History Main / MerlinSickness

* ''StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries''. Happens to the crew when they get stuck in an AlternateUniverse with different physical laws in ""The Counter-Clock Incident".

* The novel ''Turnabout'' by Margaret Peterson Haddix is about two girls who, as old women, underwent an experimental treatment which caused them to age backwards, losing their memories as they go.
** More specifically, at each birthday aging in reverse, they lose all memories of that year of age.

->''"It's a poor sort of memory that only works backwards."''
-->-- '''The White Queen''', ''[[AliceInWonderland Through the Looking Glass]]''

* Rachel Weintraub from ''{{Hyperion}}'' by Dan Simmons (the less obvious TropeNamer). For each day she lives forward in time she loses two days of her life when she sleeps, forgetting them in the process. ''Hyperion'' actually played with the concept of temporal disruption quite frequently. There were multiple characters, [[spoiler:including several [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice impaled on metal trees]] ]], and entire pyramids traveling backward through time. To say nothing of the [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Shrike]].

** The Discworld is also home to reannual plants, which are planted next year and harvested this year. Forgetting to plant them causes a TimeParadox, and is very embarrassing. Drinking wines made from these plants results in a hangover the day before.

** The Discworld is also home to reannual plants, which are planted next year and harvested this year. Forgetting to plant them causes a TimeParadox, and is very embarrassing.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742?)]].

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach P. D. Q. Bach (1807-1742)]].

* Amber from ''DarkerThanBlack'' has a variation of this as her [[PowerAtAPrice renumeration]], where she regresses in age every time that she uses her powers, though it's never specified if she also doesn't age forward normally. [[spoiler:In the end, she ends up fading into nothingness altogether due to overuse]]

* Amber from ''DarkerThanBlack'' has a variation of this as her [[PowerAtAPrice renumeration]], where she regresses in age every time that she uses her powers. [[spoiler:In the end, she ends up fading into nothingness altogether due to overuse]]

* [[http://xkcd.com/270/ This]] {{xkcd}} strip.

* In Fritz Leiber's short story "The Man Who Never Grew Young", it happens to ''everyone''--except the immortal title character--and history itself runs backwards.

** Also, he was originally played by a fifty-five-year-old actor who [[YoungerThanTheyLooked looked somewhat older]]. He's currently being played by a twenty-seven-year-old. The first three actors to play him were more or less the oldest ones. So, generally speaking, he's getting younger.

* All the members of Mork's species from ''MorkAndMindy'' age backwards. The original lamp shading was that it happened this way so the elderly would be cute and cuddly, thus more likely to be willingly cared for.

* Similarly, the result of [[FountainOfYouth youth tar]] in ''{{Futurama}}'' is compounded when bacteria meant to eat it instead spread it throughout their bodies and continually making them younger. As Farnsworth put it "We'll face a FateWorseThanDeath: ''pre-life''. Then death." They reverse this with a fountain of ''aging'', [[FridgeLogic which doesn't explain why the bacteria stopped making them younger]].
** Bacteria only live a short time. The group aged ~10 years, except for the Professor.

* Arguably, the Doctor and River Song from "{{Doctor Who}}" are doing this - they keep meeting in the wrong order, so that the first time the Doctor meets her, she has known him for years. Each time he sees her after that, she knows less and less about him.

* Arguably, the Doctor and River Song from "Doctor Who" are doing this - they keep meeting in the wrong order, so that the first time the Doctor meets her, she has known him for years. Each time he sees her after that, she knows less and less about him.

* ''TheCuriousCaseOfBenjaminButton'', where it is milked for every ounce of romantic tension and general drama they can wring out of it.
**It starts out as type 1, but towards the end moves towards type 3.

*This briefly happens to Kes on StarTrek: {{Voyager}}. Unfortunately, it happens even faster than her normal aging, which is already pretty fast.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

*A few years back, there was an animated short on the Disney Channel called ''Flip-Flopped'' that featured an entire world of people like this. It was considered to be perfectly normal. There's a rumor going around that it's being considered for a series.

[[AC:WebComics]]
* The dread {{pirate}} Locke from ''OzyAndMillie''. He has a normal memory. At the time of the comics, he's a child. He's also [[spoiler:Millie's father]], and remembers doing some "really icky things" about ten years ago. Interestingly, the subject of what happens when he reaches the youngest possible point is touched upon- it turns out that, rather than "turning into a zygote, then disappearing", he swings around and ages the other way, presumably dying when he hits old age again.

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[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* All the members of Mork's species from ''MorkAndMindy'' age backwards. The original lamp shading was that it happened this way so the elderly would be cute and cuddly, thus more likely to be willingly cared for.

* Non-living example in the series finale of ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' where an anti-time anomaly is created when the Enterprise uses the same Phlebotinum Wave in three separate points in time. The anomaly becomes larger in the past until it eventually consumes a large chunk of the galaxy, preventing life on Earth from getting past the primordial soup. Fortunately, Picard fixes it.

* An episode of the Nineties revival of ''TheOuterLimits'' had a scientist tracking down an immortal woman so that he could use her blood to reverse his aging. When he finally caught up with her, he ''vastly'' overestimated the required dosage, and ended up a damp stain on the rug.

[[AC:{{Literature}}]]

* Chronos, the AnthropomorphicPersonification of Time from the ''IncarnationsOfImmortality'' series. Each holder of the office, when chosen, begins living backwards in time, temporarily going forward to communicate with others, until the day of their birth, when they have to choose a successor/predecessor.

* ''{{Discworld}}:''

** The Discworld is also home to reannual plants, which are planted next year and harvested this year. Forgetting to plant them causes a TimeParadox, and is very embarrassing.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

[[AC:ComicBooks]]

* A minor {{Marvel}} villain called [[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix4/drombackwardsmansm.htm Drom the Backwards Man]] has this problem. His solution? Drain the LifeEnergy of others to arrest his de-aging.

*In an old story in the original Spider-Man comics, the villain Silvermane (with the help of Doctor Connors/The Lizard) decodes a tablet that has the secret to eternal youth on it. Silvermane makes the potion and drinks it. However, in a cruel twist of fate, he promptly becomes a teenager, then a child, then an infant, then dies. Until he returns.

[[AC:{{Anime}} and {{Manga}}]]

* ''{{Memento}}'' is ''filmed'' like this to give the audience a feel for what it must be like to have no short-term memory.