History Main / UnstuckInTime

* Another unstuck-in-timelines character like Worf that one time? ''{{Sliders}}'' has the villainous Dr. Oberon Geiger. Also, Colin was PutOnABus by suffering the same fate as Geiger; the show ends on a cliffhanger so we'll never know if he can be rescued.

* Something like this happens to Dark King Ixpellia in the ''LyricalNanoha'' series, except that she can only take TheSlowPath: the unique condition of her body makes her fall asleep for a random period of time between 1 and 1000 years. During this time, she is completely unaware of her surroundings, so she has no way of knowing beforehand when and where (or rather, in whose hands) she will awaken next time.

* In ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}, [[spoiler: John Egbert]] manages to get unstuck from the story itself, bouncing around all of time and space until they finally manage to gain some control over it.

* The protagonist's mental condition near the beginning of ''GirlInterrupted'' make her feel as if this is happening, illustrated by a skillful composition of {{flashback}}s. "Checks!"

* The TropeNamer is the opening line to Creator/KurtVonnegut's ''Literature/SlaughterhouseFive'', referring to main character Billy Pilgrim.

* Happens in a more limited form to several characters in ''TheIlluminatusTrilogy''; due to the effects of heavy use of psychoactive drugs, combined with the multiple enlightenment-inducing {{Mind Screw}}s and {{Batman Gambit}}s perpetrated by the leaders of the various competing factions.

* Samuel Beckett in ''Series/QuantumLeap'', as the whole premise. Part of the journey was trying to figure out what was controlling his leaps, sending him to PutRightWhatOnceWentWrong. Is it God? Time itself? Fate? In the GrandFinale, it turns out it's [[spoiler: Sam's own ChronicHeroSyndrome]].

* Samuel Beckett in ''Series/QuantumLeap''.

* CaptainAmerica during the ''Captain America Reborn'' miniseries.
* In ''ThoseAnnoyingPostBrothers'' by Matt Howarth, this happens to Ron Post once as a result of a bad drug trip, and he keeps popping back and forth to a future in which he's fighting a [[spoiler:computer virus taking over Bugtown]]. He gets one of the people he's fighting with to tell him how it all started so he can solve the problem before it happens. Noteworthy in that this is one of the few times we get to see Ron actually making plans rather than just doing what seemed like a good idea at the time...

* ''MonsterAGoGo'' seemed to imply that this happened to Frank Douglas, or maybe not. The film is so poorly made that it's completely incomprehensible.
** The only thing that happened was they ran out of budget for the final confrontation, and only spent about 15 seconds thinking of an alternate ending.
* The 2007 American movie ''{{Premonition}}'' revolves around this concept.
* Happens in ''TwelveMonkeys'' in that the time machine used is very unreliable and unpredictable.

* The TropeNamer is the opening line to KurtVonnegut's ''[[SlaughterhouseFive Slaughterhouse-Five]]'', referring to main character Billy Pilgrim.
* PhilipKDick's ''Now Wait For Last Year'' is an example of this. The main character's wife obtains an illegal drug from an alien society. The aliens supposedly use the drug to hallucinate, re-living past happy experiences. When she takes the drug she finds out that the drug [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin works as described]], except that you aren't hallucinating... You should probably stop taking the drug so that you don't mess with the timeline, but [[spoiler:the drug is highly addictive so no matter how hard you try to stop you'll keep feeling compelled to go back to further mess up your own past]].

* Henry from ''TheTimeTravellersWife'', who gets it worse than a lot of other people mentioned here. Henry suffers from a genetic disease which is eventually named Chrono Displacement Disorder. Like epilepsy, it can initially manifest as a seizure, and be brought on by things like flashing lights, television images, or stress. Unlike epilepsy, the end result is Henry finding himself [[CantTakeAnythingWithYou completely naked]] in an unknown time in a place he's likely (but not guaranteed) to have been before. [[spoiler: And since it's a genetic disease, Henry manages to pass it to his daughter Alba. Fortunately for her, she seems to have developed a bit more control about where and when she ends up.]]

* In ''{{John Dies at the End}}'', upon taking the [[spoiler:soy sauce]] for the first time, both John and David become unstuck.

* Samuel Beckett in ''QuantumLeap''.

* Variation: In the ''{{Lost}}'' episode "The Constant", Desmond jumps back and forth between two points, but he doesn't know [[NarniaTime how long he has in each time period]] before he will jump again.

** Most time travel on ''{{Lost}}'' is physical teleportation, but Desmond's is mental.

* Captain Sheridan of ''Series/BabylonFive'', as explained by Zathras in ''War Without End''.

* In ''GuiltyGear'' Axl Low keeps travelling back in time, apparently due to there being another version of him, so the universe tries to force [[NeverTheSelvesShallMeet the two from existing at the same time]].

* Dave Davenport in ''{{Narbonic}}''. But it wasn't entirely random: he continually lurched between three key moments in his life... all of which involved women.
* George, near the end of ''BobAndGeorge'', as a WholePlotReference to the last episode of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.

* The ''{{Futurama}}'' episode "Time Keeps on Slippin'" was hinted to have this in a one-directional, universal scale, where random jumps in time would happen anywhere, anywhen, and to anyone. Fortunately, [[StatusQuoIsGod the regular characters were only hit by small jumps]].

Compare [[AnachronicOrder Non Linear Storytelling]].

* Henry from ''TheTimeTravellersWife''.

* In ''Those Annoying Post Brothers'' by Matt Howarth, this happens to Ron Post once as a result of a bad drug trip, and he keeps popping back and forth to a future in which he's fighting a [[spoiler:computer virus taking over Bugtown]]. He gets one of the people he's fighting with to tell him how it all started so he can solve the problem before it happens. Noteworthy in that this is one of the few times we get to see Ron actually making plans rather than just doing what seemed like a good idea at the time...

the person who is UnstuckInTime not only travels through time in his own body, (and [[BodySurf possibly in others]]) but he does so randomly. Without any knowledge of where he will wake up... or when.

* [[spoiler: Rosalind and Robert Lutece]] from ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' are implied to be this. It would explain [[spoiler: how [[ThoseTwoGuys they keep showing up everywhere]].]]

-> "I watch him drift, trapped. Or am I trapped, here in 1987, while he, through some malfunction of the universe is borne into timelessness?"
->-- '''WPKinsella''', "Searching for January," from ''The Dixon-Cornbelt League''

->-- '''Kurt Vonnegut''', ''{{Slaughterhouse-Five}}'' (the TropeNamer)

* Captain Sheridan of ''Series/BabylonFive'', as explained by Zathras.

* Happens in a more limited form to several characters in TheIlluminatusTrilogy; due to the effects of heavy use of psychoactive drugs, combined with the multiple enlightenment-inducing {{Mind Screw}}s and {{Batman Gambit}}s perpetrated by the leaders of the various competing factions.
* In John Dies at the End, upon taking the [[spoiler:soy sauce]] for the first time, both John and David become unstuck

* Happens twice to Dr. Manhattan in ''{{Watchmen}}''. As a result of the accident that creates him, he's able to perceive the entirety of his life at once. [[spoiler: In the climax, the BigBad bombards him with Tachyons, rendering him unable to see present events. Since the character can exist in multiple places and times simultaneously, this is confusing, even for him.]]

* Captain Sheridan of ''BabylonFive'', as explained by Zathras.
** "Nobody ever listens to Zathras"