lost tv show time travel

How Does Time Travel Actually Work In Lost?

You know the joke: "Lost" isn't just the title of the show, it's how you feel after you watch it. Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse made TV history with "Lost," creating an epic and mysterious story the whole world seemed to be invested in. But fans and casual viewers are still bound to come away with a few questions, even after finishing all six seasons . "Lost" had fantasy and sci-fi elements from the start, with a mystical smoke monster that seemed to attack plane crash survivors and an island that simply wouldn't let them leave. However, the show really upped the ante (and the potential for confusion) when it introduced time travel.

Much of "Lost" can be explained by looking at its central, ideological push-and-pull. John Locke (Terry O'Quinn), who was healed by the Island, is a man of faith who believes destiny drives our actions. Jack Shephard (Matthew Fox) is a troubled doctor driven by logic who refuses to believe in the Island's power. In some ways, both men are right. Many of the miracles Locke witnesses are actually side effects of time travel, a scientifically explainable phenomenon. Still, the rules of time travel in "Lost" seem to dictate that anything that was meant to happen will happen, no matter how many complicating factors are thrown into the timeline. In that sense, fate does exist, with time travel partly responsible for the predetermination Locke believes in.

Let's Let Daniel Faraday Explain (Sort Of)

Look, I can't explain time travel. That's above my pay grade. But I do know someone who can. The Island's resident spaced-out physicist Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies) studied time travel long before parachuting onto its shores. Way back in 1996, Faraday was making lab rats' consciousnesses travel through time. Faraday got much of his science from the Kerr metric , a complicated real-life equation involving black holes that is pretty much the closest anyone has come to understanding theoretical time travel.

Faraday explains all of this much more simply to Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), though, when the poor lad starts bouncing around in time in Season 4. "The Constant" is one of the show's most heartfelt episodes, but it also contains a most succinct description of time travel. At Faraday's urging, a temporally displaced Desmond finds the scientist at Oxford in 1996. Before Faraday even begins to demonstrate his time travel experiment, he tells Desmond something that underlines the "Lost" philosophy of time travel: "You can't change the future."

Faraday explains that the equations that can make time travel happen are random and chaotic, but he also says that "Every equation needs stability. Something known." This doesn't dig into the specifics of the Kerr metric, but it does explain the way time travel works in "Lost." The show clearly values hitting the right emotional beats over explaining the right equations. In this case, Desmond has to find a "constant" to keep his mind from falling into permanent confusion as his consciousness zooms back and forth in time. That constant is his girlfriend Penny (Sonya Walger), who he connects with on an emotional phone call later in the episode. If he can find her — no matter when he is — that will create stability in his timeline.

The Future Informs The Past, The Past Reinforces The Future

Daniel Faraday doesn't go too deep into the specifics of the principles of time travel, though he does mention electromagnetism a lot. The Dharma Initiative tried to study and harness that electromagnetism and also built a pendulum contraption that was meant to help figure out where the Island is moving in time and space.

One thing is for sure: It's clear that "Lost" subscribes to the idea that anything one does in the past is already firmly a part of the future. In Season 5, the Island's survivors aren't creating multiple timelines by wandering around in the 1970s. Instead, they're contributing to elements of the timeline we've already seen, creating a closed loop.

For example, when Jack finds out the Dharma Initiative plans to do experiments that he thinks will eventually cause Oceanic Flight 815 to crash, he tries to stop them by detonating a hydrogen bomb's thermonuclear core (seems like a cool and chill thing Jack would do). However, it turns out Jack's bomb helped cause The Incident, a vital moment in Dharma history that led to the creation of The Swan Station that Desmond eventually (although for us viewers, it was in an earlier episode) calls home. So any attempt to alter the past to fix the present will result in the same present the survivors are already in.

Whatever Happened, Happened

The best way to explain time travel in "Lost" is by explaining what it's not. This is not "Back to the Future." Hurley driving a Dharma van won't lead to him slowly disappearing from his family photo. It's also not like, say, the movie "Looper" in which getting hurt in the past leads future characters to suddenly develop new scars. In "Lost," time travel is cyclical and, at times, frustrating in its perfect ability to course-correct. This comes up again when Faraday attempts to warn six-year-old Charlotte that she will die if she ever returns to the Island. As an adult, Charlotte (Rebecca Mader) travels back to the Island to better understand where she came from, but her curiosity leads to her demise. Feeling the Island's effects more acutely than most, she dies in Faraday's arms.

"Lost's" attitude towards time travel is best summed up by one of the series' most oft-repeated phrases: "Whatever happened, happened." This phrase comes up several times throughout the show. Once again, Faraday puts it plainly: "If we try to do anything different, we will fail every time. Whatever happened, happened." There are no do-overs here. In the end , "Lost" took a more heartfelt, less neatly tied-up approach to the Island's nature than many fans expected, but the series has always used its more out-there elements as a means to an end.

The end? Human connection. On "Lost," you cannot stop death and tragedy, but you can use the chance you have to show love. We see it when ill-fated rock star Charlie (Dominic Monaghan) sacrifices himself and when Miles (Ken Leung) meets his father (François Chau).

When it comes right down to it, we should stop pulling our hair out trying to fill in the gaps in the way "Lost" explains time travel and start thinking about how it serves the show's core messages about mortality and togetherness. On this island, as in life, whatever happens, happens — even if it sometimes happens in the most confusing order imaginable — so you'd better make it count.

Lost's Time Travel Theories Start To Become Clear

But the biggest revelation may be that we finally learned why the time-travel flashes are occurring more often and with more vigor. It turns out Faraday was dead-on with his skipping-record analogy. Somehow, that donkey wheel controls what we believe is a pocket of exotic matter that's stored behind/underneath/inside the Orchid Station. Somehow, the wheel was knocked off its axis (maybe when Ben turned it?) and is now skipping--like a scratched record that can't get back in its groove. And every time it skips, it releases just enough of this powerful stuff to disrupt the space-time continuum.

But before you start playing Geronimo Jackson records backward to look for the hidden messages that reveal the secrets of Lost , let us break a few things down for you.

Moving the Island vs. Moving Through Time

We know that when Ben first cranked that donkey wheel, the island moved. There are a few different opinions on how time travel can occur. PM has spoken to two physicists who have different ideas about what might have happened. The first is that when the island disappeared, it moved through a wormhole to another place in space and time. We know this because Halliwax/Candle/Chang told us that the exotic matter's strange energy properties can create a Casimir effect, which in principal could open and stabilize a wormhole between two points in space and time. Therefore, the island just traveled through it, and moved to a different point in space-time.

The second theory is that the island is connected to the South Pacific by a wormhole-like warp in space-time. To move the island, all someone would have to do is move the wormhole connection, not the island itself. Under this theory, the island didn't disappear; it didn't even move. When we spoke to University of CaliforniaÐBerkeley physicist and rabid Lost fan Richard Muller last season , he put it this way: "Imagine that you are visiting a small town that you used to visit when you were young. You drive for miles, and never come to it. But it turns out the town has not moved. Rather, the highway now goes around it. That's what Ben did--he changed the highway." Either way, this would explain what we were seeing in the previews for next week's episode with Mrs. Hawking's map-and-pendulum rig.

So Ben turned the donkey wheel, the island is "moved," but the flashes are still happening--and not everyone on the island is affected, only our castaways and their crew. That's because it's now just those guys moving through time--not the island itself. Both Faraday ("Either we're moving, or the island is") and Alpert ("I'm not going anywhere, John, you are") have hinted at as much. Instead of connecting two different points in space and time, we believe that the wormhole is now only connecting points in time. According to our experts, however, the equations that indicate time travel is theoretically possible don't make a distinction between space and time. In other words, if the castaways are moving through only time, it's simply because the writers want them to, not because the equations support it. But producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have never promised an entirely scientific explanation for the happenings on the island.

Who's Your Daddy?

We learned last night that Charlotte was born on the island, and that she has a memory of a "crazy old man" telling her she can never return to the island or she'll die. She's sure that "crazy old man" was Faraday--and we're pretty sure that when she blurted out "Don't bring her back here! This place is death!" she wasn't talking to Jin, but rather experiencing that memory.

There are a couple of schools of thought on what effects time travel would have on the universe. Some theories suggest that as you travel back in time and change the past, that alternate past exists in another universe. In this case, if you can meet yourself in the past, you'll never remember it. Time then can fork like this continuously.

But what we see on Lost is different--people are able to travel back in time and influence the future. This opens up the grandfather paradox: A time traveler who goes back into the past and kills his grandfather before his mother is conceived, which negates his own birth. This--bear with us here--would cause him not to not travel back in time in the first place. So his grandfather wouldn't be killed at his hand and the time traveler would be born--and could potentially travel back in time and kill his grandfather. Therein lies the paradox.

One Russian scientist, Igor Novikov, believes that you can only influence the past if it doesn't create a paradox. His self-consistency principle states that the probability of an event happening that could change the future is zero; therefore, the universe will keep a time traveler from altering the past to change the future. But even though Faraday knows that according to this rule, he can't change the past to save Charlotte, it doesn't mean he won't try.

Praxes of popular culture

Paradox lost: time travel and free will in the television show lost.

The television series Lost uses the motif of time travel to consider the problem of human free will, following the tradition of Humean compatibilism in asserting that human beings possess free will in a deterministic universe. This paper reexamines Lost ’s final mystery, the “Flash Sideways” world, presenting a revisionist view of the show’s conclusion that figures the Flash Sideways as an outcome of time travel. By considering the perspectives of observers who exist both within time and outside of it, the paper argues that the characters of Lost changed their destinies, even though the rules of time travel in Lost ’s narrative assert that history cannot be changed.

Keywords : Lost , time travel, Hume, free will, compatibilism

My purpose in this paper is twofold. First, I intend to argue that ABC’s Lost follows a tradition of science fiction in using time travel to consider the problem of human free will, making an original contribution to the debate by invoking a narrative structure previously unseen in time travel stories. I hope to show that Lost , a television show that became increasingly invested in questions over free will and fate as the series progressed, makes a case for free will in the tradition of Humean compatibilism, asserting that human beings possess free will even in a deterministic world.

Secondly, in making my argument, I also hope to give the ending of Lost a long overdue redemption. After the series finale, critics and fans alike panned the show’s ending, accusing it of relying too heavily on mysticism and failing to provide an adequate explanation for the many mysteries that populated the Island. This paper will make the case that Lost ’s ultimate revelation relied just as heavily on science fiction as it did on mysticism, allowing for a fitting end to a series that so often blurred the lines between science and faith. In the resolution to its final mystery, Lost settled on a view of time in which the universe has one fixed and unalterable timeline. Characters can travel through time, but they evidently cannot change history. Despite this insistence on time as unchangeable, I will argue that time travel allowed the characters of Lost to exercise free will and change their destinies.

I will begin by showing why a reexamination of Lost ’s ending is necessary, then I will present a reinterpretation of the show’s final mystery, the “Flash Sideways” world depicted throughout season six. My revisionist view of the ending will figure the Flash Sideways as an outcome of the characters’ time-traveling. I will review David Hume’s celebrated compatibilist-determinist approach to the free will question, and I will then show how Hume’s philosophy aligns with my interpretation of Lost ’s depiction of the rules and effects of time travel. To conclude, I will explore the consequences of my interpretation, showing how the series presents a worldview in which, even in a deterministic setting with intractable causes and effects where history cannot be changed, human beings are still free to choose their own fate.

Returning to “The End”

Those left unsatisfied by the ending of Lost generally fall into two camps. The first camp consists of those viewers for whom the final episode served as a microcosm for the whole series in its apparent refusal to answer the show’s most pressing question: W hat is the island ? To this first camp, I can offer no solace. The answer to this question, at least to the furthest extent that the show’s writers were ever willing to answer it, had already been provided in a series of hints and indirect revelations long before the show’s final episode. The Island, we come to understand, is part of a geographical formation that moves through time and space, existing in an ever-shifting spatial-temporal coordinate; entrance from and exit to the Island is complicated by the time difference between the Island and the surrounding geography. The Island is populated by long-term residents who have honed their understanding of the island’s time-shifting into abilities that strike the uninitiated as mystical, even godlike. Even armed with such an answer, those in this first camp may justifiably ask, “ Why? ”, to which neither the series nor I have any good response.

The viewers in the second camp are aware that Lost had gone as far as it was willing to go in explaining the properties of the Island, and they have accepted that the show’s final episode was tasked with answering a different question, namely providing the origin and nature of the Flash Sideways world introduced in season six. For these viewers, an answer was indeed provided, albeit one that seemed unpalatable. The Flash Sideways was revealed to be purgatory, or at least something very much like purgatory:

JACK. Where are we, Dad? CHRISTIAN. This is the place that you…that you all made together, so that you could find one another. The most important part of your life was the time that you spent with these people. That’s why all of you are here. Nobody does it alone, Jack. You needed all of them, and they needed you. JACK. For what? CHRISTIAN. To remember… and to… let go. (“The End”)

By itself, this revelation – that the Flash Sideways is part of the afterlife – raises no concerns. It satisfactorily explains why the characters appeared to be living in two divergent realities in season six. It is problematic, however, when considered in the context of all that came before it. Eric Guttormson, writing for his blog on the website Eric Knows It All , articulates the underlying problem:

I think I know why some folks have had a very hollow feeling after the finale of Lost. … It’s because of the prevailing notion that the ALT (alternate timeline, or Flash Sideways) was merely purgatory, the same purgatory that any of us would eventually experience when we die. … If the ALT or sideways reality was just your run-of-the-mill purgatory then…we don’t need a mysterious island to get there. We don’t need time travel, we don’t need to be avoiding a smoke monster, and we don’t need to explode a nuclear bomb in an attempt to “set things right.” … [I]f the purgatory ending wasn’t directly caused by the “incident” then all of the story leading up to it was just window dressing.

As Guttormson observes, for an audience to accept a narrative, its ending needs to come across as motivated by the chain of events preceding it. Lost ’s ending seems to outright reject this expectation by treating the aforementioned “incident” as a red herring that appeared to set up, but was ultimately not responsible for, the Flash Sideways.

Season six of Lost is built on the tantalizing possibility that the characters managed to change their destinies by time traveling. The final few episodes of season five, starting with “The Variable” and continuing through “The Incident: Part 2,” depict Jack and his friends trying to bring to fruition a plan envisioned by the physicist character Daniel Faraday. Faraday theorized that detonating a hydrogen bomb in 1977 would break the chain of events leading to the 2004 plane crash bringing Jack and company to the Island. Although Faraday had previously insisted that time cannot be changed, he revised his theory in “The Variable,” having determined that an event with sufficient magnitude could indeed change the course of history.

Faraday dies before he can put his plan into practice, but Jack and the other survivors stuck in 1977 continue to carry it out. Season five ends with Juliet banging a rock on the shell of the nuclear bomb, followed by a burst of white light; season six begins in the Flash Sideways world, where we quickly learn that the Island is underwater and Oceanic Flight 815 does not crash. It would seem that the survivors were at least partially successful, for, although they are unaware of it, they seem to have created an alternate timeline. The show’s conclusion, though, raises doubts about the characters’ success in their attempt to change history. Because the Flash Sideways is revealed to be part of the afterlife, then it may have nothing at all to do with the detonation of the nuclear bomb. The survivors, despite the season’s initial appearances, seem to have failed to change time.

I intend to make the case, however, that they did, although not in the manner they intended, nor in a way seen previously in any other time travel story.

The Flash Sideways as Lost Time

I wish to preface my theory of the Flash Sideways by noting that it rests on the premise that Daniel Faraday is always right. Faraday’s depiction as an absent-minded professor figures him firmly in the position of the “wise old man” character type. In The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious , Carl Jung writes, “The old man knows what roads lead to the goal and points them out to the hero. He warns of dangers to come and supplies the means of meeting them effectively” (221). In order to fulfill his narrative function, the wise old man character needs to be fully versed in the rules of the hero’s world. Faraday functions as a sort of gatekeeper of the rules of time travel, but his authority as rule-keeper is complicated by the fact that he introduces two different sets of contradictory rules.

When the characters stranded on the Island are first traveling randomly through time at the beginning of season five, Faraday insists that history cannot be changed and that time travelers cannot alter what they already know to be the future:

FARADAY. You cannot change anything. You can’t. You can try to. Wouldn’t work. SAYWER. Why not? FARADAY. Time, it’s like a stream. Now we can move forward on that stream, we can move in reverse, but we cannot, ever, create a new stream. If we try to do anything different, we will fail. Every time. Whatever happened, happened. (“Because You Left”)

In this, his initial view of time travel, Faraday’s theory is reminiscent of theoretical physicist Igor Novikov’s “self-consistency” principle. This principle allows for the possibility of time travel within existing physical laws so long as the act maintains one coherent view of spacetime and avoids paradoxes (Jaffe 620).

The characters’ experiences throughout season five appear to bear Faraday’s hypothesis out. In one of the more radical attempts to alter the timeline, Sayid shoots the twelve-year-old Ben Linus in 1977. This shocking event marks the end of an episode, instilling in viewers a sense of cognitive dissonance as they linger on the lifeless image of a child whom they know should still be living as an adult. The next episode, however, definitively reiterates the self-consistency principle, revealing that Ben’s wound was not fatal and that his mysterious healing at the hands of the Others will leave him with no memory of the event. What had seemingly been identified by Hurley as an inconsistency in the timeline is explained away; the adult version of Ben’s apparent failure to recall being shot by Sayid no longer constitutes a paradox. The show’s writers even go as far as using an extra-narrative device to endorse the self-consistency principle, titling the episode, “Whatever Happened, Happened.” That phrase becomes Lost ’s mantra for underscoring Faraday’s first theory: the intractability of time.

This dogmatic adherence to what the show repeatedly insists is its cardinal rule of time travel makes it that much more surprising when Faraday suddenly revises his thesis in the episode “The Variable.” Faraday, who has spent his last three years working among Dharma Initiative scientists in Ann Arbor, returns to the Island with a radically altered theory about how time travelers can affect the course of history. He tells Jack he has been reviewing his life’s work on time travel, and he discovered something that could make changing the past possible. “I’d been spending so much time focused on the constants,” he says, “I forgot about the variables.” He goes on to insist that these forgotten variables are people. According to Faraday, “We think, we reason, we make choices, we have free will,” and once people accept that they can change the past and actually try to do so, they will succeed.

It seems out of character for a scientist such as Faraday to suddenly conclude that faith has been the missing ingredient in time travelers’ efforts to alter history, and it seems even more unlikely that Faraday would have so long overlooked the capacity of human beings to function as parts of his equations. After all, we have known since season four that Faraday has long stressed the importance of human beings functioning as “constants” in the mathematics of time travel. Deleted lines forming an extended scene from “The Variable” clarify that Faraday thought it was more than a matter of faith. What had been lacking in previous attempts to change the past, he explains, was not only sufficient belief that it could be done, but also sufficient magnitude in the attempts. Returning to the metaphor of time as a stream, he presents a key distinction between attempts that will fail and those that will succeed:

FARADAY. In laymen’s terms, a creek keeps washing over any pebble thrown into it. Pebble represents a change – small change. Creek is time. … If we accept that we can’t change the past, can’t do anything about it, then we don’t even bother trying. But if we decide, if we believe that we can change the past, then we don’t use pebbles, Jack. We use boulders. (drops a rock into the creek) You see? ‘Cause if you drop a big enough rock into a creek, you create a dam, right? And then that creek changes.

Faraday’s metaphor implies that small-scale actions will have no effect on the timeline, but an action on a large enough scale might be able to push the stream of time so far away from its original destination that a new stream is created. For Faraday, the event that could prove to be large enough to permanently alter time is the detonation of a hydrogen bomb.

Daniel Faraday presents two theories that appear to be at odds with one another:

1) Time cannot be changed, even by time travelers.

2) Time can be changed by time travelers, provided those travelers effect a sufficiently large action.

Are these two rules mutually exclusive, or is it possible to resolve them? I believe there is one interpretation of the events in Lost that would make Faraday right on both counts.

When we are first introduced to the Flash Sideways world in the season six premiere, we are led to believe that it is an alternate timeline created by the detonation of the nuclear bomb. By the end of the season, though, it has become clear that the actions taken by Jack and the other main characters actually ensured the existence of the very future they were trying to prevent, in what James Gleick would call a “predestination paradox” (231), long a staple of time travel stories. While some viewers assume the nuclear bomb did not actually explode, there is compelling evidence that the bomb did explode and that its blast was indeed what neutralized the rapidly leaking electromagnetic energy inadvertently released by the Dharma Initiative’s drilling. In attempting to destroy the Island, Jack likely saved it. The timeline of Lost as we know it was preserved, and the incident at the Swan drilling site can be recognized as an integral part of the causal chain of events forming the reality that Jack, the survivors, and Lost ’s viewers know.

This does not mean that Jack did not change time. If we operate on the premises that Faraday’s second rule is true – that a hydrogen bomb is of sufficient magnitude to create a new timeline – and that the bomb did go off, then Jack did change time. However, instead of changing it from the reality we already know, he changed it to the reality we already know.

If we think of the detonation as responsible for changing history to the timeline we already know, then both of Faraday’s rules can be true, depending on one’s perspective – whether one is observing the events from within time or from outside of time . From the point of view of an observer within time, the timeline was not changed. Past, present, and future have been and will always be immutable. Envisioned in this way, time can be thought of as unchangeable points all laid out in a sequence on a geometer’s line (Gleick 257). A time traveler can move from one point on the line to any other point, but the line itself, including the continuum of points that comprise it, cannot change. From the point of view of an observer outside of time – call it the God viewpoint, perhaps, or the view of the author – the line did change. Here, “change” is a relative term, since a “change” normally implies an act with both a before and after ; in other words, change is normally considered in terms of time. An atemporal God, however, would not experience events in succession (De Florio and Frigerio 8). There would be no before and after , only a timeless from and to .

Time changed to reality as the characters know it, but what did it change from? The Flash Sideways serves as the answer. Existing outside of time, the Flash Sideways is reality as it would have been – one could even argue as it should have been. It is “lost time,” a timeline prevented from existing when the characters successfully detonated the nuclear bomb. Put another way, the Flash Sideways is destiny.

A Case Study in Compatibilism

Lost contains countless allusions to philosophy, most noticeably in the names of some its characters: Edmund Burke, Jeremy Bentham, Mikhail Bakunin, and, most germane to this essay, Desmond David Hume. In a bit of heavy-handed symbolism, Desmond’s name and nationality link him with the Scottish philosopher David Hume, originator of the compatibilist view of free will.

David Hume was a champion of free will partially because, like so many of the rest of us, he simply wanted it to be true. In Hume’s eyes, a God who engendered a world with free will inspires greater awe than a God who created a world he fully controlled:

It argues surely more power in the Deity to delegate a certain degree of power to inferior creatures, than to produce every thing by his own immediate volition. It argues more wisdom to contrive at first the fabric of the world with such perfect foresight, that, of itself, and by its proper operation, it may serve all the purposes of Providence, than if the great Creator were obliged every moment to adjust its parts, and animate by his breath all the wheels of that stupendous machine. (Hume 82-83)

To make his case for the delegation of “a certain degree of power to inferior creatures,” Hume needed to show how such power was possible in a deterministic world. He insisted that all philosophers, regardless of whether they believed in free will, acknowledged that nature and human thought operated wholly on immutable processes of cause and effect (Hume 102). He saw this belief in a necessary chain of events as the common ground where all philosophers engaged in the free will question needed to begin. For Hume, the best human beings could hope for was free will that was somehow compatible with a divinely determined world. This is precisely what Hume, and his generations of disciples, argue for. Compatibilists in the Humean tradition believe that, even though the universe is deterministic, humans have the capacity to do other than what they ultimately do (Beebee and Mele 202). Even though they will not do other than what they have been divinely and naturally determined to do, they could .

From the perspective of Humean compatibilism, although we know which road will be taken, there is always a road not taken – one that could have been, but was not, taken. If free will is present, then alternative possibilities must exist. One cannot experience these possibilities, of course, because they are never actualized. They do not exist within time. Even a time traveler moving forwards and backwards in time could not encounter these possibilities. If such a possibility were to exist in any tangible way, it could only do so in a metaphysical or spiritual realm that was entirely removed from time, as is the case with the Flash Sideways.

Lost goes out of its way to stress the timeless nature of the Flash Sideways. In the closing moments of the series, in the final scene in the Flash Sideways, Jack finds himself face to face with his father Christian. In both the primary timeline and the Flash Sideways, Jack has been chasing his dead father literally and figuratively. Finally, it seems, Jack and the viewers will get some answers, for Christian is in a unique position to comment on the mysteries of Lost . Referring to Christian, Melissa Ames remarks, “When [a father] is portrayed as bodiless, as a deceased father would be, he can represent more than he was; he can stand for the Law, for the Idea of authority, for the Symbolic realm as a whole” (434). Christian, who was portrayed as “bodiless” in that his body was missing in both the primary timeline and the Flash Sideways, emerges as a symbol for both the world of the living and the world of destiny. Removed from both, he can comment on how the two realms function cooperatively. Although we do not get much, Christian gives us two crucial pieces of information needed to make sense of the relationship between the Flash Sideways and the “real world”. First, Christian explains that neither the Flash Sideways nor Jack’s lifetime should be thought of as anything other than reality: “I’m real. You’re real. Everything that’s ever happened to you is real.” Soon afterwards, Christian says something odd about the nature of time in the place where he and Jack are speaking: “There is no ‘now’ here” (“The End”).

Indeed, the Flash Sideways appears to lack a definitive “now.” The passage of time is not consistent for characters; what some characters experience in a week, other characters experience in a day or two. For example, Jin and Sun only experience one night between the landing of Oceanic Flight 815 and the death of Keamy. Sayid, on the other hand, experiences at least two nights between these same events. A distorted sense of time can also be witnessed in the events leading up to the piano concert. In the period between the wait staff laying out the tables for the concert and the concert’s beginning, some characters experience an entire week.

These details underscoring the “timelessness” of the Flash Sideways world invite viewers to consider the world as something similar to, but ultimately different than, an alternate timeline. Characters experience sequences of causally related events, and the characters are allowed to interact with each other and share common moments; however, time as a unifying and consistent force has been stripped away. In this respect, the Flash Sideways resembles a mental construct such as a dream or an act of imagination – the same sort of imagination that allows human beings to consider sets of alternate possibilities before choosing an action. This power has long been considered a vital component of free will. In “Free Will and the Construction of Options,” Chandra Sripada asserts that agents who make free decisions are psychologically enabled by two different types of capacities: constructive processes and selective processes. Constructive processes allow for the agent to mentally create a set of candidate outcomes; selective processes enable the agent to compare the available outcomes and assign evaluative weights to each option. The candidate receiving the most weight is then selected as the action (Sripada 2915). In making a rational choice, the human agent has used constructive processes to transition from infinite possibilities into a finite number of options, and evaluative processes to ultimately enact one actuality.

Human beings make an immeasurable number of these choices daily. Because life is determined through this constant, complex network of choices forming actualizations from infinite possibilities, the role choice plays in determining our reality must be relieved of its complexity to function as a theme in fiction. To do so, contemporary fiction tends toward symbolism, highlighting choice by depicting “frozen moments” in which one instant, one gesture becomes the stylized sign for a state which is so pervasive that it can never be captured as it truly exists (Wright 278). Lost employs the nuclear bomb as such a symbolic device. In fact, to allow us to consider the ramifications of the characters’ choice to detonate the bomb, we are presented with two worlds: one where the bomb exploded, and one where it did not. Lost is not the first story to present two different worlds showing the results of two different approaches to a key character choice. What makes Lost unique, rather, is the way it thwarts its viewers’ expectations. We expect that the “new” world we are seeing in season six, the Flash Sideways world, is the one exemplifying what happens/would have happened when Jack detonates the bomb. Instead, as it ultimately turns out, the Flash Sideways world is the one showing what happens/would have happened when Jack did not choose to detonate Jughead. Lost is able to achieve this sly bit of narrative misdirection by exploiting our preconceived expectations about time travel stories.

Considering a well-known, lighthearted example of time travel storytelling, Back to the Future , may help to illuminate these preconceptions. The original Back to the Future film proceeds as a time travel story typically does. A central character, teenaged Marty McFly, begins in a version of the present – 1985 in this case – uncorrupted by the interference of time travel. His parents are social misfits, his mother suffering from chronic depression and alcoholism and his father too timid to stand up against a bullying coworker. Marty, using a time-traveling car, travels back to 1955, inadvertently preventing a key event in his parents’ courtship. As the story goes, Marty takes drastic steps to get his mother to fall in love with his father as history intended, ensuring that his parents will get married and that he will continue to exist. Although he succeeds, the mechanisms that allow him to do so result in his father’s triumph in 1955 over the same bully who would have continued to torment him, had Marty not interfered with history through his time traveling. Marty returns to 1985 to find that his accidental altering of time has led to a revised 1985 in which his mother and father are happy and deeply in love and the bully no longer exerts any power over his father. All is as it should be – better than it should be, as it turns out.

Back to the Future is presented as a time travel story normally unfolds, beginning with an uncorrupted present, progressing to the past, then returning to an altered present. Lost , however, thwarts its viewers’ narrative expectations by beginning the story in the altered present. Imagine a version of Back to the Future beginning in the altered 1985, told from the perspective of successful science fiction author George McFly, Marty’s father as he appears in the revised 1985 at the end of the movie. For this George McFly, the circumstances in which he is a happily married author whose erstwhile high school bully has been reduced to waxing his car are simply reality. What this George McFly fails to understand is that his good fortune is a result of cheating destiny, thanks to his time traveling son. What he also fails to understand is that somewhere out there in spacetime there is another George McFly, with oily hair and horn-rimmed glasses – the George McFly he was supposed to be. Which George McFly is real? Did the oily-haired, nerdy version of George McFly fade away from existence? Did he never really exist to begin with, since a comprehensive, finished view of Back to the Future ’s ultimate timeline doesn’t incorporate the oily-haired George McFly? In other words, if a person, or perhaps a certain version of a person, was supposed to exist but did not exist because the free will of human beings changed the course of events, what happens to that version of that person?

We can think of Lost ’s Flash Sideways as an answer to that very question.

A Destiny Rejected

The word destiny normally implies a positive connotation. When we say that two people were destined to meet, or that something was destined to happen, we say so with the expectation that the meeting or event will lead to some hoped-for outcome. The two people “destined” to meet may go on to form a lasting relationship, or the event may lead to some good fortune down the road, perhaps in a way difficult to predict. As a word, destiny is loosely synonymous with fate , the key difference being that fate ’s connotation is more ambiguous. While we may say that good things were “fated” to occur, we also use “fate” to describe something human beings struggle against. Consider the terminology we adopt in the free will debate: We often use “fate” to stand for determinism. We frequently use the phrase “free will versus fate,” yet we are unlikely to say “free will versus destiny.” Perhaps this is because destiny so often refers to an idealized version of events. Why would anyone ever want to have free will, if the price was the loss of our destiny?

As Lost moves toward its conclusion, this question becomes ever more present. Joanne Morreale observes, “[t]aking control of one’s destiny becomes the motivating quest, as, up until the end, the characters struggle with the possibility (or impossibility) of changing fate” (183). In the traditional interpretation of the show’s ending, changing fate was exposed as an impossibility. In my interpretation, the characters did change fate, even though they could not rewrite time. By detonating Jughead, the characters successfully wrestled from fate a degree of control over their lives, however disappointed they may have been to discover that doing so resulted in no change from the reality they already knew. What they did not know, though, and, with the notable exception of Desmond, would not know until after their deaths, was that they had nullified a world provided for them by destiny.

This world, the Flash Sideways world, presents us with a curious test case, one allowing us to consider whether these characters would have been better off if they had left their lives to the unaltered course of destiny. As Morreale notes, characters in the Flash Sideways world “become mirror images of themselves, for the most part living the lives they wish they had had” (181). Jack is a father forging the kind of relationship with his son he never achieved with his own father; Hurley’s lottery winnings have fashioned him into a successful philanthropist and businessman, allowing him to call himself lucky rather than cursed; Jin and Sun have a relationship unblemished by mistrust or infidelity; Desmond has the respect of Charles Widmore, who now employs him rather than torments him. Even the characters experiencing some kind of misfortune, like Kate and Sayid, appear to be facing the consequences of cosmic justice, as if they were experiencing the kind of punishment that was always fitting for them. Indeed, this is their world as it was supposed to be, a world free not only from the interference of time travel, but also from the symbolic interference of the Island.

At first glance, it appears that Jack and his friends made a terrible mistake. By rejecting destiny, they seem to have foregone much that they desired. Jughead’s detonation not only preserved the timeline as they already knew it, but it also wiped away the possibility of a providential paradise where they lived, for the most part, rich and fulfilling lives. This would seem to be a curious lesson for Lost to offer: Meddle not in the affairs of fate, mortals, or ye shall make things worse than they otherwise would have been . More likely, we are meant to take a different idea away from this unfulfilled destiny. Whether we have control of our lives in the form of free will, or whether all our choices are determined, our lives will always constitute but one reality amidst an infinite sea of alternatives. There will always be unrealized possibilities. For the viewers of Lost , as well as for its characters, one of the greatest challenges of life is letting go of these unfulfilled destinies.

Lost is a show about salvation. All of its characters need to be saved, in a variety of literal and figurative ways (Ames 443-44). Even when the characters are saved, however, closure still proves elusive. This can be seen in the characters who are literally saved from the Island, who only end up compelled to return. It can also be seen in the characters who seek psychological salvation; often, redemption proves more difficult than they expected. Both Locke and Sawyer expect to find closure in killing Anthony Cooper, but neither one of them gains any satisfaction from the act of revenge. Ben has spent over a decade waiting to see Jacob in the flesh, but, when the long hoped-for meeting finally occurs, Ben is told he is not as important as he always thought he was. Sayid, upon learning that he has finally killed everyone responsible for Nadia’s death, finds himself without a purpose. On Lost , the constant cycling of character objectives parallels the unravelling of the show’s mysteries: Just as the answer to one question always comes with a new series of questions, the achievement of one character’s objective always comes with a whole new slate of obstacles.

Two characters become cognizant of this cycle and attempt to break it. The peace they find in doing so stands as a testament to the power of letting go. Even though they have been caught up in the unpredictable time shifts, Rose and Bernard choose to accept the life they have been given instead of trying to rectify it. When Sawyer, Kate, and Juliet find them and learn they have been living by themselves for three years, they are surprised, but Rose and Bernard explain the value in what they have been doing:

SAWYER. So y’all been scavenging food and living out in a hut by yourselves? ROSE. People try their whole lives to get themselves a nice, quiet place near the ocean where they can live in peace. And we did it. That’s what we made for ourselves. SAWYER. Well, I hate to rain on your parade, but your condo’s about to go ka-blooey. KATE. Jack has a bomb. ROSE. Who cares? KATE. Excuse me? ROSE. It’s always something with you people. Now you say Jack’s got a bomb. And what, you guys are all gonna try to stop him, right? JULIET. Yeah, that’s right. ROSE. We traveled back thirty years in time, and you’re all still trying to find ways to shoot each other? JULIET. Rose, we just need to know which way the DHARMA Barracks are from here so we can stop Jack, or you’re gonna be dead. We all will. BERNARD. So we die. We just care about being together. That’s all that matters in the end. (“The Incident, Part 1”)

As is so often true on Lost , a character’s words are laced with dramatic irony. In this case, the full impact of Bernard’s dialogue only becomes meaningful when we re-examine the moment in the context of the show’s ending. Being together, as it happens, is so important for the characters of Lost that it allows them to finally accept the reality they lived, and to let go of the unrealized destiny represented by the Flash Sideways.

Choosing to Let Go

Let us assume for a moment that Jack, Kate, Sawyer, and all of Lost’s other characters were cogs in a deterministic machine. Let us imagine that the experiences and genetics that formed them psychologically and physiologically compelled them to act as they did, making one predetermined set of choices, each choice leading to predictable outcomes. From the moment they were born until the day they died – which for Jack was on the Island at the end of the series and for Kate and Sawyer was much later, presumably years after the time depicted in Lost ’s final episode – they were subject to the authority of an unbreakable timeline. Even if we operate under this assumption, we cannot claim that the characters never exert any free will, because the characters are also depicted outside of the time between birth and death. In this reality, the Flash Sideways world, the characters make a collective choice that arises from their free will, a choice undictated by any timeline.

As mentioned above, the characters’ experiences in the Flash Sideways, although occurring out of time, are not unreal. “Everything that’s ever happened to you is real,” Christian tells Jack, and many things have happened to Jack in the Flash Sideways. In her article “Music of Other Spheres: Diagonal Time and Metaphysics in Lost ,” Isabella van Elferen examines how the musical effects used to underscore transitions between present moments and flashbacks, flash-forwards, and flash-sideways signify that Lost has no definite realities to shift between (258). “[L]inear time and timelessness, Being and Nothing, occur in this series with similar weight and frequency,” van Elferen contends (261). Because the linear time of the characters’ lives and the timelessness of the characters’ experiences in the Flash Sideways are given equal weight, all of the characters in the Flash Sideways who “remember” their lives are confronted with two realities, side-by-side. Leaving the Flash Sideways is more than rejecting an illusion; instead, it is a conscious choice to let go of one reality and to accept another – even if that means letting go of something ongoing in favor of a life that is already complete and unchangeable. That this choice is an act of free will for Jack and the other characters in the church is emphasized by the characters who deliberately choose not to move on, namely Ben and Eloise Hawking.

Lost’s ending is a strange marriage of philosophies. In deciding to accept their lives as they lived them, the characters employ free will to choose determinism, yet they also choose a reality that they themselves had a hand in creating. In a powerful act of symbolism, they opt for the imperfect lives they created in time in favor of the idealized lives destiny had in store for them. Perhaps they are not leaving destiny entirely behind, though. It seems unlikely that a show like Lost would depict characters moving on to one world while leaving another completely behind. Throughout its run, Lost frequently complicated the idea of binaries – not only exploring resolutions between free will and fate, but also such dichotomies as good and evil, life and death, and science and faith. Noting that other science fiction works tend to deconstruct and reject dualities inherent to the human condition, Kryn Freehling-Burton observes, “Perhaps these dualities do not completely disappear on Lost but they are challenged and in some cases the dualities are multiplied into a continuum of possibilities” (81). Remarkably, this proves to be true even for one of Lost ’s most famous catchphrases, “Live together, die alone.” Not only do characters occasionally die together, but they come together afterwards, still working collectively to make choices and continue the story.

Works Cited

Ames, Melissa. “Where Have All the Good Men Gone? A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Absent Fathers and Damaged Dads on ABC’s Lost .” Journal of Popular Culture , vol. 47, no. 3, 2014, pp. 430-50. Wiley Online Library , doi:10.1111/jpcu.12139.

Back to the Future . Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Universal Pictures, 1985.

“Because You Left.” Lost , season 5, episode 1, written by Lindelof, Damon, and Carlton Cuse, ABC, 21 January 2009.

Beebee, Helen, and Alfred Mele. “Humean Compatibilism.” Mind , vol. 111, no. 442, Apr. 2002, pp. 201-23. Humanities International Complete , doi:10.1093/mind/111.442.201.

De Florio, Ciro, and Aldo Frigerio. “In Defense of the Timeless Solution to the Problem of Human Free Will and Divine Foreknowledge.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion , vol. 78, no. 1, 2015, pp. 5-28. Academic Search Premier , doi:10.1007/s11153-014-9471-4.

Freehling-Burton, Kryn. “Lost Mothers: The ‘Othering’ of Mothers on the TV Show Lost .” Femspec , vol. 12, no. 2, 2012, pp. 66-84. Humanities International Complete , https://login.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/login?url=http ://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=83698299&site=ehost-live&scope=site. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.

Gleick, James. Time Travel: A History . Vintage Books, 2016.

Guttormson, Eric. “Understanding the Finale of Lost (Sideways Reality Theory).” Eric Knows It All , WordPress, 27 May 2010, ericknowsitall.com/lost-finale-review-explanation/. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.

Hume, David. An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding . Edited by Charles W. Hendel, Bobbs-Merrill, 1955.

Jaffe, Andrew. “Physics: The Time Lord and Fellow Travelers.” Nature , vol. 502, no. 7473, 31 Oct. 2013, pp. 620-22. Academic Search Premier , doi:10.1038/502620a.

Jung, Carl. The Archetypes and the C ollective Unconscious . Translated by R.F.C. Hull, 2nd ed., Princeton UP, 1968.

Morreale, Joanne. “ Lost , The Prisoner , and the End of the Story.” Journal of Popular Film and Television , vol. 38, no. 4, 2010, pp. 176-85. Academic Search Premier , doi:10.1080/01956051.2010.508504.

Sripada, Chandra. “Free Will and the Construction of Options.” Philosophical Studies , vol. 173, no. 11, 2016, pp. 2913-933. Springer Link , doi:10.1007/s11098-016-0643-1.

“The End.” Lost , season 6, episode 17, written by Lindelof, Damon, and Carlton Cuse, ABC, 23 May 2010.

“The Incident.” Lost , season 5, episodes 16 and 17, written by Lindelof, Damon, and Carlton Cuse, ABC, 13 May 2009.

van Elferen, Isabella. “Music of Other Spheres: Diagonal Time and Metaphysics in Lost .” Science Fiction Film and Television , vol. 3, no. 2, 2010, pp. 253-70. ProQuest International Index to Performing Arts , https://login.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/login?url=https ://search-proquest-com.ezproxy.lib.uwstout.edu/docview/821045086?accountid=9255. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.

“Whatever Happened, Happened.” Lost , season 5, episode 11, written by Cuse, Carlton, and Damon Lindelof, ABC, 1 Apr. 2009.

Wright, Terence. “Choice and Choosing in Fiction.” Modern Language Review , vol. 83, no. 2, 1988, pp. 273-86. Academic Search Premier , doi:10.2307/3731679.

Kevin Drzakowski, University of Wisconsin-Stout, USA

Kevin Drzakowski is a professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menomonie, Wisconsin, where he serves as chair of the Department of English and Philosophy. He earned his M.A. in English from Missouri State University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in English from Western Michigan University in 2007. At UW-Stout, Kevin teaches courses in composition and creative writing. While his research and creative interests are diverse, his specializations are playwriting, contemporary drama, and popular culture.

The 32 Best TV Shows About Time Travel

Time traveling is a popular topic when it comes to all types of entertainment from books to films. But in recent years time travel has also become a popular theme in TV.

So let’s take a look at this list of the best time traveling TV shows and find out how each of them handles time travel and all the history that comes with it.

Doctor Who, BBC One (1963 – 1989, 2005 – present)

When it comes to time traveling and TV, probably the most notable name in this niche is Doctor Who because this time travel series has been around for 39 seasons and is still going strong.

Hailing from British television channel BBC One, Doctor Who tells the tale of the Time Lord aka The Doctor, and his companions as they travel to different times and try to prevent evil forces from changing history and hurting innocent lives.

Once the Time Lord gets hurt beyond healing, he can transform into a new body and continue saving the world. Hence why at this point 13 (soon to be 14) different actors have played The Doctor.

Doctor Who is not only a huge part of the fabric of British popular culture but by now this time travel show has found its way into the hearts of many people all over the world.

It has inspired many spin-offs in the form of TV shows, comic books, movies, novels, you name it. But more than that, by now it has become an industry standard both when it comes to science-fiction television series and shows about time travel.

No wonder that Doctor Who continues to be successful after countless actor changes and plot twists.

Where to watch Doctor Who:

Timeless, nbc (2016 – 2018).

Another time travel TV series that has already become a cult classic and is adored by fans all over the world is NBC’s Timeless . And despite the turmoil that this show has gone through, it still is time traveling at its best.

Starring Malcolm Barrett, Matt Lanter, and Abigail Spencer as Rufus, Wyatt, and Lucy, Timeless details the trio traveling to different times in an effort to stop their adversaries from rewriting history.

But as it later turns out, the conspiracy goes deeper than them just changing history. Since the people who our trio is chasing are traveling through time to take down a dangerous and all-powerful organization. The same one that helped build the time machine that Rufus, Wyatt, and Lucy are using.

And although Timeless went on for just two seasons (and a two-hour wrap-up movie), you should still check out the show because it’s not only entertaining but will make you think and want to know more about the events that each episode is exploring.

Where to watch Timeless:

Dc’s legends of tomorrow, the cw (2016 – present).

If you are a fan of superhero TV shows, then you will probably have heard about DC’s Legends of Tomorrow . It is a show that is a huge part of The CW’s Arrowverse. And has crossed over with shows like Arrow , The Flash , and Supergirl multiple times now.

And even if you don’t like the rest of the superhero series but do enjoy a good old time travel TV show, then I suggest you still give Legends of Tomorrow a watch.

The plot of this show is based around a team of superheroes that are traveling through time in their time machine christened the Waverider to prevent different catastrophes from happening. Both ones made by others and those created by the team’s previous adventures.

At the forefront, there are well-known DC heroes like Rip Hunter, Firestorm, The Atom, Kid Flash, Steel, and Vixen. Joined by some original characters like Caity Lotz’s White Canary among others.

One of the defining characteristics of Legends of Tomorrow is how fun it is. Because adjectives like unapologetic, witty, and entertaining are frequently used to describe this time travel series.

However, more than that, it adds an interesting layer to the whole Arrowverse universe. And above all, it is just a hoot to watch.

Where to watch Legends of Tomorrow:

12 monkeys, syfy (2015 – 2018).

Then there also is SyFy’s 12 Monkeys , which is a little darker take on time traveling. One that comes with mystery, drama, and apocalyptic stakes. But that doesn’t lessen how good this time travel TV series is.

Split between two timelines, 12 Monkeys centers on Aaron Stanford’s James Cole, who is tasked to travel back in time and stop the distribution of a virus that has the ability to end the human race as we know it.

In Cole’s real timeline, the year is 2043 and people are struggling to survive because of the terrible mutations caused by the virus. So Cole travels back to 2015 to find virologist Cassie Railly, played by Amanda Schull, that can help him stop the release of the virus and the organization that is behind it called The Army of the 12 Monkeys.

If you think about it, the post-apocalyptic setting and time travel really do go hand in hand. Because if you can go back in time to stop history from being changed, why not go back to change it if it prevents something terrible from happening?

And that is what this show explores. Beautifully combining elements of mystery, drama, and science fiction, to form a great TV show.

Where to watch 12 Monkeys:

Outlander, starz (2014 – present).

Want another show that mixes time travel with historical events and does it flawlessly? Then you should put Outlander on your must-watch TV show list!

The show starts in the 1940s when a combat nurse Claire Randall visits Inverness, Scotland as part of her second honeymoon with her husband Frank. Claire accidentally happens upon the standing stones at Craigh na Dun which transport her back in time to 1743.

To return to her own time she first has to survive 18th-century Scotland. And she does so by joining a group of rebel Highlanders from Clan MacKenzie and marrying one of the Highlanders, Jamie Fraser. But eventually, she falls in love with her new husband and aids the clan in evading British redcoats that are pursuing them.

Over the five seasons of Outlander that are currently out (with the sixth coming soon), we see Claire jump back and forth between the 20th and 18th centuries and her two families as she faces two pregnancies, wars, and much more. But eventually, Claire finds her way back to Jamie.

Where to watch Outlander:

Travelers, showcase (2016 – 2018).

Then we have Travelers , a joint venture between Netflix and Canada’s Showcase that will tick all of your time travel TV show boxes.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world , this show depicts the adventures of travelers – operatives who go back in time to prevent the collapse of society.

These travelers are transferred into the bodies of our current-day humans, who otherwise would die, to blend in with twenty-first-century people. And with the help of their artificial intelligence boss from the future, travelers carry out missions in order to stop many catastrophic events from happening.

Travelers is a great mix of sci-fi and drama, featuring a great cast and spine-tingling storylines. So if you love all that and love a good time-travel series, then look no further than Travelers .

Where to watch Travelers:

Dark, netflix (2017 – 2020).

Netflix’s first German original series was the science fiction series Dark , which mixes in some mystery drama with sci-fi: time travel, the apocalypse, wormholes, and parallel worlds.

Dark takes place in Winden, a fictional German town, and begins in 2019 after children begin to disappear from the town. As the show progresses, however, timelines jump drastically between as early as 1921 to as late as 2053.

As four families in Winden investigate the disappearances to reunite with their lost loved ones, they discover a wormhole beneath the local powerplant that allows them to travel between timelines, thus uncovering a generations-long conspiracy involving the town and their families.

Where to watch Dark:

The umbrella academy, netflix (2019 – present).

Netflix brings another to the list with The Umbrella Academy .

On October 1, 1989, 43 infants were suddenly born from unsuspecting women despite them not even being pregnant the day before.

7 of them were raised together as the Hargreeve siblings and trained in their respective abilities until their relationship became strained as teenagers and they drifted apart.

Now, as adults, they’re brought back together by the death of their adoptive father – and the threat of the end of the world, of course.

They’re forced to travel back in time but end up in different times and places, and must find each other again to stop the nuclear apocalypse.

Where to watch The Umbrella Academy:

Seven days, upn (1998 – 2001).

We know that the National Security Agency has its share of secrets, but what if one of those secrets was a time-traveling machine?

In UPN’s Seven Days , the plot centers on one such device made from alien technology found at Roswell.

The Chronosphere, as it’s called, can only be used in times when national security is at risk – the limited capacity of the device allows for just one human to go back in time by seven days in order to avert disasters.

Thus, when the White House is attacked, the NSA employs former Navy SEAL and CIA operative Frank Parker to go back and prevent it from happening.

Where to watch Seven Days:

Loki, disney+ (2021 – present).

Yes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is one of the greatest gifts to the cinema of our time. Now, the MCU has expanded even further into the television medium and we’ve got a few series to accompany it!

One of those is Loki , which of course, centers on the God of Thunder’s mischievous adopted brother.

After the events in Avengers: Endgame , particularly his stealing of the Tesseract, Loki inadvertently creates another timeline that began in 2012, making him a “time variant” version of himself.

When confronted by the authorities, Loki is given two choices: face punishment and cease to exist, or travel through time to fix his own mess and the threat that has emerged.

Where to watch Loki:

Making history, fox (2017).

The thing about traveling back in time is, you have to be very careful that your actions in the past won’t affect the future (which is essentially your actual present).

Most of the time, that’s something you wouldn’t know until you go back to your time. In Making History , however, Dan Chambers travels back in time to right before the American Revolution and sets off a series of events that seriously mess up the future.

Being able to constantly travel between time periods, Dan recruits the help of history professor Chis Parrish to travel with him and ensure that the American Revolution still takes place.

Where to watch Making History:

Quantum leap, nbc (1989 – 1993).

The title of NBC’s sci-fi comedy-drama Quantum Leap is also the name of the time travel machine that accidentally sends its creator, physicist Dr. Sam Beckett, back into the past.

Now, he’s stuck – and not as himself, either!

Sam discovers that he jumped into the body of a stranger and because he’s still himself, doesn’t know all the details of his current identity.

With the help of his friend Al, who appears as a hologram only he can see, he must fix something that went wrong so he can jump in time again and eventually get back to his own body.

Where to watch Quantum Leap:

Quantum leap, nbc (2022 – present).

Speaking of Quantum Leap , in 2022 NBC revived the 1989 series into a more modern take on the cult classic.

In this new Quantum Leap , thirty years have passed since Dr. Sam Beckett vanished into the Quantum Leap accelerator, and the Quantum Leap project was put to rest.

Now the project is restarted with a new team, who tries to puzzle together the mysteries behind Beckett and his time-traveling machine.

So, we follow Ben Song, the lead physicist of the Quantum Leap time travel project, who gets lost in the past after leaping back in time.

As he tries to return to the present he is helped by his fiancée Addison Augustine, who appears to him as a hologram during each leap, and the team back in the present time.

Where to watch Quantum Leap reboot:

The way home, hallmark channel (2023 – present).

Among the newest time travel shows on this list is Hallmark’s The Way Home which has already been renewed for a second season.

The Way Home follows three generations of Landry women who learn that they can time travel after discovering a magic pond on their family’s farm in Port Haven.

When Kat and her daughter Alice return to Port Haven and are forced to move in with Alice’s estranged mother Del, the three women use time travel to uncover their family history, including what really happened to Kat’s little brother Jacob and whether they can prevent his disappearance.

Where to watch The Way Home:

Russian doll, netflix (2019 – 2022).

Netflix’s Russian Doll deviates from the traditional time travel theme of a willing traveler in one specific timeline because Russian Doll’s protagonist Nadia Vulvokov not only has absolutely no choice or control over her so-called time traveling, but hers is also a time loop.

She wakes up every day having to relive the day of her 36th birthday party in New York City; every time, she dies and comes back to the exact same moment.

Every time, Nadia scrambles to figure out what happens to her and tries to prevent her death, leading her to find Alan, a man who is experiencing the same time loop.

Where to watch Russian Doll:

Undone, prime video (2019 – present).

Undone may be an animated series, but it certainly isn’t geared toward younger audiences; though there is a touch of comedy, the series leans more towards the psychological drama genre and “explores the elastic nature of reality”.

The series follows Alma Winograd-Diaz right after she gets into a near-fatal car accident.

Right before the crash, she has a strange vision of her dead father, and right after it, she finds that she now has the ability to manipulate and move through time.

Using this newfound power, she travels between time periods to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding her father’s death.

Where to watch Undone:

Voyagers, nbc (1982 – 1983).

Premiering back in the early 1980s, NBC’s Voyagers! Is set in a world where time travel already exists.

In fact, there’s already a secret society in place that trains its members, called Voyagers, to go back in time and make sure that historical events happen exactly the way they’re supposed to – otherwise it could affect the present in unexpected ways.

One such Voyager is Phineas Bogg, although he isn’t exactly the best at the job.

During an accidental trip to 1982, he meets the young Jeffrey Jones and ends up bringing him along on one of his missions.

Having lost his Guidebook, Phineas now needs to rely on the extremely smart Jeffrey to get history right.

Where to watch Voyagers!:

Fringe, fox (2008 – 2013).

Fox’s Fringe is a series that was well into the science fiction genre, with parallel universes, supernatural abilities, biotechnology, doomsday predictions, and of course, time travel.

The title is taken from fringe science, which is a branch that deals with scientific theories riddled with skepticism or even having been disproven already.

In Fringe , Special Agent Olivia Dunham is assigned to oversee the FBI ’s Fringe Division, which is run by Peter Bishop and his father Walter.

Together, the team uses both fringe science and Olivia’s knowledge in investigative techniques to explore the unexplained.

In the process, they discover a larger mystery involving parallel universes and alternate timelines .

Where to watch Fringe:

Time after time, abc (2017).

ABC’s Time After Time is based on the novel of the same name written by Kevin Williamson in 1979.

In addition to that, each episode takes its title from a line in Cyndi Lauper’s song, which was inspired by the film (and subsequently, the same book!).

In Time After Time , we are taken to H.G. Wells’ home in 1893.

During a dinner party, he reveals his time machine – right before his guest John Stevenson is arrested for actually being Jack the Ripper .

John escapes through the time machine and Wells follows him straight into the present: 2017. Thus begins a cat-and-mouse game as John attempts to gain control of the machine.

Where to watch Time After Time:

11.22.63, hulu (2016).

When you have anything with Stephen King involved, you know it’s going to be great.

Hulu’s eight-episode miniseries 11.22.63 is based on King’s novel 11/22/63 and is a science fiction thriller like no other.

Starring James Franco in the lead role, 11.22.63 follows Jake Epping, an English teacher from Maine .

His best friend Al reveals a time travel machine and asks him to take over the mission he’s been working on: to travel to the 60s and prevent the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Will Jake be successful in changing a past that simply refuses to be changed?

Where to watch 11.22.63:

The 4400, usa network/sky one (2004 – 2007).

The 4400 is yet another slightly different take on the idea of time travel, in that there has been just one (fairly significant) shift forward in time, to the present.

Beginning in 1946, individuals who were easily overlooked or marginalized by society slowly began disappearing through beams of green light.

Now, all 4400 of them (hence the title) have been returned to the present day – without having aged a day and in some cases, even manifesting supernatural abilities like telekinesis, healing, and telepathy.

Tom Baldwin and Diana Skouris are assigned to investigate the phenomenon and find out why the 4400 have returned.

NOTE: For a fresher take on the show, you can also check out the reboot of the original series which is currently airing on The CW.

Where to watch The 4400:

Somewhere between, abc (2017).

When tragedy strikes our lives, we always wish there was something we could’ve done to prevent it.

In ABC’s Somewhere Between we meet Laura Price, a successful news producer with a great career, a loving husband who’s a district attorney, and a beautiful daughter named Serena.

However, her life changes when the serial killer she is helping the cops to catch kills Serena.

Distraught with grief , Laura attempts to complete suicide but is unsuccessful, instead waking up having time-traveled to a week before Serena’s death.

She teams up with Nico, a former SFPD detective who experienced the same reset and wants to find the real killer to change his brother’s fate as well.

Where to watch Somewhere Between:

Terra nova, fox (2011).

Terra Nova takes its viewers to both extremes of the time-traveling timeline.

The present-day is 2149, where overpopulation has threatened to deplete the Earth’s resources.

In an attempt to save Earth and mankind, scientists have found a way to travel back in time, sending groups of humans back to the Cretaceous Period to set up colonies.

Terra Nova focuses primarily on Elisabeth and Jim Shannon, and their three children, who have joined the 10th pilgrimage to Terra Nova.

They offer their expertise as a trauma surgeon and former narcotics detective and help those in charge with stopping those whose intentions go against the greater good.

Where to watch Terra Nova:

Frequency, the cw (2016 – 2017).

One concept in time travel is known as “the butterfly effect”, wherein one small change in time may have great effects elsewhere.

Frequency demonstrates this concept perfectly.

Raimy Sullivan is an NYPD detective who, after a strange weather phenomenon, discovers that she can communicate with her dead father through his old ham radio.

Believing he was a corrupt cop, she learns the truth and warns him of his murder, thus saving his life.

However, this has profound effects on the future – Raimy’s present.

Now, they must work together across time to save her father and preserve the present.

Where to watch Frequency:

Life on mars, bbc one (2006).

In many of the shows on the list so far, the protagonists experience a time loop that’s triggered at the point of their death.

It’s no different for Sam Tyler, the main character in the British series Life on Mars .

Sam is a Detective Chief Inspector with the Greater Manchester Police, but one day he accidentally gets hit by a car.

When he awakens, he’s in 1973 and working at one rank lower than he was: Detective Inspector.

The selling point of Life on Mars , however, is that we’re left unsure if Sam’s predicament is due to his actual death, a comatose, or time travel.

Where to watch Life on Mars:

Always a witch, netflix (2019 – 2020).

Always A Witch (or Siempre Bruja in its original Spanish title) is a Colombian series that is set in both present-day Colombia and the 17th century .

The series follows Carmen Eguiliuz, a young 19-year-old witch who, after committing the crime of falling in love with a white man in 1646 colonial Colombia, is scheduled to be burned at the stake.

She gets a chance to escape to a new life when the mysterious wizard Aldemar makes a deal with her: he will save the man she loves if she travels into the future to find the woman who can break his curse.

Where to watch Always a Witch:

Beforeigners, hbo (2019 – present).

HBO’s Beforeigners is a Norwegian sci-fi crime drama series and the first Norwegian original from HBO Europe.

The title is a clever play on words centered on the general plot: a group of “foreigners” has suddenly shown up at a neighborhood in Oslo, and they are all from “before” times, or several different time periods in history.

Whether from the Viking period , the Stone Age, or the more recent 19th century , each of these ‘Beforeigners’ tries to integrate in modern-day Norwegian society.

One of them even partners with a detective to investigate first a murdered Stone Age woman, then a series of murderers tied to Jack the Ripper.

Where to watch Beforeigners:

Alice, sbs tv (2020).

Alice was a South Korean sci-fi series that aired in late 2020.

In the lead-up to the main plot, the show’s background is explained to its viewers.

Set in 2050, time travel is monitored by an agency called Alice, which sends its clients to the past to help find closure with deceased loved ones.

Alice one day sends two agents to 1992 in order to find the Book of Prophecy, but one of them disappears with the book and her unborn child.

In 2020, the child becomes a detective and in his investigation into his mother’s death in 2010, discovers the existence of Alice and time travel.

Where to watch Alice:

Live up to your name, tvn (2017).

Yet another South Korean time travel series , Live Up to Your Name initially takes its viewers some 400 years into the past, right in the middle of the Joseon dynasty.

There we meet Heo Im, a doctor of traditional Korean medicine who also specializes in acupuncture.

On one of his treatments of the king’s migraines, he made a mistake and was charged with treason.

Chased by the king’s soldiers, he’s shot with an arrow and presumed dead when he falls into the river – except he ends up waking up in present-day Seoul instead, where he meets cardiothoracic surgeon Choi Yeon-kyung.

Where to watch Live Up to Your Name:

My only love song, netflix (2017).

Our third South Korean series is Netflix’s My Only Love Song , which aired in 2017.

We start off in modern-day Korea where we meet Soo-jung, a talented and top-level actress.

However, it seems that the fame may have gotten to her head as she’s arrogant, and believes fame and money make the world go round.

When things don’t go her way on her new show, she winds up in a time-traveling van that takes her to the 6th century.

There, she meets a man much like herself in terms of arrogance, but his hidden soft spot and generosity towards the poor changes her perspective on her own life and self.

Where to watch My Only Love Song:

Signal, tvn (2016).

Signal is based on the 2000 American film Frequency , but another thing that sets this South Korean series apart from others is that the cases investigated in the series are also based on real-life crimes in the country.

Signal follows a cold case profiler from 2015 and a detective from 1989 simultaneously; they discover they’re able to communicate with each other through an old walkie-talkie.

Using this unique ability to provide much-needed foresight in investigations, they team up to both solve and in some cases, even prevent these horrific crimes.

Where to watch Signal:

Rooftop prince, sbs (2012).

Last but not least, South Korea brings its last time-traveling series to the table with Rooftop Prince , a comedy-drama filled with intrigue, mixed identities, and possible reincarnations.

Crown Prince Lee Gak from the Joseon dynasty accidentally time travels to 2012 with three others from his entourage, and their lives are thrown into a whirlwind.

He crosses paths with Se-na, who looks exactly like his recently deceased wife.

In the hopes of getting answers about his wife’s mysterious drowning, he assumes the identity of another man who he also looks exactly like and attempts to marry Se-na in this timeline as well.

Where to watch Rooftop Prince:

11 comments.

Tomorrow people cw

You forgot The Time Tunnel, an Irwin Allen sci-fi show (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost In Space, Land of The Giants), all classic 60s sci-fi

Journeyman should also be on this list. It was only half a season on NBC but it wraps up to a satisfying conclusion.

Fantastic acting and interesting characters.

Glad someone else watched Journeyman. I thought I’d was a great spiritual successor to Quantum Leap.

Journeyman is one of the good shows u can watch but qunatum leap i watched and didnt like

Where is The Time Tunnel?????

Another show for your list is “Being Erica” (CBC, 2009-2011). Excellent writing, and very unique.

i was looking for this comment. such an underrated show

I concur. This was definitely a great one. It certainly provides a lot of food for thought.

Some of the information in the Doctor Who one is wrong. It started in 1963, it was only revived in 2005 (you put 2006), and it’s been going for 39 seasons, as of June 2022

Thanks for letting me know! I updated the article accordingly.

Lost: 10 Ways It's The Best Sci-Fi Show Of All Time

The show may have lost some steam at the end of its run, but there are many reasons why Lost is the best TV show of the science fiction genre.

Lost aired from 2004 to 2010 on ABC and is still discussed today, thanks to its popularity and large fan base. Although the show has been off the air for over 10 years, its DVD sales and streaming availability garnered a whole new audience. Although the last few seasons were divisive, the show made some bold choices and introduced a lot of new elements.

RELATED: Lost: 10 Most Important Characters From The Show

Some of these elements included time travel, flash-forward storytelling, and even flash-sideways storytelling. Lost was successful due to its combination of humor, drama, and science fiction. The sci-fi genre is best known on the big screen but Lost brought it to television. The show may have lost some steam at the end of its run, but there are many reasons why it's the best TV show of the science fiction genre.

10 Co-Creators JJ Abrams, Damon Lindelof, & Jeffrey Lieber Know A Thing Or Two About Sci-Fi

ABC originally tasked Jeffrey Lieber with writing the pilot episodes of Lost , which he completed. However, they asked JJ Abrams and Damon Lindelof to rewrite some of the scripts and all three of them were credited with creating Lost . Although Abrams and Lindelof did rewrite the script, Lieber was still credited with co-creating the show and all three of them received Emmys for their work on Season 1.

Many of Lieber's ideas were kept in and improved on by the more experienced Abrams and Lindelof. Before Lost , Abrams worked on successful projects like Armageddon and Alias so he was already a well-known sci-fi writer. Lindelof also worked on a few major network shows, such as Nash Bridges and Crossing Jordan . Luckily for Lost fans, these three minds came together to create one of the most unique and popular shows of all time.

9 Creative Storytelling Involved Flash-Forwards, Flash-Backwards, & Flash-Sideways

Lost wasn't the first TV or film project that used flashbacks, but they were the only show that used them on every episode. After perfecting flashback storytelling in the first couple of seasons, the writers decided to spice it up and added flashforwards and even flash-sideways in later seasons. Each episode featured a story on the island and another story that took place before or after the plane crash. The flash-sideways told alternative stories with the main cast and what would have happened if Oceanic 815 never crashed on the island.

The flash method of storytelling gave the audience a more in-depth look at each character, which helped in understanding why each character acted the way they did. Perhaps the greatest flashbacks featured Hurley, the lovable teddy bear who was in a mental institution before the crash. Hurley had a friend in the institution who repeated the numbers 4,8,15,16,23, and 42. Although these numbers helped Hurley win $150 million dollars, he was convinced they were cursed and brought him and his family nothing but bad luck.

8 Time Travel & The Introduction Of The DHARMA Initiative

The first hatch, later revealed as the Swan station, was blown open by Locke, Jack, Kate, and Hurley at the end of Season 1. Upon finding Desmond in the hatch, Jack and Locke learn that the DHARMA Initiative had been on the island since the '70s, conducting science experiments and learning about human behavior. After discovering there are six hatches on the island, the viewers learned that time travel was being studied.

Time Travel can be a fickle beast in any type of media, yet many movies and TV shows in the sci-fi genre seem to use it. Lost followed suit and introduced the idea, first hinting at it in "The Long Con" episode of Season 2. It's later revealed that the island constantly moves and under one of the DHARMA stations is an ancient wheel. This wheel has an electromagnetic power that allows some of the islanders the ability to time travel. Some fans felt time travel in Lost was considered jumping the shark and many viewers didn't understand the concept while viewing the show for the first time.

7 The Monsters, Creatures, & Animals

Lost became an overnight sensation after its pilot episode, which introduced the smoke monster. Although the smoke monster isn't seen until the end of the season, its loud noises and lightning effects haunt the survivors. In addition to the smoke monster, one of the earlier episodes featured a polar bear, which Sawyer shoots and kills. Later, a boar shows up and destroys the campsite, which leads to John Locke hunting boars and using them for food.

In Season 2, Kate sees a black horse in the jungle but she believes she's seeing things due to lack of sleep. Sawyer later sees the black horse, confirming Kate wasn't imagining it. All the creatures and monsters added drama to the already mysterious island, especially the smoke monster. It's revealed later on that the smoke monster could take on a human form, including Walt, Jack's dad, and even a deceased John Locke.

6 A Strong Supporting Cast & Special Guest Roles

All characters are a vital point of any TV show, but Lost had so many main characters that it would have been easy to overlook the supporting cast. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case and Lost's supporting characters played a huge role throughout the course of the show. Some of the more important supporting characters were Christian Shephard, Helen, Liam, Anthony Cooper, Sarah, Nadia, Hurley's parents, Sun's father, Penny, and many more.

These characters would have recurring roles and helped viewers understand why the crash survivors acted the way they did. Perhaps these characters really stood out because they were played by amazing actors and actresses, including award winners and successful film actors.

5 The Visual Effects & Money Spent On The Pilot

Debuting on September 24th, 2004, Lost caught the eye of many fans and would remain popular throughout its six seasons. The Pilot was a two-parter and was the most expensive TV pilot of all time, costing $14 million dollars to make, which included filming on location in Hawaii. Parts of a real airplane were flown piece by piece to the Hawaiian beach, adding to the authenticity of the show.

ABC had some powerful commercials and trailers for the show, which amped up the viewers and made it a must-watch event. Although the CGI wasn't great after the pilot episode, the filming locations in addition to the character development were enough to hook fans.

4 Michael Giacchino's Beautiful & Often Scary Musical Score

There hasn't been a show, before or after, that had so many emotional reunions, heartbreaking deaths, and frightening scares as Lost . However, the rollercoaster of emotions wouldn't have worked as well without a beautiful soundtrack. Michael Giacchino created themes for every feeling the characters went through, especially for the happy moments and certain characters reuniting.

As beautiful as his happy score was, his score for the scary moments was just as powerful. Anytime something mysterious happened, a few simple piano chords added to the scene. Giacchino's main theme for the show was used several times, especially when a character returned from a dangerous journey. When the raft is launched at the end of Season 1, the score is so beautiful and made viewers believe they were going to make it off the island.

3 A Big Main Cast With Interesting Character Arcs

There haven't been a lot of successful shows that have had such a large cast, but Lost made it work and was simple enough to understand. Lost took the time to introduce and explore each character in-depth, allowing the audience a chance to understand their favorite castaways. Each character had a beginning and an end, but some stood out more than others.

Charlie had his ups and downs but he sacrificed himself at the end of Season 3 to help save the survivors. Sawyer went from being hated to being loved multiple times and eventually made peace with everyone. Everyone from Jack to Locke and Claire to Kate seemed to have a tragic past but always seemed to come together to help out. Perhaps Jin had the best arc, going from an aggressive overprotective husband to becoming a loving, heroic member of the group.

2 The Island Setting Provided Stories On The Beach, The Caves, & The Jungle

The perks of filming on Hawaii included using its beautiful beaches, rocky cliffs, and green jungles to add to the story. Although the character development was important, the story wouldn't have worked as well if the group crashed in a flat desert. The island provided a lot of nooks and crannies, where people could hide from smoke monsters and electromagnetic buttons.

As if a traumatic plane crash wasn't enough, the island's mysterious powers and wild creatures kept fans guessing what would be next in every episode. Honestly, who wouldn't get excited when Jack, Kate, Sayid, and the others would pack some water and head out to explore the jungle? Despite its beauty, the island was filled with a boatload of scary things and a boatload of scary people, especially the Others and Ben Linus.

1 The Twists & Suspense That Kept Viewers Watching

Just when fans thought they knew the right answers, Lost changed the questions. Lost spanned 6 seasons, which allowed multiple storylines from all the main characters and constant layers to be pulled back. At the end of the show, it's revealed that all the people from the island were somehow connected and were always meant to end up together. Whether it was small things like Hurley on TV in Jin's flashback, Kate's mom serving Sawyer in his flashback, or Jack meeting Desmond in the stadium, they all served a greater purpose.

At the end of Season 1, Sawyer meets Christian Shephard in a bar and Christian tells him he has a son his age and that he's proud of him. Jack, thinking his dad hates him after reporting his alcohol use during work, talks with Sawyer before they say goodbye. Sawyer and Jack fought like brothers during the course of the show, yet they were destined to meet and Jack had closure with his father's death.

NEXT: Game Of Thrones & 9 Other TV Series With Incredible First Episodes

80 of the Best Entertaining Time Travel TV Shows You Need To Watch

With romance, adventure, and fun plot twists, these time travel TV shows are sure to entertain.

The time travel trope is quintessentially romantic, with different themes and elements giving it a desperate, romantic air. There is the lone time traveler, bouncing across time in search of lost love. Or a group of travelers unable to return home due to a rift in the space/time continuum. Better yet, the star-crossed lovers fated only to get snatches of time together. Swoon . There is so much to love about time travel TV shows!

Time Travel TV shows featured image with collage of shows.

At The Silver Petticoat Review , we love time travel TV shows so much that we thought a list of binge-worthy shows was necessary.

Depending on your taste in time travel stories, below are 21 binge-worthy dramas, romantic comedies, and Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories (plus 59 bonus recommendations at the end). Not all are traditional versions of the trope, but each one includes an element of time travel.

Get ready! Your watch list is about to become longer!

Note: Availability for the “Where to Watch” sections are for the US and are subject to change at any time. It was last updated in December 2022.

BINGE-WORTHY TIME TRAVEL TV SHOWS (#1-21)

(in no particular order).

#1 Timeless *

Synopsis: With history threatened by an evil consortium, a historian, soldier, and scientist join forces to travel through time to save history.

Their adventures take them across history, where they cross paths with some famous and lesser-known figures in history. Yet, each time they save history, they risk changing the future.

Where to Watch: The NBC series is available on Hulu or to buy on Digital and DVD.

* Timeless is one of my favorite time travel shows! A lovely, action-adventure romance with time travel!

#2 Doctor Who

Synopsis: Doctor Who follows the trials of an extraterrestrial Time Lord. Known as the Doctor, he/she travels through time to solve problems and battle injustice across the universe.

Using the TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) to travel, the Doctor recruits companions to assist him/her. With various incarnations, Doctor Who is a sweeping adventure in space and time.

Note: There are many iterations of Doctor Who . Any would make our list of time travel series. Pick your favorite! The newer Doctors include Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker. The new Doctor will be Ncuti Gatwa in 2023.

Where to Watch: You can stream the classic series on Britbox and the 2005 revival on HBO Max. Both series are available to buy digitally and on DVD.

#3 DC’s Legends of Tomorrow

Synopsis: Time-traveler Rip Hunter sets out to save the world with the timeline in catastrophic danger.

Rip brings together an unlikely group of heroes and villains previously seen in Arrow and The Flash.

These heroes and villains must come together before they can save the planet. But can they put their differences aside before time runs out?

See our review of Legends of Tomorrow .

Where to Watch: Stream on Netflix or buy digitally and on DVD.

#4 12 Monkeys *

Synopsis: Cole travels from a post-apocalyptic future to save the world from a lethal plague. He meets Dr. Cassandra Railly, a virologist, who joins him in his crusade.

It’s a race against time, as they trace the epidemic to its source and discover that appearances are deceiving and time itself is an enemy.

Where to Watch: Stream on Hulu or buy digitally and on DVD.

Related Post Romantic Moment of the Week: 12 Monkeys: Cassie and Cole

*Another personal favorite! When it comes to time travel shows, 12 Monkeys hits all the right notes!

#5 El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Department of Time)

El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Department of Time); time travel TV shows

Synopsis: A secret government agency recruits three people from different eras to protect Spain’s history.

They bounce through time, chasing time-traveling intruders bent on manipulating history for their own purposes.

Where to Watch: Stream on Pantaya or buy on DVD.

#6 Travelers

Synopsis: Several hundred years into the future, the last humans discover a way to send their consciousness back in time. These “travelers” assume the lives of random individuals.

With only their knowledge of history and social media profiles to guide their way, the travelers quickly discover that experience in the 21st Century is as challenging as their mission.

Content Warning: Rated TV-MA, the show has strong language, violence, and implied nudity.

#7 Scarlet Heart / Scarlet Heart: Ryeo

Scarlet Heart; 21 Time Travel TV Shows You Need to Binge-Watch

Synopsis of Scarlet Heart : A near-fatal accident sends Zhang Xiao, a 21st Century woman, back in time to the Qing Dynasty. It is Kangxi Emperor’s reign, and Xiao is now the teenage daughter of a Manchu general.

Known as Ma’ertai Roux, Xiao attempts to return to the future. Navigating new relationships and love, Xiao adjusts to her new life until, one day, it disappears.

Where to Watch: Stream on Viki .

Note: There is also a Korean version of Scarlet Heart called Scarlet Heart: Ryeo . Read our review here . It is only available to buy on DVD.

#8 Making History

Making History; 21 Time Travel TV Shows You Need to Binge-Watch

Synopsis: Misunderstood college facilities manager Dan Chambers discovers time travel, using pop culture to become a beloved 18th Century figure. However, Dan fails to realize the impact time travel has on the present.

When Dan causes Paul Revere to delay his famous ride, he alters the events of the American Revolution. Dan then recruits well-liked history professor Chris Parish for help in correcting history.

Where to Watch: Rent on Amazon Video or buy Digital.

#9 Sleepy Hollow

Synopsis: Ichabod Crane comes back to life 250 years in the future, where he must solve a mystery going back to the time of the founding fathers.

However, he is not alone. Due to a blood curse, the headless horseman also returns to the living. The headless horseman begins a slaying spree in present-day Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod realizes that the headless horseman is the first of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse.

Enter Detective Abbie Mills. Familiar with the supernatural, Abbie joins forces with Crane to stop the evil infecting Sleepy Hollow.

Where to Watch: Stream Sleepy Hollow on Hulu, the CW app, CW Seed, and Tubi. You can also buy the series on Digital and DVD.

#10 Torchwood

Synopsis: Former time agent, Captain Jack Harkness, leads the Torchwood Three to investigate unexplained extraterrestrial events on Earth.

The group, part of a covert agency called the Torchwood Institute, battles supernatural threats outside the protection of the British government and law enforcement.

Where to Watch: Stream on HBO Max or buy on Digital and DVD.

Content Warning: The series is TV-MA for strong language in a few episodes. It also includes occasional explicit sensuality, suggestive content, and violence.

#11 Being Erica *

Synopsis: During therapy, Erica Strange shares her list of regrets with her therapist. In a twist in treatment, Erica goes back in time to those moments with a chance to make different decisions.

Faced with rewriting her past or leaving things as they are, Erica faces each moment with humor and a new appreciation for her choices.

Where to Watch: Stream on Hulu, Roku, Hoopla, Plex, and Crackle, and buy digitally and on DVD.

*The writing in this show is fantastic!

Content Warning: Rated TV-14, it is, at times, TV-MA. There is sensual content, as well as nudity and some bad language.

#12 Heroes

Synopsis: Around the world, a group of ordinary people is discovering they have superpowers. One man wants their powers for himself.

To protect themselves, they must learn to help each other before he destroys them all.

Where to Watch: Stream the superhero series on Peacock or buy digitally and on DVD.

#13 The Librarians *

Synopsis: Based on popular TV movies, The Librarians are a group of people who protect magical items throughout time.

Consisting of an art historian, a thief, a mathematician, and a warrior, they travel through time to find supernatural objects and bring them under the protection of the Library.

Related: Read our romantic moment between Eve and Flynn from The Librarians .

Where to Watch: Stream on Hulu, Hoopla, and Amazon’s Freevee. You can also buy it digitally and on DVD.

#14 Early Edition *

Synopsis: Having lost his job and his marriage, Gary Hobson wakes up one morning to find a cat sitting on a newspaper bearing the next day’s date.

Gary quickly learns that this early edition allows him 24 hours to try and save many people’s lives.

Where to Watch: All seasons are available for DVD purchase on Amazon Prime.

*This one is an outlier when it comes to time travel TV shows. The only thing that travels in time is the newspaper. Still, it’s Kyle Chandler….. swoon!

#15 Erased

Synopsis: Satoru goes back 18 years to prevent the passing of his mother and three classmates.

Where to Watch: Netflix

#16 Outlander

Synopsis: British Army Nurse Claire Randall is on her second honeymoon and looking forward to a career as an Oxford historian. Suddenly transported back to 1742, Claire finds her freedom and life are in danger.

RELATED: ‘Midnight at the Pera Palace’ Review: The Time Travel Romance is Irresistibly Good

To survive, she marries Jamie Fraser. An unexpected passionate relationship develops, and Claire becomes caught between two very different men in two very different lives.

See our review of Outlander .

Where to Watch: Stream on Netflix and STARZ or buy on Digital and DVD.

Content Warning: TV-MA with explicit sensual content, nudity, assaults, and graphic violence.

#17 The Eternal Love

Synopsis: Unhappy with a forced marriage, Qu Tan Er attempts to end her life. She awakens from her failed attempt with the spirit of another woman inside her body. The modern Xiao Tan is Tan Er’s opposite.

Stuck in the past world, she cannot return to the present day. Whenever one of the women lies, the other person takes control. Soon, complications in love arise as the differing women fall in love with two different men.

What will become of the foursome? And will Xiao Tan be able to find her way back to her own time?

Where to Watch: Viki

#18 Lost in Austen *

Synopsis: This smart take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice finds modern, working girl Amanda Price trading places with Elizabeth Bennet.

Unable to return to her time, Amanda must try her best to fit in among the Bennets, Bingleys, and Darcys. Yet, her presence in the lives of these beloved characters sets changes to the course of the classic tale.

See our Lost in Austen review .

Where to Watch: Stream on Britbox Amazon Channel, Freevee, and Pluto TV, and buy digitally on Amazon or DVD.

#19 Continuum

Synopsis: Detective Kiera Cameron, a cop from the year 2077, and a group of dangerous criminals called Liber8 are trapped in present-day Vancouver. Kiera must stop Liber8 before they destroy the corporate world, altering the future as she knows it. She enlists the help of tech genius Alec Sadler to find a way back home.

In the meantime, Kiera takes a job with the Vancouver Police Department. With help from her partner, detective Carlos Fonnegra, they keep tabs on Liber8. Different beliefs and backgrounds lead to suspicion, but slowly, Kiera and Carlos learn to trust each other.

Where to Watch: Buy digitally from the Microsoft Store or on DVD.

#20 Frequency

Synopsis: Detective Raimy Sullivan has lived with the pain and resentment of her father’s passing for 20 years. She believes her father, NYPD Officer Frank Sullivan, was corrupt, resulting in his passing. However, everything changes when she hears his voice coming from an old ham radio.

With Raimy’s warning in his ears, Frank survives the attempt on his life. Yet, the change in the past ends in tragedy for the future. Separated by time, connected by an old radio, the two detectives work together to find a way to rewrite the past without losing the ones they love.

Where to Watch: Stream on the CW app and CW seed.

#21 Seven Days

Synopsis: CIA Agent Frank Parker receives a special assignment from the NSA. He must travel back in time to prevent current-day catastrophes.

Yet, there is a catch – he must do so within seven days. Using a time machine built from alien technology, Frank races against time in the past to save the future.

Where to Watch: Buy on DVD.

Whether you are a fan of pure romance or romantic comedies or love the adventure of time travel, there is something for everyone on our list of binge-worthy time travel TV shows. So dip in and travel back in time with some of the most swoon-worthy characters out there.

*Denotes a personal favorite of mine.

EVEN MORE TIME TRAVEL TV SHOWS TO WATCH (#22-80)

This section was updated in 2022 by Amber and Autumn (co-owners and editors of The Silver Petticoat Review ).

Numerous time travel TV series exist, and you can never have enough to watch! So, we thought adding a lot more to the list would be fun.

Enjoy! We included a *star next to our personal favorites.

#22: 356: REPEAT THE YEAR (2020) – Korean Drama about ten people traveling back in time one year.
#23: * THE 4400 (2004; 2021) – We recommend the original series over the reboot. Both shows have 4400 people appearing in the present day from different time periods, not having aged a day since they originally disappeared.
#24: * AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) – The later seasons of this fun Marvel series are all about time travel – and they are marvelous! The love story between Daisy and Daniel Sousa is perfect.
#25: ALCATRAZ (2012) – Prisoners from Alcatraz disappeared in 1963 – only to reappear in the present day. The short-lived drama lasted only one season.
#26: ALICE (2022) – A new time travel romance TV series on Kocowa and Viki.
#27: ALWAYS A WITCH (2019) – A time-traveling witch in this Colombian series ends up in the present day.
#28: * CHARMED (1998; 2018) – The original and new series about three sisters (and witches) include time travel episodes. Both shows are entertaining – but the original is superior.
#29: THE CROSSING (2018) – Refugees from the future travel back in time to seek asylum.
#30: DARK (2017) (TV-MA) – The German sci-fi thriller series deals with a time travel conspiracy in this hugely popular Netflix drama.

RELATED: 50 of the Best Romantic Period Drama TV Series of All Time to Watch

A Discovery of Witches Season 2 - Diana and Matthew in Elizabethan London

#31: DIRK GENTLY/DIRK GENTLY’S HOLISTIC DETECTIVE AGENCY (2010; 2016) – Time travel is involved in these two versions of the story about a detective investigating supernatural cases.
#32: * A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES (2018) (TV-MA – mild) – A witch and a vampire fall in love while trying to unravel the secrets of witches, vampires, and demons. She can time travel and much of Season 2 takes place in Elizabethan times.
#33: FAITH (2012) – Lee Min-ho stars in this time travel Korean series.
#34: * FELICITY (1998) – The coming-of-age romance drama from J.J. Abrams ends with a time travel twist.
#35: FIND ME IN PARIS (2018) – A children’s show about an Edwardian ballet dancer who transports into the future with a mystical necklace.
#36: THE FLASH (AND OTHER ARROWVERSE SHOWS) (2014) – The CW superhero show is fun, likable, and regularly has time-travel storylines.
#37: FLASHFORWARD (2009) – Joseph Fiennes stars in this canceled too-soon series about people having visions of their future.
#38: * FRINGE (2008) – An FBI agent explores unexplained fringe science with a scientist and his son in this brilliant sci-fi series.
#39: JOURNEYMAN (2007) – Kevin McKidd stars in this show about a time traveler who helps people.
#40: KAIROS (2020) – The fantasy thriller K-drama series is available to stream on Viki and Kocowa.

#41: LA BREA (2021) – A sinkhole in Los Angeles sends a group of people to an ancient world. Soon, a family becomes enmeshed in a time-travel conspiracy. It’s super fun (if illogical) and crazy – especially by Season 2.
#42: LEGION (2017) (TV-MA) – Dan Stevens stars in this bizarre Marvel series about a man with abilities. Time travel becomes a significant element in Season 3.
#43: * LIFE ON MARS/ASHES TO ASHES (2006; 2008) (TV-MA – mild) – DCI Sam Tyler wakes up in 1973 after being in a car accident. The spinoff series Ashes to Ashes is about another Detective who wakes up in 1981.
#44: LIVE UP TO YOUR NAME (2017) – It’s a rom-com time travel K-drama series about a Joseon doctor transported into the present day.
#45: * LOST (2004) – Survivors of a plane disaster discover they’re stranded on a mysterious island. Time travel plays an essential role in the brilliant romantic series .
#46: * LOKI (2021) – Loki ends up at the Time Variance Authority – agents who stop time variants and monitor the timeline. Loki soon must fight for his survival as he travels through time.
#47: * MANIFEST (2018) – The mystery genre series begins when a missing airplane reappears five years later – and no one has aged.
#48: MY ONLY LOVE SONG (2017) – An actress time travels to the past in a magical van in this historical fantasy romance show.
#49: NINE: NINE TIMES TIME TRAVEL (2013) – A TV anchorman tries to change his past in this romantic K-drama.
#50: THE OUTER LIMITS (1963; 1995) – The sci-fi show includes episodes about time travel.

RELATED: 10 Romantic Time Travel Movies to Binge Watch: I’ll Love You to the End of Time

#51: * PRIMEVAL/PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD (2007; 2012) – Primeval and its spinoff (not nearly as good) follow a team of agents and scientists capturing prehistoric creatures traveling to the present day through mysterious anomalies. Doctor Who fans should like this one.
#52: * QUEEN IN-HYUN’S MAN (2012) – A scholar travels into the future and connects with an actress in this charming Korean fantasy rom-com.
#53: QUANTUM LEAP (1989; 2022) – A scientist (Scott Bakula) becomes trapped in the past and must leap between bodies and various times. The original show is superior to the new one, but the revival is still entertaining.
#54: THE PERIPHERAL (2022) (TV-MA for violence and profanity) – Chloë Grace Moretz stars in this new science fiction series with an original time travel twist.
#55: ROOFTOP PRINCE (2012) – The popular fantasy rom-com Korean drama follows a Crown Prince from the past transported to the present day.
#56: *ROSWELL (1999) – Two episodes of the iconic paranormal romance series deal with time travel.
#57: RUSSIAN DOLL (2019) (TV-MA for lots of profanity and some explicit content) – A woman from NYC finds herself stuck in a time loop in this Emmy-winning series.
#58: *THE SARAH JANE ADVENTURES (2007) – The Doctor Who spinoff is a teen series with fantastic writing about the Doctor’s former companion, journalist Sarah Jane Smith, and her adventures with a group of teens.
#59: SHINING GIRLS (2022) (TV-MA) – Time travel plays into this mystery/crime drama starring Elisabeth Moss. The ending could have been better, but it’s an intriguing, well-acted series.
#60: SIGNAL (2016) – This is South Korea’s version of Frequency .

#61: SISYPHUS: THE MYTH (2021) – A woman from a war-torn future journeys to the past to change future events.
#62: SLIDERS (1995) – A group of friends travels into parallel worlds.
#63: SOMEWHERE BETWEEN (2017) – A woman relives a week to stop tragic events from happening.
#64: *SPLASH SPLASH LOVE (2015) – This adorable rom-com miniseries follows a teenage girl as she travels back in time to the Joseon Era.
#65: *STARGATE: SG-1 (1997) – A military team and scientists are part of a secret group that travels to other planets and occasionally different times through Stargates.
#66: *STAR TREK TV SHOWS (INCLUDING THE NEW SHOWS, PICARD, AND STAR TREK: DISCOVERY) (Some series are TV-MA) – Time travel plays an essential role in the Star Trek universe.
#67: STEINS;GATE (2011) – An animated series about time travel.
#68: *TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES ( 2008) – This is an underrated romantic sci-fi series starring Lena Headey.
#69: TERRA NOVA (2011) – A family from a dying future is transported to the prehistoric era to a colony of humans trying to survive.
#70: THE KING: ETERNAL MONARCH (2020) – A romantic K-drama series about two parallel worlds where time travel plays a part.

RELATED: The Day of the Doctor – An Impossible Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Theory

#71: THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE (2022) (TV-MA) – Steven Moffat’s new (but short-lived) romance series is about a married couple dealing with the problems of time travel.
#72: TIME AFTER TIME (2017) – A short but sweet romantic series about a young H.G. Wells.
#73: THE TWILIGHT ZONE (1959) – The iconic classic series includes episodes about time travel.
#74: TOMORROW, WITH YOU (2017) – A man can time travel with a subway and tries to avoid his future fate while also falling in love.
#75: TUNNEL (2017) – A detective travels 30 years into the future when chasing a suspect through a tunnel.
#76: *TRU CALLING (2003) – A medical grad student develops an ability to relive the previous day and help people.
#77: *THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY (2019) – The quirky series follows former child heroes as they try to save the world.
#78: VOYAGERS! (1982) – The classic family series follows a young boy and a team of time travelers as they fix history.
#79: 11.22.63 (TV-MA for violence and profanity) – James Franco stars in this mystery series based on the novel by Stephen King about a teacher who travels back in time to stop the JFK assassination.
#80: MR. QUEEN (2020) – A chef is transported to the Joseon Era into the body of a queen in this Korean Comedy series.

What are your favorite time travel TV shows? What do you think is the best time travel show of all time? Drop me a line below!

Featured image credit: Doctor Who (BBC), Continuum (Showcase), 12 Monkeys (NBCUniversal Television Distribution), Torchwood (BBC), and Timeless (Universal Television/Sony Pictures Television/NBC).

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80 of the Best Entertaining Time Travel TV Shows You Need To Watch; pinterest image with Doctor Who and 12 Monkeys.

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Catherine is an avid reader and a self-declared professional binge watcher. It's not uncommon to find her re-watching a series or movie for the umpteenth time and still be crying into a box of tissues. When she's not hiding in her closet to read or watch a show or movie, Catherine is a wife, mother, and, in her spare time, a lawyer.

26 thoughts on “80 of the Best Entertaining Time Travel TV Shows You Need To Watch”

thank you – have beeen looking forever for timetravel— y r we soooo fascinated– et me out of here i do not belon in this time — beeen this wy sincei ws 9 and read a book of a little boy being sent to mars after climbing a tree—- love fairies also — ok i am an old fashioned girl they used to call my pollyanna – then i became an out law—- my son in law does not beleive in annnnnythin but $$$$ and power– borrrrrring give me a gooood romance to live in.. oxoxoxoxoxoxox

This is a great list! I love the Korean drama Time Travel series. My favorites are Faith, Rooftop Prince, I love Lee Tae Ri, Signal and Tunnel.

Have you ever seen “Voyagers!”? It was like a predecessor to Quantum Leap and lasted 1 season on NBC. It stared one of the most beautiful men to ever grace television, the late Jon-Erik Hexum. He’s a roguish time-traveling pirate, Phineas Bogg, a Voyager that travels throughout time with a smart young boy and they have to fix moments where history’s gone wrong. It was a fun show. It’s definitely binge-worthy and Hexum was such a charming young actor. Although it was made with kids and education in mind, (Co-Produced by Scholastic) there’s plenty of romantic moments for Bogg!

He and Meeno Peluce (the boy, Jeffrey Jones) made a great team. I run a fansite and FB page for the series. You can watch it on Amazon Prime, and it’s currently free on NBC.com.

I own the series and I was heartbroken when Jon died. I recently bought the 30 episode tv show from the 60’s The Time Tunnel…. Now this was where most time travel shows spawned from. Especially Quantum Leap.

Nice list! Back to the Future made me a sucker for time travel plots. So would the cartoon count as one?

How can Outlander be #16?

You NEED TO READ – It clearly states that the shows are in No Particular Order!

You forgot ‘The Time tunnel’ – The first American time travel show

Goodnight Sweetheart is THE ultimate time travel show!

Maybe you guys can help me….. I’m looking for a series perhaps a movie….. not sure. only saw a piece of it and have been searching ever since. I even looked trough all the male actors to cross reference, nothing. It seem to involve time travel an attempt to shift history. Almost achieve the goal by manipulating the son of the leader – I know its horribly vague…. but he ends up speaking to his son. He explains the situation from a watchmakers point of view- His hobby is watchmaking….the comparison he draws between ‘leading’ or directing humans where they need to be is similar to the watchmaker making a clock. its been almost two years…. but so far no luck finding this series. Help 🙂

think you may be thinking of inception (link removed)

How could you not have Netflix’s Dark on this list?

I agree. Dark is a pretty good series (3 seasons on Netflix). It’s a German show so you have to up with English lip syncing, but once you get used to it, it’s a good show.

Absolutely the best time travel show ever made imo

It is on the list (#30).

12 Monkeys needs to be #1 … Pretty sure it’s the only show that properly does time travel and causality! Love it

Continuum seems to be right on the money as we see a few corporations [e.g., Amazon] displacing small business, and taking over government. Science Fiction frequently becomes Science.

Looks like Continuum is no longer on Amazon Prime (unless you want to buy it. Is it anywhere else?

It looks like it’s only available to buy on Digital and DVD/Blu-ray now.

Netflix’s DARK is the best Time Travel show ever made. Never believe anything else!

Timeslip UK kids show from 60`s predates all these and deals with past , future, global cooling(remember that) and cloning.

I’ve never heard of it! Thanks for sharing. 🙂

It’s a indian movie named Time

Brødrene Dal og Spektralsteinene and Brødrene Dal og Mysteriet om Karl XIIs Gamasjer both have time travel as a key element. I prefer the former but both are pretty well planned out, although only the latter seems to remember concequences.

Thanks for the recommendations! 🙂

I like some others am trying to find a “Time Travel” movie that’s kind of like “If Only” Where a mans’ wife (Possibly Girlfriend) is killed in an auto accident an he keeps traveling back to that time to make her avoid it. He finds every time that it is avoided she is killed in another way. After so many attempts he goes back and gets in the car with her and they both die. So sort of like “If Only “ and sort of like the first part of “The Time Machine”(2002). I think the movie time-line was between 1970 and 2000 only guessing. I didn’t see the start of the movie. Always wanted to see it but the same accident happens or is averted only to have a new death.

Comments are closed.

42 Best Time Travel & Quantum Theory TV Series

Christopher Eccleston, Peter Capaldi, David Tennant, Matt Smith, and Jodie Whittaker in Doctor Who (2005)

1. Doctor Who

4. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

6. Doctor Who

7. Russian Doll

11. The Umbrella Academy

12. The Peripheral

Philip Glenister, Marshall Lancaster, John Simm, Liz White, and Dean Andrews in Life on Mars (2006)

13. Life on Mars

Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell in Quantum Leap (1989)

14. Quantum Leap

15. Dark Shadows

Thomas Dekker, Lena Headey, and Summer Glau in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008)

16. Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Malcolm Barrett, Abigail Spencer, Goran Visnjic, Matt Lanter, Claudia Doumit, and Sheldon Landry in Timeless (2016)

17. Timeless

Leighton Meester, Adam Pally, and Yassir Lester in Making History (2017)

18. Making History

Peyton List and Riley Smith in Frequency (2016)

19. Frequency

Amanda Schull and Aaron Stanford in 12 Monkeys (2015)

20. 12 Monkeys

21. 11.22.63

Michael Riley and Erin Karpluk in Being Erica (2009)

22. Being Erica

Spencer Banks and Cheryl Burfield in Timeslip (1970)

23. Timeslip

Jaime Blanch, Juan Gea, Cayetana Guillén Cuervo, Francesc Orella, Rodolfo Sancho, Nacho Fresneda, Julián Villagrán, Hugo Silva, Francesca Piñón, Manuela Vellés, Pep Miràs, Aura Garrido, and Macarena García in The Ministry of Time (2015)

24. The Ministry of Time

25. Steins;Gate

Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie in Sleepy Hollow (2013)

26. Sleepy Hollow

Eric McCormack, Patrick Gilmore, MacKenzie Porter, Reilly Dolman, Jared Abrahamson, and Nesta Cooper in Travelers (2016)

27. Travelers

John Barrowman, Eve Myles, and Gareth David-Lloyd in Torchwood (2006)

28. Torchwood

29. Tales from the Loop

31. Odyssey 5

33. Alcatraz

34. Counterpart

Rose Leslie and Theo James in The Time Traveler's Wife (2022)

35. The Time Traveler's Wife

36. Nine: Nine Time Travels

37. Voyagers!

38. The Crossing

39. Flashforward

Caitríona Balfe and Sam Heughan in Outlander (2014)

40. Outlander

41. The Man in the High Castle

John Leeson, Elisabeth Sladen, Yasmin Paige, Daniel Anthony, Tommy Knight, Sinead Michael, and Anjli Mohindra in The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007)

42. The Sarah Jane Adventures

More to explore, recently viewed.

Deceased Characters
Season 4 characters
Season 5 characters
DHARMA Initiative Staff
Flashback Characters
Desmond's flashback characters
Season 6 characters
Desmond's flash-sideways characters
Flash-sideways characters

Daniel Faraday

Victims of temporal displacement
View history

Dr. Daniel Faraday was a physicist and professor who parachuted onto the Island from a helicopter sent by the freighter Kahana . He was distinguished by his polite demeanor and his scientific insight into the Island's mysterious properties. He was the son of Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore , who were both former leaders of the Others . Faraday spent his entire adult life studying space-time.

Daniel Faraday understood and explained how time travel would work, even according to real-world physics: "Time is like a street. We can move forward, we can move in reverse, but we cannot ever create a new street. Whatever happened, happened." [1] This statement is the foundation of the whole 5th season, and it is never contradicted.

His experiments with time travel debilitated his girlfriend and damaged his memory, forcing him to flee his Oxford professorship, but his illness was healed when he arrived on the Island. He harbored romantic feelings for science team colleague Charlotte Lewis until her death from temporal displacement . When the time flashes started, he assumed an early leadership role in Sawyer's group due to his expertise in quantum physics and protectiveness of Charlotte. When the flashes through time stopped, stranding James "Sawyer" Ford 's group in 1974, he joined the other survivors in becoming part of the DHARMA Initiative . Under unknown circumstances, he became a DHARMA Initiative scientist working in Ann Arbor but returned to the Island in 1977, where, after a frenzied attempt to change the past, he unwittingly was shot and killed by his mother, who was with The Others at the time. His plans to detonate the hydrogen bomb Jughead were carried on by Jack Shephard .

1.1 Childhood
1.2 Education
1.3 As a professor
1.4 In the US
2.1 Days 91–100 (Season 4)
2.2.1 Time flashes
2.2.2 1974–1977 (with DHARMA Initiative)
3.1 Flash sideways
4 Additional casting
5.2 Equations and notes
6 Unanswered questions
7 References

Before the Island [ ]

Childhood [ ].

Young Daniel talks to his mother, Eloise . (" The Variable ")

Daniel was born on the mainland (as there is a birth certificate for him) and was the son of Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore , although he did not know the identity of his father (that was left blank on the birth certificate). Eloise also changed his last name to Faraday so Charles could not find him. He was a very gifted scientist but enjoyed music even more. One day, when Daniel was playing the piano, his mother, Eloise, told him that he should not waste time on such things as music, focusing on science instead. To prove it, she asked how many beats of the metronome had Daniel counted since he started playing. Daniel responded that he counted 864 beats (8x108). Eloise told Daniel that he had a unique destiny and must develop his skills. Daniel tried to convince his mother to let him continue playing music, claiming that he could "make time," but Eloise disagreed. (" The Variable ")

Education [ ]

Daniel argues with his mother about his girlfriend, Theresa Spencer . (" The Variable ")

Several years later, Daniel graduated from a doctoral program at Oxford University. He was the youngest doctor to ever graduate from Oxford. As Daniel and his girlfriend, Theresa Spencer , walked out of the college they were met by Eloise, who requested to have dinner alone with Daniel, without Theresa. Theresa complied despite Daniel's protests, leaving Daniel and Eloise to go to the restaurant.

At an Indian restaurant Daniel expressed his discontent with Eloise's behaviour towards Theresa, as she was his girlfriend. Eloise told him that he had no time for women, and that he must focus entirely on his work. Daniel mentioned that he had received a grant from Charles Widmore. After hearing this Eloise relented, apologizing to Daniel and telling him that she was not there to argue with him. Before she left she gave Daniel a wrapped gift. When opened, it was revealed to be a leather journal. (" The Variable ")

As a professor [ ]

Daniel is shocked to hear his future-self sent Desmond . (" The Constant ")

In 1996, Daniel Faraday had become a professor at The Queen's College, Oxford University . He was conducting unauthorized experiments involving time travel, and had created a machine that allowed a living creature's consciousness to travel through time . (He tested it on a rat named Eloise). His research was funded by Charles Widmore . (" Jughead ")

When visited by Desmond Hume , who claimed to know about the machine, Daniel initially believed that a colleague was playing a practical joke on him, but when Desmond mentioned Eloise , Daniel's lab rat, he believed Desmond. In his lab, Daniel tested the numbers Desmond supplied to him. He used the machine on Eloise, enabling her to unerringly complete a maze that she would not be taught how to run for another hour. Daniel's blackboard revealed his interest in the Kerr metric as part of his theory of time-transported consciousness.

Daniel tests out his time travel equipment with Desmond. (" The Constant ")

A being that undergoes time-transported consciousness, according to Daniel's explanation to Desmond, must identify a constant , something existing in both periods of time travel that can serve as an anchor for the being's consciousness; failure to find a constant results in instability of consciousness, and the resulting stress can lead to brain aneurysm and eventual death. At some point, Daniel identifies Desmond as his constant, noting so in his journal . (" The Constant ")

During his days as a Professor, Daniel also studied the DHARMA Initiative and wrote all he knew about it in his journal. This would later help him when he eventually joins the DHARMA Initiative. (" Because You Left ") (" LaFleur ")

Eventually, after testing his theories on himself, Daniel performed the same experiment on his girlfriend and lab assistant, Theresa Spencer . The experiment apparently resulted in Theresa becoming permanently mentally 'unstuck' in time, with her condition deteriorating to the point that she became permanently bedridden. Soon after this accident, Daniel left Oxford for America, and all records of his stay at Oxford were deleted. Charles Widmore agreed to pay for Theresa's care, but Daniel never saw her again. (" Jughead ") Daniel's experiments on himself also appear to have wreaked havoc with his memory. (" The Variable ")

In the US [ ]

Daniel cries for reasons he can't say. (" Confirmed Dead ")

As of 2004, Daniel was living in Essex, Massachusetts under the watch of a caretaker . Daniel appeared to be suffering from a medical condition related to memory loss, brought on by years of time-travel experiments. When he saw a news report covering the discovery of the Oceanic Flight 815 wreckage , he became visibly upset, but didn't know the reason. (" Confirmed Dead ")

Soon after this, Charles Widmore visited Daniel. Widmore told him that the plane Daniel saw on TV was not Oceanic Flight 815 , but rather a fake plane, planted underwater by Widmore himself.

Eloise encourages Daniel to go the Island . (" The Variable ")

He told Daniel that the real Flight 815 had crashed on a miraculous island, and offered him the chance to go there, promising that it would cure him. (" The Variable ")

Several days later, Daniel was playing piano at his home, trying to remember the Chopin piece he was playing when he was ten, when he was visited by his mother. She persuaded him to accept Widmore's offer and go to the Island, assuring him that she would be proud of him if he did so. Daniel agreed to accept the offer. (" The Variable ")

Shortly thereafter, he was recruited to a team, organized by Matthew Abaddon and led by Naomi Dorrit , that was sent to the Island aboard the freighter Kahana . (" Confirmed Dead ")

On the Island [ ]

Days 91–100 (season 4) [ ].

Faraday asks for Jack 's name, moments after landing on the Island . (" The Beginning of the End ")

While flying to the Island , the helicopter Daniel was traveling in encountered electrical problems and the passengers were forced to bail out. Miles pushed Daniel out first, who encountered Jack and Kate in the jungle upon landing. He introduced himself and claimed to be there to rescue them . He explained that he had lost his pack which contained his phone when he bailed out, so Kate gave him the phone she had taken from Naomi . He called Minkowski to report contacting the survivors. Minkowski asked Daniel if he was on speaker, causing Daniel to then excuse himself to talk privately to him. While he was talking to Minkowski, Jack and Kate saw the gun he was concealing. Daniel explained that the rest of his team all had GPS units which were tracked by the phones, and enlisted Jack and Kate's help in finding the rest of the team. (" The Beginning of the End ") (" Confirmed Dead ")

Faraday tries to calm a hostile Miles with the help of Jack and Kate . (" Confirmed Dead ")

While walking through the jungle they found a metal box from the chopper. Jack opened it up, revealing a gas mask and other quarantine equipment. Daniel said that he could not explain what it was there for since he was not in charge of packing. Jack remained doubtful and suddenly asked him why he brought the gun, prompting Daniel to reveal that rescuing the survivors was not their primary objective. As Daniel was about to explain what they were doing on the island, Miles' signal appeared on the satellite phone. They reached the cove where Miles appeared to be dead. Miles surprised Jack and held him at gunpoint, convinced Kate had killed Naomi . Daniel told him to stop, that they were good people who were trying to help, only to have Kate try to steal his gun. They travel to Naomi's body where Miles "talked" to her to confirm that Jack and Kate were not the ones who killed her.

Daniel sets up the tripod for his payload experiment. (" The Economist ") ( promotional still )

Daniel paid attention to the Island's unique physical properties, observing that the scattering of light on the Island seemed unusual. Kate noticed Daniel's harmless nature and asked him to put away his gun , though Daniel claimed that Miles would kill him if he did. As Charlotte's signal appeared on the phone, Jack ordered them to put their guns down as Juliet and Sayid had taken up shooting position on Daniel and Miles. They complied and began to follow Charlotte's signal into the jungle. Sayid questioned them, allowing Daniel to reveal his name and his profession as a physicist, though he "doesn't like being pigeonholed." Sayid took Miles' phone to see that Charlotte's signal was moving quickly toward them, only to find Vincent with the GPS tracker, revealing that Locke had captured her.

The group then saw Frank 's flare. When they reached him, they found him unconscious, though he woke up and said that he managed to land the chopper just over the hill. Daniel and Kate retrieved Naomi's body and brought it back to the chopper, which had landed safe and sound. (" Confirmed Dead ")

Daniel, tired of sitting around the helicopter, began unloading pieces of equipment . He set up a tripod with a guidance apparatus on top, and phoned the freighter to ask Regina for a ' payload '. He was visibly upset when it didn't arrive at the expected time. When the payload (a rocket) arrived later, the clock inside it reported a different time than its synchronized partner held by Daniel, a difference of 31 minutes. Daniel was somewhat shaken by his discovery of the time differential between the Island and the rest of the world, murmuring "This is not good." He was later happy to see the rescued Charlotte and declined a seat on the helicopter soon leaving the Island. Daniel told Frank that on his flight back to the freighter he should be sure to follow the exact bearing he had flown on their way to the Island, no matter what. (" The Economist ")

Faraday fails to remember the three playing cards. (" Eggtown ")

After returning to the beach with Jack, and Juliet, Daniel and Charlotte played a memory game involving cards. After guessing only two out of three correctly, he felt he was making no progress. He and Charlotte were then questioned by Jack and Juliet about their inability to reach the freighter on the satellite phone, which they used to contact Regina on an "emergency line". She told them that, even though the helicopter took off a day previous, Frank , Sayid , and Desmond had not yet made it to the freighter. (" Eggtown ")

After being interrogated by Jack and Juliet all night, Daniel revealed that the survivors perception of the passage of time differed from its actual passing, though Charlotte prevented him from saying any more. Daniel reassured Jack that everything would be fine as long as Frank had stayed on the correct bearing, otherwise there would be "side effects."

Daniel's journal naming Desmond as his constant (" The Constant ")

After the beach was finally contacted by Sayid , Daniel learned of Desmond's becoming unstuck in time. Daniel told Jack and Juliet that people having recently been exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism could become "confused" when traveling to and from the Island. He only clarified by saying the condition was " not amnesia." He asked to speak to Desmond and asked him what year he thought it was, learning that Desmond's consciousness from 1996 had jumped forward in time. Daniel tells Desmond to travel to Oxford when he returns to 1996 in order to find Daniel. In order for Daniel's past self to believe Desmond, Daniel gives him information from his journal that only he would know: a setting of 2.3 42 , an oscillation of 11 Hertz, and the name of Eloise . This information was used by Desmond in the past to establish his constant . Daniel told Jack that the displacement was unpredictable, ranging between minutes and years for different people. That evening, he was seen on the beach, leafing through his diary. He found a note he had written for himself back in 1996: "If anything goes wrong, Desmond Hume will be my constant." (" The Constant ")

Juliet holds Faraday at a gun point at the Tempest station. (" The Other Woman ") ( promotional still )

That night, he and Charlotte slipped out of the beach camp in order to venture to the Tempest in order to shut it down and prevent the possible threat of toxic gas being spread by Ben . At a stream, Daniel expressed doubt in his ability to perform his task, but was reassured by Charlotte. They were confronted by Kate en route to the beach from the Barracks , who became suspicious at their obvious lies. She searched through their pack and found a gas mask , only to be knocked out by Charlotte. Daniel and Charlotte continued on to the Tempest and broke in by sparking the wires outside the door. While Daniel struggled to neutralize the gas, he was confronted by Juliet , who was subsequently knocked into a brawl with Charlotte. With minutes to go and his gas mask ripped off, Daniel frantically typed the keyboard, and stopped the disaster with seconds to spare. He remarked that it was "a close one" and stayed behind to shut down the station while Juliet and Charlotte left. (" The Other Woman ")

Jack demands from Faraday to tell him the truth about his mission. (" The Shape of Things to Come ")

After returning to the beach, Daniel attempted to fix the satellite phone (which was broken during Charlotte and Juliet's confrontation the previous day), and was approached by Sun . She told him of her pregnancy and asked him if they were actually going to rescue the survivors, to which he answered that it was not his decision and would not reveal whose decision it was. (" Ji Yeon ")

Daniel was among the people on the beach who ran to the edge of the water in response to Bernard's cries for help and Vincent's barking. After the body had been pulled onto the sand, Daniel shared Ray 's identity as the freighter's doctor.

Daniel was provided with the materials to fix the satellite phone enough to communicate in Morse code, and they attempted communication that night. Daniel transmitted "What happened to doctor?" and when the freighter replied, he told Jack the response was "Friends are fine. Helicopters coming in the morning." Bernard, however, knew Morse code and said Daniel lied because the real reply stated, "What are you talking about? Doctor is fine." Under pressure from an angry Jack, Daniel revealed the freighter never planned to rescue any of the survivors, which left Jack stumbling away, upset and in apparent pain. (" The Shape of Things to Come ")

Faraday volunteers to journey to the Staff . (" Something Nice Back Home ")

Daniel and Charlotte were still being interrogated by Rose and Bernard the next morning over the rescue situation when Jack stepped in to calm the crowd, only to collapse with pain. Juliet gave Sun a list of medical instruments to get from the Staff in order to perform an appendectomy on Jack. Daniel stepped in and offered to help, explaining that he had performed some animal dissections and knew what the supplies looked like. Though aware of the survivors' distrust of them, Juliet agreed for Daniel and Charlotte to travel with Jin and Sun. Upon reaching The Staff, he volunteered to go inside the station first in a gesture of chivalry toward Charlotte. Jin noted that Daniel seemed to have a crush on her . Daniel collected the supplies and brought them back for Jack's surgery. (" Something Nice Back Home ")

Faraday reveals to Charlotte the danger of the secondary protocol . (" There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 ")

When Jin discovered that Charlotte spoke Korean, he threatened to break Daniel's fingers one at a time if they didn't take Sun off the Island when the helicopter arrived. (" Something Nice Back Home ")

He was then asked by Jack to call Frank's satellite phone, where they heard Keamy ordering Frank to land the copter. Daniel, hearing The Orchid mentioned, realizes that they need to get off the island immediately, because Keamy is following the secondary protocol . After Jack and Kate set off to follow the signal, Daniel witnesses Sayid returning on the Zodiac raft . While Sayid attempts to follow Jack and Sawyer , Daniel volunteers to begin ferrying the survivors back to the boat. Sayid reluctantly agrees. After Kate returns and gives Aaron to Sun , Daniel takes off on the Zodiac raft with Jin , Sun , and three other redshirts . They reach the boat, and as soon as everyone is on the Kahana safely, Daniel turns the raft around and returns to get more people. (" There's No Place Like Home, Part 1 ")

After making it back to The Island for more people, Daniel tells Miles and Charlotte that they have to be on the raft with next group if they want to leave the island. Miles says he wants to stay; Charlotte, on the other hand, isn't sure. When Daniel returns, Charlotte tells him that she's staying for now. Daniel replies that there might not be a next time and that she may never get off the island. After Charlotte kisses him goodbye, he gets the raft and begins ferrying more people to the Kahana . When the Kahana explodes and the second purple sky event happens, Daniel and the people on the Zodiac raft are seen out in the ocean just before the Island moves. (" There's No Place Like Home, Part 2 ")

Season 5 [ ]

Time flashes [ ].

Daniel explained to the survivors that the camp "haven't been built yet". (" Because You Left ")

Daniel and the rest of the passengers on the raft were shocked when the sky became engulfed in bright white light. Neil became panicky but Daniel assured him that they must have been "inside the radius." He rushed back to the camp on the Zodiac and reunited with Charlotte and the others. He explained to them that the camp structures haven't gone, they just "haven't been built yet". He and a group headed towards the Swan to try and analyze where in time they are. While on the way Sawyer assaulted him and demanded an explanation as to what was happening. Daniel found it difficult to explain, and used an analogy that the island was like a skipping record, effectively dislodged from time due to what happened at the Orchid station. He theorized that they were all moving through time.

Daniel encounters a hostile Desmond . (" Because You Left ")

Arriving at the hatch, Daniel deduced they were at some point after Flight 815 crashed onto the Island. He explained to the others the rules of time travel , the main one being that no matter how hard one tries, they cannot alter the past in any way. He admitted to spending his "entire adult life" studying spacetime and the DHARMA Initiative . He believed there was no way they could stop the time shifts occurring. After another 'time shift' sent them back to between 2001 and 2004, Faraday separated himself from the group and frantically flicked through his journal . Finding what he was looking for, he slammed on the Swan's door for twenty minutes before Desmond emerged. As time started shifting again Daniel quickly told Desmond that when he leaves the island he must go to Oxford and find Daniel's mother in order to save them. Before he could say her name he was transported through time once more. (" Because You Left ")

Faraday attempts to calculate where, and when, they are. (" The Lie ")

Two hours later, Daniel returned to the beach. Sawyer asked him why he took so long, and Daniel told him he simply got lost. Daniel began calculating the position of the Island in time in order that they might find a new bearing in order to safely leave the island on the Zodiac. Later that night, while Daniel was performing calculations and going through his journal at the edge of the beach, Charlotte came and gave him a mango she found in the jungle. He thanked her, but when she started complaining about her headache and memory loss he became concerned and quiet. He at first reassured her that she was just stressed, but after she directly asked him if he knew what was happening to her, he was momentarily silent before Miles interrupted them. Shortly after, unknown foes attacked the people on the beach, who fled to the jungle. Daniel helped Charlotte when she fell over. Those that survived scattered and went to regroup at a nearby creek. (" The Lie ")

Faraday attending to Jughead . (" Jughead ")

When Daniel, Miles, and Charlotte reached the creek, Charlotte began to feel dizzy and had double vision, and asked Daniel why he looked so worried about her. Daniel revealed to her that he knew what was happening to her, and assured her that he wouldn't let it happen. Before they could discuss this further, another survivor tripped a wire that set off a trap, killing the other survivors who had reached the creek and leaving only Daniel, Miles, and Charlotte. The three were then ambushed by The Others . A woman , apparently the leader of the group, asked who their leader was. Miles pointed to Daniel, and the girl turned to him and asked why they couldn't have stayed away. They were brought to the camp where they were thought to be part of a U.S. military expedition. They went along with it, saying they were scientists there to inactivate the hydrogen bomb that Daniel presumed was there due to radiation burns on one of the Other's hands. When Richard Alpert had suspicions that Daniel would instead detonate the bomb, Daniel won his trust by telling him that he was in love with Charlotte, and telling them he wouldn't do anything to put her in danger. When the Others left, he confessed to Charlotte that he had not been lying to them, and that he truly was in love with her. Daniel was then led to the bomb by Ellie, the girl who had captured them.

Daniel reveals to Ellie that he is from the future. (" Jughead ")

On the way there, he remarked that she reminded him of someone he used to know. At the site of the bomb, after carefully examining it, Daniel found that it was leaking radiation. He then told Ellie that the crack in the casing of the bomb needed to be filled with lead and that it then needed to be buried. He assured Ellie that as long as their people did this, the bomb wouldn't go off. She then asked him how he was so sure. Daniel then revealed to her that he was from the future and that because the island was still there in the future, if they did this, the bomb would not go off. Ellie then held him at gunpoint, but Sawyer and Juliet came to his rescue. After a flash, the group was reunited, but the Others' campsite was deserted. Charlotte then suffered a nosebleed and collapsed, and Daniel ran to her aid. (" Jughead ")

After another time flash , Daniel catches Charlotte as she collapses. (" Jughead ")

Daniel managed to revive Charlotte , and Locke suggested that they travel to the Orchid in order to try and stop the time flashes. Daniel travels with the group which is heading to the beach camp to use the zodiac in order to get to the Orchid faster. After dark, while traveling through the jungle, the group sees a beam of light emanating from the ground some distance ahead. Recognizing it as the light which emanated from the Hatch the night Boone died, Locke led the group through a different route in order to avoid the light. A short while later, they heard a woman crying. Daniel stayed with everyone else as Sawyer went to investigate. The group then shifts through time once more and they make their way back to the beach. Miles suffered a nosebleed and he asked Daniel about it. Daniel responded that it is related to how much time you spend on the Island . Miles then pointed out that the survivors from Oceanic Flight 815 had been on the Island for a few months before the freighter arrived. Daniel asks Miles if he is sure that he has never been to the Island before. Upon returning to the beach camp , they find that the camp exists at that moment, but seems disheveled.

Daniel questions Miles about his history on the Island . (" The Little Prince ")

With no one nor the Zodiac in sight, the group wondered where everyone has gone. Noticing a pair of wooden outrigger canoes, they think that the other survivors may have fled from attackers. The group gets into one of the outriggers. After a short while, they noticed that unknown people are pursuing them in the other outrigger. As the other canoe gained on them, the people in it begin to shoot. After trying to escape for a while, Juliet returned fire with a rifle. Before the pursuers can get any closer, there is another time flash. In this time period, it is raining very hard. The survivors successfully come to shore at nightfall. Daniel listened as Charlotte alerted the group to debris from a ship on the beach, noting that it appears to have wrecked recently. (" The Little Prince ")

Daniel looks over Charlotte 's lifeless body. (" This Place Is Death ")

Daniel traveled with the group into the jungle and they experienced another time flash just before discovering Jin . After everyone greeted Jin, they resumed traveling toward the Orchid Station. After walking for a while, the group experienced a few flashes in rapid succession. After the fourth flash, Charlotte collapsed and began to speak incoherently, partly in Korean. Daniel asked for help carrying Charlotte to the Orchid , but Locke refused and said that she would only slow them down. Daniel decided to stay with Charlotte while the rest of the group moved on to the Orchid. Still unable to move, Charlotte told Daniel that she grew up on the Island but left at a young age with her mother. Though her mother tried to convince her she had imagined the Island, Charlotte has been searching for it. Charlotte told Daniel that she remembered a scary man who, when she was young, told her that she must leave the Island and if she ever came back, she would die. That person, she believed, was Daniel. After mumbling about not being allowed to have chocolate before dinner, Charlotte died. Daniel could do nothing but watch helplessly with tears in his eyes. (" This Place Is Death ")

1974–1977 (with DHARMA Initiative) [ ]

Daniel is found by Juliet , mourning Charlotte , who disappeared . (" LaFleur ")

Daniel, along with Sawyer, Juliet, Jin, and Miles , time traveled to 1974 when Locke moved the frozen wheel . When the rest of the group found Daniel, he was still crying over Charlotte 's death. When Juliet asked where Charlotte was, Daniel told her that she had died and her body had disappeared, meaning that during the flash, it had been left behind in the previous time frame. A mournful Daniel traveled with the rest of the group on the way to the beach camp they encountered Amy , a member of the DHARMA Initiative who was in the midst of a conflict with some of the Hostiles . Having saved her, Amy took the group to the Barracks but, on their way, Juliet was forced to stop Daniel in his tracks as he nearly walked through the active sonar fence. The group maintained the story that they were shipwrecked on the Island and, as Sawyer negotiated with Horace , an awestruck Daniel saw a young, redheaded girl walking across the grass with her mother and guessed her to be Charlotte. (" LaFleur ")

Daniel confronts Jack about his return . (" The Variable ")

To continue his research, Daniel left the Island to go to Ann Arbor before 1977 when Jack , Kate , and Hurley become part of the DHARMA Initiative, while Sayid was mistaken for a Hostile . (" Namaste ") However, soon after the Oceanic Six arrived, Miles and Pierre Chang went to the dock to greet the scientists arriving on the Island via the submarine and Miles was perplexed to find Faraday among them. He said, "Long time no see" to the clearly shocked Miles. (" Some Like It Hoth ") Daniel explained his return to Miles by showing him a picture of Jack , Kate , and Hurley as part of the DHARMA Initiative, and demanded to be taken to Jack's house. Once there, he questioned Jack on how he and the rest of the Oceanic Six had returned to the island. Jack told him that it had been Daniel's mother who helped them, and that she had told them they were supposed to return. Daniel ominously told him that his mother was wrong, and that the Oceanic Six were in fact not supposed to be there. He then set off to the Orchid with Miles to meet Pierre Chang. He followed Pierre into the station, disguised himself as a workman, and then observed him from afar. (" Because You Left ") (" The Variable ")

Daniel attempts to warn Chang of the danger of his actions. (" The Variable ")

As Pierre began to leave the Orchid, Daniel caught up with him and recommended that he order the island to be evacuated. When Pierre asked why, Daniel explained that later the drill at the Swan hatch would hit a large pocket of electromagnetic energy, which would cause catastrophe for everyone on the island. When Pierre asked him how he knew all of this, Daniel revealed to him that he was from the future. Although at first disbelieving, Daniel nearly managed to convince him by telling him that Miles was his son. However, Miles told Pierre that Daniel was out of his mind, and Pierre dismissed him and left. When Miles questioned why Daniel had told him they were from the future, Daniel replied that he was simply making sure that Pierre "does what he's supposed to do".

Daniel explains to Jack and Kate the meaning of a "variable". (" The Variable ")

Daniel then returned to the Barracks, going to Sawyer's house, where he spoke to the assembled group there, asking if any of them knew where the Hostiles resided. Though Sawyer ordered them not to tell, Kate revealed that she knew the way. Juliet shared with Daniel the combination to the sonar fence . Jack agreed to go with Kate and Daniel to meet the Others, and they stopped at the motor pool in order to pick up weaponry. While they were there, however, Stuart Radzinsky and two other armed DHARMA members arrived, and, upon realizing that Daniel had a gun, began ordering their surrender. Daniel refused to do so, however, prompting fire from Radzinsky at his men. One of the shots grazed Daniel's neck, but didn't incapacitate him. After Jack fired at a fuel drum in order to push Radzinsky and his men back, Daniel, Jack and Kate grabbed a DHARMA jeep and headed to the sonar fence. There, Jack patched up Faraday's wound before they ventured into the jungle. Once past the fence and into the jungle, Daniel revealed to them that he had been studying physics all his life, but that his recent research in Ann Arbor changed his entire view of "whatever happened, happened." He stated that he had been so focused on the constants of time that he had completely overlooked the variables: people. He stated that he intended to detonate the hydrogen bomb in order to get the people to evacuate the Island, as well as to keep Oceanic Flight 815 from ever crashing on the Island and for the Kahana to have never come to the Island.

Daniel is shot dead by his mother . (" The Variable ")

He then went on alone without Jack and Kate, stepping into the Others' camp with a loaded gun, firing a few warning shots at Erik 's feet, and demanding to speak to Eloise , his mother. Richard Alpert appeared instead, telling Daniel that Eloise was not there at the time. Richard appeared not to know Daniel and asked "Do we know each other?" Daniel began counting to Richard, demanding to be taken to Eloise and asking where the bomb was. While holding Richard at gunpoint, he was suddenly shot by a hidden Eloise. Richard admonished Eloise, telling her that Daniel hadn't intended to shoot him. Daniel, realizing that it was Eloise who had shot him, told her that she had known all along that she would shoot him, even when she sent him to the Island back in the future. Eloise asked Daniel who he was, and he revealed to her with his dying breath that he was her son. (" The Variable ")

Post-death [ ]

Richard Alpert and Eloise Hawking stand over Daniel's corpse. (" Follow the Leader ")

Daniel's mother, Eloise, began reading his diary after his death. During her reading, she came upon a passage written in her own handwriting, which prompted her to ask her son's companions about the man she just shot. They told her about his plans for the bomb, and she agreed to take them to it. Before she left, she reverently closed her son's eyes. (" Follow the Leader ")

Just beyond the opening of the Cliffiside cave there was an area in which Jacob had written the surnames of several candidates for the role of Protector of the Island on the walls and ceiling, and a number preceding each one. Daniel's surname, Faraday, preceded by the number 761, had been crossed out. His surname was also written on The Lighthouse Wheel . According to the wheel, the number was 101. (" The Substitute ") (" Lighthouse ")

Flash sideways [ ]

In the flash sideways world , Daniel, now carrying his biological father's last name Widmore , was a musician and classical pianist rather than a scientist.

Desmond meets the musician, Daniel Widmore . (" Happily Ever After ")

While he was playing the piano, he overheard Desmond ask his mother, Eloise, about Penny Milton . Later, Daniel found Desmond in his limo and invited him to talk. Daniel asked him if he believes in "love at first sight", then told him, a few weeks ago at a museum, he had seen a red-haired woman with "these really blue, blue eyes" eating a chocolate bar. He then said once he looked at her it felt as if he had loved her all along. That same night he awoke and wrote several advanced quantum physics equations and formulas in his journal , but as a musician, he had no idea what they meant. He asked Desmond, what if this wasn't what their lives were supposed to be? What if they had some other life and for some reason they changed it? Daniel told him he doesn't want to set off a nuclear bomb , but that he thinks he already did. He then told Desmond that Penny Milton was his half-sister and told him when and where he can find her. (" Happily Ever After ")

Daniel meets Charlotte . (" The End ")

While Daniel prepared for the concert, he met Charlotte Lewis , whom he recognized, but he did not remember why he recognized her.

At the request of his mother, Eloise Widmore , Desmond did not attempt to make Daniel remember his life. Therefore, he didn't move on with everyone else at Eloise's church . (" The End ")

Additional casting [ ]

Young Daniel was played by Spencer Allyn . In the casting call he was described as "George, 10 years old, very intelligent, sharp and bright. A child prodigy who is already completing high school level work. Extraordinarily gifted as a science student and musician, he still deep down simply wants to make his parents proud and get their love. Looking for someone with brown hair and brown eyes. Please submit actors that can play some piano..." [2]
Daniel's total episode count is 23 (as of " The End ").
Daniel was the fifth former main character to appear in Season 6 .
Daniel and Penny have the same father. Neither Daniel, Desmond (Penny's husband) nor Penny appear to be aware of this fact.
Daniel has brown eyes, despite being born to two blue-eyed parents. While extremely uncommon, this is not a biological impossibility.
" The Constant " references Slaughterhouse-Five through Desmond's experience. Daniel's inexplicable crying at the news is reminiscent of the book's protagonist Billy (who is defined specifically as "unstuck in time") crying on hearing the barbershop quartet. Billy's reason is revealed to be because the quartet reminded him of the guards who told the POWs of the bombing in the past; Daniel's could be because he'll meet the survivors in the future. This and the "Desmond" page of his diary suggest that he may fall victim to similar effects.
In the Bible, Daniel is known as an interpreter of dreams, able to find the truth and meaning behind cryptic visions.
Claire attended a concert during which he performed a number.
See also Last meetings of Daniel .
Daniel Faraday was the last character to have a flashback episode in the traditional format established in " Tabula Rasa ". Future flashback episodes were either multi-centric (" The Incident ") or broke from the format by telling one continuous flashback story (" Ab Aeterno " and " Across the Sea ").
Daniel was the twelfth main character to die and the second who was not on Flight 815 (The first being Charlotte ).
The other six being: Shannon who died in " Abandoned ", Ana Lucia who died in " Two for the Road ", Eko who died in " The Cost of Living ", Nikki and Paulo who died in " Exposé " and Locke who died in " The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham ".
Daniel is the fourth main character to die at the end of their first and only centric episode (not counting multi-centric episodes) (The first being Shannon in " Abandoned ", the second and third being Nikki and Paulo in " Exposé ").
Daniel suffers from memory loss as a result of his experiments:
He paused a long time before recalling his name when he first landed on the Island.
He displayed "word searching" when referring to his pack.
He was chastised by Miles for not remembering the significance of Naomi's distress code, "Tell my sister I love her".
He was unsure why he was crying when Oceanic 815 was found. (" Confirmed Dead ")
He is referred to by Naomi as a "head-case". (" Confirmed Dead ")
He was playing what appeared to be a memory game with Charlotte , in which she would hide three cards, and he would try to remember them. He only got two out of three correct, which she referred to as "progress". (" Eggtown ")
He doesn't remember his 1996 meeting with Desmond and seems surprised upon reading in his own journal that he intended to use Desmond as his "constant" if anything should go wrong.
He relies on his journal for details.
Daniel Faraday's statement ( "Time is like a street. We can move forward, we can move in reverse, but we cannot ever create a new street. Whatever happened, happened" ) is universally true in any time-travel fiction. Going against that statement results in plot holes (this particular plot hole is also known as "modifying the past", and many authors and people do not understand that it is a plot hole).
The casting call described him as "Russell, Late 30s, a brilliant mathematician and deep thinker who is capable of great insights and has a tremendous knowledge across various scientific fields. He sometimes struggles socially by being too direct and disconnected in his interpersonal relationships. While an empiricist by trade he is humbled and fascinated by the magic and mystery of all in this world that cannot be explained by science."
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse confirmed in the Official Lost Podcast dated 15th April 2010 that Daniel was born off of the Island, and Eloise gave him the name Faraday in order to hide his identity from Charles Widmore.
Daniel's first appearance was in the episode " The Beginning of the End ," and his last was in " The End ."
Daniel is one of 13 main characters to not have their name appear in a soundtrack title.
He was born in 1977 and was a professor by 1996. This would make him a 19 year-old professor.
In THE X-FILES episode "Quagmire" a Dr. Faraday "saves" Mulder and Scully off a rock/island in the middle of a lake with a mysterious monster.
Last words: "I... I'm your son..."
Witnesses of his death: Richard, Eloise, Jack, Kate, Several Others
Faraday invented the Faraday cage , a cage that prevents electro-magnetic radiation from permeating it.
He is accredited for introducing the idea of electromagnetic induction. Although Joseph Henry discovered it at about the same time, Faraday published first.
The Faraday Constant , a constant in electrochemistry, is named after Faraday. The episode " The Constant " is an obvious reference to this and contains many more references in it.
The Faraday constant is 23kcal/mol.
The SI unit of electrical capacitance , the farad , is named for Faraday.
The Faraday Effect is a Magneto-optical phenomenon that occurs in most optically transparent dielectric materials (including liquids) under the influence of magnetic fields. This effect was an early confirmation of the relationship between light and electromagnetism.
The face of Michael Faraday is visible on the Bank of England Series E £20 note that can be seen in the secret room at Ben 's home in the Barracks . (" The Economist ")
Faraday worked on a theory that combined the interchangeability of electricity and magnetism, with the interchangeability of gravity. He was not successful.
Michael Faraday gave popular lectures on "The Chemical History of a Candle".
In June of 1832, the University of Oxford granted Faraday a Doctor of Civil Law degree (honorary).
Flight 815 crashed on what would be his 213th birthday.
The film Flight of the Navigator featured a Dr. Faraday.
David Arthur Faraday was the first victim of the Zodiac Killer in the 1960s. The Zodiac raft in which Daniel Faraday rides on the show is possibly a reference to this. [3]
Daniel Faraday was a time traveler in The Outer Limits episode "Final Appeal". [1] . The episode also features a time traveler named Theresa and features Swoosie Kurtz who plays Locke's mother.
His name first appeared as the season 4 clue word for chapter 2 of the Find 815 alternate reality game.
The Faraday Institute is a research institute at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge . The institute studies the correlations between science and religion. The belief in and value of science (logic) vs. religion (faith) is a theme often explored in Lost, particularly in arguments between Jack (who usually supports logic and devalues faith) and Locke (who usually supports faith and disregards science). (" Orientation ")
During casting he was named Russell , and described as "Late 30s, a brilliant mathematician and deep thinker who is capable of great insights and has a tremendous knowledge across various scientific fields. He sometimes struggles socially by being too direct and disconnected in his interpersonal relationships. While an empiricist by trade he is humbled and fascinated by the magic and mystery of all in this world that cannot be explained by science." [4]
"Russell Faraday" is the alias given to the villain at the end of Stephen King's The Stand .
In the novel House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, on page 90 there is discussion of how the house, an anomaly of space-time, defies the use of a compass much like the Island. The fictitious Footnote 101 on this page regarding this phenomenon states "Devon Lettau wrote an amusing if ultimately pointless essay on the compass' behavior. He asserted that the minute fluctuations of the needle proved the house was nothing less than a vestibule for pure energy which if harnessed correctly could supply the world with unlimited power. See The Faraday Conclusion (Boston: Maxwell Press 1996)."

(" The Constant-Enhanced ")

Equations and notes [ ]

$e$

The error in the equation (with alpha, h-bar and e) seen on Faraday's chalkboard is a reference to this error visible in a well-known photo of Enrico Fermi. [6]

$M^{2}/R$

Diagrams of a "Mexican hat" potential also appear on Faraday's chalkboard. These "W" shaped curves are often used to represent spontaneous symmetry breaking, such as occurs when using the Higgs mechanism to generate particle masses in the standard model of particle physics.

Unanswered questions [ ]

What experiment(s) did he conduct on himself, what went wrong and when?
When did he leave for Ann Arbor and what did he do there?

References [ ]

↑ Season 5, Episode 1: Because You Left
↑ http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2009/02/episode-514-new-casting-call.html
↑ http://www.zodiackiller.com/FaradayJensen.html
↑ http://spoilerslost.blogspot.com/2007/08/full-casting-information-on-russel-and.html
↑ http://www.edinformatics.com/great_thinkers/fermi.htm
↑ http://www.advancedphysics.org/forum/showthread.php?t=9008

1 The Man in Black
2 The Numbers
3 The Others

10 Complicated TV Shows That People Pretend To Understand (But Really Don't)

Sometimes, confusing TV shows gain popularity due to their complexity, achieving cult status among select audiences.
A series can spiral out of control due to implausible plotlines or intersecting narratives that fail to tie together.
Viewers may lose interest in a show with confusing storytelling, leading to cancellation and missed redemption.

Often, it's the most complicated TV show that people act like they understand when, in reality, few audience members grasp what the show is about. For some television genres, like sci-fi and fantasy, this is expected as magic systems and the creation of new universes can quickly grow layered. However, in other cases, the series becomes impossible to follow for no reason. This could be due to the creators running out of plotlines and inventing implausible ones to keep the show running. Or, because there are so many intersecting narratives there's no clean way to tie them all together.

There are rare occasions when a series gains popularity merely because it's confusing, achieving cult status for the very reason that certain audiences avoid the show at all costs.

A plot isn't necessarily bad just because it's confusing, but if a show challenges the viewer in all the wrong ways, they might get bored with the series and stop watching. Sometimes, TV shows never recover from awful storylines , and they're canceled before they can redeem themselves or prove that the payoff of the complexity was going to be worth it. There are rare occasions when a series gains popularity merely because it's confusing, achieving cult status for the very reason that certain audiences avoid the show at all costs.

10 TV Shows With The Most Complex & Confusing Storylines

These 10 TV shows started off with interesting premises but ended up being criticized by audiences over their confusing and complicated storylines.

Lost (2004 - 2010)

A show that incorporates too many timelines & open-ended mysteries.

Lost is a mystery drama series created for TV that follows a group of survivors of a plane crash and tells its story between the past, present, and future via flashbacks. When Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 crashes and lands on a mysterious island in the pacific ocean, the castaways discover their new temporary home may have a mind of its own, as strange supernatural events keep them locked to the island. From an unknown black smoke creature to dangerous islanders, the passengers must work together to survive the island's seemingly deadly intentions.

Cast Harold Perrineau, Matthew Fox, Michael Emerson, Josh Holloway, Evangeline Lilly, Ken Leung, Yunjin Kim, Terry O'Quinn, Naveen Andrews, Jorge Garcia, Henry Ian Cusick, Emilie de Ravin, Elizabeth Mitchell, Dominic Monaghan, Daniel Dae Kim

Release Date September 22, 2004

Genres Supernatural, Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Adventure

Directors Stephen Williams, Jack Bender

Rating TV-14

Throughout the six-season run, there were several Lost moments that made viewers quit the show . Most of these scenes and storylines didn't serve the greater purpose and themes of the series but were an attempt to create an air of confusion and unreality. The show's first season set up a narrative with interconnecting threads that would slowly be revealed over time. However, it soon turned out that many of these hinted plots went nowhere and were included as misdirects from the biggest mystery, which was the island itself.

There were certain parts of Lost with good payoffs, like Desmond's arc and his knowledge of the future.

One of the biggest moments when Lost went off the rails was when time travel was introduced. This is remembered as the instance when Lost stopped being rooted in reality and made viewers question where the show was going to end up. There were certain parts of Lost with good payoffs, like Desmond's arc and his knowledge of the future. However, the Lost series finale incurs much debate among fans to this day about whether the characters were dead for the entire show, and how much of the story happened versus what occurred in limbo.

Twin Peaks (1990 - 2017)

David lynch's masterpiece of supernatural surrealism.

Conceived by Mark Frost and David Lynch in 1990, Twin Peaks is a supernatural mystery-drama series that brings FBI Agent Dale Cooper to the quiet town of Twin Peaks to investigate the murder of a young woman named Laura Palmer. As Dale continues his investigation of her death, he learns that Laura's life wasn't as she advertised it, and the town itself is hiding far more secrets than they let on. The show received a revival for a third and final season two decades later to resolve the cliffhanger left at the end of the second season.

Cast Everett McGill, Russ Tamblyn, Mdchen Amick, Grace Zabriskie, Ray Wise, Kyle MacLachlan, Ernie Hudson, Kimmy Robertson, Dana Ashbrook, Sheryl Lee

Release Date May 23, 1990

Genres Drama, Mystery, Crime

Writers David Lynch

Directors Mark Frost

Few David Lynch projects can be taken at face value, and though Twin Peaks is full of twists and turns from beginning to end, it's one of Lynch's works that's the easiest to follow. Unlike any murder mystery ever seen on television, Twin Peaks intersperses the investigation with forays into other worlds and seemingly random locations that only make sense in the show’s final moments. Lynch makes the audience wait before any of the plots intersect and the answers start to come together.

Season 3 is set 25 years after the events of season 2, meaning there's an enormous gap in the story that's slowly filled in throughout the episodes. Additionally, watching the companion film, Fire Walk With Me , answers some questions, but ultimately leaves the audience even more confused than the season 2 finale did. Despite the search for Laura Palmer's killer being the thrust of the show, once the killer is found, it's only the beginning.

Westworld (2016 - 2022)

In westworld androids allow humans to live out their wildest, and darkest, fantasies.

HBOs Westworld is a dystopian science fiction western that is based on the Michael Crichton-directed film, Westworld. The series centers on high-paying guests who visit a western theme park full of human-like androids to live out wild fantasies. Westworld would later introduce a futuristic mid-21st century where the world is run by an artificial intelligence called Rehoboam. The series was incredibly popular during its four-season run but was canceled by HBO in November 2022.

Cast Rodrigo Santoro, Tessa Thompson, James Marsden, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Shannon Woodward, Thandie Newton, Jimmi Simpson, Jeffrey Wright, Evan Rachel Wood

Release Date October 2, 2016

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Western

Showrunner Jonathan Nolan, Lisa Joy

Rating TV-MA

However, there was continual confusion about the nature of organic life and when the hosts, androids, in the show crossed the line from being robots to achieving consciousness and full autonomy.

When Westworld season 5 was canceled before the show could reach its epic conclusion, fans of the series were devastated, and for good reason. Westworld went through plenty of ups and downs throughout its run, with an incredible season 1 that was difficult to live up to, but it was only getting stronger as it neared its end. However, there was continual confusion about the nature of organic life and when the hosts, androids, in the show crossed the line from being robots to achieving consciousness and full autonomy.

Westworld is a dystopian reimagining of where technological innovation might be heading, but the essential question of what determines humanity is always relevant to social and political discussions. There are some truly evil characters in the series that make the skin crawl but are essential because they're capable of anything. This means there's no limit to who they will control or what they'll make an android do. Any character might reveal themselves to be something they're not or could have ulterior motives from the moment they step on screen.

Mr. Robot (2015 - 2019)

Cybersecurity and questions of morality are grappled with in this reality-bending thriller.

Young computer programmer Elliot struggles with drug abuse, an anti-social disorder, and paranoia, and connects to people by hacking them. When he is approached by a mysterious anarchist calling himself Mr. Robot, he joins a team of hacktivists called fsociety determined to take down the world's biggest corporations.

Cast Jas Anderson, BD Wong, Michael Cristofer, Rami Malek, Portia Doubleday, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin

Release Date June 24, 2015

Genres Drama, Crime

Directors Sam Esmail

Showrunner Sam Esmail

Like any good TV show with an unreliable narrator, Mr. Robot blurs the line between reality and delusion so well that it's easy to mistake one for the other. Rami Malek made waves with his performance as Elliot, the young man who works as both an engineer for a terrible megacorporation and a hacker who wants to take them down. Elliot is so torn between his desire to do the right thing and his fear of retribution, that his mind creates a safe place for him to displace these negative feelings.

Throughout season 1, hints are dropped about Elliot’s state of mind and the inconsistencies in his memory and experience in the world. After the shocking reveal at the end of season 1, Mr. Robot didn't rest on its laurels and used this plot twist to drive the story forward. Instead, it only became more complex and involved as Elliot began questioning everything in his life. By incorporating elements of film noir and the thriller genre, Mr. Robot can be a stressful show because it leaves the viewer feeling as if they're always one step behind.

The Leftovers (2014 - 2017)

One of hbo's most existential narratives, the leftovers.

The Leftovers is a three-season drama that follows a group of people as they deal with the effects of the sudden disappearance of 2% of the word's population. It was created by Lost co-producer Damon Lindelof and Election writer Tom Perrotta, with famous actors such as Christopher Eccleston, Liv Tyler, Margaret Qualley, and Justin Theroux in the ensemble cast.

Cast Chris Zylka, Christopher Eccleston, Liv Tyler, Justin Theroux, Margaret Qualley, Michael Gaston, Amanda Warren, Max Carver, Emily Meade, Carrie Coon, Ann Dowd, Amy Brenneman

Release Date June 29, 2014

Genres Supernatural, Drama, Mystery, Thriller

Streaming Service(s) HBO Max

The Leftovers begins and ends with a question that's never truly answered, but by the end of the show, the audience and the characters have accepted this fact. The series' inciting incident occurs when two percent of the world's population disappears without a trace and is never seen or heard from again. For some characters, this means their entire family is gone, and for others, their loved ones remain, but their whole world is inescapably altered. There is never a definitive explanation for where the missing people went, but The Leftovers concludes that this doesn't matter.

It's the acceptance of the unknown that heals these wounds, as The Leftovers incorporates plenty of mysteries without providing their answers.

The characters and audience are in desperate search of answers throughout the show's run, and by the final season, it's exhausting beyond belief. It's the acceptance of the unknown that heals these wounds, as The Leftovers incorporates plenty of mysteries without providing their answers. Each season poses a question and expects the viewer to understand that there are occurrences in life that will never make sense. This can be frustrating for audiences, but The Leftovers commits to its theme, refusing to compromise on its principles.

Watch The Leftovers on Max.

Heroes (2006 - 2010)

After a strong first season, the show slowly declined in quality.

Heroes sees a number of people drawn to each other after a solar eclipse awakens incredible abilities in them. With their destinies seemingly intertwined, these evolved humans use their superpowers to influence the past, present, and future - for better and for worse. When a superpowered killer emerges who is stealing abilities from his victims, they must band together to stop him.

Cast Adrian Pasdar, Hayden Panettiere, Tawny Cypress, Greg Grunberg, Milo Ventimiglia, Zachary Quinto, Santiago Cabrera, Noah Gray-Cabey, Masi Oka, Jack Coleman

Release Date September 25, 2006

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi

Showrunner Tim Kring

Many of the issues with Heroes were not the fault of the show or the writers but of circumstance. The creators had a larger overarching plan for the show, but season 2 was cut short because of the 2007-2008 Writer's Guild of America Strike. This profoundly impacted the fate of Heroes and essentially meant the show's final two seasons were doomed. It initially garnered strong reviews because it subverted the superhero genre by giving regular people powers and examining what individuals would do with this responsibility in reality.

The attempted reboot in 2015, Heroes Reborn had many of the same problems that ultimately ended the series in 2010. Heroes started going off the rails when the show tried to explain where the superpowers came from with hidden conspiracies and introduced the concept of trading and losing powers. By season 4, it was almost impossible to keep track of who was the protagonist and who were the villains. As the upcoming Heroes show, Heroes: Eclipsed is confirmed , the new series will have to fix a lot of previous mistakes.

Doctor Who (1963 - Present)

The long-running sci-fi series that revolutionized the genre.

Cast Alex Kingston, Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Jodie Whittaker

Release Date November 23, 1963

Genres Mystery, Sci-Fi, Adventure

Franchise Doctor Who

Being on the air for over fifty years means that paradoxes were unavoidable.

Fans of Doctor Who don't watch the show expecting the science and rules of time and space travel to make sense , they watch the show to suspend their disbelief and go along for the ride. Back when the series premiered in 1963, it began as an educational tool for the children watching. However, today it's become a worldwide franchise that has inspired one of the most loyal fanbases of all time, despite some glaring flaws. Being on the air for over fifty years means that paradoxes were unavoidable.

However, over the past few years, some of the confusion didn't have to happen. Particularly during the years when Matt Smith portrayed the Doctor, and his seasons ended with explosive finales that relied on some spotty time travel rules. When the show passes to a new showrunner or head writer, it goes through many changes, as well as when a new actor takes over as the Doctor. In this way, it's easier to perceive Doctor Who as a new show every time a new Doctor appears, to lower expectations for consistent throughlines in the plot.

Fringe (2008 - 2013)

Drawing comparisons to the x files, fringe takes its sci-fi concepts one step further.

This sci-fi procedural follows the FBI's secretive Fringe Division and its agents Olivia Dunham, Walter Bishop, and Peter Bishop. Together, they investigate cases regarding strange events that threaten society, including cases of parallel universes, human experimentation, and other strange phenomena.

Cast Mark Valley, Lance Reddick, John Noble, Leonard Nimoy, Joshua Jackson, Seth Gabel, Jasika Nicole, Blair Brown, Anna Torv

Release Date September 9, 2008

Genres Drama, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Horror

Directors Jeff Pinkner

Showrunner Jeff Pinkner

Fringe is a great example of a show that got stranger and more disconnected from reality over time in a way that strengthened the show instead of making it worse. The series was a TV show that should not have been a crime procedural . When it tried to align with this genre type and formulaic storytelling, it struggled to find its footing and an audience. Fringe season 5 took the unprecedented approach of including a time skip by suspending the main characters in time and reawakening them in an unrecognizable world for their final adventure.

While it drew heavy comparisons to other FBI shows like The X Files , Fringe offered a unique perspective because it didn't wonder if strange phenomena were happening, but where and how. Fringe fully committed itself to a fantasy world where incredible technology and parallel dimensions exist. Of course, there were certain pitfalls with this approach because of the many villains and world-ending plots that were carried out that ended up contradicting each other. However, audiences eventually learned to go with the flow and let Fringe course correct whenever it needed to.

Dark (2017 - 2020)

A german surrealist series about violence and time travel.

Netflix's Dark is a sci-fi thriller that follows the populace of a German town on the search for a missing child that quickly spins into a time-traveling journey into the heart of a conspiracy. The show's core follows four different families and follows them through different generations after they discover a wormhole near the local nuclear power plant.

Cast Peter Benedict, Deborah Kaufmann, Maja Schne, Andreas Pietschmann, Moritz Jahn, Tamar Pelzig, Karoline Eichhorn, Stephan Kampwirth, Oliver Masucci, Christian Hutcherson, Jordis Triebel, Louis Hofmann

Release Date December 1, 2017

Directors Jantje Friese

Showrunner Jantje Friese

There are a plethora of TV shows about missing children and realistic fiction about detectives trying to unravel a mystery. However, Dark distinguishes itself, allowing the disappearance to be part of not a greater criminal conspiracy, but one that transcends the boundaries of time and space. Unlike other sci-fi shows that use fantastical elements as a means to create fun and adventure, Dark lives up to its name with storylines that aren't for those faint of heart.

However, the layered elements of Dark end up providing a well-earned conclusion by the series' end.

After a wormhole is discovered in the small German town Dark is set in, the number of timelines only grows throughout the three seasons. For viewers watching Dark expecting a concise narrative about small-town politics and drama, the plot is a rude awakening. However, the layered elements of Dark end up providing a well-earned conclusion by the series' end. It's not just the story that throws the audience off kilter when viewing the show, but the atmosphere, score, and cinematography. Everything is carefully curated to immerse the watcher and leave them off balance.

20 Best Quotes From Netflix's Dark

Dark, the first German series produced by Netflix, brought a lot of complex mysteries and the most profound quotes on time and fate.

The OA (2016 - 2019)

Netflix's short-lived sci-fi phenomenon, the oa (2016).

Cast Ian Alexander. Jason Isaacs, Brandon Perea, Scott Wilson, Brendan Meyer, Patrick Gibson, Emory Cohen, Alice Krige, Phyllis Smith, Brit Marling

Release Date December 16, 2016

Genres Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery

Streaming Service(s) Netflix

Directors Anna Rose Holmer, Andrew Haigh, Zal Batmanglij

Brit Marling stars in The OA , which unfortunately was canceled after 2 seasons despite viewers' calls for renewal, meaning the cliffhanger ending will likely never be resolved. This isn't uncommon for Netflix originals, but with The OA , it seemed that season 2 had begun to resolve the most pressing questions from the show's first outing. The OA 's story is so intriguing, despite its many threads, because of the presence of Prairie as an unreliable narrator. When she reappears after many years with her eyesight restored, the audience is as in the dark as the characters.

The OA season 2 introduced the concept of multiple dimensions which led to the addition of many new characters that were difficult to juggle at times. T elling the story of two separate dimensions and realities is automatically a dangerous prospect for a TV show because it can easily lose the audience this way. Had The OA continued, it might have continued to find its footing, but for now, the ending remains open to audience interpretation.

Watch The OA on Netflix.

10 Complicated TV Shows That People Pretend To Understand (But Really Don't)

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Stay in the know about shows with Music Network of Maine on Facebook

The page is constantly being updated with posts about performances across the state.

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A recent post on the Music Network of Maine Facebook page by singer-songwriter Anni Clark about an upcoming show.

Maine music fan and guitarist John Perry started the Music Network of Maine Facebook page about a decade ago. It’s described as a place for videos, photos and events involving Maine musicians and shows in the state.

On any given day, you can see anywhere from a handful to dozens of posts about upcoming performances by musicians and bands happening at venues all over the state.

Singer-songwriter Anni Clark is an active contributor, and her most recent post shared info about a May 9 show in Westbrook. Another recent post had details about a Fleetwood Mac tribute show scheduled for May 18 in Bath.

Account: Music Network of Maine

Platform: Facebook

Followers: 12,700

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Screen Rant

10 lost moments that made viewers quit the show.

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10 Infamous "Jump The Shark" Moments That Ruined TV Shows

Lost's time travel rules & effects explained, 15 lost moments that made fans cry.

Some characters' deaths in Lost were disappointing and felt unnecessary to the storyline, leaving fans with a sense of loss and frustration.
The time travel element in Lost confused many viewers and was seen as a turning point where the show lost its uniqueness and became convoluted.
The concept of flash sideways in the final season of Lost left many fans feeling unsatisfied, as it undermined the significance of the characters' journeys on the island.

While there are many great aspects of the TV show Lost , there were moments throughout the series when the plotlines became too much for viewers to handle, and they quit the show. Though many loyal fans stuck it out all six seasons, the stories that signaled the show was going off the rails started early in the series. The first episode of Lost is considered one of the all-time greatest TV pilots , and the entirety of season 1 is strong, but after, the writers and creators struggled to think of plots that were intriguing and realistic within the show's world.

Lost made its name by utilizing flashbacks that revealed the pasts of its ensemble cast after they crash-landed on a mysterious island.

Lost made its name by utilizing flashbacks that revealed the pasts of its ensemble cast after they crash-landed on a mysterious island. However, some of the biggest characters like Jack (Matthew Fox), Kate (Evangeline Lilly), and Sawyer (Josh Holloway), were often at the center of the more unbelievable storylines presented by the show. However, there are still Lost characters whose stories are confusing , and provoke more questions than answers. Over ten years after the series finale, Lost 's stories are still hotly debated by longtime fans and first-time watchers.

The term "jump the shark" is thrown around quite often, but some famously terrible twists and painful scenes really did ruin their shows.

10 Lost Kills Off Libby In Season 2

As well as ana lucia in michael's betrayal.

Libby (Cynthia Watros) became a fan-favorite character almost as soon as she was introduced. She was a survivor from the tail section, and since the first season focused on those from the middle section, she didn’t arrive until season 2. However, she immediately connected with Hurley (Jorge Garcia), who became smitten with her and planned a picnic date that she would never attend. This was because when Michael (Harold Perrineau) returned to the group after searching for his son, he returned with an ulterior motive.

Libby was intriguing and empathetic as a character, and audiences agreed that she didn't deserve this ending, and could have elevated the show had she stayed.

In one of the most shocking twists in Lost , Michael was recruited by the Others to rescue Ben Linus (Michael Emerson). To do this Michael shot Ana Lucia (Michelle Rodriguez), and Libby had the bad luck to walk in on the aftermath of this, causing Michael to shoot her too. In a horrible twist of fate, she survived long enough for Jack to provide medical care, but she ended up succumbing to her wounds. Libby was intriguing and empathetic as a character, and audiences agreed that she didn't deserve this ending, and could have elevated the show had she stayed.

9 Jack's Thailand Flashbacks In Lost Season 3

The unnecessary origin story of his tattoo.

The majority of Jack's flashback episodes in Lost season 1 were some of the best in the series, adding depth and nuance to his character. It was important to see that Jack wasn't the picture-perfect handsome doctor that people thought he was, and that he carried just as much baggage as anyone else on the show. However, after three seasons of flashbacks, the writers were running out of backstory to explain, and resorted to one of the worst episodes of the entire show, "Stranger in a Strange Land," which tells the story of Jack's tattoos.

To be blunt, few if anyone watching cared about how Jack got these tattoos, and the plotline that he got them after traveling to Thailand was an exoticization of the country and culture. The tattoo artist, Achara (Bai Ling), and Jack have an unnecessary romantic relationship that chips away at any remaining sympathy for Jack. Additionally, the episode doesn't tell the audience anything they don't already know about Jack, making the episode culturally insensitive and full of filler.

8 Lost Becomes A Time Travel Show

The island had always been powerful, but suddenly it could move in time.

However, Desmond's ability to experience the past, present, and future at various times wasn't what shocked fans the most.

Suspending disbelief is an important part of watching any TV show, but when Ben suddenly revealed the giant wheel that could disconnect the island from time and space, it was hard to believe. Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick) wasn't a survivor, but he knew the island better than most characters on the show and experienced a form of time travel within his consciousness. However, Desmond's ability to experience the past, present, and future at various times wasn't what shocked fans the most. It was when the survivors and the island were physically brought to different times.

After the wheel is turned, the survivors find themselves at different points in time and space, making it difficult to keep up with what's happening and when. Though Lost does its best to avoid paradoxes at all costs, this doesn't stop the time travel from being confusing, and the moment when many fans felt the show officially jumped the shark. Placing the characters in different timelines also meant people with the best relationship dynamics of the show were separated, and it took many episodes for loved ones to reunite.

Time travel plays a significant role in Lost, especially during the show’s later seasons, but how exactly does it work in the ABC series’ universe?

7 Paulo & Nikki's Storyline

Two of the most hated characters on the show.

While some characters introduced after season 1 successfully carved out their niche within the fabric of the show, others were so bad they were killed off after just a few episodes. Unlike Libby's death, which caused anguish and grief, Paulo's (Rodrigo Santoro) and Nikki's (Kiele Sanchez) demise was met with a sigh of relief. The two con artists from the tail section barely propelled the plot forward, and were so busy arguing about the diamonds they stole that they ended up paralyzing each other and getting buried alive.

At their best, characters should bring something new and compelling to a series, and even if they're villains they should be vital to the narrative. Paulo and Nikki served practically no purpose other than to get in the way of the main character's plans and take up valuable screen time. It's not the actor's fault, who did as well as they could with the material they had, but having to follow the plotlines of Paulo and Nikki always felt like a waste of time.

6 Sun & Jin Getting Killed Off After Reuniting

The best couple and two of the most well-developed characters.

Sun (Yunjin Kim) and Jin (Daniel Dae Kim) crash land on the island as a married couple, and they go through so much together that it's horribly unfair when their love story ends in tragedy. Each character grows and changes to become better for the other, and when Sun leaves the island, believing Jin was killed in the freighter explosion, it's a devastating blow. After this, Sun relentlessly hunts Ben, believing he caused Jin's death, only for Ben to reveal that Jin is still alive and on the island.

Sun and Jin become trapped and die in each other's arms not long after this, leaving their daughter an orphan, and ending their story early.

This was Sun's reason for returning, and when she finds him on the island it's the kind of reunion that can be found in the most iconic romance movies. However, the fact that this happily ever after was so short-lived was like a gut punch for anyone rooting for the couple. Sun and Jin become trapped and die in each other's arms not long after this, leaving their daughter an orphan, and ending their story early. After watching them struggle to find their way back to each other for so many years, this was a letdown.

5 Juliet Is Killed Off After She & Sawyer Break Up

Though she was one of the others, juliet quickly became part of the central group.

Juliet (Elizabeth Mitchell) might have been part of the Others, but her most significant relationships are with the survivors, namely Sawyer and Jack. Though the interpersonal dynamics of the Others was one of the disappointing Lost mysteries that seemed important , but quickly faded into the background, Juliet's role was always clear. She was brought to the island as a fertility doctor, making her invaluable to both the Others and the survivors. Initially, she and Jack connected, but soon, she, Sawyer, Jack, and Kate were all competing for each other's affection.

This romantic angle was a tired and uninteresting thrust of the story, as there were more important issues facing those on the island. However, when Juliet and Sawyer decided to be together, it felt like things were finally calming down, and that they would be good for each other. Similarly to the fate of Sun and Jin, Lost decides to kill Juliet in the aftermath of an explosion that sends everyone back to their present timeline. This trend of killing off a character as soon as they achieve some happiness is one that Lost could have done without.

4 The Survivors Cause The Explosion That Made Them Crash

The explosion that kills juliet and doesn't change the future.

The road to get there might be altered, but if a character dies they will always die, and if the survivors crash on the island, then they will always crash.

Due to Lost 's rules of time travel, the final outcome of past events is fixed and can never change. The road to get there might be altered, but if a character dies they will always die, and if the survivors crash on the island, then they will always crash. When the survivors are sent back to 1977, Jack gets the idea that if they set off an explosion it will disrupt the island's electromagnetic field and change the past so that he and the others never arrive on the island.

Of course, it turns out that it's this very explosion that ensures they will crash and increases the island's electromagnetic pull. Though time travel must have rules and introducing competing timelines would have been all the more confusing for the series, the fact that the characters go through so much and lose several people in their quest to change the future is disappointing. It's also a low point for Jack's character, as he gets caught up in yet another scheme that won't turn out how he thinks.

3 Claire Abandons Aaron & Disappears

Following in the footsteps of rousseau.

One of the harsh realities of rewatching Lost is how it treats certain characters that seemed important at the start of the series but were neglected as the seasons continued. Claire was a compelling character in season 1, and her pregnancy was a source of tension and stakes in the story. When she finally gives birth to Aaron, her son, he is immediately targeted by the Others, which causes Claire immense pain and stress. However, her loyalty to her son fades as she loses her grip on reality, and Kate takes Aaron with her when she leaves the island.

This causes Claire to completely unravel and turn into Danielle Rousseau, a woman the survivors meet who had her child stolen from her by the Others. Claire disappears for several years and is missing during season 5. She pops back up in season 6 as a changed person to complete her story arc, even though she's unrecognizable from the woman who crashed on the island so long ago. For the first several seasons Claire does everything she can to be a good mother, and seeing her flip to become a devotee of the island didn't make any sense.

2 The Survivors' Prolonged Imprisonment In The Cages

Their relationship with the others starts out violently.

It makes sense that none of the survivors liked or trusted any of the Others for a long time, as one of them kidnapped Claire and killed several people in season 1, and then later they captured several survivors and put them in cages. The cages plotline turns out to be an extended ploy to get Kate and Sawyer together, as the pair end up acting on their feelings for each other once they've been imprisoned long enough. It was an exciting moment for fans of the couple but the characters are out of the action for too long.

The cages are returned to several times throughout the series, and each time it feels like a way for the writers to pause the story allowing them to think of what to do next.

Their being in cages also allowed Jack to see them and turn to Juliet for comfort, making their complex romantic entanglements a more prominent part of the show. The cages are returned to several times throughout the series, and each time it feels like a way for the writers to pause the story allowing them to think of what to do next. Additionally, as the Others end up becoming the survivors' allies later on, forgiving this entrapment is a tall order. The Others never have a strong enough motivation to justify this brutality.

Lost had many intense and exciting moments throughout its six-year run. Whether joyously or remorsefully, these moments stood out the most.

1 The Flash Sideways

Which culminates in the controversial series finale.

For audience members who stuck with Lost until the series finale, there was nothing that could stop them from seeing the story through until the very end. However, the flash sideways that was implemented in season 6 to show the imagined afterlife of the characters ended up doing more harm than good. It was nice to see the return of beloved characters who got to live out their fantasy lives before moving on. Since the series had already employed flashbacks and flashforwards, the only other way to play with the timeline was to create a new one.

It was a classic tactic for a show's final season, as it allowed characters who died many seasons before to reappear and get the lives they always wanted instead of reliving the trauma of the island. However, in the end, none of the flash sideways plotlines ever existed, and since some of the characters chose to stay in this afterlife limbo, it's even less certain what's real and what's fake. Though the survivors weren't dead for the entire show, the flash sideways made it seem as if none of the series' events mattered.

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Money blog: Major free childcare change kicks in today as parents of younger children can now apply

From today, eligible parents of children from nine-months-old in England can register for 15 free hours of childcare per week. Read this and the rest of our Weekend Money features, and leave a comment, and we'll be back with rolling personal finance and consumer news on Monday.

Sunday 12 May 2024 11:59, UK

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From Sunday, eligible working parents of children from nine-months-old in England will be able to register for access to up to 15 free hours of government-funded childcare per week.

This will then be granted from September.

Check if you're eligible here - or read on for our explainer on free childcare across the UK.

Three and four year olds

In England, all parents of children aged three and four in England can claim 15 hours of free childcare per week, for 1,140 hours (38 weeks) a year, at an approved provider.

This is a universal offer open to all.

It can be extended to 30 hours where both parents (or the sole parent) are in work, earn the weekly minimum equivalent of 16 hours at the national minimum or living wage, and have an income of less than £100,000 per year.

Two year olds

Previously, only parents in receipt of certain benefits were eligible for 15 hours of free childcare.

But, as of last month, this was extended to working parents.

This is not a universal offer, however.

A working parent must earn more than £8,670 but less than £100,000 per year. For couples, the rule applies to both parents.

Nine months old

In September, this same 15-hour offer will be extended to working parents of children aged from nine months. From 12 May, those whose children will be at least nine months old on 31 August can apply to received the 15 hours of care from September.

From September 2025

The final change to the childcare offer in England will be rolled out in September 2025, when eligible working parents of all children under the age of five will be able to claim 30 hours of free childcare a week.

In some areas of Wales, the Flying Start early years programme offers 12.5 hours of free childcare for 39 weeks, for eligible children aged two to three. The scheme is based on your postcode area, though it is currently being expanded.

All three and four-year-olds are entitled to free early education of 10 hours per week in approved settings during term time under the Welsh government's childcare offer.

Some children of this age are entitled to up to 30 hours per week of free early education and childcare over 48 weeks of the year. The hours can be split - but at least 10 need to be used on early education.

To qualify for this, each parent must earn less than £100,000 per year, be employed and earn at least the equivalent of working 16 hours a week at the national minimum wage, or be enrolled on an undergraduate, postgraduate or further education course that is at least 10 weeks in length.

All three and four-year-olds living in Scotland are entitled to at least 1,140 hours per year of free childcare, with no work or earnings requirements for parents.

This is usually taken as 30 hours per week over term time (38 weeks), though each provider will have their own approach.

Some households can claim free childcare for two-year-olds. To be eligible you have to be claiming certain benefits such as Income Support, Jobseeker's Allowance or Universal Credit, or have a child that is in the care of their local council or living with you under a guardianship order or kinship care order.

Northern Ireland

There is no scheme for free childcare in Northern Ireland. Some other limited support is available.

Working parents can access support from UK-wide schemes such as tax credits, Universal Credit, childcare vouchers and tax-free childcare.

Aside from this, all parents of children aged three or four can apply for at least 12.5 hours a week of funded pre-school education during term time. But over 90% of three-year-olds have a funded pre-school place - and of course this is different to childcare.

What other help could I be eligible for?

Tax-free childcare - Working parents in the UK can claim up to £500 every three months (up to £2,000 a year) for each of their children to help with childcare costs.

If the child is disabled, the amount goes up to £1,000 every three months (up to £4,000 a year).

To claim the benefit, parents will need to open a tax-free childcare account online. For every 80p paid into the account, the government will top it up by 20p.

The scheme is available until the September after the child turns 11.

Universal credit - Working families on universal credit can claim back up to 85% of their monthly childcare costs, as long as the care is paid for upfront. The most you can claim per month is £951 for one child or £1,630 for two or more children.

Tax credits - People claiming working tax credit can get up to 70% of what they pay for childcare if their costs are no more than £175 per week for one child or £300 per work for multiple children.

By Jess Sharp , Money team

Money saving trends are constantly popping up on social media - but one in particular has been gaining huge amounts of attention.

Created accidentally by a comedian, loud budgeting is breaking down the taboo of speaking about money.

The idea is based on being firmer/more vocal about your financial boundaries in social situations and setting out what you are happy to spend your money on, instead of "Keeping up with the Joneses".

On TikTok alone, videos published under the hashtag #loudbudgeting have garnered more than 30 million views - and that figure is continuing to climb.

We spoke to Lukas Battle - the 26-year-old who unintentionally created the trend as part of a comedy sketch.

Based in New York, he came up with the term in a skit about the "quiet luxury" hype, which had spread online in 2023 inspired by shows like Succession.

The term was used for humble bragging about your wealth with expensive items that were subtle in their design - for example, Gwyneth Paltrow's £3,900 moss green wool coat from The Row, which she wore during her ski resort trial...

"I was never a big fan of the quiet luxury trend, so I just kind of switched the words and wrote 'loud budgeting is in'. I'm tired of spending money and I don't want to pretend to be rich," Lukas said.

"That's how it started and then the TikTok comments were just obsessed with that original idea."

This was the first time he mentioned it...

Lukas explained that it wasn't about "being poor" but about not being afraid of sharing your financial limits and "what's profitable for you personally".

"It's not 'skip a coffee a day and you'll become a millionaire'."

While talking money has been seen as rude or taboo, he said it's something his generation is more comfortable doing.

"I've seen more debate around the topic and I think people are really intrigued and attracted by the idea," he said.

"It's just focusing your spending and time on things you enjoy and cutting out the things you might feel pressured to spend your money on."

He has incorporated loud budgeting into his own life, telling his friends "it's free to go outside" and opting for cheaper dinner alternatives.

"Having the terminology and knowing it's a trend helps people understand it and there's no awkward conversation around it," he said.

The trend has been a big hit with so-called American "finfluencers", or "financial influencers", but people in the UK have started practising it as well.

Mia Westrap has taken up loud budgeting by embarking on a no-buy year and sharing her finances with her 11.3k TikTok followers.

Earning roughly £2,100 a month, she spends around £1,200 on essentials, like rent, petrol and car insurance, but limits what else she can purchase.

Clothes, fizzy drinks, beauty treatments, makeup, dinners out and train tickets are just some things on her "red list".

The 26-year-old PHD student first came across the idea back in 2017, but decided to take up the challenge this year after realising she was living "pay check to pay check".

She said her "biggest fear" in the beginning was that her friends wouldn't understand what she was doing, but she found loud budgeting helped.

"I'm still trying my best to just go along with what everyone wants to do but I just won't spend money while we do it and my friends don't mind that, we don't make a big deal out of it," she said.

So far, she has been able to save £1,700, and she said talking openly about her money has been "really helpful".

"There's no way I could have got this far if I wasn't baring my soul to the internet about the money I have spent. It has been a really motivating factor."

Financial expert John Webb said loud budgeting has the ability to help many "feel empowered" and create a "more realistic" relationship with money.

"This is helping to normalise having open and honest conversations about finances," the consumer affair manager at Experien said.

"It can also reduce the anxiety some might have by keeping their financial worries to themselves."

However, he warned it's important to be cautious and to take the reality of life into consideration.

"It could cause troubles within friendship groups if they're not on the same page as you or have different financial goals," he said.

"This challenge isn't meant to stop you from having fun, but it is designed to help people become more conscious and intentional when it comes to money, and reduce the stigma around talking about it."

Rightmove's keyword tool shows Victorian-era houses are the most commonly searched period properties, with people drawn to their ornate designs and features.

Georgian and Edwardian-style are second and third respectively, followed by Tudor properties. Regency ranked in fifth place.

Rightmove property expert Tim Bannister said: "Home hunters continue to be captivated by the character and charm of properties that we see in period dramas.

"Victorian homes remain particularly popular, characterised by their historic charm, solid construction, and spacious interiors. You'll often find Victorian houses in some of the most desirable locations which include convenient access to schools and transport links."

Throughout the week Money blog readers have shared their thoughts on the stories we've been covering, with the most correspondence coming in on...

A hotly contested debate on the best brand of tea
Downsizing homes
The cost of Michelin-starred food

Job interview mistakes

On Wednesday we reported on a new £12m ad from PG Tips in response to it falling behind rivals such as Twinings, Yorkshire Tea and Tetley....

We had lots of comments like this...

How on earth was the PG Tips advert so expensive? I prefer Tetley tea, PG Tips is never strong enough flavour for me. Shellyleppard

The reason for the sales drop with PG Tips could be because they increased the price and reduced the quantity of bags from 240 to 180 - it's obvious. Royston

And then this question which we've tried to answer below...

Why have PG Tips changed from Pyramid shape tea bags, to a square? Sam

Last year PG Tips said it was changing to a square bag that left more room for leaves to infuse, as the bags wouldn't fold over themselves.

We reported on data showing how downsizing could save you money for retirement - more than £400,000, in some regions, by swapping four beds for two.

Some of our readers shared their experiences...

We are downsizing and moving South so it's costing us £100k extra for a smaller place, all money from retirement fund. AlanNorth

Interesting read about downsizing for retirement. We recently did this to have the means to retire early at 52. However, we bought a house in the south of France for the price of a flat in our town in West Sussex. Now living the dream! OliSarah

How much should we pay for food?

Executive chef at London's two-Michelin-starred Ikoyi, Jeremy Chan, raised eyebrows when he suggested to the Money blog that Britons don't pay enough for restaurant food.

Ikoyi, the 35th best restaurant in the world, charges £320 for its tasting menu.

"I don't think people pay enough money for food, I think we charge too little, [but] we want to always be accessible to as many people as possible, we're always trying our best to do that," he said, in a piece about his restaurant's tie up with Uber Eats...

We had this in...

Are they serious? That is two weeks' worth of food shopping for me, if the rich can afford this "tasting menu" then they need to be taxed even more by the government, it's just crazy! Steve T

If the rate of pay is proportionate to the vastly overpriced costs of the double Michelin star menu, I would gladly peel quail eggs for four-hour stints over continuing to be abused as a UK supply teacher. AndrewWard

Does this two-star Michelin star chef live in the real world? Who gives a toss if he stands and peels his quails eggs for four hours, and he can get the best turbot from the fishmonger fresh on a daily basis? It doesn't justify the outrageous price he is charging for his tasting menu. Topaztraveller

Chefs do make me laugh, a steak is just a steak, they don't make the meat! They just cook it like the rest of us, but we eat out because we can't be bothered cooking! StevieGrah

Finally, many of you reacted to this feature on common mistakes in job interviews...

Those 10 biggest mistakes people make in interviews is the dumbest thing I've ever read. They expect all that and they'll be offering a £25k a year job. Why wouldn't I want to know about benefits and basic sick pay? And also a limp handshake? How's that relevant to how you work? Jre90

Others brought their own tips...

Whenever I go for an interview I stick to three points: 1. Be yourself 2. Own the interview 3. Wear the clothes that match the job you are applying Kevin James Blakey

Two big economic moments dominated the news agenda in Money this week - interest rates and GDP.

As expected, the Bank of England held the base rate at 5.25% on Wednesday - but a shift in language was instructive about what may happen next.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey opened the door to a summer cut to 5%, telling reporters that an easing of rates at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on 20 June was neither ruled out nor a fait accompli.

More surprisingly, he suggested that rate cuts, when they start, could go deeper "than currently priced into market rates".

He refused to be drawn on what that path might look like - but markets had thought rates could bottom out at 4.5% or 4.75% this year, and potentially 3.5% or 4% next.

"To make sure that inflation stays around the 2% target - that inflation will neither be too high nor too low - it's likely that we will need to cut Bank rate over the coming quarters and make monetary policy somewhat less restrictive over the forecast period," Mr Bailey said.

You can read economics editor Ed Conway's analysis of the Bank's decision here ...

On Friday we discovered the UK is no longer in recession.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 0.6% between January and March, the Office for National Statistics said.

This followed two consecutive quarters of the economy shrinking.

The data was more positive than anticipated.

"Britain is not just out of recession," wrote Conway. "It is out of recession with a bang."

The UK has seen its fastest growth since the tailend of the pandemic - and Conway picked out three other reasons for optimism.

1/ An economic growth rate of 0.6% is near enough to what economists used to call "trend growth". It's the kind of number that signifies the economy growing at more or less "normal" rates.

2/ 0.6% means the UK is, alongside Canada, the fastest-growing economy in the G7 (we've yet to hear from Japan, but economists expect its economy to contract in the first quarter).

3/ Third, it's not just gross domestic product that's up. So too is gross domestic product per head - the number you get when you divide our national income by every person in the country. After seven years without any growth, GDP per head rose by 0.4% in the first quarter.

GDP per head is a more accurate yardstick for the "feelgood factor", said Conway - perhaps meaning people will finally start to feel better off.

For more on where Friday's figures leaves us, listen to an Ian King Business Podcast special...

The Money blog is your place for consumer news, economic analysis and everything you need to know about the cost of living - bookmark news.sky.com/money .

It runs with live updates every weekday - while on Saturdays we scale back and offer you a selection of weekend reads.

Check them out this morning and we'll be back on Monday with rolling news and features.

The Money team is Emily Mee, Bhvishya Patel, Jess Sharp, Katie Williams, Brad Young and Ollie Cooper, with sub-editing by Isobel Souster. The blog is edited by Jimmy Rice.

If you've missed any of the features we've been running in Money this year, or want to check back on something you've previously seen in the blog, this archive of our most popular articles may help...

Loaves of bread have been recalled from shelves in Japan after they were found to contain the remains of a rat.

Production of the bread in Tokyo has been halted after parts of a "small animal" were found by at least two people.

Pasco Shikishima Corp, which produces the bread, said 104,000 packages have been recalled as it apologised and promised compensation.

A company representative told Sky News's US partner network, NBC News, that a "small black rat" was found in the bread. No customers were reported to have fallen ill as a result of ingesting the contaminated bread.

"We deeply apologise for the serious inconvenience and trouble this has caused to our customers, suppliers, and other concerned parties," the spokesman said.

Pasco added in a separate statement that "we will do our utmost to strengthen our quality controls so that this will never happen again. We ask for your understanding and your co-operation."

Japanese media reports said at least two people who bought the bread in the Gunma prefecture, north-west of Tokyo, complained to the company about finding a rodent in the bread.

Record levels of shoplifting appear to be declining as fewer shopkeepers reported thefts last year, new figures show.

A survey by the Office for National Statistics shows 26% of retailers experienced customer theft in 2023, down from a record high of 28% in 2022.

This comes despite a number of reports suggesting shoplifting is becoming more frequent.

A separate ONS finding , which used police crime data, showed reports of shoplifting were at their highest level in 20 years in 2023, with law enforcements logging 430,000 instances of the crime.

Let's get you up to speed on the biggest business news of the past 24 hours.

A privately owned used-car platform is circling Cazoo Group, its stricken US-listed rival, which is on the brink of administration.

Sky News has learnt that Motors.co.uk is a leading contender to acquire Cazoo's marketplace operation, which would include its brand and intellectual property assets.

The process to auction the used-car platform's constituent parts comes after it spent tens of millions of pounds on sponsorship deals in football, snooker and darts in a rapid attempt to gain market share.

The owner of British Airways has reported a sharp rise in profits amid soaring demand for trips and a fall in the cost of fuel.

International Airlines Group said its operating profit for the first three months of the year was €68m (£58.5m) - above expectations and up from €9m (£7.7m) during the same period in 2023.

The company, which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, said earnings had soared thanks to strong demand, particularly over the Easter holidays.

The prospect of a strike across Tata Steel's UK operations has gained further traction after a key union secured support for industrial action.

Community, which has more than 3,000 members, said 85% voted in favour of fighting the India-owned company's plans for up to 2,800 job losses, the majority of them at the country's biggest steelworks in Port Talbot, South Wales.

Tata confirmed last month it was to press ahead with the closure of the blast furnaces at the plant, replacing them with electric arc furnaces to reduce emissions and costs.

In doing so, the company rejected an alternative plan put forward by the Community, GMB and Unite unions that, they said, would raise productivity and protect jobs across the supply chain.

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COMMENTS

Time travel
Time travel is a recurring theme and part of the mythology on Lost. First hinted in the season 2 episode, "The Long Con", the Island constantly moves, and by using an ancient wheel underneath the Orchid, the electromagnetic power on the Island allows the inhabitants to travel through time. Other cases feature the risks of time travel, which often end with death, due to the inability to find a ...
Lost's Time Travel Rules & Effects Explained
Time travel is confusing within the world of Lost, but the show's version of this sci-fi concept is partly explained during a conversation between Daniel Faraday and Desmond in season 4, episode 5, "The Constant."Faraday studies time travel and even finds a way to send a rat's consciousness into the future. This enables the rat to know things it hasn't learned yet, similar to how Desmond ...
Lost: How The Island Moves Through Time, Explained
The idea of time travel was first explored in Lost, season 2, episode 13, "The Long Con", and it would soon become a near-constant part of the mind-bending narrative of the show. Though ABC thought Lost would fail early on, the show became a smash hit because it continued to create surprising (albeit) confusing twists on a weekly basis. While ...
Lost: Why Desmond Had Time Travel Powers
In ABC's Lost show, Desmond Hume (Henry Ian Cusick) possessed unique time travel abilities. Despite not being one of the Flight 815 passengers, Desmond turned out to be one of the show's most important characters. Much of his significance to Lost's story can be attributed to his ability to travel to different time periods.. Originally, time travel was one genre that had no role to play ...
How Does Time Travel Actually Work In Lost?
"Lost's" attitude towards time travel is best summed up by one of the series' most oft-repeated phrases: "Whatever happened, happened." This phrase comes up several times throughout the show.
The Entire Lost Timeline Explained
The escape and return of the Oceanic Six. After betraying his friends in order to rescue his kidnapped son, Walt, from the Others, Michael was allowed to leave the island and return to the U.S ...
Time
This is an article about the general theme pertaining to the show. For specific dates of events referenced on the show, see Timeline. The passage of time was a recurring theme in Lost. Characters traveled in time coming and leaving the island, and skipped randomly through time over a series of episodes. Time also serves as a general recurring motif, with frequent references to time and ...
Lost's The Constant turns 10: Revisiting the time-travel episode a
Ten years ago, on Feb. 28, 2008, Lost aired the fifth episode of the fourth season. It's about a man unstuck in time, trapped in confusing calculus, searching for true romance. Revisiting "The ...
Time travel/Theories
Contents. 1 Time travelling is the cause of much of the island strangeness. 2 Jacob's enemy orchestrated the Time Flashes to manipulate John Locke. 2.1 "Because You Left". 2.2 "The Lie" and "Jughead". 2.3 "The Little Prince". 2.4 "The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham". 3 Time-traveling triggers.
EXPLAINING THE TIME TRAVEL IN LOST : r/lost
There are two types of time travel in LOST. The first is MIND TRAVEL (in which consciousness moves through time). The second is PHYSICAL TRAVEL (in which people physically move through time). THE PRIME MOVER. The only law that is absolute in LOST is "Whatever happened, happened".And, as we see in the show, the entirety of events that happen between Seasons 1-5 are predicated on a causal time ...
Lost: The Compass Time Travel Paradox
Game-Show. Reality-TV. The season 5 premiere of Lost brilliantly introduced time travel as a major component of the storytelling. The people left behind on the Island are randomly jumping through ...
Lost and Television Show Time Travel
Time travel can follow a set of consistent, physics-approved principles, while also generating high drama and a few freakishly powerful characters. If Lost 's elaborate mythology can survive ...
Lost's Time Travel Theories Start To Become Clear
Last night's episode of Lost, "This Place is Death," brought us inches away from blowing open the island's time travel secrets.While it was nice to get answers for a change, the episode didn't do ...
20 Best Time-Travel Shows Ranked
17. Fringe. Fox. Like "Lost", "Fringe" is considered one of the most binge-worthy sci-fi shows of all time but the fact that it isn't exclusively about time travel means it lands near the tail end ...
Lost Had TV's Best Time Travel Story
As surprising as it may be, season 4 of Lost offered the best time travel story that's ever been on TV, despite the fact that Lost wasn't even a time travel show. The concept was introduced to the show in the season 3 episode "Flashes Before Your Eyes" and evolved into a major plot device in season 5 when several of the Oceanic Flight 8-15 survivors became trapped in the 1970s.
Paradox Lost: Time Travel and Free Will in the Television Show Lost
The television series Lost uses the motif of time travel to consider the problem of human free will, following the tradition of Humean compatibilism in asserting that human beings possess free will in a deterministic universe. This paper reexamines Lost 's final mystery, the "Flash Sideways" world, presenting a revisionist view of the ...
The 32 Best TV Shows About Time Travel
Timeless, NBC (2016 - 2018) Another time travel TV series that has already become a cult classic and is adored by fans all over the world is NBC's Timeless. And despite the turmoil that this show has gone through, it still is time traveling at its best. Starring Malcolm Barrett, Matt Lanter, and Abigail Spencer as Rufus, Wyatt, and Lucy ...
Lost: 10 Ways It's The Best Sci-Fi Show Of All Time
After discovering there are six hatches on the island, the viewers learned that time travel was being studied. Time Travel can be a fickle beast in any type of media, yet many movies and TV shows in the sci-fi genre seem to use it. Lost followed suit and introduced the idea, first hinting at it in "The Long Con" episode of Season 2. It's later ...
80 of the Best Entertaining Time Travel TV Shows You Need To Watch
Time After Time (2017). Credit: Warner Bros. Television. #71: THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE (2022) (TV-MA) - Steven Moffat's new (but short-lived) romance series is about a married couple dealing with the problems of time travel. #72: TIME AFTER TIME (2017) - A short but sweet romantic series about a young H.G. Wells.
Time travel tv shows
Time-traveling rogue Rip Hunter must recruit a ragtag team of heroes and villains to help prevent an apocalypse that could impact not only Earth, but all of time. Creator Greg Berlanti Marc Guggenheim Phil Klemmer Stars Caity Lotz Amy Louise Pemberton Dominic Purcell. 3. Doctor Who. 2005-2022 175 eps TV-PG.
42 Best Time Travel & Quantum Theory TV Series
The best TV series with a major time travel premise. Shows that were reviewed, but didn't make the cut: Legends of Tomorrow The Flash Time Tunnel Terra Nova Primeval Time Traveling Bong The Girl from Tomorrow Goodnight Sweetheart Lost in Austen 7 Days Journeyman Tru Calling 5ive Days to Midnight The Fantastic Journey Time Trax Mirror, Mirror Dr. Jin Somewhere Between Captain Z-ro Ashes to ...
Daniel Faraday
"Daniel" redirects here. For other uses of "Daniel", see Daniel (disambiguation). Dr. Daniel Faraday was a physicist and professor who parachuted onto the Island from a helicopter sent by the freighter Kahana. He was distinguished by his polite demeanor and his scientific insight into the Island's mysterious properties. He was the son of Eloise Hawking and Charles Widmore, who were both former ...
LOST Secretly Hinted At Its Time Travel Twist In Season 2
ABC's Lost show secretly hinted at its time travel twist long before it was officially implemented into the story. As a plot device typically associated with the science fiction genre, time travel didn't originally fit into Lost's central mystery.That being said, it ended up serving as the driving force behind the story for Lost season 5.. At first, Lost's exploration of the time travel ...
10 Complicated TV Shows That People Pretend To Understand (But ...
The show received a revival for a third and final season two decades later to resolve the cliffhanger left at the end of the second season. CastEverett McGill, Russ Tamblyn, Mdchen Amick, Grace ...
TV Shows
These days, the small screen has some very big things to offer. From sitcoms to dramas to travel and talk shows, these are all the best programs on TV.
Stay in the know about shows with Music Network of Maine on Facebook
Maine music fan and guitarist John Perry started the Music Network of Maine Facebook page about a decade ago. It's described as a place for videos, photos and events involving Maine musicians ...
10 Lost Moments That Made Viewers Quit The Show
The time travel element in Lost confused many viewers and was seen as a turning point where the show lost its uniqueness and became convoluted. The concept of flash sideways in the final season of Lost left many fans feeling unsatisfied, as it undermined the significance of the characters' journeys on the island.
Money latest: Chocolate is a superfood
A survey by the Office for National Statistics shows 26% of retailers experienced customer theft in 2023, down from a record high of 28% in 2022. This comes despite a number of reports suggesting ...