- The Control Voice: It is said that great conflicts are not settled by words but by iron and blood. But what if we could revisit those decisions? Would we still surrender to violence?
A time traveler sends two Civil War enthusiasts back to the real Battle of Gettysburg.
- The Control Voice: Despite everything we do, we may never free ourselves from the bonds of fate.
Gettystropes:
- 20 Minutes into the Future: Aired in 2000, set in 2013.
- Actor Allusion: Col. Angus Devine is the character who is played none other than by Meat Loaf.
- An Arm and a Leg: Vince Chance and Andy Larouche see a Confederate soldier who has had his right leg amputated. Colonel Angus Devine later wants Andy to amputate Major Hinton's left leg after he is shot by a Union soldier. However, he manages to sanitize the wound and Hinton is able to keep his leg.
- Born in the Wrong Century: Andy Larouche, a borderline white supremacist and the descendant of a Confederate Army veteran, is Still Fighting the Civil War and regrets that he was born more than 100 years too late to actually fight in the conflict. To a lesser extent, he believes that he unfairly missed out on World War II, Vietnam and Desert Storm.
- Cruel Twist Ending: A time traveler sends three young men at a Battle of Gettysburg reenactment back to the actual battle. One of the young men was a Southern fanatic who thought the South should have won and the battle was glorious. Being in the real battle under an insane commander dying of meningitis disabuses him of the notion. The time traveler sought to teach him that Aesop, because otherwise he would shoot
the first black U.S. President in 2013 when the president spoke at Gettysburg due to his Southern sympathies. The time traveler, however, dropped his device and the insane commander accidentally activated it, causing him to be transported to the future where he then shoots the president while he attempts to shoot the Lincoln reenactor. - Failed Future Forecast: Larouche laments dearly that he was born too late to fight in the American Civil War, and to a lesser extent World War Two, Vietnam, and Desert Storm, implying no American wars afterward. In the real 2013, he'd be the right age to satisfy his bloodlust by volunteering to fight in Iraq or Afghanistan.
- Fake-Out Opening: This episode opens with a sepia toned scene of what appears to be a Confederate soldier crouched down behind a rock about to shoot an unsuspecting Union soldier during the American Civil War. However, the sepia is replaced by a normal colour palette and it is revealed that the two men, Vince Chance and Andy Larouche, are War Re Enactors and good friends. The opening serves as Foreshadowing as Vince and Andy are soon sent back in time to the real Battle of Gettysburg by Nicholas Prentice.
- Historical Domain Character: Vince Chance and Andy Larouche briefly see General Robert E. Lee on the outskirts of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863 and again two days later just before Pickett's Charge.
- Historical Hero Upgrade: In-Universe. Andy Larouche is very proud that his ancestor Major Beauregard Larouche led the only Confederate unit in Pickett's Charge to break through the Union lines during the Battle of Gettysburg on July 3, 1863. He often boasts about this to his friend and fellow War Re Enactor Vince Chance. However, when Andy and Vince are sent back in time to 1863 by Nicholas Prentice, they meet Beauregard Larouche, who is only a corporal. Andy soon discovers that his exploits have been highly exaggerated. When he asks his ancestor whether he still believes in the cause of the Confederacy, Beauregard replies that he only believes in the cause of staying alive. When the two of them, Vince and Major Drummond come under fire from Union troops while trying to rescue the wounded Will Monroe, Beauregard runs away as he has seen enough death. He later tells Colonel Angus Devine that he rescued Monroe single-handedly. Andy's fervour reignites Beauregard's own long dormant patriotism and he proudly takes part in Pickett's Charge in which he is killed, the only accurate part of the Larouche family legend beyond his name.
- Insane Admiral: Colonel Angus Devine is suffering from severe viral meningitis, which causes his behavior to become increasingly unstable as the Battle of Gettysburg progresses.
- Join or Die: Vince shows up in the past wearing a replica of a Union officer. Since he is a doctor, the Confederate officer capturing him gives him a choice, either join the Confederate Army as a doctor, or be shot as a Union spy.
- Kid from the Future: Corporal Beauregard Larouche, a member of the Army of Northern Virginia who is trying to stay alive during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, meets his descendant Andy Larouche from 2000 but does not realize his identity.
- Noble Confederate Soldier: This episode is a deconstruction of this trope. The time traveler Nicholas Prentice sends two 20th-century men who are Civil War reenactors back to the actual Battle of Gettysburg to teach the one playing the Confederate some sort of lesson since he greatly admires the Confederacy, hoping it will stop him from assassinating a future black US President for publicly burying the Confederate battle flag at the site in a symbolic denunciation. They discover that War Is Hell, most of the soldiers they're fighting alongside are demoralized conscripts, and they're led by an insane colonel who doesn't know he's dying from meningitis. The Neo-Confederate's ancestor ends up getting killed by the insane colonel after trying to prevent the disastrous Pickett's charge).
- Ripple Effect Indicator: Vince Chance has a book entitled Great Battles of the Civil War. While on the Gettysburg battlefield for the re-enactment, he looks at the section on the battle and finds a photograph of several injured Confederate soldiers taken after Pickett's Charge featuring a nearby rock in the background. He and his friend Andy Larouche are later sent back in time to 1863 by Nicholas Prentice. Andy attempts to change history by preventing Pickett's Charge so that the Confederacy will win at Gettysburg. However, Lt. Winters believes that he is a Dirty Coward and a traitor so he shoots him in the chest at point blank range. Andy dies within about a minute and Prentice returns Vince to the present. When Vince looks at the same photograph, he sees Andy's body is now lying against the rock.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Nicholas Prentice seeks to alter history by convincing Andy Larouche that there is no glory in any war so he will not assassinate the U.S. President on November 19, 2013. He does so by sending him and his friend Vince Chance back to the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. For his part, Andy tries to change history by saving the Confederacy as he believes that it would have been a better world if it had won the American Civil War.
- Still Fighting the Civil War: The main characters are two friends who are also American Civil War reenactors. While for one of them it's apparently just a hobby, the other one is somewhat obsessed with the legacy of the Confederacy and wishes they had won the war, arguing that the Confederate States embodied several other policies aside from slavery such as greater state rights. They are visited by a time traveler from the future who sends them both back in time to the actual Battle of Gettysburg so they can take part in it under the command of an unhinged Colonel to discover for themselves that War Is Hell and make them see the error of their ways. It turns out that the Confederate fanboy would otherwise have assassinated the first black U.S. President at a Civil War memorial ceremony in 2013. He doesn't go through with this thanks to the time traveler's lesson, but the murder is instead committed by the Confederate Colonel when he's accidentally transported to the future in a Cruel Twist Ending.
- Timeline-Altering MacGuffin: Andy Larouche attempts to use his friend Vince Chance's book Great Battles of the Civil War to prevent Pickett's Charge and win the Battle of Gettysburg for the Confederacy. However, his efforts are unsuccessful as Vince realized what he was planning and hid the book in the house that Colonel Angus Devine and his men occupied. The woman who owns the house later finds the book and is horrified by it. However, she secretly returns it to Vince without asking any questions as she is grateful to him for delivering her baby and saving his life when his umbilical cord became wrapped around his head.
- Time Travel Episode: Of the variety "going back in time to a historical period idolized by the protagonist".
- War Is Hell: Nicholas Prentice sent Vince Chance and Andy Larouche to the eve of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Prentice's hope is to convince Andy that there is no glory in any war so that he will not assassinate the U.S. President at a ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 2013. Andy eventually learns his lesson, though at the cost of his life.
- War Reenactors: The two protagonists are American Civil War reenactors, with at least one of them having pretty unsavory views on slavery. They are both transported to the actual Battle of Gettysburg by a time traveler from the far future who wanted to teach them something about War Is Hell. It turns out that the openly racist one was going to assassinate the first black President in 2013.
- Worst Aid: Vince Chance, a paramedic from 2013, sees the low level of American Civil War era medicine first-hand when Nicholas Prentice sends him and his friend Andy Larouche back to 1863.
- You Already Changed the Past: Prentice wants to change the past by convincing The American Civil War buff (who has pro Confederate views) of the wrongness of his convictions by taking him and his friend to just before the Battle of Gettysburg. Originally, the buff was going to assassinate a black President in his own future. Instead, the buff takes this opportunity to try to alter the course of the battle in the Confederate favor. He accidentally uses Prentice's time machine (shaped as an old fashioned camera) to transport a Confederate general through time. His attempts at preventing the (from his viewpoint) catastrophe result in him getting shot for cowardice. Prentice takes the friend back to his time, and the latter finds an old newspaper with the picture of his dead friend. Meanwhile, in the future, the transported Confederate general appears at the moment of the original assassination, and he ends up being the presidential assassin (he was actually aiming for a man dressed as Abraham Lincoln, who was standing next to the president).
- You Can't Fight Fate: A mysterious time traveler, who had appeared in previous episodes, returns. However, this time, instead of attempting to arrange "justice" against villains from the past while remaining consistent with recorded history, he is attempting to directly change what happened. Specifically, he hopes to avoid the assassination of the first black president in 2013, regarded as one of America's greatest leaders, by a Southern Sympathizer whose beliefs are all tied up in the Glory of the Confederacy. The time traveler sends the guy back from a Gettysburg re-enactment to the real battle where he serves under an insane commander and faces the true harshness of the war and his supported side. He learns his lesson, and comes face-to-face with his ancestor, whose self-serving cowardice contradicts the impressive legend that he had idolized during his youth, and he rejects extremism and the no-longer noble rebellion against the government. However, the insane commander from Gettysburg is accidentally transported to the 2013 date and, while trying to kill "Lincoln" (in truth, an impersonator at the memorial event), manages to assassinate the president anyway.
