Theory: The timeline of TNG after "Yesterday's Enterprise" isn't the same as before that episode

In the original timeline before that episode the Federation was more pacifistic and hasn't been in a war for a long time, the Klingons were Federation members and there were other smaller things that don't make sense with what we learnt after that episode.

My theory is that Tasha Yar joining the crew of the Enterprise-C and travelling back to the battle of Narendra, when she originally wasn't there, changed a lot of things while others stayed the same.

A hint for my theory being true is that most canon discrepancies came up after that episode, while the show before "Yesterday's Enterprise" was mostly consistent with itself with its background information.

 

Which discrepancies are you attempting to excuse with this theory?

 

- Klingons being allies of the Federation instead of members

- The Cardassian Borderwars and conflicts with the Talarians and Tzenkethi for example, where before the Federation was shown to be at peace for a long time.

- Picard studying in San Francisco at the Starfleet Academy instead of Paris.

- The different attitudes of 24th century people to their past.

 

I think it makes more sense to blame the writers. I’m not sure it tracks how that small change could affect that huge a change, spiraling to conflicts at every border.

Having border skirmishes isn’t at conflict with the classification of peace time.

 

When did Picard study in Paris? I know he is from France and his pre-Starfleet Academy education would’ve been there, but Paris , I assumed, had a recruiting office where French citizens could Apply and take the entrance exams, like Wesley did in “Coming of Age”, but their actual courses were in SAN Francisco.

 

It was mentioned in "We'll always have Paris".

 

Maybe it's a kind of a butterfly effect.
And it's really strange that no conflicts were mentioned in the first three seasons, while starting with Season 4 and the Talarians and Cardassians this very much changed. Especially considering the many times we saw the Cardies again and again since then.

 

Also the point the creative staff completely changed and Roddenberry’s influence waned.

Maybe the Enterprise was deployed farther out the first two years.

 

Of course the timeline is different since originally there was no Sela. The rest is far-out speculation inspired by Star Trek being a sci-fi show; if it weren’t you’d come up with any number of simpler explanations for your concerns.

Remember, Occam’s Razor applies unless you’re actually creating fiction, and even then you want to rely more on character-driven developments than weird space-time events.

 

^ That pesky Razor, yes!

If it weren't for its existence, I'd simply assume that every episode of every series took place in its very own universe. Any discrepancies with other episodes could be explained because 'it's in its own universe', whereas any continuity would be due to commonalities between those universes ....now we are forced to try to reconcile as many of those differences as possible ....

 

Tom Paris also studied some of the time in Marseille. With the Offices of the UFP President in Paris, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that Starfleet has training centres there and Picard may have taken advantage of this to spend some of his time closer to home, whilst also taking classes in SF where needed.

 

We don’t know what he was doing in Paris then, but the episode also establishes that at the same time or perhaps later he was in Paris long enough to have a relationship with Jenice before “shipping out” 22 years before the episode, at the age of 36 or so. Either way there is no conflict with his Starfleet Academy years.

 

I don't see much sense in trying to explain continuity errors away by such mundane explanations like the ship wasn't around when this or that happened or the characters forgot or didn't knew these things, when it's way more fun to think big.

This theory even has the potential for some new episodes or an interesting novel. At least in my opinion.

 

On the contrary, “thinking big” is a lot less fun because it’s so much easier and also deus-ex-machina when applied to a creative endavour, resulting in a story the audience can’t really identify with. Coming up with simpler explanations fleshes out the universe and makes it feel messy and real. What do you remember more, a random Braga phenomenon that did X or Picard doing Y when he was younger? Parsimony is hard but more rewarding in the long term.

 

I can see that it's not the perfect explanation for everything but for things like the issue with the suddenly appearing new conflicts with the Talarians, Cardassians and Tzenkethi and the Klingons being allies instead of members of the Federation. A thing Wesley should know because of working with Worf on the bridge and Picard not having an issue with his words.

For things like this it's a perfect explanation, especially since "Sins of the Father", the first episode that definitely shows that the Klingons are allies not members, aired a month after "Yesterday's Enterprise" for the first time.

 

The producers hadn’t imagined Federation membership only to change their minds in Season 3. If we look at Worf’s Writers’/Directors’ Guide page from September 4, 1987, added during the production of Season 1, it’s very clear on the subject: “For the past twenty-five years, the Klingon Empire and the Federation have been at peace with one another, and we have begun to work closely with our former adversaries (much like the relationship between the United States and Japan in the years since World War II).”

Wesley (and the writer) could’ve used misleading language and Picard wasn’t about to interrupt his story, knowing full well that Wesley understood basic politics same as anyone. As for the rest, it’s just a matter of introducing bits of history for the first time, just as we didn’t know at first about Romulans or Klingons either: there is no explicit contradiction, only something that doesn’t feel right to you.

 

In the orginal timeline their was no captured Yar to tell the Romulans about Picard inspiring them to create Shinzon. They also got their DNA sample to make him by sending a operative to shave his head as a cadet and bring the hair back as that sample. Jason

 

Too creative. Picard would’ve been relevant enough to later warrant command of the Federation flagship, not to mention that he could’ve shaved his head for sports while at the Academy.

 

What's the problem with creativity

 

Again, Occam’s Razor. Most fans don’t have the official blessing to invent a conspiracy like the one described, so at most it would be fanfic as opposed to forum discussion of actual, official Star Trek (canon or otherwise), and even licensed or production writers are better served by staying with character-driven stories rather than retrofit connections into the franchise, making the universe feel smaller and characters relevant because they happened to appear onscreen.