History Main / OurTimeTravelIsDifferent

According to this theory, time is like a videocassette ([[WhatAreRecords for those of you born after 1995, videocassettes are what we played movies on back in the dark days before [=DVDs=]]]). Normally, time is on "play" and traveling backwards or forwards is like pushing "rewind" or "fast-forward": you can see other people and events playing quickly forwards or backwards around you. This theory originated in H.G. Wells' ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' (which obviously predated the videocassette, but it's still a good analogy).

* While it also includes Instantaneous Time Travel, the ''Anime/YuGiOhTenthAnniversaryMovie'' briefly shows Paradox coming out of a portal.

* In the ''Anime/YuGiOhTenthAnniversaryMovie'', the time travellers' motorbikes glow brightly, then they speed up and disappear in a flash of light.

What does TimeTravel '''look''' like? Well, no one knows (as far as we know anyway), but fiction has given us four models, each of which may or may not involve a TimeMachine. (These concepts are not to be confused with the different fictional interpretations of TemporalMutability).

According to this theory, time is like a videocassette ([[WhatAreRecords for those of you born after 1995, videocassettes are what we played movies on back in the dark days before [=DVDs=]]]). Normally, time is on "play" and traveling backwards or forwards is like pushing "rewind" or "fast-forward". This theory originated in H.G. Wells' ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' (which obviously predated the videocassette, but it's still a good analogy).

* In ''VisualNovel/UminekoNoNakuKoroNi'', Ange is split / time travels when she jumps off the roof of the hospital, but there is no detail given as to the process by which she actually does it, since the third installment ends with her jumping off the roof, and the fourth installment begins with her already in the meta-world. Granted, of course, that the meta-world itself is outside of the time-space continuum. [[spoiler:Of course, from an anti-fantasy perspective she isn't actually time traveling at all; she's just doing it metaphorically by investigating what happened on Rokkenjima in 1986.]]

* ''Series/{{Farscape}}'' ,the Wormholes cross space and time.

** Subverted by [[Series/12Monkeys the adaptation.]] Cole climbs into a fancy chair with a CoolGate at one end. Blue light comes out of the CoolGate for a few seconds before Cole disappears.

** And once the Epoch becomes an airship, it even starts accelerating to a high speed before time-warping, making it almost exactly like Back to the Future's flying DeLorean.

* Although ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'' uses the Wormhole method in the earlier stages of the game, once you acquire the Epoch, it uses the instantaneous variety.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'', [[PreCrisis before 1985]], could do this under his own power.

->"''I'm standing at the time portal, which scientists say, follows 'Franchise/{{Terminator}}' rules. That is, it's one way only and you can't go back. This is in contrast to, say, 'Film/BackToTheFuture' rules, where back and forth is possible, and of course 'Film/{{Timerider|TheAdventureOfLyleSwann}}' rules, [[TimeyWimeyBall which are just plain silly.]]''"

Who says you need to see anything when you go back in time? Used in the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' films, this is where time travel is simply instantaneous. One second Marty [=McFly=] is in 1985. Then there's a flash of light and he's in 1955. Simple as that.

* As mentioned, the ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' series.

* George "Yankee" Longago, an obscure [[TheGoldenAgeOfComicBooks Golden Age]] superhero, had the power to travel through time while asleep, usually based on his subconscious desires.

* ''Anime/Doraemon''.

According to this theory, time is like a videocassette ([[WhatAreRecords for those of you born after 1995, videocassettes are what we played movies on back in the dark days before [=DVDs=]]]). Normally, time is on "play" and traveling backwards or forwards is like pushing "rewind" or "fast-forward". This theory originated in H.G. Wells' ''TheTimeMachine'' (which obviously predated the videocassette, but it's still a good analogy).

* ''SomewhereInTime'' (1980 film)
* The book ''TheMagicSchoolBus in the Time of Dinosaurs''. Absurdly, the TV adaptation used this theory for the trip back in time, but switched to the one below for the return trip. Even stranger, the fossilized dinosaur egg became a normal egg (as in feasibly hatchable or edible), yet none of the humans on board disintegrated from aging backwards millions of years.

* ''VideoGame/{{Braid}}'' used a more efficient form of the one used in ''PrinceOfPersia Sands of Time.''
* The eponymous character of ''BunnyMustDie'' similarly uses this except she has pause and slow as well.

* In ''{{Futurama}}'', Farnsworth made a time machine that acted this way, although it could only go forward in time. The machine was completely unaffected by outside events, such as explosions.

* ''BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure''

* ''TruLifeAdventures''
* ''{{Superman}}'', [[PreCrisis before 1985]], could do this under his own power.
* ''TimeBandits'' used "time holes".
* ''TsubasaReservoirChronicle,'' where the characters actually thought that they ''were'' going to an alternate universe (as they usually do) until TheReveal several arcs later.
* ''EccoTheDolphin''. It's clearer in ''Defender'' and the special cutscenes in the CD version of ''Tides''.
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' Timeless Space works like this, after a fashion. No one ever ''intentionally'' uses it for time travel, but someone who enters and then leaves Timeless Space can return to the regular universe centuries before or after they left.

* InuYasha. The well is the wormhole.

* In ''UniversalWarOne'', the main cast time travels because of the opening/closure of a wormhole. [[spoiler: Then Kalish discovered how to travel through time instantaneously.]]

* ''SonicCD''

* ''TheGirlWhoLeaptThroughTime'': Actually plays with both Worm Hole and Instantaneous travel. Makoto's first leap she goes through a very strange occurrence, all subsequent leaps after are instant.

* ''TheAccidentalTimeMachine'' doesn't have a wormhole, but when the machine is activated it transports (along with any metal container and contents) through a bleak grayish realm for about a minute before reaching its destination.

* ''TheJourneymanProject'' from the second game onward. The noise and purple lightning when someone departs and arrives via this sort of time travel is handwaved as a phenomenon called "displacement effect", caused by the amount of matter in the universe being added or subtracted by the time traveller. The "time tunnel" shown in the first game more resembled a screensaver with the Playstation controller icons than anything else, and was wisely removed.
* The MentalTimeTravel on ''{{Lost}}'' [[spoiler:as well as whatever the heck happened to Ben at the end of season 4]] were instantaneous.

* ''RedVsBlue''. The very first instance of time travel is the latter version, since it occurs during a huge explosion that knocks all the characters out and then waking up in the future, except for Church who's in the past. Every other instance somebody goes back in time though, it's instantaneous.

* ''KimPossible'', ''[[TheMovie A Sitch in Time]]''
* In ''QuantumLeap'', Sam arrives and leaves via an impressive special effect, but the final episode points out that this version applies in reverse: Sam sees what may be another leaper depart, and isn't sure what he just saw. He later explains it to Al, who also can't be sure -- neither of them has seen what a leap looks like. This implies instantaneous, since Sam is conscious when he leaps...
* The Cassiopeia in MahouSenseiNegima seems to function like this.
* ''{{Primeval}}'' has The Anomalies, [[NegativeSpaceWedgie big glowing]] [[TimeyWimeyBall balls of timey wimey stuff]], step into it and find yourself in the past or future instantaneously.

* In the ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' novels there is one instance of Nagato sending Kyon and Asahina three years forward in time in what Kyon experiences as an instant.

* In ''TheTimeTravelersWife'', this is how Henry [[spoiler:and later, his daughter Alba]], travels through time. [[UnstuckInTime Unfortunately, he can't control it.]]
* This is just about how it works in ''[[SonicTheHedgehog Sonic CD]]''; it would be more instantaneous except for the time required to load the next level, which uses a visual effect that suggests the Wormhole method, but when Sonic appears in the past or future, his momentum is conserved from whichever time period he left, making it clear that it's meant to be instantaneous.
* This is how time travel works for units in ''{{Achron}}''. For the player, in practice it is something of this and MentalTimeTravel combined, though what is known of the fluff suggests it is somewhat more complicated.

* Seems to be how time travel works in ''{{Homestuck}}''. Both Dave and Aradia just spin their timetables/time music boxes and ''appear'' at their destination time.

* ''AConnecticutYankeeInKingArthursCourt''

* RobertSheckley's ''Time Killer'' has something approaching this.

* In ''Film/SplitInfinity'' (the movie, not the novel by PiersAnthony), the main character falls from a barn loft in 1992 and wakes up as her great aunt in 1929.

* A strange example from the {{Nasuverse}}: time travel is said to be a True Magic ("impossible miracles") and is brought up by a character mentioning ways to revive from death. However, there is no character who can use Time Travel in {{Canon}}, as there are basically only five users of True Magic.

* In ''SuzumiyaHaruhi'' novels, whenever Kyon is time traveling, he has to close his eyes because it makes him so sick he could puke. The reader doesn't learn much of what is happening, but the hints sound like a version of [[OurWormholesAreDifferent Wormhole Time Travel]].

* HarryTurtledove's AlternateHistory novel ''TheGunsOfTheSouth'' has time travel via square platforms that apparently dematerialize the user in a fashion similar to ''Franchise/StarTrek'' transporters. We only ever see them in use once, as [[spoiler:a Confederate soldier shoots at someone using the platform, causing it to break down and eventually explode.]]
* [[SlaughterHouseFive "Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time,"]] meaning that he lives his life out of order, but there are no discernible time travel moments or effects.

* This is how time travel works in JasperFforde's ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' Series, but here you can also pause and loop.

->"''I'm standing at the time portal, which scientists say, follows 'Franchise/{{Terminator}}' rules. That is, it's one way only and you can't go back. This is in contrast to, say, 'Film/BackToTheFuture' rules, where back and forth is possible, and of course '[[Film/TimeriderTheAdventureOfLyleSwann Timerider]]' rules, [[TimeyWimeyBall which are just plain silly.]]''"

* In the second ''Literature/AstralDawn'' novel, the Keepers travel to certain points of space-time instantaneously using their incredible psychic power.

* ''{{Literature/Alterien}}''. The Alteriens generate instant wormholes with an energy technique called tranzing. They use it to travel through both time and space.

* In the second ''{{Literature/Astral Dawn}}'' novel, the Keepers travel to certain points of space-time instantaneously using their incredible psychic power.

* ''{{Alterien}}''. The Alteriens generate instant wormholes with an energy technique called tranzing. They use it to travel through both time and space.

* WesternAnimation/MrPeabodyandSherman: the WABAC travels through a wormhole whenever it goes back in time.

* The ''PlanetOfTheApes'' variety could be number 3, but as it's never shown, we can't say for sure. It's not one or two, though, based on some of the dialogue from ''Escape''.
* We never see Bruce Willis (or any of the other time travelers) actually go through any time travel process in ''TwelveMonkeys''... we just cut to the next scene.