#I don't want to start anything with bringing up the star trek reboot

[kineticallyanywhere]

so, you've talked about bad time travel storylines, do you have any examples of time travel storylines you thought were really well executed?

That’s really hard to answer because most of the time I hit a time travel story I like but then the story keeps going and the longer it goes the less I like it (see The Flash, see Homestuck) usually because they pull a retcon where multiple characters get character development we don’t actually get to see (The Flash s3, the retJohn). I want to go on about RvB’s use of time travel, but I’m hesitant to because they’re not done using it and part of me is still waiting to be burned (though I doubt they will, and even if they do the strength of every RvB character would carry me through it easily). All this thinking about it recently though has gotten me to realize what elements keep me in a time travel story:

Don’t skip out on character progression. Characters are allowed to start off as killers and end as pacifists, but for pete’s sake I want to see it. Convince me of it. Maybe you can do this to a character in the background, but don’t slide major protagonists in and out of entire relationships with characters they’ve spent years despising on a whim and a montage without expecting some readers/viewers to throw up a lot of question marks. (Time travel with great great character progression: Legends of Tomorrow.)

Ask not just if you can, but if you should. This is my most subjective point, I think, but if you’re not asking this question, even in passing, then why are you making your writing life this difficult? Why are you using time travel at all? And don’t just leave the question hanging, give us your answer. If you think that if we have it we should use it, they yell it from the rooftops. If you think that trying to change what we’ve already done is a waste of our energy and there’s a reason we don’t have time travel irl, then lay it on us. If you’re not getting philosophical even a tiny bit, you aren’t having enough fun. (Time travel that lays this out in one of my favorite speeches of all time: Red vs Blue)

Stick to your own rules. If your time travel created a new universe, keep making new universes. If your time travel works in loops, complete all your loops. If you’re changing your own universe, for the love of CRAP decide whether you’re making duplicates of yourself when you do and stick to it. (Honestly, this one mostly just annoys me. If 1 and 2 are done well enough, I’m usually willing to let this go.) (Time travel that plays by it’s own rules: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

I know how this might sound to some people, but I think the Star Trek reboot movies actually do these. It’s been a while since I’ve watched them, but they (#3) make new universe out of the new timeline, and they stay in it. They live with that consequence. (#2) Old-Spock being around makes you wonder what of his knowledge of the old timeline still applies. Should they even use it, or have things already changed too much for most of it to be relevant? (In Kahn’s case, at least, it comes in handy.) I don’t remember if they go into this much, but the question is still there. (#1) Finally, none of them suddenly become different people than the ones that were introduced at the beginning of the movie “because time travel”. The characters change from the original series because the timeline has changed (some characters are dead, new historical events have happened), but after that there’s no jumping around. Reboot-Kirk doesn’t suddenly become Old-Kirk just because now he knows there is/was a timeline where he got to know his dad.

I also liked the 9th and 10th Doctors on Doctor Who, the 4th Pokemon movie, Meet the Robinsons, Interstellar is a mind-bender but I liked it, Gravity Falls had some fun time travel, that one Kim Possible movie, Danny Phantom: Ultimate Enemy, I liked the show Heroes but I’d have to watch it again to tell you if it counts as good time travel overall cause I remember it being kinda sketchy, Madoka Magica, and then I haven’t watched it myself yet but I’ve heard great things about Steins Gate, and probably like six other things that I’m forgetting.