Time travel has captivated audiences since the early days of television, offering thrilling narratives and mind-bending concepts. From classic science fiction to contemporary dramas, the fascination with moving through time has resulted in a rich landscape of Time Travel Television Series. Since The Twilight Zone first played with temporal displacement in its 1958 pilot, “The Time Element,” the small screen has been a fertile ground for exploring the past, present, and future. Shows like the original Star Trek episode “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” further cemented time travel’s place in popular culture. This enduring appeal has given rise to numerous series dedicated entirely to the premise, with Quantum Leap (1989-1993) standing out as a prime example, where Dr. Sam Beckett journeyed weekly to different eras to correct historical missteps. Now, with the revival of Quantum Leap in 2022 and new entries like The Peripheral and Paper Girls, the time travel television genre continues to evolve and intrigue.
The resurgence of time travel television is evident with series like the 2022 Quantum Leap reboot and shows such as The Peripheral and Paper Girls joining the ranks of beloved time-bending narratives. This list dives into some of the most critically acclaimed time travel television series, ranked by their Tomatometer score. We’ll explore classics like the long-running Doctor Who, famed for its time-traveling TARDIS, the mystery-laden Lost with its time-altering island, and the historical romance of Outlander, where characters traverse centuries. The Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles brought the future war to the present day, while 12 Monkeys expanded its intricate time loop. Even Back to the Future and Timecop branched out into television adaptations, showcasing the broad appeal of time travel concepts.
More recent years have seen even more creative takes on time travel. DC’s Legends of Tomorrow focused on safeguarding the timeline itself, La Brea plunged a modern family into prehistoric times, and Russian Doll morphed from a Groundhog Day-esque loop into a journey through 1980s New York. Fan favorites such as Timeless and Manifest, alongside underrated gems like Journeyman and Day Break, further demonstrate the diverse approaches to time travel in television.
Explore the curated list below, ranked by Tomatometer score, to discover some of the best time travel television series. For series without Tomatometer scores, they are listed alphabetically to ensure a comprehensive overview of the genre. Let us know in the comments which time travel TV shows are your personal favorites!
#1
Life on Mars 100% 98%
Life on Mars tops the list with a perfect Tomatometer score. This British series (adapted in the US, also listed) throws modern-day police detective Sam Tyler back to 1973 after a car accident. The show masterfully blends crime procedural elements with the mystery of whether Sam is truly time traveling, in a coma, or experiencing a psychological break, making it a unique and highly acclaimed time travel television experience.
#2
Russian Doll 97% 76%
Russian Doll presents a darkly comedic and existential take on time loops. Natasha Lyonne stars as Nadia, a New Yorker who finds herself reliving her 36th birthday party, dying repeatedly and restarting the same night. The series evolves beyond the initial Groundhog Day premise, delving into deeper themes of trauma, mortality, and connection, making it a standout modern time travel television series.
#3
Dark 95% 94%
Dark, a German series, is a complex and atmospheric time travel mystery. When children disappear in a small town, the secrets of four families across multiple generations are revealed, connected by a web of time travel. Known for its intricate plot, philosophical depth, and stunning visuals, Dark is a critically acclaimed non-English language time travel television series that has gained a global following.
#4
Loki 87% 86%
Loki, part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, brings time travel into the superhero genre. Following the God of Mischief after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Loki is recruited by the Time Variance Authority (TVA) to fix timelines he’s broken. The series explores alternate realities, timeline branches, and the nature of free will within a cosmic bureaucracy, offering a unique blend of superhero action and time travel paradoxes.
#5
The Outer Limits 92% 92%
The Outer Limits (1963) is a classic science fiction anthology series, predating even Star Trek. While not solely focused on time travel, several episodes explore temporal themes with thought-provoking narratives and often chilling conclusions. This series is a foundational example of science fiction television, influencing many subsequent shows in the genre, including those involving time travel.
#6
Timeless 91% 67%
Timeless is a fan-favorite series that follows a historian, a soldier, and a scientist as they travel through time to prevent a mysterious organization from altering history. Blending historical settings with action-adventure, Timeless offers an engaging and accessible take on time travel, emphasizing the importance of preserving the past.
#7
Paper Girls 87% 89%
Paper Girls, based on the comic book series, follows four young girls in 1988 who become caught in a conflict between time travelers. This series combines coming-of-age themes with science fiction and time travel elements, offering a unique perspective through the eyes of its young protagonists.
#8
Future Man 91% 83%
Future Man is a comedic take on time travel. Josh Hutcherson stars as a janitor recruited by time-traveling warriors from the future to prevent the apocalypse. The series is known for its humor, pop culture references, and self-aware approach to science fiction tropes, making it a fun and irreverent time travel television choice.
#9
Doctor Who 90% 64%
Doctor Who is perhaps the most iconic time travel television series. Following the adventures of a time-traveling alien known as the Doctor, who explores the universe in the TARDIS, the show has been a cultural phenomenon for decades. With its ever-changing lead actors and boundless creativity, Doctor Who remains a cornerstone of time travel television.
#10
Outlander 90% 85%
Outlander blends historical drama, romance, and time travel. Claire Randall, a WWII nurse, is transported back to 18th century Scotland. The series focuses on her adapting to a new era and her passionate relationship with a Highlander, Jamie Fraser, making it a unique entry in time travel television, driven by character and historical context.
#11
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow 89% 68%
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow is a superhero series within the Arrowverse, where a team of heroes travels through time to combat threats to the timeline. Known for its lighthearted tone and ensemble cast, Legends of Tomorrow offers a more comedic and adventurous approach to time travel within the superhero genre.
#12
12 Monkeys 88% 78%
12 Monkeys, based on the film, is a sci-fi series about James Cole, who travels from a post-apocalyptic future to the present to prevent a deadly plague. The series expands upon the movie’s premise with intricate time travel mechanics, character development, and a compelling narrative across its seasons, solidifying its place as a strong time travel television adaptation.
#13
Continuum 88% 86%
Continuum features Kiera Cameron, a cop from 2077 who travels back to 2012 in pursuit of terrorists. The series explores themes of technology, corporate power, and the consequences of altering the past, with a strong female lead and action-packed storylines.
#14
Star Trek: Discovery 84% 33%
Star Trek: Discovery expands the Star Trek universe. While starting in a familiar timeline, the crew of the Discovery eventually jumps centuries into the future. This bold temporal leap allowed the series to forge its own path and explore new frontiers for the franchise, making it a significant addition to the time travel elements within Star Trek.
#15
The Umbrella Academy 78% 61%
The Umbrella Academy features a dysfunctional family of adopted siblings with superpowers. Time travel becomes a key element as they try to prevent apocalypses and grapple with personal issues across different time periods. This series blends superhero action with family drama and intricate time-bending plots.
#16
Lost 86% 89%
Lost is a mystery drama where survivors of a plane crash find themselves on a mysterious island with supernatural elements, including time anomalies. As the series progresses, time travel becomes integral to the plot, adding layers of complexity and intrigue to the island’s secrets and the characters’ intertwined fates.
#17
Star Trek: Picard 89% 57%
Star Trek: Picard sees the return of Jean-Luc Picard decades after Star Trek: The Next Generation. While not solely focused on time travel, the series incorporates temporal elements, particularly in its later seasons, as Picard and his crew face threats that span across time, adding to the rich tapestry of Star Trek‘s exploration of the future.
#18
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles 85% 87%
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles continues the Terminator saga on television. Sarah Connor and her son John travel to the future to prevent Skynet from rising. The series delves into the complexities of changing the future, artificial intelligence, and the relentless fight for survival against a technologically advanced enemy from the future.
#19
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 85% 94%
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency is a quirky and comedic series based on Douglas Adams’ novels. While embracing a holistic approach to detective work, the show incorporates time travel and interconnectedness of events in bizarre and often hilarious ways, making it a unique and unconventional time travel television experience.
#20
11.22.63 83% 88%
11.22.63, based on Stephen King’s novel, stars James Franco as a teacher who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy. This limited series blends historical fiction, suspense, and romance, exploring the potential and pitfalls of altering significant historical events through time travel.
#21
The Twilight Zone 92% 96%
The Twilight Zone (original 1959 series) is a legendary anthology series created by Rod Serling. Known for its science fiction, fantasy, and horror stories, The Twilight Zone frequently explored time travel concepts in its episodes, often with twist endings and social commentary, solidifying its status as a groundbreaking and influential television series.
#22
Star Trek 80% 89%
Star Trek (original 1966 series) is a science fiction classic that introduced time travel early on. Episodes like “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” showcased the Enterprise crew encountering past Earth, establishing time travel as a recurring and fascinating element within the Star Trek universe.
#23
The Peripheral 79% 85%
The Peripheral, a more recent series, explores a future where technology allows people to inhabit bodies in different time periods. Chloe Grace Moretz stars as a woman who discovers a connection to a future timeline, blurring the lines between virtual reality and time travel, offering a contemporary take on temporal displacement.
#24
Daybreak 68% 66%
Daybreak is a post-apocalyptic, comedic series where a teenager navigates a zombie-filled world while searching for his girlfriend. The series employs a time loop narrative device, with the protagonist reliving the same day from different perspectives, adding a unique temporal twist to the zombie apocalypse genre.
#25
Doctor Who 68% 78%
Doctor Who (classic series, 1963-1989) began the long-running legacy of the Doctor. The original series laid the foundation for time travel adventures, introducing the TARDIS and establishing the Doctor as a time-traveling hero, shaping the landscape of time travel television for decades to come.
#26
The Twilight Zone 67% 44%
The Twilight Zone (2019 revival hosted by Jordan Peele) continued the anthology tradition, exploring modern anxieties through science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Like the original, this revival occasionally touched upon time travel themes, offering contemporary stories with the classic Twilight Zone twist.
#27
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures 60% – –
Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventures is an animated series continuing the time-traveling escapades of Bill and Ted from the popular movies. Using a time-traveling phone booth, they journey through history, typically for comedic effect and to ace their history reports, offering a light-hearted and fun take on time travel.
#28
Quantum Leap 73%
Quantum Leap (2022) is a revival of the beloved 1989 series. This new iteration follows Dr. Ben Song, who similarly leaps through time, inhabiting different lives and righting wrongs. While having connections to the original, the new Quantum Leap introduces fresh characters and storylines, continuing the legacy of this time travel television concept for a new generation.
#29
The Twilight Zone 77%
The Twilight Zone (2002 UPN revival hosted by Forest Whitaker) was another attempt to bring back the classic anthology series. While it maintained the format of self-contained stories, this version received mixed reviews compared to the original and other revivals, but still contributed to the ongoing presence of The Twilight Zone in television history.
#30
Journeyman 100%
Journeyman is an often-overlooked series where a San Francisco reporter, Dan Vasser, inexplicably begins time traveling. Using his involuntary temporal jumps to help people and correct past mistakes, Journeyman blends personal drama with time travel, creating a compelling but short-lived series.
#31
Time Trax – –
Time Trax is a 1990s science fiction series where Captain Darien Lambert travels from the 22nd century to the present day to apprehend future criminals who have escaped to the past. This action-oriented series presented a futuristic take on law enforcement in the past, combining crime procedural elements with time travel concepts.
#32
The Time Traveler’s Wife 84%
The Time Traveler’s Wife is a romantic drama centered on Henry, a man with a genetic condition that causes him to time travel unpredictably, and his relationship with his wife, Clare. The series explores the challenges and emotional complexities of a love story complicated by involuntary time travel, focusing on the personal impact of temporal displacement.
#33
La Brea 47%
La Brea presents a unique time travel scenario where a sinkhole in Los Angeles transports people to 10,000 BC. The series follows two groups, one in prehistoric times and one in the present, as they try to reunite and understand the mysteries of this temporal displacement, blending survival drama with time travel.
#34
Timecop – –
Timecop (TV series) is based on the Jean-Claude Van Damme film and follows Jack Logan, a Time Enforcement Commission agent tasked with preventing time travel misuse. This action-oriented series explores the law enforcement side of time travel, focusing on preventing temporal crimes and protecting the timeline.
#35
Back to the Future 86%
Back to the Future (animated series) continues the adventures of Doc Brown and Marty McFly in animated form. This series expands upon the movie trilogy, featuring more time travel escapades and adventures for the iconic duo, appealing to fans of the original films.
#36
Dirk Gently – –
Dirk Gently (2010 BBC series) is another adaptation of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently novels, predating the more widely known Holistic Detective Agency series. This version also embraces the bizarre and interconnected nature of Dirk Gently’s world, though it remains less known than its later counterpart.
#37
Life on Mars – –
Life on Mars (US) is the American adaptation of the British series of the same name. It follows a similar premise, with a modern-day detective waking up in 1973. While sharing the core concept, this adaptation aimed to bring the story to an American audience with its own cast and setting.
#38
Manifest 72% 68%
Manifest begins with the mysterious reappearance of Montego Air Flight 828 after being presumed lost for five years, though for the passengers, no time has passed. As the series progresses, time travel and temporal anomalies become more prominent, adding layers to the central mystery of the flight and the passengers’ “callings.”
#39
The Outer Limits – –
The Outer Limits (1995 revival) brought back the anthology science fiction series for a new era. Like the original, it occasionally explored time travel themes within its self-contained episodes, continuing the tradition of thought-provoking science fiction narratives.
#40
Primeval 77%
Primeval is a British science fiction series where anomalies open up in time, allowing prehistoric creatures to enter the present day. A team of scientists must deal with these incursions and investigate the nature of the anomalies, blending creature-of-the-week action with time travel elements.
#41
Quantum Leap 90%
Quantum Leap (original 1989-1993 series) is a beloved classic where Dr. Sam Beckett leaps through time, inhabiting different people’s lives to correct historical wrongs. Starring Scott Bakula, this series is known for its heartwarming stories, historical settings, and the ongoing mystery of Sam’s leaps and his quest to return home, setting a benchmark for time travel television.
#42
The Twilight Zone 85%
The Twilight Zone (1985 CBS revival hosted by Charles Aidman) was the first attempt to revive the original Twilight Zone. This series aimed to recapture the spirit of Serling’s creation with new stories of the strange and unusual, occasionally featuring time travel themes within its anthology format.
58% Quantum Leap: Season 1 (2022) episodes 1-8 are currently streaming on Peacock; the series will return with new episodes on NBC starting January 2, 2023.
