History Main / AlternateRealityEpisode

Typically the "normal" situation may get a look in for a couple of scenes at the start or end of the episode, but there should not be any clear link between the characters, Alice the millionaire should not wake up as Alice the Research Assistant, or have Bob her millionare buddy visiting her, asking why everything is different.

An Alternate Reality Episode is slightly different from an episode that incorporates an Alternate Reality.

* ''{{Bones}}'' did one in which Boothe and Temperence were married, and owned a nightclub (called "The Lab") where many other series regulars worked. A murder takes place there, and we get to see Temperence squicked out by death. This is actually a dream of Booth's, while he is in a coma. It's actually his perfect world.

** The spin off ''Series/{{Angel}}'' had "Birthday" where Cordelia got a look at what her life would have been like [[ForWantOfANail if she had met a big-time talent agent instead of Angel in the pilot]]. She becomes famous but Angel gets the visions and it drives him mad.

* The ''StarTrekEnterprise'' episode "In a Mirror Darkly" is an Alternate Reality Episode down to having a different TitleSequence, whereas "Mirror Mirror" and the DS:9 Mirror Universe Episodes are not.

* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' episode "Turn Left" is created when time-line interference makes a universe where the companion Donna Noble never met the Doctor, and as a result, he died. A space-ship attack at Christmas meant that Donna lost her job, although she did win a prize out of town the next holiday season. Good thing, too, because without the Doctor there to help London was nuked and everyone in the city died. Then ItGotWorse. The Doctor and Donna weren't there to stop the adipose, and 10% of America's population were killed. The Sontarans nearly succeeded in rendering the planet inhospitable, saved only by the heroic sacrifices of the TorchWood team. And ''then'' all of reality began to destroy itself....

** The spin off {{Angel}} had "Birthday" where Cordelia got a look at what her life would have been like [[ForWantOfANail if she had met a big-time talent agent instead of Angel in the pilot]]. She becomes famous but Angel gets the visions and it drives him mad.
* The ''StargateAtlantis'' Season 5 episode "Vegas" takes place in an Alternate Reality where John Sheppard is a Las Vegas detective and never joined the Atlantis expedition. There is a brief crossover (a message sent from that universe enters the main one), but no characters crossover. It is sometimes referred to as ''[[CrimeSceneInvestigation CSI]]: Atlantis'', which was actually its working title during production.

* ''XenaWarriorPrincess'' saved the Fates in "Remember Nothing" and was given a chance to live her life if she had never become a warlord.

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Dick is a lawyer, Sally is a columnist in the vein of ''SexAndTheCity'', Tommy is a cast member on ''SaturdayNightLive'' (with then cast members Tracy Morgan, Ana Gasteyer, and Darrell Hammond appearing as themselves), and Harry is the president of {{NBC}}. Other characters from the show turn up as well, all leading different lives of some description. Inevitably, the Solomons return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.
* The DoctorWho episode "Turn Left" is created when time-line interference makes a universe where the companion Donna Noble never met the Doctor, and as a result, he died.A space-ship attack at Christmas meant that Donna lost her job, although she did win a prize out of town the next holiday season. Good thing, too, because without the Doctor there to help London was nuked and everyone in the city died. Then ItGotWorse. The Doctor and Donna weren't there to stop the adipose, and 10% of America's population were killed. The Sontarans nearly succeeded in rendering the planet inhospitable, saved only by the heroic sacrifices of the TorchWood team. And ''then'' all of reality began to destroy itself....
* XenaWarriorPrincess saved the Fates in "Remember Nothing" and was given a chance to live her life if she had never become a warlord.

* Played ''terrifyingly'' in {{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}: bitter over her failed relationship with Xander, Cordelia makes an idle wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, believing that her [[TheLibby popular status]] would still be intact if she had never gotten involved in the Scoobies' affairs; unfortunately, she speaks in front of a disguised vengeance demon who [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor grants her wish to the letter]]. Cordelia is tossed into a [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]] alternate universe where the Sunnydale population is a tenth of what it was, due to unchecked vampire attacks, due in turn to the Master having ascended a year and a half before without Buffy there to stop him. Cordelia is killed by evil vampire versions of Willow and Xander, Giles and Oz are trapped in thankless work as desperately outnumbered vigilantes attempting to do what they can to restore some semblance of safety to the community, Angel is kept in a cage with the Master's minions allowed to torture him for fun, and Buffy eventually makes an appearance as a hardened, pitiless rogue Slayer who has gone off the deep end without her friends' humanizing influence. The episode ends with a vicious {{Final Battle}} in which the entire main cast kills each other; Giles' last-minute actions save the day and propel everyone back into their proper reality, but it's still incredibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel frightening]].

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Dick is a lawyer, Sally is a columnist in the vein of ''SexAndTheCity'', Tommy is a cast member on ''SaturdayNightLive'' (then cast members Tracy Morgan, Ana Gasteyer, and Darrell Hammond appear as themselves), and Harry is the president of {{NBC}}. Other characters from the show turn up as well, all leading different lives of some description. Inevitably, the Solomons return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Dick is a lawyer, Sally is a columnist in the vein of ''SexAndTheCity'', Tommy is a cast member on ''SaturdayNightLive'' (Tracy Morgan, Ana Gasteyer, and Darrell Hammond play themselves), and Harry is the president of {{NBC}}. Other characters from the show turn up as well, all leading different lives of some description. Inevitably, the Solomons return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Dick is a lawyer, Sally is a columnist in the vein of ''SexAndTheCity'', Tommy is a cast member on ''SaturdayNightLive'' (Tracy Morgan, Ana Gasteyer, and Darrell Hammond have cameos), and Harry is the president of {{NBC}}. Other characters from the show turn up as well, all leading different lives of some description. Inevitably, the Solomons return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Dick is a lawyer, Sally is a columnist in the vein of ''SexAndTheCity'', Tommy is a cast member on ''SaturdayNightLive'', and Harry is the president of {{NBC}}. Other characters from the show turn up as well, all leading different lives of some description. Inevitably, the Solomons return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.

* In the two-part ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'' episode "Dick'll Take Manhattan", the aliens go through a time-space portal to a parallel universe where they lead upscale lives in New York City. Inevitably, they return home after finding their new lives to be shallow.

* ''{{Friends}}'': "The One That Could Have Been" is a two-parter where the teaser has each of the Friends imagining something that could have happened differently in their lives and the rest of the story drops into an Alternate Reality where these things happened. Monica never lost her teenage weight and is still fat as an adult, Joey is still on ''DaysOfOurLives'' and has become famous and wealthy, Rachel married Barry and is quietly miserable (and considering having an affair with Joey the celebrity), Pheobe is a stockbroker, Chandler is a (failing) writer and Carol has not realised she is gay and is still married to Ross (Though she is interested in having a threesome with Ross and another woman).

* Played ''terrifyingly'' in {{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}; bitter over her failed relationship with Xander, Cordelia makes an idle wish that Buffy had never come to Sunnydale, believing that her [[TheLibby popular status]] would still be intact if she had never gotten involved in the Scoobies' affairs; unfortunately, she speaks in front of a disguised vengeance demon who [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor grants her wish to the letter]]. Cordelia is tossed into a [[CrapsackWorld crapsack]] alternate universe where the Sunnydale population is a tenth of what it was, due to unchecked vampire attacks, due in turn to the Master having ascended a year and a half before without Buffy there to stop him. Cordelia is killed by evil vampire versions of Willow and Xander, Giles and Oz are trapped in thankless work as desperately outnumbered vigilantes attempting to do what they can to restore some semblance of safety to the community, Angel is kept in a cage with the Master's minions allowed to torture him for fun, and Buffy eventually makes an appearance as a hardened, pitiless rogue Slayer who has gone off the deep end without her friends' humanizing influence. The episode ends with a vicious {{Final Battle}} in which the entire main cast kills each other; Giles' last-minute actions save the day and propel everyone back into their proper reality, but it's still incredibly [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel frightening]].

* The ''StargateAtlantis'' Season 5 episode "Vegas" takes place in an Alternate Reality where John Sheppard is a Las Vegas detective and never joined the Atlantis expedition. There is a brief crossover (a message sent from that universe enters the main one), but no characters crossover. It is sometimes referred to as ''{{CSI}}: Atlantis'', which was actually its working title during production.

* ''{{Friends}}'': "The One That Could Have Been" is a two-parter where the teaser has each of the Friends imagining something that could have happened differently in their lives and the rest of the story drops into an Alternate Reality where these things happened.
** Monica is fat, Joey's still on ''DaysOfOurLives'', Rachel married Barry, Pheobe is a stockbroker, Chandler is a (failing) writer and Carol hasn't realised she's gay and is still married to Ross.

* The ''StargateAtlantis'' Season 5 episode "Vegas" takes place in an Alternate Reality where John Sheppard is a detective and never joined the Atlantis expedition. There is a brief crossover (a message sent from that universe enters the main one), but no characters crossover. It is sometimes referred to as CSI: Atlantis

* ''{{Bones}}'' did one in which Boothe and Temperence were married, and owned a nightclub (called "The Lab") where many other series regulars worked. A murder takes place there, and we get to see Temperence squicked out by death.
** This is actually a dream of Booth's, while he is in a coma. It's actually his perfect world.

* ''{{Buffy the Vampire Slayer}}'' had one episode (''The Wish'') in which Anya uses a wish by Cordelia to create a world in which Buffy never came to Sunnydale. The end result is that Cordelia is still popular, but Sunnydale is overrun by vampires, Xander and Willow being among them. Buffy arrives too late at Sunnydale, a hardbitten, cynical shadow of her normal self and is killed by the Master.

* Half of each episode of Lost Season 6 is devoted to a alternate reality where the plane never crashed, which apparently resulted from [[spoiler:the cast's attempt to change history in season 5]], while the other parts of the episode continue as normal. The two timelines seemed totally independent for a while, but [[spoiler:now certain people in the "flash-sideways" timeline, particularly those with love interests, have begun having visions of the island timeline...]]

* The ''StargateAtlantis'' Season 5 episode "Vegas" takes place in an Alternate Reality where John Sheppard is a detective and never joined the Atlantis expedition. There is a brief crossover (a message sent from that universe enters the main one), but no characters crossover.

Alternate Reality Episodes should not be AllJustADream, involve a ResetButton or having someone trying to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong.