# Examples of "Connecticut Yankee" genre **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 2, 2010, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690 "2010-12-02T18:17:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/21 "2010-12-03T13:37:44Z")
Do books like _Replay_ by Ken Grimwood (already mentioned in this thread) count? It’s an example of internal time travel. That’s when someone suddenly finds themselves back in their own body of several years before, but they keep the memory of the times that they have already experienced. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/22 "2010-12-03T15:55:32Z")
If you’ve never seen the original kids show _Land of the Lost_ it could actually qualify. It was way ahead of its time and could easily have been tweaked into adult fare. “Marshall, Will and Holly, on a routine expedition” are transported into a parallel universe, how exactly they get there not being particularly important (though it has to do with “the greatest earthquake ever known”). Since it’s a self contained universe it’s not exactly time travel, but dinosaurs and nascently sentient hominids that could be from Earth’s past are there as well as a highly evolved reptile-human and his devolved descendants and energy beings and even a Confederate soldier who was also transported there all co-exist, though not peacefully, and amidst it all the vestiges of the lost great intelligence that created the place. Had they gone for a modern special effects updating for adults instead of the Will Ferrell comedy abortion it could have been a sci-fi/fantasy classic. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/23 "2010-12-03T15:57:23Z")
The movie _Time After Time_, with Jack the Ripper and H G Wells going to 1970’s San Francisco in Wells’s time machine. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/24 "2010-12-03T16:00:06Z")
“Lt. Gulliver Jones” by Edwin Lester Arnold, in which the protagonist rides a flying carpet that has crash-landed on Earth (killing the hapless Martian flyer) back to Mars. This is possibly the inspiration for Burroughs “John Carter of Mars” series. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/25 "2010-12-03T16:15:43Z")
Listen up you primitive screw-heads! 24 posts before someone mentions **Army of Darkness**? Also \*\*Black Knight \*\*(film) starring Martin Lawrence. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2010, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/26 "2010-12-03T16:17:15Z")
> [@Renifer](#): > > Does it only work if they go back in time? What if they accidentally move forward in time? If so, Futurama would fit, because, throughout the first couple of seasons, Fry is injecting his twentieth century customs into the thirtieth century. He also went back in time and became his own grandfather! ---
**Author:** ![code\_grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f4b2a3/32.png) [@code\_grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/code_grey)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/27 "2010-12-05T00:12:01Z")
“The Man Who Came Early” by Poul Anderson [The Man Who Came Early - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Came_Early) ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/28 "2010-12-05T00:27:54Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Listen up you primitive screw-heads! 24 posts before someone mentions **Army of Darkness**? Nah, it only took 9. Harry Turtledove does this a lot eh? There’s also _Household Gods_, a lawyer sent back to ancient Rome to inhabit the body of one of her ancestors. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/29 "2010-12-05T07:56:06Z")
There was an episode that parodied the concept the Disney Channel show _Dave the Barbarian_. The guy accidentally winds up in the past, but also has a bit of technology with him. The parody is that he tries to set himself up as a god, but no one believes him. Either he can’t get the stuff to work, it’s viewed as useless, or there’s an old-time equivalent. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 8:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/30 "2010-12-05T08:01:20Z")
“Behold the Man” by Michael Moorcock. > **[Behold the Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behold_the_man)** > > Behold the Man may refer to: > [@](#): > > In the novel, Moorcock weaves an existentialist tale about Karl Glogauer, a man who travels from the year 1970 in a time machine to 28 AD, where he hopes to meet the historical Jesus of Nazareth. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/31 "2010-12-05T10:51:09Z")
_The Country of the Blind_, by H.G. Wells sort of turns this genre on its head. A sighted guy winds up in an isolated culture (in South America somewhere) where everybody is blind. He thinks he will be able to become their king, but fails, and is frustrated when none of them will take his accounts of stuff he can see seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/32 "2010-12-05T18:05:20Z")
There are a number of books that involve time-traveling “safaris” with the past as a tourist attraction. “Vintage Season,” by C. L. Moore is an early version of this. Robert Silverberg wrote a sequel novella and they were published together as a Tor Double as _In Another Country/Vintage Season_. Silverberg is also the author of the classic _Up the Line_, which is a great romp through several historic pasts. John Kessel’s _Corrupting Dr. Nice_ is a dark humor version. And this [documentary](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192175/). The names were changed to protect the originals, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/33 "2010-12-05T18:27:19Z")
There’s the 60s TV show [It’s About Time](http://www.tvparty.com/recits.html) ---
**Author:** ![N9IWP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/n9iwp/32/3154_2.png) [@N9IWP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N9IWP)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/34 "2010-12-05T22:21:08Z")
There is the Wizardty series by Rick Cook - software developers use programming to cast spells. > **[Rick Cook](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Cook)** > > Rick Cook may refer to: Brian ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2010, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/35 "2010-12-05T22:44:01Z")
I feel we’re drifting a little out of the genre. Time travel is often involved in these books but they’re not regular time travel stories. They’re more about people who had no intention of traveling through time (or even awareness that time travel was possible). I’m looking more for stories where the characters get stranded in time. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/36 "2010-12-06T13:01:55Z")
Apart from the 1632 series by **Eric Flint** that’s already been mentioned, there’s his [Timespike](http://www.amazon.com/Time-Spike-Ring-Fire-Flint/dp/1439133123/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291639193&sr=8-1), which is separate but related, in which an entire high security prison (among other people and things) ends up back in prehistoric America… Or **James F. David** wrote [Thunder of Time](http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Thunder-James-F-David/dp/0330355651/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1291639577&sr=1-1), in which whole areas of the earth’s surface swap places with earlier eras so that there’s a patchwork effect. All sorts of prehistoric eras are now represented in the present time and their displaced current time areas are scattered all across prehistory, back to before the age of the dinosaurs! The plotlines follow both people stranded back in time, and people still in the present exploring the ‘new’ areas that have appeared (complete with dinos, etc.) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/37 "2010-12-07T02:33:41Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > There was an episode that parodied the concept the Disney Channel show _Dave the Barbarian_. The guy accidentally winds up in the past, but also has a bit of technology with him. > The parody is that he tries to set himself up as a god, but no one believes him. Either he can’t get the stuff to work, it’s viewed as useless, or there’s an old-time equivalent. Sounds kind of similar to [The Flying Sorcerers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Sorcerers) by David Gerrold and Larry Niven, although that was a space traveler stuck on a primitive planet. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/38 "2010-12-07T03:28:22Z")
Heinlein’s “By His Bootstraps” sort of belongs to this genre. A guy is transported in time from more or less the present day to a future where everyone (especially the women!) are beautiful and compliant, and becomes their ruler, with, in effect, a harem of beautiful and willing slaves, under the name “Diktor.” He does not have much difficulty in establishing his dominance, though, because no-one in the future seems to have any will of their own, and his own future self helps him set things up. The main interest of the story (apart from the blatant wish-fulfillment aspects, as so common in Heinlein) lies in the temporal paradoxes through which the hero somehow brings about his own travel through time using a time machine that is yet to be invented. ---
**Author:** ![Sealemon2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@Sealemon2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sealemon2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/39 "2010-12-07T04:39:49Z")
"\*\*The High Crusade \*\*by Poul Anderson is similar in substance: a group of knights heading off to the Hundred Years War are attacked by advanced aliens and manage to defeat them, after which they take the spaceship to fight against the alien empire. " Sounds like \*\*Ranks Of Bronze \*\*by David Drake, except with a Roman Legion, and they’re press-ganged by aliens. > **[Ranks of Bronze](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranks_of_Bronze)** > > Ranks of Bronze is a science fiction novel by American writer David Drake. > A defeated Roman legion is sold into slavery to alien traders seeking low tech soldiers to be used in conflicts to secure trading rights on alien planets. Their new masters soon learn that the Romans are the best low tech fighters that can be found. Given their worth as soldiers and success on the battlefield, the Romans' alien masters provide them with everything, including near immortality. However, the Romans want only... Both Marvel and Dc Comics have done the stranded in time idea, with Captain America and Batman, respectively. Since it’s the comics, they both got better. David Weber’s \*\*Heirs Of Empire \*\*has a somewhat similar concept: Several characters from an extremely high tech society spend most of the book stranded on a primitive planet (muskets and pikes) and wind up sparking a religious war. As far as getting stranded in the past, how about **Back To The Future** , where the protagonist introduces Rock and Roll and skateboards? As far as getting stranded in the future and not knowing how (until the final scene), how about **Planet Of The Apes**? ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690/40 "2010-12-07T13:58:37Z")
> [@code\_grey](#): > > “Ethical Engineer” by Harry Harrison. It’s not time travel per se, but very similar - the highly technically competent guy ends up on a feudal planet with some remnants of industrial civilization and tries to build up a more high tech empire out of one of the existing states. And, IIRC, contains one of my favorite exchanges: “Are you a magician?” “No, mechanic. On this world it’s the same thing.” (might be “engineer” rather than “mechanic”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-connecticut-yankee-genre/562690.md?page=1)