The Dangers of Time Travel

captwinters1701 · September 2012

Got to thinking some of the weirdest storylines I've seen in my favorite Sci-Fi shows that all involve the dangers of Time Travel. Please add as you all see fit

1. Become your own Grandfathter (Futurama)
2. Name your first child after your first child, who you thought was your best friend while growing up. (Dr. Who)
3. Accidently kill yourself in a future Universe (Futurama)
4. Survive an entire very bad year, only to have it never to have happened (Voyager, Dr. Who)
5. Accidently replace a historical figure with yourself (DS9)
6. Accidently remove a historical figure from the Time Line (TOS)
7. Hook up with Marylin Monroe (Dr. Who, Quantum Leap)
8. Be in a marriage, where both partners never meet in the right order (Dr. Who)
9. Potentially interfere with Saturn V launches (TOS, Dr. Who, Men in Black III)
10. Be the reason you society has people investigating alterations to the timeline (TOS, DS9)
11. Try avoiding explaining to your friends why your people look so different from one century to the next (Star Trek in general)
12. Be the reason no one in Maine goes out doors at night, has large dogs, or keeps old cars around (Quantum Leap)

Etc Etc

captainrevo1 · September 2012

Become your best friends father (Terminator)

markhawkman · September 2012

captainrevo1 wrote: »

Become your best friends father (Terminator)

NICE ONE!

Another example from Terminator is changing the past(Derek Reese) and accidentally making your wife go crazy and try to kill one of your allies(Cameron).

Oooh! you young kids probably don't remember Back to the Future, but... Causing your mother to fall in love with you and then needing to find a way to make her marry your father.

hevach · September 2012

In Trials and Tribblations, Bashir almost pulled a Fry. Let's see if I'm remembering it correctly: He knew he was named after some mysterious man his grandmother hooked up with who may or may not be his grandfather. When we went back in time, he met a woman with the same name as his grandmother and somehow convinced himself that he was granny's one night stand and that now he was required him to sleep with her to fulfill the predestination paradox.

Not quite as bad as becoming his own grandfather, but he will forever be haunted by the memory that he almost tried. Fry was protected from the haunting memory by his defective brain (caused by being his own grandfather), but Bashir's defective brain was repaired, leaving him with a genetically engineered super brain which will never forget the faintest detail of that memory. Presumably his eventual cause of death will be an ill advised self-lobotomy.

anazonda · September 2012

Travel back in time to prevent someone you like from dying, only to return to the present after having failed in the past to find out that you actually succeeded (Back to the future).

Travel forward in time from your normal timeline, and then travel back to a horrible timeline, to find out that by trying to alter the past you helped someone else to alter the past (Back to the future 2).

captainrevo1 · September 2012

markhawkman wrote: »

Oooh! you young kids probably don't remember Back to the Future

Everyone knows Back to the Future. you cant even claim to be a geek if you have not seen that film.

kyeto13 · September 2012

A kooky thing I want to try in a short story or something is to have the main character walking down the street, having an average day, when all the sudden this guy comes running out of the crowd claiming to be your childhood friend that you have never seen in your life. He knows SOME details about your life, but other details are completely messed up or never happened.

And.. he is asking for your help...

Do you trust him? OR is he a mad man trying to manipulated you into assisting him with murder and terrorism? :eek:

Just my thought :P My only problem is that I have to establish what the main characters "normal life" and "normal" routine is before the mysterious stranger comes leaping out of the bushes. That way, you know exactly what he is saying that is incorrect as he is saying it. It would be cool as part of an established series though :rolleyes:

captwinters1701 · September 2012

13. On an expedition to a brand new faraway place ends in disaster for everybody. But you end up traveling back in time and create the environment for your group to show up and not have it end in disaster (Stargate: Atlantis)

14. BE invovled in any "Groundhog Day" Type Scenario (Stargate: SG-1, Xena)

15. As a Colonel give orders to a young Liuetenant so that his career ends up in the right place to be your Commanding General (Stargate:SG-1)

kobayashlmaru · September 2012

You covered Dr. Who pretty thoroughly. Here are a few more:

Meet your own children's children from where you will travel to the past in the future. Once you escape your destiny / time travel window, they disappear leaving you in a strange sort of paradox.(Enterprise, DS9, Dr. Who)
Have your mother hit on you. (Back to the Future)
After your friends watched you die years ago, they meet your half-Romulan daughter that was conceived by you in another timeline where you were still alive. In that timeline, you agreed to sacrifice yourself by going back in time to save the original timeline where you were dead. (TNG)
Your best friend, Al, uses his experience with multiple wives to save you on several occasions. So in appreciation, you decide to save his first marriage, forgetting the likely consequences of this decision. (Quantum Leap)
In attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, you travel back in time to kill the man responsible. While you are lauded for your success, this action results in an even greater atrocity created by a new leader, Stalin, years later that forever changes history. (Red Alert)

f9thaceshigh · September 2012

My personal favorite, Travel back into the body of Lee Harvey Oswald only to be swiss cheesed by the process, resulting in you believing you are actually the lone gunman and killing JFK, but you still changed history, because he was supposed to kill Jackie too.(Quantum Leap)

Going back in time to ancient Egypt, to retrieve an artifact of no apparent value to the enemy in the past, you inadvertently aide the rebellion that freed your planet from the aliens so that it is more successful then in the original timeline, thus undoing the events that brought the team together in the first place. In finding a recording from the original team, the government assembles the same people who steal the time machine and travel back in time, to ensure that the rebellion goes exactly as it had originally, or does it. (SG1)

Your team arrives on an alien planet, finding ruins with a prophecy left by a time traveler that details the events that are about to happen to your team, as well as his time machine, after fulfilling the prophecy and saving the planet from the aliens, you take the time machine with you back to Earth. Then how is the time traveler able to go back and leave the detailed description of these events on the ruins if you took his time machine? (SG1)

You and your time traveling companion are stranded in the past, so you leave cryptic instructions on DVDs for a woman to send your time machine to you. These messages made possible by a transcript of said messages and the woman's responses, which she gave you before you were stranded in the past. (Dr. Who)

anazonda · September 2012

kobayashlmaru wrote: »

You covered Dr. Who pretty thoroughly. Here are a few more:

In attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, you travel back in time to kill the man responsible. While you are lauded for your success, this action results in an even greater atrocity created by a new leader, Stalin, years later that forever changes history. (Red Alert)

While your empire falls, you travel back in time and remove the man who In an attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, traveled back in time to kill the man responsible. While you are lauded for your success, this action results in an even greater atrocity created by a new enemy, the empire of the rising sun (Red Alert 3)

... There... suck that headace.

mithril2098 · September 2012

find yourself back in the past after a disaster. set out to avoid being seen by yourself and your companions while trying to prevent the many bad things that happened to you and others, in hopes of preventing the disaster. discover that your efforts to prevents specific events created the reasons those events occurred. repeat ad infinitum until you figure out a way to avoid the backwards timetravel. (red vs. Blue)

centersolace · September 2012

16. In an attempt to introduce a friend to Winston Churchill, you end up discovering your most hated adversary and in a desperate move to defeat them end up creating propeller planes that can travel through space. (Doctor Who)

17. Your ship is destroyed. Travel back in time to prevent that. (More times than I can count in TNG and VOY, also: Lost in Space)

kyeto13 · September 2012

mithril2098 wrote: »

find yourself back in the past after a disaster. set out to avoid being seen by yourself and your companions while trying to prevent the many bad things that happened to you and others, in hopes of preventing the disaster. discover that your efforts to prevents specific events created the reasons those events occurred. repeat ad infinitum until you figure out a way to avoid the backwards timetravel. (red vs. Blue)

BWAHAHAHAHAHA I loved that part... Poor Poor Church

markhawkman · September 2012

Ooh, here's one from the last episode of Terminator: SCC:

Meet a liquid metal lifeform(Weaver) who at first glance appears to be the enemy.
Make friends with Weaver, then learn she came to the past not to help you, but to do your job (saviour of the human race) better than you.
Find out Weaver's pet project is an AI meant to beat your future enemy Skynet, but that her project went to the future alone, and needs you to help her find it.
Travel to the future(where in the proper timeline you're treated like a king), only to find out that since you left the past, the future you'd heard about(and that Weaver came from) never happened.
Weaver wanders off and leaves you to talk with the confused members of the new resistance who have never heard of you and think you're a spy.

captwinters1701 · September 2012

Steal a time machine to go back in time to Save President kennedy, thus possibly avoiding the Vietnam War. But instead, get their slightly too late, and have Oswald blame you for the assisination. From the future, your girlfriend sees your dire circumstances to attempt to save you, but she ends up getting run over and goes to 1960's era hospital. So then the scientist who actually invented the technology decides to go back and get President Johnson to not escalate the Vietnam war, where his brother was killed in action. However instead of pulling out of Vietnam, Johnson escalates the war even further to completely destroy North Vietnam. (Running against Time)

Steal a breeding pair of Humpback whales from the past to prevent your planets destruction due the lack of Humpback whales. ST:IV

Oddly enough, both had Catherine Hicks in it.

f9thaceshigh · September 2012

I strongly suggest you all read the Star Trek DTI book "Watching the Clock" it follows our favorite Department of Temporal Investigations Agents on an exploration of time travel in trek.

centersolace · September 2012

Use a time machine and go crazy after baring witness to the horrific atrocities such an invention creates, erase your memory after leaving clues to yourself leading you to destroy said time machine. (Paycheck was a weird movie wasn't it?)

leviathan99 · September 2012

kobayashlmaru wrote: »

[*]In attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, you travel back in time to kill the man responsible. While you are lauded for your success, this action results in an even greater atrocity created by a new leader, Stalin, years later that forever changes history. (Red Alert)

[/LIST]

In attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, you travel back in time to kill the man responsible. However, he turns out to be entirely incidental and you lock him in the cupboard while the more personally important battle happens. (Doctor Who)

In attempt to fix one of the greatest atrocities in the world, you travel back in time to kill the man responsible.. He stabs you in the chest and uses a piece of technology you were carrying and took for granted to conquer the world. (Misfits)

diotw · September 2012

You travel back in time in search of curry, but accidentally appear in the Texas Book Depository and, in the process, knock Lee Harvey Oswald out of the window. Then you go back in time further to stop him from standing there, but by putting him on the higher floor, you throw off his aim and Kennedy survives. In order to restore the correct time line, you have to go back and grab Kennedy, making him become the gunman behind the grassy knoll. (Red Dwarf)

rustychat · September 2012

After using your time machine to send messages in the past to help your friends and eventually developing a version that allows a person to send their mind to their past self. This interference with the time line not only causes a dystopian future, but also means that your closest and oldest friend is destined to always die at a specific time, despite the countless attempts you make at saving her life. The only way to save her, is by systematically undoing all the alterations you made, but that then means that most of human life is wiped out by the Third World War, and the woman you love is murdered instead. (Steins:Gate)

Luckily your future self informs you that you can only change the timeline for the better by manipulating the first set of events without actually changing anyone's perception of them, preventing WWIII (for now) and saving your friends (hopefully). Turns out all you really need to do is get stabbed.

captwinters1701 · September 2012

You go back in time to ensure your parents get together, but while doing that, also invent Rock and Roll (Back to the Future)

You go back in time to ensure your parents get together, but she ends up with Chuck Berry instead (Robot Chicken, Back to the Future segment)

Get sent back in time numerous times, so that in the present day there are at least 3 of you on the planet at the same time in differening states of animation (Torchwood)

Get sent back in time some many times that at the end of the Universe you are 37 times older than the Universe (Hitchkiker's Guide to teh Galaxy)

evilbenfranklin · September 2012

Go back in time to ancient feudal Japan, meet your idol, only to find out that he's a lecherous drunken douchebag of a white guy who is, incidentally, immortal. (Heroes, Season 2)

Finally make out with the gal who's been giving you the eye for the last two seasons of the show, only for it to have never happened. (SG1, Season 10: Eternal)

Surive a plane engine crashing into your bedroom. Spend your days haunted by your future self in a freakish bunny suit. Then, when reality starts to unravel because of your innocent altering of the timeline, realize that you need to be in your room when the airplane crashes into it to save the girl you love. (Donnie Darko)

Deliberately dive into a black hole, spawning an alternate timeline where you get captured by a crazed refugee from a dead world who then goes on to kill your homeworld while you watch. Meet up with the younger version of your best friend, who completely dislikes your own younger self. Tell him that your two selves meeting up will make the universe explode, just for the lulz. (Star Trek (2009))

captwinters1701 · September 2012

Put yourself in a situation in which your disappearnce from the timeline causes your entire future civilization to collapse (ST:ENT)

Save the world by visiting Detroit in the past (ST:ENT)

Make it possible for a power hungry alien to become the British Prime Minister (Dr. Who)

bitemepwe · September 2012

Repetition Repetition

briitta · September 2012

Get your Klingon life saved by some stewart of your family house you didn't know. See how this man tries to help you raise your son Alexander as a warrior, which Alexander keeps resisting, to catch him in the end trying to shoot your son dead. When you struggle and disarm him, it turns out he's your son grown up to your own age, trying to kill himself as a child because he caused the death of you. It was a very good episode. (TNG).

luddimus · October 2012

Abandon your baby son in the past under the same pool table you were abandoned to create the paradox of being your own father looping around time. (Red Dwarf VII)

lordmalak1 · October 2012

Go back in time to kidnap airline passengers from aircraft that will crash and bring the forward in time in order to repopulate a post apocalyptic world. (millennium)

captwinters1701 · October 2012

Invent Time Travel to go back in time to prevent the invention of Time Travel

lordmalak1 · October 2012

Go forward in time to chase down Jack 'the ripper' who previously stole your time machine and went forward in time to escape prosecution. Thankfully your time machine had a circuit that automatically returns the machine to the original starting time if a passenger leaves the key in it. (Time after time)

- Sounds like a JJ Abrams Star Trek episode.

centersolace · October 2012

Fly a plane back in time and witness the space-time continuum get devoured by time eating chainsaw faced Italian meatballs.

-The Langoliers

The Dangers of Time Travel

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