# Looking for a different type of "Butterfly Effect" time travel story or movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 6, 2023, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646 "2023-05-06T00:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/1 "2023-05-06T00:11:49Z")
In most stories that involve time travel to the past, changing the past almost always causes detrimental effects on the present, either accidentally through the so-called "Butterfly Effect, or on purpose via “The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions” effect. Going way back in time and kicking a pebble causes vampire Nazi T-Rexes to rule the Earth. Stopping Lincoln’s assassination causes resentment to build and Civil War II starts up five years later. Killing Hitler as a baby and either Russia or China take over the world, etc. Are there any stories or movies out there that defy the “This is the best of all possible worlds, so don’t fuck with it!” trope and tell a tale of meddling(either accidentally or on purpose) gone _right?_ ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/2 "2023-05-06T00:14:42Z")
I’d say the McFly family was better off after Marty tweaked stuff in the first _Back to the Future_. Of course, from Biff’s perspective things were worse. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/3 "2023-05-06T00:51:19Z")
Well, the McFly family in the new timeline. Meanwhile, the family in the original timeline is desperately searching for Marty who was presumably kidnapped by the Libyans who killed Doc Brown, while terrorized by Biff Tannen. And in the Biff-Becomes-Casino-Magnate timeline, well…I think that is actually our world. Seriously, _Dirk Gently’s Detective Agency_ (the novel, not the shows), while preventing stopping the accident that causes abiogenesis of life on Earth, did give us Bach even if it prevented Coleridge from completing the “…second, and altogether stranger, part of the poem…” Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/4 "2023-05-06T00:54:29Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are there any stories or movies out there that defy the “This is the best of all possible worlds, so don’t fuck with it!” trope and tell a tale of meddling(either accidentally or on purpose) gone _right?_ The first thing that comes to mind is a Japanese movie called _Bubble Fiction_. A young woman traveling back in time in search of her father causes Japan to never have a bubble economy collapse. She gets _back_…to the _future_ in the end and in the final moments as the camera pulls back you see two new copies of the Yokohama Bay Bridge that had to be built to accommodate the extra traffic from the still booming economy (as Frankie Vallie sings _Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You_ plays for the end credits.) > **[Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_Fiction:_Boom_or_Bust)** > > Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust (バブルへGO!!～タイムマシンはドラム式～, Baburu e go!! Taimu mashin wa doramu-shiki) is a 2007 Japanese science fiction comedy film directed by Yasuo Baba available with English sub-titles. The plot centers on traveling in time from 2006 to 1990 and in the process compares some everyday things between 1990 and 2007 (e.g. cell phones) in a humorous way. > When inventor Mariko Tanaka (Hiroko Yakushimaru), who works for Hitachi appliances, accidentally re-engineers a washing machine for t... ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/5 "2023-05-06T01:07:02Z")
And here’s the trope: > **[Set Right What Once Went Wrong - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong)** > > The character receives foreknowledge of what will happen (or, if Time Travel is involved, Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory will allow them to remember what happened "the first time around") and has to correct it. Distinguished from "Groundhog Day" Loop … ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/6 "2023-05-06T01:13:21Z")
Two TV ones I thought of (_before_ seeing that they do indeed have Tv Trope entries) The _SG1_ episode _2010_ > **[Stargate SG-1 S4 E16](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StargateSG1S4E162010)** > > We find Sam sitting at outside at a cafe, waiting for...wait, who's this guy? Ambassador Joseph Faxon, her...husband? When did that happen? Several years ago it seems, as this is the year 2010. They have a discussion about having children, as … And the whole series _7 Days_ > **[7 Days (1998)](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/SevenDays1998)** > > Science Fiction Time Travel series which aired on UPN from 1998-2001. Using technology salvaged from the Roswell crash, a secret NSA project has developed "The Sphere", a time machine capable of carrying its pilot back in time exactly seven days … ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/7 "2023-05-06T01:15:10Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > And here’s the trope: One sci-fi novel that apparently didn’t make the list: THE PARADOX MEN (which, admittedly, cheats by dint of being set on the eve of all-out nuclear war — which makes it pretty easy to have a protagonist want to go back in time and change history). ---
**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:** [May 6, 2023, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/8 "2023-05-06T01:40:16Z")
The Conrad Stargard series of science fiction novels by Leo Frankowski have the protagonist travel back to 13th century Poland and saving it from the Mongol invasions, jump starting an Industrial Revolution and leading to a significantly more advanced civilization by the “present”. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/9 "2023-05-06T02:02:14Z")
Let’s see, of course there is the Dragonriders of Pern, where if they hadn’t done time-travel, it’s arguable that life on Pern would have ended. But that one is a predestination paradox, so YMMV. Heinlein’s extended Number of the Beast / Time Enough of Love / Sail Beyond the Sunset uses time-travel pretty cavalierly with minimal consequences. I’m off to eat some food, or I’d look at my shelves / DVDs for more. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/10 "2023-05-06T02:22:29Z")
Would **Quantum Leap** count? Every time Sam jumps, he makes things better. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/11 "2023-05-06T13:47:52Z")
There’s [Odyssey 5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odyssey_5), where a group of astronauts watch as the Earth is destroyed beneath them. Then they are transported back a few years to try to prevent it. They did play the butterfly effect a bit, where one of the characters bets big on a football game, but the players learn about the bet, making the kicker nervous and missing the winning field goal, changing the outcome. (IIRC) Most of the characters also had an arc trying to improve their _own_ timeline. It was cancelled after its first season, so we don’t know if they succeeded, but they were _trying_ to make a better future. (Or, at least one where the Earth doesn’t blow up, which one could argue is better.) I only present it as an example, _not_ as a good show. (It was a good idea though, just poorly executed, IMHO.) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/12 "2023-05-06T14:01:35Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Are there any stories or movies out there that defy the “This is the best of all possible worlds, so don’t fuck with it!” trope and tell a tale of meddling(either accidentally or on purpose) gone _right?_ When you say “accidentally or on purpose,” does that mean that you’re looking for both stories where someone’s actions in the past have inadvertant and unintended positive effects in the present/future _and_ stories where someone goes back in time deliberately to fix or improve present/future conditions and unqualifiedly succeeds? _Back To The Future_ (mentioned in the first reply) is probably the best-known example of the former. The latter is probably more common—I think _Star Trek IV_ qualifies. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/13 "2023-05-06T16:00:47Z")
One of my favorite books is _To Say Nothing of the Dog,_ by Connie Willis. It has some very different time travel mechanics. I’d say it subverts the all interference is bad trope. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/14 "2023-05-06T17:52:46Z")
The Simpsons’ _Treehouse of Horror 5_, has a segment called “Time and Punishment,” where Homer turns a toaster into a time machine and proceeds to mess up the universe in myriad ways, tries to fix things and finally just gives up when he thinks he’s close enough. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/15 "2023-05-06T19:05:21Z")
> [@eschrodinger](#): > > It has some very different time travel mechanics. I’d say it subverts the all interference is bad trope. Mechanics that don’t actually involve altering anything in the past or the future at all because [you already changed the past](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouAlreadyChangedThePast) (the same as _Doomsday Book_ and a couple of short stories). ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/16 "2023-05-06T19:08:31Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > when he thinks he’s close enough. When he’s [close enough](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CloseEnoughTimeline). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/17 "2023-05-06T20:55:23Z")
He would have ended up staying in the perfect timeline if he’d waited for the doughnuts to start falling. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/18 "2023-05-06T21:27:42Z")
Heinlein’s “The Door into Summer”. The title alludes to traveling to the past to fix wrongs and make things better. And the protagonist does just that, and lives happily ever after. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/19 "2023-05-06T21:44:19Z")
Fritz Lieber’s “Try to Change the Past” and Alfred Bester’s “The Men Who Murdered Muhammad” the time travel makes no difference. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [May 6, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646/20 "2023-05-06T21:58:24Z")
_11/22/63_ by Stephen King examines this topic, albeit in somewhat of a roundabout way. Plus it’s a great read. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-a-different-type-of-butterfly-effect-time-travel-story-or-movie/983646.md?page=2)