Temporal mechanics and Star Trek
  StillPaisleyCat @   StillPaisleyCat @startrek.website       Posts 178Comments 1,391Joined 2 yr. ago
 StillPaisleyCat @   StillPaisleyCat @startrek.website       Posts 178Comments 1,391Joined 2 yr. ago 
  
 StillPaisleyCat @   StillPaisleyCat @startrek.website     
Posts
 178
Comments
 1,391
Joined
 2 yr. ago
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I wish that McMahon hadn’t done that in Lower Decks and had left TNG Parallels as a one-off.
The thing is that the infinitely expanding manifold of temporal multiverses is a thought experiment in physics that doesn’t really have widespread support in physics. It also is inconsistent with how temporal mechanics are applied throughout the rest of the history of the franchise.
What SNW provides in Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is articulated even more clearly in Prodigy is closer to modern physics theory and is also the only way to make sense of creative choices that Gene Roddenberry dictates for the TNG Pilot ‘Encounter at Farpoint.’
When Roddenberry dictated that TNG would set World War III in the mid 21st century he also dictated that TNG and TOS are in the same timeline. That’s only possible if the franchise goes with the robust River of Time version of the physics that SNW and Prodigy articulated.
That is, there can be major forks or branchings at critical events but the smaller perturbations do not in themselves create new timelines. A Mirror Universe or Kelvin universe can be created but they are limited in number and not infinitely dividing at each and every minor decision point.
Instead, as long as key major events happen and they happen in the same order, then a timeline is preserved. Otherwise, our heros’ actions in saving the continuity WOULD NOT MATTER in any number of episodes and movies because the timeline where they fail would also exist.
So, as long as Cochrane’s ship gets to demonstrate the warp drive at the right moment such that First Contact occurs, then the Prime Timeline is preserved. There are not two parallel ones with and without the Enterprise crew onboard with him or one where the Borg were successful in stopping human contact with Vulcans.
Likewise, there isn’t a TOS version of the timeline where World War III took place at the end of the 20th century after the 1990s Eugenics War. Instead, that event has shifted back and forth in time as the Romulans have attempted to impede human development with temporal incursions and Federation temporal agents have worked to counter them.