The Time Machine
Encyclopedia
The Time Machine is a science fiction
novella
by H. G. Wells
, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature film
s of the same name, as well as two television
versions, and a large number of comic book
adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction
in many media. This 32,000 word story
is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel
using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre
.
before, in an earlier work titled The Chronic Argonauts
. He had thought of using some of this material in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette
, until the publisher asked him if he could instead write a serial novel on the same theme; Wells readily agreed, and was paid £
100 (equal to about £ today) on its publication by Heinemann
in 1895. The story was first published in serial form in the January to May numbers of William Ernest Henley
's new venture New Review. The first book edition (possibly prepared from a different manuscript) was published in New York by Henry Holt and Company
on 7 May 1895; an English edition was published by Heinemann on 29 May. These two editions are different textually, and are commonly referred to as the "Holt text" and "Heinemann text" respectively. Nearly all modern reprints reproduce the Heinemann text.
The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations. It is also influenced by Ray Lankester's
theories about social degeneration. Other science fiction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy
's Looking Backward
and the later Metropolis
, dealt with similar themes.
is an English scientist
and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension
, and his demonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to the year 802,701 A.D.
, where he meets the Eloi
, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous
diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist
society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival.
Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller finds his time machine missing, and eventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlock
s, ape
-like troglodytes
who live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Within their dwellings he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working class
es have become the brutish light-fearing Morlocks. Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that they feed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants but of livestock and ranchers, and with no real challenges facing either species. They have both lost the intelligence and character of Man at its peak.
Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he fears he must fight to get back his machine. He plans to take Weena back to his own time. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest, and they are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, and Weena faints. The Traveller escapes only when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up to them as a forest fire; Weena is presumably lost in the fire, as are the Morlocks.
The Morlocks use the time machine as bait to ensnare the Traveller, not understanding that he will use it to escape. He travels further ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth, menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing butterflies in a world covered in simple vegetation. He continues to make short jumps through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out.
Overwhelmed, he returns to his laboratory, arriving just three hours after he originally left. Interrupting dinner, he relates his adventures to his disbelieving visitors, producing as evidence two strange flowers Weena had put in his pocket. The original narrator takes over and relates that he returned to the Time Traveller's house the next day, finding him in final preparations for another journey. The Traveller promises to return in half an hour, but three years later, the narrator despairs of ever learning what became of him.
, who wanted Wells to "oblige your editor" by lengthening the text with, among other things, an illustration of "the ultimate degeneracy" of man. "There was a slight struggle," Wells later recalled, "between the writer and W. E. Henley who wanted, he said, to put a little 'writing' into the tale. But the writer was in reaction from that sort of thing, the Henley interpolations were cut out again, and he had his own way with his text." This portion of the story was published elsewhere as "The Grey Man". The deleted text was also published by Forrest J Ackerman
in an issue of the American edition of Perry Rhodan
.
The deleted text recounts an incident immediately after the Traveller's escape from the Morlocks. He finds himself in the distant future of an unrecognisable Earth, populated with furry, hopping herbivores. He stuns or kills one with a rock, and upon closer examination realises they are probably the descendants of humans/Eloi/Morlocks. A gigantic, centipede-like arthropod
approaches and the Traveller flees into the next day, finding that the creature has apparently eaten the tiny humanoid.
The Easton Press
edition of the novel restores this deleted segment.
Wells also rejected sections from his own drafts in which he has the Time Traveller visit the Puritan era, where he is attacked by a Puritan preacher and then by Cromwell's Ironsides. He also has the narrator speculate that the ultimate origin of the Eloi/Morlock split was rooted in the ancient division of the English people into Puritans and Cavaliers. (see: Nation & novel: the English novel from its origins to the present day, by Patrick Parrinder, page 293)
on 25 January 1949 by the BBC
, which starred Russell Napier
as the Time Traveller and Mary Donn as Weena. No recording of this live broadcast was made; the only record of the production is the script and a few black and white still photographs. A reading of the script, however, suggests that this teleplay remained fairly faithful to the book.
adapted The Time Machine twice, in 1948 starring Jeff Corey
, and again in 1950 starring John Dehner
. In both episodes a script adapted by Irving Ravetch was used. The Time Traveller was named Dudley and was accompanied by his sceptical friend Fowler as they travelled to the year 100,080.
by the same name (also known promotionally as H.G. Wells's The Time Machine) in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future. The film starred Rod Taylor, Alan Young
and Yvette Mimieux
.
The film was produced and directed by George Pal
, who also filmed a 1953 version of Wells's The War of the Worlds
. Pal had always intended to make a sequel to his 1960 film, but it was not produced until 2002 when Simon Wells
(born 1961), great-grandson of H.G. Wells, working with executive producer Arnold Leibovit
, directed a film with the same title
. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for time-lapse
photographic effects showing the world changing rapidly.
produced a television film version of The Time Machine as a part of their "Classics Illustrated" series in 1978. It was a modernization of the Wells' story, making the Time Traveller a 1970's scientist working for a fictional US defence contractor, "the Mega Corporation". Dr. Neil Perry (John Beck
), the Time Traveller, is described as one of Mega's most reliable contributors by his senior co-worker Branly (Whit Bissell, an alumnus of the 1960 adaptation). Perry's skill is demonstrated by his rapid reprogramming of an off-course missile, averting a disaster that could destroy Los Angeles
. His reputation secures a grant of $20 million for his time machine project. Although nearing completion, the corporation wants Perry to put the project on hold so that he can head a military weapon development project. Perry accelerates work on the time machine, permitting him to test it before being forced to work on the new project.
, is a biopic of George Pal
. It contains a number of filmed elements from Pal's 1960 film version of The Time Machine.
as the Time Traveller (named John) and John de Lancie
as David Filby. John de Lancie's children, Owen de Lancie and Keegan de Lancie
, played the parts of the Eloi. The drama is approximately two hours long. Interestingly, this version of the story is more faithful to Wells's novella than either the 1960 film or the 2002 film.
in 2002, starring Guy Pearce
as the Time Traveler, a mechanical engineering professor named Alexander Hartdegen, Mark Addy
as his colleague David Filby, Sienna Guillory
as Alex's ill-fated fiancée Emma, Phyllida Law
as Mrs. Watchit, and Jeremy Irons
as the uber-Morlock. Playing a quick cameo as a shopkeeper was Alan Young, who featured in the 1960 film. (H.G. Wells himself can also be said to have a "cameo" appearance, in the form of a photograph on the wall of Alex's home, near the front door.)
The film was directed by Wells's great-grandson Simon Wells
, with an even more revised plot that incorporated the ideas of paradox
es and changing the past. The place is changed from Richmond, Surrey, to downtown New York City
, where the Time Traveler moves forward in time to find answers to his questions on 'Practical Application of Time Travel;' first in 2030 New York, to witness an orbital lunar catastrophe in 2037, before moving on to 802,701 for the main plot. He later briefly finds himself in 635,427,810 with toxic clouds and a world laid waste (presumably by the Morlocks) with devastation and Morlock artifacts stretching out to the horizon.
It was met with generally mixed reviews and earned $56 million before VHS/DVD sales. The Time Machine used a design that was very reminiscent of the one in the Pal film, but was much larger and employed polished turned brass construction, along with rotating quartz/glasses reminiscent of the light gathering prismatic lenses common to lighthouses (In Wells's original book, the Time Traveller mentioned his 'scientific papers on optics'). Weena makes no appearance; Hartdegen instead becomes involved with a female Eloi named Mara, played by Samantha Mumba
. In this film, the Eloi have, as a tradition, preserved a "stone language" that is identical to English. The Morlocks are much more barbaric and agile, and the Time Traveler has a direct impact on the plot.
stars as the Time Traveller, with William Gaunt
as H. G. Wells
in a new 100-minute radio dramatisation by Philip Osment, directed by Jeremy Mortimer
as part of a BBC Radio Science Fiction season. This was the first adaptation of the novel for British radio. It was first broadcast on 22 February 2009 on BBC Radio 3
and later published as a 2-CD BBC audio book.
The other cast members were:
The adaptation retained the nameless status of the time traveller and set it as a true story told to the young Wells by the time traveller, which Wells then re-tells as an older man to the American journalist Martha whilst firewatching on the roof of Broadcasting House
during the Blitz
. It also retained the deleted ending from the novel as a recorded message sent back to Wells from the future by the traveller using a prototype of his machine, with the traveller escaping the anthropoid creatures to 30 million AD at the end of the universe before disappearing or dying there.
, entitled "Bark to the Future". Wishbone plays the role of the Time Traveller, where he meets Weena, takes her to an ancient library, and confronts the Morlocks. The parallel story has Wishbone's owner, Joe, relying on a calculator to solve percentage
problems rather than his own intellect, recalling the mindset that created the lazy Eloi.
format, issuing a US edition in July 1956. This was followed by Classiques Illustres (a French edition) in Dec 1957, and Classics Illustrated Strato Publications (Australian) in 1957, and Kuvitettuja Klassikkoja (a Finnish Edition) in November 1957. There were also Classics Illustrated Greek editions in 1976, Swedish in 1987, German in 1992 and 2001, and a Canadian reprint of the English edition in 2008. In 1979 Marvel Comics
published a new version of The Time Machine, as No.2 in their Marvel Classic Comics series, with art by Alex Niño
. From April 1990 Eternity Comics
published a three-issue mini-series adaptation of The Time Machine, written by Bill Spangler and illustrated by John Ross
- this later appeared as a collected trade-paperback graphic novel
in 1991.
One popular theory, encouraged by movies like Time After Time
and certain episodes of the hit show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, is that the Time Traveller is meant to be none other than H. G. Wells himself. Indeed, in the George Pal movie adaptation of The Time Machine
, his name is given as George (also H. G. Wells's middle name). Due to the clarity of the DVD image, 'H. George. Wells' can be seen on the control panel of the device, having the audience suggest the character is Wells himself.
In Simon Wells's 2002 remake, the Time Traveler is named Alexander Hartdegen.
In The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequels to The Time Machine, the Time Traveller encounters his younger self via time travel, whom he nicknames 'Moses'. His younger self reacts with embarrassment to this.
"I held up my hand; I had an inspiration. "No. I will use - if you will permit -Moses." He took a deep pull on his brandy, and gazed at me with genuine anger in his grey eyes. "How do you know about that?" Moses - my hated first name, for which I had been endlessly tormented at school-and which I had kept a secret since leaving home!"
This is a reference to H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts
", the story which grew into The Time Machine, in which the inventor of the Time Machine is named Dr. Moses Nebogipfel. (The surname of Wells's first inventor graces another character in Baxter's book, as explained above.)
The Hertford Manuscript, author Richard Cowper's sequel to The Time Machine, gives the Time Traveller's name as Robert James Pensley.
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
by Philip José Farmer
gives the Time Traveller's name as Bruce Clarke Wildman.
The Rook comic book series gives the Time Traveller's name as Adam Dane.
In the Doctor Who
comic strip story "The Eternal Present", the character of Theophilus Tolliver is implied to be the Time Traveller of Wells's novel.
Also featured in Doctor Who
is Wells, himself, appearing in the television serial Timelash
. The events of this story are portrayed has having inspired Wells to write The Time Machine.
The I.C.E. Role Playing Game Supplement Time Riders suggests that the Time Traveller's name is Asleigh Holmes. Furthermore, it suggests that the Time Traveller is actually a woman who disguised herself as a man during the male chauvenistic Victorian era. Also, she is said to be the sister of Sherlock Holmes
.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
by H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, published in 1895 for the first time and later adapted into at least two feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s of the same name, as well as two television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
versions, and a large number of comic book
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction
Fiction
Fiction is the form of any narrative or informative work that deals, in part or in whole, with information or events that are not factual, but rather, imaginary—that is, invented by the author. Although fiction describes a major branch of literary work, it may also refer to theatrical,...
in many media. This 32,000 word story
is generally credited with the popularisation of the concept of time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
using a vehicle that allows an operator to travel purposefully and selectively. The term "time machine", coined by Wells, is now universally used to refer to such a vehicle. This work is an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre
Dying Earth (subgenre)
The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fiction or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the End of Time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail...
.
History
Wells had considered the notion of time travelTime travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
before, in an earlier work titled The Chronic Argonauts
The Chronic Argonauts
"The Chronic Argonauts" is a short story written by H. G. Wells. First published by the Royal College of Science in 1888, it is the first well-developed use of a machine constructed to travel through time in science fiction, as it predates Wells's more famous time traveling novel, The Time...
. He had thought of using some of this material in a series of articles in the Pall Mall Gazette
Pall Mall Gazette
The Pall Mall Gazette was an evening newspaper founded in London on 7 February 1865 by George Murray Smith; its first editor was Frederick Greenwood...
, until the publisher asked him if he could instead write a serial novel on the same theme; Wells readily agreed, and was paid £
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
100 (equal to about £ today) on its publication by Heinemann
Heinemann (book publisher)
Heinemann is a UK publishing house founded by William Heinemann in Covent Garden, London in 1890. On William Heinemann's death in 1920 a majority stake was purchased by U.S. publisher Doubleday. It was later acquired by commemorate Thomas Tilling in 1961...
in 1895. The story was first published in serial form in the January to May numbers of William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
's new venture New Review. The first book edition (possibly prepared from a different manuscript) was published in New York by Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company
Henry Holt and Company is an American book publishing company. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt...
on 7 May 1895; an English edition was published by Heinemann on 29 May. These two editions are different textually, and are commonly referred to as the "Holt text" and "Heinemann text" respectively. Nearly all modern reprints reproduce the Heinemann text.
The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views, his view on life and abundance, and the contemporary angst about industrial relations. It is also influenced by Ray Lankester's
Ray Lankester
Sir E. Ray Lankester KCB, FRS was a British zoologist, born in London.An invertebrate zoologist and evolutionary biologist, he held chairs at University College London and Oxford University. He was the third Director of the Natural History Museum, and was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal...
theories about social degeneration. Other science fiction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy
Edward Bellamy was an American author and socialist, most famous for his utopian novel, Looking Backward, set in the year 2000. He was a very influential writer during the Gilded Age of United States history.-Early life:...
's Looking Backward
Looking Backward
Looking Backward: 2000-1887 is a utopian science fiction novel by Edward Bellamy, a lawyer and writer from western Massachusetts; it was first published in 1887...
and the later Metropolis
Metropolis (film)
Metropolis is a 1927 German expressionist film in the science-fiction genre directed by Fritz Lang. Produced in Germany during a stable period of the Weimar Republic, Metropolis is set in a futuristic urban dystopia and makes use of this context to explore the social crisis between workers and...
, dealt with similar themes.
Plot summary
The book's protagonistProtagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
is an English scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension
Dimension
In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it. Thus a line has a dimension of one because only one coordinate is needed to specify a point on it...
, and his demonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.
In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to the year 802,701 A.D.
Anno Domini
and Before Christ are designations used to label or number years used with the Julian and Gregorian calendars....
, where he meets the Eloi
Eloi
The Eloi are one of the two post-human races in H. G. Wells' 1895 novel The Time Machine.-In The Time Machine:By the year 802,701 AD, humanity has evolved into two separate species: the Eloi and the Morlocks...
, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous
Frugivore
A frugivore is a fruit eater. It can be any type of herbivore or omnivore where fruit is a preferred food type. Because approximately 20% of all mammalian herbivores also eat fruit, frugivory is considered to be common among mammals. Since frugivores eat a lot of fruit they are highly dependent...
diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival.
Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller finds his time machine missing, and eventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlock
Morlock
Morlocks are a fictional species created by H. G. Wells for his 1895 novel, The Time Machine. They dwell underground in the English countryside of 802,701 AD in a troglodyte civilization, maintaining ancient machines that they may or may not remember how to build...
s, ape
Ape
Apes are Old World anthropoid mammals, more specifically a clade of tailless catarrhine primates, belonging to the biological superfamily Hominoidea. The apes are native to Africa and South-east Asia, although in relatively recent times humans have spread all over the world...
-like troglodytes
Caveman
A caveman or troglodyte is a stock character based upon widespread concepts of the way in which early prehistoric humans may have looked and behaved...
who live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Within their dwellings he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working class
Working class
Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...
es have become the brutish light-fearing Morlocks. Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that they feed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants but of livestock and ranchers, and with no real challenges facing either species. They have both lost the intelligence and character of Man at its peak.
Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he fears he must fight to get back his machine. He plans to take Weena back to his own time. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest, and they are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, and Weena faints. The Traveller escapes only when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up to them as a forest fire; Weena is presumably lost in the fire, as are the Morlocks.
The Morlocks use the time machine as bait to ensnare the Traveller, not understanding that he will use it to escape. He travels further ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth, menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing butterflies in a world covered in simple vegetation. He continues to make short jumps through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out.
Overwhelmed, he returns to his laboratory, arriving just three hours after he originally left. Interrupting dinner, he relates his adventures to his disbelieving visitors, producing as evidence two strange flowers Weena had put in his pocket. The original narrator takes over and relates that he returned to the Time Traveller's house the next day, finding him in final preparations for another journey. The Traveller promises to return in half an hour, but three years later, the narrator despairs of ever learning what became of him.
Deleted text
A section from the 11th chapter of the serial published in New Review (May, 1895) was deleted from the book. It was drafted at the suggestion of Wells's editor, William Ernest HenleyWilliam Ernest Henley
William Ernest Henley was an English poet, critic and editor, best remembered for his 1875 poem "Invictus".-Life and career:...
, who wanted Wells to "oblige your editor" by lengthening the text with, among other things, an illustration of "the ultimate degeneracy" of man. "There was a slight struggle," Wells later recalled, "between the writer and W. E. Henley who wanted, he said, to put a little 'writing' into the tale. But the writer was in reaction from that sort of thing, the Henley interpolations were cut out again, and he had his own way with his text." This portion of the story was published elsewhere as "The Grey Man". The deleted text was also published by Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman
Forrest J Ackerman was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan...
in an issue of the American edition of Perry Rhodan
Perry Rhodan
Perry Rhodan is the name of a science fiction series published since 1961 in Germany, as well as the name of the main character. It is a space opera, dealing with several themes of science fiction. Having sold over one billion copies worldwide, it is the most successful science fiction book series...
.
The deleted text recounts an incident immediately after the Traveller's escape from the Morlocks. He finds himself in the distant future of an unrecognisable Earth, populated with furry, hopping herbivores. He stuns or kills one with a rock, and upon closer examination realises they are probably the descendants of humans/Eloi/Morlocks. A gigantic, centipede-like arthropod
Arthropod
An arthropod is an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton , a segmented body, and jointed appendages. Arthropods are members of the phylum Arthropoda , and include the insects, arachnids, crustaceans, and others...
approaches and the Traveller flees into the next day, finding that the creature has apparently eaten the tiny humanoid.
The Easton Press
Easton Press
Easton Press, a division of MBI Inc., based in Norwalk, Connecticut, is a publisher specializing in high-quality leather-bound books. In addition to canonical classics, poetry and art books, they publish a large library of science fiction and popular literature as well.Some of Easton Press's...
edition of the novel restores this deleted segment.
Wells also rejected sections from his own drafts in which he has the Time Traveller visit the Puritan era, where he is attacked by a Puritan preacher and then by Cromwell's Ironsides. He also has the narrator speculate that the ultimate origin of the Eloi/Morlock split was rooted in the ancient division of the English people into Puritans and Cavaliers. (see: Nation & novel: the English novel from its origins to the present day, by Patrick Parrinder, page 293)
Scholarship
Significant scholarly commentary on The Time Machine began from the early 1960s, initially contained in various broad studies of Wells's early novels (such as Bernard Bergonzi's The Early H.G. Wells: A Study of the Scientific Romances) and studies of utopias/dystopias in science fiction (such as Mark R. Hillegas's The Future as Nightmare: H.G. Wells and the Anti-Utopians). Much important critical and textual work was done in the 1970s, including the tracing of the very complex publication history of the text, its drafts and unpublished fragments. A further resurgence in scholarship came around the time of the novel's centenary in 1995, and a major outcome of this was the 1995 conference and substantial anthology of academic papers, which is collected in print as H.G. Wells’s Perennial Time Machine: Selected Essays from the Centenary Conference, "The Time Machine: Past, Present, and Future" (University of Georgia Press, 2001). This publication then allowed the development of a study guide book (meant for advanced academics at Masters and PhD level), H.G. Wells's The Time Machine: A Reference Guide (Praeger, 2004). The scholarly journal The Wellsian has published around twenty articles on The Time Machine, and the new US academic journal devoted to H.G. Wells, The Undying Fire has published three since its inception in 2002.First adaptation
The first visual adaptation of the book was a live teleplay broadcast from Alexandra PalaceAlexandra Palace
Alexandra Palace is a building in North London, England. It stands in Alexandra Park, in an area between Hornsey, Muswell Hill and Wood Green...
on 25 January 1949 by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, which starred Russell Napier
Russell Napier
Russell Gordon Napier was an Australian actor.Russell Napier was born in Perth, Western Australia. Originally a lawyer, Napier was active as an actor from 1947 to 1974, playing both comedic and dramatic roles in both cinema and television. Notably, he starred in a live BBC television production...
as the Time Traveller and Mary Donn as Weena. No recording of this live broadcast was made; the only record of the production is the script and a few black and white still photographs. A reading of the script, however, suggests that this teleplay remained fairly faithful to the book.
Escape radio broadcasts
The CBS radio anthology EscapeEscape (radio program)
Escape was radio's leading anthology series of high-adventure radio dramas, airing on CBS from July 7, 1947 to September 25, 1954. Since the program did not have a regular sponsor like Suspense, it was subjected to frequent schedule shifts and lower production budgets, although Richfield Oil signed...
adapted The Time Machine twice, in 1948 starring Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey
Jeff Corey was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.-Biography:...
, and again in 1950 starring John Dehner
John Dehner
John Dehner was an American actor in radio, television, and films, playing countless roles, often as a droll villain. Between 1941 and 1988, he appeared in over 260 films and television programs. Prior to acting, Dehner had worked as an animator at Walt Disney Studios, and later became a radio...
. In both episodes a script adapted by Irving Ravetch was used. The Time Traveller was named Dudley and was accompanied by his sceptical friend Fowler as they travelled to the year 100,080.
1960 film
In 1960, the novel was made into an American science fiction filmScience fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
by the same name (also known promotionally as H.G. Wells's The Time Machine) in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future. The film starred Rod Taylor, Alan Young
Alan Young
Alan Young is an English-Canadian actor and voice actor, best known for his role as Wilbur Post in the television series Mister Ed and as the voice of Scrooge McDuck in Disney films, TV series and video games...
and Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Mimieux
Yvette Carmen Mimieux is a retired American movie and television actress.-Early life and career:Yvette Mimieux was born in Los Angeles, California, to a French father and Mexican mother, Carmen Montemayor...
.
The film was produced and directed by George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
, who also filmed a 1953 version of Wells's The War of the Worlds
The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
The War of the Worlds is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen loose adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name...
. Pal had always intended to make a sequel to his 1960 film, but it was not produced until 2002 when Simon Wells
Simon Wells
Simon Wells is an English-American film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of famous author, H. G. Wells.Born in Cambridge, he attended De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design...
(born 1961), great-grandson of H.G. Wells, working with executive producer Arnold Leibovit
Arnold Leibovit
Arnold Leibovit is an award-winning writer, producer, and director of feature films and musical productions. An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has written, directed, and produced several feature films, including The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, a biopic of George Pal, and...
, directed a film with the same title
The Time Machine (2002 film)
The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan...
. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for time-lapse
Time-lapse
Time-lapse photography is a cinematography technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that which will be used to play the sequence back. When replayed at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus lapsing...
photographic effects showing the world changing rapidly.
1978 television film
Sunn Classic PicturesSunn Classic Pictures
Sunn Classic Pictures, also known as Schick Sunn Classic Pictures is an independent U.S.-based film distributor, founded in 1971. The company was notable for family films and documentaries, and was bought by Taft Broadcasting in 1980.-History:...
produced a television film version of The Time Machine as a part of their "Classics Illustrated" series in 1978. It was a modernization of the Wells' story, making the Time Traveller a 1970's scientist working for a fictional US defence contractor, "the Mega Corporation". Dr. Neil Perry (John Beck
John Beck (actor)
John Beck is an American actor. He grew up in Joliet, Illinois. Renowned as a gritty actor with plenty of presence on set, he is ultimately best-known worldwide for playing the role of Mark Graison in Dallas during the mid-1980s, but is also well-known for several other roles in which he...
), the Time Traveller, is described as one of Mega's most reliable contributors by his senior co-worker Branly (Whit Bissell, an alumnus of the 1960 adaptation). Perry's skill is demonstrated by his rapid reprogramming of an off-course missile, averting a disaster that could destroy Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. His reputation secures a grant of $20 million for his time machine project. Although nearing completion, the corporation wants Perry to put the project on hold so that he can head a military weapon development project. Perry accelerates work on the time machine, permitting him to test it before being forced to work on the new project.
The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal
This film, produced and directed by Arnold LeibovitArnold Leibovit
Arnold Leibovit is an award-winning writer, producer, and director of feature films and musical productions. An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has written, directed, and produced several feature films, including The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, a biopic of George Pal, and...
, is a biopic of George Pal
George Pál
George Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
. It contains a number of filmed elements from Pal's 1960 film version of The Time Machine.
1994 audio drama
In 1994 an audio drama was published on CD by Alien Voices, starring Leonard NimoyLeonard Nimoy
Leonard Simon Nimoy is an American actor, film director, poet, musician and photographer. Nimoy's most famous role is that of Spock in the original Star Trek series , multiple films, television and video game sequels....
as the Time Traveller (named John) and John de Lancie
John de Lancie
John de Lancie is an American actor. He has been active in screen and television roles since 1977, though he is best known for his recurring role as Q on the various Star Trek series and as Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1....
as David Filby. John de Lancie's children, Owen de Lancie and Keegan de Lancie
Keegan de Lancie
John Keegan de Lancie is an American actor and son of actor John de Lancie and Marnie Mosiman. He is perhaps best known for his role as Q, or Q Junior, on Star Trek: Voyager, where he played the son of Q, a character portrayed by his father, John de Lancie, in the episode "Q2"...
, played the parts of the Eloi. The drama is approximately two hours long. Interestingly, this version of the story is more faithful to Wells's novella than either the 1960 film or the 2002 film.
2002 film
The 1960 film was remadeThe Time Machine (2002 film)
The Time Machine is a 2002 American science fiction film loosely adapted from the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells, and the 1960 film screenplay by David Duncan...
in 2002, starring Guy Pearce
Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce is an English-born Australian actor and musician, known for his roles as Leonard Shelby in Christopher Nolan's Memento, Lieutenant Ed Exley in L.A...
as the Time Traveler, a mechanical engineering professor named Alexander Hartdegen, Mark Addy
Mark Addy
Mark Addy Johnson is an English actor, best known for his roles as Detective Constable Gary Boyle in the UK sitcom The Thin Blue Line, Dave in the British film The Full Monty, father Bill Miller in the U.S...
as his colleague David Filby, Sienna Guillory
Sienna Guillory
Sienna Tiggy Guillory is an English actress, and former model. She is known for playing the title role in the TV miniseries, Helen of Troy, her portrayal of Jill Valentine in the science fiction action horror film Resident Evil: Apocalypse, and as elf princess Arya Dröttningu in fantasy-adventure...
as Alex's ill-fated fiancée Emma, Phyllida Law
Phyllida Law
-Personal life:Law was born in Glasgow, the daughter of William and Megsie Law, who divorced after World War II. She was married to Eric Thompson from 1957 until his death in 1982. Their two children Emma and Sophie Thompson are both actresses...
as Mrs. Watchit, and Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
as the uber-Morlock. Playing a quick cameo as a shopkeeper was Alan Young, who featured in the 1960 film. (H.G. Wells himself can also be said to have a "cameo" appearance, in the form of a photograph on the wall of Alex's home, near the front door.)
The film was directed by Wells's great-grandson Simon Wells
Simon Wells
Simon Wells is an English-American film director of animation and live-action films. He is the great grandson of famous author, H. G. Wells.Born in Cambridge, he attended De Montfort University where he studied audio-visual design...
, with an even more revised plot that incorporated the ideas of paradox
Paradox
Similar to Circular reasoning, A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition...
es and changing the past. The place is changed from Richmond, Surrey, to downtown New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, where the Time Traveler moves forward in time to find answers to his questions on 'Practical Application of Time Travel;' first in 2030 New York, to witness an orbital lunar catastrophe in 2037, before moving on to 802,701 for the main plot. He later briefly finds himself in 635,427,810 with toxic clouds and a world laid waste (presumably by the Morlocks) with devastation and Morlock artifacts stretching out to the horizon.
It was met with generally mixed reviews and earned $56 million before VHS/DVD sales. The Time Machine used a design that was very reminiscent of the one in the Pal film, but was much larger and employed polished turned brass construction, along with rotating quartz/glasses reminiscent of the light gathering prismatic lenses common to lighthouses (In Wells's original book, the Time Traveller mentioned his 'scientific papers on optics'). Weena makes no appearance; Hartdegen instead becomes involved with a female Eloi named Mara, played by Samantha Mumba
Samantha Mumba
Samantha Tamania Anne Cecilia Mumba is an Irish singer and actress.Her first album was released in 2000. Her most notable role was Mara in the 2002 film The Time Machine. She has also appeared in a number of Irish independent films.-Early life, education and early career:Mumba was born in Dublin,...
. In this film, the Eloi have, as a tradition, preserved a "stone language" that is identical to English. The Morlocks are much more barbaric and agile, and the Time Traveler has a direct impact on the plot.
2009 BBC Radio 3 broadcast
Robert GlenisterRobert Glenister
Robert Lewis Glenister is a British actor known for his roles as con man Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the British TV series Hustle, and Nicholas Blake in the BBC spy drama Spooks.-Career:...
stars as the Time Traveller, with William Gaunt
William Gaunt
William Charles Anthony Gaunt is an English actor, sometimes credited as Bill Gaunt.-Early life:...
as H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
in a new 100-minute radio dramatisation by Philip Osment, directed by Jeremy Mortimer
Jeremy Mortimer
Jeremy Mortimer is a British director and producer of radio dramas for BBC Radio. He is the son of John and Penelope Mortimer. His credits include The Pattern of Painful Adventures and radio adaptations of Daphnis and Chloe , Philomel Cottage and The Time Machine...
as part of a BBC Radio Science Fiction season. This was the first adaptation of the novel for British radio. It was first broadcast on 22 February 2009 on BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
and later published as a 2-CD BBC audio book.
The other cast members were:
- Time traveller - Robert GlenisterRobert GlenisterRobert Lewis Glenister is a British actor known for his roles as con man Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the British TV series Hustle, and Nicholas Blake in the BBC spy drama Spooks.-Career:...
- Martha - Donnla Hughes
- Young HG Wells - Gunnar Cauthery
- Filby, friend of the young Wells - Stephen CritchlowStephen CritchlowStephen Critchlow is a popular and versatile British actor, notable for his work in the theatre and appearances on radio series such as Truly, Madly, Bletchley, The Way We Live Right Now and Spats, along with radio episodes of Torchwood and Doctor Who...
- Bennett, friend of the young Wells - Chris Pavlo
- Mrs Watchett, the traveller's housemaid - Manjeet Mann
- Weena, one of the Eloi and the traveller's partner - Jill Cardo
- Other parts - Robert Lonsdale, Inam Mirza and Dan StarkeyDan StarkeyDan Starkey is a British actor.Dan studied at University of Cambridge before training at the Bristol Old Vic .-Theatre credits:*The 39 Steps UK national tour* The Fitzrovia Radio Hour-Filmography:...
The adaptation retained the nameless status of the time traveller and set it as a true story told to the young Wells by the time traveller, which Wells then re-tells as an older man to the American journalist Martha whilst firewatching on the roof of Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
during the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
. It also retained the deleted ending from the novel as a recorded message sent back to Wells from the future by the traveller using a prototype of his machine, with the traveller escaping the anthropoid creatures to 30 million AD at the end of the universe before disappearing or dying there.
Wishbone episode
The Time Machine was featured in an episode of the PBS children's show WishboneWishbone (TV series)
Wishbone is a television show which aired from 1995 to 1998 and reruns from 1998 to 2001 in the United States featuring a Jack Russell Terrier of the same name. The main character, the talking dog Wishbone, lives with his owner Joe Talbot in the fictional modern town of Oakdale, Texas...
, entitled "Bark to the Future". Wishbone plays the role of the Time Traveller, where he meets Weena, takes her to an ancient library, and confronts the Morlocks. The parallel story has Wishbone's owner, Joe, relying on a calculator to solve percentage
Percentage
In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 . It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”, or the abbreviation “pct”. For example, 45% is equal to 45/100, or 0.45.Percentages are used to express how large/small one quantity is, relative to another quantity...
problems rather than his own intellect, recalling the mindset that created the lazy Eloi.
Sequels by other authors
Wells's novella has become one of the cornerstones of science-fiction literature. As a result, it has spawned many offspring. Works expanding on Wells's story include:- Die Rückkehr der Zeitmaschine (1946) by Egon FriedellEgon FriedellEgon Friedell born Egon Friedmann, 21 January 1878, in Vienna, died 16 March 1938, in Vienna, was a prominent Austrian philosopher, historian, journalist, actor, cabaret performer and theatre critic.- Early life :...
was the first direct sequel. It dwells heavily on the technical details of the machine and the time-paradoxes it might cause when the time machine was used to visit the past. The 24,000-word German original was translated into English by Eddy C. Bertin in the 1940s and eventually published as a paperback as The Return of the Time Machine (1972, DAW). - The Hertford Manuscript by Richard Cowper, first published in 1976. It features a "manuscript" which reports the Time Traveller's activities after the end of the original story. According to this manuscript, the Time Traveller disappeared because his Time Machine had been damaged by the Morlocks without him knowing it. He only found out when it stopped operating during his next attempted time travel. He found himself on 27 August 1665, in LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
during the outbreak of the Great Plague of LondonGreat Plague of LondonThe Great Plague was a massive outbreak of disease in the Kingdom of England that killed an estimated 100,000 people, 20% of London's population. The disease is identified as bubonic plague, an infection by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, transmitted through a flea vector...
. The rest of the novel is devoted to his efforts to repair the Time Machine and leave this time period before getting infected with the disease. He also has an encounter with Robert HookeRobert HookeRobert Hooke FRS was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but...
. He eventually dies of the disease on 20 September 1665. The story gives a list of subsequent owners of the manuscript until 1976. It also gives the name of the Time Traveller as Robert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 and disappearing without trace on 18 June 1894. - The Space MachineThe Space MachineThe Space Machine, subtitled A Scientific Romance, is a science fiction novel written by English writer Christopher Priest.First published in 1976, it follows the travels of protagonists Edward Turnbull and Amelia Fitzgibbon...
by Christopher Priest, first published in 1976. Because of the movement of planets, stars and galaxies, for a time machine to stay in one spot on Earth as it travels through time, it must also follow the Earth's trajectory through space. In Priest's book, a travelling salesman damages a similar Time Machine to the original, and arrives on MarsMarsMars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...
, just before the start of the invasion described in The War of the Worlds. H.G. Wells himself appears as a minor character. - Morlock NightMorlock NightMorlock Night is a science fiction novel by K. W. Jeter. It was published in 1979. In a letter toLocus Magazine in April 1987, Jeter coined the word "steampunk" to describe it and other novels by James Blaylock and Tim Powers....
by K.W. Jeter, first published in 1979. A steampunkSteampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
fantasy novel in which the Morlocks, having studied the Traveller's machine, duplicate it and invade Victorian London. - Time Machine II by George PalGeorge PálGeorge Pal , born György Pál Marczincsak, was a Hungarian-born American animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre...
and Joe Morhaim, published in 1981. The Time Traveller, named George, and the pregnant Weena try to return to his time, but instead land in the London Blitz, dying during a bombing raid. Their newborn son is rescued by an American ambulance driver, and grows up in the United States under the name Christopher Jones. Sought out by the lookalike son of James Filby, Jones goes to England to collect his inheritance, leading ultimately to George's journals, and the Time Machine's original plans. He builds his own machine with 1970s upgrades, and seeks his parents in the future. Pal also worked on a detailed synopsis for a third sequel, which was partly filmed for a 1980s U.S. TV special on the making of Pal's film version of The Time Machine, using the original actors. This third sequel - the plot of which does not seem to fit with Pal's second - opens with the Time Traveller enjoying a happy life with Weena, in a future world in which the Morlocks have died out. He and his son return to save Filby in World War IWorld War IWorld War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. This act changes the future, causing the nuclear war not to happen. He and his son are thus cut off from Weena in the far future. The Time Traveller thus has to solve a dilemma - allow his friend to die, and cause the later death of millions, or give up Weena forever. - The Man Who Loved Morlocks (1981) and The Trouble With Weena (The Truth about Weena) are two different sequels, the former a novel and the latter a short story, by David J. LakeDavid LakeDavid John Lake is an Indian-born Australian science fiction writer, poet, and literary critic. He moved to Australia in 1967.-Biography:...
. Each of them concerns the Time Traveller's return to the future. In the former, he discovers that he cannot enter any period in time he has already visited, forcing him to travel in to the further future, where he finds love with a woman whose race evolved from Morlock stock. In the latter, he is accompanied by Wells, and succeeds in rescuing Weena and bringing her back to the 1890s, where her political ideas cause a peaceful revolution. - The Great Illustrated ClassicsGreat Illustrated ClassicsThe Great Illustrated Classics series of books offers easy-to-read adaptations of well known classics, featuring large print and numerous illustrations. The series is targeted at children, but the writing style is suitable for adult readers as well. Currently there are 70 titles.The series is...
adaptation of Wells' novel (published in 1992) faithfully abridges the original, but adds one additional destination to the Time Traveler's adventure. Before returning home to his own time, the Time Traveler stops the machine three hundred years in the future, or approximately the year 2200 AD23rd centuryThe 23rd century is the century of the Christian Era or Common Era which, in the Gregorian calendar, begins on January 1, 2201 and ends on December 31, 2300.-List of the long total solar eclipses:* July 27, 2204: Solar eclipse, , of saros 139....
. Upon his arrival, he is quickly drugged with a truth serumTruth SerumTruth Serum is an independent comic book series created, written and drawn by author Jon Adams.-Overview:Originally published as a mini comic in 2001 and given away for free, it appeared as a three-issue mini series published by Slave Labor Graphics in 2002...
by a group of men who meet him and is ushered into an interrogation room. They are aware of the existence of time machines, which have long been outlawed. The Time Traveler finds a society that appears to be a technocracy. He learns that in the early 21st century, the world's natural resources had become completely squandered, and the air was poisoned with pollution. A group of four scientists formed the "World Science Governing Board" to save the planet from ecological devastation. Power was handed over to them by all world governments, and they ushered in an era of peace and longevity. Unfortunately, conflict broke out one generation later when the children of the Founding Four tried to seize power instead of holding elections. The world split into two opposing forces, constantly at war. Suddenly, an alarm is sounded in the interrogation room. The opposing army was launching an attack. In the panic, one of the future men tries to steal the time machine, but the Time Traveler is able to hit him over the head with an iron bar he had used to fend off the Morlocks. The Time Traveler then returns to his own time. - The Time ShipsThe Time ShipsThe Time Ships is a 1995 science fiction novel by Stephen Baxter. A sequel to The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, it was officially authorized by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. It won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award and the Philip K. Dick Award in 1996, as...
, by Stephen BaxterStephen BaxterStephen Baxter is a prolific British hard science fiction author. He has degrees in mathematics and engineering.- Writing style :...
, first published in 1995. This sequel was officially authorised by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. In its wide-ranging narrative, the Traveller's desire to return and rescue Weena is thwarted by the fact that he has changed history (by telling his tale to his friends, one of whom published the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligent and cultured), he travels through the multiverseParallel universe (fiction)A parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
as increasingly complicated timelines unravel around him, eventually meeting mankind's far future descendants, whose ambition is to travel back to the birth of the universe, and modify the way the multiverse will unfold. This sequel includes many nods to the prehistory of Wells's story in the names of characters and chapters. - The 2003 short story "On the Surface" by Robert J. SawyerRobert J. SawyerRobert James Sawyer is a Canadian science fiction writer. He has had 20 novels published, and his short fiction has appeared in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Amazing Stories, On Spec, Nature, and many anthologies. Sawyer has won over forty awards for his fiction, including the Nebula Award ,...
begins with this quote from the Wells original: "I have suspected since that the Morlocks had even partially taken it [the time machine] to pieces while trying in their dim way to grasp its purpose." In the Sawyer story, the Morlocks develop a fleet of time machines and use them to conquer the same far future Wells depicted at the end of the original, by which time, because the sun has grown red and dim and thus no longer blinds them, they can reclaim the surface of the world. - Burt Libe wrote two sequels: Beyond the Time Machine (2005) and Tangles in Time (2005), telling of the Time Traveller finally settling down with Weena in the 33rd century. They have a few children, the youngest of whom is the main character in the second book.
- In 2006, Monsterwax Trading Cards combined The Time Machine with two of Wells's other stories, The Island of Dr. Moreau and The War of the Worlds. The resulting 102 card trilogy, by Ricardo GarijoRicardo GarijoRicardo Garijo is an award winning author and artist from Argentina, best known for his long career in comics.-Biography:Garijo became known outside his homeland in the early 1980s through his work at D. C...
, was entitled The Art of H. G. Wells. The continuing narrative links all three stories by way of an unnamed writer mentioned in Wells's first story, to the nephew of Ed Prendick (the narrator of Dr. Moreau), and another unnamed writer (narrator) in The War of the Worlds. - David Haden's novelette The Time Machine: a sequel (2010) is a direct sequel, picking up where the original finished. The Time Traveller goes back to rescue Weena, but finds the Eloi less simple than he first imagined, and time travel far more complicated.
- Simon Baxter's novel The British Empire: Psychic Battalions Against The Morlocks (2010) imagines a steampunkSteampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and speculative fiction that came into prominence during the 1980s and early 1990s. Steampunk involves a setting where steam power is still widely used—usually Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United...
/cyberpunkCyberpunkCyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
future in which the British EmpireBritish EmpireThe British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
has remained the dominant world force, until the Morlocks arrive from the future. - Omar McIntosh's short story Ripples of Suicide (2011) continues the theme of The Time Machine with a main character who goes insane before going back in time to kill his younger self.
- Hal ColebatchHal ColebatchSir Harry Pateshall Colebatch CMG , better known as Sir Hal Colebatch, was a long-serving and occasionally controversial figure in Western Australian politics...
's "Time-Machine Troopers" (2011)(Acashic publishers) is twice the length of the original. In it the time-traveller returns to the future world about 18 years after the time he escaped from the Morlocks, taking with him Robert Baden-Powell, the real-world founder of the Boy Scout movement. They set out to teach the Eloi self-reliance and self-defence against the Morlocks, but the morlocks capture them. H. G. Wells himself and Winston ChurchillWinston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
also feature as characters.
Comics
Classics Illustrated was the first to adapt The Time Machine into a comic bookComic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
format, issuing a US edition in July 1956. This was followed by Classiques Illustres (a French edition) in Dec 1957, and Classics Illustrated Strato Publications (Australian) in 1957, and Kuvitettuja Klassikkoja (a Finnish Edition) in November 1957. There were also Classics Illustrated Greek editions in 1976, Swedish in 1987, German in 1992 and 2001, and a Canadian reprint of the English edition in 2008. In 1979 Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
published a new version of The Time Machine, as No.2 in their Marvel Classic Comics series, with art by Alex Niño
Alex Niño
Alex Niño is a Filipino comic book artist best known for his work for the American publishers DC Comics, Marvel Comics, and Warren Publishing, and in Heavy Metal magazine.-Early life and career:...
. From April 1990 Eternity Comics
Eternity Comics
Eternity Comics was a California-based comic book publisher active from 1986 to 1994, first as an independent publisher, then as an imprint of Malibu Comics. Eternity published creator-owned comics of an offbeat, independent flavor, as well as some licensed properties...
published a three-issue mini-series adaptation of The Time Machine, written by Bill Spangler and illustrated by John Ross
John Ross (artist)
-Biography:Ross started working for Panini Comics in 1996, working on titles such as Masked Rider, Action Man and Spectacular Spider-Man...
- this later appeared as a collected trade-paperback graphic novel
Graphic novel
A graphic novel is a narrative work in which the story is conveyed to the reader using sequential art in either an experimental design or in a traditional comics format...
in 1991.
The Time Traveller
Although the Time Traveller's real name is never given in the original novel, other sources have named him.One popular theory, encouraged by movies like Time After Time
Time After Time (1979 film)
Time After Time is a 1979 American fantasy film written and directed by Nicholas Meyer. His screenplay is based largely on a novel by Karl Alexander and a story by Steve Hayes. It concerns British author H. G...
and certain episodes of the hit show Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, is that the Time Traveller is meant to be none other than H. G. Wells himself. Indeed, in the George Pal movie adaptation of The Time Machine
The Time Machine (1960 film)
The Time Machine is a 1960 American science fiction film based on the 1895 novel of the same name by H. G. Wells in which a man in Victorian England constructs a time-travelling machine which he uses to travel to the future...
, his name is given as George (also H. G. Wells's middle name). Due to the clarity of the DVD image, 'H. George. Wells' can be seen on the control panel of the device, having the audience suggest the character is Wells himself.
In Simon Wells's 2002 remake, the Time Traveler is named Alexander Hartdegen.
In The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequels to The Time Machine, the Time Traveller encounters his younger self via time travel, whom he nicknames 'Moses'. His younger self reacts with embarrassment to this.
"I held up my hand; I had an inspiration. "No. I will use - if you will permit -Moses." He took a deep pull on his brandy, and gazed at me with genuine anger in his grey eyes. "How do you know about that?" Moses - my hated first name, for which I had been endlessly tormented at school-and which I had kept a secret since leaving home!"
This is a reference to H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts
The Chronic Argonauts
"The Chronic Argonauts" is a short story written by H. G. Wells. First published by the Royal College of Science in 1888, it is the first well-developed use of a machine constructed to travel through time in science fiction, as it predates Wells's more famous time traveling novel, The Time...
", the story which grew into The Time Machine, in which the inventor of the Time Machine is named Dr. Moses Nebogipfel. (The surname of Wells's first inventor graces another character in Baxter's book, as explained above.)
The Hertford Manuscript, author Richard Cowper's sequel to The Time Machine, gives the Time Traveller's name as Robert James Pensley.
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is a fictional biography by Philip José Farmer about pulp fiction hero Doc Savage.The book is written with the assumption that Doc Savage was a real person. Kenneth Robeson, the author of the Doc Savage novels, is portrayed as writing fictionalized memoirs of the...
by Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
gives the Time Traveller's name as Bruce Clarke Wildman.
The Rook comic book series gives the Time Traveller's name as Adam Dane.
In the Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
comic strip story "The Eternal Present", the character of Theophilus Tolliver is implied to be the Time Traveller of Wells's novel.
Also featured in Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
is Wells, himself, appearing in the television serial Timelash
Timelash
Timelash is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in two weekly parts from 9–16 March 1985.-Synopsis:...
. The events of this story are portrayed has having inspired Wells to write The Time Machine.
The I.C.E. Role Playing Game Supplement Time Riders suggests that the Time Traveller's name is Asleigh Holmes. Furthermore, it suggests that the Time Traveller is actually a woman who disguised herself as a man during the male chauvenistic Victorian era. Also, she is said to be the sister of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
.
See also
- PosthumanPosthumanPosthuman may refer to:*Posthuman, a hypothetical future being whose basic capacities so radically exceed those of present humans as to be no longer human by our current standards...
- Human extinctionHuman extinctionHuman extinction is the end of the human species. Various scenarios have been discussed in science, popular culture, and religion . The scope of this article is existential risks. Humans are very widespread on the Earth, and live in communities which are capable of some kind of basic survival in...
- List of time travel science fiction
- The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume TwoThe Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume TwoThe Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time is an anthology edited by Ben Bova. It honors works published prior to the institution of the Nebula Awards in 1965...
, an anthology of the greatest science fiction novellaNovellaA novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
s prior to 1965, as judged by the Science Fiction Writers of America