The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 2006

   “Written in Plaster”
by Rajnar Vajra
First publication: Analog, Jan/Feb 2006

Thirteen-year-old Danny Levan is a bullied, half-Jewish boy in 1938 Surrey when he discovers strangely colored bits of plaster that can reform into what can only be described as his own protective time-traveling golem.

 A pack of chips was constantly pursuing and reuniting with the giant, but moonlight glinted off of one largish piece that seemed in danger of being left behind, lodged in a groove between cobblestones.
   “Wait,” Danny called out softly and although the creature was obviously too far off to hear, and lacked ears besides, it immediately paused long enough for the chip to free itself and join the others. 




   Life on Mars [UK]
created by Matthew Graham, Tony Jordan and Ashley Pharoah
First episode: 9 Jan 2006

While working on murder case that has drawn in his girlfriend, Manchester Police Detective Sam Tyler is hit by a car and thrown into 1973 where DCI Hunt, WPC Cartwright, and everyone else in the district believes him to be a detective on loan.

 I had an accident, and I woke up 33 years in the past. Now that either makes me a time traveler or a lunatic or . . . I’m lying in a hospital bed in 2006 and none of this is real. 




   The Plot to Save Socrates
by Paul Levinson
First book: Feb 2006

Young doctoral student Sierra chases back to ancient Alexandria after her professor who seems to be chasing after a time traveler who is trying to get Socrates to abandon Athenian death row for the future.

Although I haven’t seen a second novel, a sequel novella called “Unburning Alexandria” featured Sierra chasing around 410 A.D. Alexandria.

 If I, today, had finished constructing a device, in this room, which allowed you to travel even a day into the past, and you used it to travel into the past to kill or otherwise distract me from completing the device, how would you have been able to travel in the first place into the past, with no device then constructed? 




   Lost
created by Jeffrey Lieber, J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof
First time travel: 8 Feb 2006

Sadly, I never bonded with Lost, the six-season story of plane crash survivors on a supernatural island, but Tim assures me that I must list it with at least four stars.

 Sayid: Radio waves at this frequency bounce off the ionosphere. They can travel thousands of miles. It could be coming from anywhere.
Hurley: Or any time . . . 




   Fetching Cody
by David Ray and Carolyn Allain (Ray, director)
First release: 24 Feb 2006

Druggie Art finds his girlfriend in an overdose coma, so he gets in a time-traveling chair to go back and set things right—like The Butterfly Effect, but with no horror-flick tension.

 Okay, okay, take me back before Cody got sick, before she got all fucked up, when there were bullies and shit. 




   Snuffbox
created by matt berry and rich fulcher
First episode: 27 Feb 2006

Rich and Matt wend their way through 28 minutes of dark, f-bombed weirdness in six episodes, each of which includes a trip in time through a door marked 1888. My own preference in British comedy is for Basil Fawlty, but sadly, he never traveled through time.

 Not that one! It’s out of order. Use the other door. 




   Always Will
by Michael Sammaciccia (Sammaciccia, director)
First release: Mar 2006

Will, a high school senior, discovers how to use a stolen time capsule to go back in time and relive moments over and over until he gets it right.

 Seriously, it lets me, like, revisit a moment in the past. 


Kachelries’s early stories appeared in this 2007 collection.

   “Dropping a Pebble in a Dry Well”
by Kathy Kachelries
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 13 Apr 2006

Demetri Thornwick is pissed by the D- he received on a term paper that computes the MDZC for changes made even when DT>200 years.

 The arguments always center on the Maximum Disruption with Zero Consequences (MDZC). You know, what’s the most I can change without screwing up the primary timeline. 




   Throg
by Matt Power and Dana Lee (Power, director)
First release: 25 Apr 2006

Medieval boy Throg becomes immortal after Urshag the Destroyer chops off his arms and Hades gives him the power of regeneration, after which he lives a long time through badly written Monty Python imitations until the touching end. Granted that immortality is not time travel, but Hades does manage a moment of time travel for Throg along the way.

 Get that fire started yet, boy? 




   xkcd
by Randall Munroe
First time travel: Comic 103, 15 May 2006

Nerdy Randall Munroe’s quirky stick figures don’t shy away from the difficut time-travel tropes.

     
  1. Comic 102 (15 May 2006) Back to the Future
  2. Comic 239 (23 Mar 2007) Blagofaire from the Future
  3. Comic 567 (10 Apr 2009) Ben Franklin Urgent Mission
  4. Comic 630 (31 Aug 2009) Megan’s Time Travel
  5. Comic 652 (21 Oct 2009) Come with Me If You Want . . .
  6. Comic 656 (30 Oct 2009) Doc Brown on Oct 30
  7. Comic 657 (2 Nov 2009) Primer Time Chart
  8. Comic 716 (19 Mar 2010) Time Machine
  9. Comic 730 (21 Apr 2010) DeLorean flux capacitor
  10. Comic 887 (3 Sep 2014) Rowling’s Time Turners
  11. Comic 935 (8 Aug 2011) Babe Ruth & the Tardis
  12. Comic 1063 (1 Jun 2012) Kill Hitler
  13. Comic 1177 (22 Feb 2013) More Terminator
  14. Comic 1191 (27 Mar 2013) The Past Oil Reserves
  15. Comic 1203 (24 Apr 2013) Useless Time Machines
  16. Comic 1256 (26 Aug 2013) Why Are There Two Spocks?

 Why are you so obsessed with this Hitler guy? 




   “Suspension of Disbelief”
by B. York
First publication: 365 Tomorrows, 31 May 2006

According to young Aaron’s buddy Hamel, once people get time machines, there’s no telling which descendants are going to bite the dust.

 If, forty years ago, some madman had come and swiped our parents, neither of us would be around. So forty years ago, we could stop existing. 




   The Lake House
by David Auburn (Alejandro Agresti, director)
First release: 16 Jun 2006

Letters—eventually love letters—pass back and forth between Dr. Kate Foster and architect Alex Wyler who are two years apart in time.

Based on the Korean movie, Il Mare.

 It’s kind of a long distance relationship. 




   Click
by Mark O'Keefe and Steve Koren (Frank Coraci, director)
First release: 23 Jun 2006

Michael Newman falls asleep on a store mattress, and when he awakens, he is given a universal remote control that lets him fast forward through the boring parts of his life.

 It’s an advanced piece of equipment like TiVo. 


Broeck Steadman’s interior illustration   “Environmental Friendship Fossle”
by Ian Stewart
First publication: Analog, Jul/Aug 2006

A contract investigator who tracks down crimes against endangered species finds a mammoth tusk that’s only 30 years old according to radiocarbon dating.

 “Mammoth ivory,” the old man said, as if it was a proposition put up for debate. “I have hunt mammoth.” 


   “The Teller of Time”
by Carl Frederick
First publication: Analog, Jul/Aug 2006

You get one guess what happens when you juxtapose these circumstances:
  1. As a boy, Kip Wolverton’s best friend is crushed in a tragic accident in a bell tower.
  2. Then, because Kip is too shy to ever approach the bell-ringer of his dreams, the girl goes and marries his other best friend, so Kip goes off to America to drown his sorrows and become an expert physicist studying time.
  3. Finally, 25 years later, Kip returns to England to do time experiments in bell towers where he finds girl grown and unhappily married.

     “Research money is difficult to come by these days,” said Neville. “There is a lot of good science lanuishing because more meretricious projects get the funds.” 




   時をかける少女
English title: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (translated from Japanese)
adaptation by Satoko Okudera (Mamoru Hosoda, director)
First release: 15 Jul 2006

In this loose anime adaptation of Yasutaka Tsutsui’s story, young Makoto Konno is thrown into a train crossing on her bike and unintentionally travels back in time to avoid being hit; that leads her to experiment with her ability—yes, with teenaged concerns, but still with charm.

 And then, when you came to, you’d gone back a few minutes in time. 




   American Dragon
created by Jeff Goode
First time travel: 12 Aug 2006

Like all American teens, Asian-American Jake Long skateboards—oh, and he’s also the wise-cracking American Dragon, guardian of all magical creatures. In one episode (“Hero of the Hourglass”), Jake travels back to when his dad was a teen in order to get his mom to reveal the truth about magic and dragons.

 Or, I can change things for the better . . . ooh, there’s a whole side of my family that my dad doesn’t doesn't know about. I have the chance to change that, the chance to reverse the last twenty years and redo everything without the lies, the secrets, the being grounded every other week. 




   Scrat in No Time for Nuts
by Cris Renaud (Renaud and Mike Thurmeier, directors)
First release: 14 Sep 2006

Each time the machine of an unfortunate time traveler zaps Scrat’s Precious into an unknown time, the famed ice-age rat faithfully follows.

 Here stood . . . 

—[You’ll have to watch yourself to find out what stood here, ’cause I’m not spoiling.]


   “Doxies”
by Brandon Alspaugh
First publication: Apex, Fall 2006

Angela’s mother takes her to a support group—Children of the Post-Contemporary, aka the Doxies—where the children reluctantly talk about what it’s like to have various futuristic features and a father from the future.

 She was a walking paradox, her mother said. And she must never make waves, never draw attention, never accomplish something or participate or pop her head out, for even a second. If she changed the future, her father might not exist, and neither would she. 




   Heroes
created by Tim Kring
First episode: 25 Sep 2006

Hiro Nakamura reads comic books, wants to be a hero, and believes that his will power is enough to move him through time and space (and, yes, it is).

I enjoyed talking about this show with my friend John Kennedy before he died of cancer on 18 Mar 2009.

 Save the cheerleader, save the world. 




   The Butterfly Effect 2
by John Frankenheimer and Michael D. Weiss (John R. Leonetti, director)
First release: 10 Oct 2006

 There’s this entire other version of my life without you. I went through this whole year of my life believing you were dead. 


   “Prevenge”
by Mike Resnick and Kevin J. Anderson
First publication: Analog Science Fiction, Nov 2006

Kyle Bain, a member of the Knights Temporal, goes on a mission to prevent a murder in the past because that’s what the Knights do—regardless of whether the murder may be just or not.

 Thou shalt UN-kill, whenever possible. 




   Day Break
created by Paul Zbyszewski
First episode: 15 Nov 2006

Detective Brett Hopper keeps waking up at the same time on the same day, but each day he learns more about who's trying to frame him.

 Maybe. We’ll see how the day goes. 




   Happy Tree Friends
by Aubrey Ankrum, Rhode Montijo, Kenn Navarro and Warren Graff
First time travel: 20 Nov 2006

Cute forest animals mutilate and maim each other with at least one time machine in “Blast from the Past” where Sniffles vainly tries to save his friends from playground death and mayhem.

 Cartoon Violence: Not recommended for small children or big babies 




   Déjà Vu
by Bill Marsilii and Terry Rossio (Tony Scott, director)
First release: 24 Nov 2006

While investigating the burning death of a young woman who washed up on shore a few minutes before a bomb demolished a New Orleans ferry, ATF Agent Doug Carlin gets pulled into an FBI investigation that can view happenings four days and six hours into the past.

Oh, who’s kidding whom? We all know these scientists never stop at mere viewing. I would have given more stars to this action movie if I could have figured out how Doug could live in a world where after the girl washes up dead, she is there to bandage him and answer the phone.

 Danny: Whatever you did, you did it already. Whether you send this note or you don’t, it doesn’t matter. You cannot change the past. It’s physically impossible.
Agent Carlin: What if there’s more than physics? 




   Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Mario Puzo, et. al. (Richard Donner, director)
First release on dvd: 28 Nov 2006

Richard Donner, the original director of Superman II, was replaced partway through the production. Almost 30 years later, a dvd the movie was put together with mostly his footage and a time-travel ending that was pretty much identical to the end of Donner’s first Superman movie (and equally lame).

 Jeepers, I have seen some faraway looks in my time, but with that look, you might as well be on the North Pole or someplace. 




   Wonder Pets
created by Josh Selig
First time travel: “Save the Dinosaur”, 6 Dec 2006

When the kindergardeners leave for the day, three kindergarden pets—a hamster, a duck and a turtle, of course—save various different animals from perils, including one episode when the trio traveled into a classroom poster to save a trapped triceratops.

 Look! There’s there are dinosaurs in that poster! Let’s go there! 




   Christmas Do-Over
by Trevor Reed Cristow and Jacqueline David (Catherine Cyran, director)
First release: 16 Dec 2006 (made-for-tv)

Kevin, a grump of a divorced father, reluctantly visits his ex-wife’s house on Christmas Day causing his son to wish it were Christmas every day. As in other repeat-Christmas stories (or repeat-a-certain-February-holiday), Kevin wakes up again and again on Christmas Day until he gets it right. And of course, only he knows the day is repeating.

 Dad, it’s so fun having you here. Go ahead and stay: I wish it was Christmas every day. 




   American Dad!
created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman
First time travel: 17 Dec 2006

Typical patriotic American family fare with Dad, Mom, two kids, an alien, a man trapped in a goldfish body, and the occassional romp through time.
  1. Best Christmas Story Never Told (17 Dec 2006)    to the 70s to kill Jane Fonda
  2. May the Best Stan Win (14 Feb 2010) Cyborg Stan from the future
  3. Fart-Break Hotel (16 Jan 2011) Steve travels to find a beauty
  4. The Kidney Stays in the Picture (1 Apr 2012) back to discover Hayley’s dad

 Getting Scorsese off drugs means he never did all the cocaine that fueled him to make Taxi Driver, which means he never cast Jodie Foster, which means John Hinkley never obsessed over her, and he never tried to impress her by shooting President Reagan, which means Reagan was never empowered by surviving an assassination attempt—he must have lost to Mondale in ’84. Bingo! Forty-seven days into his presidency, Mondale handed complete control of the U.S. over to the Soviet Union. 

—from “The Best Christmas Story Never Told”



And Still More Time Travel of 2006
The story pilots haven’t yet taken these adventures out for a test drive.
  “A Lighthouse Through Time” by Kathy Kachelries, 365 Tomorrows, 31 Mar 2006
—a renter disappears

  “Fate of Our Futures” by Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh, 365 Tomorrows, 3 Aug 2006
—3m year-old human skull found

  “Paranoia” by Michael “Freeman” Herbaugh, 365 Tomorrows, 12 Sep 2006
—time-travel researcher being watched

  “Time and Again” by Steven Perez, 365 Tomorrows, 23 Sep 2006
—team hunts time travelers

  “Say Again?” by Steve Smith, 365 Tomorrows, 12 Oct 2006
—Stan argues that he can time travel

  “One of a Kind” by Megan Hoffman (as by Pyai), 365 Tomorrows, 22 Oct 2006
—little brother time travels

  “Once in a Lifetime” by Matt Brubeck, 365 Tomorrows, 25 Nov 2006
—time-traveling rich kids

  “Einstein’s Last Words” by J.S. Kachelries, 365 Tomorrows, 19 Dec 2006
—traveler visits Einstein’s death




Romance Time Travel of 2006
Bodice rips are a more workaday mode of time travel than time ships.
  Creole 2: Sweeter Savage Love by Sandra Hill

  Creole 3: Desperado by Sandra Hill

  Viking II 6: Rough and Ready by Sandra Hill

  Blackthorn 2: Always Mine by Sophia Johnson

  Highlander 8: Into the Dreaming by Karen Marie Moning




No Time Travel. Move along.
  Dragonriders of Pern #18: Dragon’s Fire by Anne McCaffrey and Todd McCaffrey, Aug 2006 [no time travel ]

  Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson, Sep 2006 [time dilation ]

  The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky (Aronofsky, director), 22 Nov 2006 [surreal ]

  Night at the Museum by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, 22 Dec 2006 [despite appearances, no time travel ]

 

46 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)