Basic Trope: A character who appears to help guide the protagonist back home when they're Trapped in Another World.
- Straight: Alice is accidentally sent back in time. Bob reveals himself as a member of the Time Police and explains how she can get home.
- Exaggerated: Alice is shunted into an alternative dimension where she has no hope of returning home. Bob the god of the entire multi-verse drops everything they're doing to help her get home.
- Downplayed: Alice is lost in the middle of nowhere. Bob the policeman gives her directions back to the main road.
- Justified: Helping accidental time travellers is one of Bob's duties as a member of the time police.
- Inverted: Alice the Time Policewoman goes back to the past in order to search for Bob, who's missing, presumed displaced.
- Subverted: It turns out Bob isn't a time policeman; he just assumed that Alice was crazy and decided to play along in order to lure her to the lunatic asylum.
- Double Subverted: It turns out that the lunatic asylum is where the Time Police set up shop, since that's where most lost time travellers end up anyway.
- Parodied: Bob grumbles about how he could help another 10 "Alices" home if he didn't have to fill in so much paperwork and insists on stopping for coffee and donuts on the way.
- Zig Zagged: Bob doesn't always seem to quite know what's going on himself.
- Averted: Alice gets home on her own, with no outside help.
- Enforced: The series had already established the existence of Time Police, so not having one turn up would create a Plot Hole.
- Lampshaded: "It's a good thing I found you, miss. Who knows what could have happened if you wondered aimlessly about." "Well, I'd imagine it would have been extremely boring to watch, officer."
- Invoked: Bob sets Alice up to be sent back in time so he can woo her with a Rescue Romance.
- Exploited: Alice needs to contact the time police (or whoever else can be expected to help lost time travellers) and gets herself stranded to attract their attention.
- Defied: Alice is the only one who's found a way to travel to or from wherever she's ended up. Nobody can help her.
- Discussed: "With any luck, there's someone out there who already knows what's going on and can help me..."
- Conversed: "How's Alice going to get home?" "I'll bet that someone who's already mastered time travel will help her."
- Deconstructed: No matter how hard they try, Bob and the other assorted people who try to help people who become trapped can't find everyone. Several unfortunate people meet unpleasant fates before help can reach them. Everybody in the know lives in fear of the day something really bad happens and the Clock Roaches start swarming.
- Reconstructed: Careful planning, established protocols and good communication make it much more easy to find the stranded travellers. The series focuses on their rescue missions.
- Plotted A Good Waste: Bob just shoves Alice in the time machine and sends her back, reducing the incident to a brief gag. Time Travel is never brought up again.
- Played For Laughs: Bob serves as a Cloudcuckoolander's Minder while he helps Alice (who's odd enough without being a Fish out of Water) get home.
- Played For Drama: Bob is going against orders to help Alice. There could be trouble if the higher-ups find out....
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