The Time Machine is a Science Fiction Novella by H

8/9/2019 The Time Machine is a Science Fiction Novella by H

1/10

The Time Machine is a science fictionnovella by H. G. Wells, published in 1895 for the firsttime and later adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two televisionversions, and a large number ofcomic bookadaptations. It indirectly inspired many more worksoffiction in many media. This 32,000 word story is generally credited with the popularisation ofthe concept oftime 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 avehicle. Wells introduces an early example of the Dying Earth subgenre as well.

Contents

[hide]

y 1 Historyy 2 Plot summary

o 2.1 Deleted texty 3 Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

o 3.1 First adaptationo 3.2 Escape Radio broadcastso 3.3 1960 filmo 3.4 The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Palo 3.5 1978 TV movieo 3.6 1994 audio dramao 3.7 2002 filmo 3.8 2009 BBC Radio 3 broadcasto 3.9 Wishbone episode

y 4 Sequels by other authorsy 5 The Time Travellery 6 See alsoy 7 Footnotesy 8 External links

[edit] History

Wells had considered the notion oftime travel before, in an earlier (but less well-known) worktitled The Chronic Argonauts. He had thought of using some of this material in a series ofarticles in thePall 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 on its publication byHeinemann in 1895. The story was first published in serial form in the New Review through 1894and 1895. The book is based on the Block Theory of the Universe, which is a notion that time isa fourth space dimension.

The story reflects Wells's own socialist political views and the contemporary angst aboutindustrial relations. It is also influenced by Ray Lankester's theories about social degeneration[1].


2/10

Other science fiction works of the period, including Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, andthe laterMetropolis, dealt with similar themes.

[edit] Plot summary

The book'sprotagonist is an English scientist and gentleman inventorliving in Richmond,Surrey, identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts theTraveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension, and hisdemonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it. He reveals that he has builta machine capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount aremarkable tale, becoming the new narrator:

The Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to the yearA.D. 802,701,where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, androgynous, and childlike people. Theylive in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing nowork and having a frugivorous diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their

lack of curiosity or discipline, and he concludes that they are a peaceful communist society, theresult of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to anenvironment 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, andeventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structurewith heavy doors, locked from the inside. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by theMorlocks, pale, apelike people who live in darkness underground, where he discovers themachinery 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 becomethe ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the brutish light-fearing

Morlocks. Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlocktunnels, learning that theyfeed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is notone of lords and servants but of livestock and ranchers, and with no real challenges facing eitherspecies. They have both lost the intelligence and character of Man at its peak.

Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning, and they develop an innocentlyaffectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on anexpedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds afresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he fears he mustfight to get back his machine. But the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too muchfor them, they are overcome by Morlocks in the night, and Weena is injured. The Traveller

escapes only when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up tothem as a forest fire; Weena is lost to the fire.

The Morlocks use the time machine as bait to ensnare the Traveller, not understanding that hewill 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-likecreatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches of a world covered in simple vegetation. Hecontinues to make short jumps through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun


3/10

grow dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things dieout.

Overwhelmed, he returns to his laboratory, at just three hours after he originally left. Interruptingdinner, 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 returnedto 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 ofever learning what became of him.

[edit] Deleted text

A section from the 11th chapter of the serial published inNew Review (May, 1895) was deletedfrom the book. It was drafted at the suggestion of Wells's editor, William Ernest Henley, whowanted Wells to "oblige your editor" by lengthening out the text with, among other things, anillustration 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' intothe tale. But the writer was in reaction from that sort of thing, the Henley interpolations were cutout again, and he had his own way with his text." [2] This portion of the story was publishedelsewhere as The Grey Man. This deleted text was also published by Forrest J. Ackerman in anissue of the American edition ofPerry 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, hoppingherbivores. He stuns or kills one with a rock, and upon closer examination realises they areprobably the descendants of humans/Eloi/Morlocks. A gigantic, centipede-like arthropodapproaches and the Traveller flees into the next day, finding that the creature has apparently

eaten the tiny humanoid.

[edit] Film, TV, or theatrical adaptations

[edit] First adaptation

The first visual adaptation of the book was a live teleplay broadcast from Alexandra Palace on 25January 1949 by the BBC, which starred Russell Napieras the Time Traveller and Mary Donn asWeena. No recording of this live broadcast was made; the only record of the production is thescript and a few black and white still photographs. A reading of the script, however, suggests thatthis teleplay remained fairly faithful to the book.[citation needed]

[edit] Escape Radio broadcasts

The CBS radio anthology Escape 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 wasused. The Time Traveller was named Dudley and was accompanied by his skeptical friendFowler as they travelled to the year 100,080.


4/10

[edit] 1960 film

Main article: The Time Machine (1960 film)

George Pal (who also made a famous 1953 "modernised" version of Wells's The War ofthe

Worlds) filmed The Time Machine in 1960. Rod Taylor(The Birds) starred, along with YvetteMimieux as the young Eloi, Weena, Alan Young as his closest friend David Filby (and, in 1917and 1966, his son James Filby), Sebastian Cabot as Dr Hillyer, Whit Bissell as Walter Kemp andDoris Lloyd as his housekeeper Mrs Watchett. The Time Traveller is addressed as George. Theplate on the Time Machine which he builds, is inscribed 'Manufactured by H. George Wells'.This is clearly visible and easily read whenever the date indicator panel is shown in the film. Thelocation is not stated anymore precisely than in the south of England, but is near a sharp bend ofthe riverThames, so is presumably still Richmond, Surrey.

This is more of an adventure tale than the book was; The story begins with the Time Travellerreturning from his trip, unkempt and in disarray. He relates to his friends of what he has

witnessed: wars' horrors first-hand in June, 1940 over London and a nuclear bomb in August,1966. Travelling to 802,701 A.D., he finds world has settled into a vast garden. He meets thepacifist, illiterate and servile Eloi, who speak broken English, and have little interest intechnology or the past. Their brethren from long ago, the Morlocks, however, althoughtechnologically competent, have devolved into cannibalistic underground workers. He deducesthe division of mankind resulted from mutations induced by nuclear war- periodic air-raid sirenscause Weena and many Eloi to instinctively report to underground shelters run by the Morlocks.The Time Traveller goes down to rescue them, and encourages a leader among them to helpthem escape. Having escaped, and after throwing dead wood into the holes on the surface to feeda growing underground fire, they retreat to the river as underground explosions cause a cave-in.After getting to his machine, he is trapped behind a closed door with several Morlocks, whom he

has to fight in order to escape. Battered, he makes it back to his scheduled dinner the next FridayJanuary 5, 1900.

After relating his story, the Time Traveller leaves for a second journey, but Filby and MrsWatchett note that he had taken three books from the shelves in his drawing room. Filbycomments that George must've had a plan for a new Eloi civilisation. "Which three books wouldyou have taken?" Filby inquires to Mrs. Watchett, adding " ... he has all the time in the world."

The film is noted for its then-novel use oftime lapse photographic effects to show the worldaround the Time Traveller changing at breakneck speed as he travels through time. (Pal's earliestfilms had been works of stop-motion animation.)

Thirty-three years later, a combination sequel/documentary Time Machine: The Journey Back(1993 film), directed by Clyde Lucas, was produced. Rod Taylor hosted, with Bob Burns (alsoEx Producer), Gene Warren Sr. and Wah Chang as guests. Michael J. Fox (who had himselfportrayed a time traveller in theBack to the Future trilogy) spoke about time travelling ingeneral. In the second half, written by original screenwriterDavid Duncan, the movie's originalactors Rod Taylor, Alan Young and Whit Bissell reprise their roles. The Time Traveller returnsto his laboratory in 1916, finding Filby there, and encourages his friend to join him in the far


5/10

future but Filby has doubts. (Time Machine: The Journey Backis featured as an extra on theDVD release of the 1960 film).

[edit] The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal

Main article: The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal

This film, produced and directed by Arnold Leibovit, is a biopic ofGeorge Pal. It contains anumber of filmed elements from Pal's 1960 film version of The Time Machine.

[edit] 1978 TV movie

A TV version was made in 1978, with time-lapse images of building walls being de-constructed,and geographic shifting from Los Angeles to Plymouth, Mass., and inland California. John Beckstarred as Neil Perry, with Whit Bissell (from the original 1960 movie and also one of the starsof the 1966 television series The Time Tunnel) appearing as one of Perry's superiors. Though

only going a few thousand years into the future, Perry finds the world of the Eloi and Morlocks,and learns the world he left will be destroyed by another of his own inventions. The characterWeena was played by Priscilla Barnes ofThree's Company fame.

[edit] 1994 audio drama

In 1994 an audio drama was published on CD by Alien Voices, starring Leonard Nimoy as theTime 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 approximatelytwo hours long. Interestingly, this version of the story is more faithful to Wells's novella thaneither the 1960 movie or the 2002 movie.

[edit] 2002 film

Main article: The Time Machine (2002 film)

The 1960 film was remade in 2002, starring Guy Pearce as the Time Traveller, a mechanicalengineering professor named Alexander Hartdegen, Mark Addy as his colleague David Filby,Sienna Guillory as Alex's ill-fated fiance Emma, Phyllida Law as Mrs. Watchit, and JeremyIrons as the uber-Morlock. Playing a quick cameo as a shopkeeper was Alan Young, whofeatured in the 1960 film. (H.G. Wells himself can also be said to have a "cameo" appearance, inthe 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 plotthat incorporated the ideas ofparadoxes and changing the past. The place is changed fromRichmond, Surrey, to downtownNew York City, where the Time Traveller moves forward intime to find answers to his questions on 'Practical Application of Time Travel;' first in 2030 NewYork, to witness an orbital lunar catastrophe in 2037, before moving on to 802,701 for the mainplot. He later briefly finds himself in 635,427,810 with toxic clouds and a world laid waste


6/10


7/10

Wells's novella has become one of the cornerstones of science-fiction literature. As a result, ithas spawned many offspring. Works expanding on Wells's story include:

y The Return ofthe Time Machine by Egon Friedell, printed in 1972, from the 1946German version. The author portrays himself as a character searching for the Time

Traveller in different eras.

y The Hertford Manuscriptby Richard Cowper, first published in 1976. It features a"manuscript" which reports the Time Traveller's activities after the end of the originalstory. According to this manuscript, the Time Traveller disappeared because his TimeMachine had been damaged by the Morlocks without him knowing it. He only found outwhen it stopped operating during his next attempted time travel. He found himself onAugust 27, 1665, in London during the outbreak of the Great Plague of London. The restof the novel is devoted to his efforts to repair the Time Machine and leave this timeperiod before getting infected with the disease. He also has an encounter with RobertHooke. He eventually dies of the disease on September 20, 1665. The story gives a list of

subsequent owners of the manuscript until 1976. It also gives the name of the TimeTraveller as Robert James Pensley, born to James and Martha Pensley in 1850 anddisappearing without trace on June 18, 1894.

y Morlock Nightby K.W. Jeter, first published in 1979. A steampunknovel in which theMorlocks, having studied the Traveller's machine, duplicate it and invade VictorianLondon.

y The Space Machine by Christopher Priest, first published in 1976. Because of themovement of planets, stars and galaxies, for a time machine to stay in one spot on Earthas it travels through time, it must also follow the Earth's trajectory through space. In

Priest's book, the hero damages the Time Machine, and arrives on Mars, just before thestart of the invasion described in The War ofthe Worlds. H.G. Wells himself appears as aminor character.

y Time Machine IIby George Pal and Joe Morhaim, published in 1981. The TimeTraveller, named George, and the pregnant Weena try to return to his time, but insteadland in the London Blitz, dying during a bombing raid. Their newborn son is rescued byan American ambulance driver, and grows up in the United States under the nameChristopher Jones. Sought out by the lookalike son of James Filby, Jones goes to Englandto collect his inheritance, leading ultimately to George's journals, and the Time Machine'soriginal plans. He builds his own machine with 1970s upgrades, and seeks his parents inthe future.

y The Great Illustrated Classics adaptation of Wells' novel (published in 1992) faithfullyabridges the original, but adds one additional destination to the Time Traveler'sadventure. Before returning home to his own time, the Time Traveler stops the machinethree hundred years in the future, or approximately the year2200 AD. Upon his arrival,he is quickly drugged with a truth serum by a group of men who meet him and is usheredinto an interrogation room. They are aware of the existence of time machines, which have


8/10

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 becomecompletely squandered, and the air was poisoned with pollution. A group of fourscientists formed the "World Science Governing Board" to save the planet fromecological 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 onegeneration later when the children of the Founding Four tried to seize power instead ofholding 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 anattack. In the panic, one of the future men tries to steal the time machine, but the TimeTraveler is able to hit him over the head with an iron bar he had used to fend off theMorlocks. The Time Traveler then returns to his own time.

y The Time Ships, by Stephen Baxter, first published in 1995. This sequel was officiallyauthorised by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original's publication. In itswide-ranging narrative, the Traveler'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 whompublished the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligentand cultured), he travels through the multiverse as increasingly complicated timelinesunravel around him, eventually meeting mankind's far future descendants, whoseambition is to travel into the multiverse of multiverses.[clarification needed] This sequelincludes many nods to the prehistory of Wells's story in the names of characters andchapters.

y The 2003 short story "On the Surface" by Robert J. Sawyerbegins with this quote fromthe 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 theSawyer story, the Morlocks develop a fleet of time machines and use them to conquer thesame far future Wells depicted at the end of the original, by which time, because the sunhas grown red and dim and thus no longer blinds them, they can reclaim the surface ofthe world.

y The Man Who Loved Morlocks 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. Lake.Each of them concerns the Time Traveller's return to the future. In the former, hediscovers that he cannot enter any period in time he has already visited, forcing him totravel in to the further future, where he finds love with a woman whose race evolvedfrom Morlock stock. In the latter, he is accompanied by Wells, and succeeds in rescuingWeena and bringing her back to the 1890s, where her political ideas cause a peacefulrevolution.

y In Michael Moorcock'sDancers at the End ofTime series, the Time Traveller is a veryminor character, his role consists of being shocked by the decadence of the inhabitants ofthe End of Time. H.G. Wells also appears briefly in this series when the characters visitBromley in 1896.


9/10

y The Time Traveller makes a brief appearance inAllan and the Sundered Veil, a back-upstory appearing in the first volume ofAlan Moore and Kevin O'Neill's The League ofExtraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I, where he saves Allan Quatermain, John CarterandRandolph Carterfrom a horde ofMorlocks.

yThe time-travelling hero known as "The Rook" (who appeared in various comics fromWarren Publishing) is the grandson of the original Time Traveller. In one story, he metthe Time Traveller, and helps him stop the Morlocks from wiping out the Eloi.

y Philip Jos Farmerspeculated that the Time Traveller was a member of the Wold Newtonfamily. He is said to have been the great-uncle ofDoc Savage.

y Burt Libe wrote two sequels:Beyond the Time Machine and Tangles in Time, telling ofthe Time Traveller finally settling down with Weena in the 33rd century. They have afew children, the youngest of whom is the main character in the second book.

yIn 2006, Monsterwax Trading Cards combined The Time Machine with two of Wells'sother stories, The Island ofDr. Moreau and The War ofthe Worlds. The resulting 102card trilogy, by Ricardo Garijo, was entitled The Art ofH. G. Wells.[4] The continuingnarrative links all three stories by way of an unnamed writer mentioned in Wells's firststory, to the nephew of Ed Prendick (the narrator ofDr. Moreau), and another unnamedwriter (narrator) in The War ofthe Worlds.

y In Ronald Wright's novelA Scientific Romance, a lonely museum curator on the eve ofthe millennium discovers a letter written by Wells shortly before his death, foretelling theimminent return of the Time Machine. The curator finds the machine, then uses it totravel into a post-apocalyptic future.

[edit] The Time Traveller

Although the Time Traveller's real name is never given in the original novel, other sources havenamed him.

One popular theory, encouraged by movies like Time After Time and certain episodes of the hitshow Lois and Clark: The New Adventures ofSuperman, is that the Time Traveller is meant tobe none other than H. G. Wells himself. Indeed, in the George Pal movie adaptation ofThe TimeMachine, his name is given as George (also H. G. Wells's middle name). Due to the clarity of theDVD image, 'H.G. Wells' can be seen on the control panel of the device, making it obvious that

the film's Time Traveller is H.G. Wells.

In Simon Wells's 2002 remake, the Time Traveller is named Alexander Hartdegen.

In The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter's sequels to The Time Machine, the Time Travellerencounters his younger self via time travel, who he nicknames 'Moses'. His younger self reactswith embarrassment to this. "I held up my hand; I had an inspiration. "No. I will use - if you willpermit-Moses." He took a deep pull on his brandy, and gazed at me with genuine anger in his


10/10

gray eyes. "How do you know about that?"Moses - my hated first name, for which I had beenendlessly tormented at school-and which I had kept a secret since leaving home!" [5] This is areference to H.G. Wells's story "The Chronic Argonauts", the story which grew into The TimeMachine, in which the inventor of the Time Machine is named Dr. Moses Nebogipfel. (Thesurname of Wells's first inventor graces another character in Baxter's book, as explained above.)

The Hartford Manuscript, another sequel to The Time Machine, gives the Time Traveller's nameas Robert James Pensley.

Doc Savage: His ApocalypticLife by Philip Jos Farmergives the Time Traveller's name asBruce Clarke Wildman.

The Rookcomic 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 Tolliveris implied to be the Time Traveller of Wells's novel.

Also featured in Doctor Who is Wells, himself, appearing in the television serial Timelash. Theevents of this story are portrayed has having inspired Wells to write The Time Machine.

[edit] See also

y Posthumany Human extinctiony List of time travel science fictiony The Science Fiction Hall ofFame, Volume Two, an anthology of the greatest science

fiction novellas prior to 1965, as judged by the Science Fiction Writers of America

[edit] Footnotes

1. ^"Man Of The Year Million". Mikejay.net. http://mikejay.net/articles/man-of-the-year-million/. Retrieved 2010-07-07.

2. ^ John R. Hammond,H. G. Wells's The Time Machine: A Reference Guide (GreenwoodPublishing Group, 2004), pg. 50.

3. ^"BBC Radio 3 website". Bbc.co.uk. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hr4hq.Retrieved 2010-07-07.

4. ^"The Art of H.G.Wells (3 part) trading card series...the end of the epic? The TimeMachine, Island of Dr. Moreau, War of the Worlds". Members.tripod.com. 2008-01-01.http://members.tripod.com/TheWrapper/wellscards.html. Retrieved 2010-07-07.

5. ^ Stephen Baxter, The Time Ships (HarperPrism, 1995), Pg 137.

Documents

The Time Machine is a Science Fiction Novella by H