Zepfram Cochrane
- Thread starter ProStar
- Start date
probably should rephrase that so it's a bit easier to read, but, if I understand your question correctly, Zephram Cochrane invented warp drive just like he always did. Anything that happened before the Narada appeared stays the same.
Well, the questions are: In the new timeline/universe, did (1) the Borg show up to stop Zephram Cochrane and the E-E crew show up to help him, or (2) did no time-travelers show up to stop or help Cochrane and he first tested warp drive without help like he did the "first time" around, or (3) did Zephram Cochrane ever successfully test warp drive without help or interference or did he "always" have to contend with the time travelers? The OP raises a good question with serious implications.
IMO:
Prime timeline = canonical TOS thru TNG, prior to First Contact
Alternate Reality-A: Arose out of the Prime timeline, due to the events of First Contact. This gives rise to the Ent (the tv series) reality.
Alternate Reality-B: Arose out of the Prime timeline, due to the events of the Narada as depicted in STXI.
Both Alternate Reality A and B exist in parallel to the Prime timeline, as does the Mirrorverse.
Elaborating a bit more: Alternate Reality A and B are very "close to" the Prime universe (in the Multiverse sense) and thus have similar characters with similar behaviors, and perhaps even eventually convergent histories (the Realities can eventually merge back together again as the "timeline repairs itself"). This is how "Admiral Archer" can exist in both AR-A and AR-B (and Prime for all we know...)
the Mirrorverse is "further away" from the Prime reality, than either AR-A or AR-B; Thus you may have similar characters, but very different behaviors and eventually highly divergent histories.
This leads to very clear conclusions about Cochrane:
Cochrane Prime = Cochrane AR-A; invents Warp Drive without help from TNG/interference from the Borg, later heads off to Alpha Centauri, etc.
Cochrane AR-B = Cochrane Prime after the events of First Contact. He needed TNG to counter Borg resistance and invent Warp Drive, engages in events as depicted in Ent., etc. In his personal history, if he is lost on the way to Alpha Centauri and eventually participates in the events of Metamorphosis that is evidence of timeline repair.
But they were remembering it differently - including Troi's hairstyle.
Could have been the same events in that reality.
Even if that one is ignored (as a lot of fans do by saying the historical records are inaccurate in terms of Trip's death) ... you still have Voyager episode 'Relativity' that firmly establishes that the Enterprise-E went back into the past to prevent the Borg from stopping FC with Vulcan to happen, in effect also assisting Zefram Cochrane in his flight.
Here's my interpretation of the events:
The prime timeline no longer exists in the aspect that it will happen in the same capacity due to the destruction of Vulcan.
Heroes from TNG, VOY and DS9 would still be born, but the course of events will go differently for them.
An 'alternate reality' by the term implies a different universe where people's lives took a different turn.
But also, from the movie's perspective, it can be interpreted in a simple manner that the timeline was changed.
So Spock and Nero went into their own past and changed the course of history.
But both ships and occupants could have easily been protected by the changes in the timeline because of temporal shielding, or more likely by traveling through the black hole.
We've seen in happen to Enterprise-E in First Contact, and when they were inside the temporal anomaly, they saw what happened when the Borg assimilated Earth in the past (a one possible future which they were able to prevent) yet the ship and crew were unaffected by the changes in the time-stream.
So simply speaking, the new movie can/does easily away with the pre-established time-line and can have characters from the prime-timeline in this new one without violating any Trek rules of time travel.
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