Time Machine: The Journey Back

This addendum to THE TIME MACHINE DVD/video is interesting for its tenacious follow-up on the fate of the actual "time machine" built for the movie -- but it's remarkable for the short "postscript" of an epilogue to the original motion picture.

What's particularly amazing is that 74-year-old Alan Young looks almost exactly as he did when he filmed the orignal movie back in 1959. It almost makes for an eerie effect -- like time itself *is* being fiddled with -- to see him back with his red hair, bushy moustache and Scottish brogue -- it almost seems to be an outtake from the original...

One of the things that I really love about the topic of time travel is the possibilities that it entails for stories. The 1960 version of the Time Machine ended with the suggestion that George traveled back into the distant future to continue to try to help the Eloi escape the oppression of the Morlocks. In this documentary, Rod Taylor and Alan Young, who played George and Filby, respectively, are reunited after not having seen each other for more than 30 years, and they reprise their characters in a wonderful new scene.

George has traveled into the future, lived there for 30 years, and then returned to 30 years after the original story took place to meet up with his old friend and tell him about where he has been. Too bad he didn't just go back to 1899 so Filby wouldn't have had to wonder all those years.

There is a lot of time spent in the documentary talking about the design of the original time machine, as well as various thing that happened to it after post production, which are pretty interesting. At one point it was lost for several years, only to turn up badly damaged at a thrift store in southern California. The film details the restoration of the time machine, and talks about how it appeared in later films like World Without End and The Wizard of Speed and Time, neither of which I can find anywhere.

Rod Taylor hosts the documentary, and tells some wonderful stories about making the movie as well as cast and crew reunions years later, and pays his respects to the late George Pal. This is not just a documentary about a movie, it's a celebration of science fiction and the sub-genre as a whole, as well as the deep friendships that are often formed during and after their production.

This is a semi-documentary of the the 1960, George Pal movie, The Time Machine. It is available as an extra on the DVD. The original stars, Alan Young and Rod Taylor are brought back. The documentary focuses on what become of the prop that was used in the movie. Some of the special effects are discussed. It also includes an additional scene that adds some to the movie. I particularly liked the additional scene, it was very sentimental. Young and Taylor are very talented actors.

Excellent documentary, the part that details the restoration of the original Time Machine prop is interesting enough, but the new epilogue to the original movie which reunites's Rod Taylor's George and Alan Young's Filby is nothing short of incredible, it succeeds flawlessly in revisiting the quaint familiar Victiorian world of the original, not only through the great emotional, character driven performances but also through the reuse of Russell Garcia's fantastic score.

All in all I think I can say that Time Machine: The Journey Back stands as the greatest homage to a classic movie ever made, perfectly complementing the original movie.

I always loved the movie and in particular the Time Machine itself: what a wonderful design! It was surprising but somehow fitting that the sled concept came from George Pal's childhood memories of winter fun.

I wondered what had become of the Machine, who owned it. I had always assumed that like the life-creating lab equipment used in James Whale's _Frankenstein_, it had been bought by a wealthy fan for a private collection, or that it was in a film museum somewhere.

The truth revealed in _The Journey Back_ is a little sad, but also moving. The studio, not realizing the icon they had, did little to preserve the Machine. Over the years it was dismembered, auctioned, sold, damaged, and neglected by a variety of owners. The occasional people who lovingly restored the Time Traveler's seat, the control panel, or the brass railings showed the devotion and resourcefulness of custodians of a holy relic.

Ironic that a symbol of emancipation from time was so subject to its effects; uplifting too that a few fans who, like me, had admired it since childhood were able to keep it, and a sort of hope, alive.