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Time travel in fiction

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Time travel is a common theme in fiction (and particularly science fiction), depicted in a variety of media.

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Literature

H. G. Wells' The Time Machine is considered the literary masterpiece of the genre. Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is another early time travel classic. Probably the most elaborate demonstrations of supposed time travel paradoxes are in Robert A. Heinlein's “—All_You_Zombies—” and "By His Bootstraps." Another notable story is Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut. One very well known time travel fiction writer is Jack Finney. His novels include Time and Again, From Time to Time, The Third Level, and others. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling features a time travel paradox as does the film version (see below). Michael Crichton's Timeline, in which characters travel to 14th century France, describes time travel in great detail, explaining the science of exactly how the time machine works. The book was made into a movie in 2004, with much of the science explanation missing. Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity includes the company of Eternity which uses time machines to transfer goods between centuries and make minor adjustments to improve the past.

Film and television

The idea of time travel in motion pictures and television is a theme that has run throughout entertainment history. Key examples of such recent films are:

Babylon 5

The five-year story arc of the TV series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) contained a long-term time-travel story, surrounding the disappearance of the titular station's immediate predecessor, Babylon 4. The effects of this time-travel story are important cornerstones of the series, but cannot be fully understood for a number of seasons. While the disappearance of Babylon 4 is mentioned in the pilot episode Babylon 5: The Gathering and the station reappears later in the first season (Babylon Squared), it is not until near the end of year three (War Without End) that the plot is resolved.

Star Trek episodes

  • All our Yesterdays, time travel
  • Assignment Earth, time travel
  • Mirror Mirror, parallel universe
  • Tomorrow is Yesterday, time travel via black star
  • The Alternative Factor, parallel univeses
  • The City on the Edge of Forever, time gate

Star Trek Animation

  • The Counter-Clock Incident, reverse time flow
  • Time Trap, alternate universe
  • Yesteryear, time gate

Games

Video and computer games

  • The computer game series The Journeyman Project places the player in the shoes of Gage Blackwood, Agent 5 of the Temporal Security Agency (TSA), a secret organization in charge of guarding the timestream from being altered. Players would have to bounce back and forth in time to solve puzzles and find clues, visiting real historical places (Leonardo da Vinci's workshop) or places of legend (Atlantis). Players were also encouraged to not be seen either by avoiding contact with citizens of that time period or appearing as another inhabitant or invisible altogether. In the first game, Blackwood was rewarded with extra points and abilities if the player could solve the problems non-violently.
  • Timequest by Legend Entertainment shares a nearly identical premise, with the player chasing a person through time periods in order to prevent him from altering the past.
  • In the computer game Fallout 2, there is a special encounter involving a gate-like stone structure which is in fact a time portal. Stepping through it will transport the player back in time, to a period before the start of the first Fallout game, where they will find a computer with a water chip. Breaking the chip will ensure that the events of the first game will occur, as it involves the player of the first game seeking a replacement for the broken chip. This also ensures the Fallout 2 player's own existence as a descendant of the first game's player—a causal loop known as a predestination paradox. The encounter is called "The Guardian of Forever", a reference to the Star Trek episode, The City on the Edge of Forever.
  • In Shadow of Memories for PlayStation 2, the main character has to travel back in time to prevent his own death and to find out both the assailant's identity and reasons for the murder-to-happen.
  • In the fantasy/role-playing game Chrono Trigger, a group of heroes travel back and forth through time in an attempt to prevent the end of the world. The sequel to this game, known as Chrono Cross also involves dimensional travel.
  • Similarly, Tales of Phantasia features time travel both to the past and the future, using ancient technology.
  • The Legacy of Kain game series states that "History Abhors a Paradox". In the Kain series, the timeline, referred to as the "Timestream", is immutable. Changes made by individuals have no effect on the general flow of time, but major changes can be made by introducing a paradox. When a paradox is introduced, the Timestream is forced to reshuffle itself to accommodate the change in history. Furthermore, no one in the Kain series has free will save for the messianic figure known as the Scion of Balance.
  • The game Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? and two derivative televison series (Where in Time is Carmen Sandiego? and Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?) feature time travel extensively.
  • The games Freedom Force and its sequel, Freedom Force vs. the Third Reich, both feature a villainous character named Time Master who has absolute power over time. The timestream of the Freedom Force universe is dependent on a construction called the Celestial Clock, which Time Master attempts to destroy in the first game—the consequences of which would be, with some potential scientific accuracy, the end of all intelligent life in the universe.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the main character Link can travel back and forth through time via the Master Sword and the Temple of Time, but this ages him from child to adult and vice versa as he does so.
  • The Sony Playstation game Crash Bandicoot 3: The Wrath Of Cortex involves the use of time portals to travel to various points in time (both past and future) to scavenge "crystals".
  • An educational video game titled Mario's Time Machine involves Bowser stealing precious artifacts from history (such as Shakespeare's pen and Magellan's ship's steering wheel) and displaying them in his museum, which Mario must then go back in time to stop. The obvious flaw in Bowser's scheme, however, is that if he removes those artifacts and alters history (for example so Shakespeare cannot write his plays without his favorite pen) then the artifacts become worthless.
  • Dino Eggs produced in the early 1980s for the Commodore 64 computer system involved a character called 'Time Master Tim' whom the player had to guide around prehistoric landscapes in order to rescue dinosaurs and transport them through time to the present.
  • A game titled Time Machine on the Commodore 64 has no relationship to the book. Instead, it places a professor lost in the depths of time as terrorists ransack his laboratory, blowing up his time machine. Then, the professor must help out the fledgling mankind to evolve and grow civilized.
  • In Empire Earth's Russian Campaign, Sergei Molotov/Molly Ryan must build a time machine to come back to 2018 year and destroy Grigor Illyanich Stoyanovich's Empire, Novaya Russia.

Board games

Various kinds of family and simulation games exist, where people play face-to-face or around a table, or within earshot of each other, or passing written notes around, and the topic of the game occasionally includes time travel.

  • Alternate Realities, designed by Kelly Coyle
  • Assassin, designed by Al Macintyre, with several variants such as:
    • Maze
    • Paradox
    • Philosophies
    • Zombie
  • Dr Who, FASA boxed game, designed by Michael P Bledsoe
  • Time and Again, packaged by Time Line Ltd, designed by Voss & Worzel
  • Time Master, Pace setter boxed game, designed by Marc Acres, with several variants such as:
    • Red Ace High
    • Time Tricks
  • Time Marines, designed by Dan Reece
  • Time Travel Kriegspiel Chess variant, designed by Macintyre and Reece
  • Time War, Yaquinto boxed game, designed by J Stephen Peek

Play by Mail

Before the advent of computer-moderated multi-player games, there were human-moderated games and the moves were sent via regular mail. Some of those games were about time travel, such as:

  • Out time days, designed by Freitas
  • Time Trap, designed by Richard Loomis
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