Five great time loop TV episodes, from Fringe, to Red Dwarf, to the X-Files and more...
Please note: ‘Five Great’, not ‘Top Five’ – feel free to add your choices below!
Ah, the time loop episode, otherwise known as the Groundhog Day episode, for obvious reasons. A SFF classic that can be used to explore any number of themes in any number of ways, within a satisfyingly tight structure. The best of these sorts of episodes, though, tend to focus on loss; loss cannot happen in a time loop, and accepting it is usually the key to breaking the circle.
These five episodes represent some of the most memorable uses of the time loop concept. They are listed here with due attention paid to who, if anyone, knows what’s going on and how far the structure named informally for a comedy film exploits the situation for laughs.
Fringe: White Tulip
So what is it? A man called Peck is trying to go back in time to see his fiancée once more before she dies, and it seems the whole universe is caught in the resulting time loop (whether time is passing in the other universe is unclear). Like many Fringe episodes, this itself will sound a bit familiar (see Window of Opportunity below).
Who knows about it? For much of the episode, only Peck, who eventually manages to achieve what he set out to do. At the end, none of our heroes have any idea that it ever happened.
Only joking! There’s actually less humour in this than in many Fringe episodes, because Walter, the source of much of the show’s comic relief, spends the whole episode agonising over whether or not to tell Peter the truth about his childhood.
Are those who forget doomed to repeat their mistakes? Not quite – there are subtle differences in each time loop for which there’s no obvious explanation.
Why should I want to re-live this episode? The heart of this episode is a conversation between Walter and Peck, in which Walter confesses that he is desperate for forgiveness for his actions twenty-five years ago and asked God for a sign to offer him some hope for redemption. ‘God is science’ replies Peck, who then uses the time loop to send Walter (who now has no idea it happened) the sign he wanted. The beauty of the thing is how satisfying it is whatever your religious convictions – either ‘God is science’, i.e. God works through science and human endeavour and God sent Walter a sign through Peck, or ‘God is science’, i.e. there is no God but Walter got what he needed through human science and human kindness – whichever way you look at it, it works, and it’s rather beautiful.
Red Dwarf: White Hole
So what is it? The time loop is a smaller part of a bigger problem in this episode, caused by the White Hole our anti-heroes are getting too close to for comfort. As far as we can tell, only Red Dwarf is stuck in the loop, but since they’re the only life-forms for light years around, it doesn’t make much difference.
Who knows about it? Everyone on the ship is made aware of it during the episode, but by the end it is assumed that no one knows it happened (though Lister has somehow managed to remember playing pool with planets in series 5’s Demons and Angels).
Only joking! Red Dwarf being a sitcom, naturally this is exploited for maximum comic potential. The Cat’s lines, which I’ve shamelessly plagiarised for this very article, are not especially original or startling, but they are so well delivered I defy anyone to watch any time loop episode without thinking of them.
Are those who forget doomed to repeat their mistakes? It’s hard to tell, especially when the Cat keeps cracking jokes.
Why should I want to re-live this episode? Coming from Red Dwarf’s heyday in series 3-5, this is some classic comedy. It’s also, like all the others on this list, ultimately about loss and sacrifice. Holly regains her lost intelligence, but at enormous cost, and is eventually forced to sacrifice her brainpower and return to her computer-senile self with no idea how close she came to genius.
The X-Files: Monday
So what is it? This is The X-Files, so explanations are not necessarily required. A woman called Pam relives the day her boyfriend blew up a bank (with Mulder and Scully in it) over and over again. Presumably the entire planet, possibly the universe, is stuck in the loop, as our heroes don’t seem to have lost any time when they finally emerge.
Who knows about it? Just Pam, though Mulder starts to get some pretty bad déjà vu and has more or less realised what’s happening by the final run.
Only joking! The episode is relatively serious, but it does see the return of Mulder’s water bed, a joke left over from the season’s earlier Dreamland, and also an indication that for some things, there is no logical explanation.
Are those who forget doomed to repeat their mistakes? There are small, random differences for no apparent reason in each cycle, but the major events tend to play out in the same way no matter what.
Why should I want to re-live this episode? This is just a perfect stand-alone episode of The X-Files – tragic, understated, with a powerful guest performance by Carrie Hamilton as a woman trapped in an unimaginable nightmare and a solution that may seem obvious, but that is pulled off so gracefully it feels absolutely right.
Star Trek The Next Generation: Cause and Effect
So what is it? A space-time distortion traps the Enterprise D in a time loop which repeatedly ends with the Enterprise crashing into another ship and exploding. Only the Enterprise D and the other ship (the Bozeman) are stuck in the loop, while the rest of the universe continues, unaware of what’s happened to them.
Who knows about it? No-one, but the more often the crew go through the loop, the more they start to experience déjà vu, until eventually they work out what’s happening and find a way to send Data a message on the next loop around.
Only joking! Levels of humour are fairly average for The Next Generation. It’s always nice to see the crew playing poker together.
Are those who forget doomed to repeat their mistakes? Until they experience enough déjà vu to start to make changes, things tend to play out the same way each time – which is what helps them to work out what’s happening.
Why should I want to re-live this episode? What makes this episode stand out is that, because there is no mad scientist causing the problem, or tragic character whose self-sacrifice is required to get the universe back on course, there is not a single character who knows what’s going on. This in turn means that, in the first few rounds, it seems that getting out of the loop will be utterly impossible, because you can’t solve a problem you don’t realise you have.
Whereas most time loop episodes tend to focus on emotions, this is the concept of the time loop exploited for its maximum brain-teaser potential (not to mention the horror inherent in the idea). Loss is still a theme – Captain Bateson and his crew have lost eighty years and presumably most of their friends and family, who in turn lost them – but it’s the science of the situation that fascinates.
Stargate SG-1: Window of Opportunity
So what is it? Alien scientist Malikai is trying to travel back in time, to spend a little more time with his wife before she dies. The planet Malikai is working from (P4X-639), the Earth and a dozen other planets are caught in the time loop while the rest of the universe carries on and wonders why they can’t make contact with them.
Who knows about it? Aside from Malikai, just Teal’c and Colonel O’Neill. Much to their frustration.
Only joking! Although the final act is tear-jerking and emotional, most of the episode is played for laughs, directly referencing Groundhog Day and getting the most out of Jack and Teal’c’s predicament. The whole thing is full of zingers, from Jack’s cereal to Teal’c’s encounter with the same clumsy redshirt hundreds of times over, but after Daniel suggests they might as well go a bit crazy if no one else will ever remember it, they really go all out (‘In the middle of my backswing?!’).
Are those who forget doomed to repeat their mistakes? Unfortunately for Teal’c, everyone around the two of them behaves in the exact same way on each loop, unless prevented. Since he’s hit in the face by a door right in the first few seconds of every loop with no time to stop it, this causes his usually even temper to wobble a bit.
Why should I want to re-live this episode? The combination of high comedy and tear-jerking tragedy makes for the perfect forty-five minutes with well-loved characters. The interaction of our heroes here is a delight, from Teal’c’s stoicism to the fact it takes Daniel, who isn’t looping, to point out the advantages of the situation, to Jack’s audience-pleasing and thoroughly sensible use of the loop to get in a snog with Carter.
The denouement also works in a reminder of our own lead character’s background and some exploration of his feelings as Jack points out to Malikai that he couldn’t live through his son’s death again (Daniel’s even more relevant loss of his wife is omitted, presumably for reasons of time and because that was a bit of a complicated situation).
As in White Tulip, Malikai cannot save his wife and he knows it, but where Peck wanted to fix one mistake (arguing with his fiancée the last time he spoke to her) Malikai simply wants to see her again – which, as O’Neill points out, will probably do him more harm than good. Loss has to be accepted and we all have to move on, not stick ourselves in a self-destructive loop – the central message of all great time loop episodes.
