Andro with Reardon.
"Andrew" with Noelle.
The Control Voice: Here, in the bright, clustered loneliness of the billion, billion stars, loneliness can be an exciting, voluntary thing, unlike the loneliness Man suffers on Earth. Here, deep in the starry nowhere, a man can be as one with space and time; preoccupied, yet not indifferent; anxious and yet at peace. His name is Joseph Reardon. He is, in this present year, thirty years old. This is the first time he has made this journey alone…
A mutant (Martin Landau) travels from the 22nd century to the 20th century to prevent his bad future.
The Control Voice: It is said that if you move a single pebble on the beach, you set up a different pattern, and everything in the world is changed. It can also be said that love can change the future, if it is deep enough, true enough, and selfless enough. It can prevent a war, prohibit a plague, keep the whole world… whole.
The Tropes Who Were Never Born:
- Bittersweet Ending: Andro and Noelle save humanity, but they both pay a terrible price. Respectively, Andro fades out of existence and Noelle is heart-broken at losing the man she fell in love with. Also, it looks as if she's going to die alone in space... but see
What Could Have Been on the Trivia page. - The Grotesque: Andro, and he's well aware of it. Noelle begs to differ.Andro: You didn't see what I really am?
Noelle: Tell me what you really are.
Andro: Ugly.
Noelle:There's no ugliness in you. I know there isn't.
Andro: Not in me, Noelle. Not in my heart or my soul.
Noelle: Not in your face, either. - Humans Are Bastards: Played with. When the astronaut asks Andro why mankind didn't stop the virus in the past when they had the chance, the latter points out that simple research could've stopped it. The problem was, at that point, mankind was "too busy" dabbling in weapons and warfare to bother with curing the virus.
- Like Father, Like Son: Andro remarks these very words when he sees Bertram Sr. has his son's historically noted stubbornness.
- Secret Test of Character: Andro tries to dissuade Bertram Cabot Sr. from having children by questioning if having a child was more important than saving the children of another world, in order to gauge what kind of man he is.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Andro's mission is to go back to the past and stop Bertram Cabot Jr. from being born so he does not bio-engineer the virus that will cause the bad future.
- True Beauty Is on the Inside: Discussed between Andro and Noelle. Even when she had full view of Andro's true, hideous face, she wasn't fazed by it so much as she was his dark side. But even that didn't bother her, as it had passed.
