TNG changed the Timeline.

[Dukhat]

The Orville tackled this really well, IMHO, in the episode where Scott Grimes’s character went back in time to the 21st century and started a family. When the Orville crew went back to find him, he didn’t want to go back because he made a life for himself in that time. So the crew instead went back in time again to a previous point before Grimes founded his family and retrieved him then. The interesting part was that the implication was that the timeline where
Grimes had the family would cease to exist once this happened, based on Grimes’s character acting afraid about his former crew’s actions. But they never actually showed that timeline disappearing; it was just hinted at.

 

[xenotaris]

I need to watch Orville

 

[at Quark's]

Or perhaps all alternate possibilities really exist in parallel universes and none is ever erased when you time travel, you just travel between them.

That would mean there's a fairly large number of universes out there at the very least, though, probably a number that would only be conveniently expressible with multiple levels of exponents.

 

[xenotaris]

Or perhaps all alternate possibilities really exist in parallel universes and none is ever erased when you time travel, you just travel between them.

That would mean there's a fairly large number of universes out there at the very least, though, probably a number that would only be conveniently expressible with multiple levels of exponents.

I like this theory

 

[BillJ]

Alternate timelines or an altered timeline, they can't be the Prime timeline as we knew it.

 

[JesterFace]

STNG and episode 'Parallels'.
Data mentioned a theory that says something like this:
Everything that could happen does actually happen.
That would create basically an infinite amount of universes but who is to say that's impossible.

 

[Phoenix219]

There are two ways that what we see, with the E-E in the temporal wake, can be perceived:
1) They are in the altered Primeverse but protected by the temporal wake (or they likely would have ceased to exist).
2) The Borg entered an alternate timeline when they created their portal and the E-E, by being in their temporal wake, has also entered that timeline.

They entered the past of an altered timeline, and were in the past of yes, an alternate timeline, but this was not an alternate universe, but the same universe we were always watching. The Borg altered the timeline when they created their portal and the E-E, by being in th eir teompral wake, also entered that alternate timeline, which was still in the "box" of the Primeverse but with different (alternate) events recorded on the timeline.

Both statements are true.

Both statements are the same.

I still don't understand the question.

 

[DonIago]

They entered the past of an altered timeline, and were in the past of yes, an alternate timeline, but this was not an alternate universe, but the same universe we were always watching. The Borg altered the timeline when they created their portal and the E-E, by being in th eir teompral wake, also entered that alternate timeline, which was still in the "box" of the Primeverse but with different (alternate) events recorded on the timeline.

Both statements are true.

Both statements are the same.

I still don't understand the question.

But you have no way of knowing that it was the same universe we were always watching versus an alternate universe, nor what the Borg's portal actually did.

If Red Matter opens a portal to an alternate timeline, why can't the Borg's portal also lead to an alternate timeline?

 

[BillJ]

If Red Matter opens a portal to an alternate timeline, why can't the Borg's portal also lead to an alternate timeline?

I don’t think it creates the alternate timeline, the alternate timeline is the “wound” created by the timeline disrupting itself, it also serves as the healing mechanism.

 

[DonIago]

I didn't say it creates the alternate timeline; I just said it's a portal to an alternate timeline.

 

[at Quark's]

That would create basically an infinite amount of universes but who is to say that's impossible.

Parallels says that, yes, but I'm not sure the number would need to be infinite if you believe in a quantised reality. Just very, very large.

Then, there's the matter how many different universes we humans meaningfully could tell apart from one another, i.e. actually perceive as different. One speculative study I found put that number as low as 10^(10^16) (i.e. a 1 followed by 10,000,000,000,000,000 zeroes), though the actual number of universes out there could be larger.

Fun to speculate about, even though this kind of thought is not going to help me prepare my evening meal, which I'm going to do now

 

[BillJ]

I didn't say it creates the alternate timeline; I just said it's a portal to an alternate timeline.

I was just offering another interpretation of how it might work.

 

[UssGlenn]

The Orville tackled this really well, IMHO, in the episode where Scott Grimes’s character went back in time to the 21st century and started a family. When the Orville crew went back to find him, he didn’t want to go back because he made a life for himself in that time. So the crew instead went back in time again to a previous point before Grimes founded his family and retrieved him then. The interesting part was that the implication was that the timeline where
Grimes had the family would cease to exist once this happened, based on Grimes’s character acting afraid about his former crew’s actions. But they never actually showed that timeline disappearing; it was just hinted at.

based on their explanation of time travel and paradoxes at the beginning of the episode, I'd say it's likely his timeline survived.

 

[Dukhat]

based on their explanation of time travel and paradoxes at the beginning of the episode, I'd say it's likely his timeline survived.

But then it wouldn’t make sense for Grimes to be fearful that he and his family would be erased along with his timeline. He was acting as if he knew his crew’s actions of going back to a previous point in time to get him would erase him and his family from existence.