What are your favorite Time Travel episodes/films?

[Luther Sloan]

Star Trek has had some really interesting time travel episodes and films over the years. In fact, there has been approximately 57 time travel stories within Trek to date so far. So please look at the list below and list off your all time favorite time travel episodes/films for us. Also, if you are really ambitious: please feel free to give us some reasons or thoughts on why you liked these time stories, too.


Star Trek - Original Series = 6

1. Naked Time
2. Tomorrow is Yesterday
3. The City on the Edge of Forever
4. Assignment Earth
5. Tholian Web (Tie-in to ENT's "In A Mirror, Darkly")
6. All Our Yesterdays

Star Trek - The Animated Series = 1

1. Yesteryear

Star Trek - The Next Generation = 12

1. We'll Always Have Paris
2. Time Squared
3. Yesterday's Enterprise
4. Captain's Holiday
5. A Matter of Time
6. Cause and Effect
7. Time's Arrow l
8. Time's Arrow ll
9. Tapestry
10. Timescape
11. Firstborn
12. All Good Things...

Star Trek - Deep Space Nine = 10

1. Past Tense l
2. Past Tense ll
3. Visionary
4. The Visitor
5. Little Green Men
6. Accession
7. Trials and Tribble-ations
8. Children of Time
9. Wrongs Darker than Death or Night
10. Time's Orphan

Star Trek - Voyager = 11

1. Parallax
2. Time and Again
3. Eye of the Needle
4. Future's End l
5. Future's End ll
6. Before and After
7. Timeless
8. Relativity
9. Fury
10. Shattered
11. Endgame

Star Trek - Enterprise = 13

1. Broken Bow (Temporal Cold War introduced)
2. Coldfront
3. Shockwave l
4. Shockwave ll
5. Future Tense
6. Carpenter Street (Xindi Attack is actually a Temporal Incursion)
7. Azati Prime
8. E-2
9. Zero Hour
10. Storm Front l
11. Storm Front ll (Temporal Cold War starts to end)
12. In A Mirror, Darkly l (Defiant of the Future Prime Universe appears)
13. In A Mirror, Darkly ll (Defiant of the Future Prime Universe appears)

Star Trek - The Movies = 4

1. Star Trek IV: The Voyager Home
2. Star Trek: Generations
3. Star Trek: First Contact
4. Star Trek (2009)




Side Note:

Also, I have added TOS's "Tholian Web". Officially it is not a clear cut time travel episode. However, we do later discover the Defiant did indeed travel back in time within the Mirror Universe. Although, this evidence was not presented to us until ENT's "In A Mirror, Darkly" episodes, though.

Side Note 2:

Furthermore, Voyager's "Death Wish" has time travel happen within the episode. However, it plays such an insignificant or small part within the story, it really shouldn't be labeled as a time travel episode.


Sources:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Time_travel_episodes
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Temporal_Cold_War

 

[Chrisisall]

I *hate* the idea of time travel.
However, you covered my favourites well. BUT, Trials and Tribble-ations is a joke episode, like Piece Of The Action.

 

[kitsune]

Time-travel is a huge turn-off for me.

If you went back in time and so much as delayed one man's actions by a few seconds, all of his future descendants would irrevocably be different, because the sperm he is carrying are constantly moving about, thus changing the order they would arrive at (and penetrate and fertilize) any eggs. Also, you would irrevocably change the future descendants of any person that any of his descendants (in either timeline) interacted with, either directly or indirectly. It's the butterfly effect.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

VOY's "Relativity", simply because I love the USS Relativity so much.

 

[RegFan]

Time-travel is a huge turn-off for me.

If you went back in time and so much as delayed one man's actions by a few seconds, all of his future descendants would irrevocably be different, because the sperm he is carrying are constantly moving about, thus changing the order they would arrive at (and penetrate and fertilize) any eggs. Also, you would irrevocably change the future descendants of any person that any of his descendants (in either timeline) interacted with, either directly or indirectly. It's the butterfly effect.

I agree. I'd personally prefer if they simply travelled to alternate universes, not back in time in our universe.

My favorites are AGT and The Visitor. I think the reasons for that are pretty obvious.

 

[barnaclelapse]

Star Trek IV, although I tend to get a little impatient with Star Trek's use of time travel a lot of the time.

 

[Rojixus]

Time's Arrow is my favorite time-travel episode. There's just something about Data, soul-stealing aliens, and Mark Twain that really sells it for me. I also enjoyed Yesterday's Enterprise, that is how you send off Tasha Yar.

 

[Pegaritaville]

Not a big fan of time travel episodes, but there are quite a few good ones. My favorite would have to be "Little Green Men".

 

[Anji]

I've got to go with the group, I'm not a fan of ST time travel episodes either. Doctor Who does it so well that everyone else pales in comparison.

 

[scotpens]

Why is “The Naked Time” included? True, the Enterprise travels back in time three days at the end of the story, but that's irrelevant to the plot. In fact, the ending of that episode was originally to have been a cliffhanger to set up the beginning of “Tomorrow is Yesterday.”

If you went back in time and so much as delayed one man's actions by a few seconds, all of his future descendants would irrevocably be different, because the sperm he is carrying are constantly moving about, thus changing the order they would arrive at (and penetrate and fertilize) any eggs.

There may indeed be a “Butterfly Effect,” but it doesn’t work that way. All of a man's sperm cells are identical; they all carry the information encoded in his DNA. The combining of both parents’ genes, which can happen in an almost infinite number of ways and is what makes each offspring unique, takes place AFTER a sperm penetrates an egg. How much you shake up your balls has no effect on your descendants.

Oh, the best time-travel episode? “City on the Edge of Forever,” hands down -- in spite of Harlan Ellison's continued kvetching about his story being butchered more than 40 years later.

 

[kitsune]

If you went back in time and so much as delayed one man's actions by a few seconds, all of his future descendants would irrevocably be different, because the sperm he is carrying are constantly moving about, thus changing the order they would arrive at (and penetrate and fertilize) any eggs.

There may indeed be a “Butterfly Effect,” but it doesn’t work that way. All of a man's sperm cells are identical; they all carry the information encoded in his DNA. The combining of both parents’ genes, which can happen in an almost infinite number of ways and is what makes each offspring unique, takes place AFTER a sperm penetrates an egg. How much you shake up your balls has no effect on your descendants.

Incorrect.

Gametes (ovum and sperm) are haploid (each contain 23 chromosomes), instead of 23 pairs of chromosomes found in other cells (diploid).

Case in point: about half of a man's sperm will contain a copy of his X chromosome, and the other half will contain a copy of his Y chromosome. This is why it's said that the sperm determines the gender of the offspring.

I believe the number of genetically-distinct sperm a human male can produce is 2^23. They are not going to all be identical.

 

[scotpens]

^In that case, I stand corrected.

When you speak of "delay(ing) one man's actions by a few seconds," I take it you don't necessarily mean DURING the act of conception.

(Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.)

 

[captcalhoun]

Yesterday's Enterprise
Past Tense
Little Green Men
Trials and Tribble-ations
Timeless
First Contact

 

[Arix]

Wow, seems like I'm gonna be the only person to actually LIKE time travel episodes. Considering there were only 47 out of the over 700 episodes of Trek, I think they happened infrequently enough and were usually fairly well done.

Let's see, I think my favourites would be -

The City on the Edge of Forever, because its an emotional, heart-wrenching classic. It sets the bar for time travel episodes.

Yesterday's Enterprise, is both a parallel universe and a time travel episode and it features Tasha Yar, its one of my favourite TNG episodes!

Time's Arrow, I've always been fond of, as someone else so aptly put it, Data + energy vampire aliens + Mark Twain + Guinan = awesome.

Tapestry, another favourite of mine, I love alternate universe episodes and who doesn't love Picard and Q?

Timescape, while not a favourite, the 'frozen' in time effect was well done, and it was fun watching them figure out what was happening.

All Good Things... need I say more?

Past Tense, a jump into Earth's "past" and a fun opportunity to show our heroes out of their usual time (which is always the fun of time travel episodes) not to mention a good moral lesson.

The Visitor, as powerful and heart wrenching as The City on the Edge of Forever. Still makes me tear up everytime I see it.

Little Green Men, is another favourite, and what's not to love about Quark, Rom and Nog in Area 51?

Accession, was a fantastic episode which started Sisko's journey to accept his role as the Emissary.

Trials and Tribble-ations, a fantastic tribute to TOS, and another example of time travel done well - again, I'm not seeing why there's no love for time travel here.

Children of Time, while not a favourite, did present an interesting moral dilemna.

Wrongs Darker than Death or Night, another fantastic episode, one of my favourite Kira and Dukat episodes, not to mention the fact that we get to see DS9 in its Occupation-days as Terok Nor!

Time and Again and Eye of the Needle were fairly good episodes, though I do wonder whether the negative view of time travel comes from the fact that Voyager had no less than 3 time travel episodes in its first season.

Future's End, once again, seeing our heroes out of their usual time is always a fun adventure imo.

Before and After, I remember as being a fascinating glimpse of Kes's potential future, and especially interesting in its subversion of storytelling by going backwards through time.

Timeless, if nothing else, at least it featured a cameo by LeVar Burton!

Shattered, it was pretty awesome jumping between past, present and future of Voyager.

E-2, I wasn't a fan of the TCW, but I remember this being a pretty interesting episode, if you can't tell by now, I like episodes which feature alternate or future versions of our crew.

In A Mirror, Darkly, I wouldn't call a time travel episode, but it was still pretty damn cool.

Star Trek IV: The Voyager Home, Star Trek: Generations, Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek (2009) I loved. I'd only have to add TWOK to the list for it to become a list of my favourite, and imo the best Trek movies.

 

[Too Much Fun]

I really don't care how faulty the logic behind time travel is, it doesn't change the fact that a good chunk of my favourite Star Trek stories involve time travel, so whether it's plausible or not, it has been a good gimmick to base Star Trek episodes on. It has been the foundation for my favourite Star Trek movie ("Star Trek: First Contact"), my favourite single TNG episode ("Yesterday's Enterprise", although I like "The Best of Both Worlds" two parter just a little more), the only Enterprise episodes I've ever enjoyed ("In A Mirror, Darkly"), and my second favourite episode of "Star Trek" ("The City on the Edge of Forever").

I also love "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" and most of the "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episodes listed in the original post, except "Time's Arrow" (part 1 one was okay, but irritating-as-hell Mark Twain ruined part 2) and the two season 7 episodes, which contributed greatly to it being such an inconsistent season. I don't think DS9 handled time travel as well as the two Star Trek shows before it, except in "Trials and Tribble-Ations", "Little Green Men", and "The Visitor". "Visionary" has a cool main idea that leads to a few neat moments, but I think overall the episode was rather forgettable. Being a two-parter, I thought "Past Tense" (much like "Time's Arrow") was a complete waste of time.

 

[kitsune]

I really don't care how faulty the logic behind time travel is, it doesn't change the fact that a good chunk of my favourite Star Trek stories involve time travel, so whether it's plausible or not, it has been a good gimmick to base Star Trek episodes on.

I don't think time-travel is necessarily bad in a good story, but the problems it introduces tend to annoy the amateur scientist in me.

One of my favorite films is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, which uses short-term time travel to good effect.

I think I would have to say my favorite Trek time-travel episode was City on the Edge of Forever, but NOT for the drama in that episode--it's just for Spock's mnemonic memory circuit, which I thought was cool ever since I saw the episode as a child.

 

[kitsune]

^In that case, I stand corrected.

When you speak of "delay(ing) one man's actions by a few seconds," I take it you don't necessarily mean DURING the act of conception.

(Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread.)

Correct, merely having a conversation with someone on the street would affect that man's future descendants, and also the future descendants of any men who walked around you while you were talking.

I found this quote:

In every ejaculation there are hundreds of millions of sperm cells, only one of which can fertilize an egg and produce a member of the next generation of human beings. But which sperm succeeds in fertilizing an egg must depend on the most minor and insignificant of factors, both internal and external. If even a little thing had gone differently 2,500 years ago, none of us would be here today. There would be billions of others living in our place.

 

[sbk1234]

Damn. There were a LOT of time travel episodes in Trek. That said, my personal favorites are City on the Edge of Forever, Tomorrow is Yesterday, All Good Things, Tapestry, Yesterday's Enterprise, Future's End, and the one where 7 of Nine goes back to the Voyager in spacedock. Sorry, I can't remember the name.

I do give special mention to Tapestry for doing a time travel story that is, IMHO, unique in how it is handled. At least, to me.

 

[Admiral Shran]

TOS - All Our Yesterdays

TAS - Yesteryear

TNG - All Good Things

DS9 - Trials and Tribble-ations

VOY - Shattered

ENT - In a Mirror, Darkly (both parts)

MOIVES - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The only time that time travel really grated on my nerves was in Star Trek XI.

 

[buckeyenation]

I've always liked Carpenter Street. Its gritty, urban-decay setting was made all the more grim with it being at at night. Plus T'pol at a fast food drive thru, and Archer breaking into an ATM and stealing a car (at least he didn't get busted like Kirk and Spock in Edge of Forever) and the Xindi running around just make it...cool.