What story elements would you remove or just forget exist from canon?

[Citiprime]

Time travel is not a bad story idea in and of itself, and Trek has done it well in the past. It's just they ran the idea into the ground, and without clear rules and limits, it diminishes the impact of everything else.

For example, if you make Time Travel too easy to do (like just slingshotting around the Sun, consulting the Orb of Time, or the Borg doing [insert Technobabble] to create a time portal that the Enterprise can duplicate at the end of the movie), then when you're trying to build up the next crisis of galactic survival, the question will be well why not just use time travel to fix it? For example, for the episode where Voyager is transported to 1990s Earth, I kept waiting for a technobabble explanation for why they couldn't just do the slingshot around the sun time travel trick from Voyage Home to get back to 24th century Earth?

Also, Trek has never been consistent about time travel. Does time travel cause the original timeline to change or cease to exist?

• Yes, it does, if you believe TNG's "Yesterday's Enterprise," Star Trek: First Contact, DS9's "Past Tense," or TOS's "City on the Edge of Forever."
• No, it doesn't, if you believe Star Trek (2009), which before anyone starts screaming "well, that's the Kelvin Universe," Spock from the Prime Universe continues to exist and Star Trek: Discovery confirms that the time travel which caused the Kelvin Universe only created a separate parallel universe that sits alongside with the Prime Universe.

The "no" answer becomes a problem, since it neuters the idea that any time travel plot is a "crisis." For example, why do the events of First Contact matter at all? If the Borg travel back to assimilate Earth in the 21st century, it's not "our" Earth or timeline, so there's no chance that "our future's end" is on the line.

 

[publiusr]

No, Picard's affliction was definitely real. It was killing him in PIC season 1.

I might have had his android self de-aged…but we have seen androids built to age naturally on TNG itself.

 

[Finn]

Wasn't that just one of Q's more subtle tricks that his left hand put out, while his right one was guiding him to the reason for the temporal anomaly that led to humanity not being erased from history and all that?

Picard acted like he was already aware of it, like it wasn't news to him, when they were in "present day".

 

[fireproof78]

I might have had his android self de-aged…but we have seen androids built to age naturally on TNG itself.

I mean, wasn't Data and his mom both built exactly that way?

 

[Farscape One]

Yes to both. And presumably Lore, too.

 

[at Quark's]

Agreed that VOYAGER went completely overboard with time travel stories, but TNG did as many as TOS and DS9... combined. They certainly did not avoid time travel.

If you mention episodes such as Tapestry, surely you should also mention DS9's Wrongs Darker than Death or Night . The Sound of her Voice also contains a time travel element even if Our Heroes don't physically travel in time themselves.

That would bring the tallies up to 4 for TOS, 11 for TNG, and 11 for DS9. So, while you most definitely can argue that TNG did not avoid time travel, I don't think it appears that DS9 used it less than TNG.

 

[Farscape One]

If you mention episodes such as Tapestry, surely you should also mention DS9's Wrongs Darker than Death or Night . The Sound of her Voice also contains a time travel element even if Our Heroes don't physically travel in time themselves.

That would bring the tallies up to 4 for TOS, 11 for TNG, and 11 for DS9. So, while you most definitely can argue that TNG did not avoid time travel, I don't think it appears that DS9 used it less than TNG.

I did forget to mention those 2 DS9 ones, so it does affect the count. (And it's 12 TNG episodes, since "All Good Things..." is considered two episodes, production wise... and is split for syndication.)

My original point about TNG not avoiding time travel still stands, though.

 

[mb22]

TOS' "The Naked Time" also had time travel (albeit only going back three days).

 

[Farscape One]

TOS' "The Naked Time" also had time travel (albeit only going back three days).

I had considered adding it to the list. The only reason I didn't include it is because it didn't deal with the story or plot of the episode... it was almost an afterthought, since it was right at the very end.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Xindi-Insectoid?

Beside both species sharing a potentially similar appearance, there was nothing hinting at a potentially similar behavior for this kind of Xindi.

They were even part of the council and cooperated with the others. And techwise they weren't more advanced.

 

[mb22]

I had considered adding it to the list. The only reason I didn't include it is because it didn't deal with the story or plot of the episode... it was almost an afterthought, since it was right at the very end.

Kind of like the 'identical earth' seen at the beginning of "Miri".

 

[Farscape One]

Kind of like the 'identical earth' seen at the beginning of "Miri".

Yes. I always thought that was an idea that begged a revisit.

Is it a constructed planet by some ancient civilization? Is it from a parallel reality that somehow ended up here, like how Meridian on DS9's "MERIDIAN" goes back and forth between dimensions? Are there other identical worlds of other races around? (A copy of Vulcan, Andor, Bajor, etc.?) If not, why just Earth? Is that the real Earth and ours is the copy?

There are so many unanswered questions on something so Earth shattering (yes, that was intentional ) that not following up with any show has been quite a negligence.

 

[Qonundrum]

TNG avoided time travel???? Really??? Let's take a look at TNG episodes that dealt with time travel...

"We'll Always Have Paris"
"Time Squared"
"Yesterday's Enterprise"
"Captain's Holiday"
"A Matter Of Time"
"Cause And Effect"
"Time's Arrow"
"Time's Arrow, Part II"
"Tapestry" (I will admit this could have been a Q fantasy, so this is up in the air.)
"Timescape"
"All Good Things..." (Same as "Tapestry".)


By contrast, TOS...

"TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY"
"THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER"
"ASSIGNMENT: EARTH"
"ALL OUR YESTERDAYS"

And DS9...

"PAST TENSE, PART I"
'PAST TENSE, PART II"
"VISIONARY"
"THE VISITOR"
"LITTLE GREEN MEN"
"ACCESSION"
"TRIALS AND TRIBBLE-ATIONS"
"CHILDREN OF TIME"
"TIME'S ORPHAN"

Agreed that VOYAGER went completely overboard with time travel stories, but TNG did as many as TOS and DS9... combined. They certainly did not avoid time travel.

Oops, my bad - sorry about that: I was ao hyperfocused on the "Let's-go-romp-in-Earth-of-the-past-as-a-destination" trope, rather than playing with time as a concept allows more freedom and fun - per the bulk of those episodes you'd mentioned.

And regarding Picard threatening to disassemble Data, except in "Clues" when he said Starfleet would likely have him stripped to his wires to find the truth, when did he ever threaten Data with such a thing?

Well, it was partial hyperbole... but is it not true that Picard, by extension, represents the face of Starfleet and all the prime directives he is rigid toward? Maybe he's just one or two chainlinks below the Admiral that everyone says represents Starfleet, but is a command figure nonetheless? That said, you're right - is it that far different compared to an undersheriff sending a biological person to the electric chair? (How often does Picard threaten to take a human to an entity where said human would be executed? Apart from "never, not in the 24th century", or at least when the Borg beam on over with a new means to subjugate people faster and it's Picard himself doing the summary act, but the movie was definitely going above and beyond showing how Picard's obsession was consuming him, if that's the case. The net effect is still a little jarring.)

 

[Shat Happens]

not 'would'. I have.

Spock and Number One singing Major General

 

[Richard S. Ta]

I’m maybe a spoilsport but I like the ‘warts and all’ approach to Trek continuity. I wouldn’t change a thing. Even the shitty racist/sexist episodes exist as an artefact of their time. I just let it all be.

 

[Oddish]

Spock and Number One singing Major General

Anyone who can do that song impresses me. I can do its "Pinafore" counterpart easy enough, but Sir Caradoc's and Caracticus's uniform are a little much for me.

 

[Farscape One]

Something that should be erased from the franchise... child Picard demanding to see his 'father', "Now. Now! Now! Now! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!!!"

Unfortunately, you can never unsee that.

 

[Oddish]

That whole problematic episode rates eradication.
- Yet another opportunity for immortality that is regarded as a problem instead of an opportunity. These 24th century folks sure do like getting old and dying...
- Picard, allowed to return to the captain's chair after Borgification and savage Cardassian torture, is bullied out of the captain's chair... because of how he looks.
- Incredible incompetence on the Enterprise's security staff. And even more ineptitude on the part of those who beat them.
- Alexander. As if we needed more reminder that Worf should have replicated a condom in "The Emissary"...

 

[Farscape One]

That whole problematic episode rates eradication.
- Yet another opportunity for immortality that is regarded as a problem instead of an opportunity. These 24th century folks sure do like getting old and dying...
- Picard, allowed to return to the captain's chair after Borgification and savage Cardassian torture, is bullied out of the captain's chair... because of how he looks.
- Incredible incompetence on the Enterprise's security staff. And even more ineptitude on the part of those who beat them.
- Alexander. As if we needed more reminder that Worf should have replicated a condom in "The Emissary"...

Truthfully... yes, that entire episode can be eradicated. I will admit, though, it was the one time TNG casted child actors perfectly. They replicated their adult counterparts flawlessly.

I will disagree about Alexander in that episode, though... he was not insufferable in "Rascals". And he was helpful in getting the ship back.

Though if you need preteens to retake the Federation flagship when trained, experienced, adult officers lost it to a small group of rogue Ferengi to begin with...there's already a deep, deep problem with your situation.

And episode.

 

[Weyoun 251]

Something that should be erased from the franchise... child Picard demanding to see his 'father', "Now. Now! Now! Now! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW! NOW!!!"

Unfortunately, you can never unsee that.

I quite liked that as is spoke to Picard's attitude towards children and how he perceived their "normal" behaviour.