# TV episodes or movies where timelines split. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2013, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254 "2013-02-14T04:16:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/21 "2013-02-14T23:26:17Z")
No mention of _Fringe_? They constantly hop back and forth between alternate/parallel universes. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/22 "2013-02-15T00:10:22Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > time travel by default creates alternate realities. i was thinking of shows where they actually play out each of the realities, but that would probably result in a much shorter thread. Still, consider _Tru Calling_. It’s not like your typical episode of _Quantum Leap,_ where we see Sam foil a criminal after Al merely talks about how things played out the first time around; we actually watch the day play out horribly before our heroine goes back in time to make a few small changes so things will go well. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2013, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/23 "2013-02-15T01:56:19Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > The movie **Run Lola Run** plays through three different timelines. There’s an American semi-remake of _Run Lola Run_ called _And Then Came Lola_. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/24 "2013-02-15T13:36:06Z")
thanks for the suggestions so far, i like watching scenarios like these. > [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Still, consider _Tru Calling_. … sounds interesting, though it is more like _Groundhog Day_ that repeats once. > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Actually, it was Jeff who threw the die (in all but one of the cases), while Abed was the one who noted the creation of alternate timelines. :smack: how could i forget? and Jeff intentionally used a single die that would exclude himself from the pick. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/25 "2013-02-15T18:22:37Z")
This thread reminds me of a film for which I saw a trailer (ten or twelve years ago) but then never saw the film itself or any other information about it. The story was about a woman who lived alternate realities in two antipodal areas of the world (U.S. and Australia, as I recall). Each time she went to sleep at night in one, she was immediately awake and living her life during daytime in the other. I think it was a drama, but I can’t recall if it was meant to be a horror film, thriller or existential-crisis-mindbender. It reminded me of the film [Me Myself I](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0183503/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) which I had seen previously, but it definitely was not the same movie. That was more comedic than the one I’m thinking of. Does this ring any bells with anyone? I was intrigued by the trailer so would still like to find this film. ---
**Author:** ![chrisk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@chrisk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chrisk)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/26 "2013-02-15T18:38:44Z")
The JJ Abrams college show ‘Felicity’ had a weird thing at the end where Felicity went back in time to the start of her senior year and made different choices, creating an alternate timeline. At the end, she gets back to the original timeline, except that somehow BOTH the friends who had died in each timeline were alive and well. It was crazy stuff - basically the writers had to pull several more shows out of their butts after the one that they thought would be the series finale had already started filming, or something like that. ---
**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:** [February 15, 2013, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/27 "2013-02-15T19:31:09Z")
_Year of Hell_ from Voyager has constant timeline changes. There’s the ST: TNG episode where the timeline shifted so that the Feds were in a losing war with the Klingons, until they sent back an earlier Enterprise that had gotten kicked into the future. There’s _The City on the Edge of Forever_, where Doctor McCoy changes the past so the Nazis win by saving Edith Keeler. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/28 "2013-02-15T19:43:48Z")
**Jumanji!** After the game finished (it took 30 years), it brought the two original gamers back to the year the game began. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/29 "2013-02-15T19:44:43Z")
The premise of the show Awake had a cop living in two realities: one where his wife died in a car crash and in the other his son did. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/30 "2013-02-15T20:30:10Z")
> [@Quimby](#): > > The premise of the show Awake had a cop living in two realities: one where his wife died in a car crash and in the other his son did. Thing about that show is the central character had a 50/50 dilemma, yet no particular incentive (indeed, an active _dis_incentive) to resolve it. That’s why I call it _My Two Deads_. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/31 "2013-02-15T21:05:56Z")
**Heroes** had several alternate timelines, fixed to some degree by time-travel shenanigans. By the time I stopped watching, I was having serious trouble trying to figure out who knew which characters, and which powers they had, because they all swapped powers and abilities and histories like a big Gin Rummy game. The entire run of **Star Trek: Enterprise** was an alternate reality story: in _First Contact,_ Zephram Cochrane saw the bridge of Picard’s Enterprise and said “Okay, view screen, data pads, touch-screen control panels… got it” and went home and built all that into the first generation starships, so by the first episode, we were already way off the track of TOS. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/32 "2013-02-15T21:37:24Z")
\*Eureka \*seems made for this thread. Repeatedly. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > in _First Contact,_ Zephram Cochrane saw the bridge of Picard’s Enterprise and said “Okay, view screen, data pads, touch-screen control panels… got it” and went home and built all that into the first generation starships, so by the first episode, we were already way off the track of TOS. One or the other of us needs to re-watch _First Contact_. I don’t remember Cochrane seeing anything but the Enterprise’s shape through a telescope. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/33 "2013-02-15T22:41:39Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > One or the other of us needs to re-watch _First Contact_. I don’t remember Cochrane seeing anything but the Enterprise’s shape through a telescope. Ah. My bad, it looks like it was actually Cochrane’s assistant, Lily Sloane, who was on the Enterprise and (assumedly) blabbed the secrets of the future once they sent her back down. ---
**Author:** ![minionkat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@minionkat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minionkat)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/34 "2013-02-16T02:38:49Z")
_The Wish_, from season three of Buffy where they explored what would have happened if she had never come to Sunnydale. Great episode. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2013, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/35 "2013-02-16T22:31:13Z")
_Xena: Warrior Princess_ did this several times over the years. In “Remember Nothing”, Xena is transported into an alternate timeline where she never became a warrior. In “Been There, Done That” she’s stuck in a _Groundhog’s Day_ style time loop where she has to thoroughly save the day before she’s allowed to move on. Towards the end of the series there was also an episode called “When Fates Collide” set in an alternate timeline where younger Xena had married Julius Caesar and become Empress of Rome. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/36 "2013-02-17T01:40:56Z")
Frasier had an episode called Sliding Frasiers where the show splits on two depending on if Frasier wears a suit or a sweater when he goes speed dating. ER had an episode like this late in its run (the Neela era) as well. IIRC, it had a guest appearance by Alex Kingston (who had been a regular years before) if you want to look into it. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/37 "2013-02-17T02:29:02Z")
No one has mentioned _Lost_ yet? ---
**Author:** ![James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@James\_Otto\_Sweet\_Heart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/James_Otto_Sweet_Heart)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/38 "2013-02-21T18:27:24Z")
The only movie that I can think of that hasn’t been mentioned yet is the one named Frequency with Dennis Quaid and Jim Caviezel. 🙂 🙂 🙂 God bless you and them always!!! 🙂 🙂 🙂 Holly P.S. This is one of my most favorite films. 🙂 🙂 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cayuga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Cayuga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cayuga)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2013, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/39 "2013-02-21T18:39:57Z")
> [@shijinn](#): > > as in the movie _Sliding Doors_ or the _Community_ episode where Abed throws the dice resulting in alternate realities. any other examples? Those were the two I came in to mention, so … no. ---
**Author:** ![shijinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@shijinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shijinn)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254/40 "2013-02-22T05:44:58Z")
according to **Thudlow Boink’s** link, > [@](#): > > Cultural references > > The episode’s plot serves as a parody of Sliding Doors, in which two different timelines with the same characters are explored.[1] The X-Files had previously done a similar episode and Dan Harmon used this episode for inspiration of the Community episode “Remedial Chaos Theory”.[1] > [edit] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tv-episodes-or-movies-where-timelines-split/650254.md?page=3)