Time Travel

[DazZ.]

This is mostly me asking for media recommendations that involve time travel, seeing as I recently realised I have always had some form of fetish for the idea which likely stems from excessive Back to the Future viewing as a child.

I've been trying to find new films or games that are heavily based around the idea (or slightly) and appear to have almost run the little niche dry.
A few films I've seen and can remember off the top of my head (and mostly recommend) are Primer, 12 Monkeys, The Butterfly Effect, Frequency, 11 Minutes Ago and Donnie Darko.

Can't think of many games, I was about to start making a Flash Point and Click based around time travel but then remembered I'd already played "Ben There, Dan That" and "Time Gentleman, Please" and that ideas already been done.

Also so this isn't just a list of things with time travel in, what kind of "timeline rules" do you prefer to theorise would be the reality? Back to the Futures way where a separate timeline is created (see right), leaving paradoxes open and erasing yourself from existence a possibility? Or do you prefer to think what has happened can't be changed and everything that you do in the past has already been done on the timeline you're in when you leave, and it's inevitably going to happen whether you attempt to change it or not (like Primer I think, been a while since I watched it)? (Or whatever speculation you can conjure).

TL;DR: Gimmie things with Time Travel in, discuss timeline shizzle.

 

[captainobscurity]

Time Squad was a fun play on time travel. It was a group of cops who had to go back in time and fix historical mistakes i.e. The Boston Tea Party was an actual Tea Party, Edgar Allen Poe wrote lighthearted stories, and Eli Whitney invented an army of flesh eating robots instead of the Cotton Gin.

As far as time lines go, it's pretty confusing. I thought the Butterfly Effect did it well where the dude can change his past actions to change the future, but that can be pretty limiting.

 

[LoFr3Eq]

Good time travel games include; Chrono Trigger, Sheep Dog 'n Wolf and (to some extent) Crash Bandicoot 3.

While in Sheep Dog 'n wolf the plot is not based around time travel, one of the gadgets you get is a magic stopwatch that sends you back in time thousands of years. This is used to plant trees from seeds, which you can climb to get to new areas once you go to the present. It is also used to move round rocks in the past that turn into rocks stuck in the ground that you can use for cover.

There was also a fairly old TV mini-series called Josh Kirby - Time Warrior.

I would say that the best use of time travel in media would be in Dragonball Z. When Trunks goes back in time his timeline is not affected because it is a separate universe. This is explored very well and comes into play later on in the series when a larval Cell is sent back using the same machine.

 

[Mettking]

The problem with time travel in a story that involves the characters seeing themselves multiple times, or in a game where you have to focus on multiple stories at once (looks at sonic 06); is that if you make one action, no matter how small, it must be consistent everytime you view it.

Chrono Trigger had the advantages of never having to see yourself do something and spreading out the time periods so people never get the chance to question why they look like they never age. While you can see your actions echo down through history to a future time, you basically are changed into a legend more then an actual recorded event.

 

[jumb]

TL;DR: Gimmie things with Time Travel in, discuss timeline shizzle.

The third Harry Potter book/movie/games.

As a more serious recommendation that is less well known: In the Discworld series, the 7th book in the City Watch storyline "Night Watch" is IMO the best time travel story evar.

 

[DazZ.]

Quite surprised I didn't think of Chrono Trigger or Timesplitters, Timesplitters 3 even has it as a gameplay element where you defend your future/past self.

As a more serious recommendation that is less well known: the Discworld series

I've been meaning to have a gander at that anyway, may have to get started so I can read the 7th.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

TL;DR: Gimmie things with Time Travel in, discuss timeline shizzle.

The third Harry Potter book/movie/games.

As a more serious recommendation that is less well known: In the Discworld series, the 7th book in the City Watch storyline "Night Watch" is IMO the best time travel story evar.

Crumbs, I actually OWNED that book. I never read past chapter one though, I couldn't really get into it, but if it had to do with time travel then I wish I had.

Also, there was a book trilogy from years back. I can't remember what it was called, but it was about a girl and her friend who was actually from some underwater society which had been taken over... yeah that's pretty much all I remember.
The third book though I believe had time travel and paradoxes and all that good jazz. I enjoyed it at the time.
Edit: Witch Trade? I think that was it.

 

[cWg | Konka]

the termanator movies are a good place to start (you can skip 3 and 4 tho they arnt worth your time)

 

[kwagamon]

Although I've never watched the movies myself I know that the Terminator franchise uses quite a bit of time travel. That's about all I can offer there, sorry.

The theory I like on time travel is that if time travel is invented in the future, then anyone that used it would just wind up creating the events that shaped the time stream. Time is unchangeable, but only because you already went back in time and made the changes you wanted and it resulted in the events of the world as they are.

Spoiler

The third Pendragon novel has a twist like this. It was very cool.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Check out Quantum Leap if you're able to track it down.

It's a great time travel show.

 

[DuctTapeJedi]

The short story "All You Zombies" is a really good parody of time travel.

 

[SnipErlite]

The Discworld book Night Watch. Yeah it's been said, but it's awesome. Like seriously awesome. Made even better if you've read the rest of the series.

Also I need to put another vote for the film Primer. To quote Wikipedia, "anybody who claims [to] fully understand what's going on in Primer after seeing it just once is either a savant or a liar." I know you said you've seen it...but go watch it again.

As for time travel in general. It would be awesome. Whether travel to the past is possible (travel to the future certainly is), it would be kinda cool. Give us another few hundred years and we might crack it.

 

[Antari]

Well since you are all listing stuff made recently .... The Final Countdown should probably get a mention.

Spoiler

 

[Kitteh]

Black ops' story kept on going into seizure-inducing flashbacks, does that count?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Check out Quantum Leap if you're able to track it down.

It's a great time travel show.

It was definately a unique take on time travel. And you can't beat the ending to the series when the lightbulb finally goes on in his head about what is REALLY causing his jumps.

I never saw the ending.

I think I was around nine years old when I watched it, but I remember there being a lot of re-runs which made the continuity (if there even was any) pretty hard to follow. Eventually they just stopped airing it over here in Holland, so I never got to see the actual ending.

 

[ScipioAmericanus]

TL;DR: Gimmie things with Time Travel in, discuss timeline shizzle.

Probably the best game with time travel as a gameplay element is TimeShift, a damned good shooter and a plot that's thoroughly enthralling (and actually makes sense).

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

How has Doctor Who not been mentioned in a thread about time travel? I am disappoint.

I love The Doctor's view of time travel, where, from a nonlinear non-subjective perspective time is like a big bowl of wibbly wobbly timey whimy stuff.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Check out Quantum Leap if you're able to track it down.

It's a great time travel show.

It was definately a unique take on time travel. And you can't beat the ending to the series when the lightbulb finally goes on in his head about what is REALLY causing his jumps.

I never saw the ending.

I think I was around nine years old when I watched it, but I remember there being a lot of re-runs which made the continuity (if there even was any) pretty hard to follow. Eventually they just stopped airing it over here in Holland, so I never got to see the actual ending.

It is worth watching if you can find it. The last episode was "Mirror Image".

In the final episode Sam makes a leap like no other. He jumps into a bar, at the very moment he was born. In this bar he is met with his own face in the mirror and a bartender who knows who he is. Back at Project Quantum Leap, Gooshie and Al are confronted with an empty leap chamber, something that is supposed to be impossible. All contact with Sam seems lost.

The ending: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5c9i5_mirror-image-4_shortfilms

Aww Christ, poor Sam.

Now I'm depressed.