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A scene or series of scenes that takes place in the past or future, real or imagined, using the same actors as the existing show but as different characters. To properly count for this trope, the relationships of the characters in the vision must reflect on the relationships of the existing characters, often with a plot-relevant [[Aesop]] for the characters to learn from it.
Occasionally
Sort-of-but-not-really related to [[Flash Back]]. Sometimes may approach [[Flash Sideways]]. Superficially resembles an ad hoc [[Commedia Dell Arte Troupe|Commedia dell'Arte Troupe]]. If the character having these dreams starts to think that they are the true reality and the rest of the show is the dream, it's a [[Cuckoo Nest]]. See also [[But You Were There and You
{{examples}}
* [[Ancient Egypt]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]!''; the characters there are said to be reincarnations or parallels to modern-day characters, which is another plot point in itself.▼
▲== Anime & Manga ==
▲* [[Ancient Egypt]] in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh]]!''; the characters there are said to be reincarnations or parallels to modern-day characters, which is another plot point in itself.
* The final episode of ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has a short section in which Shinji dreams about how his life could have been if the show he was in ''wasn't'' a [[Deconstruction]]. It almost reaches [[Uncanny Valley]] levels.
== Comic
* Used again and again in ''[[Donald Duck]]'' and ''[[Mickey Mouse]]'' comics to provide "fresh" story ideas, because of their overall premise being basically "invent stories about these popular characters" and little else. Sometimes [[Hand Wave|handwaved]] by invoking [[Identical Grandson]], but more often the whole story just is like this without explanation.
* Several DC Comics [[Elseworlds]] play with the idea of the DC heroes and villains existing in a different era: [[
* At one point in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20140801051138/http://www.thekeep.org/~wombat/Stories/Z/ Sailor Moon Z]'', the main Senshi do a [[Freaky Friday|body-switch]] with their Silver Millenium counterparts. After they're returned to the present, they have more frequent [[Flash Back|Flashbacks]] of their past lives, usualy overlaping with similar moments in the present.▼
▲== [[Fan Fiction]] ==
▲* At one point in ''[http://www.thekeep.org/~wombat/Stories/Z/ Sailor Moon Z]'', the main Senshi do a [[Freaky Friday|body-switch]] with their Silver Millenium counterparts. After they're returned to the present, they have more frequent [[Flash Back|Flashbacks]] of their past lives, usualy overlaping with similar moments in the present.
** The original also has flashbacks to this time though only when key to the plot.
* In ''[[
* In the ''[[
== Film ==
* ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (
* In the movie of [[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]] Buffy has dreams of her and her watcher as previous slayers and watchers.
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* The third book in [[Legends of Laconia]] has this as its main story. [[Reincarnation]] is involved.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Happens practically [[Once an Episode]] on ''[[Scrubs]]''; JD's daydreams put his coworkers into a number of absurd situations (and costumes.) This includes characters from ''[[Grease]]'', ''[[West Side Story]]'', and ''[[Star Wars]]'', as well as occasional scenes that [[Parody]] a traditional [[Dom Com]].
* ''[[
** When this was first done, it was explained that the previous incarnations looked different but the Halliwells "recognized" their spirits and thus saw them as their current selves. Later episodes sometimes overlooked this.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' featured an episode where Kimberly traveled back in time to the Wild West, where all of the inhabitants resemble citizens of present-day Angel Grove, including people who look like the Power Rangers (except for Kimberly's ancestor, who makes a brief cameo after the present-day Kimberly returned to her time), Bulk and Skull (who try to find out the identity of the Rangers), and even The White Stranger. (Three guesses who that is suppose to resemble. Hint: It's the White Ranger.)
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* ''[[Hercules: The Legendary Journeys]]'' and ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' had a few episodes that used a variant of this, except it was a [[Flash Forward]]. The cast members played writers, producers, or various other modern-day characters who worked on the production of the show.
** At least one of these episodes lampshaded and subverted the idea, with Hercules playing [[Kevin Sorbo]]. Including throwing Ares out of a moving car.
* The old soap opera ''[[Dark Shadows (TV series)|Dark Shadows]]'' had a couple of entire seasons consisting of this.
* ''[[JAG]]'' was quite fond of using this with Mac and Harm as the main characters of ''[[JAG]]'''s past.
** And [[David James Elliot]] always played Harm's father.
* The series finale of ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' includes two parallel stories, one taking place in the present and one taking place in the Old West. They feature the same dozen or so actors playing similar (though not quite identical) characters.
* Done fairly often on ''[[Northern Exposure]]''. One episode featured an old man telling Joel the story of Cicely's founding in 1909. Rob Morrow/Joel Fleischman played [[Franz Kafka]](!) while the other regulars appear as counterpart characters, often with very similar names (Maggie O'Connell, for example, becomes Mary O'Keefe).
* In the ''[[Moonlighting]]'' episode "The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice", Maddie and David hear about an unsolved murder from the 1940s, and then each dream about it that night, putting themselves into the key roles.
* The [[
* ''[[MacGyver]]'' did several dream episodes along these lines, including a pair of episodes with a period version of MacGyver in the Old West and the two-parter "Good Knight, MacGyver" in which the modern MacGyver imagined himself transported to the days of King Arthur (with Arthur "played" by MacGyver's boss Pete).
* ''[[Press Gang]]'' devoted much time to the tempestuous romance of leads Lynda (Julia Sawalha) and Spike (Dexter Fletcher). One episode has a flashback to Spike's parents meeting for the first time - played by Julia Sawalha and Dexter Fletcher.
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* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'''s ''The Changeling'': Is Teal'C in fact an average Earth firefighter? No. But it made for an interesting episode.
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' had ''Vegas'', a [[CSI]]-like episode in an alternate universe filmed in Las Vegas.
* The final season of ''[[The Sopranos]]'' had Tony hallucinating himself as a salesman called Kevin Finnerty while in a coma.
* In [[The X-Files]] episode "Triangle", Mulder dreams (or did he?) of going back in time on a ghost ship he was looking for, with key characters as the cast of it. Of course, Mulder is still convinced they are all who they really are, and ends up planting a rather passionate kiss on the non-Scully, who gives him a sucker punch to the cheek for his efforts.
** Also toyed with in the episode where Mulder meets his reincarnating soul mate (unfortunately, she's in a suicide cult). Well, that or she had multiple personality disorder. Under hypnosis, she recalls the details of several of their past lives, which involve several of the show's characters as previous reincarnations as well. One such scenario was described as Mulder and his soul-mate having lost their child (re: his sister) to a drunk driver (re: the Cigarette smoking man), Scully was there too, as Mulder's male best friend.
* ''[[Castle]]'''s [[Noir Episode]], "The Blue Butterfly", featured the regular cast acting out a 1940s murder in flashback.
* ''[[Leverage]]'', "The Van Gogh Job"
== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[
** So does Ellen, who is given memories of a world where she was born normally. Or Eliot was a girl, which [[Opposite Gender Clone|amounts to the same thing]]. {{spoiler|But then it turns out to be deliberately induced by a magic-user and may or may not be [[Flash Sideways|an actual vision of another world]] too - we don't know how she produced it in the first place. }}
▲* In ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' Tedd dreams about one of his alternate universe counterpart's life.
== Western Animation ==
* One episode of ''[[Kim Possible]]'', "Rewriting History", shows Kim and Ron investigating accusations that Kim's [[Identical Grandson|lookalike ancestor]], Miriam "Mim" Possible, stole a scientific device about a hundred years ago. As it turns out, Drakken and Shego's turn-of-the-last-century analogs framed her for the deal. It ultimately turns out to be [[All Just a Dream]] however. And then they see Ron and Drakken carved on to some poles: apparently, they had gladiators as ancestors waaaaay back in Roman times.
** [[Word of God]] states that despite being just a dream, the ancestors were really existing back when.
* ''[[The Fairly
* In the ''[[
** And there was also an episode set in the Middle Ages where [[SpongeBob]] and Patrick had to free Bikini Bottomshire from the [[Evil Sorceror]] Planktonimor, aided by medieval analogues of Squidward and Sandy.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'': Zuko's [[Vision Quest]] includes a segment with an alternate-him who was never scarred sitting as Fire Lord, with the cold, still Squint Of Evil his father always uses. This is what Zuko thinks he wishes, but it's associated with abandoning his mother and the self-he-is. Ultimately it disturbs him, though not as much as the version who's got Air Nomad tattoos. He is shown feeling his face to make sure the scar is still there and he's awake.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Dream Tropes]]
[[Category:Narrative Devices]]
[[Category:Something Completely Different]]
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