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[[Time Travel|Time Travelers]] are often prevented from bringing along any modern technology when they go back in time. When they arrive in the past, they have to rely on the things available during that time period.
The reasons for this vary. Sometimes the time travelers simply want to avoid changing the timeline too much, and they realize that, say, [[Giving Radio to
Sometimes the inverse is seen, where it's not possible to take anything from the past back to the future. (Sometimes this is justified by the claim that, for the object, the future doesn't exist yet.) Since it's otherwise not much of a dramatic limitation, this version usually only comes up in stories where a time-traveler is trying to save something (or some''one'') from being destroyed in the past.
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** In the pilot episode of ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', the human resistance gets around this by sending an engineer back to the 1960s, where he builds a plasma rifle and time machine and stashes them in a bank vault.
** And one of the Dark Horse series of Terminator comics had a group of T-800s sent back to the past accompanied by a very unfortunate human in whose abdomen they'd surgically implanted future weapons prior to coming back. They ripped him open upon arrival and were good to go, rayguns-wise. Why Skynet doesn't do this more often (or just wrap the weapons in synthetic flesh, the same way it does the T-800 exoskeletons) is [[Fridge Logic|unexplained]].
* ''[[
* In the movie ''Timeline'', the time travelers make sure not to bring anything modern back. {{spoiler|Except for one bloody idiot, whose bringing along a few grenades screws the whole thing up when he blows up the transfer point.}} In the original book, they bring [[Translator Microbes|translator earpieces]] along, but no other modern technology.
* In the third ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (
== Literature ==
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* ''[[Doomsday Book]]'' and ''[[To Say Nothing of the Dog]]'', by [[Connie Willis]] use the reversed version: time travelers can bring things from the future to the past, but not the other way round. {{spoiler|...except for things that would have been destroyed shortly anyway.}}
** And, of course, a cat, because {{spoiler|the cat was going to drown anyway. Except it wasn't, and the net allowing it to go through was a [[Batman Gambit]] by time itself to cause a cathedral to be rebuilt in a certain spot hundreds of years later, apparently.}}
* In the [[
* In [[Spider Robinson]]'s ''[[Time Pressure]]'', the time traveler arrives naked (except for her computer headband thing) and ''bald'' because of the limitations of the time machine. Time travel in some of the author's other books has similar limitations, such as an inability to bring living and nonliving things at the same time.
** Wouldn't that also mean she returns [[Nightmare Fuel|without fingernails]]?
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* The first ''[[Doom]]'' novel has this, not when time-travelling, but when teleporting. The characters worry about whether it includes things like intestinal flora.
* In a spin on this, the Old Kingdom of Garth Nix's ''[[Abhorsen]]'' trilogy is hostile to modern technology. Things that work in Ancelstierre, like telephones, machine guns and cars, cease to function once they get north of the border -- or even just close to the border, if the wind is blowing from the north. Things made by machines also tend to fall apart. As a result, travelers to the Old Kingdom have to be prepared to bring only things made by hand, and the border guard know how to use swords and bows as well as firearms.
* A similar version happens in [[Vernor Vinge]]'s ''[[
* [[The Company Novels]] by Kage Baker use the reversed version: time travel is only possible into the past, and things of the past can't be carried back to the present (their future). The Company gets around this using a very, very elaborate [[Write Back to
* Though it involves dimensional travel instead of time travel, in ''The Great Game'' series by Dave Duncan, Strangers can't take anything with them to other worlds. This includes not only their clothes, but dental fillings, prosthetics, and possibly the contents of their stomachs.
* Normally averted in [[Time Warp Trio]]. However, when they go back to the time of the cavemen with the intention of bringing back modern tech, they're left with nothing but their glasses, hat, and a straw.
** This is because they tried to take too much back. Also, another book mentions trying to take too much knowledge from the future to the present can be bad.
* Subverted in Robert Charles Wilson's ''[[The Chronoliths]]'', where people don't travel in time, but a future leader sends back giant monuments to his victories from the future. These monuments are also extremely destructive weapons ("city killers") when they arrive.
* Time travel is a major part of the plot in the sixth [[
** Their embarrassment forms part of the [[Unresolved Sexual Tension]] between the two in this book.
* In [[
* The [[Dinosaur Cove]] series is like this. The kids can't bring anything back to the present with them. They can take their info gadgets back in time with them, though.
== Live Action TV ==
* The early ''[[
* Sam in [[Quantum Leap]] is never able to take anything with him during his leaps for a damn good reason: He [[Body Surf|Body Surfs]] through time instead of physically going back.
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* In the text adventure game ''Time Zone'', any object taken back to a time before it was invented vanishes from existence.
* In ''[[Day of the Tentacle]]'', the damaged time machine cannot send living creatures and larger objects, so the player has to find ways around this problem, such as putting a hamster in a freezer and then microwaving it in the future, and putting a sweater in the dryer with 200 years' worth of quarters (which shrinks to doll-size).
* In ''[[
* ''[[
* The Styx Time Gate in the ''[[Star Ocean]]'' series prevents anyone from taking modern technology (or indeed, anything more than clothes) into the past. It's never explained why this is the case, or what happens if you try.
** The Japanese ''[[Guide Dang It|guide books]]'' explain that it is not technology per se that is blocked, but rather metallic objects. The Time Gate is an electromagnetic phenomenon, and metal or electronic objects would interfere with its operation much like when a person wears metal jewelery during an MRI scan. Carry metal or electronics with you, and at best you'll arrive in a different time and place from where you intended. At worst you'll be dead.
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== Web Original ==
* The time traveling boat [[SCP Foundation
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