I’m pretty sure Disney’s The Timekeeper taught me the word “improbable.” It also stands as one of the many pieces of media that became affected post-9/11. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves.
Originally called From Time to Time, The Timekeeper was an attraction that sat right inside the Tomorrowland Metropolis Science Centre, right along the main entrance to the Magic Kingdom’s New Tomorrowland circa 1994. It was somewhere along the Avenue of the Planets, I think, but don’t quote me on that. Outside, a sign read “See the greatest invention of all time, today live!”
I picked this particular recording because it shows off the queue intro video, complete with a wormhole spitting out objects like it’s the Twilight Zone intro. It included a demo from the Kazooie-like Circumvisual PhotoDroid sidedick, Nine-Eye (played by Rhea Perlman). Never underestimate a good theme park queue for worldbuilding.
After the queue, everyone would shuffle into the Circle-Vision 360° theater to get shouted at by Robin Williams as the eccentric Timekeeper himself. The front of his console would reflect the current year. Until 2001.
Disney’s The Timekeeper took things a step further than similar shows at EPCOT, introducing animatronics and an actual narrative. Visitors viewed the world and its story through Nine-Eye’s nine eyes, each one “linked” to one of the theater’s nine movie screens. Standing only, though, so maybe not the best attraction if you were feeling worn out.
But soon after entering, the Timekeeper would flip a switch and the time machine would start its temporal journey.
From the Earth to the Other Earth
If you want to see the particulars, watch the video. They cruise around different eras, bump into a dinosaur, visit Leonardo Davinci and Mozart, and land finally in 1900 AD at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. There, we get an exchange between two of our other characters, H.G. Wells (played by Jeremy Irons) and Jules Verne:
“I spent my life writing about the possible, and you prefer the impossible,” Verne says while looking at a model of Wells’ fictional time machine.
“Impossible?” replies Wells, “No, sir. This may be improbable, but believe me, it’s not impossible.”
“Have you traveled through time?” Verne counters. So Wells says, “Have I ever traveled through time? Uh, I have traveled through time as often as you have traveled from the earth to the moon.”
Got ’em. That has been embedded in my mind since the 90s. After that, Jules Verne spots Nine-Eye, grabs on, and away they go.
Closing
In 2006, The Timekeeper closed its doors for good, replaced by Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. The future was no longer on the menu. And still isn’t, I guess.
After 9/11, since the attraction featured a segment with the World Trade Center, Disney froze the Timekeeper’s machine to 2000 AD, turning the show into a bit of a time capsule. A frozen hauntological vision of the optimistic future that New Tomorrowland once promised but that never came.
Anyway, the real time travel is watching a video of someone recording a CRT monitor in 1994. When you’re done, please be sure you have all your personal belongings and exit to the left. Have a good day.