A Twist In The Tale
A Crack In Time
| S 1 | Ep 2 | 1999/02/13 |
| TV Series Episode | 53 min | |
| FAM SF | USA / New Zealand | |
The Johnsons live in a small country town. Their dairy farm has been in the family for three generations, and although in recent years they have been struggling, Mike - the father of David (13) and Katie (10) - is not about to let it go without a fight. David has his own worries - he is being bullied at school by Wayne Brogan (14), the son of a rich neighboring farmer. Wayne is particularly scornful of David's push-bike, which is no match for Wayne's own all-singing, all-dancing version. On the day our story begins, Wayne chases David home from school, knocking him into a ditch and badly damaging the bike. Mike is as suspicious of Pat Brogan as David is of his son: for some years now Pat has been offering to buy up the Johnsons' farm. The chief money-spinner of the farm is their specialist cheeses: with the bank threatening to foreclose, despite the best efforts of the family's accountant Larry Sharpe, there could not be a worse time for the persistent and mystifying spoiling of the product. Mike is not beyond believing Pat Brogan to be somehow behind the contamination - and Nicky (19), the Johnsons' attractive dairy assistant, doesn't like him very much either... The night of David's crash, there is a huge thunderstorm over the farm. David cowers under the sheets - and therefore misses the most spectacular effect of the lightning... Until he wakes the next morning - the morning of Friday the 13th - to find a girl in his room he has never seen before - insisting that he is trespassing in her room. Jem Johnson - from the year 2098. Jem's father, back in the future, has designed a "compucator" - what Jem calls a commie. The commie is an astonishing invention: a kind of hand-held, intuitive supercomputer, which works by accessing the user's alpha waves and the universal matrix, the 21st century's version of the Internet. Jem has the prototype, and was being chased by a couple of what she calls "badlanders" for it when she crawled into her closet to come out in David's time. Jem is charming, brave, quick witted - and impulsive. After a number of near-misses with David's bewildered family, and unable to get back to her own time, she finally takes matters into her own hands and introduces herself to Mary, the children's mother. Katie, David's sister, is very keen on Jem, particularly when Jem reveals a fantastic common skill of the future: telepathy, for which Katie displays a definite flair. Strangest of all, when Jem takes herself to school, she makes a surprising conquest - Wayne Brogan. The only thing that worries responsible David are the two sinister men who seem to take as keen an interest in Jem as Wayne does... David is suspicious of Wayne's sudden transformation into Sir Galahad, and slightly jealous as well. When Jem's commie goes missing from her locker, he suspects Wayne has stolen it, despite Wayne's indignant denial - and when Jem goes missing next, he's certain of it. He and Mike have an angry confrontation with Pat and Wayne, but at midnight Jem is still not back. Unable to sleep with worry, David is startled by the appearance of Katie in his bedroom. The telepathy game the children played has had an unexpected outcome: Katie is receiving persistent images she is sure are from Jem - images of an office, a filing cabinet, a night street seen through a window. The children slip out of the house with only their dog Bones for company and set off to the rescue; they are joined by an unexpected friend and ally - the erstwhile bully Wayne. Jem's images lead the children to the main street of their little town, and into the offices of ... Larry Sharpe. But what can the family's sympathetic accountant have to do with the kidnapping of Jem? As Katie and Bones keep watch outside, Wayne and David begin the difficult task of breaking into Larry's inner office, where Jem is bound and gagged. Katie is horrified by the appearance of Larry and - of all people - Nicky, the Johnsons' dairy hand: what on earth are these two doing together? Leaping to her feet, Katie cannons into the fire exit door through which the children broke in - and to her horror it slams shut, locking her out and the two boys in. There follows a tense scene with Wayne and David in precarious hiding - but eavesdropping can sometimes be illuminating: it becomes clear not only that Larry and Nicky are behind the kidnap and the theft of the commie, but that they have long been in collusion over the jeopardizing of the farm's produce - the "accidental" spoiling of the cheeses - in order to force a sale - and force the Johnsons out. With the appearance of the two men David has observed watching Jem, the dastardly quadrangle is complete. Larry pays off the kidnappers and he and Nicky leave, gloating. With not only the farm but the secrets of the commie in their grasp, they will be very rich villains indeed. Katie and Bones sneak into the building as David and Wayne free Jem. With her telepathic powers she unlocks the combination dial of the safe and regains her commie ... and David makes a very important discovery: documents that clearly implicate Larry in the fraudulent handling of the business affairs of the farm. The children's gleeful laughter merges with the rumble of an approaching thunder storm... ... and we open again on David asleep ... and his calendar, clearly showing Friday the 13th, as Mary shakes him awake. David stumbles downstairs, bewildered: Jem is nowhere to be seen, and his inquiry about her meets with a blank response from Mary. But Mike and Mary certainly have enough to be distracted by - the morning mail brings the precious contract from Pacific Dairy Products they have been waiting for, and the paper the shocking news of the arrests of Larry Sharpe and Nicky. David is lost in thought, as the joyous dance of his parents mirrors the joyous dance of he and Jem the night before ... and Katie enters, bearing a puzzling object: the commie, which she has just found in David's room. David can only smile at her: it is something he has dreamed up, dreamed up for the future... (visitor from 2090 via time rift)
A Twist In The Tale
A Matter of Time
| S 1 | Ep 15 | 1999/05/15 |
| TV Series Episode | 53 min | |
| FAM SF | USA / New Zealand | |
David Morgan, age 12, is a natural scientist. He is already obsessed with what is destined to become his lifework: the design and construction of a time travel machine, what David affectionately refers to as the "Tasmo" - Time and Space Modulator. But the path of a boy genius in a small and conventional town can be thorny. David's father, Alan, would rather see him out on the playing field with a baseball than in the annals of history; to add insult to injury David is failing all his subjects except science, and even his teacher, the bookish spinster Miss Jameson, is beginning to lose faith that the Tasmo will ever work ... A mysterious newcomer to Alverton seems to know and understand more about David, his work and his problems than anyone else. What does the middle aged, balding and paunchy Donald Wells have to do with young David's life? When Alan's shop is broken into and the prototype Tasmo stolen, Donald seems the obvious suspect. But Donald Wells is from the future - he's been sent to ensure David does get the Tasmo back, because without it the development of time travel is impossible. He meets David "accidentally" in the park, and drops a clue as to the true identity of the thief that David can barely credit. In his groundbreaking work on the Tasmo, David has miscalculated more than the chronology determinator: dowdy Miss Jameson is not - or not simply - the altruistic mentor she seems. While essentially good-hearted, she has fallen desperately in love with the school headmaster, the cold and manipulative Eamonn Dodds, and at his urging has entered into a money-making scheme to get them out of Alverton forever - together. The Tasmo is a hair's-breadth away from actually working - and the plan is to steal it from David and sell it to the highest bidder. So David and Donald join forces. If Miss Jameson has stolen the Tasmo, then David must steal it back. He and Donald creep into the school in the dead of the night together - but the burglary goes badly wrong when David makes a shocking discovery: that Donald knows so much about him and his tensions with his father not because he was exceptionally well briefed, but because he is David - as David will be in 2035 ... This isn't the future as David imagined it - and if rescuing the Tasmo means that David will grow into the balding and overweight Donald, then it's time to change the course of history! David runs away, leaving Donald behind to be caught in the school grounds and arrested for breaking and entering - but not before he has hidden the Tasmo. Donald has had a pointed conversation or two with Alan, too - and when Alan realizes that David has abruptly lost all interest in time travel and turned overnight into a super-jock wannabe, he is more anxious than gratified. David refuses to discuss his change of heart, leaving his father very worried ... When he sees David being shepherded into the headmaster's car and driven away, his concern turns to fear. Dodds is of course frantic to find the Tasmo again - but his interrogation of David is of no use: David doesn't know where it is either, and at this stage, couldn't care less. Miss Jameson, who has been becoming more and more uneasy about the part she has played in the skulduggery, is shocked and disgusted by Dodds' bullying of who is, after all, her favorite pupil. Alan bursts in at the critical moment - and duplicitous Dodds draws a gun on all three of them. But Alan remains resolute under fire: he tells David he must do what he wants with his life, not what Alan or Dodds or Miss Jameson want ... Dodds sneers, but he would have done better to have kept alert: the moment she sees he is distracted, Miss Jameson creeps up behind her erstwhile suitor and knocks him unconscious with a vase. As Dodds falls, the vase shatters - and there in the shards lies the Tasmo, David's historic invention - and his future.
The Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat
Space Time Twister
| S 1 | Ep 1 | 1995/09/16 |
| TV Series Episode | 7 min | |
| COM FAN | USA | |
Felix takes a "ghost train" into a mythical and bizarre realm. (reverse evolution distorted time)
Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat
Middle Aged Felix
| S 1 | Ep 5 | 1995/10/14 |
| TV Series Episode | 7 min | |
| COM FAN | USA | |
Felix and Sheba are cleaning the garage of Sheba's rock-and-rolling grandma when they discover a book of magic spells. A spell transports Felix and Sheba back to the days of Merlin, a wily sorcerer who tries (unsuccessfully) to outsmart Felix. (Merlin spell to medieval times)
Two Envelopes Problem (aka The Exchange Paradox)
| S - | Ep - | |
| High | - min | |
The two envelopes problem, also known as the exchange paradox, is a brain teaser, puzzle, or paradox in logic, philosophy, probability, and recreational mathematics. It is of special interest in decision theory, and for the Bayesian interpretation of probability theory. Historically, it arose as a variant of the necktie paradox. The problem: You have two indistinguishable envelopes that each contain money. One contains twice as much as the other. You may pick one envelope and keep the money it contains. You pick at random, but before you open the envelope, you are offered the chance to take the other envelope instead. It can be argued that it is to your advantage to swap envelopes by showing that your expected return on swapping exceeds the sum in your envelope. This leads to the absurdity that it is beneficial to continue to swap envelopes indefinitely. Example: Assume the amount in my selected envelope is $20. If I happened to have selected the larger of the two envelopes, that would mean that the amount in my envelope is twice the amount in the other envelope. So in this case the amount in the other envelope would be $10. However if I happened to have selected the smaller of the two envelopes, that would mean that the amount in the other envelope is twice the amount in my envelope. So in this second scenario the amount in the other envelope would be $40. The probability of either of these scenarios is one half, since there is a 50% chance that I initially happened to select the larger envelope and a 50% chance that I initially happened to select the smaller envelope. The expected value calculation for how much money is in the other envelope would be the amount in the first scenario times the probability of the first scenario plus the amount in the second scenario times the probability of the second scenario, which is $10 * 1/2 + $40 * 1/2. The result of this calculation is that the expected value of money in the other envelope is $25. Since this is greater than my selected envelope, it would appear to my advantage to always switch envelopes. A large number of solutions have been proposed. The usual scenario is that one writer proposes a solution that solves the problem as stated, but then another writer discovers that altering the problem slightly revives the paradox. In this way, a family of closely related formulations of the problem have been created, which are discussed in the literature. No proposed solution is widely accepted as correct.[1] Despite this it is common for authors to claim that the solution to the problem is easy, even elementary.[2] However, when investigating these elementary solutions they often differ from one author to the next. In the last two decades, several new papers have been published every year.[3]
Two Guys from the Future
| S - | Ep - | 1992/08/ |
| Short Story | - min | |
Two guys from the future show up in an art gallery where they meet a security-guard-cum-artist and her boss.
Two Minute Warning
| S - | Ep - | 2005/03/16 |
| Short | 13 min | |
| FAN ROM | USA | |
Clary has invented a time machine that only allows her to go back in time for a mere two minutes. Not enough time to change the universe but just enough time to make some minor corrections in her life. She invites over a man to seduce but seeing as how she has never been out on a date before, she will use the time machine to fine tune herself as the need arises. If he doesn't like the wine, she can go back and change it. He doesn't like the shoes? No problem. What Clary doesn't realize is that the universe just might have a mind of its own and things will unfold as they must... in spite of her tampering. This light hearted film is delightfully fun and has a few surprising twists that will have every member of the audience saying or feeling awe...
2000 A.D.
Tharg's Time Twisters: "Chrono-Cops"
| S - | Ep 310 | 1983/04/02 |
| Comic Strip | - min | |
April 2, 1983. Features include "Invasion of the Thrill-Snatchers" part 3 (art by Massimo Belardinelli), Tharg's Time Twisters: "Chrono-Cops" (script by Alan Moore, art by Dave Gibbons), Judge Dredd in "The Starborn Thing" part 2 (script by T.B. Grover, art by Carlos Ezquerra), Rogue Trooper in "Fort Neuro" part 19 (script by Gerry Finley-Day, art by Cam Kennedy), and Skizz (script by Moore, art by Jim Baikie). Mike McMahon front cover? Rogue Trooper back cover pin-up by Cam Kennedy. Cover price $0.18.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 1 of 19)
| S - | Ep 1 | 1977/02/26 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 2 of 19)
| S - | Ep 2 | 1977/03/05 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 3 of 19)
| S - | Ep 3 | 1977/03/12 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills. /// Contains bonus Red Alert Survival Wallet. March 12, 1977. Prog: 03 Featuring Invasion "The Resistance" (Part 3 of 5) Written by Gerry Finley-Day, Art by Jesus Blasco; Dan Dare (Part 3 of 11) Written by Kelvin Gosnell, Art by Massimo Belardinelli; Judge Dredd "The New You" Written by Kelvin Gosnell, Art by Mike McMahon; Flesh: Book 1 (Part 3 of 19) Written by Ken Armstrong, Art by Ramon Sola; Harlem Heroes (Part 3 of 27) Written by Tom Tully, Art by Dave Gibbons; M.A.C.H.1 "Battleship" Written by Nick Allen, Art by Massimo Belardinelli. Cover by Ramon Sola. Futuregraph "Mega-City One" by Carlos Ezquerra.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 4 of 19)
| S - | Ep 4 | 1977/03/19 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 5 of 19)
| S - | Ep 5 | 1977/03/26 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 6 of 19)
| S - | Ep 6 | 1977/04/02 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 7 of 19)
| S - | Ep 7 | 1977/04/09 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 8 of 19)
| S - | Ep 8 | 1977/04/16 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 9 of 19)
| S - | Ep 9 | 1977/04/23 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 10 of 19)
| S - | Ep 10 | 1977/04/30 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 11 of 19)
| S - | Ep 11 | 1977/05/07 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.
2000 A.D.
Flesh Book One (part 12 of 19)
| S - | Ep 12 | 1977/05/14 |
| Comic | - min | |
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.