Questions tagged [time-travel]

For use on questions regarding travel forwards or backwards (or both!) in time. This tag should be used in conjunction with the universe it is found in. Can also be used to signify that the question contains time travel when asking in relation to an identification question: [story-identification], [episode-identification], [character-identification] and [object-identification].

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Two spacecraft pilots travel at light speed, meet back on Earth in different era due to time dilation

I've been looking for the name of a sci-fi romance book about space travel but haven't been successful so far. I came across it a few years ago, read the plot on its back cover but didn't read the ...
Quentin's user avatar
  • 67
3 votes
1 answer
399 views

SciFi book where scientists learn to peek through time (possibly controlled miniature wormhole?). Computer screens were carried like a handkerchief

Read it in the 90's. I remember one specific part where the inventor of the peeking mechanic has his Eureka moment, and has the presence of mind to give a thumbs-up/wave to the future, when they look ...
KC Andersen's user avatar
64 votes
16 answers
108k views

Why Couldn't a Time Turner Have been Used to Stop Voldemort?

With the use of a time turner, that opens a whole "Pandora's Box" of possibilities. While the use of one can be problematical, when the Ministry of Magic found out how dangerous Voldemort was, why ...
Tango's user avatar
  • 107k
28 votes
10 answers
18k views

How was Skynet created in the original timeline?

The Terminator movies leave us with a sort of "chicken or the egg" problem. Let's review some key facts In 2029, Skynet sends a T-800 back to kill Sarah Connor In 2029, John Connor sends Kyle Reese ...
phantom42's user avatar
  • 134k
17 votes
1 answer
2k views

Short story ID: Bouncing-Ball Time Travel

A little help please. The story I'm looking for is probably late-50's to mid-60's, and may well have occurred in an SF magazine. A professor is demonstrating his new time machine to a scientific ...
WhatRoughBeast's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
6k views

Time Traveler steps on a butterfly, changes everything

I heard of this in high school, but never learned its title or author- supposedly the aforementioned worm butterfly would have played a part in evolution that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs (...
Nu'Daq's user avatar
  • 25.8k
8 votes
1 answer
799 views

Man is sitting in his room and gets contradictory advice from two men from the future

Years ago I read short story about a man sitting in his room. Suddenly appears the same man but from the future and gives him an advice about the future. Original man seems to agree to follow that ...
nick's user avatar
  • 191
19 votes
8 answers
24k views

How does the time loop in Predestination get initialized?

In Predestination starring Ethan Hawke, the idea is plain and simple. However, I do find something very hard to digest: How could the loop about Ethan Hawke the time travel agent, could meet himself ...
yondaime008's user avatar
  • 3,209
16 votes
1 answer
688 views

What "time travel" story required the traveller to mentally reconstruct his world in order to return to it?

Here's what I remember about it: The protagonist is sent a relatively short distance into the future (maybe a year? I've forgotten). When he arrives in this "future" he finds himself in a completely ...
Nonomori's user avatar
  • 163
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Need help identifying short story about retired military colonel who fought war at end of time

I read this story in an anthology in the eighties or early nineties. It was about an old man who lived outside a western-like town, though that might have just been how I imagined it. He goes to ...
 Chewe1110's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Book series about time travel from future to distant past, psychic powers?

Please help me identify this book series: In the future, humanity has started to develop psychic powers by encouraging breeding of genetic traits. Humans find a way to travel back to a specific time ...
johnstoecker's user avatar
20 votes
1 answer
3k views

Sci-Fi short story that involved time travel and a couple who keep losing each other

I read a collection of Sci-Fi short stories back in the 1970's or early 80's that had one about a couple in love who kept losing each other. The book was my dad's so the story itself could be much ...
Christine's user avatar
  • 261
70 votes
5 answers
14k views

Nude time travel in Terminator Universe

Why do they travel naked in time in Terminator universe? Is it ever explained in the movies or tv serials? If they cannot carry weapons, how do the cyborgs travel with metal under their skin?
pichoscosama's user avatar
49 votes
5 answers
30k views

How did Skynet send back the T-1000 and the T-X?

As we learn in the original Terminator movie only living, organic material can be sent back in time: REESE: "You go naked. Something about the field generated by a living organism. Nothing dead ...
Xantec's user avatar
  • 61.5k
35 votes
16 answers
21k views

What happens to the second Marty at the end of Back to the Future?

In Back to the Future (the original movie), Marty comes back from 1955 10 mins early to prevent Doc from being shot (which he fails at). He then rolls up to the Lone Pine Mall and sees himself hit 88 ...
benhowdle89's user avatar
  • 6,849
20 votes
1 answer
1k views

A girl who transcends time

I remember quite a bit, but can't seem to find the title or (female) author. A girl accompanies her father as he captains a mission to travel at near-light speed in order to experience the effects of ...
Jon Purdy's user avatar
  • 307
140 votes
3 answers
26k views

How much older was Hermione after her third year at Hogwarts?

In her third year at Hogwarts, Hermione is given a time-turner so she can take more classes. Several of her classes are concurrent to each other, so she attends one class (for 1-2 hours) goes back in ...
Jack B Nimble's user avatar
92 votes
3 answers
14k views

Where is Hill Valley?

Many BTTF fans know that Marty, Doc and Jennifer arrive in Hill Valley on October 21st 2015, and were eagerly awaiting that date. As outlined in this question, they arrive at 4:29PM. However, the ...
Often Right's user avatar
  • 69.1k
38 votes
5 answers
9k views

Why didn't the time cops try to stop Janeway when she traveled back in time to rescue Voyager?

In the series finale "Endgame", a future Admiral Janeway travels 26 years into her past to take the ship and crew through a Borg transwarp hub to the Alpha quadrant. However, in "Relativity", Captain ...
OghmaOsiris's user avatar
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31 votes
1 answer
3k views

Story about plagiarism by means of time machine

I can't remember the name of the story, and couldn't find anything on Google searches either. The story is about a science fiction writer whose story gets rejected by the publisher because it's word-...
Goran Jovic's user avatar
  • 11.7k
30 votes
6 answers
47k views

Why was the time turner never used again?

It seems like it would be a very helpful device. Why was it never used again, regardless of the purpose?
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
  • 81.8k
25 votes
5 answers
6k views

Why didn't Temporal Agents stop Nero from destroying Vulcan?

Temporal Agents were supposed to keep eyes on timeline. Whenever timeline was altered and Temporal Agents failed to prevent it, it was due to advanced tech of other factions of Temporal Cold War. ...
user931's user avatar
  • 116k
23 votes
1 answer
4k views

90s/2000s TV show : man uses government time machine to fix national problems

This is a TV series from the early 2000s (maybe the late 90s). It was on prime time TV in the US. There is a government agency that has a time machine that allows the main character to jump back in ...
BlackThorn's user avatar
  • 4,489
21 votes
1 answer
3k views

Help Identify Viking Time Travel Short Story

I read a short story in the mid-90s which was fairly similar to Poul Anderson's "The Man Who Came Early." Different from that story, this was told from the modern protagonist's point of view. ...
user16003's user avatar
  • 235
21 votes
1 answer
1k views

Identify a catastrophic sci fi story written before 1980: ruptured spleen, alien moon base, time and space travel, antimatter tool

I read a sci fi short story sometime between 1974-1980 but it may have been written long before that. I believe it was in a paper back anthology of sci fi stories, but I'm not certain. I think the ...
Still Confused's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
1k views

1950s short story about using radar to see into the past and filming historic events

Probably written in the 1950's, this was a science fiction short story about a couple of guys who use radar technology from WWII to be able to see into the past. They film what they see and release ...
Steve Warren's user avatar
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

Book about a town that is transported by an explosion into a freezing desert

It starts with a town that was hit by a mysterious explosion which transports that town into a desert. The weather is cold and people burn coal but they soon run out and send out an expedition to look ...
Захар Joe's user avatar
10 votes
1 answer
305 views

Trying to find a Sci-Fi movie, probably from the 50's or 60's

I’m trying to identify a movie I saw when I was very young. It was a “Saturday Matinee” playing on one of the local stations, and I likely watched it in the late 60’s. So I expect that the movie is ...
Pete's user avatar
  • 103
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Title of 80's movie: future-era timetraveling humans go extinct and rescue/kidnap todays air crash victims

What is the title of a 80's (i believe?) movie where humans in the far future are going extinct, and are aquiring new humans by going back in time to todays world, kidnapping air travelers that are ...
Barry Staes's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
66k views

Was Kyle Reese always John Connor's father? [duplicate]

If Kyle Reese was always John Connor's father: Kyle pops out of nowhere, impregnates Sarah, dies, and then Kyle Reese is born, becomes a member of resistance and he is sent back in time. John Connor ...
jsedano's user avatar
  • 1,483
130 votes
6 answers
167k views

In Back to the Future, why was the speed 88 miles per hour?

Why not use 89, maybe 100 miles per hour? Is 88 the fastest a DeLorean can go? In other metrics, I have: Unit Equivalent Abbreviation Miles per hour 88.00 [mph][mi/h] Miles per second 0.0244 [mps][...
Rodrigo's user avatar
  • 1,809
40 votes
3 answers
5k views

Need help to find a sci-fi collection I read at school (mid 80s)

I am now 46 and so it's been bugging me for over 30 years - time to try and do something about it. The collection was in my lower school library (UK). It was a thick black hardback book and I believe ...
C McLean's user avatar
  • 411
38 votes
6 answers
10k views

Can Marty McFly ever truly return home?

In the Back to the Future trilogy, the character Marty McFly travels back in time, and meets his own parents. In doing this, he directly changes the outcome of many things including the relationship ...
Jason Hutchinson's user avatar
38 votes
1 answer
7k views

A man condemned to serve his sentence in other times

Looking for help to find a science fiction short story about a man send to the past to serve his sentence, and at the end when he is happy, married and successful, his is recaptured by a co-worker who ...
Ivan Torres's user avatar
30 votes
3 answers
9k views

Why is the "Arnold Schwarzenegger" terminator referred to by two different product numbers (T-101, T-800)?

In the original film, The Terminator, Schwarzenegger's character was a "Cyberdyne Systems Model 101". Likewise for Terminator 2 & 3. However, in the video game adaptation of Terminator 3, this ...
TSJNachos117's user avatar
29 votes
8 answers
14k views

How does time travel take into account the rotation/revolution of the Earth? [closed]

Hypothetically, if you were to travel say, 6 months into the past with no spatial displacement, you would end up floating in space because the Earth would be on the opposite side of the sun. I know ...
rurouniwallace's user avatar
26 votes
1 answer
5k views

80s or 90s TV episode where a man trapped between two seconds sees world deconstructed and rebuilt

I'm trying to find an episode from what I think is a sci-fi TV series produced sometime in the 80s or 90s. In the episode, a man and another character(s) finds himself stuck in the interval between ...
funvoyager's user avatar
24 votes
5 answers
16k views

Why was the DeLorean in Back To The Future not always covered in ice after time travel, and why didn't it fly in 1885?

I have noticed some things that I can't understand in the Back To The Future films about the DeLorean. In part I, when Einstein is sent 1 minute into the future the DeLorean comes back completely ...
SameOldNick's user avatar
22 votes
1 answer
1k views

Scifi novel about two high dimension beings trapped on earth by a "jailer"

Looking for a recent novel about a pair of aliens who fight amongst each other and trapped on Earth as a result. They try to escape, by nudging humanity towards discovering specific tech, and are ...
arslab's user avatar
  • 223
22 votes
1 answer
1k views

Time traveling astronaut appearing frozen to observers in time travel accident

So I was recently watching the series seven episode of Doctor Who titled "Hide" and it struck me that I had read a short story that was remarkably similar to the astronaut woman of the episode. Here'...
Arammil's user avatar
  • 980
15 votes
1 answer
961 views

Book about time portals inside an asteroid in Earth orbit

I read this book many years ago and it had a nice plot. For the life of me I can't remember the name or author so I need help. Story: one asteroid shaped object appears close to Earth orbit or in the ...
Cherubel's user avatar
  • 9,230
13 votes
2 answers
3k views

On the nature of paradoxes in the Whoniverse?

Loosely: How do Paradoxes work in Doctor Who? We see in previous episodes, To allow a paradox to occur. We also have the the weeping angels, that feed off of time loops. They are however supposedly,...
AncientSwordRage's user avatar
  • 81.8k
12 votes
1 answer
1k views

Story Identification: composer brought from the past to the future

Please help with identifying the following short story. The story plot goes as follows: scientists discover a way to transfer sick people who are on their deathbed to the future and cure them of ...
StasM's user avatar
  • 7,783
12 votes
1 answer
245 views

Ocean of time book?

I remember reading a book where people figured out time travel and when they entered "Time" they could swim through it, but it would cause ripples and change things. They would take certain time ...
Malachi's user avatar
  • 1,938
12 votes
1 answer
2k views

Old cartoon movie about a time traveling boy?

I'm having trouble identifying a cartoon movie I watched as a kid. It was about a boy who could travel in time and, after exploring many different eras, he goes to the future and discover our society ...
Sawyer's user avatar
  • 123
11 votes
1 answer
655 views

Story about a time-traveler living backwards in a capsule

I'm hunting for the title of a short story where a senile old man appears in a capsule in a laboratory. They eventually realize time is passing backwards for him. After years he helps them build the ...
dysbulic's user avatar
  • 213
11 votes
1 answer
989 views

Space ship manned by only AI returns home to a different earth, back in time

I read this short story 30 years or more ago. A space ship is returning home to Earth from a battle. There are no people on board this ship, only an AI and the ship's computer. When the ship tries to ...
Bigben59's user avatar
  • 3,766
10 votes
1 answer
1k views

Time Travel Book featuring dinosaurs, cave people, and children

I remember reading a time travel book when I was young, which means it would have been written no later than the '80s, but probably much before that. It featured an adult and some kids back in time ...
Reginald Blue's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
553 views

Looking for an old-old sci-fi tale about time-traveling

As recommended, I'm "migrating"/"duplicate" from literature here, to sci-fi. I can not remember, who is the author, but this seems was Ray Bradbury, however, I've already read couple of his short ...
Time_traveler_Number_One's user avatar
40 votes
1 answer
5k views

Time travel short story where dinosaur doesn't taste like chicken

I ran across this other question about time travel and dinosaurs, and it reminded me of an old short story I read a long time ago. I read it in a collection of short stories. It would have been a ...
JRE's user avatar
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