First contact...

[JamesBondJR]

Here's why the time travel business really bothers me:

1. If they tinker even a little with the past, the timeline changes. So by traveling back in time together with the Borg should change everything. If not:

2. Tinkering with the timeline was already part of the future/present timeline, which means:

3. It's all one timeline, rendering all travel-back-in-time-to-change-the-future, futile.

But let's say Borgs time travel operation could actually change the outcome of the future/present, why couldn't they just keep on sending ships to the past until they succeed?

The points above really underlines my frustration with time travel bs; there's no definitive consensus on how these timeline/travel things work, as we have seen in many different trek-episodes over the years. Except for a few examples like Star Trek IV, DS9 Tribbles and the VOY Relativity, which are more comic relief.

 

[jackoverfull]

f they tinker even a little with the past, the timeline changes. So by traveling back in time together with the Borg should change everything.

given the number of times people travel back in time and “tinker” with things I think it’s safe to say that the timeline is partly self-correcting and as long as nothing really pivotal is changed the differences won’t be much.


Regarding your other questions, I don’t really have answers. The only thing I can say is that if everything went exactly as the Borg planned, as suggested above, it makes much more sense.

 

[Discofan]

I know that this is how the ST world works and also how some sci. fi. authors put it but that's definitely not it works in the real world. Timelines don't correct themselves. For one thing, there's something that's called the butterfly effect that says that differences will only increase with time and that's the reason why complex systems are unpredictable after a time limit. For the weather for example it's about three weeks. After three weeks there is so much chaos that it's practically impossible to say anything about it. The same goes for everything else. I mean if you can't tell whether it will rain or not similarly you can't say who's gonna live or die in an accident, who's gonna meet whom randomly....etc...

 

[jackoverfull]

Hard to say how time travel would work in the real world when there is not even a hint that traveling back to the past might be possible.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Here's why the time travel business really bothers me:

1. If they tinker even a little with the past, the timeline changes. So by traveling back in time together with the Borg should change everything. If not:

2. Tinkering with the timeline was already part of the future/present timeline, which means:

3. It's all one timeline, rendering all travel-back-in-time-to-change-the-future, futile.

Okay, so what really changed once the Borg arrived?

1. The guy that tells everyone to board the Vulcan ship in IAMD was not present in FC. Meaning he was likely killed when the Borg arrived and fired on the complex. But that could also mean he wasn’t around to alter the future towards the mirror universe and the Terran Empire. So the Borg might have done a good thing here, in setting a course towards the founding of the Federation. Largely for their own self interests, but still good for those living in the prime timeline

2. Cochrane was a known drunk, so no one is going to believe his story of cybernetic creatures and a crew from the future came back in time to stop them. It’s seen more of a tall tale than anything else. He then leaves Earth 50 years later after establishing the Warp 5 Complex, and won’t be seen again until the TOS crew runs into him.

3. Even if the NX-01 was destroyed in the original timeline six months into their mission (as alluded to by Daniels), that did not mean that United Earth Starfleet did not refit another United Earth ship, and have either Captain Robinson or Captain Ramirez of the Intrepid pursue the Arctic transport the Borg hijacked. The Vulcan might have even pursued them in the timeline. And between the secrecy of Vulcans during that era, and the existence of Section 31 at the same time, it makes sense that the history of the Borg was kept hidden for 200 years.

4. The missing co-pilots from the Phoenix flight…maybe Cochrane explained to the Vulcan that the Kzinti attacked them and their settlement before they arrived. That does suggested they lied about the Borg attack, but we are also aware that Vulcans of that time do not believe in time travel anyways. And they would have likely scanned the planet to know that such tech was too advanced for humans of that time.

5. Also, the Borg attack is initially seen as attack by an Eastern Coalition orbital drone, although they are surprised at the existence of such vehicles being in existence at most a decade later. But clearly, orbital attacks in general were not a new thing to Earth within a 10 year span, minimum.

But let's say Borgs time travel operation could actually change the outcome of the future/present, why couldn't they just keep on sending ships to the past until they succeed?

Well we don’t really know what their true aims were. We are told to stop first contact with the Vulcan’s, but we also see them assimilating the Ent-E and trying to build a beacon to Borg space, so that the Borg arrive in Kirk`s time. Instead of beaming down to a corner of Earth and start assimilating a war weary planet.

The points above really underlines my frustration with time travel bs; there's no definitive consensus on how these timeline/travel things work, as we have seen in many different trek-episodes over the years. Except for a few examples like Star Trek IV, DS9 Tribbles and the VOY Relativity, which are more comic relief.

Time travel seems to involve quantum mechanics. But we seen quite a bit. of self correction too.

Everything in Star Trek time travel related is self correcting, until they are not.