Continuum sort of does my head in that way. She's always worrying about 'changing the future' - 'what if this changes that?' - but no one ever seems to say 'You can't. And if you did, your future would probably be so different as to mean you'd never go back in time, so if you changed anything, you'd never have existed here because the future you know would never have been. Everything you do happens because it's
always happened. Pre-destination; gotta love it. Now, chill'.
The thing that kind of bugged me about QL (much as I loved it then and still like it now, whenever I catch a repeat) was the 'butterfly effect' his changes would have to make throughout time.
Even one thing that didn't directly affect his past, could have shaped the future: he stops Ms X from continuing with an abusive relationship when Ziggy's data says the guy killed Ms X (let's say; iirc there was at least one ep where this kind of thing occurred). So, she doesn't die, goes off, marries someone better, has kids she would never otherwise have had, etc, and the guy never goes to jail.
Now what if, in jail, this guy was supposed to save someone who, on release, would father a future politician or scientist, someone who
was shaping the world Sam knew? No jailtime for the killer of Ms X means the other prisoner dies and the kid is never born.
Equally, Ms X is saved, has kids, etc...but what if her kid turns out to be America's Hitler in the altered timeline? The future Sam knew is at best altered, or at worst (and this is more likely) it's completely gone. Maybe in that world Sam's dead, or working for the State on whatever. Either way he never researches the project or invents the accelerator.
Now, iirc...I can't be sure, it's been too long...wasn't part of
12 Monkeys to do with that? They're considered - or have been driven - crazy because, as the agents of change, they know/are convinced that things
were different before, while everyone else was inside the 'bubble' and so remain(ed) unaware of any changes in time?
I'm gonna have to watch it again. (What a hardship.
)