# Let's talk about time machines.............. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 15, 2019, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158 "2019-03-15T01:38:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/81 "2019-03-25T02:50:44Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Sounds like Lisa Mason’s [_Summer of Love_](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Love_(novel)). Yep. When I google “knuckletop” and “science fiction” I get “Summer of Love” [Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Summer of Love](https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Love-Lisa-Mason/product-reviews/0553373307?pageNumber=2)" ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/82 "2019-03-25T12:23:26Z")
Well I’ll be! Thanks! Now I’ll have to look up a copy. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/83 "2019-03-25T15:25:37Z")
How about the time machine from the movie _ **Detention** _ (2011)? It’s built into a bear. Not a teddy bear…a full-size taxidermied bear that serves as a school mascot. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/84 "2019-03-25T15:31:45Z")
Does the cave in **Dark** count as a time _machine_? ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/85 "2019-03-25T17:40:47Z")
The restaurant from the book _Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill_. I liked that people would wander in after it arrived and just assume they hadn’t noticed it before. It did have the drawback of being powered by a nuclear explosion. It had to be juuust the right distance from the bomb. Also, if a bomb dropped nearby when you weren’t in the restaurant you got left behind. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/86 "2019-03-26T16:15:42Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Does the cave in **Dark** count as a time _machine_? I gave that some thought myself when I watched it, and I would classify it more as a wormhole. Or, more specifically, as three wormholes which appear to intersect. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/87 "2019-03-26T17:35:04Z")
I remember a story from Asimov’s where the main character was a “Time Detective” whose machine was disguised as, of all things, a trash can. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/88 "2019-03-26T18:24:18Z")
> [@E-DUB](#): > > I remember a story from Asimov’s where the main character was a “Time Detective” whose machine was disguised as, of all things, a trash can. Three stories about that character (whose name was Ben Hardy) appeared in Asimov’s, all by Warren Salomon [Summary Bibliography: Warren Salomon](http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/ea.cgi?11436) Time & Punishment Time on My Hands As Time Goes By ---
**Author:** ![Tapiotar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3be4f8/32.png) [@Tapiotar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapiotar)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2019, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/89 "2019-03-26T18:41:33Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > One of the more popular Time Machines is Nothing At All. This is different from Time Machines that simply deposit you at your destination (as with the Skynet machine in the _Terminator_ series). The Nothing At All Time Machine doesn’t have any moving parts, or even tangible parts. It’s often, in fact, a State of Mind. > > Hark Morgan didn’t need any device to travel back to King Arthur’s Britain in Mark Twain’s **a Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court**. > > Martin Padway just got hit by a lightning bolt, or something, in L. Sprague de Camp’s **Lest Darkness Fall**. > > Jack Finney’s "Time Machine’ is just a big ol’ building where you can immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the place and era you want to go to, and just sort of _will_ yourself through time. I don’t know why, but I find this particularly stupid and annoying. He used it in **Time and Again** (1970) and **From Time to Time** ] (1995) **Somewhere in Time** falls into the “State of Mind” category. Hypnosis assisted by artifacts from the desired time to create atmosphere. Also to help you get by once you arrive. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/90 "2019-03-27T01:42:04Z")
See also Heinlein’s “Elsewhen”, though IIRC that has specially-made phonograph records to help with the hypnosis. Fascinating that the same guy could write such a terrible time-travel story and such wonderful ones as “By His Own Bootstraps” and “All You Zombies”. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/91 "2019-03-27T01:52:41Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > See also Heinlein’s “Elsewhen”, though IIRC that has specially-made phonograph records to help with the hypnosis. > > Fascinating that the same guy could write such a terrible time-travel story and such wonderful ones as “By His Own Bootstraps” and “All You Zombies”. “Elsewhen” isn’t really a time-travel story, though. The people end up in alternate universes with no temporal connection to each other (and which, given how well they fit the individuals who go to them, might as well have been created by the thoughts of those people, rather than being pre-existing). ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/92 "2019-03-27T16:58:38Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > I don’t remember either “most consistently thought out” or “satisfying to Chronos” as being criteria for the topic. Just “favorite”. In this case, my favorite. You’d like [Rainbow Mars](https://www.amazon.com/Rainbow-Mars-Larry-Niven/dp/0312867778), if you haven’t read it already. I didn’t think it was one of his best, but I didn’t hate it like the first few reviewers did on that Amazon link. I have used the metaphor of the Secretary-General from the Universe, when talking with people about how best to lobby during the Trump Administration… EDIT: For the OP, I liked the space dreadnought wrapped around a quantum black hole from Charles Stross’s, Singularity Sky. Just have to make sure you don’t violate causality within the Eschaton’s historic light cone… ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/93 "2019-03-27T17:36:39Z")
One thing that always bugged me: a polaroid was taken including Randall, Fidgit, Strutter, Og, Wally and Vermin holding up the map of the time holes. As far as I can tell, the picture was not destroyed, so Kevin would have had a copy of the map. Apparently a _Time Bandits_ sequel was planned, perhaps based on that picture, but indefinitely shelved due to deaths of some actors. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/94 "2019-03-27T23:11:22Z")
All the talk of the Tardis and its malfunctioning chameleon circuit reminded me of another one, the Magic Schoolbus. (because of _course_ Ms. Frizzle is a Time Lady; doesn’t everyone know that?) ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2019, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/95 "2019-03-27T23:24:09Z")
She’s clearly River Song, in fact. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2019, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158/96 "2019-03-28T04:22:20Z")
I’d like to mention Terry Pratchett’s “Johnny And The Bomb” where the time “machine” was an apparenty homeless old ladies shopping cart full of mysterious trash bags - “Bags o’ Time” as she called them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-talk-about-time-machines/831158.md?page=4)