Ranking My Top 3 Favorite Historical Time- Travel K-Dramas

After rewatching Faith aka The Great Doctor (back then kdramas used to have two different names, sometimes), I realized I still loved the drama, and decided to make a list of my favorite Time Travel K-dramas.

So let's get right into it.

3. Bon Appetite Your Majesty (2025)- BAYM

An elite chef accidentally time travels to the Joseon era via an old recipe journal. There she meets a tyrant King who forces her to become his chef.

If you're an anime fan and you love Food Wars/Shokugeki No Soma style food-gasm sequences, you're going to love this k-drama.

Bon Appetite Your Majesty has an incredibly strong start, it hooks viewers with it's comedy, action, cooking focus, political intrigue, and swoonworthy romance scenes, but it falls behind the other 2 K-dramas I have in mind for one reason and one reason alone.

The logic:

As mentioned before, the story starts off with the Main Character teleporting through the King's Recipe Journal, but since the actual King she meets isn't a magician or some kind of summoner the story stops making sense, and starts to feel like one of those cosmic rabbit hat tricks stories, where everything is supposed to be random fate and we're handed a random happy ending. It completely broke my immersion. Don't get me wrong I was relieved that the story ended positively, but I was left with lots of questions as to how the King lived while separated from the Chef. It's a ending that is definitely for viewers who love happy endings over realistic ones.

I know I complained just now, but I do love BAYM. Some scenes still live rent free in my head, like the iconic "I wish I had a gun so I could shoot him!" scene.

BAYM is one of those dramas where you sit down with your family member during dinner time and just watch, totally and completely invested, swooning, cackling, when you finish the show it'll feel like an era has ended. Or at least that's what it felt like for me.

Leave a comment and share your own experience!

2. Faith/The Great Doctor (2012)

A Captain of the King's Royal Guard travels to present day South Korea, kidnaps a competent plastic surgeon and drags her back to the past to save the dying Queen. It's a medical drama with a heavy focus on political intrigue, action, historical fantasy and tragedy. The rest of the sauce contains a slow burn romance, and comedy.

Some part of me actually wanted to put this drama at #1.

Why? Once again, the logic. It makes sense.

From the very beginning we're introduced to the story's logic. Heaven's Gate- a wormhole or portal that opens up on select days within a year, decades, centuries later or whatever depending on the celestial bodies blah blah blah. It teleports anyone who passes through to "Heaven" - which is the future, in this case. Towards the end of the drama we learn that it does not let greedy people pass through the portal, making it truly seem divine, and making the main characters feel like a fated pair.

Another reason is the realism.

We've seen it all before with time travel or Isekai dramas, the protagonist's mind starts to split as they come to terms with their reality being something they didn't expect. Most protagonists typically recover or warm up to their new world, but nope, not ours, our plastic surgeon just wants to go home, finding her new reality an inconvenience, annoying those around her in the process. She only warms up to the possibility of staying after she falls in love with The Captain.

She might seem whiny but the things she complains about- not being fed, not being able to take a bath for days, always being bossed around and never given an explanation- are all understandable and something I'd complain about too if it were me. That said, she is a chatterbox/quirky nerd type of character for sure so she may either seem annoying or funny for some.

I also appreciated that we see the difference between modern day mentality and the mentality of the people from the past who are more submissive, trusting and need less explanation. It makes modern people seem selfish and self-serving in comparison and made me reflect on the values of modern day people compared to those of the past. Ancient people don't complain if they are mistreated, don't get to eat, sleep, etc. They're all about that duty.

As for our protagonist, she will not hesitate to say she is being mistreated, or if she was being fed better at the Villain's house than at the palace, haha.

I'd also like to note that Faith has three protagonists.

1. The King

2. The Captain

3. The female plastic surgeon from modern day

If I had to decide who's the MAIN main character it's definitely the Captain, still I'll be referring to #3 as our protagonist since she's the main female lady and the story focuses on her more heavily.

Another thing I liked about the realism here is that the story has a historical fantasy setting. Talented martial artists like The Captain, the Villain and his minions have special elemental abilities and seem to lean into that Chinese Wuxia/Xmen like theme. That said not everyone is a martial artist, there's a lot of ordinary people around, making both The Captain and the Villains feel dangerous when necessary. It also makes scenes more nerve-racking when the Captain isn't around to save the day.

I also appreciated the show's slowburn romance, there are many different types of love dynamics, and we don't see slow burns as often, but they feel realistic and more satisfying than an instant connection and romance. At the very beginning you could kinda tell The Captain was interested in the Doctor way before he seemed to even be aware of it himself. I also liked that they weren't flat out lovey dovey, they developed a friendship over time, learning to trust each other, we also got to witness moments of quiet intimacy that you don't get to see as often in other shows or dramas.

Which made this drama's romance incredibly refreshing for me.

I also loved the Sound Effects & Direction: Specifically the action sequences, it didn't always show the hit, we just hear the sound effect so we can tell what's happening even if we don't see. The soundtrack also has its own iconic theme sound that makes the listener reminiscent of oldies anime, and cheesy crime fighter dramas. Once you hear those two signature sound tracks come out you already know what time it is and get hyped even before you see what happens.

1. Scarlet Heart Ryeo: Moonlight Lovers (2016)

After seeing me gush about Faith you might be curious as to why Moonlight Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo wins.

Our protagonist is a modern day women who saves a kid from drowning. Suddenly the moon shows up midday and she feels herself getting pulled down into the water. She resurfaces in a bathing pool in ancient Goryeo transmigrated into the body of a woman who resembles a younger version of herself.

Now while you don't completely understand the story's logic you understand it's related to the moon, and water being the portal- somewhere in the back of your mind you've heard that kind of talk about moon tides and other mystical stuff being a thing so you can accept it - or maybe you're not like me, hasn't read the same stuff and are completely confused then it will seem illogical and you'd still be right. Still, we can also gather that her consciousness has likely transmigrated into the body of her ancestor, or possibly her first life.

I rank Scarlet Heart Ryeo as #1 for its plot. It's too immersive to fall behind Faith. And it does have a mystical logic at play so it doesn't fall behind Bon Appetite Your Majesty.

Moonlight Lovers: Scarlet Heart Ryeo is a beautiful but tragic tale, I always like to say it's a show that rips your heart out and leaves it on the table, beating still. The show's first season does not end happily. You are going to end up bawling your eyes out at the start, in the middle, and at the end, You may need to take a break from historical k-dramas for a while and try to watch something more light hearted and fun. But some of you may not regret watching this show, you'll regret it not getting another season.

The Chinese original does have a second season though and it makes the heart break you feel kinda worth it once you realize that in present day they do meet again, but they've got their own stuff going on, which makes the first life/ancestor theory feel more plausible.

So yeah, expect heavy political intrigue, tragedy, comedy and romance. It's dynamic happening where our protagonist ends up befriending most but not ALL of the Princes, falling in love with one, and developing a strong friendship with the bloody black sheep of the family. These two relationships eventually becomes a love triangle... I call it that but it's more like she's maturing and shedding one relationship for another.

The reason why the show hits viewers so hard is because of the harsh lessons packed within each traumatic incident. I'll try not to spoil too much but for example, when the lover of our protagonist fails to step up and take her side, it's the Prince no one expected- the Prince she developed the friendship with who takes her side to shield her from the cold wind and rain while she's kneeling.

The scene teaches us not to be fooled by words but to pay close attention to the actions of those who claim to love you. When in time of trouble, when on the verge of risking death, will they still stand with you?

In a single move our Prince, Wang So quietly and powerfully seduces all viewers watching.

He didn't need to say anything to her, all he had to do was show up and stand with her. Something so small and so simple, comforting her in one of her darkest moments.

He may not have been the guy she wanted or needed, but he's still the one who loved her enough to risk upsetting his Father and showing up.

Lots of painful lessons are packed within the show, that teaches us palace life is not glamorous it is miserable and ROUGH, filled with danger and shenanigans lurking around every corner. Escaping the palace becomes something you wish the characters can accomplish instead of any of the Princes becoming King, but due to everything that happens you understand why they want to become King, one reason being to protect the main character.

This brings my list to an end.

Did you have any personal favorites on this list?

What were your favorite moments from these dramas?

If you're new did you watch it and what did you think?

Please feel free to let me know your thoughts down in the comments!