Can Spock return to his timeline?

[darkshadow0001]

I'm wondering, if Nero had the technology to go back in time through a black hole or however he did it, couldn't Old Spock find someway to get back to his original timeline if he wanted to? If any thing that Star Trek has taught us, anything is possible.

I'm only asking because what if Spock didn't want to stay in this alternate universe, because technically his Vulcan is alive and well.

 

[VOODOOXI]

If the writers don't have any use for Nimoy, Spock will find his way back to his original timeline.

My susppicion is that they will keep him around as an Obi-Wan Kenobi type figure in the next couple of films.

 

[Doghead]

I agree with VoodooXI on this in a realpolitik sense. Also given that there is an unholy lend of StarWarsism and Star Trek fannishness behind the scenes, the Obiwank Canhardly analogy may be exactly right- particularly since some of the favorite trek stories of the new makers include the 1970s over the top space opera ones. Fate of the Phoenix and all that. We could be seeing supervillains in Trek take over from the species of the week or the overused Klingons...

 

[Silent_Bob]

The Timeline has been altered, if Spock tried to travel forwards, he would end up in the future of this alternate timeline, not the future he left behind.

 

[kythe]

Either way, I've wondered what will happen to his katra. Now that he is in the new timeline, he cannot return "home" to Vulcan upon his death. This would appear to be a great tragedy for all of the remaining Vulcans, as this situation was portrayed by Star Trek III.

 

[Saga]

maybe if he went through the Guardian of Forever. but what Silent Bob said is correct. just think of the scene in Back to the Future II where Doc explains alternate 1985 to Marty.

 

[darkshadow0001]

The Timeline has been altered, if Spock tried to travel forwards, he would end up in the future of this alternate timeline, not the future he left behind.

Not necessarily. Remember what happened in "Endgame" of Star Trek Voyager.

 

[Joby]

Well if Q showed up, he could take Spock Prime back to the original universe, otherwise I'm not sure how Spock could get back to his reality. Maybey back in the original universe Picard is blaming himself too much for what he thinks is Spock's death, so Q takes Spock back home b/c Q just has a thing for Jean-Luc.

Going forward in time seems like something that wouldn't work, as he's going forward in time from the new reality, but in Star Trek, anything is possible.

 

[JoeZhang]

The Timeline has been altered, if Spock tried to travel forwards, he would end up in the future of this alternate timeline, not the future he left behind.

Not necessarily. Remember what happened in "Endgame" of Star Trek Voyager.

Nobody wants to.

 

[Deks]

I don't think that circumstances that lead to Spock's death in the original time-line will happen in this one.

Remember that the events in this movie took place before TMP events (and the ones that came afterward).
So it's a pretty large assumption that Spock will die or that Khan will be awakened on the Botany bay.
And even if Khan makes a comeback like he did in TOS, who says that the crew that finds him (might not even be the Enterprise) will deal with the situation in an identical fashion?

Also ... even if Vulcan Home-world is destroyed, you only need a Vulcan individual (probably an elder woman that Spock saved to begin with) who would be able to transfer Spock's conscience from Bone's brain into regenerated Spock's.

Plus, do we know that the Feds will develop the Genesis device in this new time-line?

Events were altered ...
Things like V'Ger, the Whale probe and the Borg might still be coming ... BUT, the events that lead to Spock's death in STII?
Possible ... but how likely remains to be seen.

 

[cultcross]

Either way, I've wondered what will happen to his katra. Now that he is in the new timeline, he cannot return "home" to Vulcan upon his death. This would appear to be a great tragedy for all of the remaining Vulcans, as this situation was portrayed by Star Trek III.

IT seemed more that they needed Vulcans rather than Vulcan the place in STIII. But as others have said before, it is very unlikely that the precise set of events which led to Spock's death and rebirth in the Prime timeline will occur again.

 

[gastrof]

The Timeline has been altered, if Spock tried to travel forwards, he would end up in the future of this alternate timeline, not the future he left behind.

Not necessarily. Remember what happened in "Endgame" of Star Trek Voyager.

Nobody in ENDGAME traveled into the future.

Admiral Janeway traveled into the PAST, and successfully CHANGED THAT PAST, getting Voyager home much earlier than had happened in her personal history.

As for Spock going home, I've explained in another thread that this "creating an offshoot timeline" doesn't fly in the Trek universe. If you change the past, you've changed the past.

If the new movie does NOT overwrite the original timeline, then that means Spock and Nero must have ended up in a different reality when they went back in time. A reality that already existed alongside the Trek unverse we already knew.

It would be the past of THAT reailty, THAT universe, that Nero and Spock have interacted with, and changed.

If that's the case, if Spock can determine the quantum reality he came from and find a way to pierce the veil, he CAN go home.

If, however, the movie DOES take place in the Trek universe we've always known, then that universe has been changed, and the future Spock knew is gone.

There'd be nothing for him to go home to. Only a future where a wrinkled Quinto with pointed ears will say "You know...we really don't look exactly alike."

 

[Cdr MacDuff]

He can't, but he won't. Now he knows that when he time travel he can't really go back to HIS timeline. He knows he would only create an parallel alternate timeline. So whats the point?

 

[Deks]

Sling-shot around the sun and end up in the future.
The problematic factor in this equation is the following:
Is the future he came from an alternate reality future or not?
If it is, then he has to find a quantum signature of his own universe and return just after he originally left.
If it's not, then he would only end up in the future of the already changed time-line (unless the events that took place in XI are the ones that happened in the prime-universe to begin with ... which seems unlikely).

 

[gastrof]

He can't, but he won't. Now he knows that when he time travel he can't really go back to HIS timeline. He knows he would only create an parallel alternate timeline. So whats the point?

Spock would be traveling into the future, MacDuff, in trying to go home.

This wouldn't create an alternate timeline. That only happens, supposedly, when you travel into (and change) the PAST.

It doesn't happen that way at all in the "real" Trek universe, however.

 

[Ovation]

He can't, but he won't. Now he knows that when he time travel he can't really go back to HIS timeline. He knows he would only create an parallel alternate timeline. So whats the point?

Spock would be traveling into the future, MacDuff, in trying to go home.

This wouldn't create an alternate timeline. That only happens, supposedly, when you travel into (and change) the PAST.

It doesn't happen that way at all in the "real" Trek universe, however.

It happened several times in the 'real' Trek universe. It happened in Yesterday's Enterprise. It happened in Generations. It happened in Endgame.

 

[Skywalker]

Even if he could return, I kind of get the feeling that he might choose to stay in the new timeline, because the remnants of Vulcan civilization need him more than the Vulcans of his universe.

 

[Cdr MacDuff]

He can't, but he won't. Now he knows that when he time travel he can't really go back to HIS timeline. He knows he would only create an parallel alternate timeline. So whats the point?

Spock would be traveling into the future, MacDuff, in trying to go home.

This wouldn't create an alternate timeline. That only happens, supposedly, when you travel into (and change) the PAST.

It doesn't happen that way at all in the "real" Trek universe, however.

It was only meant as a joke. But the mere fact of going into the past create an alternate timeline. Clearly now if Spock goes into the future, now that Nero changed the timeline (by destroying Vulcan for example), he would go to an alternate future. So my post stand!

But I would go further than this and say that even if Spock, as its usually the case in Trek, would have "protected the timeline" successfully (it was not his goal but bear with me). By killing Nero just before he interact with papa Kirk ships. His mere time travel into the past would have change some molecules or whatever and would in fact have created an alternate timeline. Albeit an almost complete similar one to the original. So if he would go into the future, he would indeed go into an alternate future without realizing it. Possibly because the slight change in molecule (or whatever like the debris of a ship) wouldn't be enough to drastically change the event in the new timeline.

 

[Joby]

Star Trek has never had a book of set rules regarding time travel like the Back to the Future movies or Quantum Leap, those franchises had their time travel coffee and cream set on the table and clearly mapped out for you. Sam Beckett could only travel in his own life time (except a couple of bizzare last season episodes) and he could change the future. Marty McFly could travel into the future and see himself, the DeLorean could travel through time and but not space, i.e. he stayed in Hill Valley but never wound up in China circa 1955. Marty's girlfriend Jennifer who was left in the alternate 1985 created by Biff did not get stuck there, instead the timeline changed around her after Marty and Doc destroyed the almanac in 1955. etc, etc...

Trek on the other hand has had all kinds of weird ways to travel in time. The Guardian of Forever, sling shot around the sun, the Enterprise-E creating a time travel hole from Borg technolgy, Q zapping you around anywhere you want, and a whole bunch of other crap I'm too tired to list. Did they EVER stick to the rules? Bones mused about altering the future by giving Dr. Nichols the formula for transparent aluminum in TVH, but after Scotty basically says "who the hell cares?", McCoy caves in. Point being is that I can't understand why anyone is trying to justify whether this is an alternate reality or not when Trek has never had firm, established rules regarding time travel. Time travel in Trek has always been what fits the script.

 

[cultcross]

If, however, the movie DOES take place in the Trek universe we've always known, then that universe has been changed, and the future Spock knew is gone.

There'd be nothing for him to go home to. Only a future where a wrinkled Quinto with pointed ears will say "You know...we really don't look exactly alike."

That possibility however opens up a grandfather paradox which blows the whole thing up in our faces - if that future never happened in any universe, Prime Spock didn't go to Romulus and get sent back in time with the Narada, so time wasn't changed, so they did go to Romulus and get sent back in time, so they did change history, so they didn't go back in time....
repeat until insane.