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

[Dukhat]

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.

Except we don't know for a fact if altTasha was there or not. She would have been long dead by the time TNG began, and Sela didn't bother to contact prime Tasha before we first saw her. So there's no way of knowing if altTasha actually existed in the prime timeline prior to YE (predestination paradox), or if we're seeing a changed timeline after YE.

And anyway, I'm not quite sure how Tasha going back in time just to get knocked up and then get killed would have had any influence on wars that the Federation fought with other powers, or where Picard studied.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

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.

One can imagine that it's a Starfleet Academy study abroad or internship program for command line types to learn about diplomacy in the Federation government.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Except we don't know for a fact if altTasha was there or not. She would have been long dead by the time TNG began, and Sela didn't bother to contact prime Tasha before we first saw her. So there's no way of knowing if altTasha actually existed in the prime timeline prior to YE (predestination paradox), or if we're seeing a changed timeline after YE.

And anyway, I'm not quite sure how Tasha going back in time just to get knocked up and then get killed would have had any influence on wars that the Federation fought with other powers, or where Picard studied.

As i have written on Reddit:

"I guess Tasha being a romulan prisoner could have changed a lot of things. From the romulan commander and his crew, who might have been influenced by the information they got from her, who then made different decissions back on Romulus to the fact of the Enterprise-C disappearing and reappearing during the battle which also might have left some impressions on the people who saw it.

It's basically a butterfly effect, where small changes might spiral out to bring big changes in the fabric of galactic politics."

 

[Dukhat]

As i have written on Reddit:

"I guess Tasha being a romulan prisoner could have changed a lot of things. From the romulan commander and his crew, who might have been influenced by the information they got from her, who then made different decissions back on Romulus to the fact of the Enterprise-C disappearing and reappearing during the battle which also might have left some impressions on the people who saw it.

It's basically a butterfly effect, where small changes might spiral out to bring big changes in the fabric of galactic politics."

Yes, I know what you're saying. I'm saying that there's no way to prove whether the timeline changed or not. That, and even a butterfly effect with altTasha is a dubious explanation for such esoteric things like where Picard chose to study.

 

[Discofan]

As i have written on Reddit:

"I guess Tasha being a romulan prisoner could have changed a lot of things. From the romulan commander and his crew, who might have been influenced by the information they got from her, who then made different decissions back on Romulus to the fact of the Enterprise-C disappearing and reappearing during the battle which also might have left some impressions on the people who saw it.

It's basically a butterfly effect, where small changes might spiral out to bring big changes in the fabric of galactic politics."

I don't think the St writers believe in the butterfly effect, or even know what it is for that matter, otherwise, films like TVH would be impossible. The crew would find enormous changes, no matter what they did in the past.

 

[Discofan]

Yes, I know what you're saying. I'm saying that there's no way to prove whether the timeline changed or not. That, and even a butterfly effect with altTasha is a dubious explanation for such esoteric things like where Picard chose to study.

Plus Picard's past was way before the birth of Sela.

 

[Dukhat]

I don't think the St writers believe in the butterfly effect, or even know what it is for that matter, otherwise, films like TVH would be impossible. The crew would find enormous changes, no matter what they did in the past.

Yeah, pretty much the prevailing attitude toward time travel (other than the Abrams films) was that even if the timeline changed or someone went back through time and did something, it went back to normal by the end of the episode and there weren't any lasting effects, new timelines created, or old ones erased.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Plus Picard's past was way before the birth of Sela.

Yeah, it's maybe not the best explanation for this.

But for the issue with the klingon federation membership in early TNG and the sudden appearance of before unheard of conflicts like with the Talarians, Cardies, Tzenkethi etc. it's a possible one.

 

[Dukhat]

Yes, but saying there were no wars because no one mentioned them is just supposition, not a changed timeline. As for the Klingons explicitly being Federation members, that's just a changed premise. Nobody thinks the timeline changed after WNMHGB just because Kirk's middle initial is now T and not R.

 

[Discofan]

Or maybe the Mandela effect is actually real in the StarTrek world so that every once in a while people would slip unknowingly into parallel universes, I mean kinda like what Worf did in fact.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Yes, but saying there were no wars because no one mentioned them is just supposition, not a changed timeline. As for the Klingons explicitly being Federation members, that's just a changed premise. Nobody thinks the timeline changed after WNMHGB just because Kirk's middle initial is now T and not R.

Actually i would really like to see a good theory about this

 

[Discofan]

Actually i would really like to see a good theory about this

Kirk's changed middle initial is the consequence of the ripple effect of a time anomaly due to the crashing of two Black holes near a pulsar on a Tuesday afternoon.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Kirk's changed middle initial is the consequence of the ripple effect of a time anomaly due to the crashing of two Black holes near a pulsar on a Tuesday afternoon.

LOL, i thought you were going to say Wednesday

 

[Discofan]

LOL, i thought you were going to say Wednesday

Wednesday his initial would have been "W".

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Unless you are going to argue that every television show where some writer didn’t check some other writer’s notes well enough us actually a changed timeline, I think this position is hard to support.

Like, everything after season 1 of Community happened in a universe where Britta was much dumber, but with the same general politics.

 

[Discofan]

Or the perturbation extended beyond this single incident, like some kind of time ricochet...

 

[Terok Nor]

I always wondered if Sela was around the whole time or only after Yesterday's Enterprise. Predestination paradox? Tasha Yar being interrogated for information would explain the Picard clone but that came to light years later so not sure that clarifies anything. Interesting that Sela knew her "mother" was alive and could have saved her from being killed by Armus but I guess she didn't mind getting her killed already so it does make sense

 

[Discofan]

I always wondered if Sela was around the whole time or only after Yesterday's Enterprise. Predestination paradox? Tasha Yar being interrogated for information would explain the Picard clone but that came to light years later so not sure that clarifies anything. Interesting that Sela knew her "mother" was alive and could have saved her from being killed by Armus but I guess she didn't mind getting her killed already so it does make sense

Yeah, Sela comes from this timeline but her mother is from an alternate reality. Everyone from that reality disappeared into thin air except the people who went on that ship. If Sela had saved her mother it would have ruined her plans of... making people question their sanity when they first saw her on the screen... I guess. Plus Guinan couldn't have her intuition that she wasn't supposed to be alive, or could she? that's a little unclear.

Beyond that, Sela was a pretty useless ineffective lackluster character. I am gonna be kind and pretend that it was because of the script.

 

[Discofan]

Hey, maybe one day we'll find out that Guinan injected herself with tardigrade DNA.

 

[DonIago]

I always wondered if Sela was around the whole time or only after Yesterday's Enterprise. Predestination paradox? Tasha Yar being interrogated for information would explain the Picard clone but that came to light years later so not sure that clarifies anything. Interesting that Sela knew her "mother" was alive and could have saved her from being killed by Armus but I guess she didn't mind getting her killed already so it does make sense

I don't think Sela knew the circumstances of PrimeYar's death, just that it was meaningless? And perhaps not even that? Alt-Guinan wasn't big on the specifics and they didn't have any other access to the Primeline.