The Time Machine - Capable - P. A. Nolte

1/ Filby stands on George's doorstep.  He's wrapped up in scarf and coat, but carries his hat.  George's clothes are in rags, and though he has had a full evening's food and drink, he's still haggard from his journey.

Filby: I do hope, believing that your story is indeed true, that the Eloi have taken up capable hands.

2/ Flashback.  An Eloi male, looking out across a field of Morlocks who are whipping and herding his people.  He is making a shaky fist for the first time.

3/ Flashback.  An Eloi female, Weena, swings a torch, setting a Morlock on fire as she clubs the hairy beast.

4/ Flashback.  The Eloi together, nearly back to back.  The male's hands are both now up in fists like a brawler.  They're bloodied, but he seems to be enjoying himself.  Weena is likewise invigorated, wielding the torch with both hands like a baseball bat.  Morlocks approach from all sides.

5/ George leans against the doorframe, staring absent-mindedly out into the night.

George: I certainly attempted to dissuade them from the ridiculous notion that they they had no past and no future, only the blissful, unaware haze of their prohibitively leisure-filled present.

George: One can only hope that things are indeed, as you say, in capable hands.

The Time Machine - An Unexpected Future - Perry Kent

 

Panel 1

The Traveler steps off of the time machine, power still glowing through it. Instead of the uptight 19^th century gentleman's parlor that he left, he now stands in a four story tall ice cave that dazzles as the light from the lamp of his time machines bounces around. Hues of brilliant colors dance and ricochet off the walls and the Traveler's mouth falls agape at the wonder of it all.

1. TRAVELER: When I bumped the machine I must have sent myself back to an ice age, when England was swallowed by massive glaciers.

Panel 2

The Traveler leans over the controls to take a look at the time machines dial.

2. TRAVELER: Oh no.

3. TRAVELER: No, no, no.

Panel 3

The Traveler sits down heavily in the seat of the machine, a look of shock on his face.

4. TRAVELER: I didn't go back...

Panel 4

The dial of the time machine fills the panel. It reads "101834" on the dial.

5. TRAVELER: ...but forward, into the future. 

-END- 

The Time Machine – The Life and Death of FUTUREMAN! – MK Stangeland Jr.

(So is it cheating if this weeks script isn’t exactly about the Time Machine even if it’s a time-travel based story?)

(6 Panels)

Panel 1: An aged hero – FUTUREMAN! - out of costume, is on a yacht. He turns to see a time bomb with only a couple seconds left on it appearing out of a burst of chronological energy.

SFX: BtzzZZZUUUUW

SFX: beep-beep-beep

FUTUREMAN!: !

Panel 2: The yacht, as it explodes.

SFX: BOOM!

Panel 3: A recovery team goes over the wrecked, exploded yacht – notably, FUTUREMAN’s should not be anywhere in the scene at all.

Nearby, stands FUTUREWOMAN, looking over the scene.

FUTUREWOMAN (1): This could have only been the work of a truly dastardly villain!

FUTUREWOMAN (2): I will bring the guilty party to justice! So swears Futurewoman!

Panel 4: A night scene on a rooftop, as FUTUREWOMAN looks around.

CAPTION: Later, earlier…

FUTUREWOMAN (1): (Thought balloon) My investigation has led me here. I must be close!

FUTUREWOMAN (2): (Thought balloon) And yet, why do I have the strangest feeling of déjà vu?

Panel 5: FUTUREWOMAN is far in the background as he looks to a scene happening in the foreground, where we see a version of FUTUREMAN! in his prime as well as FUTUREGIRL, the youthful sidekick version of FUTUREWOMAN.

Nearby, disappearing in a display of energy that should match that from PANEL 1, is the same bomb that appeared on the yacht in the future, including the amount of time left on it.

SFX: beep-beep-beep

SFX: BtzzZZZUUUUW

FUTUREGIRL: The bomb is about to explode! We’re almost out of time!

FUTUREMAN!: Nonsense, Futuregirl! I’ll send it away to the future!

Panel 6: FUTUREMAN! stands triumphant. FUTUREGIRL less so.

FUTUREMAN! (1): One again, the day is saved, thanks to FUTUREMAN! and FUTUREGIRL!

FUTUREGIRL: But Futureman!, where did you send the bomb?

FUTUREMAN! (2): For now, it matters not! We have plenty of time to figure that out later.

FUTUREMAN! (3): After all, time is on our side!

(END PAGE)

The Time Machine - Mother of Invention - Grant McLaughlin

1 - The Time Traveler stands in his workshop, eyes wide in amazement at the Time Machine sitting in the middle of the room before him.  Let's have a window somewhere in the room to show that it is early morning, with those rays coming in to partially light up the room.

CAPTION (TIME TRAVELER): I don't know why I was fated to chance upon this contraption

2 - Pull back a bit to show more of the Time Machine and workshop.  The Time Traveler sits in it, and the two are fading away as they head off to some other moment in history.  The window would indicate mid-to-late afternoon.

CAPTION (TIME TRAVELER): From the first, I could not resist its clarion call to discovery.

3 - Pull back a bit more in the workshop.  It is empty (well, I mean, it's full of workshoppy stuff, but empty of the Time Traveler or Time Machine).  Maybe have part of a body visible, but not in an obvious way (that's for the next panel).  The window should indicate dusk.

CAPTION (TIME TRAVELER): I only wish I had invented it

4 - Pull back even further - enough this time to reveal the dead body that has bled out in the workshop.  It is a man who wears some kind of futuristic police uniform (or what the Victorian era might imagine the future of police uniforms to look like), including a masked helmet of some variety.  Beyond that, the workshop remains empty.  The window should indicate night.

CAPTION (TIME TRAVELER): Then I could return to the one time that will forever be lost to me: my own.

5 - We can probably hold our position on the workshop.  The room is filled with a number of these future police officers, all walking around, treating the area like a crime scene.  They have lots of lasers and other futuristic gadgets.  Maybe have a few officers around the body and blood as they fade away to another time for proper processing.  One officers walks close enough to the panel to read his shoulder patch: The Chronic Constabulary.  The window should show daytime once again.

CAPTION (TIME TRAVELER): But those I took this machine from surely want it back.

The Time Machine--Writing is Time Travel--David Press

PAGE ONE.

1.1: H.G. WELLS sits on a stool in his workshop focusing very hard on a piece of paper on a desk. He’s scribbling furiously. He’s talking to himself—like a mad inventor.

WELLS:                                  It was all a fraud they said.

WELLS:                                 Time travel.

1.2: Panning out a little further and we can see the MACHINE in the background—plugged into the wall. There’s a typewriter hooked up to the center console.

WELLS:                                  But they didn’t expect it would be this easy.

SFX [over the typewriter]:      Click clack.

1.3: The machine’s typewriter releases a ream of paper.

NO DIALOGUE.

1.4: There’s a pile of paper on the floor. Display lettering for the years—unboxed lettering for the years.  

WELLS [CAP]:                      You see, we’re all going to end up as fertilizer.

DISPLAY LETT:                   1899.

DISPLAY LETT:                   1940.

DISPLAY LETT:                   2016.

1.5: Back to Wells’s empty writing desk and the pile of paper. Someone young and in his twenties stands over the papers. Say he’s red-haired and wearing a scarf that goes along with his winter coat. He looks a little like Wells, like he might be his great-great-grandson or something.

WELLS [CAP]:                      Eventually, we’ll be dirt in the ground.

CAP [2]                                  But when people read our words they travel back to our time and into our futures.

CAP [3]                                  Writing is time travelling.

--END--

Why The Time Machine by H.G. Wells?

It’s my favorite story. Written by H.G. Wells in 1895 this engages an inventor in 1899, who invents a machine that takes him a million years into the future. He meets two species in the year 852,271—the Eloi and the Morlocks. The Eloi live above ground and the Morlocks are underground. The novel doesn’t suggest it, but humans escaped some kind of ecological collapse or nuclear wear and the Eloi are the humans who took the chance and stayed above ground and the Morlocks escaped to the caves.

The book has been adapted into several films. Most recently the Guy Pearce starring Time Machine, directed by Wells's great grandson. Most famously there's George Pal’s interpretation. My favorite, though, was Time After Time which follows Wells [Malcolm McDowell] and Mary Steenburgen as they track down Jack the Ripper who has stolen Wells’ machine to San Francisco in the 1970s. It is the perfect storm of Hollywood trickery and butchering of a classic story. Like the Phantom of Paradise.

Time travel stories are my favorite so I’m eager to see what everyone does with it.