About the thirty eight minute point on the DVD for the 1960 film "The Time Machine" the actor Rod Taylor is speaking the narration of his character who has stopped his time travel machine and the console on his machine indicates the day he stops is August 18 1966.
There is no real profound message to this observation but I just happened to note a detail in a scene that happens a few minutes later and I was compelled to record here my observation and my thoughts about that.
For a while, for several times for quite a while, I have been imagining talking with people, specifically Ronald Reagan, and him alone, when I become a time traveler who is traveling backwards in leaps and bounds and always traveling backwards in time. I would imagine him wanting to know about the future and about how life is different for most people in my time than for people in the time I am visiting, which in the case of those imaginative thoughts is about the year 1984. I have thought through this line of thought several times and I explain that there are probably a lot of things that are different but that we don't really understand on a daily basis. I also want to note here that I am writing all this now at a time when the year 1984 is still precisely 27 years ago from this day to that same day in 1984. So as I thought it through in that context while still in the year 2011 I thought about how the major differences I see on a daily basis are in the form of flat screen television and computer technology and also in the form of the flash drive storage devices for the personal computers. I think about how there are numerous improvements to devices that existed in 1984, with the personal computer being a major improvement, but those are sort of subtle changes that I think many of us take for granted. We tend to take for granted the improvements to appliances, I think. For me personally, I feel more appreciative of the flat screen television and the flash drive storage. I probably would not even think about that too much but I think about how fortunate I was to randomly pick an apartment building that came with these massive flat screen televisions already installed and I have thought several times about how I would miss having that kind of television if I moved out because there is no way I am going to purchase one of those on my own. I have no idea what those kind of televisions cost anyway. I was surprised to find what I would consider a luxury item when I was looking for a bargain apartment.
So anyway, the reason I even stopped to make this note is because when "George" stops in the future, because he is hearing air raid warnings, and he is stopped in a park where his house used to stand, and I had wondered quite a few minutes earlier before I had thought about making this report if I get captured at some point when I am a time traveler to the past and the captors drug me and force me to tell them details about what I know, and he is standing there in the park and people are rushing around him and that is just a few minutes before the atomic bombs explode near him, there is a sign in the ever-present "Filby" department store that reads "THE LATEST TUBELESS TV"
http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/t/time-machine-script-transcript-wells.html
The Time Machine
My house was hit!
The flames shot up.
Instantly, my home was gone.
I was in the open air.
The years rolled by,
everything unfamiliar.
Except the smile of my
never-aging friend.
What was this? Weird sounds
all around. What could it be?
My curiosity compelled me to stop.
At first I wondered if I was
the cause of the panic.
I was soon to find out I wasn't.
Keep it moving! Shove it on!
Come on, into the shelter.
Come on, young man! Come on!
- Filby?
- The name is Mr. Filby.
- Didn't you hear the siren?
- The horrible screeching?
It wasn't constructed
for aesthetic value...
...but to warn young fools
to get into shelter.
- Now, come along.
- I'm perfectly comfortable here.
I've got to talk.
This is fantastic!
Your store is magnificent!
The achievements!
- The gigantic strides man has taken!
- Come along, young man!
The mushrooms will be sprouting!
Mushrooms?
You look familiar.
Haven't we met somewhere before?
Indeed we have, Mr. Filby.
Right there. Many years ago.
I was sure of that.
But the exact time escapes me.
It was two wars ago. .
Now I recall. The chap
who inquired about my father...
...and the house that
used to stand across the way.
But no...
No, that's impossible!
You haven't changed.
You're not a day older.
And your clothes!
Don't worry, Filby.
It'll take time to explain, but...
That's the last alert!
Hurry! Hurry!
- Listen, this is important.
- Look!
An atomic satellite, zeroing in.
That's important.
