History Main / OurTimeMachineIsDifferent

* The titular stairwell in ''Literature/TheImpossibleStairwell'' looks like an ordinary stairwell, but going up- or downstairs takes you forward or backward in time.

* ''Series/OdiseaBurbujas'' has ''El Tobogán del Tiempo'' (the time slide) and yes, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin seven days is a literal slide]].

* The time machine in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' has a good deal of quartz in it and just a touch of [[AlienGeometries alien geometry.]]

* Played with in ''Series/TheLibrarians2014'', where we see a room in the Library that contains dozens of different time machines (including a [[Film/BackToTheFuture DeLorean]] and a [[Series/DoctorWho blue police box]]), each of which works on a different principle, which means that, if you use one to go back in time, you can't use another to return.

* ''Pinball/TimeMachineDataEast'' has a morphing car that can also fly through space.

* ''VideoGame/TimeShift'' has Timesuits that transport you through time and space and prevent you from causing paradoxes.

* There are two types of time machines in ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'' games. The first game features the Pegasus device, the original time machine invented by Dr. Sinclair, which is fairly large and static. The time travelers' suits are fitted with recall biochips, which signal the Pegasus to pull them back. The second game has miniaturized versions placed in PoweredArmor suits. This allows time travelers to jump to any time period from any time period without the need to constantly return to the "present". In the third game, the miniaturized device is also installed in a chameleon suit, which creates a holographic image of any scanned person in order to be able to interact with people in the past.
* In the "Timegate Traveler" movie series in ''VideoGame/PokemonBlack2AndWhite2'', the time machine can be stored in a capsule that fits in the palm of your hand--in other words, a Poke Ball.

* One Halloween episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' had Homer accidentally create a time-travelling toaster.

* WesternAnimation/DangerMouse and Penfold travel through time in a grandfather clock in "The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemma." Contains a rather obvious ''Series/DoctorWho'' reference.

* Played with in ''Series/TheLibrarians'', where we see a room in the Library that contains dozens of different time machines (including a [[Film/BackToTheFuture DeLorean]] and a [[Series/DoctorWho blue police box]]), each of which works on a different principle, which means that, if you use one to go back in time, you can't use another to return.

->'''Marty [=McFly=]:''' Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a [=DeLorean=]?
->'''Dr. Emmett Brown:''' The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with [[RuleOfCool some style]]?

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* ''SteinsGate'': Features a time-travelling microwave. Useful for sending texts back in time to your cell-phone or turning bananas (and other organic material) into bright green mush.

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* SergeyLukyanenko's novel ''Today, Mom!'' has the SiblingTeam protagonists discover a time pod inside an Ancient Egyptian artifact. When they start pressing buttons, they find themselves in the future (supposedly, where the pod originally came from). However, the future humans refuse to let them go back, as they fear time travel. A cat-like alien named [[http://beoff.ru/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/aziris-nuna8.jpg Shidla]] helps the boys travel back in time. However, they jump too far and end up in Ancient Egypt. Eventually, Shidla drops them off at home and jumps into his own time.

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* ''Series/DoctorWho''

* While the [[Franchise/StargateVerse Stargate]] has been used several times as an impromptu time machine (opening a wormhole during a solar flare results in it folding on itself but in a different time), an [[{{Precursor}} Ancient]] named Janus has managed to create a working time machine out of a Puddle Jumper. While his superiors forced him ''not'' to create one after Elizabeth Weir travels to the past, he does it anyway, just in another galaxy. Conveniently, both devices are lost in the past. The film ''Continuum'' has [[MagnificentBastard Ba'al]] create a time machine of sorts using the solar flare method. He has put up monitoring satellites in hundreds (if not thousands) of star systems, looking for solar flares with the instantaneous data being fed into a powerful computer that calculates how far into the past he will go if he gates to the star.

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* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Calvin makes a time machine of a cardboard box (the same box that was also a duplicator and transmogrifier).

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* In one of the ''{{Bottom}}'' stage shows Eddie invents a time-travelling toilet (naturally the old-fashioned kind, with an overhead cistern and chain). It's called the TURDIS, after ''Series/DoctorWho'''s TARDIS.

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* As noted by ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'', time machines appear in all sorts of weird forms... mainly because, while we have some sort of general understanding about how other vehicles' shapes affect how useful they are (aircraft need wings or rotors or [[CoolAirship envelopes]], boats need hulls, etc), no one has the slightest idea what shape makes a more efficient time machine. (They use the Series/DoctorWho model.)

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* In one episode of the ''WesternAnimation/TheFairlyOddparents'', the fairy godparents transformed themselves into watches that could rewind time.

* DangerMouse and Penfold travel through time in a grandfather clock in "The Hickory Dickory Dock Dilemma." Contains a rather obvious DoctorWho reference.

* The show ''Series/SevenDays'' has the Sphere, a device built by the government based on the [[RoswellThatEndsWell Roswell crash]] that can allow a person to go back [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin seven days]] in the past, no more no less. In the show, it's used to prevent bad things from happening, which occur almost weekly. It's not entirely clear how the Sphere moves through time. Sometimes, it appears exactly where it was. Other times, it appears in space and falls to Earth (which would actually make more sense, given that Earth wasn't in the same position seven days ago). The time limitation is caused by the fact that the scientists still don't know much about the technology and only use it out of necessity and the fact that the alien fuel (which is in short supply) takes exactly 7 days to recharge. Several other Spheres are shown throughout the show, including the previous Sphere which was lost in the jungle after a failed "backstep" and a Sphere from 7 years in the future with an enlarged fuel tank.

* The ''HMS Ophelia'' in AbneyPark's band mythology is a [[CoolAirship time-traveling airship]].

In comparison to {{Our Time Travel Is Different}}, this is merely the vessel (not the method).

* In ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', Calvin makes a time machine of a cardboard box (the same box that was also a duplicator and transmogrifier). It runs on imagination.

* LAst WEEK have a calender-operated time controlling machine, which [[spoiler: normally used to regulate the flow of time that is distorted thank to the ritual, but it can used as TimeMachine by changing the date on calender into desired date.]]

** The Doctor's own TARDIS itself is hardly what one expects a time machine to look like, its exterior camouflage being stuck in the form of an early 1960s British police box for most of the show's history. The Doctor's resistance to fixing the chameleon circuit comes from his fondness for the iconic nature of the exterior, since he knows a TARDIS in the guise of a police box will most probably be his own. (As revealed in a 2013 episode, his "Type 40, Mk 3" TARDIS's [[http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/wp-images/tardis/origins/type-40-3.jpg default exterior]] was originally [[AsceticAesthetic a sleek, silverry, unadorned cylinder]] of roughly the same size.) The association between the Doctor and his particular TARDIS is so strong, that her characteristic outside appearance has become a symbol of hope to some (usually those in need of saving), and a symbol of dread to others (usually his adversaries). Ironically, though the vast interiors if his ship are filled with all sorts of super-advanced technological wonders that frequently astonish other people, the Doctor himself [[SelfDeprecation admits on occassion]] that his TARDIS would be considered an [[WhatAPieceOfJunk outdated, almost quaint model of timeship]] by his fellow Time Lords. He still loves his jalopy of a time machine regardless, and even considers her a friend on par with his companions.

** The Doctor's own TARDIS itself is hardly what one expects a time machine to look like, its exterior camouflage being stuck in the form of an early 1960s British police box for most of the show's history. The Doctor's resistance to fixing the chameleon circuit comes from his fondness for the iconic nature of the exterior, since he knows a TARDIS in the guise of a police box will most probably be his own. (As revealed in a 2013 episode, the TARDIS' default exterior was originally [[AsceticAesthetic a sleek, silverry, unadorned cylinder]] of roughly the same size.) The association between the Doctor and his particular TARDIS is so strong, that her characteristic outside appearance has become a symbol of hope to some (usually those in need of saving), and a symbol of dread to others (usually his adversaries). Ironically, though the vast interiors if his ship are filled with all sorts of super-advanced technological wonders that frequently astonish other people, the Doctor himself [[SelfDeprecation admits on occassion]] that his TARDIS would be considered an [[WhatAPieceOfJunk outdated, almost quaint model of timeship]] by his fellow Time Lords. He still loves his jalopy of a time machine regardless, and even considers her a friend on par with his companions.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has used Time Rings to travel through time. It also has the vortex manipulator, a time-travelling wrist strap. Neither device is a comfortable way to travel.
** Of course, the TARDIS itself is hardly what one expects a time machine to look like.

* ''VideoGame/SpaceQuest IV: Roger Wilco and The Time Rippers'' has time pods used by the Time Rippers of Space Quest XII and a hairdryer-looking device used by LaResistance.

* There are two types of time machines in ''TheJourneymanProject'' games. The first game features the Pegasus device, the original time machine invented by Dr. Sinclair, which is fairly large and static. The time travelers' suits are fitted with recall biochips, which signal the Pegasus to pull them back. The second game has miniaturized versions placed in PoweredArmor suits. This allows time travelers to jump to any time period from any time period without the need to constantly return to the "present". In the third game, the miniaturized device is also installed in a chameleon suit, which creates a holographic image of any scanned person in order to be able to interact with people in the past.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'''s [=DeLorean=], which is the inspiration for this trope. The film's creators justify this by saying that it makes more sense to have a time machine that you can take with you, rather than one that just sits at your destination. Plus the stainless steel construction makes the [[TechnoBabble flux dispersal]] work that much better.
** The time-traveling ''steam locomotive'' at the end of ''Film/BackToTheFuture Part III''. It can ''fly''!

* The phone booth from ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''. And it's ''smaller'' on the inside! Nyaah!

* The time machine in ''TheTimeMachine'' has a good deal of quartz in it and just a touch of [[AlienGeometries alien geometry.]]

* Literature/WillOfHeaven has the "pheasant god," a moon-powered alien device shaped like a rock. It gets its name from the pheasant-like noises it makes when it distorts time, and also causes meteor-like streaks of light to appear in the sky.

* ''Double The Fist'' season 2 had the Timesaw, a chainsaw which saws holes in spacetime.

* One Halloween episode of ''TheSimpsons'' had Homer accidentally create a time-travelling toaster.
* In one episode of the ''TheFairlyOddparents'', the fairy godparents transformed themselves into watches that could rewind time.

* ''SteinsGate'': Features a time-travelling microwave.

* ''TimeCop'' has a pod that accelerates on rails through a tunnel and jumps right before hitting the wall. Strangely, the time traveler shows up at the destination ''without the pod''. When they come back (using a wrist device), they come back in the same pod.

* ''Pinball/TimeMachineZaccaria'' has a transforming pinball machine as the time machine.