Favorite time travel TV show

[Moontanman]

A list of my fav time travel shows and the premise of the shows time traveling. 

Outlander - Straight up magic, no technology, and the protagonists alternate between trying to change history and trying to lie low. 

Timeless- Straight up technology with the intent to change or repair the past time line. 

Travelers- Technology with the intent of changing the past through major acts of intervention

Terra Nova- Technology with the intent of escaping the present by moving to the extreme past. 

Primeval- Natural occurrences used to time travel and trying to prevent changes to the past and present. 

Feel free to list your own favs in the poll and I'd like to discuss the differences in the premises of he shows and how well they do in consistency even if the premise is fatally flawed.

I'll start out with my fav time travel show which is Travelers, the show is reasonably internally consistent, the main premise is that no material objects can be sent through time only information. Nothing can be sent through time without a T.E.L.L. Time Elevation Longitude and Latitude of the person it is sent to. The main reason I liked the show was... I hate to ruin the show for anyone but while the time travel is portrayed as almost omnipotent technology ultimately they fail to make a difference in the future. The idea they fail is what ultimately makes the show so powerful.   

Anyone else want to step up and explain their fav time travel show feel free to do so! 

[pzkpfw]

Mostly I really hate time travel in any show. I generally can excuse one or two bits of magic in something (e.g. faster than light travel is pretty much required to make most Science Fiction work), but the implications of time travel are just too much for me.

Having said that, I recently watched Eureka. Pretty much all of the science in that show was just silly. But that then made it easier to accept the time travel episodes. It was all really just fantasy.

And the interesting bit of the time travel was that they kept the "timeline changes" in the show. That is, around half way through the run they altered their present by something they changed in the past ... never reverted it. So some characters went on in the show knowing about the "other timeline" and others only knew one. It was like the show was rebooted, with some characters knowing about the reboot.

[Moontanman]

40 minutes ago, pzkpfw said:

Mostly I really hate time travel in any show. I generally can excuse one or two bits of magic in something (e.g. faster than light travel is pretty much required to make most Science Fiction work), but the implications of time travel are just too much for me.

Having said that, I recently watched Eureka. Pretty much all of the science in that show was just silly. But that then made it easier to accept the time travel episodes. It was all really just fantasy.

And the interesting bit of the time travel was that they kept the "timeline changes" in the show. That is, around half way through the run they altered their present by something they changed in the past ... never reverted it. So some characters went on in the show knowing about the "other timeline" and others only knew one. It was like the show was rebooted, with some characters knowing about the reboot.

I watched some of Eureka when it first came out but I lost interest as it progressed. I honestly don't remember a time travel component in the show but I didn't watch very many episodes. I might give it another go!  

[CosmicDreamer]

I personally have always loved Doctor Who. It’s also the first thing that got me really excited and interested about science and the universe and what must be, what might be and the like. Sadly I’m not really sure I understand as much about science as I’d like as science and maths have always seemed a struggle to me. But my longing to make sense of the world and to understand what I can all really start with that tv show as a kid.

[Trurl]

There was a reboot of Quantum Leap that was excellent. It picked up where the original left off. Only 2 seasons.

[TheVat]

On 1/16/2024 at 3:10 PM, Moontanman said:

I'll start out with my fav time travel show which is Travelers, the show is reasonably internally consistent, the main premise is that no material objects can be sent through time only information. Nothing can be sent through time without a T.E.L.L. Time Elevation Longitude and Latitude of the person it is sent to. The main reason I liked the show was... I hate to ruin the show for anyone but while the time travel is portrayed as almost omnipotent technology ultimately they fail to make a difference in the future. The idea they fail is what ultimately makes the show so powerful.   

Plus 1 for this.  I added a vote for Travelers to the poll.  Loved the nuances of this show and the psychological and ethical conundrums as the team inhabits these other bodies.

It only took me a year to notice this thread.  

[MigL]

Many TV shows have used the premise of time travel, while not being exclusively about time travel.

Star Trek comes to mind, with two outstanding examples being STtOS, the 28 episode of the first season, "City on the edge of forever", and STtNG, "All good Things  Pt1 and 2'.

Then again, I'm Star Trek biased.

 

[zapatos]

The only time travel show I can remember watching was Time Tunnel. And that was so long ago I can't even remember if I liked it.

[TheVat]

I remember it.  One of the Irwin Allen sci-fi shows - the other two were much more successful - Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (my favorite), and Lost in Space (which seems to have indelibly printed itself on the synapses of every American brain of our generation).

We watched it a few times but didn't much get into it.  IIRC, it premiered the same time as Star Trek, which may explain its poor ratings and cancellation after one season.  Our parents were fairly anti-TV, so there may have also been some rationing on cheesy sci-fi.  And TT was definitely cheese.