MacNee become at the end of his life to be found in this movie telling us about his theory of time travel. I never did figure out what all that had to do with the subsequent story of a professor who owes big money to the mob. The professor’s solution is to send three patsies into the future to bring something back that will end all his monetary troubles. As it turns out, the future has ethereal, never-been-kissed babes from outer space with excellent bowling balls (no, not a euphemism), at least one two-headed mutant, and a monster named Gary. Eventually, they all make it back to the present (except for Two-Head) where they form a rock band that Howard Stern would approve of.

 First I should explain in layman’s terms the way time travel works. If you create an instrument that generates five billion electomagnetic transit vibrations per second—faster than the speed of light—one can hypothetically travel through time and space. 


   “3rd Corinthians”
by Michael F. Flynn
First publication: Analog, Jun 2003

This is the second Michael F. Flynn time-travel story that I’ve read set in O Daugherty’s Irish pub. This time, amidst philosophical discussion, Father McGinnity tells of a third letter from Paul to the Corinthians that simply couldn’t be genuine.

 Oh, the Bible is true, only it may not always be factual. 




   Static Shock Cartoon
created by Dwayne McDuffie and Michael Davis
First time travel: 7 Jun 2003

Based on the DC comic book, fourteen-year-old superhero Virgil Hawkins, aka Static, has power over electromagnetism, but it’s his friend Nina, aka Time-Zone, who takes him and another hero through time in their first trek through time, trying to save Virgil’s mother.
  1. Flashback (7 Jun 2003) Nina’s first travel
  2. Future Shock (17 Jan 2004)    forty years forward

 She can rewind herself through time like a tape through a VCR! 




   T3: Rise of the Machines
by John Brancato, Michael Ferris and Tedi Sarafian (Jonathan Mostow, director)
First release: 02 Jul 2003

If they can’t get John Connor, then the machines from 2029 will send a T-X terminator for his lietenants in 2004, but they don’t count on John sending back another Model 101 to work with John and his future wife Kate.

 Get in! Do you wanna live?! Come on! 

—John Connor to Kate Brewster while fleeing the T-X




   Timeblazers
created by Wilson Coneybeare
First episode: 5 Jul 2003

When Shakira or Alex ask questions about life of yore, Sam and Jen take them back to see for themselves.

 And now they take me back in time to find out what life in the past was really like. 




   ぽぽたん
English title: Popotan (translated from Japanese)
by Jukki Hanada
First episode: 17 Jul 2003

Three young sisters—Ai, Mai and Mii—and their maid find themselves continually jumping from place to place and time to time.

 Why do we have to keep moving, over and over again? It’s so unfair! 


   “The Only-Known
Jump Across Time”
by Eugene Mirabelli
First publication: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sep 2003

In the 1920s, Lydia Chase and her father’s tailor fall in love and jump across time.

 The only known jump across time produced by an apparatus, a so-called time machine, took place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in May of 1928. 




   Code Lyoko
English title: Code Lyoko (translated from French)
created by Tania Palumbo and Thomas Romain
First episdoe: 3 Sep 2003

As you watch the first few episodes of this French nearly-anime cartoon (dubbed in English), there’s a challenge in working out exactly what’s what in the group of young friends at a boarding school where the resident genius (Jeremy Belpois) interacts with a girl (Aelita) who's trapped in a virtual world which is terrorized by the evil Xana. I suspect I may have missed a few episodes at the start (I started with “Teddygozila”), but it seems that at the end of each successful adventure in the virtual world, the supercomputer take the adventurers back in time to a point of their choosing. It’s kind of cool that things aren’ fully explained, so I hope I don’t later run into the origin episode!

 Ready for a trip into the past, Yumi? 




   Timecop: The Berlin Decision
aka Timecop 2
adapted by Gary Scott Thompson (Steve Boyum, director)
First release: 30 Sep 2003 (direct to video)

Time Enforcement Commission agent (and martial arts expert) Ryan Chang chases through time after rogue agent Brandon Miller who’s off killing ancestors of other agents so there’ll be nobody to stop him from what he sees as a moral obligation to right the wrongs of past timelines (but no obligation to fill the holes in the current plotline).

Despite my reservations, my friend Tandy, a martial arts afficionada, enjoyed the movie a lot (only partly because she’s in love with Jason Scott Lee), and it is true that even my favorite time-travel movies have some of the same plot holes as this one, all of which yeilds an extra star in my subjective rating!

 Drop the gun or your timeline is over. 




   Tru Calling
created by Jon Harmon Feldman
First episode: 30 Oct 2003

From time to time, a dead guy asks morgue worker Tru Davies for help, which causes her day to rewind and gives her a chance to save the dead person with the help of her shy boss Davis and her neer-do-well brother Harry.

Hannah gave me the dvd of the first season for Christmas, and it took a few episodes for the show to grow on me. I was hooked about halfway through the season, with the introduction of Jack Harper and the suggestions of an overarching plot.

 Have a little faith in your sister. 




   “It’s All True”
by John Kessel
First publication: Sci Fiction, 5 Nov 2003

In 2048, washed-up film maker Det Gruber is a time-traveling talent scout hired to recruit young, bitter Orson Welles from 1942.

 Welles clenched his fists. When he spoke it was in a lower tone. “Life is dark.” 




   Timeline
adapted by Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi (RIchard Donner, director)
First release: 26 Nov 2003

The book was interminably slow, and so was the movie—and I’m only talking about the battle scenes in 1357 France. The actual time-travel mechanism is cool, though.

 It means the camera was taking pictures in the wilderness near Castlegard, France, in the year 1357. 




   Kim Possible
by Bill Motz and Bob Roth (Steve Loter, director)
First time travel: 28 Nov 2003

Buffy has nothing on high school cheerleader Kim Possible, who fought time-traveling badies and their time monkey in a special one-hour episode (“A Sitch in Time”).

 “So, what’s the sitch?” 


   “The Chop Line”
by Stephen Baxter
First publication: Asimov’s Science Fiction, Dec 2003

In the future wars between man and Xeelee, Ensign Daxx meets the time-traveling future Captain Dakk who must try the younger Dakk for the future crime of disobeying orders in a combat situation.

 I don’t know many captains, but she immediately recognized me. 




  Dragonriders of Pern #16
Dragon’s Kin
by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey
First publication: Dec 2003

Oh, the sad life of the underappreciated watch-whers, the minor-league cousins of the mighty dragons of Pern. Still, they have their story, too, and like dragons, they can travel between places. The story also includes minor time travel, although the lowly watch-whers have to leave that to the big lizards in this tale.

 “Watch-whers don’t go between,” Nuella declared.
“Yes, they do, I saw Dask do it,” Kindan corrected. 



Romance Time Travel of 2003
Bodice rips are a more workaday mode of time travel than time ships.
  Highlander 1: Charming the Highlander by Janet Chapman

  Highlander 2: Loving the Highlander by Janet Chapman

  Highlander 3: Wedding the Highlander by Janet Chapman

  Time after Time 4: The Promise by Dee Davis

  Knight Errant 2: Lady Robyn by R. Garcia y Robertson




No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Emma” by Kyle Kirkland, Analog, Apr 2003 [simulacrum or similar ]

  Cube²: Hypercube by Sean Hood (Andrzej Sekula, director), 15 Apr 2003 [surreal ]

  Paycheck adapted by Dean Georgaris, 25 Dec 2003 [visions of possible futures ]

 

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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)