Many times Star Trek has taken us to the future only to reset the status quo at the end of the story arc. Tapestry (but in reverse?), that time Voyager crashed in the ice, and all that.
How likely is it that Discovery went to a mutable future, just one of many, especially with the Temporal Cold War, Carl, Q, Trelane, Janeway, the HMS Bounty, and any number of other temporally active agents out there in time? How locked in is the 32nd Century?
- Value Subtracted ( @ValueSubtracted@startrek.website ) English12•4 months ago
It’s probably just as “locked” as any other time period, which is to say not at all. Recent SNW episodes have hammered home the idea that the present, past, and future are all somewhat malleable.
- gregorum ( @gregorum@lemm.ee ) English4•4 months ago
We now know when, where, and how the burn happens. Therefore, it can be prevented.
- sarchar ( @sarchar@programming.dev ) English3•4 months ago
They were destined to go to the future, learn about the burn, return and prevent it. The burn was never going to happen.
- Zagorath ( @Zagorath@aussie.zone ) English3•4 months ago
Voyager Before and After pretty specifically tells us that whenever someone jumps in time, the fact that they have done so, and the actions that they take, affect the timeline. Any time time travel is involved, we are seeing only one possible timeline, not necessarily the timeline.
Of course, it’s easier to use that reasoning in an episode like Before and After, because the time travel involved is backwards, but I think it’s reasonable to assume it’s true the other way, too. After all, the Kelvinverse isn’t identical to the Prime timeline even before the Narada arrived.
- theinspectorst ( @theinspectorst@kbin.social ) 3•4 months ago
But removing Discovery from the timeline seems to be consistent with the prime timeline post-Discovery season 2 (in TOS etc) - e.g. Spock not talking about his human adopted sister, no further use of spore drives, and so on. It’s certainly explicitly the timeline of SNW (which makes multiple references to the events of Discovery s2) and therefore the timeline of Lower Decks.
That suggests the prime timeline as we know it is an altered timeline caused by Discovery’s jump to the future.
- Zagorath ( @Zagorath@aussie.zone ) English2•4 months ago
I just happened to be watching that episode of Voyager when I came across this post, so it was currently front-of-mind for me.
- Samus Crankpork ( @Crankpork@beehaw.org ) English2•4 months ago
Kelvinverse was different from the Prime timeline before the Narada arrived because people past that point might not travel backwards in time the same way they would have without intervention.
- f00f/eris ( @ipacialsection@startrek.website ) English1•4 months ago
It’s just a future, and can be changed. I’m not aware of any objective in-universe measure of what is and isn’t the prime timeline, it’s really just what the writers choose to depict as such, which events are altered by time travelers and which ones stand. Since we’ve seen a full two seasons in this version of the 32nd century, it’s more likely that future shows will try to keep consistent with it, but it’s also possible they’ll be “retconned” into an “alternate reality”.