There are many different theories on how time travel could work, and many theories about how it works in movies that involve time travel. Almost every movie uses time travel a little differently. And within Star Trek, time travel has worked different ways depending on what episode you are watching. Theyre conflicting and go on a per-episode basis.
The theory of time travel that I like to use is one called the N-Jump, often used to explain Terminator's timeline. An explanation can be found here.
Also, here is a chart I made of three different popular theories of time travel.
In each theory, I included both an overall look at what time looks like from the outside, and one chart showing what the timeline looks like from within it.
Theory one is the N-Jump theory I spoke about, and the one I choose to believe in (in the interest of terminator and Star Trek) simply because it allows non-paradoxial changes without erasing the original timeline from ever existing, and still allowing for the new timeline to be the Prime timeline. The original timeline simply stops "living." Just because youre grandpa died, it does not mean that he NEVER existed. It is the same with that timeline. It did exist. It still happened. It is simply not the one currently active, like you being his living grandson from the same family line.
I choose this one because I dont like the idea of this movie being an "alternate universe" where the original one just keeps going on like nothing happened. Makes it feel less legitimate. It is more like the grandson of the past universe, not an alternate version of it. It eliminates any paradoxes while maintaining one ongoing timeline(albeit several revisions). It makes his fight personal. He isnt fighting to save some alternate-universe kirk, he's fighting because he wants to maintain who Kirk was in the final timeline that results after all of this. Time is 4d, theres more to it than you can see with a 3d point of view.
The second example in the picture gives the theory that most people here on the forums are taking. Each jump creates a new timeline, while the original just keeps going on minus one time traveller who left to another parallel line. That could result in many different timelines, all different form each other. I dont like the idea of this one because then any other timeline from the original one feels less legitimate, like i said. It also means that in our "Prime" timeline, Spock simply dissapears. That is how he ends. Picard goes "WTF whered spock go?" and thats all there is to it. That is depressing. That also makes his mission a lot less personal. He's on a mission to save an alternate universe Kirk, it will mean nothing whatsoever to his own universe (except that he abandoned it).
As for the last theory, it just creates all kinds of messes with paradoxes. Time travel at ALL can often create paradoxes. It's fun for tv and movies (I LOVE back to the future), but if you follow the logic through it just cannot exist without the universe imploding on itself. This single timeline point of view also means that the original timeline CAN be completely ERASED from existance, which I know a lot of trek fans do not want. I did my best representation of the final timeline, but in reality it would be filled with paradoxes making the timeline look more like a circle, unable to continue past a certain point because it keeps feeding back into itself.
Those are my thoughts. Kind of confusing and I probably did a bad job explaining them. I dont mean to step on any of your thoughts, though. You can beleive whatever theory you want to. This is just what I think of them and if you disagree thats fine! This is just what makes me most comfortable with the new movie.
The theory I choose can STILL end in TNG not happening, though. But I assume that Spock in the new movie sets things back on track enough so that hte timeline still follows a similar path as it originally did. Maybe the Enterprise D has blue nacelle caps instead of red, maybe it looked a little sleeker. Maybe the timeline ends up almsot exactly the same. I choose to beleive that TOS, TNG, and others still happen very much like they did when we watched them. There might just be a few technological or cosmetic changes.
Would it really be so bad if the Enterprise D ended up looking like this anyways?
But at the same time, the enterprise refit, A, and B all had no red on them. Maybe htats just a phase the ships went through that the new ship goes through earlier, and it still ends up red just like before.
The theory of time travel that I like to use is one called the N-Jump, often used to explain Terminator's timeline. An explanation can be found here.
Also, here is a chart I made of three different popular theories of time travel.
In each theory, I included both an overall look at what time looks like from the outside, and one chart showing what the timeline looks like from within it.
Theory one is the N-Jump theory I spoke about, and the one I choose to believe in (in the interest of terminator and Star Trek) simply because it allows non-paradoxial changes without erasing the original timeline from ever existing, and still allowing for the new timeline to be the Prime timeline. The original timeline simply stops "living." Just because youre grandpa died, it does not mean that he NEVER existed. It is the same with that timeline. It did exist. It still happened. It is simply not the one currently active, like you being his living grandson from the same family line.
I choose this one because I dont like the idea of this movie being an "alternate universe" where the original one just keeps going on like nothing happened. Makes it feel less legitimate. It is more like the grandson of the past universe, not an alternate version of it. It eliminates any paradoxes while maintaining one ongoing timeline(albeit several revisions). It makes his fight personal. He isnt fighting to save some alternate-universe kirk, he's fighting because he wants to maintain who Kirk was in the final timeline that results after all of this. Time is 4d, theres more to it than you can see with a 3d point of view.
The second example in the picture gives the theory that most people here on the forums are taking. Each jump creates a new timeline, while the original just keeps going on minus one time traveller who left to another parallel line. That could result in many different timelines, all different form each other. I dont like the idea of this one because then any other timeline from the original one feels less legitimate, like i said. It also means that in our "Prime" timeline, Spock simply dissapears. That is how he ends. Picard goes "WTF whered spock go?" and thats all there is to it. That is depressing. That also makes his mission a lot less personal. He's on a mission to save an alternate universe Kirk, it will mean nothing whatsoever to his own universe (except that he abandoned it).
As for the last theory, it just creates all kinds of messes with paradoxes. Time travel at ALL can often create paradoxes. It's fun for tv and movies (I LOVE back to the future), but if you follow the logic through it just cannot exist without the universe imploding on itself. This single timeline point of view also means that the original timeline CAN be completely ERASED from existance, which I know a lot of trek fans do not want. I did my best representation of the final timeline, but in reality it would be filled with paradoxes making the timeline look more like a circle, unable to continue past a certain point because it keeps feeding back into itself.
Those are my thoughts. Kind of confusing and I probably did a bad job explaining them. I dont mean to step on any of your thoughts, though. You can beleive whatever theory you want to. This is just what I think of them and if you disagree thats fine! This is just what makes me most comfortable with the new movie.
The theory I choose can STILL end in TNG not happening, though. But I assume that Spock in the new movie sets things back on track enough so that hte timeline still follows a similar path as it originally did. Maybe the Enterprise D has blue nacelle caps instead of red, maybe it looked a little sleeker. Maybe the timeline ends up almsot exactly the same. I choose to beleive that TOS, TNG, and others still happen very much like they did when we watched them. There might just be a few technological or cosmetic changes.
Would it really be so bad if the Enterprise D ended up looking like this anyways?
But at the same time, the enterprise refit, A, and B all had no red on them. Maybe htats just a phase the ships went through that the new ship goes through earlier, and it still ends up red just like before.
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when the Kelvin is destroyed, the Star Trek Universe we're aware of (which includes TNG DS9 and VOY etc) still exists but Spock has now disappeared from that particular timeline and universe and exists now instead in an alternate universe created by his own time travelling.
