The Time Machine Resources

Who doesn't like pictures?

Though Verne and Wells might have enjoyed each other's work, they had famously different ways of approaching science in their science fiction. This is captured nicely in this comic by Kate Beaton.

This has some nice visuals, but the story is less than faithful to the book. Most of the changes made seem to have more to do with the anxieties of the 1960s, like nuclear war and mental control, than the 1890s.

Not exactly faithful – in one trip to the past, the Time Traveller almost gets burned as a witch – but they do add the interesting wrinkle that the future has been destroyed by one of the Time Traveller's other inventions.

The time passing sequences are worth checking out, and there's one or two sort of interesting changes (the Time Traveller is traveling because the love of his life died). But generally this is the least faithful movie adaptation.

In an earlier version of this novel, the Time Traveller stops after escaping from the Morlocks and discovers some other weird animals. Wells eventually cut this scene, which he didn't seem to like very much.

Here's a map of London and its suburbs in 1897. You can track the Time Traveller's journey on it to see how far he goes. (You can also see how far the Thames River moves.)

Jacob Riis documented and photographed the lives of the poor in New York City in 1890. It's not London, but this might give you some idea of the conditions Wells is talking about when he says the working class has no access to the sky.

Wells wrote an early version of The Time Machine while he was still in school. It's radically different, but the time travel idea is still there.

Time-lapse video of coastal erosion – a short version of what the Time Traveller likely saw on his trip to the future.

See how many differences you can spot between the book and the movie just from watching the trailer.

The Eloi speak English in this version, and Jeremy Irons is a Morlock leader. It doesn't make much sense.

At least the time-passage sequences are pretty good.

Old-time radio versions of The Time Machine on the science fiction show Escape. Here are links to both the 1948 and 1950 versions (though the script is the same for both).

Note that this Time Machine has a seat, whereas in the book, the seat is described as a saddle. This probably means a bike seat, since biking was big at the time.

Promising "Futuristic Metrocolor."

The Sphinx's wings are up, not out, but isn't it interesting that they chose to put the Sphinx on the cover?