- You Are There (1953)
This television show ran from 1953 to 1957 and was not really science fiction.
It featured dramatic presentations of historical events, with modern-style
newsmen "reporting live from the scene". Basically, it was a gimmick to
make the historical dramas more interesting (and it worked). Walter
Cronkite narrated and acted as "news anchor".
(Time Model: The past is immutable.)(Thanks to Nancy Hoffman.)
- The Time Element (1958)
This episode of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse was actually written
to be the pilot episode of The Twilight Zone. It featured a man
who told his psychiatrist that he kept waking up in Honolulu just prior
to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, but that he was unable to convince
anyone of the impending disaster.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to Don Ritter.)
- The Twilight Zone (1959)
The original Twilight Zone series featured numerous time-travel
stories.
Walking Distance: A man seeking the simplicity of his youth
went back to his hometown and met himself as a young boy.
The Last Flight: A World War I fighter pilot became lost and
landed at a modern air base.
Execution: A western outlaw about to be hung was suddenly pulled
into a modern lab by a time machine.
Back There: A man travelled back in time to before Lincoln was
assassinated.
The Odyssey of Flight 33: An airliner became lost in time.
A Hundred Years Over the Rim: A western settler seeking medicine
found himself 100 years in the future.
Once Upon a Time: A janitor in the 1800's tinkered with his
employer's invention and found himself transported into the future.
Death Ship: The crew of a spaceship landed to investigate a wreck,
only to find it was their own ship. They took off, only to repeat
the process.
No Time Like the Past: A scientist travelled to the past to
prevent catastrophies.
Of Late I Think of Cliffordville: A rich man travelled back in
time so he could become even richer.
A Kind of Stop Watch: A watch stopped time for everyone except
its owner.
The 7th Is Made Up of Phantoms: Modern soldiers on maneuvers
found themselves at Custer's Last Stand.
A Stop at Willoughby: A stressed-out businessman found that
during his daily commute he would sometimes dream that the train stopped
at an idyllic 19th century town called Willoughby.
(Time Model: Various.)
(Thanks to "Hope" for A Stop at Willoughby.)
- The Bullwinkle Show (1961)
One of the features of this popular cartoon show of the sixties was
Peabody's Improbable History. Peabody, a genius dog, would travel
back through time in his "Wayback Machine". Accompanied by his pet
boy Sherman, Peabody would visit great moments in history, usually to
find that his help was needed to make the great moments happen.
(Time Model: The past is immutable, but only with Peabody's help.)
- Doctor Who (1963)
The longest running science fiction series ever, this British production
was all about time travel. We've seen stories about time cops before,
but The Doctor was a Time Lord.
The Doctor's time travel capsule resembled a London police box. This
notion of a time-traveling phone booth has been ripped off by numerous
other movies and television shows (notably Bill and Ted's
Excellent Adventure).
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- The Outer Limits (1963)
(Also see The Outer Limits (1995) )
This series consisted of independent, unrelated science fiction stories,
some of which involved time travel.
Soldier: A soldier from the future was accidentally transported
to the present, where he had a difficult time adjusting to the concept
of peace.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
The Man Who Was Never Born: A mutant from the future travelled
back to kill the man responsible for the horrible state of the
world to come.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
The Guests: Time stood still in a strange house.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
The Premonition: A man and woman got out of synch with time,
but normal time was slowly catching up with them.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
Demon With a Glass Hand: A man with no memory and one hand made of
glass found himself battling alien invaders from the future.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
Form of Things Unknown: A man found a way to 'tilt time' and bring
back the dead.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Lost In Space (1965)
A scientist and his family left Earth in the year 1997 to colonize another
world, but a saboteur sent their spacecraft off course. While starting
out seriously, the series rapidly became campy. The following
episodes involved time in some fashion.
Visit to a Hostile Planet: The Jupiter 2 exceeded the speed of
light and wound up back on Earth, only fifty years before it had departed.
The Astral Traveler: Some of the crew travelled through a time warp
back to 19th century Scotland.
Kidnapped in Space: A group of androids could control time.
Flight into the Future: Some of the crew landed on a planet
in what appeared to be the year 2270 and met their own descendants.
The Time Merchant: The most reluctant member of the crew found
himself back on Earth just prior to the Jupiter 2's liftoff.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- I Dream of Jeannie (1965)
Jeannie was a genie whose bottle was found on a remote island by an astronaut.
An occasional episode featured time travel.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
(Thanks to "Leo Star Dragon 1")
- The Time Tunnel (1966)
The government was secretly building a machine capable of sending people
through time, but budget-cutters wanted to shut it down. Two scientists went
back through time to prove the machine worked.
The "time tunnel" could be used to see the travellers, and could sometimes
be used to yank them out of danger, but it could never retrieve them.
Irwin Allen may have his fans, but I found this series about two
scientists flitting uncontrolably from one disaster to another deadly
dull. ("Captain, we're from the future! The Titanic is going to hit an
iceberg and sink!" "I don't believe you!" ... "General Custer, we're
from the future! You are going to be massacred by indians!" "I don't
believe you!")
(Time Model: The past is immutable.)
- Star Trek (1966)
This popular series about the future included several stories
involving time travel.
The Naked Time: Using an untested "cold mix" formula for
starting the Enterprise's engines caused the ship to go back in time.
The City On the Edge of Forever: Doctor McCoy jumped through
a "time portal" and accidentally changed history. Captain Kirk and First
Officer Spock followed McCoy into the past and set things right, at
great emotional cost to Kirk.
Tomorrow is Yesterday: The starship Enterprise was thrown into
Earth's past (and atmosphere) when it attempted to escape the gravity of a
neutron star. The U.S. Air Force scrambled fighters to intercept the "U.F.O."
(the Enterprise).
This episode was notable in that it established a method of time travel
that would be used in future episodes and movies.
Assignment: Earth: Using the time travel technique established in
Yesterday is Tomorrow, the Enterprise returned to Earth's past
on a historical research mission and unexpectedly encountered aliens
interferring with history.
All Our Yesterdays: The Enterprise went to a planet whose sun was
going to explode in order to evacuate the population. It seemed, however,
the population had already taken refuge in the planet's past.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- It's About Time (1966)
Two astronauts on a space flight found they had travelled back to
prehistoric times. Light comedy series.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- Timeslip (1970)
Two teenagers found a way to travel back and forth through time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to
anonymous contributor "C".)
- Land of the Lost (1974)
A park ranger and his children were rafting on a river. After going over
a waterfall they found themselves back in the time of the dinosaurs.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to "Hubert")
- Tales of the Unexpected (1977)
At least one episode of this Quinn-Martin production featured a time
travel motif.
No Way Out: A man in a sailboat got caught in a storm. Upon
waking on a beach the next morning, he made his way back to town, only
to find that 25 years had passed.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to Robert J. Holland, and to several
other readers who provided vital clues.)
- Sapphire and Steel (1979)
Two agents of cosmic forces took on human form and appeared on Earth.
Their assignment was to watch for breakdowns in time. They were to prevent
malevolent forces from travelling across temporal barriers. This series
was sometimes spooky, sometimes cerebral, and always strange.
(Time Model: Unknown, but fooling with time can have disasterous
consequences.)
- Voyagers! (1982)
A man and a boy used a special watch to travel through time. They were part of
a mysterious organization of agents who "fixed mistakes in time". I was
never clear on how time developed these mistakes nor how the voyagers
and their organization knew what was correct and what wasn't, but it was
a fun series. The theme of "fixing mistakes in time" was also used in
other shows.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but there is only one "correct"
history.)
- The New Twilight Zone (1985)
Several episodes of this revival of The Twilight Zone
involved time-travel.
A Little Peace and Quiet: A woman used a device to stop time whenever
she needed a little peace and quiet.
Profile in Silver: A descendant of JFK went back to 1963 and changed
places with the President just before the assassination.
One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty: A man went back into his own
past to see where his life went wrong.
A Matter of Minutes: A couple woke up one morning to find that
they had fallen out of synch with time, and that robot-like workmen were
busy assembling the future.
Grace Note: A woman wanted to become an opera star and was
given a look into her future.
The Once and Future King: An Elvis impersonator went back through
time to meet the real thing.
Lost and Found: A woman found a couple of time travellers
in her closet.
The Convict's Piano: A piano was able to take a convict
into the past.
The Junction: Two miners trapped underground found each other,
but they appeared to be from different time periods.
Joy Ride: Joy-riding teens stole an old car that took
them into the past.
20/20 Vision: Broken glasses allowed a man to see the futures
of people he encountered.
(Time Model: Various.)
(Thanks to Jerald Overby for A Little Peace and Quiet.)
(Thanks to "Doug" for Profile in Silver.)
- Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)
This was the first Star Trek spinoff. Several episodes
featured time travel.
We'll always have Paris was not so much about time travel as it
was about disrupting time. Commander Data found past, present, and future
versions of himself trying to repair damage to the space-time continuum.
Time Squared featured an incoherent double of Captain Picard
being found in a drifting shuttlecraft. The double became more coherent
and "in phase" as the Enterprise neared an impending disaster. It became
apparent that the duplicate Picard was from the future, having been flung
back in time due to the disaster.
Yesterday's Enterprise showed us The Enterprise NCC-1701C coming
out of a time warp. As soon as it emerged, the present changed for the
inhabiants of The Enterprise NCC-1701D. Picard had to send the other
Enterprise back through time so that the present would not be changed. This
set up an interesting time paradox involving the supposedly dead Lieutenant
Yar, which came back to haunt Picard in a couple of subsequent episodes.
A Matterof Time involved an historian from the future, who turned
out to be a villain from the past.
Cause and Effect had the crew going through a
time loop, reliving the same 24 hour period which always culminated in
the destruction of the Enterprise. Once they realized what was happening, they
had to devise a way to warn their counterparts in the next loop.
Time's Arrow was a two-part story (a cliff-hanger ending one
season and beginning the next, naturally). It was a bit of a muddle
involving an ancient version of Data's head being dug up on Earth,
Mark Twain, a young Guinan, and time travelling soul-eaters. Like I said,
a bit of a muddle.
Tapestry may or may not have been a time travel story. Captain
Picard died, met Q in the afterlife, and was allowed to relive a portion
of his life he had always wanted to change. Then he was revived. Was it
all a dream?
Captain's Holiday had Captain Picard becoming involved in a
treasure hunt while on vacation on Risa. Police agents from the future
were also after the treasure.
Timescape was about an engine failure aboard a Romulan ship that
caused that ship, and the Enterprise, to become frozen in time. Crew members
in an unaffected shuttlecraft were able to briefly run time forward and
backward.
First Born had Worf's grown-up son coming back in time from the
future to rectify mistakes he believed he made during his childhood.
All Good Things was the show's finale. Picard found himself
jumping around in time between past, present, and future Enterprises,
trying on all three to prevent a galaxy-wide disaster.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Red Dwarf (1988)
This British sf/comedy series had no reverence for anything.
There were a couple of episodes which featured time travel.
Backwards: The Red Dwarf crew (who were from our future)
believed they had gone back through time to the early 1990s. Things were
awry, though, and it became apparent that they had not gone
backwards in time. They had gone very, VERY far into the
future. They had arrived at a point where the universe was no
longer expanding, it was contracting, and time was running backwards.
This episode featured some truly disgusting, but funny scenes of people
un-eating meals and un-drinking beer, and the world's greatest barroom
un-brawl.
Timeslides: This episode introduced perhaps the most peculiar
method of time travel ever conceived. Photographs from various places and
times were processed in 3 million-year-old developing fluid. The fluid
had mutated and the resulting images were not only alive, but the Red Dwarf
crew members could actually enter them, effectively going back to when the
photo was originally taken.
Stasis Leak: This episode introduced yet another method of
time travel, a "stasis leak". The crew members went back in time, met
their previous selves, and their selves from an alternate future! And
then, as one of them said, "Things get a bit complicated."
Future Echoes: No one travelled through time per se, but while
exceeding the speed of light, the crew saw "future echoes", things that
were going to happen.
The Inquisitor: An android (insane, of course) devised a means
of travelling through time, then visited everyone who ever existed, judging
whether or not he lived a worthy life.
Out of Time: The future selves of the Red Dwarf crew came back
in time to retrieve some spare parts. They revealed themselves to be
self-indulgent jerks.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Quantum Leap (1989)
A scientist randomly popped up in different times and places and in
different bodies. His time travel was the result of an experiment gone
awry, but when and where he went was guided by some mysterious force.
The idea of "fixing mistakes in time" was used again.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed, but there is only one "correct"
history.)
- Back to the Future (animated)(1991)
Based on the three Back to the Future movies, this
animated series continued the adventures of the main characters.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to anonymous contributor "B".)
- Time Trax (1993)
A "time cop" from the future travelled back to his past (our present)
to round up a bunch of escaped criminals.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Lois and Clark (1993)
This popular Superman series featured a few episodes involving time
travel. All of them were related and had two common characters. The first
was Tempus, the bad guy, and the second was H.G.Wells (who else?). Tempus
was from the future and was unhappy with the utopian Earth created by
Superman and his descendants. His perpetual goal was to bring about
Superman's downfall. H.G. Wells, using his own time machine, acted as
something like a guardian angel, constantly warning of Tempus's plots.
One of the last time travel episodes had Lois, Clark, and Tempus
going back to "past lives" and playing out the same roles over and over
(Tempus was always the bad guy, Lois and Clark were always in love,
and Clark always had a secret life as a nemesis to evil-doers).
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993)
This Star Trek spinoff had several time travel stories.
It was ineveitable, considering the space station (Deep Space Nine) sat
right next to a wormhole in space, and the wormhole was inhabited by
beings that existed in non-linear time.
Emissary was the first episode. Star Fleet commander Sisko found
himself trapped in the wormhole, where he relived the death of his wife over
and over again. The cycle was broken only when the alien inhabitants of the
wormhole explained that it was not they who kept taking him back
to that awful moment. It was Sisko himself who refused to put the tragedy
in the past and get on with his life.
Past Tense was a two-part episode in which Sisko, Bashir, and Dax
accidentally travelled back to the early 21st century. They tried not to
alter history but wound up being part of it.
Visionary featured Chief O'Brien making brief jumps into the
future as a result of an accident. The Chief saw the destruction of the
space station and kept making additional jumps in order to find out
how to prevent it.
The Visitor showed Jake Sisko as an old man. He explained to
a young woman that he had spent his entire life trying to figure out
how to retrieve his father from a mysterious limbo which interfaced with
our reality periodically. The solution was to kill himself, which sent
him and his father back in time to before his father was trapped in limbo.
Little Green Men explained one of the great mysteries of our time. You
see, three Ferengi accidentally went back to the 20th century and crashed
in Roswell, New Mexico......
Accession involved a Bajoran popping out of the wormhole after
having disappeared 200 years earlier. He became the new "Emissary" and
started implementing policies 200 years out of date, until Sisko
reclaimed the title.
Trials and Tribble-ations involved time travel by using the
"Orb of Time". The Defiant and its crew went back to the famous incident
in which Captain Kirk and the Enterprise got involved with Tribbles.
Old props and sets were dusted off for this episode (and they
looked good!). Computer magic allowed the DS9 actors to appear in
old footage of the original Star Trek rather seamlessly.
Children of Time was about the crew of the Defiant finding a
planet inhabited by their own descendants.
Things Past had several DS9 residents thrown back to the time when
the Cardasssians still occupied Bajor.
Time's Orphan Chief O'Brien's daughter accidentally travelled
through time and became a feral child before being rescued.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking for Accession.)
- The X-Files (1993)
This series was about two FBI agents who delved into agency files concerning
the mysterious and inexplicable. Time travel came up a few times.
Synchrony had an elderly man using technology he could only have
obtained from the future.
Triangle saw Agent Mulder go to the Bermuda Triangle and wind up
on a ship in 1939.
Monday found Agents Scully and Mulder trapped in bank robbery that
repeated itself over and over.
Redrum involved a man accused of murder who seemed to be living
his life backwards.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to Bob Tompkins of Thorntown,
Indiana for Triangle.)
- Space Precinct (1994)
Episode #7, Time to Kill featured a cyborg on a killing spree.
It turned out the cyborg had come from the future to prevent the accident
which caused his own creation. He prevented the accident, but fate caused
it to happen again in a different way. The accident was finally prevented
by the intervention of a policeman.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking.)
- Babylon 5 (1994)
Time travel was not a staple of this series, but did play an important
role in the two-part episode War Without End. Space station
Babylon 4 (predecessor of Babylon 5) was "stolen" and taken back in
time 1000 years to fight an earlier war. The use of Babylon 4 in the ancient
war was already part of Minbari history, but radio signals leaking through
from the future indicated history could be changed.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking.)
- The Outer Limits (1995)
(Also see The Outer Limits (1963) )
Episode #7, Virtual Future, featured a young scientist whose
experiments in virtual reality began to show him future events.
Episode #22, A Stitch in Time, featured a scientist who secretly
built a time machine. She used it to go back in time and kill serial
rapist/murderers before their "careers" got started. An unfortunate side
effect was that when she changed history, she remembered both
time lines. The effect was cumulative and detrimental to her health.
Episode #40, Falling Star, featured a rock star who was
visited by a fan from the future.
Episode #42, Vanishing Act, featured a man who disappeared,
only to reappear ten years later, not having aged at all. The day after
his return he vanished again, and... yes, reappeared after yet another
ten years. This continued to happen for several decades until he discovered
strange aliens were using him to explore by remote control. Once the aliens
learned of the detrimental effect their explorations were having on him,
they sent him back to when and where he belonged.
Episode #94 Joyride, featured an early astronaut whose career
was ruined when he saw strange objects in space and aborted his mission.
He later managed to get aboard a space shuttle, found the objects again,
and was transported back to the time of his original mission.
Episode #100, Tribunal, implied that time-travellers will
continue seeking war criminals, even after they are dead.
Episode #104 Deja Vu, was about a scientist whose teleportation
experiment went awry and sent him back one day into the past. He tried over
and over to stop the experiment before he became permanently stuck
in a time loop.
Episode #123 Decompression, told the story of a presidential
candidate who was warned by a traveler from the future that his plane
was about to crash.
Episode #126 Gettysburg, was about two men who expected
to be in a re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg but found themselves
in the real thing.
Episode #130 Final Appeal, was the final episode aired. It was
about a time traveller who found a future in which all technology
had been made illegal.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking
for A Stitch in Time and Vanishing Act.)
- Star Trek: Voyager (1995)
This third Star Trek spinoff series was about a
Starfleet vessel (U.S.S. Voyager) lost on the far side of the galaxy. Time
travel stories were a staple.
Time and Again had the starship Voyager experiencing a shock wave
set off by a huge explosion on a nearby planet. When they beamed down to
investigate, the away team discovered all life has been eradicated.
They also discovered subspace fractures which ultimately transported
Captain Janeway and Lt. Paris back in time on the planet's surface to
right before the explosion. They had to discover a way to avert the
catastrophe to save their lives.
Eye of the Needle featured the Voyager crew becoming hopeful
when they encountered a small wormhole through which they could communicate
with a cargo vessel on the other side... in the Alpha Quadrant. Unfortunately,
they were communicating through time as well as space..the vessel in
the Alpha Quadrant was in the past.
Non Sequitur found Ensign Harry Kim confused when he awoke to find
himself on Earth -- in 24th century San Francisco --
working as a design specialist at Starfleet Engineering and engaged to
be married to Libby. Accessing Starfleet service records, he found that he was
never assigned to the U.S.S. Voyager.
Future's End was a two-parter in which Voyager
was transported back to Earth, but in the 20th century. To
complicate matters even further, a 20th century business tycoon appeared
to have started the whole computer revolution based on information he
had stolen from the future.
Before and After involved Kes's consciousness jumping around in
time. She found herself in the future as an old woman and in the past
as a newborn infant.
The Year of Hell was another two-parter. Voyager was pursued by a
relentless enemy for a whole year and suffered increasing damage with
each attack. Concurrent with this story line, Chakotay and Paris found
themselves on a large battleship which had a formidable weapon... it could
change the past.
Living Witness had the holographic doctor winding up in a future
that recorded Voyager as being a ship full of killers.
Timeless saw crewmembers from the future coming back to prevent
a fatal accident.
Relativity involved time police from the 29th century.
Fury was about the evolved Kes going into the past to regain
her former, unevolved self.
Shattered was about parts of Voyager existing in many different
periods of time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.) (Thanks to Thorsten
Wieking for Time and Again, Eye of the Needle, and
Non Sequitur.)
- Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995)
This sword-and-sorcery TV show about the legendary Hercules featured a
few episodes which involved time travel.
The End of the Beginning had Hercules travelling back through
time to save the life of his wife-to-be.
Armageddon Now was a two-parter involving an assassin sent back
to kill Hercules's mother before Hercules was born.
Somewhere over the Rainbow Bridge had Hercules changing time
by altering the Norn Book of Fate.
Once Upon a Future King was about Hercules meeting the future
King Arthur, who had been sent into the past by Merlin.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Gin".)
- Xena: The Warrior Princess (1995)
A female warrior starred in this popular sword-and-sorcery TV show.
Episodes which involved time travel are listed below.
Remember Nothing featured The Three Fates offering Xena
a chance to alter her past.
Life Blood was technically a time-travel story, since it showed
visions of the past which included a girl wearing modern clothing.
When Fates Collide involved Caesar, who had escaped from Hades,
altering time by tampering the the loom of The Three Fates.
Been There, Done That had Xena and her companions reliving the
same events over and over. Only Xena was aware that time was repeating
itself.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Gin".)
- Sliders (1995)
A young scientist discovered a way to cross into other dimensions. He and
his companions found that they could move to a vast array of parallel worlds,
and even through time, but couldn't seem to find a way back home.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to Suzy Kendall)
- Early Edition (1996)
A man received a newspaper every morning containing the following day's news.
(Time Model: The future can be seen, but can be changed.)(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking.)
- Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)
This series about a teenager who discovered that she was a witch featured
some episodes involving time travel.
- Pilot: Sabrina had a bad first day at her new high school and
wished that she could live it over again. Upon discovering that she was a
witch, she found that perhaps she could!
- Historical characters were temporarily brought into the present.
- Sabrina's cat swallowed a "Time Ball", which caused Sabrina to transport
back to the 1960s.
- Time After Time: While trying to mend Zelda's broken heart,
Sabrina accidentally changed her whole history.
- Double Time: Not strictly time travel, but in this episode
Sabrina used her powers to move faster than time in order to accomplish
everything she wanted to do. Unfortunately, her friends began to slow down.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
(Thanks to "Leo Star Dragon 1")
- Crime Traveller (1997)
The police had a time machine, but could not go back to prevent crimes.
They could, however, go back to get evidence about who commited the crime.
(Time Model: The past is immutable.)(Thanks to Thorsten Wieking.)
- Timecop (1997)
The time police tried to prevent criminals from going back and altering
time.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Stargate: SG1 (1997)
This popular cable TV show was about exploring the galaxy via
artificially created wormholes, but did have some episodes about time
travel.
1969. The SG1 team found that a solar flare had caused the
wormhole to send them back in time rather than across the galaxy.
Through some unexplained paradox, they were given assistance and
information on how to return to their own time.
Window of Opportunity. When two of the SG1 team members realized that
they were reliving the same events over and over, they attempted to break
the loop.
2010. The ideal world of 2010 turned out to have some nasty
surprises. The SG1 team sent a warning message back through time.
It's Good To Be King. The SG1 team visited an alien planet and found
ruins with the planet's history inscribed on them, including events which
had not yet happened.
(Time Model: 1969 implied that the past/present can be changed.)
(Time Model: WoO stated that time is immutable, but you can
change events within a time loop.)
(Time Model: 2010, the past/present can be changed.)
(Time Model: IGTBK, unknown.)
- Fidelity Roth IRA commercial (1998)
This was not a show, but a commercial. I included it since it involved
time travel (and was clever). The salesman talking to us said he was
from the future and showed us a 2038 calendar to prove it. He told us
how glad he was that he had purchased a Fidelity Roth Individual
Retirement Account back in our time period, and suggested we do the same.
He was interrupted at the end by his dog, who, using a canine-to-human
translation unit, told him it was time to go for a walk.
(Time Model: Suggests that knowing the future, it can be changed.)
-
Seven Days
(1998)
A government agency had a secret time machine which could send someone
back in time no more than seven days. They used it to avert disasters
such as terrorist attacks.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to Don Steffen.)
- Farscape (1999)
An astronaut got caught in a wormhole and was transported to another
part of the universe. He teamed up with a group of misfits and
criminals being transported aboard a giant, living spaceship. A few
stories involved time travel.
Back and Back and Back to the Future featured Crichton, the
astronaut, being exposed to a strange force. He found himself living
parts of the present and future over and over.
The Locket was about Moya, the living ship, being caught in
a mist which slowed time. Crew members who left the ship aged normally
while those who stayed on the ship did not.
Different Destinations had several of the crew members visiting
a memorial to an ancient battle. They were suddenly transported back to
the battle itself and found that their presence caused a disasterous
alteration of history.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Martin".)
- Enterprise (2001)
The Star Trek franchise continued with this "here's how
it all began" series. Time travel stories showed up very early
and quickly became an integral part of the show.
Broken Arrow was the two-part series introduction. Aliens
(Sulibans) were being augmented and given other technological aid by
their own counterparts from the far future.
Cold Front continued the story of the augmented Sulibans, and
informed us that there was a "temporal cold war" in progress between
warring factions from the future.
Shockwave was a two-part season ending/beginning involving more
machinations between the warring factions in the temporal cold war.
Future Tense was about the Enterprise finding a derelict space
ship that turned out to actually be a time ship. Like The Doctor's TARDIS
(see "Doctor Who"), it was bigger on the inside than the outside.
The Expanse started with an alien ship attacking Earth. The aliens
had been told that they would be destroyed by humans some time in the
future, so they decided to make a pre-emptive strike.
Twilight showed us a future in which Earth was destroyed and
the remnants of humanity were hunted almost to extinction. The solution
was to cure Captain Archer of a time-travelling virus he had contracted.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Time Squad (2001)
This animated show featured an unlikely trio from the far, far, far future
who attempted to keep history on track.
(Time Model: Suggests the past/present can be changed.)
- Saint Sinner (2002)
A 19th century monk accidentally released two demons upon the world. He
was transported to the 21st century to recapture them.
(Time Model: Unknown.)
- The Triangle (2005)
This Sci-Fi Channel mini-series was about increasingly alarming happenings
in the Bermuda Triangle. People and objects caught in the triangle
sometimes randomly travelled into the future or the past.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)
- Heroes (2006)
Various ordinary people discovered that they had fantastic powers. One of
them could teleport and travel through time.
(Time Model: Unknown.)(Thanks to "Leo Star Dragon 1".)
- Journeyman (2007)
A man suddenly developed the ability to travel through time and went back
to help people in the past.
(Time Model: The past/present can be changed.)(Thanks to "Leo Star Dragon 1".)
Notes:
- I have not included 'Rip Van Winkle' type stories in which people
awake or are revived some time in the future as they do not actually
involved time travel.
- Series are dated from when they first appeared on television.
- Made-For-Television movies are listed on the "Movies about
time travel" page.
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