Movie Review: 'Time After Time'

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In 1979, five years after the publication of his Sherlock Holmes pastiche novel The Seven Percent Solution and two before he directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Nicholas Meyer made his directorial debut with Time After Time. 

 Meyer got involved with this time travel thriller after his friend Karl Alexander, the author of the eponymous novel which inspired both the film and the recently canceled ABC TV series, showed him part of the manuscript and asked for a critique. 

 Nicholas Meyer was then best known as a novelist and budding screenwriter, and his Seven Percent Solution was widely admired by readers and critics alike. Intrigued by Alexander's concept - famous novelist H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper in 1970s San Francisco, Meyer bought the film rights; after Steve Hayes and Alexander wrote a screen story, Meyer then wrote a screenplay and eventually sold it to Warner Bros. with one condition: that he would be the film's director.

  H.G. Wells: My name is H.G. Wells. I came here in a time machine of my own construction. I am pursuing Jack the Ripper, who escaped into the future in my machine.

 Time After Time features three well-known actors - Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Mary Steenburgen (Goin' South), and David Warner (Holocaust, Penny Dreadful) - in a thrilling-but-chilling time travel story that pits a young, idealistic science fiction writer/inventor named Herbert G. Wells against his friend, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson, a brilliant surgeon who is moonlighting as Victorian England's most infamous killer, Jack the Ripper. 

 London 1893 is home to a killer with a macabre nickname...and also to a visionary genius who would write The Time Machine. But what if H.G. Wells' invention wasn't fiction? And what if Jack the Ripper escaped capture, fleeing his own time to take refuge in ours - with Wells himself in pursuit? - Blu-ray package blurb, Time After Time

 My Take

 I'm not going to devote too much space in this review to the plot of Time After Time. Suffice it to say that John Stevenson (Warner) is a guest at a dinner party hosted by his idealistic-but-naive friend Herbert Wells (McDowell). This is no ordinary occasion, however; H.G. Wells has invented a time machine, and although he thinks it will work, he doesn't plan to use it. 

 But when London police constables arrive at Wells' house looking for Stevenson and find bloody gloves in his doctor's bag, Herbert realizes that his friend may be the infamous Jack the Ripper. Worse still, he has shown Stevenson how the time machine works, and when the murderous surgeon is nowhere to be found in the house, Wells has a bad feeling that his erstwhile friend has traveled forward...to 1979. His only option, therefore, is to use the time machine in a deadly cat-and-mouse game across two very different eras. 

 Aided by a beautiful and independent bank teller named Amy (Steenburgen), H.G. Wells sets forth on a mission to apprehend one of the most notorious criminals of all time. 

 Although Meyer is now best-known for his long association with the Star Trek franchise (he rewrote Jack B. Sowards' script for Star Trek II, co-wrote the screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and co-wrote and directed Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; he's also one of the writers for the upcoming Star Trek: Discovery television series), his passion lies in the historical fiction genre. He has written three Sherlock Holmes pastiche novels (The Seven Per Cent Solution, The West End Horror, and The Canary Trainer), all of which were well-received by critics and readers. 

 Time After Time reflects Meyer's affinity for the Victorian era, the same setting as his Sherlock Holmes stories. It also allows the writer-director to add some sly social commentary about our modern era, particularly its dark, seamier side. 

 Jack the Ripper: We don't belong here? On the contrary, Herbert. I belong here completely and utterly. I'm home. 

 Like most time travel stories, including Hulu's 11.22.63, Meyers tells a classic fish-out-of-water story in which his protagonist (Wells) must cope with the bewildering realities of 1979-era America. Not only does the famous writer of such novels as The War of the World and Things to Come encounter automobiles, airplanes, television, McDonald's French fries, and a society where crime and violence are par for the course, but he also discovers an independent-minded woman who isn't shy about asking men out. 
[as Wells and Amy are kissing on Amy's couch, she begins to remove pieces of his clothing - first taking off his glasses, then unfastening his collar]
H.G. Wells: Amy, I don't want to compromise you. Are you quite certain I'm not forcing you to...
Amy Robbins: Forcing me? My God, Herbert, I'm practically raping you.

H.G. Wells: [smiles] Yeah, that's true.

Time After Time is one of my favorite sci-fi/adventure/thriller/romance movies even though I didn't see it during its original theatrical run in 1979. I saw it for the first time when it aired on ABC TV back in the 1980s, an era where broadcast networks still aired edited theatrical films on such programs as The ABC Sunday Night Movie. By then, of course, I knew who Nicholas Meyer was because I'd seen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and The Day After, his two most famous works in the 1980s. 

I had not seen it in ages, though, until Warner Bros. Archives released it on Blu-ray on November 15, 2016. On a lark, I decided to buy it from Amazon (it only cost me $16.60, if I recall correctly) soon after its Blu-ray debut. I've only watched it once - I have yet to watch it with the commentary track by Nicholas Meyer and Malcolm McDowell - but I found the experience to be both enjoyable and rewarding. 

[H.G. Wells eats at a McDonald's]
H.G. Wells: Pomme frites! Fries are pomme frites!

Blu-ray Specifications


Video
  • Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (34.99 Mbps)
  • Resolution: 1080p
  • Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
  • Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1


Audio
  • English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)


Subtitles
  • English SDH


Discs
  • Blu-ray Disc
  • Single disc (1 BD-50)


Playback
  • Region free


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