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Newspaper Dating

 Newspaper Dating
type
FeatureClass
 Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating
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NewspaperDating
 Newspaper Dating
comment
A Time Traveler may not want to confuse random passers-by by asking them "What Year Is This?", so they'll find a newspaper or other conveniently dated artifact instead. A standard joke has one character using the architecture, the fashions, the technology, and the incidents on TV to come up with a guess at the year, only for someone else to correct them after reading the paper.
Technology Marches On, and while they continue to be printed, it is still to be seen how long newspapers will be available to check this in runs to the future, what with the prevalence of people reading the news on their smartphone on their way to work. Though of course this trope probably won't ever be truly discredited, unlike most tropes involving newspapers, since time-travel can still always bring a character to an era where newspapers were more relevant.
Not to be confused with personal ads, or with Authentication by Newspaper, or with two people dating and it having something to do with a newspaper, or with dating a newspaper.
 Newspaper Dating
fetched
2024-03-24T15:31:58Z
 Newspaper Dating
parsed
2024-03-24T15:31:58Z
 Newspaper Dating
processingComment
Dropped link to AccidentalTimeTravel: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to BadFuture: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to DonaldDuck: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to FadingAway: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to FakedRipVanWinkle: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to MayanDoomsday: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to NightmareSequence: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to SeenItAll: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Newspaper Dating
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Dropped link to TimeSplittersFuturePerfect: Not an Item - UNKNOWN
 Newspaper Dating
processingUnknown
DonaldDuck
 Newspaper Dating
processingUnknown
TimeSplittersFuturePerfect
 Newspaper Dating
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Newspaper Dating / int_104b5e68
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_104b5e68
comment
This appears whenever Bobby arrives on First Earth (Earth in the year 1937) in The Pendragon Adventure.
 Newspaper Dating / int_104b5e68
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_104b5e68
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Pendragon Adventure
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_104b5e68
 Newspaper Dating / int_11b7db91
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_11b7db91
comment
Adventure Time: Parodied in "Another Five Short Graybles" with the obviously fake newspaper Jake creates to 'prove' that he went to the future.
 Newspaper Dating / int_11b7db91
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_11b7db91
featureConfidence
1.0
 Adventure Time
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_11b7db91
 Newspaper Dating / int_1462da4
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_1462da4
comment
Come Back Mrs. Noah. Garstang says he has no idea how old he is, as he was found wrapped in newspaper with some fish and chips.
 Newspaper Dating / int_1462da4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_1462da4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Come Back Mrs. Noah
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_1462da4
 Newspaper Dating / int_1f992a82
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_1f992a82
comment
In Dazzle, this is how Rahzel finally realizes that she's been sent in the past.
 Newspaper Dating / int_1f992a82
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_1f992a82
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dazzle (Manga)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_1f992a82
 Newspaper Dating / int_2212773a
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2212773a
comment
Angel. After spending sixteen years in a hell dimension, Holtz looks at a newspaper to see what year it is and is shocked to find that only days have passed since he left.
 Newspaper Dating / int_2212773a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2212773a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Angel
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_2212773a
 Newspaper Dating / int_24740992
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_24740992
comment
In "The Once and Future King", Gary Pitkin realizes that he has gone back in time and is talking to the real Elvis Presley when he finds a copy of The Commercial Appeal dated Monday July 3, 1954 with a prominent photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower on the front page.
 Newspaper Dating / int_24740992
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_24740992
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1.0
 Elvis Presley (Music)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_24740992
 Newspaper Dating / int_28ccdd97
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_28ccdd97
comment
Played with in the Blake and Mortimer book The Time Trap: Mortimer finds himself alone in a post apocalyptic future. He finds an inscription in some ruins reading "2015-2050" and thus believes himself to be in the mid 21st century...until he meets someone else and mentions the date only to be informed he's actually in 5060: the ruins he was in were of a city destroyed in 2075.
 Newspaper Dating / int_28ccdd97
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_28ccdd97
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1.0
 Blake and Mortimer (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_28ccdd97
 Newspaper Dating / int_2af4f467
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2af4f467
comment
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero also does it to confirm they haven't time-traveled, with the same result, in their universe-jumping adventure in the original series.
 Newspaper Dating / int_2af4f467
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2af4f467
featureConfidence
1.0
 G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_2af4f467
 Newspaper Dating / int_2b8d3d42
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2b8d3d42
comment
In Time After Time, after H. G. Wells demonstrates his time-machine to his skeptical 20th Century girlfriend by taking her a few days into the future, she confirms that his time-machine works when she sees a newspaper dated a few days later. She then reads about her own murder on the front page. Earlier in the movie, when he arrives in 1979, he already knows when he is, but makes use of a newspaper to find out where he is (apparently not having realized he'd traveled from London to San Francisco).
 Newspaper Dating / int_2b8d3d42
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2b8d3d42
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1.0
 Time After Time
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Newspaper Dating / int_2b8d3d42
 Newspaper Dating / int_2bbcacd9
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2bbcacd9
comment
In the Looney Tunes short "The Old Grey Hare", Elmer is sent to the far-off year of 2000 AD, which he figures out from a conveniently placed newspaper. He also learns that, among other things, television has been replaced by smellovision.
 Newspaper Dating / int_2bbcacd9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2bbcacd9
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1.0
 Looney Tunes
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_2bbcacd9
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e2efbf9
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e2efbf9
comment
Marty does this in the first and second Back to the Future movies. Played with in Back to the Future Part II, where the newspaper confirms Marty has the right date, he's just in a different timeline. And then there's a *Click* Hello.
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e2efbf9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e2efbf9
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1.0
 Back to the Future
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_2e2efbf9
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e3e7ac2
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e3e7ac2
comment
Justice League
In "Legends", Green Lantern does this to confirm they haven't time traveled when they arrive in an alternate Earth that looks like The '50s. However, he later finds a real newspaper which reveals that the city they're in was destroyed in a nuclear war forty years ago.
In "The Once and Future Thing: Weird Western Tales", some bandits who make the mistake of trying to rob our heroes have a newspaper in one of their saddlebags informing them it's 1879.
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e3e7ac2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_2e3e7ac2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Justice League
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_2e3e7ac2
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a48eed
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a48eed
comment
The Outer Limits (1995):
In "Vanishing Act", Trevor McPhee realizes that he has traveled ten years into the future when he sees issues of TIME Magazine and Life dated 1959.
"The Origin of Species" has a variation. A group think they have been transported to an alien planet, but gradually figure out they are in the distant future. A look at the expiration date of a discarded candy bar wrapper confirms this. (By no means accurate, but close enough for their purposes).
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a48eed
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a48eed
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Outer Limits (1995)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_31a48eed
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a8701b
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a8701b
comment
The Flash: The classic story "Flash of Two Worlds" sees Barry end up in a city he's never heard of after performing an Indian rope trick. He looks at a newspaper to determine "when" he is — seeing the date and year are the same as they were before, he realizes he hasn't traveled through time. It's later revealed that he's on Earth-2, an alternate universe's version of Earth where DC's Golden Age characters live.
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a8701b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_31a8701b
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1.0
 The Flash (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_31a8701b
 Newspaper Dating / int_3ae518ad
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_3ae518ad
comment
In Idiocracy, Joe (and the viewer) finds out what year he's in by seeing a magazine covernote (Hot Naked Chicks & World Report) dated 2505 (which he thinks is a misprint), and then a receipt that confirms the date on the magazine.
 Newspaper Dating / int_3ae518ad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_3ae518ad
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1.0
 Idiocracy
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_3ae518ad
 Newspaper Dating / int_3b19a3ad
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_3b19a3ad
comment
Toward the end of Methuselah's Children, the characters have returned to Earth in their stolen starship, but don't want to land until they know how much time has passed since they fled an oppressive government. One of the characters, Andy Libby, determines the approximate date by examining the relative positions of the planets in the Solar System. (75 years have passed.)
 Newspaper Dating / int_3b19a3ad
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_3b19a3ad
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1.0
 Methuselah's Children
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Newspaper Dating / int_3b19a3ad
 Newspaper Dating / int_43576f5
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_43576f5
comment
Supernatural:
In "In the Beginning", Dean realizes he's been sent back in time by the angel Castiel when he goes into a diner and sees the date on the newspaper of the man next to him (who happens to be his father). He also does it when he is raised from the dead in "Lazarus Rising" due to time flowing much slower in Hell than on Earth.
When carried forward to a Bad Future where Croatoan virus has swept over the Earth, Dean reads the date on a government warning sign announcing the area he's in is a hot zone. Zachariah (the angel who sent him there) later turns up to read the newspaper to him, just to ram home what a Crapsack World it is.
After traveling forward in time from 1958, Henry Winchester (Dean's grandfather) reads the registration on the Impala. "2013? My god! I guess the Mayans were wrong."
 Newspaper Dating / int_43576f5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_43576f5
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1.0
 Supernatural
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_43576f5
 Newspaper Dating / int_43a9c333
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_43a9c333
comment
Cowboy Bebop does a somewhat serious take on the joke version of this in "My Funny Valentine". In order to demonstrate the extent of her remaining memory after waking from a cold-sleep, Faye identifies a series of slightly futuristic-looking objects on the table next to her. Her lawyer then makes a point of showing her just how far into the future she's been thrown by demonstrating that the items are not a TV, a water pitcher, and a phone but rather a miniature washing machine, a device for washing faces, and a thermometer.
 Newspaper Dating / int_43a9c333
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_43a9c333
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1.0
 Cowboy Bebop
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_43a9c333
 Newspaper Dating / int_444e73d4
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_444e73d4
comment
Subverted in a 1993 Dylan Dog storyline, where the eponymous hero wakes up with amnesia in a post-apocalyptic future. It's only near the end of the story that he finds, in the ruins of a library, a collection of (very aged) newspapers running up to 2001, the year civilization ended. Dylan deduces he must be in the early 21st century... Then, not three panels later, he reads on a solar-powered clock it's August 4th, 2560.
 Newspaper Dating / int_444e73d4
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Newspaper Dating / int_444e73d4
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1.0
 Dylan Dog (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_444e73d4
 Newspaper Dating / int_47715a27
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_47715a27
comment
Fate DxD AU: When Ritsuka Fujimaru lands in the DxD world, he finds a newspaper that says it is 2008. In his own world, is was roughly 2021.
 Newspaper Dating / int_47715a27
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_47715a27
featureConfidence
1.0
 Fate DxD AU (Fanfic)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_47715a27
 Newspaper Dating / int_513f5832
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_513f5832
comment
Subverted in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Spock determines from the pollution in the atmosphere as being "the latter half of the twentieth century" and Kirk doesn't ask to get more specific than that as it doesn't matter. Later, Kirk is seen looking at a newspaper machine, but only to confirm that the time period still has a currency-based economy and they will need to acquire some money in order to complete the mission.
 Newspaper Dating / int_513f5832
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Newspaper Dating / int_513f5832
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1.0
 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_513f5832
 Newspaper Dating / int_5178149f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_5178149f
comment
In Batman: The Brave and the Bold's universe-jumping adventure, Batman discovers that he's traveled into the future as well as across universes from a newspaper.
 Newspaper Dating / int_5178149f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_5178149f
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1.0
 Batman: The Brave and the Bold
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_5178149f
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd32
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd32
comment
The Twilight Zone (1959): In "A Hundred Yards over the Rim", Chris Horn, who is from 1847, realizes that he is in the future when he sees a calendar dated 1961 in Joe's diner.
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd32
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd32
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1.0
 The Twilight Zone (1959)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd32
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd8b
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd8b
comment
The Twilight Zone (1985):
In "Grace Note", after being transported through time, Rosemarie Miletti picks up a copy of The New York Herald and learns that it is March 22, 1986, 20 years in her future.
In "The Once and Future King", Gary Pitkin realizes that he has gone back in time and is talking to the real Elvis Presley when he finds a copy of The Commercial Appeal dated Monday July 3, 1954 with a prominent photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower on the front page.
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd8b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd8b
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1.0
 The Twilight Zone (1985)
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_53a0bd8b
 Newspaper Dating / int_53bd0aaf
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_53bd0aaf
comment
In a variation in With Strings Attached, the four find out that they're in an alternate New York, “New Zork,� in 1954, from a license plate. Given what they did in New York had taken place in 1964, they feel pretty safe in wandering around without fear of being mobbed. That is, until Ringo, lagging behind the others, plucks a newspaper out of the trash and finds to his horror that in this universe, the “Beagles� have just arrived in the city.... Cue the ensuing of hilarity.
 Newspaper Dating / int_53bd0aaf
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_53bd0aaf
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1.0
 With Strings Attached / Fan Fic
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_53bd0aaf
 Newspaper Dating / int_5562da6a
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_5562da6a
comment
Subverted in a 1997 episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun. Dick, who already thinks he's losing his mind, is in a doctor's waiting room filled with, of course, old magazines. After rifling through them, he panics, declaring "Oh my god, it's 1994!"
 Newspaper Dating / int_5562da6a
featureApplicability
-0.3
 Newspaper Dating / int_5562da6a
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1.0
 3rd Rock from the Sun
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_5562da6a
 Newspaper Dating / int_5d354f8
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_5d354f8
comment
Played with in Red Dwarf, "Backwards" - the date on the newspaper was 3991, but by that point Kryten had realized that everything was backwards, so the actual year was 1993.
 Newspaper Dating / int_5d354f8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_5d354f8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Red Dwarf
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_5d354f8
 Newspaper Dating / int_65608411
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_65608411
comment
Time Enough for Love. Lazarus Long travels back in time and reads a newspaper to learn the current date: August 1, 1916. This is about three years earlier than he intended to arrive, since he'd planned to skip World War I.
 Newspaper Dating / int_65608411
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_65608411
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 Time Enough for Love
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Newspaper Dating / int_65608411
 Newspaper Dating / int_6d2aec8f
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_6d2aec8f
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In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean, Jolyne finds herself in the memory of a plane that's going to explode, and looking around, she finds a newspaper dating the incident back to 2005.
 Newspaper Dating / int_6d2aec8f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_6d2aec8f
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1.0
 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean (Manga)
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Newspaper Dating / int_6d2aec8f
 Newspaper Dating / int_755fadab
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_755fadab
comment
Kyon uses this method at one point during The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya to figure out what year he is in after using Nagato's escape program. He considers asking What Year Is This?, but swiftly discards the idea after realizing how demented he would look to others and instead heads for a convenience store to check the newspapers.
 Newspaper Dating / int_755fadab
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1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_755fadab
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1.0
 Haruhi Suzumiya
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Newspaper Dating / int_755fadab
 Newspaper Dating / int_7c038c18
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_7c038c18
comment
In the Phineas and Ferb episode "Agent Doof", Candace attempts to use this to convince her mom that Phineas and Ferb were turned into babies when the pictures she sends are mistaken for old, scrounged-up baby photos.
 Newspaper Dating / int_7c038c18
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_7c038c18
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 Phineas and Ferb
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Newspaper Dating / int_7c038c18
 Newspaper Dating / int_7cfd7215
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_7cfd7215
comment
Deliberately subverted in The Lost Crown: A Ghost-Hunting Adventure, because newspapers only say what day of which month it is, not the year. Other documents that do suggest dates by year are wildly contradictory (e.g. a book given as a signed gift in the 1950s, yet published in 1978).
 Newspaper Dating / int_7cfd7215
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-0.3
 Newspaper Dating / int_7cfd7215
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1.0
 The Lost Crown (Video Game)
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Newspaper Dating / int_7cfd7215
 Newspaper Dating / int_7d656203
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_7d656203
comment
In Fairy Fencer F, in at least two of the three alternate timelines, the party discovers that they've traveled in time thanks to this. Humorously, in the Goddess timeline, Fang has no idea what Eryn is trying to convey when she shows him the newspaper at first, thinking she just dredged up an old copy of the newspaper from somewhere.
 Newspaper Dating / int_7d656203
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_7d656203
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 Fairy Fencer F (Video Game)
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Newspaper Dating / int_7d656203
 Newspaper Dating / int_8160bfe7
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_8160bfe7
comment
In the first episode of season 2 of Timewasters, the band arrives in the 1950s and Lauren identifies the year as 1958 from a discarded newspaper on the street: the lead story being about Russian spies.
 Newspaper Dating / int_8160bfe7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_8160bfe7
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 Timewasters
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Newspaper Dating / int_8160bfe7
 Newspaper Dating / int_81692f99
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_81692f99
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Star Trek:
Star Trek: The Original Series: In "Spectre of the Gun", Captain Kirk finds a copy of the Tombstone Epitaph dated October 26th, 1881. On YouTube here, starting at 5:30.note On Blu-Ray, you can read the articles. They're not from 1881. Given that they're not really in the Old West, this kinda works.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Time's Arrow", Data does this to tell both where and when he is by finding a copy of the San Francisco Register dated August 13, 1893.
Averted in Star Trek: Voyager. In "Future's End", the ship time traveled back to Earth in 1996, which they find out just by doing an astrometric reading. And in "Fury", having traveled back to a past Voyager, Kes just asks the ship's computer for the date.
 Newspaper Dating / int_81692f99
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-1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_81692f99
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 Star Trek (Franchise)
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Newspaper Dating / int_81692f99
 Newspaper Dating / int_88489811
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_88489811
comment
Norby Finds a Villain: In chapter four, Jeff uses the menu of the RMS Titanic to recognize that it was April 14, 1912. When he realizes that the ship is sinking, he orders Norby to take them away.
 Newspaper Dating / int_88489811
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_88489811
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1.0
 Norby Finds a Villain
hasFeature
Newspaper Dating / int_88489811
 Newspaper Dating / int_8b5820ed
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_8b5820ed
comment
While no time travel is involved, both Red Dead Redemption and its sequel/prequel go through a time skip before the Playable Epilogue starts. The amount of time that passed off-screen is usually not mentioned in dialogue, so the simplest way to find out what year it is is to buy a newspaper.
 Newspaper Dating / int_8b5820ed
featureApplicability
1.0
 Newspaper Dating / int_8b5820ed
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1.0
 Red Dead Redemption (Video Game)
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Newspaper Dating / int_8b5820ed
 Newspaper Dating / int_8ee9855c
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_8ee9855c
comment
In Dot's Home, you can check the time period that Dot traveled to by checking the date on the newspaper.
 Newspaper Dating / int_8ee9855c
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Newspaper Dating / int_8ee9855c
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_90c73dda
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Variation in Animorphs: Jake, while trapped in a post-apocalyptic New York City, tries to determine when humanity lost by the dates in a bombed-out magazine stand.
 Newspaper Dating / int_90c73dda
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1.0
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Newspaper Dating / int_90c73dda
 Newspaper Dating / int_9322493f
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_9322493f
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Kamen Rider Zi-O pulls a variation in the first episode, with Sougo checking the expiration date on a milk carton to confirm that he's really gone back in time to 2017.
 Newspaper Dating / int_9322493f
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1.0
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Newspaper Dating / int_9322493f
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_941d5784
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At the end of issue 6 of Strong Female Protagonist, the real professor who was supposed to be teaching Alison's college philosophy class walked into the classroom, to the confusion of all students present. When asked what happened to Professor Gurwara, he responded that he had never heard of anyone by that name, and, when Alison challenged him on the date, he looked at his newspaper and collapsed with shock upon discovering that he had lost around a month and a half of his life.
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Newspaper Dating / int_941d5784
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Newspaper Dating
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Star Trek: The Original Series: In "Spectre of the Gun", Captain Kirk finds a copy of the Tombstone Epitaph dated October 26th, 1881. On YouTube here, starting at 5:30.note On Blu-Ray, you can read the articles. They're not from 1881. Given that they're not really in the Old West, this kinda works.
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Newspaper Dating
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In Chrono Cross, the Dead Sea is a fragment of alt-1999 A.D., and Chronopolis is supposed to have originated in the year 2300, which the group discovers looking at the plaque.
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Newspaper Dating / int_a606596a
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type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_a790c674
comment
Norby and the Queen's Necklace:
In chapter two, the first time the characters activate the necklace, Jeff finds a newspaper on the floor, establishing that they're in Paris, France, and that they arrived on February 1, 1785.
In chapter four, after Norby rescues Jeff and Marcel from the executioner, Marcel picks up a newspaper that says the date is April 16, 1896. Jeff can’t because he and Norby are Fading Away.
In chapter eleven, Norby is the one who finds a newspaper, giving us the date of July 14, 1805. It shows that time has been changed, because people aren’t celebrating Bastille Day.
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Newspaper Dating / int_a790c674
 Newspaper Dating / int_ac03f223
type
Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_ac03f223
comment
This trope is how the protagonists of FlashForward (2009) find out that the eponymous flash forwards are supposed to show the future. As well as in its modern incarnation, Journeyman.
 Newspaper Dating / int_ac03f223
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1.0
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Newspaper Dating / int_ac03f223
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_ae0356e0
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Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "One Thousand Years of Courage", Courage and his family end up in a world ruled by sentient bananas, and when Courage points out the date on a newspaper, they realize they've been flung a thousand years into the future.
 Newspaper Dating / int_ae0356e0
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Newspaper Dating / int_ae0356e0
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_b3b15bc1
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In X-Men: The Animated Series, when Bishop time-travels he simply picks up a newspaper and reads the date off the front page.
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1.0
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Newspaper Dating / int_b3b15bc1
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_bd8daeac
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Played with in To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. The main character needs to find out the exact date he landed in order to correctly fulfill his Set Right What Once Went Wrong mission. He finds a newspaper, but doesn't realize that it's several days old.
Connie Willis does this again in Blackout. A time traveler finds half a newspaper and tries to use it to figure out the date. First it turns out to be the half that doesn't have the date printed on it, so he has to use his knowledge of history to correlate the stories in the paper with the date. After he manages to figure it out, he starts talking to people, and through a series of conversational missteps realizes that the paper is again several days older than he thought it was.
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_c2ebb41c
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Played with in the Close Enough episode "Time Hooch". After Josh and Alex time-travelled due to the titular whiskey, they find a newspaper of the moon landing in 1969. Alex concludes that they've time travelled to three years ago, when he collected '60s stuff.
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Newspaper Dating
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Doctor Who:
In "The Dalek Invasion of Earth", the TARDIS crew discover they are in 2164 (or later) from a calendar in an abandoned warehouse.
"The Chase" sees a variant of this trope. Ian & Barbara find out they’re (near enough) home by checking the windscreen of the nearest parked car to find its tax disc expires on New Year’s Eve 1965. (This is referenced in An Adventure in Space and Time when the audience is shown that it is 1966 by displaying a car's tax disc.)
In "The Enemy of the World", Jamie finds out he's in 2018 by looking at the expiration date of the tax disc on the helicopter that's just picked him up. (Hilarious in Hindsight - tax discs were phased out in the UK in 2014.)
In "The Unquiet Dead", the Doctor uses a paper to determine that they are not, in fact, in 1860 Naples, but rather 1869 Cardiff. Rose doesn't care until she hears that last bit. "Right..."
In "Rise of the Cybermen", the TARDIS crashes and Mickey uses this method to determine that they have landed in modern London; it then transpires that they've passed into a parallel universe by accident.
Also used in "Daleks in Manhattan", where the Doctor attempts to work out the date from how complete the Empire State Building is, whilst Martha picks up a newspaper from a bench behind them.
In "Human Nature", a teacher called John Smith wakes up from a strange dream in which he's a doctor caught up in adventures in the far-flung future of 2007. His maid, who just happens to resemble his companion in that dream, assures him that it's 1913 and hands over the daily paper as proof.
Kathy Nightingale does this in "Blink", though it's as much to convince her that she time-travelled at all as to determine the date.
In "The Unicorn and the Wasp", the Doctor figures out what year it is by other clues, but the exact date turns out to be important.
Another take on this trope is the Doctor (who has Seen It All) telling the date from the technology around him, e.g. in "Kill the Moon".
"Rosa" has the Doctor doing this to deduce that her and her companions are in town the day before a pivotal historical event, which means they can't just leave since someone is clearly attempting to meddle with it.
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Newspaper Dating
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The attempt at newspaper dating in Men in Black 3 doesn't work because the guy in the elevator keeps shifting the date on the paper out of J's line of sight. J finally just asks him What Year Is It?.
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Newspaper Dating
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Used twice in Rewind (2013), where a secret government project has created a prototype time machine that opens random, temporary windows into the past. In order to determine the date and location these windows connect to, Mission Control launches a very tiny drone through the portal and hopes to surreptitiously blunder into something or someone that indicates what era they've got access to:
The first window seen in the film leads to a field in Gloucester on July 22nd, 1934. The drone picked up the date and location by listening to a radio broadcast.
The next window opens up in the basement of a fairly modern looking building. Once the drone zips out of the door and onto the street, a random passerby just happens to hold up a copy of The Washington News with the date "Friday March 8 1929" printed on it.
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Newspaper Dating
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In Professor Layton and the Unwound Future, Layton first realizes how far into the future he is when he finds a newspaper and realizes that the date is 10 years into the future.
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Newspaper Dating
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The season 3 episode of Teen Wolf, "Motel California" has a cold open that shows a flashback to 1975, when an Argent relative checked into the featured motel of the episode and killed himself before transforming into a werewolf. Newspapers and the dates they display are a recurring theme of this episode, tempting the audience to believe that this episode and the motel itself may actually feature a connection to time-travel and bringing to the table the possibility that Lydia's powers give her the ability to sense death throughout all of time (evidenced by the fact that she heard 2 deaths in the room next door, when the deaths occurred prior to the group's arrival at the motel).
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Newspaper Dating
 Newspaper Dating / int_d98cee6b
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In "Vanishing Act", Trevor McPhee realizes that he has traveled ten years into the future when he sees issues of TIME Magazine and Life dated 1959.
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Newspaper Dating
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In 50 First Dates, a character with short-term memory loss doesn't know what year it is, until she sees a newspaper. This is the result of her father arranging for hundreds of copies of the newspaper from the day of her accident, to keep her from having to deal with it for as long as possible.
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A more short term version appears in Negima! Magister Negi Magi. Chao sends Negi and his friends a week into the future to the point that she has already won the battle. They realize something is up (the massive School Festival has disappeared), but they don't figure out what happened until Yue sees the date on a newspaper. Chisame finds out separately over the internet.
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Fate/type Redline: Kanata Akagi is a boy from 2020 who gets sent to the past. He finds a newspaper that confirms he is in 1945.
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Averted in Star Trek: Voyager. In "Future's End", the ship time traveled back to Earth in 1996, which they find out just by doing an astrometric reading. And in "Fury", having traveled back to a past Voyager, Kes just asks the ship's computer for the date.
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Newspaper Dating
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This shows up in the Charmed episode "That '70s Episode", when the protagonists time-travel back to the 1970s.
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Newspaper Dating
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Around the World in Eighty Days has what might be considered a non-time-travel aversion, in that Phileas Fogg apparently never checks the date on a newspaper after crossing the Pacific. Had he done so he would have realised that he had gained a day after crossing the International Date Line.
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A variation occurs in Field of Dreams, where Ray figures out he's walked back into 1972 by checking the registration date on a Minnesota license plate.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Time's Arrow", Data does this to tell both where and when he is by finding a copy of the San Francisco Register dated August 13, 1893.
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The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Newspaper Dating
processingCategory2
Exposition
 Newspaper Dating
processingCategory2
Narrative Devices
 Newspaper Dating
processingCategory2
Time Travel Tropes
 Dylan Dog (Comic Book) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 The Fifth Act / Fan Fic / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Diamond and Silver's Excellent Adventure (Fanfic) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Fate DxD AU (Fanfic) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 RWBY: Dual Eclipse (Fanfic) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 An Adventure in Space and Time / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Back to the Future / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Back to the Future Part II / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Idiocracy / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Men in Black 3 / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Rewind (2013) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 American Girls Collection / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Back to the Future / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Doctor Who Novelisations / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Life, the Universe and Everything / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Magic 2.0 / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Norby Finds a Villain / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Tempest: A Novel / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The Homeward Bounders / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The S-Classes That I Raised / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The Time Traveler's Wife / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Time Enough for Love / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 To Say Nothing of the Dog / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Voices After Midnight / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Micah
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Newspaper Dating
 Ptitle2f4agitl
seeAlso
Newspaper Dating
 Dazzle (Manga) / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Continuum / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Flander's Company / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 FlashForward (2009) / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Kamen Rider Zi-O / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Mashin Sentai Kiramager / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Mirror, Mirror (1995) / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Quantum Leap / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
 Silverpoint / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Sleepy Hollow / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The Goes Wrong Show / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The Sarah Jane Adventures / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 The Time Tunnel / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
 Timewasters / int_a63b885f
type
Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
 Fate/type Redline / Web Comic / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
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Newspaper Dating
 Immortal Man (Webcomic) / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 Batman: The Brave and the Bold / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 X-Men: The Animated Series / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating
 The Pendragon Adventure / int_a63b885f
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Newspaper Dating