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Added by cal331

on 27 Nov 2010 10:04

 
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Back (and Forth) in Time

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People who added this item 1509  Average listal rating (937 ratings) 7.8  IMDB Rating 8.7 
1. Doctor Who (2005)
Obvious. The TARDIS can take you where and when you want to go, but you can't mess with major historical events. Except when you can.
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People who added this item 101  Average listal rating (63 ratings) 7.1  IMDB Rating 6.9 
2. Being Erica (2009)
Want to go back to have a chance to make a different decision? Follow a different path? The title character on this show is able to do that. Lucky.
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People who added this item 465  Average listal rating (304 ratings) 7  IMDB Rating 7.4 
3. Eureka (2006)
Several of the main characters went back to the 40s when the town of Eureka was being founded. They kinda screwed a bunch of stuff up, and are spending all this season righting their goofs.
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People who added this item 617  Average listal rating (488 ratings) 7  IMDB Rating
4. Quantum Leap (1989)
I wasn't the biggest fan of this show, but Sam's quantum leaps sent him across time and space.
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People who added this item 602  Average listal rating (385 ratings) 6.9  IMDB Rating 7.4 
5. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008)
In the pilot, Sarah and John Connor escape from the baddies in 1999 to the relative safety of 2007. Other episodes take place in future timelines as well.
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People who added this item 1115  Average listal rating (666 ratings) 7.6  IMDB Rating 8.5 
6. Fringe (2008)
In at least one episode, time travel happened. Walter met a MIT time-travel researcher (Peter Weller of RoboCop) who, in an effort to change his dead fiance’s past, sucked the biological energy out of a train car of people. It had a great payoff in the end when he sent a message to Walter.
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People who added this item 395  Average listal rating (297 ratings) 6.2  IMDB Rating
7. Highlander (1992)
Being immortal, Duncan has lived a long life through many centuries, and in this show we see a lot of Duncan's past lives. There is no time travel, per se.
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People who added this item 1268  Average listal rating (913 ratings) 7.1  IMDB Rating 7.9 
8. Angel (1999)
Ditto with Angel. We see him in various costumes and (bad) accents through the ages. Also, his son is rapidly aged in a parallel universe.
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People who added this item 704  Average listal rating (445 ratings) 6.6  IMDB Rating 7.4 
9. The 4400 (2004)
It came from the future! 4400 people (give or take) are abducted from various points in time and all returned to earth circa 2004 with enhanced abilities. One woman returns pregnant and her freaky daughter rapid-ages.
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People who added this item 527  Average listal rating (348 ratings) 6.7  IMDB Rating 7.5 
10. FlashForward (2009)
The whole earth simultaneously has a really weird dream about the exact same point in the future. Except it's not really a dream, but more of a case where you can't fight fate, because what happens, happens.
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People who added this item 154  Average listal rating (96 ratings) 7.4  IMDB Rating 7.9 
11. Blackadder's Christmas Carol (1988)
Ebenezer Blackadder learns the value of being BAD when the Ghost of Christmas Future gives him a glimpse at two very different future realities.
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People who added this item 360  Average listal rating (244 ratings) 5.7  IMDB Rating 6.1 
12. Felicity (1998)
In the fourth season, Felicity is suddenly given a chance (by reasons not explained) to go back in time to redo the Noel/Ben choice and then live with the consequences. Most people hated it, but I loved this storyline. (Mostly because Noel was the best choice.)
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People who added this item 55  Average listal rating (33 ratings) 7.6  IMDB Rating 7.7 
13. Jack & Bobby (2004)
This show didn't really move through time, but showed two parallel timelines where one of the title characters grew up to become president, and the other had a far worse outcome. Part of the show took place in the present, and part in the future. They teased the mystery of which brother was the survivor and which was president for a while.
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People who added this item 170  Average listal rating (87 ratings) 7.5  IMDB Rating 7.5 
14. Blackadder Back & Forth (1999)
This Blackadder one-off gave the scurrilous Edmund his own time-machine, allowing him to deck William Shakespeare, piss off the Scots army and kill all the dinosaurs with one pair of Baldrick's underpants.
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People who added this item 2063  Average listal rating (1460 ratings) 6.3  IMDB Rating 7.3 
15. Smallville (2001)
Smallville references the future of Clark as Super-you-know-who quite a bit, and in the superb 200th episode, Brainiac shows Clark a future in which he finally accepts his superpowers and has shared the knowledge of them with Lois.
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People who added this item 2310  Average listal rating (1517 ratings) 7.8  IMDB Rating 8.5 
16. Supernatural (2005)
Sam and Dean have been able to travel back in time to when their parents were only dating, and to a future that doesn't bear thinking about.
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People who added this item 1190  Average listal rating (726 ratings) 7.5  IMDB Rating
17. The Vampire Diaries (2009)
The past lives of these good-looking and immortal (for now) vampires are constantly being explored.
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People who added this item 11  Average listal rating (6 ratings) 8.3  IMDB Rating 7.7 
18. Do Over (2002)
In this cancelled-too-soon comedy starring an adorable Penn Badgley, an unhappy 34-year-old Joel Larsen is given the opportunity to change to outcome of his life when he is transported back to 1981 and finds himself trapped in his 14 year old body. Trying to rectify past mistakes leads to a lot of really funny moments, including when he spills the ending of "Empire Strikes Back" to some bullies in line to see it.
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People who added this item 946  Average listal rating (702 ratings) 7.2  IMDB Rating 8.3 
19. Star Trek (1966)
Too many to mention, I'm sure, but I love the episode "City on the Edge of Forever." Not creating a time paradox has never been more heartbreaking.
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People who added this item 4161  Average listal rating (2644 ratings) 7.7  IMDB Rating 8.3 
20. Lost (2004)
Considering all the weirdness taking place on this island, surprisingly time travel is not even the most bizarre. In addition to the big jump back to the 1970s taken by half the island survivors, there was the excellent and mind-bending time travel episode "The Constant."
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People who added this item 3405  Average listal rating (2218 ratings) 7.3  IMDB Rating 7.2 
21. Heroes (2006)
If only we could go back in time to the first season when this show was good. Hiro took a journey back to the days of the Samurai in one storyline, and comic artist Isaac had a knack for drawing the future in his work.
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People who added this item 536  Average listal rating (327 ratings) 7.3  IMDB Rating 7.4 
22. Torchwood (2006)
Captain Jack, like the Doctor, can travel back and forth through time at will. He also works at the Cardiff branch of Torchwood, which is built on a rift in the time-space continuum.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 1794  Average listal rating (1302 ratings) 6.4  IMDB Rating 6.7 
23. Charmed (1998)
They're sisters, they're witches. They sometimes go back and forth in time, magic-style.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 368  Average listal rating (225 ratings) 7.4  IMDB Rating 8.2 
24. Life on Mars (2006)
Poor Sam Tyler...is he in a coma, back in time, or dead? Either way, he has to deal with the hard-nosed copper Gene Hunt (one of the best TV characters, ever) and solve cases the old-fashioned way, without modern forensics and computers. He must also deal with those pesky paradoxes when he meets up with his parents and gets involved in their contemporary drama. Oh, and cover your eyes for the scariest TV test card character ever.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 85  Average listal rating (54 ratings) 7.3  IMDB Rating 7.8 
25. Ashes to Ashes (2008)
In this sequel to Life on Mars, DCI Alex Drake suffers Sam Tyler's fate when she is shot in the head. Except she is returned to the 80s, not the 70s, and she has a daughter to get back to. Luckily (?!) she is also paired with the fabulous Gene Hunt. Another exception is that this show had twice as many series as LoM. Alex also encounters her parents and gets involved in the mystery of their deaths.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 173  Average listal rating (132 ratings) 6.4  IMDB Rating 7.3 
26. Early Edition (1996)
Gary Hobson receives tomorrow's newspaper today, with the understanding that he will spend the day saving the life of someone who is about to die in an accident, be executed for a crime they didn't commit or some such.
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People who added this item 730  Average listal rating (513 ratings) 8  IMDB Rating 8.9 
27. The Twilight Zone (1959)
Featured several episodes with a time-travel theme.
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People who added this item 3030  Average listal rating (2147 ratings) 7.5  IMDB Rating 8.7 
28. Futurama (1999)
Quite a few time-travel episodes, notably one where Fry manages to go back and time and become his own grandfather. Oops!
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 253  Average listal rating (152 ratings) 7.2  IMDB Rating 7.7 
29. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981)
The creation of the computer which calculates the answer to the ultimate question of time, the universe and everything takes place in the past, as does the construction of Earth mark 1.
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People who added this item 2402  Average listal rating (1742 ratings) 7.2  IMDB Rating 8.1 
30. That '70s Show (1998)
Eric gets the "It's a Wonderful Life" treatment after Donna dumps him. An angel takes him to the radical '80s.
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People who added this item 2712  Average listal rating (1902 ratings) 7.1  IMDB Rating
31. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997)
Buffy goes back in time to witness the creation of the first slayer in season 7. Are there any more examples?
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People who added this item 28  Average listal rating (19 ratings) 6.9  IMDB Rating
32. One Life to Live (1968)
Time travel on a soap opera? Yep. And it was just as weird as it sounds, though kinda cool at the same time.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 29  Average listal rating (22 ratings) 8.3  IMDB Rating 7.6 
33. The Middleman (2008)
First, I just have to say that it's downright criminal that this show was only on for 12 episodes. It was way brilliant, cool and funny.

Okay, MM and WW did not travel through time, but Hercules' Kevin Sorbo played a cryogenically frozen superspy who went into the deep freeze in the 60s and was thawed out in 2008. He had a lot to learn about today's techniques and new developments in etiquette.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 116  Average listal rating (83 ratings) 7.3  IMDB Rating 6.7 
34. Primeval (2007)
Can't believe I forgot this one! Dr. Nick Cutter and crew found literal portholes to the past, future and everywhen in between. Sometimes the crew would let nasty dinosaurs and such wreak havoc on our world (next time, bring the army guys with you, k?) and sometimes they would stupidly let themselves get trapped in the distant past.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 626  Average listal rating (403 ratings) 8.3  IMDB Rating 8.7 
35. Community (2009)
In a recent episode, one of the show's best, a simple roll of the dice produced seven different timelines (in one the die was not rolled at all) that showed what each of the main characters brought to the group and what happens when they are absent from it. It was truly brilliant and very funny.

Sadly, the darkest timeline is currently in effect, as this show is no longer on NBC's schedule (indefinite hiatus.)
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 554  Average listal rating (327 ratings) 7.7  IMDB Rating 8.1 
36. Once Upon a Time (2011)
I just started watching this, but the show has a split modern day/fairy tale aspect and the fairy tale stories truly do take place 'Once Upon a Time' and not in the modern world.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 266  Average listal rating (154 ratings) 6.5  IMDB Rating 6.7 
37. Terra Nova (2011)
This big-budget family-drama is mostly disappointing, but the dinosaurs are cool. More tyrannosauruses please!
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 298  Average listal rating (166 ratings) 7  IMDB Rating 7.2 
38. The Secret Circle (2011)
Through spells, the witches in this coven are able to travel back to the past, as witnessed in the last episode that aired.
cal331's rating:

People who added this item 165  Average listal rating (95 ratings) 6.7  IMDB Rating 7.1 
39. Alcatraz (2012)
I need to catch the first episode of this show, but the premise is of a batch of prisoners who disappear from Alcatraz in the '60s and turn up in modern day San Francisco.
cal331's rating:



A list of TV shows that take us back to the future, and ahead to the past. They don't necessarily feature a time-travel device, though some do. Suggestions are definitely welcome!

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Comments

Posted: 2 years ago at Apr 26 8:47
Interesting :D I like the time travelling idea :D
Posted: 9 months ago at Aug 23 10:54
Great list! How about 'Sliders'? That's one of my favorites. =)

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