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Timeline Specifics

Vintage Season

by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
More and more strange people are appearing each day in and around Oliver Wilson’s home; the explanation from the euphoric redhead leads him to believe they are time travelers gathering for an important event.
— Michael Main
Looking backward later, Oliver thought that in that moment, for the first time clearly, he began to suspect the truth. But he had no time to ponder it, for after the brief instant of enmity the three people from—elsewhere—began to speak all at once, as if in a belated attempt to cover something they did not want noticed.
“Vintage Season” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, Astounding, September 1946.

Time Patrol 1

Time Patrol

by Poul Anderson
In the first of a long series of hallowed stories, former military engineer (and noncomformist) Manse Everard is recruited by the Time Patrol to prevent time travelers from making major changes to history. (Don’t worry, history bounces back from the small stuff.)
— Michael Main
If you went back to, I would guess, 1946, and worked to prevent your parents’ marriage in 1947, you would still have existed in that year; you would not go out of existence just because you had influenced events. The same would apply even if you had only been in 1946 one microsecond before shooting the man who would otherwise have become your father.
“Time Patrol” by Poul Anderson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1955.

The End of Eternity

by Isaac Asimov
Andrew Harlan, Technician in the everwhen of Eternity, falls in love and starts a chain of events that could lead to the end of everything.
— Michael Main
He had boarded the kettle in the 575th Century, the base of operations assigned to him two years earlier. At the time the 575th had been the farthest upwhen he had ever traveled. Now he was moving upwhen to the 2456th Century.
The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov (Doubleday, August 1955).

Time Patrol 2

Brave to Be a King

by Poul Anderson
Patrolman Keith Denison uses some sketchy tactics (sketchy to the Patrol, that is) to track down his partner Keith Denison, who’s disappeared in the time of the Persian King Cyrus the Great,
— Michael Main
In the case of a missing man, you were not required to search for him just because a record somewhere said you had done so. But how else would you stand a chance of finding him? You might possibly go back and thereby change events so that you did find him after all—in which case the report you filed would “always” have recorded your success, and you alone would know the “former” truth.
“Brave to Be a King” by Poul Anderson, Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1959.

The Twilight Zone (r1s02e13)

Back There

by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon
An engineer in the 1960s slips back to the night of Lincoln’s assassination.
— Michael Main
I’ve got a devil of a lot more than a premonition. Lincole will be assassinated unless somebody tries to prevent it!
The Twilight Zone (v1s02e13), “Back There” by Rod Serling, directed by David Orrick McDearmon (CBS-TV, 13 January 1961).

Cloche vaine

English release: Empty ring Literal: Vain bell

by Francine Pelletier
At the end of her long successful writing career, a woman is still haunted by her sister’s death four decades earlier.
— Michael Main
We had talked about SF literature, books on the theme of going back in time. This was related to the activities of the day. During the convention, one of the guest scientists had stated that time travel was impossible.
[ex=bare]“Cloche vaine” | Vain bell[/ex] by Francine Pelletier, in Solaris 109, Spring 1994.

On the Bus

by William Grewe-Mullins
A man on a bus gives advice to his younger self.
— Michael Main
You’re going to need a lot of dog food.
“On the Bus” by William Grewe-Mullins, in Black is the New Black, 28 June 2010.

Somewhere Between

by Stephen Tolkin et al., directed by Duane Clark et al.
After San Francisco suffers a week of terror at the hands of a serial killer ending with the death of Laura Price’s eight-year-old daughter Serena, Laura falls into a dark depression and attempts suicide. Next thing she knows, she’s waking up before that week, whereupon she teams up with ex-police detective Nico Jackson (who also got thrown back in time), hoping to change the week, catch the killer, save Nico’s brother’s life, and save Serena—all in a mere nine additional episodes.
— Michael Main
I’m not going to let anybody hurt you this time. I swear to you on my life.
Somewhere Between by Stephen Tolkin et al., directed by Duane Clark et al., 10 pts. (ABC-TV, USA, 24 July – 19 September 2017).

Invictus

by Ryan Graudin
After Farway Gaius McCarthy fails his final examination at the Central Time Travelers Academy, he puts together a rogue time travel crew to swipe valuable artifacts from the past at moments when they won’t be missed. And it’s all roses until a mysterious girl sidetracks them on the Titanic and steers them into a multiverse of fading timelines.

As you might guess, we enjoyed Far and his friends, but the thing that sealed an Eloi Bronze Medal was the fact that when a particular timeline actually managed to branch (not an easy feat) and the traveler then jumped to the future, she found her another self—the her that was born on that timeline—waiting for her. Most branching timeline stories ignore this issue entirely.

— Michael Main
“There’s nothing to return to.” Eliot’s knuckles bulged at the seams, but she didn’t yell. “When the Fade destroys a moment, it’s lost. Forever.”
Invictus by Ryan Graudin (Little, Brown, September 2017).

Il Ă©tait une seconde fois

English release: Twice Upon a Time Literal: It was a second time

by Nathalie Leuthreau and Guillaume Nicloux, directed by Giillaume Nicloux
At first, Vincent’s only plan for the mysterious 600mm wooden cube that provides a tunnel to the past is to make sure that Louise doesn’t break up with him four months in the past, but new circumstances soon raise the stakes. Then it gets weird in this four-part miniseries.
— Michael Main
En fait, je suis passé dans un cube, et ça . . .
I actually went through this cube, and it . . .
English
[ex=bare]Il Ă©tait une seconde fois | It was a second time[/ex] by Nathalie Leuthreau and Guillaume Nicloux, directed by Giillaume Nicloux, at the Berlin International Film Festival, 12 February 2019.

The Future of Another Timeline

by Annalee Newitz
Tess is a geologist (because, of course, geologists control the time travel of the giant ancient machines) and a member of the Daughters of Harriet (Senator Harriet Tubman, that is, from 19th-century Mississippi). On the surface, the Daughters are time travel scholars, but in reality, Tess and her fellow Daughters are fighting a pitched changewar for women’s rights against the oppressors known as the Comstockers. One more thing: While she’s at it,Tess also hopes to also save the souls of her teenaged self and her underground feminist punk friends in the 1990s, with a particular focus on their vigilante killing spree and young Beth’s abortion.
— Michael Main
All five Machines had limitations, but the hardest to surmount was what travelers call the Long Four Years. Wormholes only opened for people who remained within twenty kilometers of a Machine for at least 1,680 days.
The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz (Tor, September 2019).

Throwback 1

Throwback

by Peter Lerangis
When 13-year-old Corey Fletcher first finds himself transported back in time, he doesn’t realize how it happened or that he is one of the rare travelers who can actually change the timeline, rescue his Papou, and maybe even save his grandma from 9/11.
— Michael Main
So . . . some people inherit diabetess, some inherit curly hair, and I inherited time travel?
Throwback by Peter Lerangis (HarperCollins, October 2019) [print · e-book].

Goodbye, Howard Henning

by John E. Stith
Did you ever wonder what happens when a time traveler makes a mistake? Don’t miss Stith’s “Story behind the Story” at the end of the web page.
— Michael Main
This isn’t Germany. And this can’t be 1924.
“Goodbye, Howard Henning” by John E. Stith, in Nature Futures, 15 July 2020.

Annie and the Wolves

by Andromeda Romano-Lax
Historical research Ruth McClintock and local high school student Reece have a journal written by Annie Oakley, from which they conclude that Annie was a time traveler to traumatic moments in her own life—a power that Ruth seems to share.
— Michael Main
Reece, it isn’t just clarvoyance or neurosis, either.
She’d tell him in person, the thing they should have come out and admitted from the start.
It’s time travel.
“Annie and the Wolves” by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Soho, February 2021).

The Other Emily

by Dean R. Koontz
A decade after David Thorne’s wife goes missing on a solo trip to northern California, her exact duplicate shows up—without having aged a day and claiming not to be Emily—at a bar in one of David’s favorite restaurants.
— Michael Main
Equally in the grip of dread and amazement, David Thorne began to awaken to a previously unthought-of truth, the ramifications of which were devastating and numberless.
The Other Emily by Dean R. Koontz (Thomas and Mercer, March 2021).

What If . . . ? [s1e04]

What If . . . Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?

by A. C. Bradley, directed by Bryan Andrews
As we all know, when the world’s formost surgeon, Doctor Strange, lost the use of his hands in a car wreck, it prompted him to search out mystic treatments and eventually become the Master of the Mystic Arts. But what if he had lost something else in that wreck?
— Michael Main
The Ancient One: Her death is an Absolute Point in time.
Dr. Strange: Absolute?
A.O.: Unchangable. Unmovable. Without her death, you would never have defeated Dormamu and become the Sorcerer Supreme—and the guardian of the Eye of Agamotto. If you erase her death, you never start your journey.
“What If . . . Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands?” by A. C. Bradley, directed by Bryan Andrews, What If . . . ? [s01e04] (Disney+, worldwide, 1 September 2021).

This Time Tomorrow

by Emma Straub
After turning forty in a snit because of her career decisions, her unexciting boyfriend, and her dying father, Alice Stern wakes up on her 16th birthday in her teen body.
— Michael Main
“I know it’s your birthday,” Leonard said. “You’ve made me watch Sixteen Candles enough times to ensure that I wouldn’t let this one slide.”
This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub (Riverhead Books, May 2022.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s02e03)

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by David Reed, directed by Chris Fisher
A mysterious, bloody man appears and warns La’an of an attack in the past, after which she races to the bridge, only to find herself in an alternate timeline with a young James T. Kirk at the helm. A trip to the past seeems in order.
— Michael Main
There’s going to be an attack. It’s going to change the timeline. We have to stop it.
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” by David Reed, directed by Chris Fisher (Paramount+, USA, 29 June 2023).
as of 10:13 p.m. MDT, 16 May 2024
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