Whenever there is time travel in star Trek, 90% of the time the characters end up in Earth's past. It seems like there are tons of time travel stories that could be done with other civilizations. It might be interesting to see characters travel to ancient Vulcan or get involved in a historical event in Klingon history. I think time travel stories in Earth's past are a bit played out.
Star Trek and time travel
- Thread starter The Overlord
- Start date
Well, "All Our Yesterdays" would fall into that other 10%, I guess.
The challenge, of course, is that human audiences have more connection (and familiarity) with Earth history than with Klingon history or whatever, so a story where our heroes visit the Civil War is bound to be more accessible than a story about traveling to the Great Andorian Uprising of 2107 . . . .
FWIW, by my count, the TOS episodes in which time travel fairly occurred are:
The Naked Time
Tomorrow is Yesterday
The City on the Edge of Forever
Assignment: Earth
All Our Yesterdays
Throw in TAS and you also get: Tomorrow is Yesterday
The City on the Edge of Forever
Assignment: Earth
All Our Yesterdays
Yesteryear
Three of these five or six episodes go to Earth's past, the rest don't; so that's 60% or 50%, as far as TOS/TAS are concerned. If I missed any, oops. (I disqualified Wink of an Eye and The Tholian Web, which I think is fair, and a few others too.)
But looking at the franchise as a whole, including TNG, DS9, VOY and ENT, 90% of the time travel episodes take place in Earth's past.
Oh yeah? T'Girl just came up with more counterexamples.
True, but my gut instinct is that time-travel to an alien history would probably work better in a book, where you would have time to explain the history of the alien culture, than in a movie or tv episode--where any such history lessons would just bog things down.
Plus, like I said, the Great Depression just has more meaning and dramatic oomph for human audiences than the Crystal Wars of Delta VII . . . . .
Oh, I get the point too. Certainly most of the most prominent examples are to Earth's past. But is that really "most" or "almost all" of all examples? I don't know; I've never added it up.
How could you be so insensitive? My grandfather lost a leg in the Crystal Wars!!!!
Yeah, but he had six to spare . . . .
It's also cheaper because then they can make use of contemporary clothing, sets, props etc than creating all new alien clothes, sets and props.
It turns out that Memory Alpha has a page at http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Time_travel_episodes. Using their lists:
TOS (3/5 to Earth's past):
TAS (0/1 to Earth's past):
Movies (2/4 to Earth's past):
TNG (3/12 to Earth's past):
DS9 (3/11 to Earth's past):
VOY (2/12 to Earth's past):
ENT (5/10 to Earth's past):
In all, we have 18/55 time travel episodes that go to Earth's past, which is less than half. This is far from 90%, and not even most. It is less than 1/3, and actually about 32.73%. Now, there may be a few episodes here and there which are arguably in the other category, I might have erred, and the list could be incomplete, but I doubt this tally is very far off. It really seems to be a perception issue, a trend among the prominent time travel episodes, perhaps. Or, perhaps the OP has a generic criterion in mind, yet to be stated, that excludes some of these episodes.
TOS (3/5 to Earth's past):
The Naked Time
Tomorrow is Yesterday
The City on the Edge of Forever
Assignment: Earth
All Our Yesterdays
Tomorrow is Yesterday
The City on the Edge of Forever
Assignment: Earth
All Our Yesterdays
TAS (0/1 to Earth's past):
Yesteryear
Movies (2/4 to Earth's past):
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek
Star Trek Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek
TNG (3/12 to Earth's past):
We'll Always Have Paris
Time Squared
Yesterday's Enterprise
Captain's Holiday
A Matter of Time
Cause and Effect
Time's Arrow
Time's Arrow, Part II
Tapestry
Timescape
Firstborn
All Good Things...
Time Squared
Yesterday's Enterprise
Captain's Holiday
A Matter of Time
Cause and Effect
Time's Arrow
Time's Arrow, Part II
Tapestry
Timescape
Firstborn
All Good Things...
DS9 (3/11 to Earth's past):
Past Tense, Part I
Past Tense, Part II
Visionary
The Visitor
Little Green Men
Accession
Trials and Tribble-ations
Children of Time
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
Time's Orphan
The Sound of Her Voice
Past Tense, Part II
Visionary
The Visitor
Little Green Men
Accession
Trials and Tribble-ations
Children of Time
Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
Time's Orphan
The Sound of Her Voice
VOY (2/12 to Earth's past):
Parallax
Time and Again
Eye of the Needle
Death Wish
Future's End
Future's End, Part II
Before and After
Timeless
Relativity
Fury
Shattered
Endgame
Time and Again
Eye of the Needle
Death Wish
Future's End
Future's End, Part II
Before and After
Timeless
Relativity
Fury
Shattered
Endgame
ENT (5/10 to Earth's past):
Cold Front
Shockwave
Shockwave, Part II
Future Tense
Carpenter Street
Azati Prime
E²
Zero Hour
Storm Front
Storm Front, Part II
Shockwave
Shockwave, Part II
Future Tense
Carpenter Street
Azati Prime
E²
Zero Hour
Storm Front
Storm Front, Part II
In all, we have 18/55 time travel episodes that go to Earth's past, which is less than half. This is far from 90%, and not even most. It is less than 1/3, and actually about 32.73%. Now, there may be a few episodes here and there which are arguably in the other category, I might have erred, and the list could be incomplete, but I doubt this tally is very far off. It really seems to be a perception issue, a trend among the prominent time travel episodes, perhaps. Or, perhaps the OP has a generic criterion in mind, yet to be stated, that excludes some of these episodes.
I can't imagine an episode or movie being able to cover Vulcan's past in the depth or scope of the novel "Spock's World". Ditto Romulus in "The Romulan Way". I watch an episode like "Who Watches the Watchers", and I'm glad the TV shows never tried. They'd never have done it justice.
Excellent post. I think it does a great job of showing how when one considers the "memorable" time traveling episodes and "feels" like it happens with Earth's past more often, one can jump the gun and post the impression before having done any thoughtful research.
But in defense of the episodes that do go back to Earth, remember that it's much easier to relate to our own past than the past of other imagined worlds. It's also a little more entertaining, to see the accuracy of depicting what supposedly "once was." Regardless, I'm glad for the ones we did have and thankful that we had plenty in contexts outside of Earth.
Thanks, Gary7.
Fine, perhaps I was wrong about the percentages about how many time travel stories take place on Earth, but my point remains that many of them do and there are a lot of historical settings not explored in the Star Trek universe.
To be fair, it depends a bit on what we remember as "time-travel" stories. Are we counting every ep in which there's some sort of temporal anomaly, or just the stories where our heroes run around having adventures in the past or future?
I mean, I'm not sure anybody really thinks of "The Naked Time" as a time-travel ep. Sure, technically, there's a time-warp near the end, but it's not like anybody ends up fighting dinosaurs or anything . . . .
I mean, I'm not sure anybody really thinks of "The Naked Time" as a time-travel ep. Sure, technically, there's a time-warp near the end, but it's not like anybody ends up fighting dinosaurs or anything . . . .
It's a nice way to save money. Set an episode in modern-day Earth, just film it on location right outside. Set it on Qo'nos in the past, have to build sets, or make locations look alien plus all the guest stars and extras have to be done up to look Klingon.
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