The Guardian of Forever Paradox
- Thread starter T'Avri
- Start date
Well, the Guardian is obviously sentient, so perhaps it created this whole thing on purpose.
Who knows what the GOF is really up to - after all, it seemed to do a pretty lousy job of fulfilling its own job description (guarding time) at all: In its first appearance, it let a crazy man leap through the portal and (seemingly) alter all of known history! After this apparent debacle is resolved, the malfunctioning mechanical monstrosity straight up invites Kirk and pals to take another stab at mangling the timeline:
To be fair to the GOF thought, that is only how it seems at a first glance. Rather than haphazardly creating and narrowly resolving crisis in historical turning points, I think what the GOF actually "guards" are these predestination paradoxes that are essential to the makeup of this particular timeline.
For example, we know (or are told by the GOF broadcast) that if Edith Keeler lived then Star Trek's history would have been radically altered. We also know that she was killed, crossing the street to see the joyful reunion of McCoy with his friends and distracted by the thought and sight of her beau. Specifically, it is only due to Kirk's presence in the 1930s in the first place that his own history is able to unfold in the way it does; a predestination paradox, seen here, in the TAS episode Yesteryear and TNG's Time's Arrow.
Time trundles along from the 1930s until the 23rd century, when Crazy McCoy leaps into the past. The is the moment the GOF has been waiting for; the "appointed time" when Kirk, Spock & McCoy must play their part for history to unfold as it should. However, since only McCoy has gone through then history itself is in a sort of limbo - hence why they lose contact with the Enterprise. Of course, it might also be that the GOF is forcing them to perceive reality in a certain way, or bumping them into a neighbouring timestream, or doing whatever it takes to encourage Kirk and Spock to follow the good Doctor into the 1930s. The GOF knows that it MUST happen.
The cryptic invite at the end of TCOTEOF might be to view certain "safe" areas of known history (like Orion at the dawn of its civilisation) , or else to fulfil certain other predestination paradoxes. After all, Spock is standing right there and still has a part to play in his own history. But the GOF is patient and can wait until the next "appointed time"...
To be fair to the GOF thought, that is only how it seems at a first glance. Rather than haphazardly creating and narrowly resolving crisis in historical turning points, I think what the GOF actually "guards" are these predestination paradoxes that are essential to the makeup of this particular timeline.
For example, we know (or are told by the GOF broadcast) that if Edith Keeler lived then Star Trek's history would have been radically altered. We also know that she was killed, crossing the street to see the joyful reunion of McCoy with his friends and distracted by the thought and sight of her beau. Specifically, it is only due to Kirk's presence in the 1930s in the first place that his own history is able to unfold in the way it does; a predestination paradox, seen here, in the TAS episode Yesteryear and TNG's Time's Arrow.
Time trundles along from the 1930s until the 23rd century, when Crazy McCoy leaps into the past. The is the moment the GOF has been waiting for; the "appointed time" when Kirk, Spock & McCoy must play their part for history to unfold as it should. However, since only McCoy has gone through then history itself is in a sort of limbo - hence why they lose contact with the Enterprise. Of course, it might also be that the GOF is forcing them to perceive reality in a certain way, or bumping them into a neighbouring timestream, or doing whatever it takes to encourage Kirk and Spock to follow the good Doctor into the 1930s. The GOF knows that it MUST happen.
The cryptic invite at the end of TCOTEOF might be to view certain "safe" areas of known history (like Orion at the dawn of its civilisation) , or else to fulfil certain other predestination paradoxes. After all, Spock is standing right there and still has a part to play in his own history. But the GOF is patient and can wait until the next "appointed time"...
Technobabble hadn't been invented until the 24th century so I'm rejecting your suggestion
Maybe...
I'm now leaning towards the GOF is playing with them.
Or perhaps its trying to protect time by killing off Spock to avoid him letting Nero have access to red matter 100 years in the future.
But if there are infinite timelines, then it's still bound to happen many times. With the whales, there would probably be billions of Kirk hanging around.
No, Harlan might be 80, but after he goes, he'll probably still leave behind an estate with dictates that will state how his properties are to be handled. If that means that nobody will get to use the GOF without his permission in his way, then that's probably what will happen. It's happened before with other authors.
Don't forget, this is a man that's fought for the copyrights of authors to be honored online.
That's disgusting.
I'm not sure what would have to go so differently if Cousin Selek did not intervene in young Spock's life. Spock in the "original" timeline did not die - he merely thought he would die if not for the intervention of Selek. But he might well be in error.
Say, quite possibly the le-matya would settle for killing and then eating the pet sehlat, letting Spock escape; or the sehlat would not be distracted by the scent of Selek and would win the fight; or the le-matya would not be drawn to the scene at all when the strong scent of Selek wasn't there to add to that of Spock.
These are all events where chance plays a major role; a slightly different path chosen, a slightly different pace maintained, and Spock never encounters the cat-beast. That the Guardian intervention created an alternative where Spock does die is no indication that Spock would have to die in the absence of Selek; indeed, two things about the past happen differently from how the older Spock remembers them (young Spock sneaks out a day in advance, the sehlat dies), and this has no effect whatsoever on the future.
Time in Trek is robust that way. And we see this self-correcting feature in action in "Yesteryear", sort of: in one scene, Spock clearly remembers that he nearly died in the kahs-wan ordeal, and in the very next one, he just as clearly remembers that it was a day before, apparently because his younger self is resetting his past as the events unfold. There'd be infinite options on how Spock could nearly die without time travel, as well as infinite ways for that to happen with time travel, and time would apparently always repair itself to ensure that all these infinite options would be one and the same in the end... Just as in "Yesteryear", where one death automatically results in its own undoing in the next iteration.
Timo Saloniemi
Say, quite possibly the le-matya would settle for killing and then eating the pet sehlat, letting Spock escape; or the sehlat would not be distracted by the scent of Selek and would win the fight; or the le-matya would not be drawn to the scene at all when the strong scent of Selek wasn't there to add to that of Spock.
These are all events where chance plays a major role; a slightly different path chosen, a slightly different pace maintained, and Spock never encounters the cat-beast. That the Guardian intervention created an alternative where Spock does die is no indication that Spock would have to die in the absence of Selek; indeed, two things about the past happen differently from how the older Spock remembers them (young Spock sneaks out a day in advance, the sehlat dies), and this has no effect whatsoever on the future.
Time in Trek is robust that way. And we see this self-correcting feature in action in "Yesteryear", sort of: in one scene, Spock clearly remembers that he nearly died in the kahs-wan ordeal, and in the very next one, he just as clearly remembers that it was a day before, apparently because his younger self is resetting his past as the events unfold. There'd be infinite options on how Spock could nearly die without time travel, as well as infinite ways for that to happen with time travel, and time would apparently always repair itself to ensure that all these infinite options would be one and the same in the end... Just as in "Yesteryear", where one death automatically results in its own undoing in the next iteration.
Timo Saloniemi
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