12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 1/24

Parallel universe (fiction)From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A parallel universe is a theory of a self­contained separate reality co­existing with one's own. A specificgroup of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe thepossible parallel universes that constitute reality. While the terms "parallel universe" and "alternativereality" are generally synonymous and can be used interchangeably in most cases, there is sometimes anadditional connotation implied with the term "alternative reality" that implies that the reality is a variant ofour own. The term "parallel universe" is more general, without any connotations implying a relationship, orlack of relationship, with our own universe. A universe where the very laws of nature are different – forexample, one in which there are no Laws of Motion – would in general count as a parallel universe but notan alternative reality and a concept between both fantasy world and earth.

The actual quantum­mechanical hypothesis of parallel universes is "universes that are separated from eachother by a single quantum event."

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Science fiction

2.1 Hyperspace

2.2 Time travel and alternate history

2.3 Counter­Earth

2.4 Convergent evolution

2.5 Convergent evolution due to contamination

2.6 Simulated reality

3 Fantasy

3.1 Stranger in a strange land

3.2 Between the worlds

3.3 Fantasy multiverses

3.4 Fictional universe as alternative universe

3.5 Elfland

4 Films

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 2/24

4 Films

5 Television

5.1 As an ongoing subplot

5.2 Television series involving parallel universes

6 Comic books

7 Video games

8 See also

9 References

10 Bibliography

11 External links

Introduction

Fantasy has long borrowed an idea of "another world" from myth, legend and religion. Heaven, Hell,Olympus, and Valhalla are all “alternative universes” different from the familiar material realm. Platoreflected deeply on the parallel realities, resulting in Platonism, in the upper reality is perfect while thelower earthly reality is an imperfect shadow of the heavenly. The lower reality is similar but with flaws.

Modern fantasy often presents the concept as a series of planes of existence where the laws of nature differ,allowing magical phenomena of some sort on some planes. This concept was also found in ancient Hindumythology, in texts such as the Puranas, which expressed an infinite number of universes, each with its owngods.[1] Similarly in Persian literature, "The Adventures of Bulukiya", a tale in the One Thousand and OneNights, describes the protagonist Bulukiya learning of alternative worlds/universes that are similar to butstill distinct from his own.[2] In other cases, in both fantasy and science fiction, a parallel universe is asingle other material reality, and its co­existence with ours is a rationale to bring a protagonist from theauthor's reality into the fantasy's reality, such as in The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis or even thebeyond­the­reflection travel in the two main works of Lewis Carroll. Or this single other reality can invadeour own, as when Margaret Cavendish's English heroine sends submarines and "birdmen" armed with "firestones" back through the portal from The Blazing World to Earth and wreaks havoc on England's enemies.In dark fantasy or horror the parallel world is often a hiding place for unpleasant things, and often theprotagonist is forced to confront effects of this other world leaking into his own, as in most of the work ofH. P. Lovecraft and the Doom computer game series, or Warhammer/40K miniature and computer games.In such stories, the nature of this other reality is often left mysterious, known only by its effect on our ownworld.

The concept also arises outside the framework of quantum mechanics, as is found in Jorge Luis Borgesshort story El jardín de senderos que se bifurcan ("The Garden of Forking Paths"), published in 1941before the many­worlds interpretation had been invented. In the story, a Sinologist discovers a manuscript

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 3/24

by a Chinese writer where the same tale is recounted in several ways, often contradictory, and then explainsto his visitor (the writer's grandson) that his relative conceived time as a "garden of forking paths", wherethings happen in parallel in infinitely branching ways. One of the first Sci­Fi examples is Murray Leinster'sSidewise in Time, in which portions of alternative universes replace corresponding geographical regions inthis universe.

While this is a common treatment in Sci­Fi, it is by no means the only presentation of the idea, even in hardscience fiction. Sometimes the parallel universe bears no historical relationship to any other world; instead,the laws of nature are simply different from those in our own, as in the novel Raft by Stephen Baxter, whichposits a reality where the gravitational constant is much larger than in our universe. (Note, however, thatBaxter explains later in Vacuum Diagrams that the protagonists in Raft are descended from people whocame from the Xeelee Sequence universe.)

One motif is that the way time flows in a parallel universe may be very different, so that a characterreturning to one might find the time passed very differently for those he left behind. This is found infolklore: King Herla visited Fairy and returned three centuries later; although only some of his mencrumbled to dust on dismounting, Herla and his men who did not dismount were trapped on horseback, thisbeing one folkloric account of the origin of the Wild Hunt.[3] C. S. Lewis made use of this in TheChronicles of Narnia; indeed, a character points out to two skeptics that there is no need for the timebetween the worlds to match up, but it would be very odd for the girl who claims to have visited a paralleluniverse to have dreamed up such a different time flow.[4]

The division between science fiction and fantasy becomes fuzzier than usual when dealing with stories thatexplicitly leave the universe we are familiar with, especially when our familiar universe is portrayed as asubset of a multiverse. Picking a genre becomes less a matter of setting, and more a matter of theme andemphasis; the parts of the story the author wishes to explain and how they are explained. Narnia is clearly afantasy, and the TV series Sliders is clearly science fiction, but works like the World of Tiers series orGlory Road tend to occupy a much broader middle ground.

Science fiction

While technically incorrect, and looked down upon by hard science­fiction fans and authors, the idea ofanother “dimension” has become synonymous with the term “parallel universe”. The usage is particularlycommon in movies, television and comic books and much less so in modern prose science fiction. The ideaof a parallel world was first introduced in comic books with the publication of Flash #123 ­ "Flash of TwoWorlds".

In written science fiction, “new dimensions” more commonly — and more accurately — refer to additionalcoordinate axes, beyond the three spatial axes with which we are familiar. By proposing travel along theseextra axes, which are not normally perceptible, the traveler can reach worlds that are otherwise unreachableand invisible.

In 1884, Edwin A. Abbott wrote the seminal novel exploring this concept called Flatland: A Romance ofMany Dimensions. It describes a world of two dimensions inhabited by living squares, triangles, and circles,called Flatland, as well as Pointland (0 dimensions), Lineland (1 dimension), and Spaceland (threedimensions) and finally posits the possibilities of even greater dimensions. Isaac Asimov, in his foreword tothe Signet Classics 1984 edition, described Flatland as "The best introduction one can find into the mannerof perceiving dimensions."

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 4/24

Edwin A. Abbott's Flatland is set in aworld of two dimensions.

In 1895, The Time Machine by H. G. Wells used time as anadditional “dimension” in this sense, taking the four­dimensionalmodel of classical physics and interpreting time as a space­likedimension in which humans could travel with the right equipment.Wells also used the concept of parallel universes as a consequenceof time as the fourth dimension in stories like The Wonderful Visitand Men Like Gods, an idea proposed by the astronomer SimonNewcomb, who talked about both time and parallel universes; "Adda fourth dimension to space, and there is room for an indefinitenumber of universes, all alongside of each other, as there is for anindefinite number of sheets of paper when we pile them upon eachother".[5]

There are many examples where authors have explicitly createdadditional spatial dimensions for their characters to travel in, to reach parallel universes. In Doctor Who, theDoctor accidentally enters a parallel universe while attempting to repair the TARDIS console in "Inferno".The parallel universe was similar to the real universe but with some different aspects, Britain has a fascistgovernment and the royal family has been executed. Douglas Adams, in the last book of the Hitchhiker'sGuide to the Galaxy series, Mostly Harmless, uses the idea of probability as an extra axis in addition to theclassical four dimensions of space and time similar to the many­worlds interpretation of quantum physics.Though, according to the novel, they're not really parallel universes at all but only a model to capture thecontinuity of space, time and probability. Robert A. Heinlein, in The Number of the Beast, postulated a six­dimensional universe. In addition to the three spatial dimensions, he invoked symmetry to add two newtemporal dimensions, so there would be two sets of three. Like the fourth dimension of H. G. Wells’ "TimeTraveller", these extra dimensions can be traveled by persons using the right equipment.

Hyperspace

Perhaps the most common use of the concept of a parallel universe in science fiction is the concept ofhyperspace. Used in science fiction, the concept of “hyperspace” often refers to a parallel universe that canbe used as a faster­than­light shortcut for interstellar travel. Rationales for this form of hyperspace varyfrom work to work, but the two common elements are:

1. at least some (if not all) locations in the hyperspace universe map to locations in our universe,providing the "entry" and "exit" points for travellers.

2. the travel time between two points in the hyperspace universe is much shorter than the time to travelto the analogous points in our universe. This can be because of a different speed of light, differentspeed at which time passes, or the analogous points in the hyperspace universe simply being muchcloser to each other.

Sometimes "hyperspace" is used to refer to the concept of additional coordinate axes. In this model, theuniverse is thought to be "crumpled" in some higher spatial dimension and that traveling in this higherspatial dimension, a ship can move vast distances in the common spatial dimensions. An analogy is tocrumple a newspaper into a ball and stick a needle straight through, the needle will make widely spacedholes in the two­dimensional surface of the paper. While this idea invokes a "new dimension", it is not anexample of a parallel universe. It is a more scientifically plausible use of hyperspace. (See wormhole.)

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 5/24

British author H. G. Wells' 1895novel The Time Machine, an earlyexample of time travel in modernfiction

While use of hyperspace is common, it is mostly used as a plot device and thus of secondary importance.While a parallel universe may be invoked by the concept, the nature of the universe is not often explored.So, while stories involving hyperspace might be the most common use of the parallel universe concept infiction, it is not the most common source of fiction about parallel universes.

Time travel and alternate history

Parallel universes may be the backdrop to or the consequence oftime travel, their most common use in fiction if the concept iscentral to the story. A seminal example of both is in Fritz Leiber'snovel The Big Time where there's a war across time between twoalternative futures manipulating history to create a timeline thatresults in or realizes their own world.

Time­travelers in fiction often accidentally or deliberately createalternative histories, such as in The Guns of the South by HarryTurtledove where the Confederate Army is given thousands of AK­47 rifles and ends up winning the American Civil War. (However,Ward Moore reversed this staple of alternative history fiction in hisBring the Jubilee (1953), where an alternative world where theConfederate States of America won the Battle of Gettysburg and theAmerican Civil War is destroyed after a historian and time travellerfrom the defeated United States of that world travels back to thescene of the battle and, by inadvertently causing the death of theConfederate officer whose troops occupied Little Round Top,changes the result so that the Union forces are victorious.) Thealternative history novel 1632 by Eric Flint explicitly states, albeitbriefly in a prologue, that the time travelers in the novel (an entiretown from West Virginia) have created a new and separate universewhen they're transported into the midst of the Thirty Years' War in17th century Germany. (This sort of thing is known as an ISOT among alternative history fans, after S. M.Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time: an ISOT is when territory or a large group of people is transported backin time to another historical period or place.)

Ordinarily, alternative histories are not technically parallel universes. The concepts are similar but there aresignificant differences. Where characters travel to the past, they may cause changes in the timeline (creatinga point of divergence) that result in changes to the present. The alternative present will be similar indifferent degrees to the original present as would be the case with a parallel universe. The main differenceis that parallel universes co­exist whereas only one history or alternative history can exist at any onemoment. Another difference is that moving to a parallel universe involves some inter­dimensional travelwhereas alternative histories involve some type of time travel. (However, since the future is only potentialand not actual, it is often conceived that more than one future may exist simultaneously.)

The concept of "sidewise" time travel, a term taken from Murray Leinster's "Sidewise in Time", is oftenused to allow characters to pass through many different alternative histories, all descendant from somecommon branch point. Often worlds that are similar to each other are considered closer to each other interms of this sidewise travel. For example, a universe where World War II ended differently would be"closer" to us than one where Imperial China colonized the New World in the 15th century. H. Beam Piper

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 6/24

used this concept, naming it "paratime" and writing a series of stories involving the Paratime Police whoregulated travel between these alternative realities as well as the technology to do so. Keith Laumer usedthe same concept of "sideways" time travel in his 1962 novel Worlds of the Imperium. More recently,novels such as Frederik Pohl's The Coming of the Quantum Cats and Neal Stephenson's Anathem explorehuman­scale readings of the "many worlds" interpretation of quantum mechanics, postulating that historicalevents or human consciousness spawns or allows "travel" among alternative universes.

Universe 'types' frequently explored in sidewise and alternative history works include worlds whose Naziswon the Second World War, as in The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick, SS­GB by Len Deighton,and Fatherland by Robert Harris, and worlds whose Roman Empire never fell, as in Roma Eterna byRobert Silverberg and Romanitas by Sophia McDougall. The novel Warlords of Utopia by Lance Parkinexplored a multiverse in which the universes whose Rome never fell go to war with all those whose Naziswon WWII. It fits loosely in the Faction Paradox series initiated by Lawrence Miles, several of whosenovels featured an artificially created universe existing within another; specifically, within a bottle. DeadRomance explored the consequences of inhabitants of the 'real' universe entering the Universe­in­a­Bottle.

In Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials, the protagonist begins in world that is a Victoriancounterpart to ours, although it takes place at the same time. It also appears that the Protestant Reformationhappened differently with John Calvin becoming the last Pope.

Counter­Earth

The concept of Counter­Earth is typically similar to that of parallel universes but is actually a distinct idea.A counter­earth is a planet that shares Earth's orbit but is on the opposite side of the Sun and thereforecannot be seen from Earth. There would be no necessity that such a planet would be like Earth in any waythough typically in fiction, it is usually nearly identical to Earth. Since counter­earth is always within ourown universe (and our own solar system), travel to it can be accomplished with ordinary space travel.

Convergent evolution

Convergent evolution is a biological concept whereby unrelated species acquire similar traits because theyadapted to a similar environment and/or played similar roles in their ecosystems. In fiction, the concept isextended whereby similar planets will result in races with similar cultures and/or histories.

Technically this is not a type of parallel universe since such planets can be reached via ordinary spacetravel, but the stories are similar in some respects. Star Trek frequently explored such worlds:

In "Bread and Circuses" the Enterprise encounters a planet called Magna Roma, which has manyphysical resemblances to Earth such as its atmosphere, land to ocean ratio, and size. The landingparty discovers that the planet is at roughly a late 20th­century level of technology but its society issimilar to the Roman Empire, as if the Empire had not fallen but had continued to that time: there isalso a reference to the Roman god Jupiter as the namesake of a new line of automobile, and gladiatorfights are televised in primetime. At the end of the episode, it is discovered that the society has justfound their own version of Jesus, referred simply as "the son" (whose followers they had previouslymistaken for sun worshipers).In "The Omega Glory", the crew visit a planet on which there is a conflict between two peoplescalled the Yangs and the Kohms. They discover that the Yangs are like Earth's "Yankees" (in otherwords, Americans) and the Kohms are like Earth's Communists; the Yangs, who had at some point inthe past been conquered by the Kohms, had a ritual speech that was word for word identical to the

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 7/24

Oz and its surroundings.

American Pledge of Allegiance, and treated the U.S. Constitution as a sacred text. (A deleted scenefrom the episode, however, implied that both the Yangs and Kohms were actually descendants ofhuman colonists.)In "Miri", the Enterprise crew encounter a planet (later called Onlies) that is physically identical toEarth. Histories on the two planets were apparently identical until the 20th centuries when scientistson Onlies had accidentally created a deadly virus that killed all the adults but extended the lives ofthe children.

Convergent evolution due to contamination

A similar concept in biology is gene flow. In this case, a planet may start as different from Earth, but due tothe influence of Earth culture, the planet comes to resemble Earth in some way; technically this is not a typeof parallel universe since such planets can be reached via ordinary space travel, but the stories are similar insome respects. Star Trek used this theory as well: in "Patterns of Force", a planet is discovered that hasbecome very similar to Nazi Germany due to the influence of a historian that came to reside there(believing that the Nazi fascism itself was not evil and under benevolent leadership could be "goodgovernment"), while in "A Piece of the Action, the Enterprise crew visits a planet that, 100 years after abook Chicago Mobs of the Twenties that had been left behind by previous Earth craft, their societyresembles mob ruled cities of the Prohibition era United States.

Simulated reality

Simulated realities are digital constructs featured in science fiction such as The Matrix.

Fantasy

Stranger in a strange land

Fantasy authors often want to bring characters from the author's(and the reader's) reality into their created world. Before the mid­20th century, this was most often done by hiding fantastic worldswithin hidden parts of the author's own universe. Peasants whoseldom if ever traveled far from their villages could not conclusivelysay that it was impossible that an ogre or other fantastical beingscould live an hour away, but increasing geographical knowledgemeant that such locations had to be farther and farther off.[6]Characters in the author's world could board a ship and findthemselves on a fantastic island, as Jonathan Swift does in Gulliver'sTravels or in the 1949 novel Silverlock by John Myers Myers, or besucked up into a tornado and land in Oz. These "lost world" stories can be seen as geographic equivalents ofa "parallel universe", as the worlds portrayed are separate from our own, and hidden to everyone exceptthose who take the difficult journey there. The geographic "lost world" can blur into a more explicit"parallel universe" when the fantasy realm overlaps a section of the "real" world, but is much larger insidethan out, as in Robert Holdstock's novel Mythago Wood. Madeleine L'engle, "Wrinkle in Time" series:characters go from the present time to places in the universe.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 8/24

Through the Looking­Glass ­­ and theparallel universe Alice found there

After the mid­20th century, perhaps influenced by ideas from science fiction, perhaps because explorationhad made many places on the map too clear to write "Here there be dragons", many fantasy worlds becamecompletely separate from the author's world.[6] A common trope is a portal or artifact that connects worldstogether, prototypical examples being the wardrobe in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,or the sigil in James Branch Cabell's The Cream of the Jest. In Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away, ChihiroOgino and her parents climb over a small stream into the spirit world. The main difference between thistype of story and the "lost world" above, is that the fantasy realm can only be reached by certain people, orat certain times, or after following certain rituals, or with the proper artifact.

In some cases, physical travel is not even possible, and the character in our reality travels in a dream orsome other altered state of consciousness. Examples include the Dream Cycle stories by H. P. Lovecraft orthe Thomas Covenant stories of Stephen R. Donaldson. Often, stories of this type have as a major theme thenature of reality itself, questioning if the dream­world can have the same "reality" as the waking world.Science fiction often employs this theme (usually without the dream­world being "another" universe) in theideas of cyberspace and virtual reality.

Between the worlds

Most stories in this mold simply transport a character from the realworld into the fantasy world where the bulk of the action takesplace. Whatever gate is used – such as the tollbooth in The PhantomTollbooth by Norton Juster, or the mirror in Lewis Carroll's Throughthe Looking­Glass – is left behind for the duration of the story, untilthe end, and then only if the protagonists will return.

However, in a few cases the interaction between the worlds is animportant element, so that the focus is not on one world or the other,but on both, and their interaction. After Rick Cook introduced acomputer programmer into a high fantasy world, his wizardry seriessteadily acquired more interactions between this world and ours. InAaron Allston's Doc Sidhe our "grim world" is paralleled by a "fair world" where the elves live and historyechoes ours. A major portion of the plot deals with preventing a change in interactions between the worlds.Margaret Ball, in No Earthly Sunne, depicts the interaction of our world with Faerie, and the efforts of theQueen of Faerie to deal with the slow drifting apart of Earth and Faerie. Poul Anderson depicts Hell as aparallel universe in Operation Chaos, and the need to transfer equivalent amounts of mass between theworlds explains why a changeling is left for a kidnapped child. Interactions between magical and scientificuniverses, and the protagonists' attempts to restore and maintain the balance between them, are major plotpoints in Piers Anthony's Apprentice Adept series; he depicts two worlds, the "SF" planet Proton and thefantasy­based Phaze, such that every person born in either world has a physical duplicate on the otherworld. Only when one duplicate has died can the other cross between the worlds. Several of his Xanthnovels also revolve around interactions between the magical realm of Xanth and "Mundania".

Multiple worlds, rather than a pair, increase the importance of the relationships. In The Lion, the Witch andthe Wardrobe, there are only our world and Narnia, but in other of C. S. Lewis's works, there are hints ofother worlds, and in The Magician's Nephew, the Wood between the Worlds shows many possibilities, andthe plot is governed by transportation between worlds, and the effort to right problems stemming fromthem. In His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, the two protagonist Lyra and Will find themselves lostamongst many worlds, and travel them looking for the other. In Andre Norton's Witch World, begun with a

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 9/24

man from Earth being transported to this world, gates frequently lead to other worlds — or come fromthem. While an abundance of illusions, disguises, and magic that repels attention make certain parts ofWitch World look like parallel worlds, some are clearly parallel in that time runs differently in them, andsuch gates pose a repeated problem in Witch World. In the radio sitcom Undone, the main character, EdnaTurner, prevents people from a parallel version of London called "Undone" from moving to London andmaking the city too weird. There are other parallel versions of London, and one of the main plots in theseries is the attempt by The Prince to unite all versions of London together. Travel between the manyworldsis the central conceit of Ian McDonald's Everness, where the protagonist travels to a parallel London in aworld without fossil fuels.

Linking rooms of various types (not all actual rooms) can hook together any number of worlds. Thecharacters may chose only one, but the choice is all important in determining the worlds.

Fantasy multiverses

The idea of a multiverse is as fertile a subject for fantasy as it is for science fiction, allowing for epicsettings and godlike protagonists. Among the most epic and far­ranging fantasy "multiverses" is that ofMichael Moorcock. Like many authors after him, Moorcock was inspired by the many worlds interpretationof quantum mechanics, saying:

It was an idea in the air, as most of these are, and I would have come across a reference to it inNew Scientist (one of my best friends was then editor) ... [or] physicist friends would havebeen talking about it. ... Sometimes what happens is that you are imagining these things in thecontext of fiction while the physicists and mathematicians are imagining them in terms ofscience. I suspect it is the romantic imagination working, as it often does, perfectly efficientlyin both the arts and the sciences.

Unlike many science­fiction interpretations, Moorcock's Eternal Champion stories go far beyondalternative history to include mythic and sword and sorcery settings as well as some worlds more similar toour own. However, the Eternal Champion himself is incarnate in all of them.

Roger Zelazny used a mythic cosmology in his Chronicles of Amber series. His protagonist is a member ofthe royal family of Amber, whose members represent a godlike pantheon ruling over a prototypicaluniverse that represents Order. All other universes are increasingly distorted "shadows" of it, ending finallyat the other extreme, Chaos, which is the complete negation of the prototype. Travel between these"shadow" universes is only possible by beings descended from the blood of this pantheon. Those "of theblood" can walk through Shadow, imagining any possible reality and then walk to it, making theirenvironment more similar to their desire as they go. It is argued between the characters whether these"shadows" even exist before they're imagined by a member of the royal family of Amber, or if the"shadows'" existence can be seen as an act of godlike creation.

In the World of Tiers novels by Philip José Farmer, the idea of godlike protagonists is even more explicit.The background of the stories is a multiverse where godlike beings have created a number of pocketuniverses that represent their own desires. Our own world is part of this series, but our own universe isrevealed to be much smaller than it appears, ending at the edge of the solar system.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 10/24

The term 'polycosmos' was coined as an alternative to 'multiverse' by the author and editor Paul le PageBarnett, best known by the pseudonym John Grant, and is built from Greek rather than Latin morphemes. Itis used by Barnett to describe a concept binding together a number of his works, its nature meaning that "allcharacters, real or fictional [...] have to co­exist in all possible real, created or dreamt worlds; [...] they'replaying hugely different roles in their various manifestations, and the relationships between them can varyquite dramatically, but the essence of them remains the same."[7]

There also are multiverses in the Warcraft universe, The Chronicles of Narnia, Terry Pratchett's Discworldseries, and Diana Wynne Jones's Chrestomanci, Howl's Moving Castle and Deep Secret books andstandalone book A Sudden Wild Magic.

Fictional universe as alternative universe

There are many examples of the meta­fictional idea of having the author's created universe (or any author'suniverse) rise to the same level of "reality" as the universe we're familiar with. The theme is present inworks as diverse as H.G. Wells' Men Like Gods, Myers' Silverlock, and Heinlein’s Number of the Beast.Fletcher Pratt and L. Sprague de Camp took the protagonist of the Harold Shea series through the worlds ofNorse myth, Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, and theKalevala[8]— without ever quite settling whether writers created these parallel worlds by writing theseworks, or received impressions from the worlds and wrote them down. In an interlude set in "Xanadu", acharacter claims that the universe is dangerous because the poem went unfinished, but whether this was hismisapprehension or not is not established.

Some fictional approaches definitively establish the independence of the parallel world, sometimes byhaving the world differ from the book's account; other approaches have works of fiction create and affectthe parallel world: L. Sprague de Camp's Solomon's Stone, taking place on an astral plane, is populated bythe daydreams of mundane people, and in Rebecca Lickiss's Eccentric Circles, an elf is grateful to Tolkienfor transforming elves from dainty little creatures. These stories often place the author, or authors ingeneral, in the same position as Zelazny's characters in Amber. Questioning, in a literal fashion, if writing isan act of creating a new world, or an act of discovery of a pre­existing world.

Occasionally, this approach becomes self­referential, treating the literary universe of the work itself asexplicitly parallel to the universe where the work was created. Stephen King's seven­volume Dark Towerseries hinges upon the existence of multiple parallel worlds, many of which are King's own literarycreations. Ultimately the characters become aware that they are only "real" in King's literary universe (thiscan be debated as an example of breaking the fourth wall), and even travel to a world — twice — in which(again, within the novel) they meet Stephen King and alter events in the real Stephen King's world outsideof the books. An early instance of this was in works by Gardner Fox for DC Comics in the 1960s, in whichcharacters from the Golden Age (which was supposed to be a series of comic books within the DC Comicsuniverse) would cross over into the main DC Comics universe. One comic book did provide an explanationfor a fictional universe existing as a parallel universe. The parallel world does "exist" and it resonates intothe "real world." Some people in the "real world" pick up on this resonance, gaining information about theparallel world which they then use to write stories.

Robert Heinlein, in The Number of the Beast, actually quantizes the parallel fictional universes ­ in terms offictons. Fictional universes created by a number of authors are accessible along one of the previously un­accessed axes of time which Dr. Jacob Burroughs' "time twister" can access. Each quantum level change ­ aficton ­ along one of the three time axes corresponds to a different universe patterned on one of several

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 11/24

literary worlds known to all four travellers in the inter­universal, time travelling vehicle Gay Deceiver. Healso "breaks the fourth wall" by having "both Heinleins" (Robert and his wife Virginia) present at an inter­universal science­fiction and fantasy convention in the book's last chapter. The convention purposefullyconvened on perennial Heinlein character Lazarus Long's estate on the planet "Tertius" to attract the evil"Black Hats" who have pursued the four main characters of The Number of the Beast through space andtime in order to destroy Dr. Burroughs and his invention. Heinlein continues this literary conceit in The CatWho Walks Through Walls and To Sail Beyond the Sunset, using characters from throughout his science­fictional career, hauled forth from their own "fictons" to unite in the war against the "Black Hats."

Heinlein also wrote a standalone novel, Job: A Comedy of Justice, whose two protagonists fall fromalternate universe into alternate universe (often naked), and after a number of such adventures die and entera stereotypically Fundamentalist Christian Heaven (with many of its internal contradictions pointed out inthe novel), only to find their harrowing adventures through the universes was "destruction testing" of theirsouls by Loki, sanctioned by the Creator person of the Christian God (Yahweh). Jesus is also present toexplain things in a condescending manner. The Devil is the only truly sympathetic character of all thedeities portrayed in Job, and even he can only offer an unending task of torment (of writing for a livingfrom a penthouse apartment in Hell to pay off irreducible debts) as an alternative to the protagonists fallingthrough the alternate universes. A compromise is eventually worked out with the creation of a universeacceptable to both the protagonists (who became lovers very early in the novel) in which they can live outtheir lives happily.

Thus, Job: A Comedy of Justice rings in the theological dimension (if only for the purpose of satirizingevangelical Christianity) of parallel universes, that their existence can be used by God (or a number of gods,Loki seems to have made himself available to do Yahweh's dirty work in this novel). It manages also tohave a fictional multiverse angle in that references are made to Heinlein's early SF/fantasy short story"They," a solipistic tale in which reality is constantly being transmogrified behind the scenes to throw thecentral character off his guard and keep him from seeing reality as it is, which was set in the same Heinleinfictional universe as The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

Elfland

Elfland, or Faerie, the otherworldly home not only of elves and fairies but goblins, trolls, and other folkloriccreatures, has an ambiguous appearance in folklore.

On one hand, the land often appears to be contiguous with 'ordinary' land. Thomas the Rhymer might, onbeing taken by the Queen of Faerie, be taken on a road like one leading to Heaven or Hell.

This is not exclusive to English or French folklore. In Norse mythology, Elfland (Alfheim) was also thename of what today is the Swedish province of Bohuslän. In the sagas, it said that the people of this pettykingdom were more beautiful than other people, as they were related to the elves, showing that not only theterritory was associated with elves, but also the race of its people.

While sometimes folklore seems to show fairy intrusion into human lands — "Tam Lin" does not show anyotherworldly aspects about the land in which the confrontation takes place — at other times theotherworldly aspects are clear. Most frequently, time can flow differently for those trapped by the fairydance than in the lands they come from; although, in an additional complication, it may only be anappearance, as many returning from Faerie, such as Oisín, have found that time "catches up" with them assoon as they have contact with ordinary lands.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 12/24

In Frank Capra's It's A WonderfulLife (1946), George Bailey (center,played by James Stewart) is shown byhis guardian angel how the worldwould have been radically differentfor the worse if Bailey had neverexisted.

Fantasy writers have taken up the ambiguity. Some writers depict the land of the elves as a full­blownparallel universe, with portals the only entry — as in Josepha Sherman's Prince of the Sidhe series or EstherFriesner's Elf Defense — and others have depicted it as the next land over, possibly difficult to reach formagical reasons — Hope Mirrlees's Lud­in­the­Mist, or Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. Insome cases, the boundary between Elfland and more ordinary lands is not fixed. Not only the inhabitantsbut Faerie itself can pour into more mundane regions. Terry Pratchett's Discworld series proposes that theworld of the Elves is a "parasite" universe, that drifts between and latches onto others such as Discworldand our own world (referred to as "Roundworld" in the novels). In the young teenage book Mist by KathrynJames, the Elven world lies through a patch of mist in the woods. It was constructed when the Elven werethrown out of our world. Travel to and fro is possible by those in the know, but can have lethalconsequences.

Films

The most famous treatment of the alternative universe concept infilm could be considered The Wizard of Oz, which portrays aparallel world, famously separating the magical realm of the Land ofOz from the mundane world by filming it in Technicolor whilefilming the scenes set in Kansas in sepia. At times, alternativeuniverses have been featured in small scale independent productionssuch as Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo's It Happened Here(1964), featuring an alternative United Kingdom which hadundergone Operation Sea Lion in 1940 and had been defeated andoccupied by Nazi Germany. It focused on moral questions related tothe professional ethics of Pauline, a nurse forced into Nazicollaboration.

A later example is the Frank Capra movie, It's a Wonderful Lifewhere the main character George Bailey is shown by a guardianangel the city of Pottersville, which was George Bailey's hometownof Bedford Falls as it would have been if he had never existed.Another notable depiction of a parallel universe in movies is in Backto the Future Part II by Robert Zemeckis, starring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd, showing anaccidentally created alternative present and future. Like It's a Wonderful Life, The Big Time, and manyother time travel stories using this concept, it is clear that these alternative presents/futures are mutuallyexclusive with the protagonists' own — so, strictly speaking, the universes are not parallel in that theycannot co­exist, rather they oscillate between one or the other.

Another common use of the theme is as a prison for villains or demons. The idea is used in the first twoSuperman movies starring Christopher Reeve where Kryptonian villains were sentenced to the PhantomZone from where they eventually escaped. An almost exactly parallel use of the idea is presented in thecampy cult film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, where the "8th dimension"is essentially a "phantom zone" used to imprison the villainous Red Lectroids. Uses in horror films includethe 1986 film From Beyond (based on the H. P. Lovecraft story of the same name) where a scientificexperiment induces the experimenters to perceive aliens from a parallel universe, with bad results. The1987 John Carpenter film Prince of Darkness is based on the premise that the essence of a being describedas Satan, trapped in a glass canister and found in an abandoned church in Los Angeles, is actually an alien

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 13/24

being that is the 'son' of something even more evil and powerful, trapped in another universe. Theprotagonists accidentally free the creature, who then attempts to release his "father" by reaching in througha mirror.

Some films present parallel realities that are actually different contrasting versions of the narrative itself.Commonly this motif is presented as different points of view revolving around a central (but sometimesunknowable) "truth", the seminal example being Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon. Conversely, often in filmnoir and crime dramas, the alternative narrative is a fiction created by a central character, intentionally — asin The Usual Suspects — or unintentionally — as in Angel Heart. Less often, the alternative narratives aregiven equal weight in the story, making them truly alternative universes, such as in the German film RunLola Run, the short­lived British West End musical Our House and the British film Sliding Doors.

More recent films that have explicitly explored parallel universes are: the 2000 film The Family Man, the2001 cult movie Donnie Darko, which deals with what it terms a "tangent universe" that erupts from ourown universe; Super Mario Bros. (1993) has the eponymous heroes cross over into a parallel universe ruledby humanoids who evolved from dinosaurs; The One (2001) starring Jet Li, in which there is a complexsystem of realities in which Jet Li's character is a police officer in one universe and a serial killer in another,who travels to other universes to destroy versions of himself, so that he can take their energy; and FAQ:Frequently Asked Questions (2004), the main character runs away from a totalitarian nightmare, and heenters into a cyber­afterlife alternative reality. The current Star Trek films are set in an alternative universecreated by the first film's villain traveling back in time, thus allowing the franchise to be rebooted withoutaffecting the continuity of any other Star Trek film or show.

Source Code is a 2011 American science fiction­techno­thriller film directed by Duncan Jones, written byBen Ripley, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Russell Peters and Jeffrey Wrightwhich employs the concepts of quantum reality and parallel universes.

Television

The idea of parallel universes have received treatment in a number of television series, usually as a singlestory or episode in a more general science fiction or fantasy storyline.

The 1990s TV series Sliders depicts a group of adventurers visiting assorted parallel universes, as theyattempt to find their "home" universe. Included in the 1st season is a universe where the world is stuck inthe ice age, with no life anywhere. Another episode includes 'Honest Abe' never to be president, in whichthe United States loses WWI and WWII, and they are controlled by a senator, and technology is at an all­time low.

In The Twilight Zone episode "The Parallel", the astronaut Major Robert Gaines (Steve Forrest) discoversthat he has been sent to a parallel universe upon his return to Earth. In that universe, he is a colonel and noone has ever heard of John F. Kennedy.

One of the earliest television plots to feature parallel time was a 1970 storyline on soap opera DarkShadows. Vampire Barnabas Collins found a room in Collinwood which served as a portal to parallel time,and he entered the room in order to escape from his current problems. A year later, the show again traveledto parallel time, the setting this time being 1841.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 14/24

A well known and often imitated example is the original Star Trek episode entitled "Mirror, Mirror". Theepisode introduced an alternative version of the Star Trek universe where the main characters were barbaricand cruel to the point of being evil. When the parallel universe concept is parodied, the allusion is often tothis Star Trek episode. A previous episode for the Trek series first hinted at the potential of differing realityplanes (and their occupants) ­titled "The Alternative Factor". A mad scientist from "our" universe, namedLazarus B., hunts down the sane Lazarus A.; resident of an antimatter­comprised continuum. Hiscounterpart, in a state of paranoia, claims the double threatens his and the very cosmos' existence. With helpfrom Captain Kirk, A traps B along with him in a "anti"­universe, for eternity, thus bringing balance to bothmatter oriented realms. A similar plot was used in the Codename: Kids Next Door episode Operation:P.O.O.L..

The mirror universe of Star Trek was further developed by later series in the franchise. In several episodesof Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the later evolution of the mirror universe is explored. A two­part episode ofStar Trek: Enterprise, entitled "In a Mirror, Darkly", serves as a prequel, introducing the earlydevelopments of the Mirror Universe.

In the 1970s young adult British SF series The Tomorrow People, its second season episode, A Rift in Time(March–April 1974) pitted the three telepath core characters and allies against time travelling interlopersfrom an alternative history where the Roman Empire developed the steam engine in the first century CE,had a technological headstart, did not fragment during the fifth century and underwent acceleratedtechnological development. The Roman eagle standard was planted on the Moon in the fifth century and byits alternative twentieth century, it had mastered interstellar travel, had a galactic empire and time travel.Consequently, the Tomorrow People had to rectify this aberrant timeline by dismantling and disabling theanomalous steam engine.

Multiple episodes of Red Dwarf use the concept. In "Parallel Universe" the crew meet alternative versionsof themselves: the analogues of Lister, Rimmer and Holly are female, while the Cat's alternative is a dog."Dimension Jump" introduces a heroic alternative Rimmer, a version of whom reappears in "Stoke Me aClipper". The next episode, "Ouroboros", makes contact with a timeline in which Kochanski, rather thanLister, was the sole survivor of the original disaster; this alternative Kochanski then joins the crew for theremaining episodes.

Another example is "Spookyfish", an episode of South Park, in which the "evil" universe double of EricCartman (who is pleasant and agreeable, unlike the home universe's obnoxious Cartman) sports a goatee,like the "mirror" version of Spock.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer experienced a Parallel universe where she was a mental patient in Normal Againand not really "The Slayer" at all. In the end, she has to choose between a universe where her mother andfather are together and alive (mother) or one with her friends and sister in it where she has to fight for herlife daily. In The Wish (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Cordelia Chase inadvertently created a dystopianalternative reality in which Buffy had never moved from LA to Sunnydale. Her core­universe allies XanderHarris and Willow Rosenberg had become vampires in that timeline.

The plot of the season four episode of Charmed, entitled "Brain Drain", features The Source of All Evilkidnapping Piper Halliwell and forcing her into a deep coma, where she experiences an alternative reality inwhich the Halliwell manor is actually a mental institution. She and her sisters serve as patients in thisuniverse, their powers only a manifestation of their minds, a ruse put up to trick Piper into willinglyrelinquishing the sisters' magic.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 15/24

The animated series, Futurama, had an episode where the characters travel between "Universe 1" and"Universe A" via boxes containing each universe; and one of the major jokes is an extended argumentbetween the two sets of characters over which set were the "evil" ones.

Doctor Who often features parallel universes as the basis of a plotline. In the episode "Inferno", fromDoctor Who the Doctor accidentally travels to a parallel universe where Great Britain is a republic under afascist leader. This world is destroyed by volcanic eruptions. In "Rise of the Cybermen", the TARDIS fallsout of the Time­Space Continuum, and dies, with the Doctor and his companions inside it. The Doctorbelieves them to be in the Void, the infinite empty­space between the universes, where no time, space orenergy exists. It turns out, however, they fell into another universe; a much more desirable option. In thisuniverse, Great Britain is a republic rather than a constitutional monarchy and more technically advanced,with blimps almost replacing cars. On this world a new breed of Cybermen are created. They find a way torevive the TARDIS and travel back to their own universe. According to the Doctor in "Doomsday", a newparallel universe is created by every decision made.

The idea of a parallel universe and the concept of déjà vu was a major plot line of the first season finale ofFringe, guest­starring Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek. The show has gone on to feature the parallel universeprominently.

In the 2010 season of Lost, the result of characters traveling back in time to prevent the crash of OceanicFlight 815 apparently creates a parallel reality in which the Flight never crashed, rather than resetting timeitself in the characters' original timeline. The show continued to show two "sets" of the characters followingdifferent destinies, until it was revealed in the series finale that there was really only one reality created bythe characters themselves to assist themselves in leaving behind the physical world and passing on to anafterlife after their respective deaths.

The anime Turn A Gundam attempted to combine all the parallel Gundam universes (other incarnations ofthe series, with similar themes but differing stories and characters, that had played out at different timessince the debut of the concept in the 1970s) of the metaseries into one single reality.

The anime and manga series Eureka Seven: AO takes place in a parallel universe that is different from theone in the series' predecessor Eureka Seven. The E7 series started off in the year 12005, and the AO world,which takes place in the year 2025, would be the home of the two main characters' son.

The anime and manga series Katekyo Hitman Reborn! by Akira Amano features this idea in its third mainarc, known as Future arc.

The anime Neon Genesis Evangelion features a parallel world in one of the final episodes. This parallelworld is a sharp contrast to the harsh, dark "reality" of the show and presents a world where all thecharacters enjoy a much happier life. This parallel world would become the basis for the new Evangelionmanga series Angelic Days.

The anime series Bakugan features a parallel universe called Vestroia and is the homeworld of fantasticcreatures called Bakugan. The series' hero Dan Kuso alongside his friends and teammates must save Earthand Vestroia from total destruction. Season 2 & 3 feature another universe where Dan and his team save theday. They go to another dimension or universe through a pathway. The other universe has also other lifeforms and other types of technology.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 16/24

In another anime series, Digimon, there is parallel universe called "digital world". The show's childprotagonists meet digital monsters, or digimon, from this world and becomes partners and friends. In thethird story arc of Digimon Fusion, the Clockmaker (who is later revealed to be Bagramon) and his partnerClockmon travel through space­time to recruit heroes from previous series so they can help the FusionFighters to defeat Quartzmon before DigiQuartz can absorb each human and digital world in the multiverse.

In the anime series Umineko no Naku Koro ni the rounds of the battle between Battler and Beatrice takeplace in different dimensions, in order to show all kinds of possibilities (much to Battler's dismay) also thecharacter Bernkastel is known for her ability to travel into different worlds by the usage of "fragments".

In the animated Disney series Darkwing Duck, the title character's archenemy, Negaduck, comes from aparallel dimension called the Negaverse (not to be confused with the similarly­named dimension in theSailor Moon series).

In the Family Guy episode, "Road to the Multiverse", Brian and Stewie get a look at life in other universesthat are at the same time and place as Quahog, but under different conditions.

In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Parallels", Lt. Worf traveled to several parallel universeswhen his shuttlecraft went through a time space fissure.

The movie for Phineas and Ferb involves Phineas, Ferb, and Perry going to an alternative dimension of theTri­state area.

Adventure Time has episodes in which characters create stories about a gender­swapped version of theirworld and the episodes "The Lich", "Finn the Human" and "Jake the Dog" revolve around the creation of auniverse where The Lich never existed, preventing the post­apocalyptic setting of the series.

In the cartoon series Teen Titans, episode 24 "Fractured", Nosyarg Kcid (Dick Grayson, spelled backwards)appears. He claims to be Robin's extra dimensional counterpart, from Dimension 4 and 9/8ths.

The Community episode Remedial Chaos Theory, six different timelines and one "prime" timeline areexplored, each having a different outcome based on which member of the study group goes to get the pizza.One timeline, dubbed the "Darkest Timeline", results in the greatest amount of terrible incidents and endswith Abed donning a felt goatee bearing resemblance to Spock's in "Mirror, Mirror".

In the 2003 anime series of Fullmetal Alchemist, there exists a gateway that can be conjured by alchemiststhat acts as a source of all knowledge and energy; towards the end of the series, it is revealed that thisgateway connects the world of the anime with the real world, set during the first decades of the 20thcentury. It is revealed that the two worlds shared a common history until their histories diverged, apparentlydue to the success of alchemy in one world and that of modern physics in the other.

As an ongoing subplot

Sometimes a television series will use parallel universes as an ongoing subplot. Star Trek: Deep Space Nineand Star Trek: Enterprise elaborated on the premise of the original series' "Mirror" universe and developedmulti­episode story arcs based on the premise. Other examples are the science fiction series Stargate SG­1,the fantasy/horror series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural and the romance/fantasy Lois & Clark:The New Adventures of Superman.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 17/24

Following the precedent set by Star Trek, these story arcs show alternative universes that have turned out"worse" than the "original" universe: in Stargate SG­1 the first two encountered parallel realities featuredEarth being overwhelmed by an unstoppable Goa'uld onslaught; in Buffy, two episodes concern a timelinein which Buffy came to Sunnydale too late to stop the vampires from taking control; Lois & Clarkrepeatedly visits an alternative universe where Clark Kent's adoptive parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent,died when he was ten years of age, and Lois Lane is also apparently dead. Clark eventually becomesSuperman, with help from the "original" Lois Lane, but he is immediately revealed as Clark Kent and sohas no life of his own.

In addition to following Star Trek's lead, showing the "evil" variants of the main storyline gives the writersan opportunity to show what is at stake by portraying the worst that could happen and the consequences ifthe protagonists fail or the importance of a character's presence. The latter could also be seen as the point ofthe alternative reality portrayed in the movie It's a Wonderful Life.

Once Upon a Time often talks about alternative realms/universes in which all different forms of magic, andnon­magic may occur, depending on the realm. As Jefferson the Mad Hatter said "How ignorant are you tobelieve that your realm is the only one."

In the season 1 finale of The Flash, the Reverse­Flash opens a singularity that connects his world to aparallel universe called Earth­2. In the second season, The Flash starts facing villains from that earth whoalso have doppelgangers on Prime Earth sent by the Reverse­Flash of Earth­2, Zoom. The array of Earth­2villains consists of Atom Smasher, Sand Demon, King Shark, and Dr. Light; all are sent by Zoom to killThe Flash with the assurance of being taken back home. However, they are not the only ones who arrivefrom the singularity; this also includes the Earth­2 Flash after a close death and loss of speed from aconfrontation with Zoom. When the Earth­2 Flash (called Jay Garrick) introduces himself to Team Flash,Barry (The Flash) distrusts him at first and places him in the metahuman pipeline at S.T.A.R. Labs. WhenThe Flash starts having a hard time facing off against Sand Demon, he frees Jay so that he could help himas well as train him in his speed. With a new trick taught by Jay, Barry defeats Sand Demon. Later on, theEarth­2 counterpart of the Reverse­Flash, Harrison Wells, arrives in Prime Earth as well. He steals aweapon from Mercury Labs and saves Barry from the Earth­2 King Shark. When Jay confronts and seesWells again, the argument gets heated between them before Barry intercedes.

Television series involving parallel universes

There have been a few series where parallel universes were central to the series itself.

The Fantastic Journey, in which several travelers lost in the Bermuda Triangle find themselves inanother worldOtheworld, in which a family gets trapped in an alternate worldSliders, where a young man invents a worm­hole generator that allows travel to "alternative" Earths.Several characters travel across a series of "alternative" Earths, trying to get back to their homeuniverseParallax, in which a boy discovers portals to multiple parallel universes in his home townCharlie Jade, in which the titular character is accidentally thrown into our universe and is looking fora way back to his own. The series features three universes ­ alpha, beta and gammaAwake, where a man switches between realities whenever he goes to sleep: one in which his wifesurvived a car accident that killed their son, and one in which his son survived but his wife diedIn the TV series Fringe, a main element of the series is the loss of balance and the eventual collisionof two universes and the moral ramifications of it. Most main characters have a doppelganger who is

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 18/24

usually slightly different from their prime selves.

Comic books

Parallel universes in modern comics have become particularly rich and complex, in large part due to thecontinual problem of continuity faced by the major two publishers, Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Thetwo publishers have used the multiverse concept to fix problems arising from integrating characters fromother publishers into their own canon, and from having major serial protagonists having continuoushistories lasting, as in the case of Superman, over 70 years. Additionally, both publishers have used newalternative universes to re­imagine their own characters. (See Multiverse (DC Comics) and Multiverse(Marvel Comics))

DC Comics inaugurated its multiverse in the early sixties, with the reintroduction of Golden Agesuperheroes the Justice Society of America now located on Earth­Two, and devised a "mirror universe"scenario of inverted morality and supervillain domination of Earth­Three shortly afterward, several yearsbefore Star Trek devised its own darker alternative universe. There was a lull before DC inauguratedadditional alternative universes in the seventies, such as Earth­X, where there was an Axis victory in WorldWar II, Earth­S, home to the Fawcett Comics superheroes of the forties and fifties, such as Captain Marvel,and Earth­Prime, where superheroes only existed in fictional forms.

Therefore, comic books in general are one of the few entertainment mediums where the concept of paralleluniverses are a major and ongoing theme. DC in particular periodically revisits the idea in major crossoverstorylines, such as Crisis on Infinite Earths and Infinite Crisis, where Marvel has a series called What If...that's devoted to exploring alternative realities, which sometimes impact the "main" universe's continuity.DC's version of "What If..." is the Elseworlds imprint.

Recently DC Comics series 52 heralded the return of the Multiverse. 52 was a mega­crossover event tied toInfinite Crisis which was the sequel to the 1980s Crisis on Infinite Earths. The aim was to yet again addressmany of the problems and confusions brought on by the Multiverse in the DCU. Now 52 Earths exist andincluding some Elseworld tales such as Kingdom Come, DC's imprint WildStorm and an Earth devoted tothe Charlton Comics heroes of DC. Countdown and Countdown Presents: The Search for Ray Palmer andthe upcoming Tales of the Multiverse stories expand upon this new Multiverse.

Marvel has also had many large crossover events which depicted an alternative universe, many springingfrom events in the X­Men books, such as Days of Future Past, the seminal Age Of Apocalypse, and 2006'sHouse Of M. In addition the Squadron Supreme is a DC inspired Marvel Universe that has been usedseveral times, often crossing over into the mainstream Universe in the Avengers comic. Exiles is anoffshoot of the X­Men franchise that allows characters to hop from one alternative reality to another,leaving the original, main Marvel Universe intact. The Marvel UK line has long had multiverse storiesincluding the Jaspers' Warp storyline of Captain Britain's first series (it was here that the designation Earth­616 was first applied to the mainstream Marvel Universe).

Marvel Comics, as of 2000, launched their most popular parallel universe, the Ultimate Universe. It is asmaller subline to the mainstream titles and features Ultimate Spider­Man, Ultimate X­Men, UltimateFantastic Four and the Ultimates (their "Avengers"). The line in many ways both inspired and was inspiredby aspects of the new movie franchises in addition to creating younger versions of the modern heroes.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 19/24

The graphic novel Watchmen is set in an alternative history, in a 1985 where superheroes exist, theVietnam War was won by the United States, and Richard Nixon is in his fifth term as President of theUnited States. The Soviet Union and the United States are still locked in an escalating "Cold War" as in ourown world, but as the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan in this world and threatens Pakistan, nuclear warmay be imminent.

In 1973, Tammy published The Clock and Cluny Jones, where a mysterious grandfather clock hurls bullyCluny Jones into a harsh alternative reality where she becomes the bullied. This story was reprinted inMisty annual 1985 as Grandfather's Clock.

In 1978, Misty published The Sentinels. The Sentinels were two crumbling apartment blocks that connectedthe mainstream world with an alternative reality where Hitler conquered Britain in 1940.

In 1981, Jinty published Worlds Apart. Six girls experience alternative worlds ruled by greed, sports­mania,vanity, crime, intellectualism, and fear. These are in fact their dream worlds becoming real after they areknocked out by a mysterious gas from a chemical tanker that crashed into their school. In 1977 Jinty alsopublished Land of No Tears where a lame girl travels to a future world where people with things wrongwith them are cruelly treated, and emotions are banned.

The parallel universe concept has also appeared prominently in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic series fromArchie Comics. The first and most oft­recurring case of this is another "mirror universe" where Sonic andhis various allies are evil or anti­heroic while the counterpart of the evil Dr. Robotnik is good. Anotherrecurring universe featured in the series is a perpendicular dimension that runs through all others, known asthe No Zone. The inhabitants of this universe monitor travel between the others, often stepping in with theirZone Cop police force to punish those who travel without authorization between worlds.

In more recent years, the comic has adapted the alternative dimension from the video games Sonic Rushand Sonic Rush Adventure, home to Sonic's ally Blaze the Cat. The continuities seen in various other Sonicfranchises also exist in the comic, most notably those based on the cartoon series Sonic Underground andSonic X. For some years, a number of other universes were also featured that parodied various popularfranchises, such as Sailor Moon, Godzilla, and various titles from Marvel Comics. Archie has also used thisconcept as the basis for crossovers between Sonic and other titles that they publish, including Sabrina theTeenage Witch and Mega Man.

The various Transformers comics also feature the parallel universe concept, and feature the variouscontinuities from different branches of the franchise as parallel worlds that occasionally make contact witheach other. Quite notably, the annual Botcon fan convention introduced a comic storyline that featuredCliffjumper, an Autobot from the original Transformers series, entering an alternative universe where hisfellow Autobots are evil and the Decepticons are good. setavya is making a story on time and space whichnamed inercia

Video games

In "The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time" after the main protagonist, Link, defeats the dark lord, Ganon,he travels back in time to his childhood. This results in two alternate histories for Hyrule. In one a youngerversion Link travels to the land of Termina in "Majora's Mask and in the other Link is no longer presentallowing Ganon to return to go on a rampage that forced the gods of Hyrule to flood the world in "TheLegend of Zelda the Wind Waker." There is also a scenario in which Link is killed by Ganon in the final

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 20/24

battle, resulting in an alternate history in which Hyrule is put in an error of decline. (from Hyrule Historia.A Zelda collector's art book that details events and lore from the Zelda series. Obviously this edit needssome clean up and proper citation)

In the 1992 psychological horror point­and­click adventure game Dark Seed, the main character MikeDawson discovers a parallel universe by going through his living room mirror.

The Kingdom Hearts series, featuring a Disney/Square Enix's Final Fantasy multiverse.

In the 1999 role­playing game Outcast, a probe is sent to a parallel universe and is attacked by an "entity".Cutter Slade must escort a team of scientists across to the other world in order to retrieve and repair thedamaged probe before the earth is consumed by a black hole.

In Half­Life 2, Wallace Breen, the main antagonist of the game, tries to open a portal to another universe.There is another planet in another dimension called Xen. There is also a Multiverse Empire called TheCombine.

In the survival horror video game series Silent Hill, the town of Silent Hill fluctuates between the realworld, where Silent Hill is seemingly just an ordinary tourist town, the Fog World, which is like the realworld, except the town is shrouded in thick fog and is nearly uninhabited except for monsters and a fewpeople, and a dark and dilapidated version of the town called the "Other World".

In the 1993 adventure PC game Myst, the unnamed protagonist travels to multiple alternative worldsthrough the use of special books, which describe a world within and transport the user to that world when awindow on the front page is touched.

In the 1996 adventure PC game 9: The Last Resort, after resolving several mind­blowing and uniquepuzzles, the player gets past "The Tiki Guards"; and a door opens up to "The Void" ­ actually a room toanother universe, which houses the entirety of space.

Both titles of the When They Cry visual novel series (Higurashi and Umineko for short) contain the conceptof parallel worlds. These series both involve some kind of murder mystery. As soon as the main characterhas 'lost', another parallel world, called a Fragment, is chosen to be observed. This continues until the entiremystery is solved.

EarthBound features many areas of the game that can be considered alternative dimensions. The first is anillusion created by the Mani Mani Statue that transforms the metropolis of Fourside into a bizarre neonmetropolis called Moonside, filled with unusual characters and enemies. The second is Magicant, the worldof Ness's subconscious that is accessed after obtaining the Eight Melodies. Finally, toward the end of thegame, the protagonists arrive at the Cave to the Past, where they travel back in time to the haunting pastdimension of the cave to face Giygas.

Super Mario Bros. 2 features a "Magic Potion" item that when used, creates a doorway allowing the playerto temporarily access "Subspace"; a mirrored silhouette version of the world where items can be found.

After the completion of the Special World in Super Mario World, the overworld transforms from a green­colored springtime to an orange­colored autumnal setting. Many enemies encountered in the game aretransformed into bizarre counterparts.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 21/24

Super Mario 64 features a world called "Tiny Huge Island" which has two variants: one scaled up, the otherscaled down. The player can only access certain parts of the level to obtain certain stars depending onwhich variant they are into. The two variants can be switched between via portals in the world.

Banjo­Kazooie features a world called "Click Clock Wood", which has spring, summer, autumn and wintervariants. The environment develops between the seasons making some areas accessible or inaccessible, andactions taken in one season affect the outcome in others.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past features a dark and twisted parallel version of Hyrule called the"Dark World".

The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages use a similar concept to that which is used inThe Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. In those games, the player must switch between the parallel pastand present worlds (Ages) and between spring, summer, autumn and winter (Seasons) to progress throughthe game.

In the first half of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, areas of Hyrule are veiled by the TwilightRealm. These areas are dusky and brooding in appearance, Link cannot transform out of wolf form,characters only appear as spirits that cannot be communicated with, and enemies are twilight variations oftheir regular forms. Otherwise, the Twilight Realm is identical to regular Hyrule.

Resistance: Fall of Man is set in alternative universe where Tsarist Russia never experienced the RussianRevolution but instead became the bridgehead for an aggressive alien invasion from a species known as the"Chimera", who then proceed to overrun Western Europe, Great Britain, Canada and much of the UnitedStates, and where there has been no Second World War as a result. The events of the game and its sequelsbegin in its alternative 1951.

Each Zone in Sonic CD has four variations: Past, Present, Bad Future and Good Future, each displayingsome subtle and not­so subtle alterations.

The story of Chrono Cross centers around travel between two alternative timelines, the original or "AnotherWorld" and "Home World" which is a branch created by the actions of the heroes of the game'spredecessor, Chrono Trigger.

In Super Paper Mario, the town "Flipside" (which acts as the game's central hub) has an alternativemirrored version called "Flopside". While Flipside appears pristine and the residents there are typicallycheerful, Flopside appears somewhat dilapidated and is populated by surly characters.

The series Legacy of Kain is played through several realms and timelines.

Sudeki is set in a realm of light and a parallel realm of darkness.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion features an alternative hellish world called "Oblivion", as well as a paintingyou can climb into and a quest where you enter a dream world.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask takes place in Termina, a parallel world to Hyrule. Almost all of thecharacters from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time reappear in the game.

The Darkness pivots around a world of darkness you travel to when you die, which is occupied by WorldWar 1 soldiers.

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 22/24

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes involves a world, "Aether", having an alternative self in the, "Dark" realm,universe, or dimension. The protagonist, Samus, finds out that she just dropped into a hopeless war for theLuminoth, the dominant species of Light Aether against the Ing, the dominant species of Dark Aether. Shealso finds her counterpart, Dark Samus or Metroid Prime's essence inside Samus's Phazon Suit.

Crash Twinsanity features Crash, Cortex, and Nina traveling to the "10th dimension," which could also be aparallel universe (suggested by the theme and how everything seems to be opposite).

Minecraft features an alternative dimension called "The Nether", that includes a 'hell' like theme. It alsocontains a second alternative dimension called "The End," home world of the Endermen, a type of monsterthat spawns rarely in the main world.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment takes place in an alternative universe called "This Side" where in the eventsof Innocent Sin did not take place and the characters have never met in the past.

The Fallout series takes place in a subtly different universe. For example, the ship that landed the first menon the moon in 1969 is called Valiant 11, rather than Apollo 11. This universe diverged from ours afterWorld War II, which resulted in a lack of advanced computers, the Cold War, VHS, etc.

The MMORPG City of Heroes features a Player vs Player (PvP) zone called Recluse's Victory. It is analternative future in a constant state of flux, as heroes and villains battle for the future of Earth.

In the text­based science fiction MMORPG OtherSpace, refugees from Earth's universe were forced tomigrate to a parallel universe called Hiverspace, whose quantum divergence occurred billions of years inthe past, after damage to the time/space continuum began to tear their own universe apart.[9] Eventually,they were able to find a means back to a past universe whose quantum divergence from their original oneswas relatively minor.

2011 action­adventure video game Portal 2 features a game­mode entitled "Perpetual Testing Initiative",where a plot item features protagonist "Bendy" through thousands of different worlds of which characterCave Johnson exist in different roles entitled "The Multiverse".

The 2012 visual novel/puzzle video game Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward heavily uses the concept ofmultiple realities as the basis for its plot as well as its central gameplay mechanic of traversing throughrealities and altering history.

The 2013 first person shooter Bioshock Infinite features the many worlds interpretation of quantummechanics. The main character is named Booker Dewitt, an obvious homage to physicist Bryce DeWitt.

The world of the classic cult adventure games of The Longest Journey created by Ragnar Thornqast, alongwith its sequels, deals with the existence of two parallel universes — technological (Stark) and magical(Arcadia).

The upcoming 2014 crossover video game Heroes of the Storm features the iconic characters of BlizzardEntertainment. In the game, heroes and villains from Warcraft, Diablo, and StarCraft have been sucked intoa trans­dimensional storm called "Nexus". Stranded in a strange limbo of clashing universes, thesecombatants are joined by the same fate to battle for dominance.

See also

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 23/24

Alternate universe (fan fiction)Fictional universeList of fiction employing parallel universesMultiverseWorld as MythInterdimensional beingCrossover

References1. "Rediff On The NeT: 'Hindu cosmology's time­scale for the universe is in consonance with modern science' ".

Rediff.com. Retrieved 2015­03­04.2. Irwin, Robert (2005). The Arabian Nights: A Companion (Autre(s) ed. 1994, 2004. ed.). London: Tauris Parke

Paperbacks. ISBN 1­86064­983­1.3. Briggs (1967) p.50­14. Matthews, Gareth (2005). The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview (1.

print. ed.). Chicago [u.a.]: Open Court. p. 171. ISBN 0­8126­9588­7.5. "Steven Baxter Speech". Erkelzaar.tsudao.com. Retrieved 2015­03­04.6. Lewis, C. S. (1975). Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. p. 68.

ISBN 0­15­667897­7.7. "John Grant interviewed ­ infinity plus non­fiction". Infinityplus.co.uk. 2002­11­16. Retrieved 2015­03­04.8. Moorcock, Michael (2004). Wizardry & Wild Romance: A Study of Epic Fantasy (rev. ed.). Austin, Tex.:

MonkeyBrain. p. 88. ISBN 1­932265­07­4.9. Wes Platt (2012). Otherspace: Down to Earth Chronicle. p. 139. "..."You did not 'jump' in time. You have

jumped dimensions." Nix clarifies. "Hiverspace's timeline is obviously different from you own. ... Our universe,our Orion Arm, was destroyed by untold number of black holes created by a young Kamir not in control of hisown powers. The rest of the Kamir gathered as many people from our universe as possible and rifted us all here.Our universe is gone, but it sound like your version of Normalspace still exists, not destroyed by somecataclysmic event. Such is similar for many others who have been brought here. You are just the newest in a longlist that ever growing. But, I am not surprised that you were brought here by Kamir­influenced artifacts. In fact, Iwould be less surprised if you were not.""

Bibliography

Clifford A. Pickover (August 2005). Sex, Drugs, Einstein, and Elves: Sushi, Psychedelics, ParallelUniverses, and the Quest for Transcendence (Discusses parallel universes in a variety of settings,from physics to psychedelic visions to Proust parallel worlds to Bonnet syndrome). SmartPublications. ISBN 1­890572­17­9.Michio Kaku (2004). Parallel Worlds: A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and theFuture of the Cosmos. Doubleday. ISBN 0­385­50986­3.

External linksMax Tegmark's Parallel Universes paper (http://www.hep.upenn.edu/~max/multiverse.pdf),University of PennsylvaniaComic book universes explained simply (http://princeofoz.blogspot.com/2010/07/parallel­universes­in­comic­books.html)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parallel_universe_(fiction)&oldid=695770735"

12/19/2015 Parallel universe (fiction) ­ Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_universe_(fiction) 24/24

Categories: Parallel universes in fiction Fiction Science fiction themes Setting

This page was last modified on 18 December 2015, at 13:24.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution­ShareAlike License; additional terms mayapply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is aregistered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non­profit organization.