Gene Roddenberry

writer, creator
TV Episode

Star Trek (s01e04)

The Naked Time

After an alien spore infects the entire Enterprise crew with madness, it seems that the only available action to save the ship from a rapdidly decaying orbit is a cold restart of the engines. —Michael Main
You know, Dr. McCoy said the same thing.
A bare-chested George Takei (as Sulu) strikes a fencing position with a silver foil in a corridor of the Enterprise.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek (s01e19)

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Darn those high-gravity black stars! Always accidentally throwing starships hither and yon through time. Although in this case, the crew of the Enterprise manages to correct all the problems they caused by beaming 1960s Air Force pilot Captain John Christopher on board. —Michael Main
Spock: Fifty years to go. Forty. Thirty.
Kirk: Never mind, Mr. Spock.
Spock: [silence]
A view of the Enterprise above the clouds of 1969 Earth.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek (s01e28)

The City on the Edge of Forever

After a delirious Bones hurtles through a time portal to the 1930s, Kirk and Spock follow to save him and stop dangerous changes to the timeline, no matter the cost. —Michael Main
Joan Collins (as Edith Keeler) and William Shatner (as James T. Kirk), dressed in duffle coats, on a city sidewalk, looking toward the night sky.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek (s02e26)

Assignment: Earth

The Enterprise and her crew make their first intentional trip back in time to study historical aspects of 1968 and the Cold War, but unexpectedly, they intercept a transporter beam that brings the mysterious Gary Seven and his feline from a faraway advanced planet. —Michael Main
Humans of the 20th century do not go beaming around the Galaxy, Mr. Seven.
In a light grey suit, Robert Lansing (as Gary Seven) lies on a catwalk with steam in his face and a black cat on his back.
  • Eloi Gold Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek (s03e06)

Spectre of the Gun

After barging into the space of the reclusive Melkotians, Kirk and his crew find themselves facing the Earps and Doc Holliday in a second-rate simulation of the 1881 gunfight at the O.K. Corral. —Michael Main
History has been changed in the fact that Billy Claiborne didn’t die, but Chekov is lying there dead.
A façade of a sheriff’s office stands on a set of tumbleweeds, barron trees, and a red sky.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek (s03e11)

Wink of an Eye

In an outer quadrant of the galaxy, the Enterprise is taken over by Deela and her subject Scalosians, who can accelerate their personal time frames to a point where everyone else seems frozen. —Michael Main
They cannot hear you, Captain. To their ears, you sound like an insect.
Kathie Browne (as Queen Deela) sports a blonde 1960s beehive hairdo as she gives a severe stare off-camera.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek (s03e19)

Requiem for Methuselah

The seemingly all-powerful Flint lives with the brilliant young Raina, hangs unknown [tag-3791 | da Vinci]] paintings on his walls, and provides Mr. Spock with a modern-day Brahms waltz. Could his riches be ill-got via time travel or is there a mundane explanation? —Michael Main
Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mr. Flint—they appear to have been recently painted.
No image currently available.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek (s03e22)

The Savage Curtain

The critics agree that this episode lives in the bottom ten of all Star Trek episodes, but we kinda liked seeing Lincoln and Surak, even if Spock concludes that they were mere sims. —Michael Main
Conjecture, Captain, rather than explanation: It would seem that we were held in the power of creatures able to control matter and to rearrange molecules in whatever fashion was desired, so they were able to create images of Sarak and Lincoln after scanning our minds and using their fellow creatures as source matter.
Nichelle Nichols [as Uhura] and Lee Bergere [as Lincoln] converse on the bridge of the Enterprise.
  • Science Fiction
  • No Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek (s03e23)

All Our Yesterdays

The three principal Trekkers find themselves on a planet where everyone is being evacuated to the past to escape an impending supernova. —Michael Main
Spock! You’re reverting into your ancestors, five thousand years before you were born!
In an icy cave, Leonard Nimoy (as Spock) places his hands on Mariette Harley (as Zarabeth) for a Vulcan mind meld.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek IV

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

As the brave crew of the Enterprise are returning to Earth on a Klingon Bird of Prey to stand trial for the events of the previous movie, Spock determines that Earth’s demise is imminent unless they can return to 1986 and retrieve a humpback whale (which they proceed to do).

I saw this in the theater with Deb Baker and Jon Shultis during a winter trip to Pittsburgh for a small computer science education conference. —Michael Main
McCoy: You realize that by giving him the formula you’re altering the future.
Scotty: Why? How do we know he didn’t invent the thing?
Headshots of the Enterprise crew overlook a Klingon ship passing over the Golden Gate bridge.
  • Eloi Silver Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation (s01e01-02)

Encounter at Farpoint

  • by D. C. Fontana
  • (Paramount Domestic Television, USA, 28 September 1987) [syndicated]
As the new captain of the Enterprise and other new members of his crew become acquainted with their galaxy class starship and its capabilities, they travel to a curious city on Deneb IV and also encounter a powerful  being from the Q who, among other things, exhibits a possible power over time itself. —Michael Main
Troi: Captain, sir, this is not an illusion of a dream.
Picard: But these courts belong in the past.
Troi:I don’t understand either, but this is real.
Patrick Stewart (as Captain Jean-Luc Picard) boldly stands on the bridge of the N C C 1 7 0 1 D.
  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Science Fiction
  • Debatable Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation (s01e06)

Where No One Has Gone Before

Yes, we see minor time phenomena when Picard and other members of the crew vividly experience moments and beings from their pasts, possibly created by their thoughts, but the real import of the episode is the introduction of The Traveler, who among other things is able to alter spacetime and is always on the lookout for promising individuals such as Wesley Crusher. —Michael Main
The Traveler to Picard about Wesley: In such musical geniuses I saw in one of your ship’s libraries—one called Mozart, who as a small child wrote astonishing symphonies, a genius who made music not only to be heard, but seen and felt beyond the understanding, the ability of others. Wesley is such a person, not with music, but with the equally lovely intricacies of time, energy, propulsion, and the instruments of this vessel, which allow all that to be played . . .
Eric Menyuk (as the Traveler) looks knowingly at young Wil Wheaton (as Acting Ensign Wesley Crusher).
  • Eloi Honorable Mention
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation (s01e24)

We’ll Always Have Paris

Temporal distortions, such as time loops and mixed times, are rippling outward from an isolated planetoid where Dr. Manheim and Jenice Manheim, an old flame of Picard’s, built their time/gravity research lab. —Michael Main
Sensors show nothing, sir, But it appears a moment in time repeated itself exactly, for everyone.
Still shot from behind of Patrick Stewart (as Captain Jean-Luc Picard) gazing at a future Eiffel Tower on the holo-deck.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation, s01e26

The Neutral Zone

The Enterprise stumbles upon a ship of cryogenic containers, three of which are still working and contain people from the late 20th century. —Michael Main
We have run into an unusual situation, sir: There are people on board. Frozen.
Michael Dorn (as Lieutenant Worf) examines a frozen body through the window of a cryogenic chamber.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation, s02e01

The Child

An alien ball of energy impregnates Counselor Troi. No time travel, but the pregnancy and the boy's childhood both speed by at warp 10. —Michael Main
Riker: A baby? This is a surprise.
Troi: More so for me.
Marina Sirtis (as Deanna Troi) gazes lovingly at a newborn boy in her arms.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation, s02e03

Elementary, Dear Data

Geordi and Pulaski’s annoyance at Data’s inability to create a worthy opponent in a Sherlock Holmes mystery on the holodeck results in a more realistic Moriarty than any of them anticipated. —Michael Main
Clancy: [to Geordi] Aye, sir. Where can I reach you?
Data: He can be reached at 221 Baker Street!
In a Sherlock Holmes get-up, Brent Spiner (as Data) examines something through a magnifying glass.
  • Science Fiction
  • Mystery and Crime
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation, s03e03

The Survivors

The Enterprise crew tries to figure out how elderly Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge survived the complete annihilation of their planet. No time travel was involved, but you can just guess what other familiar time phenomena is afoot. —Michael Main
We had almost given up hope. We were afraid maybe the whole Federation had been attacked.
Elderly John Anderson and Anne Haney (as Kevin and Rishon Uxbridge) show their serious faces.
  • Science Fiction
  • Time Phenomena
TV Episode

Star Trek: The Next Generation (s03e15)

Yesterday’s Enterprise

Title card from the episode Yesterday
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek Generations

Head shots of William Shatner (as Captain James T. Kirk) and Patrick Stewart (as Captain Jean Luc Picard) superimposed in a Star Trek emblem with the Enterprise blasting out.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek VIII

Star Trek: First Contact

Picard and the Enterprise travel back to 2063 to stop the Borg from preventing Zefram Cochrane’s invention of the warp drive. —Michael Main
Assimilate this!
The Next Generation Enterprise streaks across a giant Borg cube and into the distance.
  • Eloi Bronze Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek XI

Star Trek

Young Kirk and Spock meet future Ambassador Spock who has come back in time to stop Nero from destroying Vulcan.

Tim and I saw this reboot in the theater on opening day. —Michael Main
You know, coming back in time, changing history . . . that’s cheating.
Head shots of Chris Pine (as Kirk), Zachary Quinto (as Spock), and Zoë Saldana (as Uhura) look down on Kirk motorcycling under the Enterprise.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek XII

Star Trek: Into Darkness

There’s a little-known rule that says that any time Spock Prime gets to talk to new Spock, the movie is counted as possessing time travel under a grandfather clause, even if said movie contained no actual new time travel.

For me, the dark aspects of the movie were nothing but forced melodrama, although it did have great special effects, terrific casting of the principles, and fun Trekker jokes. Those positives, though, weren’t enough to cover up the plot holes and Kirk’s questionable decisions. Good grief, just blast the bad guy with a photon torpedo rather than blasting your way through a bunch of Klingons (who never harmed you) to give the guy a fair trial. And if you don’t do that, at least blast him to bits on the bridge of that dreadnaught. —Michael Main
As you know, I have made a vow never to give you information that could potentially alter your destiny. Your path is yours to walk and yours alone.
The Enterprise descends in flames through the atmosphere of a blue planet.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Star Trek Beyond

  • by Simon Pegg et al. , directed by Justin Lin
  • (at movie theaters, Indonesia and elsewhere, 20 July 2016)
The Enterprise blasts up through clouds and a blue sky.
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
TV Season

Star Trek: Picard, Season 2

  • by multiple writers and directors
  • (Paramount+, 3 March 2022 to 5 May 2022)
After a catastrophic start to Season 2, Q steps in to pluck Picard’s crew and the Borg Queen from certain death only to insert them into a dystopian timeline that Q himself had created via a small change in 2024. —Michael Main
Time? Of course, that’s how he did it. This is not another reality—this is our reality. He went back in time and changed the present.
Black-and-white photo of old Patrick Steward (as Jean-Luc Picard) standing in from of old John de Lancie (as Q).
  • Science Fiction
  • Definite Time Travel
Partially Animated TV Episode

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (s02e07)

Those Old Scientists

Ensign Boimler is pulled into a time portal to the time of his heroes, Spock and Pike. Mariner follows! —Michael Main
I know me being here wasn’t . . . ideal . . . , and potentially reality-threatening, but meeting all of you has been one of the greatest experiences of my life.
No image currently available.
  • Eloi Gold Medal
  • Science Fiction
  • Comedy
  • Definite Time Travel