Timelines: time travel in popular film and tv

Timetravel in popular film and tv
Here’s a visualisation of time travel plots in various films and TV programs. I had a lot of fun doing this!

It was particularly cool to highlight potential plotlines for “meta movies” where time travellers from different plots could meet and paradox it out. Charlie Kauffman are you reading this??

(By the way, I allowed myself a +1 / -1 year fuzz around the paradoxes. So knives away nerds!)

This is a straight data visualisation, rather than information design. That is, it’s not particularly useful, nor useable, nor meaningful. The inspiration was the coolness of the idea, really. I was excited to see what shape all the plots would make, and whether it could be shaped into something beautiful.

What I really love about this image, though, is the idea that this information has never been seen before. Despite the fact that it exists, in some way,somewhere, wrapped in various plots, it’s never been given form. I have to say, it was a joy to untangle it all :)

Big thanks to talented designers Alice Cho and Dominic Busby for their invaulable contributions. And Jeremy MacLynn for essential art direction.

Getting Ridiculous

I guess it’s no surprise that there are a helluva lot of time travel plots centered around our tranche of time (1900-2100). But does it have to be this ridiculous?

Timelines II: Time travel in popular film and tv

Here’s a zoom in.

Timelines II: Time travel in popular film and TV

This concentration of temporal dislocation is why the final image for the book took four months, 34 drafts and the work of three designers.

Timelines: Time travel in popular TV and film

So who wants to work with me on the Dr Who one? I’m serious. Email me.

Source: Wikipedia. Explore the data In this Google doc
Posted in Data Journalism, Data Visualisation, Fun, InfoVisualisation, Movies, Timelines, sci-fi.
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99 Comments

  1. RLloyd
    Posted September 10, 2009 at 9:08 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Where the hell is Doctor Who!

  2. david
    Posted September 11, 2009 at 9:09 am | Permalink | Edit

    it’s coming!

  3. Paul
    Posted September 11, 2009 at 4:52 pm | Permalink | Edit

    There was the time machine in Austin Powers: Goldmember which was an actual time machine, not just deep freeze.

    So much time travel in Dr Who, I dont envy the task

  4. Critick
    Posted September 13, 2009 at 6:26 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Nice visualization, but your wavy lines and tiny text are unruly to the point of being unreadable. Once I got the jist it was no longer worth scrutinizing.

  5. Rich Otero
    Posted September 16, 2009 at 4:48 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Yikes; I suppose time and space would be a factor for the TARDIS.

  6. Andre Cui
    Posted October 1, 2009 at 4:41 am | Permalink | Edit

    Cool concept. No Army of Darkness? sniff sniff…

  7. Posted October 10, 2009 at 1:17 am | Permalink | Edit

    @AJ In Red Dwarf Lister is his own father, it’s an endless circle of life. It means he is the last human alive, although 3 million years should technically be added into that particular loop.

  8. Clement Cherlin
    Posted October 12, 2009 at 7:50 pm | Permalink | Edit

    So where’s Futurama? It has forward travel via deep freeze, backward travel via technological accident (Fry put metal in the microwave) and time travel via Robot Space God Thingy (Bender’s Big Score).

  9. Posted November 10, 2009 at 10:10 am | Permalink | Edit

    This is very informative article.I was wondering this topic only.This is such a great visualisation.Thanks for sharing such a great post within us…

  10. Mike Pedersen
    Posted November 22, 2009 at 9:11 pm | Permalink | Edit

    You left out some key time travel segments from the Stargate series of TV shows! One key episode has them using technology from the Ancients to travel back to ancient Egypt…

  11. John Christie
    Posted December 18, 2009 at 2:12 am | Permalink | Edit

    I am working on a Dr Who, simply a visualization using Photoshop…i’m up to the 10th doctor ….so all episodes from William Hartnel in it now, just need a way to make it look pretty!

  12. Tortus
    Posted February 12, 2010 at 1:27 pm | Permalink | Edit

    In Austin Powers 1 it was deep freeze not “Unknown”
    and in Austin Powers 2 is was a time machine not “alien technology”.

    Just thought you should know.

  13. Mike
    Posted February 15, 2010 at 9:16 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Amazing. I may have just missed it, but is there a link to the full image? I’d love to see it all!

  14. sargon
    Posted February 16, 2010 at 2:39 pm | Permalink | Edit

    You missed: Voyagers TV Show, Quantum Leap, Stargate SG1 & Stargate Atlantus

  15. Beth
    Posted February 16, 2010 at 4:49 pm | Permalink | Edit

    I think you left out:

    Star Trek TNG: Time Squared (force of nature)
    Star Trek TOS: All Our Yesterdays (alien technology)
    Star Trek TOS: City on the Edge of Forever (alien technology that is also a force of nature)
    Star Trek TAS: Yesteryear (the same alien technology/force of nature)
    Star Trek TAS: The Counter Clock Incident (force of nature)

  16. Jimbo
    Posted February 16, 2010 at 5:02 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Shame after all that work, you´ve definitely had some “Key” problems, as the Back to the Futures are marked Unknown, and I think you could have opted for Wormholes to cover a few as well. An Hot Pink is NOT very sci fi…. but pretty curves

  17. Richard
    Posted February 16, 2010 at 9:14 pm | Permalink | Edit

    The Red Dwarf part shown is from the episode where they interfere with Kennedys assassination, in season 7.

    It is missing the lines in from 3,000,000 years in the future for that episode.

    It should have some lines around 2300 for the Oroborus events.

    Also the events of the season 3 episode Timeslides too.

  18. Zak
    Posted February 17, 2010 at 5:05 pm | Permalink | Edit

    This chart is incredibly inaccurate, I know a lot of this has been mentioned, but as follows:

    “Back to the Future” 2 and 3 should be red, they used the DeLorean or “time machine”
    “Time After Time” should also be red. They use the same time machine as “The Time Machine” in that one.
    “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” – Is this alien technology? I recall this just being a time machine (unless the government got the tech at Area 51 or something).
    “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century” shows Buck Rogers traveling to the 26th century. He should be in the early 2400′s not the 2500′s. Pretty amateur mistake.
    “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” he was frozen. This should be white/gray.
    “Planet of the Apes” isn’t technically a “deep freeze”. While the characters were in hibernation, this was time travel as dictated by special relativity and the resulting time dilation. The reason for their hibernation was to conserve resources during the faster than light travel.
    On a similar note, should “Deep Freeze” really be a method of time travel? The “traveler” is just traveling down the yellow line.

  19. Posted February 18, 2010 at 12:58 am | Permalink | Edit

    If you are into roleplaying, you should check out Chronomancy: Time Travel for Everyone.
    I love the diagram. – Mark Charke

  20. Posted February 19, 2010 at 9:51 am | Permalink | Edit

    I see Red Dwarf but didn’t it take them MILLIONS of years into the future?

  21. Stoney3K
    Posted February 19, 2010 at 11:15 am | Permalink | Edit

    You probably left Doctor Who out because it would clutter up the image too much!

  22. Twilight Man
    Posted February 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm | Permalink | Edit

    You forgot Twilight Zone episodes
    and Quantum Leap too
    but all in all, a nice job.

  23. Posted February 19, 2010 at 4:57 pm | Permalink | Edit

    This is fun, an dI am sure no matter what folks will focus on what was left-out more than on what is included…however, no Donnie Darko? :)

  24. Ted Watson
    Posted February 19, 2010 at 7:10 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Along with “ST:Voyager”‘s trips to the future mentioned by another poster, there was also a trip to the past–1995 Earth–following somebody from a couple of centuries in their future so as to prevent/fix any damage to the timeline he might cause; don’t recall the title, but it was a two-parter, guest starring Ed Begley, Jr., either near the end of the first season or early in the second. Then there was “ST:Next Gen”‘s “Yesterday’s Enterprise.”

  25. Heather CC
    Posted February 20, 2010 at 10:40 am | Permalink | Edit

    Don’t forget LOST!

  26. Hubcap
    Posted February 20, 2010 at 7:19 pm | Permalink | Edit

    That’s pretty, but completely indecipherable. It’s way too complicated.

  27. Alpesh
    Posted February 21, 2010 at 9:48 am | Permalink | Edit

    Firstly, you’re missing Quantam Leap
    Secondly, Life On Mars does not have any time travel, he’s in a coma dreaming

  28. del
    Posted February 21, 2010 at 9:20 pm | Permalink | Edit

    and WHERE is Doctor Who????

  29. Robert Pearson
    Posted February 21, 2010 at 10:21 pm | Permalink | Edit

    I was going to make a comment on the absence of Dr. Who, until I read the bottom.

  30. Thomas Tiernan
    Posted February 21, 2010 at 11:33 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Doctor Who would be a huge illustration if you were to try to get it all in. He’s been to the moment of Creation all the way to 300 Billion A.D. Good Luck.

  31. pbleic
    Posted February 28, 2010 at 1:24 pm | Permalink | Edit

    How could you leave out Primer? This has to be the most amazing and intricate time travel timeline in a film. It has a major following and the timeline is published
    here.

    There is an XML and Visio version as well.

    It has been hilariously lampooned by XKCD.

    PS – would be great if this site added a “preview” to comments!

  32. Posted March 2, 2010 at 5:16 pm | Permalink | Edit

    You forgot to add “The Two Worlds of Jenny Logan”.

  33. Posted March 2, 2010 at 8:11 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Where is Dr. Who?

  34. Posted March 2, 2010 at 8:21 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Sorry, I didn’t see all of the first posts, nor the author’s text when I first commented. I humbly retract my first post.
    Contrary to some others, I think you did a marvelous job of making such complex data as clear as you have. Once I started getting into it, it was actually far easier to follow than I thought it would be.

  35. dethchan
    Posted March 11, 2010 at 5:37 am | Permalink | Edit

    Nice! Looking forward to the Doctor Who.

  36. Posted April 2, 2010 at 5:41 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Crazy idea! But I like it, must have taken you ages to draw all those lines :)

  37. Tom Woolf
    Posted April 4, 2010 at 3:47 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Zak nailed the most blatant error – putting Buck Rogers at the year 2500 instead of somewhere in the 2400′s.

    Oh, and I did not see Duck Dodgers of the 24th and a half century.

  38. Posted April 5, 2010 at 3:08 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Looking forward to seeing the TV series Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy incorporated. It incorporated travel to the Big Bang and the End Of The Universe.

  39. Posted April 12, 2010 at 2:13 am | Permalink | Edit

    Love it! Where’s Futurama?

  40. Posted April 17, 2010 at 6:20 am | Permalink | Edit

    I remember a movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour called “Somewhere In Time”, where CR’s character travels back in time by sheer will of meditation. I suppose that would fall under your “unknown” category!

  41. Chris
    Posted April 29, 2010 at 10:29 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Nice graphic. I like that you chose not to make time a flat line.

    I think sticking with just the movies is the best way to go. Adding in TV shows like Dr. Who, Lost, or Quantum Leap is just going to create clutter.

    However, I can think of one more movie that deserves a spot on the chart: The Final Countdown.

  42. Davy
    Posted May 12, 2010 at 8:29 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Is this ever going to get printed as a poster/print?

  43. Posted May 19, 2010 at 2:31 pm | Permalink | Edit

    I am really fascinated by the time Travel in movies and hopes that the scientists could come up with possible time travel within my life as I want to see how it goes when humans are able to time in time.

  44. Posted August 5, 2010 at 3:23 pm | Permalink | Edit

    love it!!!
    specially the paradox section which in my opinion could be great cult movies for the next generation!!! make it so!

  45. Dimitris
    Posted August 15, 2010 at 7:09 pm | Permalink | Edit

    Well, the concept is very interesting, but the text is nearly unreadable.
    Secondly, what is the point of making a popular film time travel when you have missed the most inspired time travel ever made which is no other than the famous bone-to-spaceship in Stanley Kubrick’s “2001:Space Odyssey”.

  46. david
    Posted August 16, 2010 at 5:10 pm | Permalink | Edit

    I’m not sure that’s time travel as such, at least not in the way we’re talking about here…

  47. Ooh Honey Honey
    Posted August 21, 2010 at 3:23 am | Permalink | Edit

    Sorry that was me from the future, regretting pushing that button.
    Anyway. The one, the most amazing time travel paradox story ever, you have missed. And that is “By his bootstraps” by Robert Heinlein. You MUST include that.

    Also the Time Tunnel. Remember that show? The grownup meets himself as a little boy in Hawaii the day before Pearl Harbour? Awesome.

  48. Dr Dave
    Posted August 23, 2010 at 11:11 pm | Permalink | Edit

    I see they tactfully avoided Primer. What would *that* look like – possibly a little fuzzball with arrows pointing all directions..

  49. Mike
    Posted August 24, 2010 at 6:59 am | Permalink | Edit

    You also left out Time Guardian.

    How about including books? e.g. Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

16 Trackbacks

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    Visualizando los viajes en el tiempo del cine y la televisión…

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  10. [...] gute Idee und eine wunderschöne Umsetzung. Die Idee mit den Paradoxa findei ch ziemlich clever. Der Künstler fragt auch nach Mitarbeit an einer Umsetzung für Doctor Who… da juckts mir ja echt in den [...]

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