Time Machine: The Journey Back

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.

This is what a sequel should be. The documentary was fantastic loaded with clips and interviews. The mini sequel was nothing short of outstanding. I always had hopes that it would spawn a sequel yet again as both cast members could still portray the roles very well. But the time has past I guess. I would love to see something like this done for another Pal film, When Worlds Collide. It was a last wonderful gasp of classic Sci-Fi.

This in my opinion blows away the new movie remake that was OK. But I only watched it twice This little show I must have watched over a dozen times. I was one of the first to get the video tape in the mail and it certainly was a golden moment.

This was an excellent documentary on the making of the film, but the part I especially loved was the scene depicting the reunion of George and David. Upon George's return, he meets up with his old friend David Filby and catches him up on what his activities are in the future. As the meeting is taking place you can see the sadness as George must hold back what he knows about the fate of his old friend. This adds something to the film and also puts a bit of closure on the story. This is a fantastic epilogue to a great film.

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.

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.