My least favorite part of time travel in media is when characters think they need to try to force what will come to pass. It's like self-fulfilled prophecy and it drives me crazy!

I've read HG Well's The Time Machine and also watched the shows Lost and Heroes, which deal with time travel.

In my English class that I read The Time Machine in, the professor asked us to come up with theories for time travel in groups. It was an interesting hour of nonsense.

I like or not like time travel depending on its context for the most part. I really like time travel in Star Trek IV where the characters go back to the seventies(or was it the eighties? either way, I wasn't around). I can't think of any book or movie where I didn't like it very much, but it can be slightly cheesy if not done right.
If I could travel to any time period, hmmm.............I'd like to go back to Elizabethan England and actually see a Shakespeare play in the Globe Theater, World War II in France, I like that period in history. I'd like to see both the American and French Revolution, and the time of Christ. And I better stop typing or I'll be here all night.

i think Meet the Robinsons is the cutest time travel movie ever. I can't remember any time travel books though. I'll have to think about it.

haha i would travel back to the middle ages with all the knights and ladies and castles and kings and queens and those kind of things. they seem cool.

I would love to go back to ancient egyptian times, I find that time so facinating. To ride camels and just "hang out".

I grew up on science fiction and love a well-turned time travel tale. But I'll try to keep this post brief.

Kate has mentioned LOST and Heroes, both of which have done time travel. I especially like the rather unconventional way LOST has done it:

Incidentally, the mid-1990s animated Gargoyles had a few very good time travel episodes, and the series operated under one strict "rule" - you can't change the past (the whole series was set up by a few events in the past, and if you went back and changed them, the whole premise would collapse). Incidentally, LOST season 5 ended with a very similar cliffhanger, and I'm curious to see what will come of it.

Star Trek had quite a few time travel episodes; several stand out to me. The City on the Edge of Forever was both a romance and a time travel episode, and won a Hugo Award. Deep Space Nine later aired two fun time episodes, Trials and Tribble-ations and Little Green Men (the latter 'honoring' the anniversary of the Roswell UFO incident).

Two of my favorite Trek movies (First Contact and this year's Star Trek reboot) were also time travel movies.

My problem with Trek is that, in my opinion, time travel should be rare and difficult; by the end of Voyager it just seemed too easy.

Wells' The Time Machine was probably the first time travel novel I read, some 45 years ago. Admittedly, at that age I was more interested in action and adventure, and the story didn't do a lot for me.

Time travel figures in numerous sci-fi short stories, but one of my favorites is Alfred Bester's 1952 short story "Hobson's Choice," because it presents a familiar question (If you could travel in time, what period would you choose?) but with a twist: it's a one-way ticket, and you're stuck with your choice.

The past? Watching original Shakespeare at the Globe would be great at first, but before long you'd miss all the modern conveniences, like clean water, plentiful food, and indoor plumbing. (And one can't change the past by inventing some future technology, like the internet, because it requires knowledge most of us don't have and technology that wouldn't yet exist - or to paraphrase Spock in City - we can't build a computer from stone knives and bearskins).

The future? Imagine the difficulty someone from the 1500s would have adapting to our society today...

So what choice does the main character make? Read it and find out. (The story's title is a hint).

My favorite time travel movie is Time line, ok it’s a little Cheesy I know but it’s a fun movie and the time line makes sense for instance

I'm sure I have more favourites but these are the ones I can currently think of:

Movies:
Back to the Future 1 and 3
The Matrix
The Terminator 1 and 2
Deja Vu

Books:
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells
That Hideous Strength - C.S. Lewis
The Langoliers - Stephen King
The Circle Trilogy, Green, The Lost Books - Ted Dekker
The Tomb Travellers books - Roy Pond
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
An Outbreak of Darkness - Kel Richards

TV series:
Doctor Who
The Twilight Zone
Spellbinder 1 and 2
LOST
Thunderstone
Sliders
Heroes
Life on Mars

Finally somebody mentions some classics in time travel! Thanks, Warrior! I'm familiar with at least half the titles you mentioned, but I haven't watched any of the TV stuff or read most of the books. I need to read Lewis and Dickens, though, don't I?

I never read The Time Machine and I never wanted to. I think the Wishbone episode cured me of that. I'm no admirer of H. G. Wells.

Favorite Movies
Back to the Future 1 and 3 [2 was strange, wasn't it, Warrior?]
Somewhere in Time: Christopher Reeve + Jane Seymour + The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island [I've been there] + Rachmaninov's 18th Variation on a Theme of Paganini =
The Love Letter [Civil War]
For All Time [1900 election]

I watched The Lake House (2006) the other day with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. He's in 2004 and she's in 2006. And they talk to each other through a mailbox at his lake house. It was weird and hard to follow. Has anyone else seen it? If so, what are your thoughts?

The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) based on a book of the same name came out in theatres in August. Has anyone seen that movie? If so, what is it like?

Keep up the great discussion! Thanks for everyone's input so far!

EDIT: I almost forgot! The time periods I want to travel to!
Let's see ... like daughter I want to go back to Elizabethan England, World War II France [or anywhere in Europe], the American and French Revolutions, and the time of Christ. I'd also like to go back to the Seven Years' War [I loved The Last of the Mohicans lol], Victorian Britain, and maybe the time of King David or Solomon. What did Solomon's temple look like?
/EDIT

I love a good time travel yarn just like everyone else it seems.

I'll have to echo several works on W4J's lists. I think that time travel as a plot device can sometimes get a little overused, but if it's done well it can still be very entertaining.

I never read The Time Machine and I never wanted to. I think the Wishbone episode cured me of that. I'm no admirer of H. G. Wells.

Don't be afraid of Wells. Whatever his personal beliefs were his science fiction definitely was top-notch, and definitely ahead of its time. *wonders what the Wishbone incident is, other than a salad dressing accident*. The book is very short and quite entertaining, and to be frank, rather exciting. I still think War of the Worlds is his better work, but that's not a time travel story so I won't get into it.

I loved the new Star Trek and many of the older episodes and movies where the plot had the characters interacting with people from a very different generation. Kirk and Spock walking around in 1980's San Francisco is hilarious, and the bus scene in particular is worth watching the whole movie for.

W4J, technically Sliders wasn't really time travel as it was slipping into alternate realities or parallel Earths. That was a really good show but some of the episodes were kind of weak and they made some questionable decisions there after the first couple of seasons.

Now, if I had to pick some times to sort of travel back to right at the top would be to the time of Christ. Bear in mind that I've actually given this some thought and know I'd be a fish out of water...for starters I don't know Aramaic or Latin, so how does one figure out where Christ is at that time? And since the Gospel chapters don't have dates on them, ala "Christ will be in Galilee on September 3rd, 33AD at 7:00pm", tracking Him down would probably be a bit tricky.

I would love to go back to the time of Adam and Eve. But how do you outfit yourself to survive if you go back too far? So I figured bring some oxygen tanks and masks (does anyone know which day Oxygen was created? ), a heavy duty environmental suit (preferably with some built in heat shielding if I go back too far and it's still smokin' hot), lots of water, and maybe a laminated notepad, and perhaps even a little autograph sheet.

There was a cartoon that was on many, many years ago called "Super Book" that aired on one of the Christian TV stations. The premise was that these two young kids and their pet robot got a hold of a special Bible that when they opened it they could get time travelled to that specific event, and in this way they got to see lots of the key events in the Bible. And it kind of had a catchy intro theme.

I must say between W4J's list and Stargazer's list I'm pretty well covered. But I would add 7 Days and Quantum Leap.

I used to get very annoyed about the way Time Travel is depicted in Pop Fiction. The idea that one could alter one's own timeline isn't borne out by Physics (for more on this see Fred Alan Wolfe's Parallel Universes). What would most likely happen isn't corruption of a timeline, but divergence. So let's say you did kill your own Grandfather, instead of a Paradox the timeline would split. Your original timeline would still exist with your Grandfather awaiting your return. And in the other, "your" grandfather would be dead and "you" weren't born. If you stayed in that timeline you wouldn't slowly fade, because it's not your original timeline.

However, Time Travel stories would get old and boring really fast if they all stuck with that, so I've grown to love all the histrionics surrounding "saving the timeline" in Star Trek episodes and the like.

GB

Shadowlander: I wasn't referring to salad dressing. I was referring to a 1990s TV series that introduces schoolkids to the classics. The Time Machine episode was called "Back to the Future."

How did I forget Superbook?! I loved that show when I was a kid! I used to watch Quantum Leap, but it got a little weird sometimes. I also watched a 90s show [or early 2000s?] where this Scottish guy did some time-traveling in the Middle Ages and other periods. He was a warrior or something. I don't know remember the name of the show but I really liked it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I watched The Lake House (2006) the other day with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves. He's in 2004 and she's in 2006. And they talk to each other through a mailbox at his lake house. It was weird and hard to follow. Has anyone else seen it? If so, what are your thoughts?

/EDIT

The Lake House is one of my favorite Time Travel stories because no one actually travels through time. And unlike most Time Travel plots (over substantial amounts of time) it's only over a period of 3 years. The end is slightly unbelievable IMHO

But I still like it

My apologies for posting a huge spoiler

My other favorite no-people-time-traveling-time-travel movie is Frequency with Dennis Quaid. It's about a Father (1960's) and Son (present time) who talk through a radio. They work together to try to keep the father from dieing but then have to deal with the consequences of playing God and changing his history. Has anyone else seen it?

'Tis true. Sliders doesn't deal with time-travel.
I missed Quantum Leap when it was on TV (I'm a bit too young) but it's sounds good.
I love the way LOST deals with time-travel. It's all very innovative. To say any more would ruin it.
Sometimes time-travel is the main plot point of a book, other times it's but one small component. Either way I love good time-travel entertainment.

I used to imagine travelling back to the time dinosaurs walked the earth (6,000 years or so ago), but also the time of the Ancient Egyptians, the Medieval period and the Prohibition Era. Sadly, I don't think about it much these days.

I also watched a 90s show [or early 2000s?] where this Scottish guy did some time-traveling in the Middle Ages and other periods. He was a warrior or something. I don't know remember the name of the show but I really liked it. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

I remembered the name! Highlander!