Q 01/05

Which author's 1895 novella popularised the idea of travelling through the years by mechanical means?

A) Jules Verne

B) H. G. Wells

C) Edward Bellamy

D) Mark Twain

Answer · why

B) H. G. Wells

H. G. Wells. His title gave English the phrase 'time machine', and he had already tried the idea out in a college-magazine story, 'The Chronic Argonau...

Q 02/05

In the 1895 novel The Time Machine, the gentle Eloi are preyed on by which underground race?

A) Daleks

B) Morlocks

C) Triffids

D) Sleestaks

Answer · why

B) Morlocks

Morlocks. The Time Traveller decides they descend from workers once banished underground, who by the year 802,701 are farming the idle rich for meat.

Q 03/05

In Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry and Hermione use a Time-Turner to save Sirius Black and which creature?

A) Hedwig

B) Fawkes

C) Buckbeak

D) Crookshanks

Answer · why

C) Buckbeak

Buckbeak. The hippogriff has been sentenced to death, so the pair lead him away just before the execution, and Sirius Black then escapes on his back.

Q 04/05

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the crew journey to 1986 San Francisco to collect which animals?

A) Giant pandas

B) Bald eagles

C) Bottlenose dolphins

D) Humpback whales

Answer · why

D) Humpback whales

Humpback whales. An alien probe is wrecking 23rd-century Earth while calling to the long-extinct species, so Kirk's crew fetch a pair to answer it.

Q 05/05

In Washington Irving's 1819 tale, Rip Van Winkle sleeps through which war?

A) The War of 1812

B) The American Revolution

C) The French and Indian War

D) The Civil War

Answer · why

B) The American Revolution

The American Revolution. He dozes off a loyal subject of King George III and wakes 20 years later to find the inn sign repainted as General Washington...