No Time Travel

[Commander Keiran MacDuff]

While there are some superlative time travel episodes (Yesterday's Enterprise, City on the Edge, etc), the theme has pretty much been beaten to death-- so I think this is good news:

"...Fuller seemed to indicate – at least at first – that the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” might be the first live-action season of “Star Trek” NOT to utilize time travel. "I guess [we're not using time travel in season one]?" he laughed. "I'm going through all the plots for this season [in my head] ...""
http://www.aintitcool.com/node/76084

What do you think?

 

[C.E. Evans]

There will be time travel. It's just a question of when, not if. It's a sci-fi idea that is just too tempting for a group of Trek writers to ignore for very long.

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

Time travel is hard to pull off. their have been great episodes and duds, regardless I feel hes going the right direction. The first season of the first star trek series in ten years is not the time to muddy the waters with time travel.

 

[Seven of Five]

Agreed.

I can't help but feel in a future season, they could use it, but I feel with more time to plan episodes, in theory it would be better thought out. Would the time travel just last for one episode, or perhaps a few in this new ongoing format?

 

[Dr. Bashirs protege]

Agreed.

I can't help but feel in a future season, they could use it, but I feel with more time to plan episodes, in theory it would be better thought out. Would the time travel just last for one episode, or perhaps a few in this new ongoing format?

That's the issue, it's been clear for a while this serialized. You can't just drop in a time travel episode randomly and the clean your hands of it for the next episode. It makes no sense. It would need to be a mini arc at the least. Even then, the mini arc has to fit into the general story and advance it. They have 13 episodes, cant be wasting three hours on time travel nonsense that leaves the main story on pause.

 

[Seven of Five]

Maybe at the start of a season they could accidentally travel into the past, and in all the mess trying to get home they could piss off somebody. Enough to make them wait around for the crew to come back to the future and deal with them.

Sounds a bit lame because I'm not a writer, and I think I'm channeling Angel's Holtz storyline where he gets frozen and brought forward in time to wreak vengeance.

But yes I agree with you in general. The time travel would have to be part of the ongoing story, or help to start the story in the first place.

 

[Tim Thomason]

"...Fuller seemed to indicate – at least at first – that the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” might be the first live-action season of “Star Trek” NOT to utilize time travel."

TNG Season 4
DS9 Season 1
DS9 Season 2
DS9 Season 7

 

[Rahul]

I really loved all those "not-really"-time travel episodes of TNG, which have played with the concept of time travel itself, instead of using it as a cheap excuse to do a period piece. "Regular" time travel is pretty boring though...

 

[Commander Keiran MacDuff]

I really loved all those "not-really"-time travel episodes of TNG, which have played with the concept of time travel itself, instead of using it as a cheap excuse to do a period piece. "Regular" time travel is pretty boring though...

Like Inner Light? Definitely!

Another good example of a quasi-time travel episode is the Voyager 2-part "Year of Hell", yes?

 

[Rahul]

Yes, or the one where the Enterprise is in a time-loop and get's repeatedly destroyed. There are actually many possibilites with time travel. I only hate it when it's used as a cheap explanation for a period piece or a "trapped-in-holodeck"-replacement, like DS9 did repeatedly with their "Orb of time" or transporter malfunction...

 

[Greg Cox]

There's also the issue that the Federation didn't "discover" time travel until "The Naked Time" in TOS.

Although I supposed that doesn't necessarily rule out time-travel by means of god-like beings, unique alien artifacts, and so on.

Just no slingshot effects.

 

[Ovation]

There's also the issue that the Federation didn't "discover" time travel until "The Naked Time" in TOS.

Although I supposed that doesn't necessarily rule out time-travel by means of god-like beings, unique alien artifacts, and so on.

Just no slingshot effects.

Temporal Cold War?

 

[Tim Thomason]

There's also the issue that the Federation didn't "discover" time travel until "The Naked Time" in TOS.

Although I supposed that doesn't necessarily rule out time-travel by means of god-like beings, unique alien artifacts, and so on.

Just no slingshot effects.

And, of course, Section 31. I'm sure they're keeping the secrets of time travel from everybody.

 

[Paradise City]

Time travel is absolutely overdone -- yes, yes and yes again. As was the borg, as was the mirror universe.

Not that I'm absolutely categorically opposed to using it again as a device I suppose. But only in a very clever, new and sparing way. i.e no Nazis please. I don't want to see the borg ever again however. That particular dead horse has been pounded into dust.

 

[Ovation]

What about Nazified Borg? Haven't seen that yet.

 

[Paradise City]

What about Nazified Borg?

NO!

 

[Ovation]

Ah, you're no fun.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Time travel has been a staple of Trek from the beginning, and for the most part I've enjoyed Trek's time travel adventures. If Discovery gets a second season, I'm sure they'll dip into that well.

It sounds like Discovery is being visually reimagined at the very least, for fans bothered by such there's Enterprise's time war (not to mention first contact and ripples from the Kelvin timeline split and god-knows what else) as a convenient excuse for any discrepancies.

 

[Guy Gardener]

They head back in time to stop the evil alien warlord David Bowie from destroying Cleveland.

 

[OpenMaw]

Good. Time travel is one of those things you shouldn't do very often unless your show is called Doctor Who.