Talk:List of time travel science fiction

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Contents

[edit] Why this article was created

This new article was created to expand the info. available on time travel in science fiction. Tables were created to organize the incredibly long lists available in Time travel in fiction. Info. from Time travel in fiction (specifically in the Science Fiction subtopics) has been reviewed, editied, and copied to this page. We have also updated the lists of media to include more current works, added information about the significance of time travel in the science fiction genre, and expanded the explanation of how time travel in science fiction differs from time travel in fantasy. Time Flyer 24:24, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Proposed name change

You might want to consider renamining this article to remove the emphasis on science fiction. For instance references to the likes of Donny Darko, Austin Powers in Goldmember and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban fit quite well into this article, but none of those is science fiction. --Tony Sidaway 14:51, 3 September 2007 (UTC)

This article was created because the original article, Time travel in fiction, was getting too inclusive, so I think it would be counter-productive to change the title of this article so as to include the entries you suggest. And even beyond that, I think that this article, and the Time travel in fiction article, are both misguided and need to be seriously re-thought, i.e. we need better definitions of what we're trying to accomplish in these articles. --Buckley (talk) 05:45, 9 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Disagree about '12 Monkeys' entry

I don't agree with the description of the plot of Twelve Monkeys - James Cole DOES succeed in changing the past : the plot of the film was trying to discover who started an epidemic that killed billions of people - Cole finds the perpetrator as he is getting on a plane to start spreading the virus. In the last scene we see the woman from the future who kept sending Cole back sitting next to him on the plane, he asks her what she does ands she smiles viciously and says "I'm in insurance" - the implication being that she's there to insure he fails, and the world is saved. Eliot (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 11:47, 18 February 2008 (UTC)

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[edit] Time travel in non-SF?

why is this a seperate article from Time travel in fiction? Doesn't time-travel automatically make a story SF, in the broad definition? As it is mostly a list, perhaps it should be called "list of xxx", with any other info merged into the broader article? Anyway, i tagged it for now.Yobmod (talk) 12:03, 14 May 2008 (UTC)


Removed list from fiction article, replaced link to this article.

"

  • Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau's El Anacronópete (1887) is the first to introduce a machine for time travel.
  • The Chronic Argonauts (1888) by H. G. Wells is a very close second, and the precursor to Wells' The Time Machine (1895), considered the defining literary masterpiece of the genre. As in Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward (1888), in which the protagonist falls into a slumber and wakes up in the future, the time travelers here are observers whose interactions at different points of time have no impact on altering history.
  • The short stories "By His Bootstraps" (1941) and “All You Zombies—” (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein include elaborate demonstrations of causal loops, sometimes referred to as predestination paradoxes. Heinlein also uses time travel in some of his other books, such as Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset.
  • The short story "A Sound of Thunder" (1952) by Ray Bradbury deals with tiny changes in the distant past producing larger cumulative effects in the present (a.k.a. the Butterfly effect).
  • "Up the Line" (1969), a novella by Robert Silverberg, centers on time tourists, their guides, and the resultant paradoxes. Time police are charged with preventing travelers from tampering with history as well as with punishing those who do. The time travel devices are powered by phlogiston.
  • Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), a novel by Kurt Vonnegut, tells the story of a man who has become "unstuck in time", shifting between various points in his life, including the present living with his family, the past during the bombing of Dresden in World War II, and the future living on the planet Tralfamadore as a zoo specimen studied by aliens. The aliens exist in all times simultaneously, and are capable of perceiving all events in the past, present, and future.
  • Chronocules (1970) by David G. Compton tells the story of Penheniot Experimental Research Village, established to develop time travel to escape the crumbling of society into a "better" future.
  • In Time and Again (1970), From Time to Time (1995), and The Third Level by Jack Finney, the characters use hypnosis as a means of time travel.
  • A highly detailed treatment of time travel is to be found in The Man Who Folded Himself (1973) by David Gerrold.
  • 12:01 PM (1973) is a short story based on the concept of a "time loop", with its central character being the only one aware of it.
  • "The Very Slow Time Machine" (1978) is a short story by Ian Watson advancing the notion of quantized time. To be transported into the future you must travel backward through time by an equal amount to 'accumulate hindward potential'.
  • Timescape, a 1980 novel by Gregory Benford, tells the story of a group of scientists in the future who use tachyons to try to warn scientists in the past about an ecological disaster.
  • In Thrice Upon a Time (1980) by James P. Hogan, messages can be sent backward in time causing the timeline from which the message was sent to cease to exist.
  • In A Rebel In Time (1983) by Harry Harrison, a US government installation based time machine is misused with the intention of enabling the Confederacy to manufacture Sten submachine guns.
  • In Caballo de Troya a U.S. Military man reports to the narrator how he was sent back in time to observe the life of Jesus Christ.
  • In TimeWars (1984) by Simon Hawke the story involves the adventures of an organization tasked with protecting history from being changed by time travelers.
  • In "Lightning" (1988) by Dean Koontz Nazi researchers experiment with time travel. After performing a good deed in the future, one of the time agents finds himself waging a private battle against his own SS squad using the weapons of the future and the help of an unlikely ally.
  • In "Ripples in the Dirac Sea" (1988) by Geoffrey A. Landis (Nebula Award, 1989), a physicist creates a means of time travel using concepts from Dirac's theory of the quantum field. In this version of the time travel paradox, all changes made by the time traveler are erased when the time traveler returns to the present.
  • In the novella "The Langoliers" — from the collection Four Past Midnight by Stephen King — a group of people travels back in time aboard an airplane.
  • In The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, a 20th century millionaire has discovered the existence of gates that allow people to travel through time, but are only open at certain places and times. The protagonist accompanies him on an expedition to 17th century London to meet Coleridge, but becomes enmeshed in a wildly tangled and comical plot.
  • Beauty (1991) by Sheri Tepper retells the classic fairytales of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, with the involvement of a time-traveling documentary crew who brings Beauty back with them to a dystopian future.
  • Connie Willis won Hugo and Nebula Awards for Doomsday Book (1992). The plot features a time traveler from 2048 who travels back to the 14th century. Time travel in the novel is limited by a law of physics that prevents the traveler from landing in a place or time in which they could encounter a "grandfather" paradox and so travelers often find themselves quite far from the place or time they aimed for. The same universe of time travelling historians is featured in To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997).
  • The Guns of the South (1992) by Harry Turtledove takes place in an alternate history of North America during and after the American Civil War, caused by South African white supremacists who travel back in time to supply the Confederacy with AK-47 assault rifles.
  • The Time Ships (1995), by Stephen Baxter is considered to be the sequel to The Time Machine (1895) by H. G. Wells and is officially authorized by the Wells estate to mark the centenary of the original publication. In its wide-ranging narrative, the Traveler's desire to return and rescue Weena is thwarted by the fact that he has changed history (by telling his tale to his friends, one of whom published the account). With a Morlock (in the new history, the Morlocks are intelligent and cultured) he travels through the multiverse as increasingly complicated timelines unravel around him, eventually meeting mankind's far future descendants, whose ambition is to travel into the multiverse of multiverses. Like much of Baxter's work, this is definitely hard science fiction; it also includes many nods to the prehistory of Wells' story in the names of characters and chapters.
  • Timequake (1996) by Kurt Vonnegut contains a theme of free will versus determinism.
  • Paratime by H. Beam Piper. A series of short stories dealing with the concept of lateral time travel and alternate realities.
  • Timeline (1999) by Michael Crichton describes time travel in great detail. The book was made into a movie in 2004, with much of the science explanation missing.
  • The Counting Up, Counting Down (2002) collection by Harry Turtledove includes "Counting Up" and "Counting Down" which are paired short stories of time travel from the twin perspectives of a man who travels back in time to make sure his relationship with his girlfriend at the time lasts, and his younger self.
  • John Birmingham's Axis of Time trilogy (2004-present) begins when a futuristic military task-force is accidentally transported from 2021 to 1942. The novels deal with a rapidly altered version of World War II, and to a lesser extent the social changes that result amongst the Allied powers.
  • Romain Sardou's novel The Spark of God (2004 - Original French title: L'Eclat de Dieu) describes the First crusade and the beginning of the Knights Templar set in the future. The book is also a compelling analysis of the concept of time through ages and civilizations. It includes Uchronie, and time travel with Knights Templar legends.
  • "Pen Pal" (2004) by Lou Antonelli demonstrates causal loops within one man's life in a narrative told in reverse chronological order from the future to the past. Published by Revolution Science Fiction in July 2004, the short story was recognized with an honorable mention in The Year's Best Science Fiction (2005) published by St. Martin's Press, New York, N.Y.
  • The Didymus Contingency (2006) by Jeremy Robinson tells the tale of an atheist who travels back in time in order to prove Jesus a fraud. The book also discusses whether or not the past can truly be changed.
  • The Plot To Save Socrates (2006) by Paul Levinson tells of an attempt by time travelers from 2042 to prevent the philosopher from consuming the hemlock.
  • In The Dechronization of Sam Magruder by George Gaylord Simpson, the eminent paleontologist, a 22nd-century scientist is accidentally sent back in time to the Cretaceous Period, where he must spend the rest of his life alone.
  • "End of an Era," by Robert J. Sawyer, sends two scientists back to study the extinction of the dinosaurs." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Yobmod (talk • contribs) 12:19, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Humor

The number of novels that fall into the category of time-travel/humor is limited.

  • The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964) by Keith Laumer Chester W. Chester IV inherits a run-down mansion and millions in back taxes. His uncle's lifelong project, the Generalized Nonlinear Extrapolator, or "Genie", may provide the income he desperately needs. When he asks for a demonstration of a realistic display of dinosaurs, the computer takes the simplest route, through time itself.
  • In The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (1980) by Douglas Adams the hapless Arthur Dent is brought forward in time to the last day of the universe, and then backward in time to the beginnings of mankind on Earth. Several other mentions of time travel and probable histories occur within the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.
  • In Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (1987), Douglas Adams also explored this theme, wherein the time-traveling Professor Urban Chronotis plays a crucial part in Dirk Gently's latest case.
  • A sub-plot in Terry Pratchett's The Last Continent, Thief of Time and Night Watch all have time travelling plot elements, including Monks whose purpose is to 'guard' history, and giving Pratchett the opportunity to poke fun at such concepts as the Grandfather paradox and the predestination paradox.
  • The protagonist of The Eyre Affair (2001) and its sequels, written by Jasper Fforde, is an agent of "SpecOps" (the "special operations" section of the English government). Her father, Colonel Next, is a constant time-traveler. Although he is a deserter from the "SpecOps Division 12", the "ChronoGuard", he apparently is dedicated to the same task they are, preserving the course of history from destructive alterations.

[edit] Romance

Time-travel romances focus on the relationship between two people, one of whom is usually "lost in time".

  • Outlander by Diana Gabaldon is considered to have popularized the time-travel romance genre.
  • In The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, the hero suffers from a genetic condition called "Chrono-impairment", which causes him to travel involuntarily through time.
  • Bid Time Return (1975) by Richard Matheson is the novel on which the film Somewhere in Time is based. The novel was subsequently re-released under the film's title.
  • In The Last Cavalier by Heather Graham, a Confederate cavalry officer is mysteriously transported to the present, where he meets a young widow at a Civil War reenactment.
  • In Son of the Morning by Linda Howard, Grace St. John, an expert in ancient languages, travels to 14th century Scotland.

[edit] Children's fiction

Time travel is an occasional theme in children's fiction. Stories tend to fall into four types:

  • Magical time travel through a device such as a door or a window which tends to overlap with the ghost story to feature spooky and/or poignant elements. These stories tend to feature the past or present, rarely the future, and only two time periods. Examples include The Time Warp Trio.
  • The time-displaced person, often, again, tending to involve the past or the present.
  • Straight forward adventures in history-style books intended to teach children about history and provide diversion. Examples include The Magic Tree House.
  • The time travel adventure story which tends to involve the same elements as adult's time where some time travel adds extra spice and, generally, fiction involving many of the same concerns as adult science fiction such as time loops and time paradoxes. Examples include Danny Dunn, Time Traveler.


[edit] Supernatural time travel

[edit] Time-displaced person

[edit] Adventures in history

[edit] Time travel adventure

[edit] And List of Films from fiction article

  • There have been three adaptations of The Time Machine (1960, 1978 and 2002).
  • In Beyond the Time Barrier (1960), a United States Air Force experimental aircraft reaches 5000 mph (8000 km/h) and breaks a "time barrier", sending the pilot into a plague-ridden future
  • In La Jetée (1962), the hero is haunted by a memory from his childhood, which turns out to be himself as an adult. (La Jetée — a movie short — was the basis of the full-length feature 12 Monkeys, 1995, described below.)
  • In Superman (1978), the Man of Steel, in an attempt to effectively resurrect the deceased Lois Lane, flies into outer space and circles the Earth at the speed of light, transporting himself backwards in time to a point just before an earthquake caused by Lex Luthor. He then arrived in time to save Lois from death.
  • In the Richard Donner cut of Superman II (1978/1980/2006), the Man of Steel again traveled backwards in time using the same method, but this time to prevent both the destruction of the USA by the three Kryptonian villains (Zod, Ursa, and Non), and Lois Lane from discovering Superman's identity (Note: This was per the original shooting script before it was revised by director Richard Lester for the film's eventual theatrical release.).
  • Time After Time (1979) includes a fictionalized H.G. Wells as the time traveler.
  • In The Final Countdown (1980), a storm (evidently a form of time displacement) transports a nuclear warship from the 1980s to the 1940s.
  • In Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swan (1982), the hero travels by means of "time cannons".
  • In The Philadelphia Experiment (1984) — based on urban legends and conspiracy theories surrounding what is known as The Philadelphia Experiment — sailors in a 1943 experiment travel 41 years forward in time.
  • In Back to the Future trilogy
    • Back to the Future (1985), time travel is achieved by means of a De Lorean time machine. Marty McFly intervenes in his parents' first meeting and prevents them from falling in love, placing his own existence in danger. Thus, the film presents a version of the grandfather paradox. In another instance of the grandfather paradox, when Marty tries to "go back early and warn [Doc Brown]," the De Lorean loses power, keeping the returning Marty from interfering in his original trip back to 1955. Luckily, Doc Brown had retaped the warning note that he had previously torn up, allowing him to survive the terrorist assault.
    • Back to the Future Part II (1989), Marty has to undo a mistake that was made by retrieving an object from the future.
    • Back to the Future Part III (1990)), Marty has to prevent the untimely death of Doc Brown.
  • In The Terminator (1984), John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect John's mother, Sarah from a deadly robot (the Terminator). This type of time travel technology can only send organic beings or things that mimic organics. However, Kyle falls in love with Sarah and ends up fathering John, the man who sent him back. Thus, the film provides an example of a causal loop, as well as a perfect example of violating the grandfather paradox. In the sequels Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), the future can be changed and this causes a number of potential paradoxes.
  • Masters of the Universe (1987), a villain used a camcorder-like gadget which could show what actually happened in the past hour or so, and an inventor used harmonics to open up wormholes not only between dimensions but within the timestream of the same dimension, allowing the heroine (a young Courteney Cox) to save her parents from dying in a plane accident.
  • The short story 12:01 PM was adapted into a short film in 1990 and into a feature-length television movie in 1993.
  • Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) involves the Doctor in his eighth incarnation in his second-to-final known showdown with the Master.
  • Star Trek films including time travel:
  • Timecop (1994) also includes a prohibition against changing the past. The Time Enforcement Agency is specifically formed to prevent such alterations. This causes a dilemma for the hero, Max Walker (Jean-Claude van Damme), who is charged with preventing time-traveler's from altering time, but is tempted to do so himself to prevent his wife's death. He later learns her death is the result of another's meddling with past events, allowing him to save her and their unborn child.
  • In 12 Monkeys (1995), James Cole (Bruce Willis) tries to change the past but cannot, suggesting it runs on the principle of a fixed timeline (the Novikov self-consistency principle).[citation needed]
  • The complex plot of Donnie Darko (2001) invites multiple interpretations for its model of time travel.
  • In Timequest (2002), a group of time travelers use a time machine to travel back in time to 1963 to prevent the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas.
  • In A Sound of Thunder, a person that goes on a dinosaur hunt ends up altering the future by stepping on a butterfly.
  • In The Butterfly Effect (2004), small changes to the past affect the character's life in unexpected ways, an illustration of chaos theory.
  • The time machine in Primer (2004) is a rather limited one, since the user must spend as much time in the machine as they want to go back, and it can only go back to the time it was originally turned on.
  • Timeline (2004) is an adaptation of the book by Michael Crichton, although it omits much of the scientific detail. The plot has an example of a causal loop.
  • Deja Vu (2006) shows a detective who goes back to save lives from a terrorist explosion.
  • In Click (2006) Michael Newman is given a Universal Remote Control that allows him to rewind & fast forward the universe.
  • Next (2007) is a film where the main character can see two minutes into the future.

[edit] Comedy

[edit] Romance

[edit] Horror

[edit] Children's films


[edit] and list of SF in televistsion

[edit] Television

[[Image:Doctorwhotitles2007.jpg|thumb|Doctor Who (1963–1989, 2005–).]] Several television series use time travel as integral to their central theme:

  • Doctor Who (1963–1989, 2005–) Adventures of The Doctor, a Time Lord, as he travels through time and space randomly in his TARDIS, ending up having to solve a problem, from fixing a slight malfunction in something, to saving the universe.
  • The Time Tunnel (1966–1967)
  • Catweazle by Richard Carpenter (1970)
  • Voyagers! (1982–1983)
  • Quantum Leap (1989–1993)
  • Time Trax (1993–1994)
  • Goodnight Sweetheart (1993–1999) was a series in which the show's main character was having an affair with someone from the 1940s, whilst being happily married to someone in the present.
  • Beast Wars (1996–1999) The disgruntled descendants of the beaten Decepticons, the Predacons, go back in time in an attempt to destroy the Maximals (resulting automatically in the deaths of their descendants, the Autobots) and thus change history in their favor.
  • Gargoyles (1994-1997) The mystic artifact, The Phoenix Gate, a medallion crafted on the Isle of Avalon, allowed the bearer to will themselves to any place and point in time by reciting an incantation in Latin. However in the Gargoyles universe "time is like a river, correcting its course against any change", meaning that what has happened has happened and you may take part but no time-line alterations before the present are possible. Only travel into the past occurred. 'Future Tense' not withstanding.
  • Crime Traveller (1997)
  • Timecop (TV series) (1997)
  • Sailor Moon R (1993) Usagi's future daughter Chibi-Usa travels to the past to try to save her mother by finding the silver crystal. She also forms a friendship bond with her mother's past self.
  • Seven Days (1998-2001) The characters could only travel backwards, one week at a time.
  • Mirai Sentai Timeranger (2001)
  • Time Squad (2001-2003) A trio travels back in time to correct historical anomalies.
  • That Was Then (2002)
  • Xiaolin Showdown (2003) - Time After Time (Parts 1 and 2) In this two-part episode, Omi decides to go back in time to stop Hannibal Roy Bean from turning Chase Young to the Heylin side.
  • Popotan (2003) Three sisters, a ferret and their robot maid/bodyguard Mea living in a mansion that dematerializes and reappears in different locations five years into the future. The three sisters were unaware of the time travel, assuming they were just moving in space not time. It's only after one of the sisters and their robot maid got left behind once that they become aware of it. (Anime)
  • Strange Days at Blake Holsey High (2002–2006)
  • Odyssey 5 (2002–2004)
  • Time Warp Trio (2005–)
  • Etheria (2005)
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Dawn of the Duel (2005–2006)
  • Life on Mars (2006–2007)
  • Kamen Rider Den-O (2007–2008)
  • Sapphire & Steel
  • Samurai Jack
  • Phil of the Future A time-travelling family from the future gets stuck in the present when their time machine breaks down.
  • Tru Calling
  • American Dragon Jake Long: Hero of the Hourglass - In this episode of the popular Disney Channel cartoon, Jake Long uses an ancient amulet to travel back in time and reveal the truth about his family to his father, the truth being that Jake, his sister, his mother, and all his mother's relatives are a family of dragons and their descendants.
  • Primeval (TV series), a 2007 miniseries on ITV which involves a team of palaeontologists attempting to fight prehistoric creatures (e.g. Gorgonops) or in one case animals from the future (the Predator) that enter through time portals to the present day.
  • Prehistoric Park, an ITV program which involves zoologist Nigel Marven travelling back in time into the Cretaceous, Pleistocene, Pliocene, and Carboniferous periods to obtain samples of living prehistoric animals for a Jurassic Park-style animal park.
  • Journeyman (2007-), an NBC drama which involves a man from the present day randomly travelling back to the past in order to help others during key points in their own lives; early in the series the protagonist discovers he is not the only one who is time-travelling.
  • The 4400 (2004-2007) features time travel as an integral aspect of the series' plot. Exactly four thousand four hundred people are mysteriously abducted at various points in time during the 20th century and are all spontaneously returned instantly in 2004 without having aged a day and each displaying strange new powers. Several factions within the series suggest that these 4400 individuals are meant to stop a great catastrophe in the near future, yet others suggest that they are the cause of this catastrophe.
  • Histeria! (1998)

In addition, time travel can be used as an occasional device in an ongoing series, such as the following:

  • In Lost, it is eventually revealed that exposure to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism can cause someone to become "unstuck" in time, resulting in the person's consciousness travelling back and forth within their own lifetime. After the events of "Live Together, Die Alone", the character of Desmond Hume begins having glimpses of the future and at one point seems to travel back to his own past. In the episode "The Constant" Desmond begins travelling back and forth between 1996 and 2004, and relying on the help of physicist Daniel Faraday in both the present and the future. It is in that episode that Faraday reveals to the other characters (and to the audience) the definite existence of time travel and how is works.
  • In the French Animated series Code Lyoko, a return in time is used after a tower has been deactivated, Jeremy enters a code into the supercomputer and says "Return to The Past Now"; a jet of white light then erupts from the supercomputer and engulfs the planet causing it to return in time. This process can take people back to about a day in the past, only people who have used the scanners can recall any events before the time reversion. This is used repeatedly through the series. Injuries and scars are healed - however, the dead cannot return to life.
  • The five-year story arc of the TV series Babylon 5 (1993–1998) contained a long-term time-travel story, surrounding the disappearance of the titular station's immediate predecessor, Babylon 4. The effects of this time-travel story are important cornerstones of the series, but cannot be fully understood for a number of seasons. While the disappearance of Babylon 4 is mentioned in the pilot episode Babylon 5: The Gathering and the station reappears later in the first season ("Babylon Squared"), it is not until near the end of year three ("War Without End") that the plot is resolved.
  • Doraemon is about a robotic cat named Doraemon who travels to Nobita's era via a time machine accessible only in the drawer of Nobita's desk. He and Nobita often use the time machine to travel to other eras (for example, to unsuccessfully attempt to capture a dinosaur or to see the latter's future wife and child).
  • Philip J. Fry of Futurama (1999-2003) is a 20th century man cryogenized into the 31st century. While the initial incident does not actually involve time travel, further along the series, he travels back in time to the Roswell Incident ("Roswell That Ends Well"). He also must later ensure his cryogenisis by recreating the incident ("The Why Of Fry"). In the movie Futurama: Bender's Big Score, Bender is able to travel in time using the binary code 001100 010010 011110 100001 101101 110011.
  • In the Justice League episodes "The Savage Time" and Hereafter, the first episode moves backward in time to the 1940s and the second forward 30,000 years. In the Justice League Unlimited episodes 'The Once And Future Thing (parts 1 & 2)' and 'Far From Home', part 1 of the first episode goes backward to 'the old west' and part 2 forward to when the Batman Beyond series is set; whilst the second goes forward to a very distant future to a time when the 'Legion Of Superheroes' exist. It should note that Green Lantern John Stewart has been in all episodes except 'Hereafter', and has shown a dislike of time travel.
  • Red vs. Blue (2001 - 2007). In the season 3 episode "Make Your Time" a bomb explosion causes a temporal rift in time (and "destroys the present", according to characters later on) that sends the Reds, the Blues and their enemies forward in time to the far future (where "things are very shiny") while sending the character Church to the past. Church discovers that he is part of a predestination paradox that caused most of the events of the first two seasons, gets caught in a time loop (while trying to stop the bomb from detonating) where he interacts with dozens of future selves who have failed to stop the bomb and been blown back in time along with the original Church, and eventually ends the loop by standing with the Reds and Blues when the bomb goes off and being blown into the future along with them. After this storyline concludes the characters remain in the future, though the do return to the future version of Blood Gulch, and resume much of their old behaviors despite the differences between their old time and new. In season 5, a character from the Reds and Blues' original time joins the series (which was explained using Minkowski space theory).
  • Rocky & Bullwinkle's (1959–1964) "Wayback machine"
  • Red Dwarf (1988-1999)
  • Space:1999 (1975-1976) In the season one episode "Another Time, Another Place", the crew of Moonbase Alpha encounter their future selves on a near desolate planet earth.
  • The Simpsons (1989-present) In "Treehouse of Horror V", Homer J. Simpson travels back in time using a broken toaster and comically demonstrates the butterfly effect.
  • The Girl from Tomorrow (1990) and The Girl from Tomorrow Part II: Tomorrow's End (1993)
  • Power Rangers (1993-Present)
  • Star Trek
  • The Tomorrow People (1973–1979)
    • The Medusa Strain Peter the Time Guardian is rescued from captivity in the 26th century when the corrupt robot Jedikiah is brought about the ship where he is imprisoned, causing the Tomorrow People in the 20th century to become involved.
    • A Rift in Time Peter returns to enlist the Tomorrow People's aid in preventing British Roman history from being subverted by giving the secret of the steam engine to ancient Roman soldiers 13 hundred years too early.
  • Dragon Ball Z (1996-2003US) The Character Trunks travels back in time to change the past and make sure a future dictator does not rise to power, it is later discovered, that though the past was changed, the change caused a timeline split, meaning that nothing had changed in the future he came from. See types of time travel section 1.3.
  • Sabrina The Teenage Witch (1996-2003)
  • South Park (1997-present)
  • Stargate SG-1 (1997-present)
    • 1969 - SG-1 travels back to 1969 as well as briefly to the future.
    • Moebius (parts 1 & 2) - The SG-1 travels back to Ancient Egypt, 3000 B.C.
  • Charmed (1998-2006)
  • Family Guy (1999-2002, 2005-present)
  • Farscape (1999-2003). In the episode "Kansas", John Crichton and the crew of Moya travel through a wormhole to Earth in the year 1985 — 14 years before the events of the series. Crichton discovers that history has somehow been altered and his father Jack (alive in the regular timeline) is now the captain of the doomed Challenger space shuttle mission. The previous episode ("Unrealized Reality") stated that in the Farscape universe the timeline is flexible, and minor changes can occur without disrupting the timeline as long as nothing major or paradoxical happens. To that end, Crichton manufactures an incident where the young version of himself is trapped in a burning building and Jack rescues him, missing the Challenger mission to stay by his son's side and thereby fixing the timeline. Also in the episode Chiana seduces the young Crichton and has sex with him, but uses Noranti's memory-altering powder to remove the memory of the event from young Crichton and replace it with the one that adult Crichton remembers, preventing adult Crichton from even discovering what happened.
  • SpongeBob SquarePants (1999-present)
  • Inuyasha (2000-2004). In this series, Kagome continuously travels to feudal Japan to aid the title character. Sometimes, it may be the other way around.
  • Invader Zim (2001) In the episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy", Zim uses a time travel replacement device to try and kill his human arch enemy so he could take over the Earth without any inteferance from Dib.
  • The Fairly OddParents (2001)
  • The Powerpuff Girls (2001) Two episodes involve time travel. First, in the episode "Speed Demon", the Girls move so fast on a race home that they travel 50 years into the future, a time long enough for the satanic figure "Him" to conquer the city of Townsville, where the Girls live. In another, "Get Back Jojo", arch-enemy Mojo Jojo uses one of Professor Utonium's machines to travel back in time to the point where the Professor got interested in science in order to stop the creation of the Powerpuff Girls. Ironically, he ends up responsible for their creation in the first place.
  • Star Trek: Enterprise (2001-2005) Besides the usual assortment of time-travel stories, the first three seasons reference a Temporal Cold War where extraterrestrials from the far future involved the starship in various manipulations of "past" (current to the regular characters) events.
  • Stargate Atlantis (2004-present)
  • Catscratch (2005)
  • The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (2006) Though no actual time travel is done in the anime series, Mikuru, one of the main characters, is a time traveler; her future self also appears in an episode. In the Light Novels, she and the narrator, Kyon return to and alter one date multiple times.
  • Heroes (2006-) One of the central metapowered characters, Hiro Nakamura, is able to manipulate time and space, using it to travel to New York City of several weeks in the future, to travel back in time six months (albeit accidentally) in an attempt to save a woman's life, and to travel back from five years in his own future to warn another character. In the first season finale, Hiro accidentally travels to 17th century Japan, and spends several months with his childhood hero, Takezo Kensei before returning to the present.
  • In Cardcaptor Sakura, the protagonist, Sakura, is able to manipulate time with the use of two clow cards, the Time and the Return. Before being captured, Time caused Sakura to repeat the same day over and over. Return allows her to return to a certain point in the past.
  • The X-Files. In quite a few episodes, specifically "Monday" and "Redrum."
  • Zipang. An anime series about a modern day Japanese naval vessel that gets sent back to World War II Japan.
  • "The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" (2002-2006) Jimmy has invented three types of time machines. He and his friends have been to the prehistoric era, the 1970s, and the future
  • "Danny Phantom" (2004-2007) Two episodes have used time travel as a theme, both involving "Clockwork". The first, The Ultimate Enemy, has Danny and his friends thrust into a future where Danny has turned evil and laid waste to the world. His older self then goes back to the present to assure that the events leading to his future take place. The second, Masters of All Time, has Danny go back in time to prevent his arch-enemy Vlad from getting his powers. Unfortunately, Jack ends up in Vlad's position, with Vlad instead Maddie's husband, which prompts Danny to attempt to fix it, only to realize he cannot, as there is apparently no ghost portal.
  • Supernatural (2005-) In the episode "Mystery Spot" Sam gets trapped in a time loop where Dean continually dies. After failing many times to save his brother, Sam finds out that the person who put them in the time loop was a Trickster they had faced before. When Sam threatens to kill him, the Trickster ends the loop and allows the brothers to leave, only for Dean to be killed the next day. Distraught, Sam tracks down the Trickster and gets him to fix things by sending him back to before Dean was last killed.

It has also been used for mockumentaries, such as Prehistoric Park.