Time Machine 'Fix'

(Minor edit to replace wife with fiancee. I thought they were married but when I checked online for a plot synopsis I saw they were engaged not married.)

A while back I got to talking with friend about time travel movies. He was mostly against time travel in general while I was more supportive of the idea. His main gripe was that most movies with time travel didn't do it very well. The Time Machine was brought up as one of the better ones but still not great. I thought some on the story of The Time Machine and came up with a way to 'fix' the movie so it ended sooner and with a happier, and I think cleaner, ending.

When the time traveler is in the future, he is told by the head morlock that he can't save his fiancee from being killed because it is his fiancee's death that caused him to make the time machine. So, him saving her would cause the time machine to not be built, causing a paradox.

However I came up with a way to save her without causing a paradox. If he were to go back in time to the night she was supposed to die and instead of just saving her, he brought her forward to the time he left from, while making it seem as if she had died, his past self would still have the motive to make the time machine. Thus his fiancee is saved and the time machine is still made and no paradox is created; only a stable time loop.

Now it's easy for me to come up with this plan since I'm outside of the problem and not weighed down with depression and grief of having lost my loved one multiple times. I think the morlock could have figured this out but he had no reason to help the time traveler. Although once the time traveler knew why he couldn't just save her, I think he should have been able to figure out how to save her and preserve the timeline. He did build a time machine after all which means he must be pretty smart, right?

Anyway that is how I would 'fix' The Time Machine. Keep in mind that I liked the movie as is and am not saying that because the movie didn't do X I don't like it. I'm merely suggesting another way that the conflict of the movie could have been resolved.

I'm thinking of trying to write a series of posts like this where I come up with ways to 'fix' other movies or just analyze their plot holes. Of course now that I've mentioned it the idea will probably languish untouched for months. I'll try not to let that happen. ^_^

Gilly