The Department of Temporal Investigations.

[Silversmok3]

What is it?I've heard references to this agency time and again in several Trek books and shows/movies,but none of it has any info regarding the actual agency.

What do they do?Is it just a punitive bureaucracy that slaps the hands of captains who feel the need to hit rewind on the timeline?Is it an actual agency with arrest powers and agents who actively change the timeline?

[M]

Silversmok3 wrote:

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What is it?

It was a joke for the DS9 episode Trials And Tribble-ations. And nothing more.

[Silversmok3]

But in the new book Full Circle,it references Voyager having been stripped of its phase torpedos and ablative armor on the orders of the DTI.

I know books aren't 'canon' per se,but think about it-if you have several ships capable (in theory) of time travel,its a good idea to have someone around to prevent that.

[DS9forever]

Since we are unlikely to ever see the 24th century again, the novels should be considered canon.

[captcalhoun]

the DTI investigates instances of time-travel and charges people if they're found to have done wrong.

[Sci]

Silversmok3 wrote:

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What is it?I've heard references to this agency time and again in several Trek books and shows/movies,but none of it has any info regarding the actual agency.

What do they do?Is it just a punitive bureaucracy that slaps the hands of captains who feel the need to hit rewind on the timeline?Is it an actual agency with arrest powers and agents who actively change the timeline?

It's a civilian department in the Federation government with authority over temporal anomalies and incursions. It's the body that regulates the use of time travel technology and temporally dislocated technology.

Dulmer and Lucsley from "Trials and Tribble-ations" in DS9 were part of DTI.

At least one Strange New Worlds story established that DTI maintains a sophisticated computer network that utilizes chroniton radiation to shield the records from changes in the timeline, with which DTI agents detect time travel and then correct it.

It's not just a bureaucracy for the sake of bureaucracy; it actually does stuff. Whether DTI is its own executive agency within the Federation government, complete with its own Secretary of Temporal Investigations who serves in the Cabinet, or whether it's a division of another Federation executive agency (presumably the Department of Justice) is as yet unestablished in the novels.

[cultcross]

Dulmer and Lucsly. Temporal Investigations.

Your thread makes mention of things we'd rather remain... out of the public eye for now.



You saw nothing.

[Navaros]

NCC-1701 wrote:

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It was a joke for the DS9 episode Trials And Tribble-ations. And nothing more.

It wasn't presented in the episode as a joke in the Universe itself. Rather, it was presented as a real agency that actually exists in the Trek Universe.

As for what it does, not much is known about that since the novels are not canon and hence none of any of their content is applicable, and it received minimal screen-time.

I got the impression from the tone of the DS9 episode that they do indeed have arrest powers; otherwise it wouldn't make nearly so much sense for the whole crew to be fretting about their appearance.

[The_Beef]

Seems a bit pointless considering that any such department would be subject to the same changes to the timeline as anybody else and thus can't really do anything to maintain the real timeline because. . .well, what is the real timeline?

[M]

Navaros wrote:

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It wasn't presented in the episode as a joke in the Universe itself. Rather, it was presented as a real agency that actually exists in the Trek Universe.

Well duh, really? I know that much. What I tried to say is that it was merely meant as a joke by the writers. There didn't really went much thought into that beyond "let's invent this angency as a plot point for our story and get a few laughs out of those two agents". (Which worked magnificently, if you ask me.)

In my opinion it were Voyager and later Enterprise (not Deep Space Nine) who, with their invention of the Temporal Integrity Commission, took the real life implications of time travel way too seriously. If time travel really was possible, I very much doubt there would be any such agency.

[Sci]

Navaros wrote:

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As for what it does, not much is known about that since the novels are not canon and hence none of any of their content is applicable, and it received minimal screen-time.

Why can't we include non-canonical information? Canonical information can be contradicted by new canonical information, too (James R. Kirk to James T. Kirk, the lack of any reference to the NX-01 in previous Trek productions, etc.), so who is that any different from non-canonical info?

NCC-1701 wrote:

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In my opinion it were Voyager and later Enterprise (not Deep Space Nine) who, with their invention of the Temporal Integrity Commission, took the real life implications of time travel way too seriously. If time travel really was possible, I very much doubt there would be any such agency.

Are you kidding me? Of course there would be an agency to try to monitor and control instances of time travel. That sort of technology would be incredibly dangerous. Hell, you can't drive a car without dealing with a government agency trying to regulate your driving -- you think they'd let people be able to change history without trying to control that sort of technology?

[Silversmok3]

^^^Indeed.

If DTI has arrest powers,it would have an almost 'precrime' M.O: arresting or detaining individuals who technically are not guilty of a crime in the case of future timeline violations.

And how can they determine a timeline violation has occurred?

[M]

Sci wrote:

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Are you kidding me? Of course there would be an agency to try to monitor and control instances of time travel. That sort of technology would be incredibly dangerous.

Which is why I think there wouldn't be any agency. The technology is so dangerous, that I think, if it would really work, there would be some maniacs travelling back in time and changing history to their liking. Of course they'd get rid of any such agency first.

[Aquehonga]

The DTI was featured on-screen primarily in DS9's "Trials & Tribble-ations". Agents Dulmer & Lucsly were the only DTI folks ever shown on screen to my knowledge.

DTI, Dulmer & Lucsly, were the focus of my favorite TrekLit story, "Gods, Fate, & Fractals" by William Leisner. This short story is in Strange New Worlds II.

If you love stories about time travel &/or alternate realities, like I do, "Gods, Fate, & Fractals" is a must-read.

[Praetor]

DS9forever wrote:

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Since we are unlikely to ever see the 24th century again, the novels should be considered canon.

No!

Sci wrote:

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At least one Strange New Worlds story established that DTI maintains a sophisticated computer network that utilizes chroniton radiation to shield the records from changes in the timeline, with which DTI agents detect time travel and then correct it.

I don't really seeing them monitoring or correcting anything. I see them more plausibly as a branch of whatever the Federation equivalent of the FBI is that investigates any Starfleet officer or civilian involved in time travel (hopefully few and far between) to determine (1) what changes resulted from it and (2) whether the involved personnel should be the subject of a court-martial.

NCC-1701 wrote:

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What I tried to say is that it was merely meant as a joke by the writers. There didn't really went much thought into that beyond "let's invent this agency as a plot point for our story and get a few laughs out of those two agents". (Which worked magnificently, if you ask me.)

I agree that they probably didn't put much deep thought into it at the time. Their names were Dulmer and Lucsly, after all.

In my opinion it were Voyager and later Enterprise (not Deep Space Nine) who, with their invention of the Temporal Integrity Commission, took the real life implications of time travel way too seriously. If time travel really was possible, I very much doubt there would be any such agency.

...which ultimately calls into question the IMO rather unrealistic over-depiction of time travel in 'Star Trek' where such an agency can exist.

"There... are... FOUR! LIGHTS!"