# Is there any book or movie where going back in time is a good thing? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 2, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879 "2012-06-02T17:07:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/21 "2012-06-02T21:12:17Z")
In “Time Toaster” Homer caused everyone to have handy frog-style tongues as a result of his time travel. ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/22 "2012-06-02T21:15:37Z")
In James P. Hogan’s _Thrice Upon a Time_, they send messages back in time twice, destroying the timeline they’d experienced, and attempting to prevent global calamities by sending warnings back to a previous time. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/23 "2012-06-02T21:33:18Z")
_Lifehouse_ by Spider Robinson: Future humanity is sending back agents into the past with devices that will allow it to stealthily\* download human minds and store human mind-states as they die. Eventually, the stored minds are to be taken back to the future and reactivated; they goal of future humanity is to eliminate death for everyone who ever lived. - They can’t actually change the past in any noticeable way, or the universe disintegrates ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/24 "2012-06-02T21:36:35Z")
_Lest Darkness Fall_ by L. Sprague de Camp S.M. Stirling’s Nantucket trilogy Eric Flint’s Assiti Shards series Leo Frankowski’s Conrad Stargard series John Birmingham’s Axis of Time trilogy (arguably) ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/25 "2012-06-02T22:14:01Z")
[Time Out of Mind](http://www.amazon.com/Time-Out-Mind-John-Maxim/dp/0380730065) Two protagonists, time-travel fantasy, ghost story, and murder mystery. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/26 "2012-06-02T23:08:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Not exactly time travel, but it does involve getting a message from the past: [Frequency.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_(film)) Well, the protagonist and his family and friends ended up better off. Sissy Clark didn’t exactly come out ahead. For short-range time travel, _Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban_ offers a case where time travel was unambiguously beneficial: it saved several innocent people from a fate worse than death, and a (mostly) innocent beast from death. ---
**Author:** ![eclectic\_wench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ac91a4/32.png) [@eclectic\_wench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eclectic_wench)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2012, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/27 "2012-06-02T23:30:22Z")
Loads of kids’ books. _The Amazing Mr Blunden_ (also published as _The Ghosts_) by Antonia Barber. Time travel saves lives! _Charlotte Sometimes_ by Penelope Farmer. The ‘good’ is less concrete, but the main character does end up more open and better able to make friends. _The Chimneys of Green Knowe_ by L.M. Boston, sort of. The general timeslippiness of the house is what gives the main character the chance to save the house from being sold, but it’s unclear whether he actually goes back in time or whether all the times sort of coexist. I was way into back-in-time books as a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/28 "2012-06-03T00:42:32Z")
**Door Into Summer** : a guy who was gotten rid of by being placed in cryostasis is able to go back in time and set things up so his adversaries’ victory is a hollow one and he himself turns out for the better. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/29 "2012-06-03T01:05:12Z")
Within the whole cycle of the five “Planet of the Apes” films made in the late 1960s early 1970s the last one “Battle of the Planet of the Apes” ended with humans and those damn dirty apes living together in harmony. So the time travel in the third movie did have a positive effect. But I haven’t seen the last three in over 30 years so I forget what changed …didn’t Caesar the ape leader find some old film of his parents?? Ah yes, the old Time Tunnel tv show. Wasn’t there one when they ended up at the battle of Khartoum in the 19th century and prevent aliens from launching nuclear weapons against the earthlings with the help of an incredulous British officer throwing hand grenades attached to rope? I remember hearing of a rock novel some twenty years ago when someone went back in time to get legendary recordings made that never happened (or not at the time such as the Beach Boys “Smile”). Called “Glimpses” or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/30 "2012-06-03T01:46:21Z")
There was a great episode of The Outer Limits called “Demon With a Glass Hand” that ended very well for humanity though not for the hero, played by Robert Culp. It may have inspired The Terminator. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/31 "2012-06-03T01:51:08Z")
Diana Gabaldon’s _Outlander_ series is about a woman who goes back in time… …not once, but twice, because it’s such a good thing for her. Eric Flint’s _1632_ series is about a whole town that’s transported back in time. Whether it’s good or not is debatable, and arguably one of the themes of the series. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/32 "2012-06-03T01:57:57Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > Within the whole cycle of the five “Planet of the Apes” films made in the late 1960s early 1970s the last one “Battle of the Planet of the Apes” ended with humans and those damn dirty apes living together in harmony. So the time travel in the third movie did have a positive effect. But I haven’t seen the last three in over 30 years so I forget what changed …didn’t Caesar the ape leader find some old film of his parents?? The point of divergence was when Caesar and the other apes learned that Caesar’s son had been murdered by Aldo, showing that humans didn’t have a monopoly on original sin, and leading Caesar to grant the humans equality. We see the Lawgiver centuries later preaching to both ape and human children, whereas in the original timeline the Lawgiver had preached that humans were irredeemably evil. My favorite fanwank is that THIS timeline led to the events of the television show, where humans weren’t mute savages but they were serfs to their ape overlords. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/33 "2012-06-03T02:03:19Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > Was going to mention Stephen Fry’s _Making History_, but I honestly don’t remember how that ended. Basically the main character goes back to prevent Hitler from being born by putting birth control pills in the village well or something but then goes back to find that a more comptent Fuhrer took over Germany and managed to win World War II. So I don’t think its supposed to be portrayed as good. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/34 "2012-06-03T03:11:16Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > We see the Lawgiver centuries later preaching to both ape and human children, whereas in the original timeline the Lawgiver had preached that humans were irredeemably evil. Overly rosy assessment IMHO. The last screen image is of a “tear” running down from the statue of Caesar’s eye and I don’t think it was one of happiness. I think we are seeing an intermediate period of equality a century or so after the events of the movie, but eventually the whole vicious cycle will repeat itself in an endless Möbius strip culminating once again in Earth’s fiery destruction. There is no divergence because history is immutable. But maybe I’m a pessimist ;). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/35 "2012-06-03T05:28:17Z")
**Einstein’s Bridge** by John G. Cramer; as Earth is in the process of being overrun and humanity exterminated by an alternate-universe alien hive species, with the help of another more benevolent alien emissary two humans travel back in time a decade or two in order to change the future so that doesn’t happen, apparently successfully. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/36 "2012-06-03T14:38:18Z")
One could argue the plot of _Odyssey 5_. All of Earth is destroyed except for the crew of a space shuttle that happens to be in orbit at the time. An alien shows up that has been investigating worlds that are being destroyed the way Earth was, but this is the first time he has encountered survivors. He sends them back 5 years to determine what happened and how to stop it. The series only lasted one season so it is unknown if they succeed or not, but if they had it would presumably be a good thing. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/37 "2012-06-03T17:31:54Z")
In the movie Frequency, the hero never goes back in time, but he is able to communicate with the past, and that’s a good thing. He saves both his parents and stops a serial killer. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/38 "2012-06-03T18:25:47Z")
One of my favorite movies, that many people have never heard of: “Happy Accidents.” A funny, beautiful little psychological study about a romance between a woman and a guy who believes he can travel through time. . ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/39 "2012-06-03T18:27:20Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > In the movie Frequency, the hero never goes back in time, but he is able to communicate with the past, and that’s a good thing. He saves both his parents and stops a serial killer. Again, not really. I’d call _Frequency_ a break-even scenario in the sense of the greater good, though the protagonist certainly ends up better off. [spoiler] He saves his _father_. His mother was alive and well at the beginning of the movie. After his father survived the fire, everything else was trying to fix the things his father’s survival screwed up. Had he not intervened in the past, his father would have died. That would have prevented his mother from being present at the hospital and _saving the serial killer’s life_ by preventing a careless doctor from administering a drug that would interact fatally with something else he had been given. The villain would have been dead, leaving no need to stop him. As a result, the killer–who had originally killed three people before he died–was free to keep pursuing victims. The protagonist’s father managed to run interference for the next target and save her, but wasn’t able to save the one after that, Sissy Clark. Clark, who would have been safe if the protagonist hadn’t meddled with the past, was murdered, bringing the killer’s count to four. The past part of the finale left the killer maimed, but alive, until he came back to try to kill the protagonist. Final count: One innocent person lived who would have died, one died who would have lived. And that’s assuming the villain–who lived many years longer in the final timeline–didn’t kill anyone else between the final confrontations in the past and present. So a life for a life, and justice delayed. I’ll grant that that’s a better outcome than a lot of time travel.[/spoiler] ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879/40 "2012-06-03T18:36:19Z")
After a few minutes reflection, I recalled something that may tip the scales a bit, and it’s too late to edit: If the girl Frank went into the warehouse after survived, that’s two lives saved. We don’t see what effect her survival has on the timeline, but we can’t assume that another life was traded for hers. That would make it a net gain, but not an unmitigated win–an innocent woman died along the way to their happy ending. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-book-or-movie-where-going-back-in-time-is-a-good-thing/623879.md?page=3)