Now and Then We Time Travel

More than 400 films and 150 television series have featured time travel—stories of rewriting history, lovers separated by centuries, journeys to the past or the (often dystopian) future. This book examines some of the roles time travel plays on screen in science fiction and fantasy. Plot synopses and credits are listed for films and TV series from England, Canada, the UK and Japan, as well as for TV and films from elsewhere in the world. Tropes and plot elements are highlighted. The author discusses philosophical questions about time travel, such as the logic of timelines, causality (what’s to keep time-travelers from jumping back and correcting every mistake?) and morality (if you correct a mistake, are you still guilty of it?).

A former Florida reporter, Fraser A. Sherman has contributed articles to such publications as Newsweek, Boys Life and Movie Marketplace and is the author of four previous film books and more than two dozen published speculative-fiction short stories. He lives in Durham, North Carolina.

Fraser A. Sherman

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 280
Bibliographic Info: 22 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-0-7864-9679-2
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2643-7
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
One. A Century of Screen Connecticut Yankees 7
Two. Time of the Time Machine 13
Three. Enjoying the Exotic: Travel from the Present to Other Times 20
Four. Bouncing Around Time, Getting Lost and Doing the Time Warp 47
Five. Strange Visitors from Another World: Travel to the Present from Other Times 64
Six. Changing History: When Time Is Up for Grabs 84
Seven. Shaping the Future by Changing the Past That Is Our Present 99
Eight. If I Knew Then What I Know Now: Changing Personal History 125
Nine. Love in a Time of Time Travel 164
Ten. Time Cops: Policing the Time Stream (or) Putting Right What Once Went Wrong 181
Eleven. Déjà Vu All Over Again: Time Loop Films 192
Appendices 201
Appendix I: Film Credits 202
Appendix II: Television and ­Direct-to-Video Series Credits 225
Appendix III: Television Specials 230
Appendix IV: Films and Television Series with Minor Time Travel Elements 231
Appendix V: The Rest of the World 235
Appendix VI: Interesting Short Films 240
Appendix VII: Movies About Parallel Lives 241
Appendix VIII: Time Travel Porn Films 242
Chapter Notes 243
Bibliography 244
Index 245

“provides countless examples of films and series centered on time travel…excellent”—ARBA.