Skip to main content

Are there stories where people have conflicting memories after time travel?



I've noticed that over time there have been different rules for time travel. For example, originally the grandfather paradox was dealt with by the grandson either disappearing from the timeline or some other paradox set up. Now days, it seems more and more stories are using alternate timelines (like in Terra Nova). (And in the grandfather paradox stories, I don't think I ever saw one where, after the grandson disappeared, he wasn't there to cause the paradox, so he re-appeared only to disappear, then reappear in a loop.)


While every author or movie or TV show may have different rules, some seem to be standardized.


I've noticed one of these rules is conflicting memories. For example, when Marty McFly goes back in time and changes his present, he comes back, but remembers things as they were before he left -- he does not have memories of the changed events everyone else experienced. And, of course, those who didn't go back have only the memories of the new path and don't remember what Marty remembers. (I have yet to see Back to the Future II so I hope I'm not omitting anything.)


In Star Trek, with multiple time travel stories, people either remember the changed timeline or the original, but not both.


Is this rule ever broken? Are there stories where people have conflicting memories of an original and a changed timeline at the same time?



Answer



The main character in the movie The Butterfly Effect receives the new set of memories on top of his original ones each time he completes a time jump. The accumulated knowledge leads to nosebleeds and eventually brain damage.


Likewise in the movie Frequency, the main character retains both sets of memories, but there is no apparent damage to his mind (beyond extreme confusion when it first happens).



Edit for Star Trek additions:


TNG 3x15, Yesterday's Enterprise - Guinan can sense when the timeline is wrong, to the point of being sure one of the Enterprise crew was supposed to be dead. Not actual memories, however.


TNG 7x25/26, All Good Things... - Picard was catapulted between three time periods in an alternate timeline by Q, and retained his memory of the events.


DS9 3x17, Visionary - Miles O'Brien experiences multiple jumps into the near future, seeing disasters that eventually get averted due to knowledge gained in these jumps. He would have remembered all these alternate futures, had he not died and sent a future version of himself (that didn't experience the jumps) back in time to complete the mission.


DS9 4x03, The Visitor - Benjamin Sisko experiences pieces of the far future, before being slingshot back to his correct time. He retains memories of that future, since he knew what to do to not get temporally displaced again.


VOY 3x21, Before and After - Kes is sent backwards through time from her death, and remembers the future, and warns the captain about the Krenim.


ENT 2x16, Future Tense - Trip, Reed, and Archer experience time loops, except they do retain their memories of each loop.


Examples filtered from Memory Alpha's list of time travel episodes.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more