The Temporal Cold War in Enterprise and franchise continuity

[Matthew Raymond]

Many people have the opinion that Enterprise, and then later Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, created a lot of violations of previous continuity. Some, for example, would say that Discovery isn't actually in the Prime timeline. However, perhaps there's a more subtle way to deal with inconsistencies between older and newer series. Perhaps the differences are the result of the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise. Temporal agents from the future would have gone back in time to restore the timeline to the best of their abilities, so the events of all shows before Enterprise would have generally happened the same way, but certain details might be impossible to fix completely, resulting in many small discrepancies. The result is a sort of "Cold War Prime" timeline where minor differences exist, but the overall chain of events is the same. The Kelvin timeline would actually be a branch off the Cold War Prime timeline rather than the original Prime timeline.

Anyways, just a thought. Does this work for fixing most issues in continuity between older and newer series?

 

[fireproof78]

Anyways, just a thought. Does this work for fixing most issues in continuity between older and newer series?

For me, generally, yes.

 

[Dukhat]

I appreciate your zeal, but for me, I don’t need any convoluted explanations to justify my belief that DSC is a reboot. It just is.

 

[Spot261]

Seems reasonable.

Ok, canon problems solved.

 

[fireproof78]

Seems reasonable.

Ok, canon problems solved.

Finally.

 

[Lord Garth]

I blame everything on the Temporal Cold War. When in doubt, that's my out. It even rhymes.

Gabrielle Burnham is someone else I blame. You just can't go wrong with time travel.

 

[The Wormhole]

Or you could just not worry about continuity. Just a thought.

 

[1001001]

Or you could just not worry about continuity. Just a thought.

 

[somebuddyX]

All the previous shows had just as much inconsistencies with each other and even themselves and no Temporal Cold War will explain any of that. There's no point sweating the small details. If the stories and acting are good I couldn't care less.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Many people have the opinion that Enterprise, and then later Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, created a lot of violations of previous continuity. Some, for example, would say that Discovery isn't actually in the Prime timeline. However, perhaps there's a more subtle way to deal with inconsistencies between older and newer series. Perhaps the differences are the result of the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise. Temporal agents from the future would have gone back in time to restore the timeline to the best of their abilities, so the events of all shows before Enterprise would have generally happened the same way, but certain details might be impossible to fix completely, resulting in many small discrepancies. The result is a sort of "Cold War Prime" timeline where minor differences exist, but the overall chain of events is the same. The Kelvin timeline would actually be a branch off the Cold War Prime timeline rather than the original Prime timeline.

Anyways, just a thought. Does this work for fixing most issues in continuity between older and newer series?

Yeah. I think it's even a very good way to explain differences in plot and lore of the early seasons of TOS and TNG (aka early installment weirdness) imo.

 

[Michael]

There have always been those pesky “It's not real Trek!” discussions in fandom, most commonly when a new version of Trek was premiering. But when Enterprise aired and introduced their “Temporal Cold War” and then later when Star Trek (2009) firmly established an alternative timeline, it completely soured the discourse among fans. What the writers intended as clever plot elements is now mostly used to discount and disparage a version of Trek you don't like. It has become a way to say that a version of Trek somehow doesn't “count”. Star Trek fans can be a pathetic, childish bunch of people.

 

[Lord Garth]

When I was watching ENT a few months ago, I remember Archer telling Daniels to leave him out of anything else with the Temporal Cold War (or something to that effect) and my thought was, "I'm with you. However it turns out, I don't want to know!" Crazy, wild time-antics with butterfly effects no doubt.

When it came to the Temporal Cold War, the only thing I really cared about was when Daniels took Archer to the 31st Century. At which point my mind instantly perked up and thought, "Is there something I should look out for as a Discovery fan, given this isn't too far off from when the third season will be set?" Then Daniels said, "This isn't the way I remember it!" Then I thought, "Okay. I guess not... "

 

[Tim Thomason]

I blame everything on the Temporal Cold War. When in doubt, that's my out. It even rhymes.

Gabrielle Burnham is someone else I blame. You just can't go wrong with time travel.

I blame Lazarus

 

[Spot261]

When I was watching ENT a few months ago, I remember Archer telling Daniels to leave him out of anything else with the Temporal Cold War (or something to that effect) and my thought was, "I'm with you. However it turns out, I don't want to know!" Crazy, wild time-antics with butterfly effects no doubt.

When it came to the Temporal Cold War, the only thing I really cared about was when Daniels took Archer to the 31st Century. At which point my mind instantly perked up and thought, "Is there something I should look out for as a Discovery fan, given this isn't too far off from when the third season will be set?" Then Daniels said, "This isn't the way I remember it!" Then I thought, "Okay. I guess not... "

ISWYDT

 

[marlboro]

Future Guy should have been a Romulan. Give him multiple objectives: using the Enterprise to defeat the Sphere Builders, using the Suliban to weaken the Klingons, and giving future tech to the Romulan Empire in order to win the Earth-Romulan War.

You give the series a Big Bad for four seasons (hopefully more) and you explain away a lot of continuity issues like the things that conflict with Balance of Terror.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Are you suggesting that Future Guy is CGI young Mark Leonard, as the Romulan Commander from Balance of Terror?

 

[marlboro]

"We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform...to go back in time and fuck with Scott Bakula."

 

[Farscape One]

ISWYDT

What does that stand for?

 

[Lord Garth]

What does that stand for?

I See What You Did There

 

[Ralphis]

Many people have the opinion that Enterprise, and then later Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard, created a lot of violations of previous continuity. Some, for example, would say that Discovery isn't actually in the Prime timeline. However, perhaps there's a more subtle way to deal with inconsistencies between older and newer series. Perhaps the differences are the result of the Temporal Cold War in Enterprise. Temporal agents from the future would have gone back in time to restore the timeline to the best of their abilities, so the events of all shows before Enterprise would have generally happened the same way, but certain details might be impossible to fix completely, resulting in many small discrepancies. The result is a sort of "Cold War Prime" timeline where minor differences exist, but the overall chain of events is the same. The Kelvin timeline would actually be a branch off the Cold War Prime timeline rather than the original Prime timeline.

Anyways, just a thought. Does this work for fixing most issues in continuity between older and newer series?

Yes, absolutely.

You take the "alternate reality created by time travel that doesn't erase the previous timeline" idea presented in Star Trek '09; mix it with the multiverse showcased in TNG's Parallels and referenced in DSC's Into the Forest I Go, Despite Yourself, and What's Past Is Prologue, the possibilities are endless. I've wished for a long time that Star Trek would utilize its "already existing in canon" multiverse in the way that DC Comics has used theirs. It might seem like a cop-out to some, but I think it would help the franchise out.

Yeah, of course, it's probably better to just not think about all this stuff and just enjoy ENT & DSC and any other future prequel/interquel/reboot-prequel hybrid/prebootquel for what they are, and not judge it for looking more advanced than previous works that are chronologically set after it. But that ain't happening... not with this fan base.