No Time Like the Past

"No Time Like the Past" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Paul Driscoll uses a time machine with the noble intention to go back in time and alter past events (in such a way as to minimize the loss of human life). After failing to warn a Hiroshima police captain about the atomic bomb, failing to assassinate Adolf Hitler (in August 1939 immediately before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939), an... more

"No Time Like the Past" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Paul Driscoll uses a time machine with the noble intention to go back in time and alter past events (in such a way as to minimize the loss of human life). After failing to warn a Hiroshima police captain about the atomic bomb, failing to assassinate Adolf Hitler (in August 1939 immediately before the outbreak of World War II in September 1939), and failing to change the course of the Lusitania to avoid being torpedoed (by a World War I German U-boat), he accepts the hypothesis that the past cannot be changed. He then uses the time machine to journey to the town of Homeville, Indiana in 1881 (with the intention of escaping and living out a quiet, uncomplicated life). He then realizes that President James A. Garfield will get shot the next day. However, he allows the assassination to happen. After reading in a history book that Homeville's schoolhouse will burn down because of a kerosene... less