10 Sci-Fi Shows That Actually Get Time Travel Right

Image via Netflix Published Aug 30, 2026, 5:26 AM EDT Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. Sign in to your Collider account Time travel is an incredibly difficult plot device to get right. Science fiction typically has no problem coming up with plausible ways to explain elements that don't actually exist, but different rules apply to time travel. It's a concept that completely defies the laws of physics, making it a little too easy for writers who don't know exactly what they're doing to create logical paradoxes and inconsistencies that make it hard to fully immerse oneself in a show that incorporates time travel. Throughout history, however, ten particular sci-fi shows have managed to get time travel right. Perhaps, like Dark, they came up with intricate internal rules that make it so that their time travel elements actually make sense; or perhaps, like Life on Mars, they focus on the more philosophical dimensions of time travel rather than the scientific ones. In any case, these are shows which prove that the genre actually can be done well. 10 'Continuum' (2012–2015) Image via Showcase Canadian science fiction has produced several of the genre's greatest shows over the years, the Syfy gem Continuum easily being among the best. It's one of those sci-fi shows that are criminally forgotten, a must-see both for those who love well-crafted and well-written time travel science fiction, as well as for those who love suspenseful crime dramas. Whereas many lesser time travel shows try to tiptoe their way around the paradoxes that inevitably come with changing history, the way Continuum gets time travel right is by directly confronting those paradoxes and creating a story where branching timelines are the order of the day. Though the show's rules start to get messier and more tangled up in its later seasons, the show as a whole manages to make time travel make more sense than it usually does. 9 'Life on Mars' (2006–2007) Image via BBC British science fiction often feels like a genre all of its own, and there are very few British sci-fi shows better than Life on Mars. It's a true masterpiece of a show, that's for sure, but it's probably better-suited for fans of gritty police procedurals than for die-hard sci-fi geeks. That's because the science fiction in Life on Mars is both subtle and sparse, purely driven by the premise of a cop who's hit by a car and wakes up in the 1970s. Driven by that relatively simple high-concept premise, Life on Mars finds space to be one of those mystery shows that are perfect from start to finish, every bit as tense and suspenseful as it is creative. The show makes it delectably ambiguous whether what's going on is actual time travel; and though its sequel series, Ashes to Ashes, confirms that this '70s setting was actually a sort of limbo for dead and dying police officers, Life on Mars technically still qualifies as one of the most unique time travel shows out there. 8 'Loki' (2021–2023) Image via Disney+ It was only in 2021 that Marvel Studios started making and releasing shows directly tied to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and though that wave hasn't produced all that many truly top-tier MCU products, Loki has a strong case for being the best of the bunch. After a somewhat slow start, this time travel and multiverse sci-fi extravaganza quickly turned into something far wilder and more creative than most of what the franchise had done before. The series wisely doesn't even bother to ground its time travel elements in any sort of scientific rigor, instead establishing a high-concept but perfectly plausible internal logic system and sticking to it. The MCU as a whole hasn't been the same since. The way it all leads to one of those superhero show endings that are genuine masterpieces only further adds to why Loki is a must-watch for sci-fi fans. 7 'The Lazarus Project' (2022–2023) Image via Sky Max Yet more proof that there's nothing quite like top-tier British science fiction, The Lazarus Project is one of the best Netflix sci-fi shows that are a 10/10. Its approval rating of 100% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes is entirely well-deserved, offering a sky-high-stakes spin on typical time travel tropes by telling a story about an organization having to reset time in order to prevent mass-extinction events. It's a clever, unique, airtight concept that results in a show that still feels unlike anything else that time travel sci-fi has produced over the course of the small screen's history. The strict internal logic that Lazarus Project sets up to make its time travel elements make sense works remarkably well the vast majority of the time, and even though low viewership got the show canceled after two seasons, it still feels like it had plenty of gas left in the tank. 6 'The Peripheral' (2022) Image via Amazon Prime Video Loosely based on the book by William Gibson, The Peripheral is yet another example of a great time travel show that was tragically canceled well before it had the chance to display its full potential. But though anyone who'd rather not watch a canceled show that ends on a major cliffhanger may prefer looking elsewhere, people who don't mind an unresolved narrative are guaranteed to fall in love with The Peripheral. It's one of the best sci-fi shows with fewer than eight episodes, and also one of the time travel shows that's smartest about its time travel elements. By avoiding physical travel entirely, instead relying on a data-only model that sidesteps grandfather paradoxes, The Peripheral prevents itself from ever driving itself into an inescapable narrative corner. Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you'd actually make it out of alive. 💊The Matrix 🔥Mad Max 🌧️Blade Runner 🏜️Dune 🚀Star Wars TEST YOUR SURVIVAL → 01 You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one. APull on every thread until I understand the system — then figure out how to break it. BStop asking questions and start stockpiling — food, fuel, weapons. Questions don't keep you alive. CKeep my head down, observe carefully, and trust no one until I know who's pulling the strings. DStudy the patterns. Every system has a rhythm — learn it, and you learn how to survive it. EFind the people fighting back and join them. You can't fix a broken galaxy alone. NEXT QUESTION → 02 In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires. AKnowledge. If you understand the system, you don't need resources — you can generate them. BFuel. Everything else — movement, power, escape — runs on it. CTrust. In a world of fakes and informants, a truly reliable ally is rarer than any commodity. DWater. And after water, information — the two things empires are truly built on. EShips and credits. The galaxy is big — you survive it by being able to move through it freely. NEXT QUESTION → 03 What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you're honest about what you're actually afraid of. AThat reality itself is a lie — that everything I experience has been constructed to keep me compliant. BA raid. No warning, no mercy — just the roar of engines and then nothing left. CBeing identified. Once someone with power decides you're a problem, you're already out of time. DBeing outmanoeuvred — losing a political game I didn't even know I was playing. EThe Empire tightening its grip until there's nowhere left to run. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with authority you don't trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything. ASubvert it from the inside — learn its rules well enough to weaponise them against it. BIgnore it and stay out of its reach. The further from any power structure, the better. CAppear to comply while doing exactly what I need to do. Visibility is the enemy. DManoeuvre within it carefully. You can't beat a system you refuse to understand. EResist openly when I have to. Some things are worth the risk of being seen. NEXT QUESTION → 05 Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn't just tactical — it's physical, psychological, and very much about where you are. AUnderground bunkers and server rooms — cramped, artificial, but with access to everything that matters. BOpen wasteland — brutal sun, no shelter, constant movement. At least the threat is honest. CA dense, rain-soaked city where you can disappear into the crowd and nobody asks questions. DMerciless desert — extreme heat, no water, and something enormous living beneath the sand. EThe fringe — backwater planets and busy spaceports where the Empire's attention rarely reaches. NEXT QUESTION → 06 Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are. AA tight crew of believers who've seen behind the curtain and have nothing left to lose. BOne or two people I'd trust with my life. Any more than that and someone talks. CNobody, ideally. Alliances are liabilities. I work alone unless I have no choice. DA community bound by shared hardship and mutual survival — people who need each other to last. EA ragtag team with wildly different skills and total commitment when it counts. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they're actually made of. AI won't harm the innocent — even the ones who'd report me without hesitation. BI do what I have to to protect the people I've chosen. Everything else is negotiable. CThe line shifts depending on who's asking and what's at stake. DI draw a long-term line — nothing that compromises my people's future, even if it'd help now. ESome lines, once crossed, can't be uncrossed. I know which ones they are. NEXT QUESTION → 08 What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another. AWaking others up — dismantling the illusion so no one else has to live inside it. BFinding somewhere — or someone — worth protecting. A reason to keep moving. CAnswers. Understanding what I am, what any of this means, before time runs out. DLegacy — shaping the future in a way that outlasts me by generations. EFreedom — for myself, for others, for every world still living under someone else's boot. REVEAL MY WORLD → Your Fate Has Been Calculated You'd Survive In…Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for. The MatrixYou took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You're a systems thinker who can't help but notice the seams in things. You're drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it. You'd find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines' worst nightmare. You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it. The Matrix built an airtight prison. You'd be the one probing the walls for the door. Mad MaxThe wasteland doesn't reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That's you. You don't need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon. You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you're good at all three. You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider. In the wasteland, that distinction is everything. Blade RunnerYou'd survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely. You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer. In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional. You're not a hero. But you're not lost, either. In Blade Runner's world, that distinction is everything. DuneArrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards. Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they're survival tools. You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory. Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You'd learn its logic and earn its respect. In time, you wouldn't just survive Arrakis — you'd begin to reshape it. Star WarsThe galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn't have it any other way. You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion. You'd gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire's grip can be broken. You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn't something you're capable of. In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 '11.22.63' (2016) Image via Hulu Stephen King adaptations have produced several exceptional TV shows over the years, but it should come as no surprise that the one that may be the best of the bunch also happens to be based on King's best sci-fi book. Indeed, 11.22.63 is an absolutely phenomenal adaptation, a thriller miniseries executive-produced by J. J. Abrams which is as well-written as it is well-acted and well-directed. Does the time travel in 11.22.63 make strict scientific sense? Not really, but the miniseries gets time travel right by seeing it as more of a supernatural force, treating the past as a sort of stubborn entity that doesn't stop resisting change. The result is a series that even die-hard fans of time travel shows should find exquisitely different and unique. 4 'Steins;Gate' (2011–2015) Image via White Fox Animation is at times looked down on even by the most passionate of sci-fi fans, despite having provided several of the genre's greatest shows over the years. Case in point: the anime masterpiece Steins;Gate, based on the 2009 visual novel of the same name. It's one of the best anime thrillers of all time, also widely considered one of the best anime series ever created by fans and critics alike. The show's story follows a strict set of rules and internal mechanics, at times even referencing real scientific theories like Kerr black holes and the Many-Worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. As such, Steins;Gate should keep fans of both hard sci-fi and soft sci-fi equally satisfied, thanks to its understanding of time travel as a concept that deserves rigor and a focus on entertainment value in equal measure. 3 'Travelers' (2016–2018) Image via Netflix The Canadian-American co-production Travelers still holds a 100% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, and every single positive review that created that perfect score was well-earned. It is, after all, one of the most addictive sci-fi shows ever created, perfectly blending high-stakes time travel with emotionally compelling and character-driven drama. With its strict physical rules and its limiting time travel to characters' consciousness, Travelers creates a fluid yet strict internal system that keeps the plot philosophically engaging while also making sense 99% of the time. That results in some incredibly entertaining and thought-provoking storylines, which makes this one of the best sci-fi shows to rewatch. 2 '12 Monkeys' (2015–2018) Image via SYFY Four-season TV shows that are perfect are a rarity, but they sure do exist, as proven by Syfy's 12 Monkeys. Loosely based on Terry Gilliam's '90s cult classic film Twelve Monkeys, this criminally underrated masterpiece of a show is far and away one of the best sci-fi TV shows of the 2010s—regardless of subgenre—even if it doesn't usually get as much recognition as it deserves. Much like the exceptional film that inspired it, 12 Monkeys relies on a rigid timeline governed by a strict internal logic and closed bootstrap paradoxes. This gets time travel right not only because the show ends up making a surprising amount of sense—despite being just as intellectually challenging as any fan of the subgenre could possibly want—but also because it understands the many fascinating philosophical questions that make time travel interesting to begin with, like matters of predestination and fate. 1 'Dark' (2017–2020) Image via Netflix As the years have passed since its jaw-dropping conclusion, time has been kind to Netflix's Dark, allowing it to age as perhaps the single most universally acclaimed time travel and multiverse sci-fi series the world has ever seen. For people who love Netflix shows full of shocking plot twists, this one should be considered essential viewing, because it also happens to probably be the most intellectually daunting sci-fi show of the last decade. As complicated and attention-demanding as it may sometimes feel watching Dark, however, it's also one of the most immensely satisfying experiences a sci-fi fan can have from the comfort of their living room. That's largely because the show tends to get time travel exactly right, treating it with both mathematically strict rigor and a supernatural sense of mystery. Time travel shows can often be so confusing that they're hard to enjoy, but Dark treats its sci-fi elements with such a refreshingly nuanced attention to detail that it becomes abundantly easy to enjoy it on every level. Dark Release Date 2017 - 2020-00-00 Network Netflix Cast Louis Hofmann Jonas Kahnwald Lisa Vicari Martha Nielsen