H.G. Wells vs. Jack the Ripper in "Time After Time"

This ingenious concoction of science fiction, thriller, and romance comes from the fertile imagination of Nicholas Meyer. A former publicity agent, Meyer first gained recognition with his best-selling mystery The Seven Per Cent Solution, which teamed up Sherlock Holmes with Dr. Sigmund Freud. After adapting his novel for the screen, Meyer served up a second pairing of real-life figures in Time After Time—only with a double twist. Instead of working together, the pair would be adversaries. And instead of setting the plot in the past, it would take place in the past and the present.

Time After Time opens in fog-enshrouded London in 1893 with the murder of a prostitute by Jack the Ripper (shot in first-person, perhaps an homage to the opening scene in Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). The Ripper then appears at the home of H.G. Wells, who does not know that his friend Dr. John Leslie Stevenson is a serial killer. Stevenson joins the dinner party as Wells is explaining to other skeptical guests about his latest invention: a time machine.

Malcolm McDowell as H.G. Wells.

When a policeman tracking the Ripper shows up at Wells’ house, Stevenson’s bloody murder weapon is discovered in his physician’s bag. However, Stevenson has miraculously escaped from the house. It is only after the police have left that Wells realizes that Jack the Ripper has stolen his time machine and escaped into the future.

Believing that the future will be a perfect world without war and crime, Wells is devastated (“What have I done? I’ve turned that bloody maniac loose upon Utopia.”). When the time machines returns, Wells follows Stevenson into the future—San Francisco in 1979.

Wells and his time machine "land" in a San Francisco museum.

David Warner as Jack the Ripper.

Watching these two turn-of-the-century intellectuals in a contemporary setting is fascinating. Much of the film’s humor is derived from Wells’s attempts to fit in. He eats at a “Scottish restaurant” called McDonald’s. He boldly discusses his ideas on “free love” to bank employee Amy Robbins, who is amused by his old-fashioned values. In contrast, Stevenson adapts to his new environment quickly and smoothly. In an eerie scene, he flips through several TV channels filled with violent images and informs Wells: “I belong here completely and utterly. I’m home. Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Now, I’m an amateur.”

McDowell and Steenburgen as time-challenged lovers.

The film relies strongly on its three leads and they are all in peak form. Malcolm McDowell gives one of his best performances as the wonder-filled Wells. David Warner exudes creepiness as Stevenson. And Mary Steenburgen comes across as both vulnerable and strong. She and McDowell have a wonderful chemistry together. They met on the set of Time After Time and married shortly afterwards (but subsequently divorced).

Writer-director Nicholas Meyer went on to contribute to three of the best Star Trek films: The Wrath of Khan, The Voyage Home (another time travel picture),and The Undiscovered Country. Earlier in his career, he wrote two above-average made-for-TV movies: The Night That Panicked America (about Orson Welles' radio adaptation of The War of the Worlds) and Judge Dee and the Monastery Murders (an engrossing mystery featuring Robert van Gulik's seventh-century Chinese detective).

Time After Time tops my list of the best time travel movies. It explores the usual time travel conumdrums with aplomb, but never lets them get in the way of a delightful love story and clever social satire.

The Movie That Saved a Franchise--Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan

I recently watched all six of the Star Trek films featuring the original cast. That experience confirmed what I had long suspected: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan may be the best sequel to follow a mediocre first film. To be fair, Star Trek: The Motion Picture wasn’t as bad as I remembered—but it’s a lumbering journey to “where no man has gone before.” There’s too much stately footage of the starship Enterprise and the new characters (weakly played by Stephen Collins and Indian actress Persis Khambata) lack interest. Despite critical drubbing and much Trekkie criticism, the film was a boxoffice smash and so Paramount gave the green light for a sequel.

Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was ousted from the project and the reins were handed over to producer Harve Bennett. A non-Trekkie, Bennett watched every episode of the TV series and determined that the first film lacked two ingredients: (1) a dynamic villain and (2) an emphasis on the on the “triangle” of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy.

The Wrath of Khan resurrects one of the series’ most memorable bad guys, the supergenius Khan (Montalban), who attempted to take over the Enterprise in the TV episode “Space Seed.” After being thwarted by Kirk and crew, Khan and his followers were marooned on an unpopulated planet and given the opportunity to start again. Alas, in The Wrath of Khan, we learn that the destruction of a neighboring planet has turned Khan’s world in a deadly desert and that Khan’s wife has perished as a result. When a starship on a scientific mission inadvertently provides Khan with a means to escape, the mad man seeks his vengeance on Kirk.

Khan lures the Enterprise to a scienctific station working on the Genesis Project, an experimental device that can create life on a planet with no life—but which can also used as a devastating weapon. It just so happens that the Genesis project leaders are one of Kirk’s former flames…and the son Kirk has never seen.

The coincidental aspects of the story are a bit hard to swallow, but co-writer/director Nicholas Meyer zips the plot along so speedily that one has little time to notice. I really like how he crosscuts from Kirk to Khan to the Genesis team as they all converge on the same location.

The Kirk-Spock friendship forms the heart of the film (McCoy is used primarily for comic relief). Their closing scene together is the best in all Trek films and also provides the most memorable line of dialogue: “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few—or the one.”

With its back-to-basics approach, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan laid the groundwork for the rest of the Trek films and pretty much saved the Star Trek franchise. It also forms a trilogy with the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (their plots are connected, whereas the last two films are stand-alone adventures).

In addition to Wrath of Khan, writer-director Nicholas Meyer was also involved in the next two best series entries in the series: The Voyage Home (an amusing time travel adventure) and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (an effective mix of politics, sci fi, and mystery). Meyer, whose filmography is surprisingly short, also directed another time travel tale: the classic Time After Time.