Episode of the Week : Tomorrow Is Yesterday

[Mytran]

I trust the actual belching of the "phased matter stream" to our regular realm only takes a fraction of a second.

So the dumping of the individual on target is near instantaneous, and the rest of the "done sparklin'" is a mostly self sustaining process? Sure, why not?

There still remains a timeline where the Enterprise was spotted, although now parallel with one where she wasn't.

Except that the timeline where a pilot and guard were abducted by a UFO now has no way of getting started - its reason for existing was severed when Enterprise(2)'s transporter beam distracted Captain Christopher at the crucial moment. With no way of getting starting, I believe that the other timeline ceased to be. In fact it's likely that both Christopher and the guard were quantum-waveformed out of existence as soon as they left the protection of the timewarp - using the Transporter to get them off the ship was merely a convenience.

 

[Timo]

So the dumping of the individual on target is near instantaneous, and the rest of the "done sparklin'" is a mostly self sustaining process? Sure, why not?

I just think a prolonged transition from one realm to another would be deadly to the user, especially at the modes where the user keeps on moving throughout the (still multi-second-long) process.

As for the second thing, makes a lot of sense that way.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Vandervecken]

I'm way in the minority here, b/c it has always been a "meh" for me. Not bad, but not one I'd choose to watch.

I'm with you. Meh for me.

Also, one of Kirk's more obviously dumb-bunny decisions. Your chief science officer--Spock!--has just warned you that using a tractor beam on the plane could destroy it. You do it anyway. Duh. Hope Spock noted that in his official log.

But, on the other hand, Spock fell down on this one: he was concerned about a plane-launched nuke missile? The only plane-launched nukes at that time were bombs, they could go in only one direction, and it ain't the Enterprise's. The US air force didn't have plane-launched missile delivery system nukes until 1980 (the AGM-86B). The Enterprise's computer's library should have definitely contained that information.

 

[Marsden]

1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

 

[ZapBrannigan]

But, on the other hand, Spock fell down on this one: he was concerned about a plane-launched nuke missile? The only plane-launched nukes at that time were bombs, they could go in only one direction, and it ain't the Enterprise's. The US air force didn't have plane-launched missile delivery system nukes until 1980 (the AGM-86B). The Enterprise's computer's library should have definitely contained that information.

I think even Spock can be forgiven for not having time to look things up during an emergency. And don't forget, "Space Seed" and "Assignment: Earth" both mention that historical records from the period are incomplete.

What I like is the sci-fi foresight in this episode regarding stealth technology. The shields absorb or deflect radar, making the ship invisible to NORAD. I'd guess that very few laymen were thinking of radar-defeating stealth concepts in the mid-60s. The Pentagon and CIA were hard at work on stealth at that time, but back in those days they were able to keep a few things secret, and we never heard about it.

 

[Vandervecken]

1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

Huh. I stand corrected! Looks like Spock was right again. Still--1.5 kilotons isn't a lot, as far as nukes go. I'm sure they'd rather not be hit by one, but I have trouble believing that this was a bigger threat than, say, one of Nomad's energy bursts.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

1958.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie

Huh. I stand corrected! Looks like Spock was right again. Still--1.5 kilotons isn't a lot, as far as nukes go. I'm sure they'd rather not be hit by one, but I have trouble believing that this was a bigger threat than, say, one of Nomad's energy bursts.

When your shields are down, getting hit with a 1.5 kiloton nuclear missile will definitely rattle the china.

I think the bigger lesson here is that Spock was right. Why do we ever doubt him? And this bboard is great, with all our POVs getting pooled. I learn stuff frequently.

 

[Mytran]

...about the "reintegration" of people...the knowledge and experiences of the older Captain Christopher is gone forever. To me, that means the older version is DEAD

So, if you hit your head and suffer amnesia, you're DEAD?

In a sense, yes: the person that experienced those events no longer exists; that version of you is gone. But I prefer the more dramatic (and less wordy)

<-<-<DEAD!!!>->->

But that's just me

This is what I think the final version of things would be:
The air force radar detects the Enterprise and they send the fighters to investigate, Christopher catches a glimpse of something and it's gone. He returns to base and they forget about it.
The Seargent is walking in the hall at night doing his rounds, checks on a sound and keeps going.

Except that the sound the guard heard was caused by Kirk breaking in. However, this is a flaw of the episode, not your theory. Maybe there was an especially large and heavy mouse about that night?

The only loose thread remaining is the other Enterprise. Yep, the one that didn't crush the plane with its (ill advised) tractor beam, didn't indulge in espionage and didn't capture two twentieth century humans. Instead, it spent the time repairing the damaged ship, then (presumably) slingshotted round the sun and returned to it's own time.

Right?

So, where is it?

I'm sorry to say I think it met its demise in a similar way to Future-Christopher and Future-Guard. There was already a slingshot timewarp present in Sol from our own Enterprise, leading from the timeline which no longer had any reason to function (since the events which caused its creation were erased).

It is my sad belief that the non-abducting Enterprise got drawn into this (now defunct) timeline through the timewarp and ceased to exist along with the rest of this unsustainable branch of creation.

But as Timo said upthread, it's not our crew's job to guard ALL realities, is it?

 

[Timo]

Huh. I stand corrected! Looks like Spock was right again.

Let's not forget that this is a parallel Earth in many respects, different from ours. Several real but failed missile projects of the time featured fission tips, on both sides of the Atlantic. Many may have been completed on that Earth that weren't on ours. And some may have been heftier than others.

One wonders how powerful the nuclear explosive in "Balance of Terror" was, and whether the ship's shields were up or down at the time. (Curiously, "Balance of Terror" never mentions shields, other than the physical ones protecting the asteroid forts.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Push The Button]

Futurama dealt with this problem by suggesting that there could never be two time-shifted versions of yourself existing in the same moment of time, that the universe would find a way to destroy one of your versions to set everything right. So perhaps there could never be two versions of Christopher and the sergeant once they left the Enterprise's "time bubble" via the transporter, one version would cease to exist, presumably the one from the future that didn't belong in that time.

 

[Mytran]

Hey, Futurama agrees with me, awesome!

Actually, it's a good job (as per my theory) that the second Enterprise ends up in the defunct timelines, otherwise there'd be a serious imbalance in the number of Enterprises arriving in the 23rd Century - and the outcome (in the Vindictive Futurama Universe theory) would likely be bloody.

 

[Marsden]

Well, I've been told the paradoxes largely work themselves out. So there's that.


I was wondering if maybe Christopher or the Sargent might remember in the form of dreams, like Kirok did his past life.

So, I'm still not saying <<DEAD!>> just combined, or reintegrated.


This is fun, banging out semantics about a 48ish year old episode like we're really going to make some kind of breakthrough in understanding temporal mechanics.
I love Star Trek.

 

[BillJ]

This is fun, banging out semantics about a 48ish year old episode like we're really going to make some kind of breakthrough in understanding temporal mechanics.
I love Star Trek.

 

[Mytran]

This is fun, banging out semantics about a 48ish year old episode like we're really going to make some kind of breakthrough in understanding temporal mechanics.
I love Star Trek.

Same for me too
What I really like is that I'm actually seeing ways to make sense of the very confusing end of this episode!

Would Captain Christopher and the guard ever dream of these events? Maybe, I suppose it depends on where the human mind drifts off to when asleep: Can it cross dimensions of reality? <insert Twilight Zone music>

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Regarding the transporter solution to get rid of Christopher and the sergeant, I wonder what theory the writer (DC Fontana), director, and producers espoused. I've stated what I think "must have happened," but no one was talking about pattern buffers etc. until the TNG era.

 

[Timo]

I doubt there would have been a theory involved. It would simply sound sufficiently good that the two get returned to their time somehow, and the rest could be covered by one of the buzzwords. This time, they used both "warp drive" and "transporter", but they could also have said that the "computer" did it, or the "medical tricorder", or perhaps the "tractor beam" or the "shields" - the main ingredient would be magic in any case.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Commishsleer]

If you think about it, its not just Christopher and the Sargent beaming back into their bodies. How does the reverse time-travelling Enterprise replace the original Enterprise? When/how did new Enterprise stop being an observer and rejoin 1967? Then shouldn't the Sargent and Captain Christopher replace their original 1967 bodies at the same time?

 

[Mytran]

At first glance it seems that D C Fontanna was utilising the time travel trope of "replace your earlier self during time travel", even though this is a silly idea right up there with "You won't have anything to remember, because it never would have happened." Such notions have been floating around sci-fi for the last 50 years and still rear their daft heads now and again (even the Doctor Who TV Movie made use of them, to my shock at the time).

During the return of Captain Christopher his intercom announces "you should be close enough now for visual contact" and 20 seconds later the Enterprise is gone from the pilot's POV. This would seem to differ from the original timeline where the Enterprise was still visible 20 seconds later (albeit in the distance). However, as demonstrated upthread there is enough wiggle room for (re)interpretation, since the effects of the Transporter beam could have distracted Christopher's attention at the crucial moment, allowing Enterprise(2) to veer off into the clouds as planned; Christopher (having missed this) would have had no reason to follow a pursuit course.

I used to wonder if the two abductees were meant to have been returned at the exact moment they were removed. While this may have been on D C Fontanna's mind when she first wrote the screenplay, the way the way the episode is edited together doesn't really bear this out. Also, it would mean returning Captain Christopher to a collapsing plane!

I doubt the audience of 1967 were expected to think so much about the mish-mash of time travel oddities presented here. As I mentioned upthread, I'm just glad that we are able to make some sense out of it all!

 

[Push The Button]

A better ending may have been for Spock to mind-meld with Christopher and the sergeant to make them "forget" everything that they witnessed after being beamed aboard Enterprise, then they could have been returned sometime after their initial disappearances. They could have sent the sergeant back to the base, but put him in the mess hall or one of the hangars instead of the hallway, and Christopher could have been put down a few miles from where his plane crashed. This solution would have fit in with Kirk's initial plan, that "all they'll have is a mystery and no answers", since he and Sulu had already recovered the films and audio recordings.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

How does the reverse time-travelling Enterprise replace the original Enterprise?

I don't know if I like your tone.

The Enterprise gets a pass because it's the thing that's motivating the action, from a dramatic standpoint. But also, the Enterprise gets a pass because it's just visiting the 20th century, while Christopher and the sergeant live there. It's something along those lines. It all adds up somehow.