S5E22 'Children of Time' - This is why I can't stand time travel-bs
- Thread starter JamesBondJR
- Start date
But if I remember correctly, ( been like 10 years since i seen the episode) the Defiant wasn't
"protected" from the timeline change, it wasn't temporaly shielded, in mid jump, or back in time, or any other handwaivum of protection.
"protected" from the timeline change, it wasn't temporaly shielded, in mid jump, or back in time, or any other handwaivum of protection.
That's Grandfather, which is different but linked to bootstrap
Gabriel Bell was involved in the Bell Riots. Sisko went back in time and Bell died, Sisko took his place, but the photo was updated.
However we're fairly sure we know that from Sisko's point of view, before he went back in time, the photo was not of Sisko (he'd have noticed the similarity), so in the original timeline Bell didn't die and Sisko didn't cause the bell riots (no bootstrap paradox), but he did change the timeline
There’s one in universe explanation which is a variation of hand of god.
The time police in the 29th century are going around smoothing things over and picking winners and losers.
The Defiant crashing on that planet leads to a Dominion/P’ah Wraith apocalypse? Pick the timeline where it doesn’t crash, problem solved.
Maybe history is literally written by the victors.
The time police in the 29th century are going around smoothing things over and picking winners and losers.
The Defiant crashing on that planet leads to a Dominion/P’ah Wraith apocalypse? Pick the timeline where it doesn’t crash, problem solved.
Maybe history is literally written by the victors.
On the otherhand Sisko being lost in the wormhole inversion in The Visitor may have led to increased tensions with the Klingons, but it prevented the Dominion war entirely.
True. Maybe they were afraid of pissing off the prophets. Or in that future because the war didn’t happen, they never invented ablative armor and Admiral Janeway never went back and dealt a crushing blow to the Borg.
The Defiant’s cloaking device has the habit of creating a neutrino field that prevents timeline changes to the ship, but causes time travel shenanigans...
Wasn’t the first time, wasn’t the last.
Romulan ships have been known to cause spacetime weirdness as well...
How the Romulan Empire doesn’t collapse in on itself like that, no one knows
Wasn’t the first time, wasn’t the last.
Romulan ships have been known to cause spacetime weirdness as well...
How the Romulan Empire doesn’t collapse in on itself like that, no one knows
What consequences should he suffer? He ceased to exist, that seems like a pretty big price to pay for his decision. Regular Odo didn't do anything, so it'd be pretty ripe to blame him for it.
They are not great episodes because of the time travel. The time travel is just another plot device, and a bit overused one at that. The great episodes are great because of their acting, characters, ideas.
(And how can Far Beyond the Stars not be in the list of great time travel episodes??)
Okay, good point.
Apparently you also skipped what I wrote just before I mention the examples, namely: "Of course there is something called suspend of disbelief, but that only works if the rest of the picture contains elements of very high quality. ", as kkt points out on page 2 as well (thank you!).
However, the point was to partly criticize "Children of Time", and partly question time travel as a plot device in general. I could have picked any episode to underline my thoughts, but I chose this one because I had recently seen it and I knew that it is a pretty popular one.
Thank you everyone so far for contributing with your thoughts, even though I'm not the least bit convinced of the alternative explanations as to how the plot makes sense, I still find it makes for good entertainment.
It seems (some) 29th century folks think differently about that (Braxton being relieved of command because his 'future self' committed some crimes).
The society was doomed the moment they made contact with the Defiant. Everything was going to happen differently, people knew their fates, who they ended up with. Different offspring would make different offspring and so on. It's meant to be like Marty McFly fucking up his parents meeting and yet somehow no matter the changes to the timeline they consummate at the exact same point in time of the new timeline as the original. I guess if I liked it more I'd handwave it away but it seems I don't.
Any time travel will change descendants via things like butterfly effect (different sperm reaches the egg etc). The only time travel story I've seen which deals with this is About Time (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/About_Time_(2013_film))
True. In Star Trek IV, the limited interactions that occured (Chekhov's capture, Gillian disappearing, even that punk getting pinched by Spock) would likely have altered history beyond recognition. And are you telling me that Zephram Cochran's crew (killed by the Borg in "First Contact") had no role in history whatsoever?
Time is very durable in "Star Trek".
Time is very durable in "Star Trek".
Last edited:
Spock says it's like a river...
You guys are totally right, of course. I don't know, I think I had a brainfart there.
It's just that revelation that Odo would at some point in his life be able to do something like this is pretty stunning. Thinking about it more, Odo actually did have some rather dubious convictions and did some questionable things. But wiping out all those people from existence? Somehow I feel that goes against his moral core.
I still love “Children of Time” and I think it was an interesting twist to end the episode's fascinating sci-fi dilemma with such a gut punch, but it feels off that Odo would ever do something so reprehensible.
Love and despair for centuries likely changed him in ways we never saw.
