Media that prepared in advance for revisitng in the future?
June 13, 2024 8:19 PM Subscribe
What are some shows/movies/comics episodic entertainment media that prepared in advance for a later revisit via time travel or whatever?
A bunch of dramatic presentations and comics and such have had episodes where the cast revisits a previous episode (usually via time travel). The Star Trek: DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" inserted their characters into the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", for instance. For longer-form media, the second "Back to the Future" movie spent a lot of time revisiting events in the first movie. I don't know about Back To The Future, but I'm pretty sure nobody involved in making The Trouble With Tribbles expected that later, there would be an episode of a related show that would come revisit these events.
There are interlocking films that are made at approximately the same time as a single collection - I remember seeing a trio of French films (not Red/Blue/White) around 2002 that were totally different genres but with overlapping characters and there were scenes that appeared in two of them but, like, a scene that came across one way in the film that was romantic comedy got totally turned on its head in the political thriller because of things going on just out of sight of the version of the scene in the comedy.
Babylon 5, where weird things happen in the first season episode "Babylon Squared" and are (mostly) explained in the third season two-parter "War Without End", is the only thing I can think of that clearly had the later time travel episode planned. What are other examples of folks laying the groundwork for a later (re-)visitation to the episode/comic/film/media?
A bunch of dramatic presentations and comics and such have had episodes where the cast revisits a previous episode (usually via time travel). The Star Trek: DS9 episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" inserted their characters into the classic Star Trek episode "The Trouble With Tribbles", for instance. For longer-form media, the second "Back to the Future" movie spent a lot of time revisiting events in the first movie. I don't know about Back To The Future, but I'm pretty sure nobody involved in making The Trouble With Tribbles expected that later, there would be an episode of a related show that would come revisit these events.
There are interlocking films that are made at approximately the same time as a single collection - I remember seeing a trio of French films (not Red/Blue/White) around 2002 that were totally different genres but with overlapping characters and there were scenes that appeared in two of them but, like, a scene that came across one way in the film that was romantic comedy got totally turned on its head in the political thriller because of things going on just out of sight of the version of the scene in the comedy.
Babylon 5, where weird things happen in the first season episode "Babylon Squared" and are (mostly) explained in the third season two-parter "War Without End", is the only thing I can think of that clearly had the later time travel episode planned. What are other examples of folks laying the groundwork for a later (re-)visitation to the episode/comic/film/media?
Are you particularly looking for examples involving time travel, rather than flashbacks? I can think of a lot more instances of a scene that is recalled in a flashback with more context that changes the meaning (think of Michael and Eleanor meeting in The Good Place, or every time in Leverage where they thought they were being double crossed).
If you're thinking of specifically time travel--well, there's one on the tip of my tongue, but we'll see if I come up with it. It'll be much less common, though.
posted by gideonfrog at 8:34 PM on June 13
If you're thinking of specifically time travel--well, there's one on the tip of my tongue, but we'll see if I come up with it. It'll be much less common, though.
posted by gideonfrog at 8:34 PM on June 13
Also Future Self Reveal, Futureshadowing and Once More, with Clarity.
posted by zamboni at 9:10 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]
posted by zamboni at 9:10 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]
It's technically a bit of a spoiler for a 15 year old show, but: Misfits.
posted by BungaDunga at 9:20 PM on June 13 [3 favorites]
posted by BungaDunga at 9:20 PM on June 13 [3 favorites]
The original series of Twin Peaks created openings for the sequel that came 25 later (by showing an older Agent Cooper and hinting that something would happen in 25 years).
posted by rjs at 11:11 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]
posted by rjs at 11:11 PM on June 13 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Not specifically limited to time travel - that just seems to be the most common mechanism in the examples I thought of.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:20 AM on June 14
posted by rmd1023 at 1:20 AM on June 14
Every episode of Season 4 of Arrested Development took place in the same time period-- you just saw it from 15 different points of view.
To a less extreme degree, Only Murders In The Building does this sometimes, too. It's in the service of a more traditional mystery plot, though, which may or may not be the kind of thing you're looking for.
posted by yankeefog at 2:11 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
To a less extreme degree, Only Murders In The Building does this sometimes, too. It's in the service of a more traditional mystery plot, though, which may or may not be the kind of thing you're looking for.
posted by yankeefog at 2:11 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
I just fell down the TV Tropes rabbit hole, and noticed that the Futureshadowing page has a Real Life section in the examples, which contains this absolute gem that I had to share:
The Science Fiction Prophecy mixed this trope with Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. The November 1948 issue of Astounding Science Fiction contained a letter by Richard A. Hoen, giving his critique of the November 1949 issue — which wouldn't be published for another year! The letter mentioned multiple stories, articles, the cover art, and their creators by name. Legendary Astounding editor John W. Campbell was so amused by this, that he commissioned as many of those stories (and the cover) from the named creators as possible, so that the real November 1949 issue was a surprisingly close match to the "prophecy".posted by automatronic at 2:14 AM on June 14 [5 favorites]
Dr Who did this probably most notably in the first Matt Smith season, where there are seasons with seemingly broken continuity that are in fact set ups for later on
posted by Cannon Fodder at 2:48 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]
posted by Cannon Fodder at 2:48 AM on June 14 [2 favorites]
Doctor Who does this- I remember thinking I'd caught a continuity error with the 11th Doctor that turned out to be a time travel thing. (Pandorica story line)
(On preview, jinx)
posted by freethefeet at 3:40 AM on June 14
(On preview, jinx)
posted by freethefeet at 3:40 AM on June 14
Response by poster: "Okay kid, this is where it gets complicated"
posted by rmd1023 at 3:48 AM on June 14 [3 favorites]
posted by rmd1023 at 3:48 AM on June 14 [3 favorites]
More specifically, there's a moment in "Flesh and Stone" where Amy, for plot-related reasons, is sitting with her eyes closed. The Doctor reassures her, and then walks off to the screen in one direction. After a few moments later, he walks back in from the opposite side of the screen (wearing a jacket he didn't have a minute ago), says something important to her, and leaves the same way he came. In the season finale, this turns out to be the Doctor visiting this episode from a later point in his own timeline. Steven Moffat does this sort of thing all the time, he can't stop himself.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:46 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 6:46 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
Characters from Makoto Shinkai's Your Name (released in 2016) make small, separate appearances in his next film Weathering With You (2019). What elevates this above a simple cameo is that (SPOILER ALERT) Your Name features two characters engaged in a kind of mental time travel between 2013 and 2016, followed by a period when they forget and then re-encounter each other in 2021.
Given the production time for big-budget animation, it's not out-of-the-question that both films would have been in production at the same time, and that the five-year gap between 2016 and 2021 was chosen so that both 2019 versions of the characters could appear separately in the later film.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:01 AM on June 14
Given the production time for big-budget animation, it's not out-of-the-question that both films would have been in production at the same time, and that the five-year gap between 2016 and 2021 was chosen so that both 2019 versions of the characters could appear separately in the later film.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 7:01 AM on June 14
Alan Moore & Jacen Burrows' Providence comics series is (in part) a beautifully executed tale of the central character's present and future playing out simultaneously in ways that are seeded right from the first issue but only reveal themselves towards the end of the run. It's very bit as masterfully constructed as Watchmen, but set this time in the world of Lovecraftian horror. Good stuff.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:49 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Paul Slade at 8:49 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
The TV show Eureka did this in the first episode (“did the people who just went past look like us?”) and paid it off in the series finale 5 seasons later.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:21 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:21 AM on June 14 [1 favorite]
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure:
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K
Hey, it was me who stole my dad’s keys.
posted by chrisulonic at 1:51 PM on June 14
Strange things are afoot at the Circle K
Hey, it was me who stole my dad’s keys.
posted by chrisulonic at 1:51 PM on June 14
How I Met Your Mother tried to do this, and it probably would have been much more successful at it if the show hadn't been stretched out for nine seasons. As it was, we had to wait to wait 8.5 seasons for the big reveals in the episode "How Your Mother Met Me".
Lost did this quite a lot. In particular, the Season 2 episode "The Other 48 Days" revisits the events of the first season and a half from the perspective of a separate group of survivors.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:21 PM on June 14
Lost did this quite a lot. In particular, the Season 2 episode "The Other 48 Days" revisits the events of the first season and a half from the perspective of a separate group of survivors.
posted by Johnny Assay at 7:21 PM on June 14
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posted by rmd1023 at 8:21 PM on June 13 [4 favorites]