Rod Sturt Taylor and The Time Machine: The Journey Back

Born on 11 January 1930 in Lidcombe, a suburb of Sydney, Taylor was the only child of William Sturt Taylor, a steel construction contractor and commercial artist, and the former Mona Thompson, a writer of more than a hundred short stories as well as children's books. His middle name comes from his great-great grand uncle, Captain Charles Sturt, a famous British explorer of outback Australia in the 19th century.
Taylor attended Parramatta High School and later studied at the East Sydney Technical and Fine Arts College. For a time he worked as a commercial artist before deciding to become an actor upon seeing Laurence Olivier in an Old Vic touring production in Australia.

Time Machine: The Journey Back is a documentary film, produced in 1993 for airing on PBS stations. It was hosted by Rod Taylor and produced and directed by Clyde Lucas. The film was made about the Time Machine prop, not the movie, but during filming, Bob Burns surprised director Clyde Lucas by having Gene Warren, Sr. drop by. Warren, the award winning effects creator for the original movie, kindly consented to an on-air interview in which he discussed creating the special effects for the film. This led to an interview with one of Warren's partners, Wah Chang, in Northern California. Chang and Warren shared more details about creating the effects and how the little Time Machine prop was made.

Lucas contacted the original screenwriter, David Duncan, who agreed to write a mini-sequel to George Pal's classic. The mini-sequel reunited George (Rod Taylor) with Filby (Alan Young). Lucas first filmed Whit Bissell for the opening, recreating his role as Walter. It would be Bissell's last acting performance. Note: Bissell is wearing one of the jackets Rod Taylor wore in the original film.
The film won a Saturn Award and a Telly Award. It was included as a "special feature" on the DVD for George Pal's film The Time Machine, released by Warner Bros. and was featured in Starlog Magazine.