The first few times I saw this topic explored on Trek, I found it to be awesome, but now my reaction towards it is almost the complete opposite.
My main problem with time travel is the whole notion of preserving the timeline. The very act of existing in a different time period will in itself change the timeline, not just major events caused by the time traveler. I mean roughly speaking, if you materialize in the past, and breath air, you have moved particles within the earth's atmosphere, and going by chaos theory, that could have any number of consequences in the future. I can stomach that the show ignores that idea for the sake of being able to explore the notion of time travel at all, but still.
Maybe my problem is more with the inconsistent approach of the time travelers. Sometimes they'll be very precautious about protecting the timeline, and others they will be very cavalier about it. Considering that history is supposedly re-written based on every changed incurred by these travelers, you'd expect them to be nothing less than saints when it comes to the timeline.
That brings me to my last major complaint. The whole idea of re-writing history based on time travel seems pretty ridiculous because of how frequently it is done in the Trek shows. You'd think that history was being re-written so much that our own realities could have changed 1000 times over in a single day or something. Perhaps the show would've functioned better with a more destiny based time travel theory, where your minor actions will always lead to the same major result, no matter how many times you attempt to change them. In case I'm not being clear, I'm thinking of The Time Machine, where a man went back in time on several occasions to try and save his wife from dying, but ultimately couldn't because destiny found one way or another to carry itself out.
What do you guys think?
My main problem with time travel is the whole notion of preserving the timeline. The very act of existing in a different time period will in itself change the timeline, not just major events caused by the time traveler. I mean roughly speaking, if you materialize in the past, and breath air, you have moved particles within the earth's atmosphere, and going by chaos theory, that could have any number of consequences in the future. I can stomach that the show ignores that idea for the sake of being able to explore the notion of time travel at all, but still.
Maybe my problem is more with the inconsistent approach of the time travelers. Sometimes they'll be very precautious about protecting the timeline, and others they will be very cavalier about it. Considering that history is supposedly re-written based on every changed incurred by these travelers, you'd expect them to be nothing less than saints when it comes to the timeline.
That brings me to my last major complaint. The whole idea of re-writing history based on time travel seems pretty ridiculous because of how frequently it is done in the Trek shows. You'd think that history was being re-written so much that our own realities could have changed 1000 times over in a single day or something. Perhaps the show would've functioned better with a more destiny based time travel theory, where your minor actions will always lead to the same major result, no matter how many times you attempt to change them. In case I'm not being clear, I'm thinking of The Time Machine, where a man went back in time on several occasions to try and save his wife from dying, but ultimately couldn't because destiny found one way or another to carry itself out.
What do you guys think?
Feel free disagree, as there are many ways to look at the issue.) 
