Director: Martin Wood. 082
Writing Credits: Brad Wright, Jonathan Glassner.
Production Companies: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Acme Shark, Kawoosh! Productions DTV II.
Distribution: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Actors: Ben Browder (Colonel Cameron Mitchell/Captain of the Achilles), Amanda Tapping (Colonel Samantha Carter), Christopher Judge (Teal'c), Michael Shanks (Dr. Daniel Jackson), Claudia Black (Vala Mal Doran/Quetesh), Cliff Simon (Ba'al). Runtime: 98 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 7.4/10 4,068 votes
Overview: Ba’al goes back in time and prevents the Stargate Program from being formed. Three members of SG-1 are travelling through a wormhole when the timeline is changed, so when they exit it, they are on the new diverging timeline.
Plot Synopsis: The evil Ba’al travels from the present back to 1939 to prevent a ship called the Achilles from transporting a Stargate to the United States. This changes the course of history such that the Stargate Program was never formed. In the present, so that when they exit the wormhole, they find themselves on Earth, but on a diverging timeline with a different present. They ask the U.S. government to let them recover the sunken Stargate and change the timeline back, but are denied, as millions of people on the current timeline would cease to exist. A year later, Ba’al arrives with a fleet to take over the Earth. The president now gives SG-1 permission to use the sunken Stargate. SG-1 manages to activate it and use it to jump across the universe to Ba’als time machine. They set it up to transport themselves back to 1929, so they can be ready and waiting for Ba’al when he arrives in 1939. However, Ba’al’s queen arrives with her troops and a battle follows in which they are all killed except Mitchell, who escapes using the time machine, before it is destroyed. He arrives in 1929 and then ten years later, kills Ba’al and his troops as they arrive through the Stargate on the Achilles. We return to the present, where the timeline has been restored except for an old photo in Mitchell’s locker, which shows him standing next to his grandfather on the Achilles in
My Comments:
Ba’al travels back and makes significant changes, then returns to his own time, just like Biff did in Back to the Future Part II (1989). When their timeline collapses, the three SG-1 team members are in transit in a wormhole, just as Marty and the Doc were in transit in their time machine. This storyline therefore suffers from similar paradoxes as those discussed in the review of Back to the Future Part II (1989).
Time Travel Summary:
Ba’al goes back in time and causes the timeline to diverge to a future, which is more favourable for him. In doing so, he changes both the past and the future, which must therefore both be open.
Model of Time:
Open past, open future Diverging timeline
Suddenly 30 (1995)
aka '13 Going on 30'
Director: Gary Winick. 083
Writing Credits: Josh Goldsmith, Cathy Yuspa.
Production Companies: Revolution Studios, Thirteen Productions LLC. Distribution: Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Actors: Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, Andy Serkis. Runtime: 98 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 6.1/10 24,880 votes
Overview: Some wishing dust falls off a dollhouse onto a teenage girl’s head and she wakes up to find she has time-travelled 17 years into the future, so she has the mind of a 13-year-old, but the body of a 30-year-old.
Plot Synopsis: Jenna Rink has just become a teenager, but wishes she were “thirty, flirty and thriving.” She is repeating the mantra over and over when some wishing dust falls off a dollhouse onto her head. She wakes up to find she has time-travelled 17 years into the future and now she has the mind of a 13-year-old, but the body of a 30-year-old. She is a good-looking, single and a successful magazine editor. However she does not like the person she has become and regrets that she pushed away Matt, her best friend at school because he was considered uncool. The same wishing dust is still on the
dollhouse when she finds it again and a wind blows some of it onto her, sending her back to her 13th birthday party. She changes the decisions she made at that time, and we fast forward to her marrying Matt. This is a feel-good movie. One of those movies that makes us believe that we can rid ourselves of regret by going back and changing things for the better.
Genre: Fantasy – Magic.
My Comments: Jenna travels to her future and then travels back in time to make changes to her childhood. The film then fast-forwards along the new timeline where we discover that she has created a better future for herself.
Time Travel Summary: Jenna never goes back in time before her present, so the past is unchanged. After a return trip to her future, she makes changes to her present, which cause her destiny to change, so the future is also open and the timeline diverging.
Model of Time:
Undefined past, open future Diverging timeline
Superman (1978)
Director: Richard Donner. 084
Writing Credits: Jerry Siegel, Joe Schuster.
Production Companies: Alexander Salkind, Dovemead Films, Film Export A.G., International Film Production.
Distribution: Warner Bros. Pictures.
Actors: Christopher Reeve (Superman/Clark Kent), Margot Kidder (Lois Lane), Marlon Brando (Jor-El), Gene Hackman (Lex Luthor).
Runtime: 143 minutes.
The Internet Movie Database User Rating: 7.3/10 40,878 votes
Overview: As Superman speeds to the Earth, time dilates and he travels forwards in time. At the end of the film, he reverses the Earth’s spin, which causes time to rewind, so he can go back in time and save the lives of people, who had previously died.
Plot Synopsis: In order to preserve his race, the alien, Jor-El, sends his baby son in a space pod away from Planet Krypton, as it is doomed to spiral into its sun. Several years later, it arrives on Earth and the baby is now a young boy. In the meantime, thousands of years have passed on Krypton, which has now been destroyed by its sun. He becomes Clark Kent and is raised on a farm, before travelling to Metropolis, where he finds work as a newspaper reporter. His super-human strength and powers earn him the nickname Superman. When his girlfriend, Lois Lane, dies in an accident, he decides to use his powers to turn back time. He flies many times around the earth faster than the speed of light; the Earth slows to a standstill and then begins spinning in the opposite direction, so the clocks on Earth turn backwards. By the time he lands back on Earth, Lois is now alive and he is able to prevent her death and save the Earth from destruction.
Genre: Science Fiction – Time Travel Vehicle and Time Reversal.
My Comments: Superman’s pod travels at high speeds for several years causing time to dilate, so that he has travelled thousands of years into the future by the time he arrives on the Earth. This does not break any of the laws of physics, unlike the time travel at the end of the film because causing the Earth to rotate in the opposite direction cannot reverse time.
Time Travel Summary: On the original timeline, Lois died, so Superman goes back and changes the past by saving her life. Therefore, he has created a new diverging timeline, which replaced the previous one.
Model of Time: Open past, open future with a diverging timeline.