Top 10 Time Travel Stories (Books, TV & Movies)

by Garry Murdock

Well, here it is.  My top 10 list of Time Travel Stories! It was tough to put together. It's hard to measure one against the other, not because of the different mediums (books, tv or movies), but because each of them are so very good individually. But weigh in. Tell me if there's one in here you feel strongly about, or one you felt should have been included on my list. 

10.  Somewhere in Time.  Movie (1980). Shot on a miniscule budget on Mackinac island in Michigan, I've always felt this Christopher Reeve/Jane Seymour movie was underrated.  A tragic love story, based on the excellent novel "Bid Time Return" by Richard Matheson. 

9.  The Final Countdown.  Movie (1980).  An aircraft carrier accidentally gets sent back in time and its stunned crew has the opportunity to prevent Pearl Harbor from ever happening.  Terrific star power with Kirk Douglas, Martin Sheen, Charles Durning.  As a kid, I must have seen this at the Drive-in 50 times.

7.  Time After Time.  Movie (1979).  What if HG Wells invented a time machine?  What if a colleague, who is also Jack the Ripper, stole it and escaped to present day San Francisco to continue his murder spree? That's the premise behind this adventure through time, starring Malcolm McDowell as Wells and David Warner as JTR.  Mary Steenburgen also stars.  ABC attempted a TV series in 2017 but it only made it one season.

6.  Time and Again.  Novel.  (1970).  Amazingly enough, I only read Jack Finney's masterpiece for the first time recently.  It's about a secret agency looking for 'special' people they think are capable of time travel, simply by using their mind in just the right conditions.  Very well done.  The sequel - "From Time to Time" was somewhat lacking but still worth reading.

5.  11/22/63.  Novel (2011).  I hadn't read Stephen King in years before this was published...and boy I'm glad I didn't miss this one.  It's about a reluctant time traveler journeying back to the grassy knoll to prevent one of the most famous assassinations in history. The mini-series adaptation with James Franco was not nearly as good, but I guess they never are, are they?

3. Star Trek The Original Series - The City on the Edge of Forever.  TV (Episode 28, 1967).  Arguably the best episode of any Star Trek series.  Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock find themselves in depression era New York, trying to set right an altered time line that has erased the existence of the United Federation of Planets.  When Kirk realizes that to do this, the love of his life must die (played by Joan Collins), he must fight the urge to save her or watch millions die.  Epic episode that played like a movie, with a tragic ending unusual for its time. Brilliant. 

2.  The Terminator. Movie (1984)  Need I say more?  This movie just never let up.  Michael Biehn was completely believable as an edgy and war-weary soldier sent back in time from an "impossible" future, to save Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor, who finds out her as yet to be born son is destined to one day save mankind. That is...if they live long enough to outwit the relentless hunting machine stalking them.  Superior to all the sequels that would follow, The Terminator still holds up today.  And look for great performances from Bill Paxton and Lance Henriksen - who would both appear together later in Terminator director James Cameron's Aliens and (Cameron's ex-wife) Kathryn Bigelow's vampire cult classic Near Dark.

I am looking forward to seeing what they do with the Linda Hamilton/Arnold Schwarzenegger Terminator "reboot", currently slated for a late 2019 release. 

1.  The Twilight Zone:  Profile in Silver.  TV (1986).  Originally this was not on my top ten list, and I can't for the life of me figure out why.  I was absolutely thrilled by this episode when I first saw it, and have since re-watched it a number of times.  A comment below reminded me of it, and I think it really deserves to be towards the top of this list.  So, now it's tied for #1! (thank you Kira, for the comment).  If you haven't seen it, it stars Lane Smith as Dr. Joseph Fitzgerald, a Harvard University professor living in 1963.  Only he's really a visitor from 2172, and is in fact a descendant of JFK.   Fitzgerald is here to watch events of the 1960s unfold, but on impulse, ends up preventing the assassination of the President on that fateful day in Dallas. Uh oh.  

There's a serious problem though. The time stream has been damaged beyond repair.  Things are happening now that did not happen before,that will result in the end of the world unless history is reset.  With a great script and excellent performances by both Lane as Fitzgerald and Andrew Robinson as JFK, this really is a great Twilight Zone episode.  There was some web chatter a few years ago about how "Profile in Silver" was going to be remade into a feature length movie, but disappointingly nothing since.   

Tied for first place with...

1.  Back to the Future. Movie (1985). Marty, Doc, George, Biff, Lorraine, Strickland!!!...was there ever any doubt?  I've often wondered what would happen if the Delorean had not stalled upon Marty's return to 1985, and if he had rushed into Twin Pines mall (er...Lone Pine Mall) and saved the Doc before the terrorists arrived.  Two Marty McFlys? In any event, well done. 

So are your favourites in here? Let me know!