Time Babble

Welcome to Series Three of Time Babble! We celebrate our new series with a modern time travel classic, in the 3D watery shape of Donnie Darko (2001). The film is the directorial debut of Richard Kelly, and stars both Jake and Maggie Gyllenhall, alongside Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Mary McDonnell, and Katherine Ross. It’s the simple story of a narcoleptic young man who may or may not be conver...

Welcome to the Time Babble goes to the Movies Summer Special! This week, we’re babbling about Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, released in cinemas summer 2023. The film stars Harrison Ford (obvs), alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Toby Jones, and some old(er) familiar faces. It’s the first in the series not directed by Steven Spielberg, or with story input from George Lucas. Consequently, it’s...

This week we’re babbling about Safety Not Guaranteed (2012), directed by Colin Trevorrow, and starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Karan Soni. The film is about a real fake classified ad, seeking a companion to travel in time, and is a delightfully low budget film that many people may have missed on its original release. Let’s make that right! Our lo-fi indie babbling covers all t...

This week we’re babbling about time travel film royalty: Flight of the Navigator (1986), directed by Randal Klieser, and starring Joey Cramer, Veronica Cartwright and the voice of Paul Reubens as Max. Our 80s synth-induced babbling visits the only public toilet in Florida, first gig confessions, futuristic robot post vehicles that still need a Sarah Jessica Parker to help deliver the mail, the mos...

This week we're babbling about The Time Travelers (1964), directed by Ib Melchior and produced by the legendary Samuel Z. Arkoff. The film was released by American International Pictures, who are best known for their low budget ‘B’ movies with  high production values. Our own zero budget babbling this week features futuristic musical instruments, impressive (and not so impressive) magic tricks, Da...

This week we're babbling about episode six from the first series of the classic tv show, The Outer Limits (1963): The Man Who Was Never Born. It was written by Anthony Lawrence, directed by Leonard Horn and stars a very young Martin Landau. For those who have sensitivity towards frogs, please consider this a warning, as we expose the underwritten obsession this episode has with our amphibian frien...

Hey, listen! This week we're babbling about 65, or 65 Million Years Ago Prehistoric Earth had a Visitor (2023), directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and starring Adam Driver, Ariana Greenblatt, fighting off a render farm's worth of dinosaurs.  On the very first Time Babble live trip out to the cinema, our tiny brains were duped into thinking this was a time travel movie, which embarrassingly, it...

This week we're babbling about two films from the BBC Play for Today series: The Flipside of Dominick Hide (1980) and its sequel Another Flip for Dominick (1982). Both plays were directed by Alan Gibson and co-written with Jeremy Paul.  The plays star Peter Firth as Dominick, Caroline Langrishe as his past love Jane, Pippa Guard as his future wife Ava, and Patrick Magee as Caleb (a.k.a. Future Scr...

This week we’re babbling about Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020), written by Makoto Ueda and directed by Junta Yamaguchi. But before we do, and just for you our dear and loyal listener, we invite you to gorge on some extracurricular babble about our supporting Doraemon cartoon: The Time Machine is Lost (2005). Yaaaaay!  This unfeasibly joyful and wildly overemoting short, is just a tiny part...

Greetings from the Time Babble Zeppelin! This week we’re babbling about It Happened Tomorrow (1944), directed by René Clair, and starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell and Jackie Oakie. This terrific tale of tabloid-based time travel is a perfect example of the endless variety of this most generous of genres. Who would've thought that we’d find Time Babble HQ’s favourite, if most elusive, slang phras...

This week, we’re babbling about Twelve Monkeys (1995), which was inspired by Chris Marker’s legendary short film La Jetée (1962), directed by Terry Gilliam, and stars Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe and Brad Pitt. Apparently, it’s easy to get distracted by a monkey lowered down a well holding a beef sandwich, and Time Babble is no different. But the careful and/or loyal listener will also be rewarde...

This week we’re babbling about Brigadoon (1954) a lavish MGM musical directed by Vincente Minnelli, and based on the stage musical by Lerner and Loewe. The film stars the glorious pairing of dance legends Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, and the morose, perpetually drunk, yet wise cracking Van Johnson. The most Scottishly Scottish of musicals, Brigadoon is also a magical, mystical village that rises o...

Deck the halls with peanuts & balsam! It’s the Time Babble Christmas Special! This week we’re babbling about Somewhere in Time (1980) which was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and stars Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer. The film is based on the novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay, and makes an ‘astonishing’ cameo. The swoonsome soundtrack is p...

This week we’re babbling about The Tomorrow War (2021), which was directed by Chris Mckay and stars Chris Pratt, Yvonne Strahovski and J. K. Simmons. Despite sounding like we’re recording in a tiny cupboard, 20,000 leagues under the sea, somewhere in the future-past, using only string and paper-cups, this is the episode which instigated the digressionary inanity that is the award-avoiding Time Bab...

This week we’re babbling about the first series of Russian Doll (2019), which was created by its star Natasha Lyonne, who also co-wrote the series with Amy Poehler, and directed the final episode. Our inaugural plunge into telly box-based time travel, the chat will feature a mango, a reoccurring bathroom, an earworm of a song, several Ted Talks on the nature of existence, Paul Hardcastle’s endless...

It’s Goose Week on Time Babble! To celebrate, we’re babbling about Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979), which was directed by Russ Mayberry and stars Dennis Dugan as both our hero, and his android/robot twin, alongside a funeral* of ‘end of career’ british character actors, including Jim Dale as the villain, Ron Moody, Kenneth Moore, John Le Mesurier, Rodney Bewes and Pat Roach, as the magnificent...

This week we’re babbling about The Adam Project (2022), which was directed by Shawn Levy, and stars Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, and Catherine Keener. The seemingly now obligatory father/son complex that's littered throughout modern studio filmmaking is present and correct here. However in Episode 6, ever champions of balance and fairness, Time Babble endeavour to make light of al...

This week we’re babbling about The Time Traveller’s Wife (2009), which was directed by Robert Schwenke, and based on the book by Audrey Niffenegger. The film stars Eric ‘bare botty’ Bana and Rachel McAdams. The Time Traveller’s Wife is unfathomably widely loved, but quite why is somewhat unclear, given the stench of male privilege on display, and the misogyny of the script. And that’s the least of...

This week we’re babbling about Timecrimes (Los Cronocrimenes) from 2007, which was written, directed and stars Nacho Vigalondo. It also stars Karra Elejalde, Candela Fernandez and Barbara Goenaga. Timecrimes is the everyday story of a man who spies a girl in the bushes, goes to investigate, and accidentally falls into several time loops. Different versions of himself appear in every loop, sometime...

This week we’re babbling about See You Yesterday (2019), by first time director Stefon Bristol. The film was produced by Spike Lee and stars Eden Duncan-Smith as C.J. Walker and Danté Crichlow as Sebastian. It’s quite a rollercoaster of a Babble episode, covering a fantastic, fun and touching movie, and featuring various horological digressions, including a famous scientist enjoying their favourit...

This week we’re babbling about Frankenstein Unbound (1990). Directed by legendary filmmaker Roger Corman, the film stars John Hurt, Raul Julia, and Bridget Fonda.   The film and chat covers talking cars, unreliable court evidence (including our own intentional falsehoods), purple time ‘clouds’, and a weapon designed not to Hurt. In honour of our universally praised Haiku or Limerick section, there...

This week we cover Time After Time (1979), starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen. Within the first 10 mins, we quote Samuel Beckett, misunderstand the year in which the film is set and unmask the identity of Britain's most notorious serial killer. Enjoy!   As is expected from a podcast about time travel, this first episode is not actually our first episode! We've moved the...

This week we cover Time After Time (1979), starring Malcolm McDowell, David Warner, and Mary Steenburgen. Within the first 10 mins, we quote Samuel Beckett, misunderstand the year in which the film is set and unmask the identity of Britain's most notorious serial killer. Enjoy!   As is expected from a podcast about time travel, this first episode is not actually our first episode! We've moved the...