The Time Machine

The Time Machine is a 1978 American made-for-television science fiction-adventure film produced by Sunn Classic Pictures as a part of their Classics Illustrated series. The film stars John Beck and Priscilla Barnes, and was broadcast November 5, 1978 during the November Sweeps on NBC. Plot The film is a modernization of the Wells' story, making the Time Traveller a 1970s scientist working for a fictional US defense contractor, "the Mega Corporation". Dr. Neil Perry, the Time Traveller, is described as one of Mega's most reliable contributors by his senior co-worker Branly. Perry's skill is demonstrated by his rapid reprogramming of an off-course satellite, averting a disaster that could have destroyed Los Angeles. His reputation had secured a grant of $20 million for his time machine project. A month from completion, the corporation wants Perry to put his project on hold so that he can begin work on a new weapons project, the "anti-matter bomb." The unexpectedly early completion of the power module that Perry needed to complete the time machine permits him to test his creation the weekend before he is set to begin work on the anti-matter bomb. Perry time travels twice over the course of the weekend, and reports to Haverson, Branley, and J.R. Worthington, chairman of the board of Mega Corporation. As Perry tells the story of his travels, reversed time-lapse images of building construction demonstrate Perry's passage backwards in time. Unlike the novel, the time machine and its rider do not stay in the same place as they travel through time, and the machine can travel to different locations. Perry first goes to 1692 Salem, Massachusetts where he is caught up in the Salem witch trials and found guilty of witchcraft. He is sentenced to be burned at the stake with his time machine. Tied up in the seat of his machine, he is able to free himself in order to escape. He detours into 1871 to avoid a time warp and arrives in the midst of the California Gold Rush, where he is shot at by miners who thinks that he is trying to steal their gold shipment and is arrested. Perry's ingenuity and the distraction of a bank robbery allow him to escape. When Perry returns to his lab in the present, he receives a chilling report of the environmental impact of Mega Corporation's latest weapons. Perry then travels into the future to supply proof for the report's projections and convince Haverson that Mega's current agenda will lead to global devastation.