39,327
edits
m (Mass update links) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 4:
Can also be thought of as [[Evil Counterpart]] [[Recycled in Space|IN TIME!]] If it does not overlap with [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], it will instead overlap with [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right]]: In this case, the historical event in question goes as it originally did in the "good" timeline, and is averted in the "bad" timeline.
Named, of course, for the [[Terminator (
{{examples}}
== Anime ==
* ''[[
* ''[[
Line 25:
== Film ==
* ''[[Terminator (
** In the first movie, a robot is sent back to kill Sarah Connor before she even gives birth to John Connor, and a [[Badass Normal]] human is sent back to protect her.
** In the second and third movies, a [[Voluntary Shapeshifting|shapeshifting]] robot is sent back to kill John Connor, either as a child, or shortly before the onset of the [[Robot War]]. Each time, a reprogrammed robot like the evil one in the first movie is sent back to protect him.
*** In the third film, because John Connor cannot be located, the T-X is instead sent after who will become John Connor's top lieutenants and wife. Finding John Connor was just a bonus.
*** Ignore the [[Fridge Logic]] about not being able to send a second terminator into the events of the first movie!
** The comic crossover with [[RoboCop
** In ''[[The Sarah Connor Chronicles]]'', another evil robot is sent back to kill John Connor as a teenager, and a reprogrammed robot who [[Robot Girl|looks like a cute waif of a girl]] is sent back to protect him. Over the course of the series, other robots and human resistance fighters are also sent back.
*** They even have conflicts between the many terminators sent back, if their tasks conflict with one another. For example, a terminator is sent to kill and replace Special Agent James Ellison. The attempt is interrupted when Cromartie, a terminator sent to find and kill John Connor, saves Ellison and destroys the other robot. When asked why by Ellison, Cromartie simply says that Ellison will lead it to the Connors. Not under duress but because Ellison is looking for them himself.
Line 36:
* In one of the ''[[Austin Powers]]'' movies, when Doctor Evil returns, Austin Powers himself is unfrozen to deal with him.
** The first sequel plays it straight, with Austin following Evil into the past.
* Likewise, ''Time After Time'' has [[
* ''[[Time Cop]]'' features [[Jean Claude Van Damme]] as, well, a Timecop who travels to the past to apprehend criminals who threaten to change the timeline.
* ''[[Trancers]]'': When an evil psychic goes back in time to present day Los Angeles, Jack Deth is sent back to stop him.
* ''[[Captain America (1990 film)]]'' with [[Captain America]] and the [[Red Skull]] being revived in the future.
* Happens in ''[[Back to
* At the end of ''[[
== Literature ==
* In ''[[The Apocalypse Troll]]'' by [[David Weber]] (of ''[[
* In ''[[The Draka|Drakon]]'' by [[S.M. Stirling]], a [[Nietzsche Wannabe|genetically engineered superhuman]] [[Dark Action Girl|woman]] accidentally travels through a wormhole from an alternate future back to a world resembling our own present time, and promptly begins trying to find a way to re-open the wormhole and bring through a conquering army of more genetic supermen. A lone [[Hollywood Cyborg]] human is also sent back through a similar wormhole to stop her.
* In the ''[[Belisarius Series]]'' by Eric Flint and [[David Drake]], two artificial intelligences from opposite sides of a far-future war get sent back to the early middle ages, one to try and alter the timeline so the evil side wins the future war, the other to try and stop the first one, via recruiting local [[Badass Normal]] allies. A semi-subversion, since both sides are attempting to change the timeline. Indeed, both ''rely'' on massively altering the cultural and technological evolution of the world; they just each want history to evolve in a different direction. This is because, after the changes already made by the "bad" AI, the timeline has already been irrevocably changed, so the "good" AI needs to insure that the right culture comes out on top.
* [[Harlan Ellison]]'s ''[[
** Well, sort of. While "Demon with a Glass Hand" is recognized as one of the inspirations for Terminator the settlement was actually over claims that Cameron had ripped off another Ellison Outer Limits episode, "Soldier", which also fits this trope.
* The [[
* Used with a ridiculously complex plot in ''[[
* The ''[[Star Trek:
** In the ''Strange New Worlds'' story "God, Fate or Fractals"'' it's Wesley Crusher versus a pair of Temporal Investigations agents.
* ''Dies Irae'' - Heljanita wants to change the past, and Darkscar wants to unchange it.
* ''Rebel in Time'' by Harry Harrison. A racist colonel steals the design of the Sten submachine gun and travels back in time to change the course of [[The American Civil War]]. He is pursued by another officer, whose task isn't made easier by the fact that he's black.
* In [[Tim Powers]]' ''[[The Anubis Gates]]'', a millionaire discovers the existence of time portals and uses them to visit the past. A scholar brought along for his historical know-how discovers the millionaire's nasty ulterior motives, and must stop both him ''and'' the villains who'd opened the time portals in the first place. Subverted twice, in that 1) the millionaire isn't looking to change ''documented'' history, but to become a power behind the throne; and 2) the historian isn't sent back to preserve anything, and initially is only looking for a way to get back home.
* ''For King And Country'', by Robert Asprin and Linda Evans, features {{spoiler|what seems to be}} a [[Terminator Twosome]] of an IRA agent traveling back to Arthurian times to change history in Ireland's favor or simply punish England, and a British soldier trying to stop it. They go all the way back to around 500 AD or so and share the bodies of people close to King Arthur. It seems like a [[Stable Time Loop]] and/or [[Tricked-Out Time]], but the ending is a little ambiguous. [[Meanwhile in
* An unintentional example in a Russian novel, where two Russian cosmonauts somehow end up in the past during the decline of the Roman Empire. One of them gets captured by barbarians, while the other one ends up becoming a Roman legionnaire. Eventually, the latter becomes the primus pilus (senior centurion) of a Roman Legion and is determined not to let the Empire fall, while the other manages to become the chieftain of the Germanic barbarians who captured him. You can see where this is heading.
Line 66:
* ''[[Time Trax]]'' is a variation. The hero was sent back into the past to retrieve several escaped criminals who escaped to the past with the help of a [[Mad Scientist]]. This trope applies since the [[Mad Scientist]] himself also escaped into the past, and several times his schemes in the past threaten to change the timeline, and the hero must stop him.
* This was the central idea of ''[[Tru Calling]]'', though by the time it was revealed that this was the case and the conflict between Tru (change the past to save people) and her counterpart (keep this past the same and let people die) properly introduced the show was on the verge of being cancelled, so the idea was never fully developed.
* A major plot in the first seasons of ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise]]'' was the Temporal Cold War, in which various future factions used agents (some of them sent from other eras, others natives of the 22nd) to try to manipulate "historical" events in their favor.
** The plot of the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode ''Trials and Tribble-ations''. The villain of the [[Star Trek:
* ''[[Mirai Sentai Timeranger]]'' and its adaptation ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' are about mutant criminals coming back from the year 3000, and the [[Time Police]] right behind to stop them.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Den
* In ''[[
* The whole concept of the oft-mentioned Time War in the new series of ''[[Doctor Who]]'', with the Time Lords themselves waging war against a galaxy-spanning Imperial Dalek fleet. The war was so big, most other species were too technologically underdeveloped to even notice.
** On the other hand, this makes for an incredibly depressing [[Downer Ending]] in one of the [[Big Finish Doctor Who]] audios, ''Flip Flop''...
* Series two of ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' becomes this, with [[Big Bad|Martin Summers]] trying to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]] from his perspective, but is actually [[Make Wrong What Once Went Right]] for everyone else. Alex decides that acting as the [[Time Police]] will enable her to [[Trapped in
* ''[[The 4400]]'' were abducted by people from the future and returned to the present to [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong]], while members of the anti-promicin conspiracy known as The Marked were sent back by a different future faction to thwart them.
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "The Song Remains The Same" ultimately turns out to be a Terminator Threesome. First, Anna goes back in time with the intention of averting the apocalypse by killing John and Mary Winchester before Dean and Sam can be born. Sam and Dean, with Castiel's help, follow her in order to save their parents from Anna ''and'' [[Set Right What Once Went Wrong|from their fates in the original timeline]]. Finally, {{spoiler|[[Archangel Michael]]}} goes back to ensure that history takes its established course.
== Video Games ==
* This is what happens in a [[Up to Eleven|standard two-player game]] in ''[[Achron]]''.
* ''[[
** However {{spoiler|as said human has amnesia, and Grovyle [[Can't Spit It Out]], you spend about half the game helping Dusknoir instead.}}
* In ''[[
* ''[[Blaz Blue]]'': {{spoiler|The Black Beast and Hakumen are both pulled into the past by the same incident, setting up the [[Groundhog Day Loop]] that plays out repeatedly in the game.}}
* Inverted like ''crazy'' by ''[[
* Played with both ways in ''[[
* ''[[The Legend of Zelda Oracle Games|The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages]]'' has Veran, Nayru, Link, and Ralph, in a bizarre time-traveling quadrangle of [[Big Bad]], [[MacGuffin Girl]], the hero, and [[The Scrappy]].
** Also happens in towards the very end of {{spoiler|''[[Skyward Sword]]''}}, where {{spoiler|Link and Groose follow Ghirahim back in time in order to both save Zelda and prevent the resurrection of the Demon King Demise}}.
* ''[[Earthbound]]'' displays this right at the beginning of the game. [[No-Nonsense Nemesis|Giygas chose to stop Ness while he was still weak by sending a Starman Jr. back in time to kill him directly]]. Luckily for Ness, a time-travelling alien named Buzz Buzz found him first to protect him. Unfortunately, Buzz Buzz dies shortly afterward. In true Terminator fashion, it is this time-travel attack that kicks off the plot and sets Ness on the path to defeat Giygas.
* The central premise of ''[[The Journeyman Project (
* Also the premise of the Inform game ''[[Jigsaw]]'', although neither side is really in the wrong.
* In ''Millennia: Altered Destinies'', the player is given a timeship by a hooded alien to guide four races in the Echelon Galaxy in order to stop the expansion of the evil Microids. One of the major obstacles is an [[Evil Counterpart|alternate version of the player]] recruited by the Microids to sabotage the player's work. Like the player, he cannot be killed.
* ''[[
* ''[[
Line 102:
== Western Animation ==
* A two-episode arc from the '90s ''[[X-Men (
** Cause the mutant plague or stop the mutant plague? Nah, Cable [[Take a Third Option|takes a third option]].
** You've also got the more basic variety in most [[Time Travel]] episodes. First it's Bishop and Nimrod, then it's the Cable and Bishop thing, then it's Bishop and Fitzroy, then it's Shard and the various agents of Apocalypse (though they're from the present, Apocalypse is the version from Cable's future.) {{spoiler|In the end, the [[Bad Future]] is NOT prevented, but at least they always managed to stop those who'd make it any worse.}}
* Replace individual with faction and this was the plot of the third season of ''[[
* The second series of ''[[Gadget Boy and Heather]]'', "Gadget Boy's Adventures in history": Heroic trio versus four villains.
* In a variant on ''[[Teen Titans (
* One episode of ''[[Megas XLR]]'' revolves around Gorrath's second-in-command's plan to kill a current-day ancestor of Kiva, as Kiva and Jamie try to protect her.
** The show's main plot has shades of this as well: Kiva and MEGAS are sent back in time (further back than expected) and the Glorft commander followed her.
* ''[[Superman: The Animated Series
* ''[[
== Real Life ==
* In the now-defunct ''[[Back to The Future
{{reflist}}
|