I'm doing a project for science class, and am wondering what examples of physical forms of a time machine do you know of? I know of the car in Back to the Future and a telephone booth-appearance in Jimmy Neutron. Any examples would be awesome!

Acai Max

Probably the main one would be HG Wells's "The Time Machine" (made into a film with Rod Taylor in 1960 and again with Guy Pearce in 2002) which, aside from being a science fiction adventure story, also raises quite a few questions about the nature of and the ultimate fate of the human race.

In a more humorous vein, there is "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" by Mark Twain (made into a film in 1949 with Bing Crosby and Cedric Hardwicke). Haven't seen the film for years.

We must not forget the TV series Doctor Who, a series about a "Time Lord" who travels through time and space fighting evil wherever he finds it. Some of the Doctor Who stories are more science fiction than time travel, but a number of them have been about figures in history.

If you're looking for a comedy, one largely forgotten film nowadays is Tommy Handley's "Time Flies" from 1944. It turns up from time to time as a late night (or should I say early morning?) movie on the ABC, and is about four people who are transported back to Elizabethan England in a time machine and encounter William Shakespeare, Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth I, Captain John Smith and Pocohontas among others. And there's a nice little twist at the end, when the time machine returns to 1944, but the professor who invented and pilots it got the date wrong. Handley's style of comedy is rather dated and may not be to everyone's taste today, but he was hugely popular on radio in the 1940s - in fact it was said that if the War had ended during one of Handley's broadcasts, they would not have told the King until the show had ended.....

I should also have mentioned "Les Visiteurs", a French comedy starring Jean Reno, who plays a Medieval knight who is transported to the late 20th century together with his servant. One of the funniest foreign language films of recent times...........