Monday, January 04, 2010

The 15 Best Time Travel Stories of All Time

Tim at Pop Crunch has a list of what he considers to be the best time travel stories ever. I think that he succumbs to the temptation of emphasizing archaic and high literature, but it's worth a browse.

As I've mentioned before, my favorite time travel story is The Man Who Folded Himself by David Gerrold.

What's your favorite (print or film) time travel story?

Link via Neatorama

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed the Stargate episode Window of Opportunity. Among novels, Heinlein's The Door into Summer is a favorite, though the actual time travel is maybe not central. Honorable mention to Desmond Warzel's International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War

Blast Hardcheese said...

Myself, the best time-travel movie I've ever seen is Primer - done on a microbudget ($7,000), but with pretty good production values. The time travel method is plausibly 'grungy', and the plot demands a couple of viewings before you unravel what's going on.

Best written story? Probably MWFM, as you mentioned.

RevAnne said...

My husband loved Primer, and also loves Somewhere in Time, another shameless romance. The book is by Richard Matheson, also known for I Am Legend, fwiw. The movie is better--Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour.

Richard Hall said...

Slaughterhouse 5 is good. Heinlein's 'Job, A Comedy of Justice' is a sort-of time travel story, and it's a cracker. On tv, the Star Trek TNG episode "Yesterdayy's Enterprise" is a favourite of mine. As I think about it, "City on the Edge of Forever" from the original Star Trek series also comes to mind. I'm a big Dr Who fan: I'd pick 'The Empty Child' from the Russell T. Davies re-creation, and probably 'Genesis of the Daleks' from earlier incarnations. And let's not forget 'Life on Mars'. That was fab (though I'm not keen on the US re-make).

John said...

mondayevening:

Oh yes -- "Window of Opportunity". That golf scene was the funniest thing in all of Stargate.

Except, possibly, everything in episode 200. Especially the zombie attack.

Blast Hardcheese -

I've seen Primer. It's slow, but very good; very creative.

Rev Anne --

My wife tells me that The Time Travler's Wife is really a romance set within a time-travel situation, which is why I haven't devoured it yet. But it's on my to-read list.

Richard --

I'd say that Job is more of a dimensional-shift story than time travel, but it's still quite good. Especially the touching last line.

bob said...

By His Bootstraps by Heinlein is my favorite. It's only a short story but it has lots of twists.

JD said...

The original A Sound of Thunder, just the short story, not the horrible movie, was good and concise.

PAX
JD