Science fiction has long served as a cultural laboratory for time‑travel ideas, shaping public intuition and inspiring scientific inquiry. Early works like H.G. Wells' *The Time Machine* (1895) introduced the concept of a device that moves through time as a spatial dimension. Later narratives explored paradoxes (e.g., *Back to the Future*), branching timelines (*Avengers: Endgame*), and the ethical dilemmas of altering history (*12 Monkeys*). While these stories often take liberties with physics, they highlight enduring human fascinations: regret, the desire to correct mistakes, and the awe of witnessing distant epochs. The interplay between fiction and theory has repeatedly prompted physicists to examine whether the imagined mechanisms might have a kernel of truth.