Editing Time After Time (1979 film) (section)

==Reception==
===Critical response===
''Time After Time'' received a positive response from critics. On review aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 88% based on 32 reviews. The site's consensus reads, "With the three principal actors clearly having fun with their roles, ''Time After Time'' becomes an amusing, light-hearted fantasy lark."<ref>{{cite web |title=Time After Time |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/time_after_time |website=RottenTomatoes.com |publisher=Fandango Media |access-date=19 May 2023}}</ref>

''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' described the film as "a delightful, entertaining trifle of a film that shows both the possibilities and limitations of taking liberties with literature and history. Nicholas Meyer has deftly juxtaposed Victorian England and contemporary America in a clever story, irresistible due to the competence of its cast".<ref>{{cite web |title=Review: 'Time After Time' |work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |date=December 31, 1979 |url=https://variety.com/1979/film/reviews/time-after-time-1200424586/ |access-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref> [[Janet Maslin]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' similarly lauded, "''Time After Time'' is every bit as magical as the trick around which it revolves". She continued:

{{blockquote|Mr. Meyer isn't a particularly skilled director; this is his first attempt, and on occasion it's very clumsy. But as a whizkid he's gone straight to the head of the class, with a movie that's as sweet as it is clever, and never so clever that it forgets to be entertaining. The satisfactions ''Time After Time'' offers are perhaps no more sophisticated than the fun one might have with an intricate set of electric trains. Still, fun of this sort isn't always easy to come by, not after one's age has climbed up into two digits. There's a lot to be said for an adult's movie with the shimmer of a child's new toy.<ref>{{cite news |last=Maslin |first=Janet |author-link=Janet Maslin |date=September 28, 1979 |title=Screen: H.G. Wells Trails Jack the Ripper into 1979: Down the Years |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E02E7D81638E732A2575BC2A96F9C946890D6CF |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160702151350/https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9E02E7D81638E732A2575BC2A96F9C946890D6CF |archive-date=2 July 2016 |url-status=dead |access-date=11 February 2023}}</ref>}}

The interior scenes set in London borrow heavily from the 1960 film ''[[The Time Machine (1960 film)|The Time Machine]]'', which was based on the 1895 H.G. Wells novella [[The Time Machine|of the same name]]. Commentators also noticed parallels between ''Time After Time'' and ''[[Back to the Future Part III]]'' in which Mary Steenburgen appeared.<ref name="mix979fm">{{cite web|url=http://mix979fm.com/what-ties-these-five-time-travel-movies-together-video/|title=WHAT TIES THESE FIVE TIME-TRAVEL MOVIES TOGETHER? – [VIDEO]|author=Spencer Bennett|website=mix979fm.com|date=2 November 2015|quote=I was noticing the time-traveling ties between ''Time After Time'' (1979) and another movie ''Back to the Future III'' (1990), a film also starring Mary Steenburgen. In ''Time After Time'', she played Amy Robbins, a 20th Century woman who falls in love with a time traveller, H.G. Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell) from the 19th Century.... In ''Back to the Future Part III'' (1990), she played Clara Clayton, a 19th Century woman who falls in love with a time traveller (played by Christopher Lloyd), from the 20th Century.}}</ref> She said:

<blockquote>Actually, I've played the same scene in that film (''Time After Time'') and in (''BTTF'') ''Part III''... I've had a man from a different time period tell me that he's in love with me, but he has to go back to his own time. My response in both cases is, of course, disbelief, and I order them out of my life. Afterwards, I find out I was wrong and that, in fact, the man is indeed from another time, and I go after him (them) to profess my love. It's a pretty strange feeling to find yourself doing the same scene, so many years apart, for the second time in your career.<ref name="steenburgen">{{cite web|url=http://www.backtothefuture.com/cast/mary-steenburgen/bttf3|title=Mary Steenburgen ("Clara Clayton Brown")|website=backtothefuture.com|access-date=2019-02-20|archive-date=2019-02-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220062831/http://www.backtothefuture.com/cast/mary-steenburgen/bttf3|url-status=dead}}</ref></blockquote>

The casting of Steenburgen for ''Back to the Future Part III'' appears to be deliberately intended to mirror the earlier role.<ref name="rejects">{{cite web|url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/10-movies-to-watch-after-you-see-back-to-the-future-part-iii-48cdeba9e793/|title=10 Movies to Watch After You See Back to the Future Part III|author=Christopher Campbell|website=filmschoolrejects.com|date=21 October 2015|quote=Steenburgen was sought to play Clara in part based on her role in this movie where she plays the love interest of another time traveller. Instead of a man from the future who is a fan of a famed 19th century sci-fi and fantasy author, her leading man is from the past and an actual famed 19th century sci-fi and fantasy author, H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell)... he brings Steenburgen’s character back to his own time period, just as Doc does with Clara.}}</ref><ref name="thefilmbox"/> In ''Time After Time'', the woman lives in the 20th century and the time traveler is from the 19th. In ''Back to the Future Part III'', the woman inhabits the 19th century and the time traveler is from the 20th.<ref name="thefilmbox">{{cite web|url=https://thefilmbox.org/ultimate-facts/ultimate-facts-back-to-the-future-part-iii/|title=Ultimate Facts: back to the Future Part III|website=thefilmbox.org|quote=The role of Clara Clayton was written specifically for Mary Steenburgen. – In the film, Clara Clayton is a 19th Century woman who falls in love with a time traveler from the 20th Century. In ''Time After Time'' (1979), Mary Steenburgen played Amy Robbins, a 20th Century woman who falls in love with a time traveler from the 19th Century.|access-date=2019-02-20|archive-date=2019-08-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190818032206/https://thefilmbox.org/ultimate-facts/ultimate-facts-back-to-the-future-part-iii/|url-status=dead}}</ref> In both films, the woman eventually goes back with the time traveler to live in his own time period.<ref name="academic.oup.com">{{cite journal |author=Fhlainn |first=Sorcha Ní |author-link=Sorcha Ní Fhlainn |date=1 August 2016 |title='There's Something Very Familiar About All This': Time Machines, Cultural Tangents, and Mastering Time in H.G. Wells's The Time Machine and the Back to the Future trilogy |url=https://academic.oup.com/adaptation/article/9/2/164/2274503 |journal=Adaptation |volume=9 |page=164 |doi=10.1093/adaptation/apv028 |quote=The conclusion to Back to the Future III (where both Doc and Clara travel to 1985 to meet with Marty once more, in a new time machine constructed within a steam-powered locomotive), intertextually connects this moment with the conclusion of Meyer’s Time After Time, where H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) not only prevents Jack the Ripper (David Warner) from continuing his murder spree in San Francisco in 1979, but also brings Amy Robbins (also played by Mary Steenburgen) back to Victorian England with him. Thus, both women are positioned as a reward for the time traveller’s dedication and emotional connection to the machine. Both Clara and Amy are permanently relocated by their respective masters of time, just as Wells’s Time Traveller had intended with Weena. |doi-access=free |number=2}}</ref>

Some similar time travel incongruities as well as the modern San Francisco urban setting also appeared in 1986's ''[[Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home]]'', for which Nicholas Meyer shared writing credit. The details of time travelers from distant eras obtaining and exchanging present day American currency were similar in both films. In ''Star Trek IV'', a featured female character, Dr. Gillian Taylor, ends up joining her paramour, [[Captain James T. Kirk]], living in the future, similar to the conclusion of ''Time After Time''.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}}

===Accolades===
Nicholas Meyer won the [[Saturn Award for Best Writing]], Mary Steenburgen won the [[Saturn Award for Best Actress]], and [[Miklós Rózsa]] won the [[Saturn Award for Best Music]]. Saturn Award nominations went to Meyer for [[Saturn Award for Best Direction|Best Director]], Malcolm McDowell for [[Saturn Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]], David Warner for [[Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor|Supporting Actor]], and Sal Anthony and Yvonne Kubis for [[Saturn Award for Best Costume|Best Costumes]], and the film was nominated for [[Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film|Best Science Fiction Film]].

Nicholas Meyer won the Antenne II Award and the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival and he was nominated for the [[List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners|Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay]] and the [[Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation]].