Star Trek Perspective

 For this issue‘s even deeper dive into all things of Star Trek continuity, reader Kaltook Utharian poses one of those sticky questions that might give even Kathryn Janeway a headache. Does Starfleet have a coherent policy regarding time travel, or is it perpetually like prePrime Directive where it’s up to the discretion of each captain? It’s a great question, and your answer depends on the era. By that I mean that, yes, we all recall of course the “Department of Temporal Investigations” – famously a part of DS9’s “Trials and Tribbleations” anniversary use of the Orb of Time to get Sisko’s crew onto Kirk’s infamous tribbles encounter. But even then, remember that DTI agents Dumler and Lucsley are not poking around DS9 for lawbreaking – just follow-up debriefing. And there’s your answer. Until we get more onscreen references, it appears that the major concerns Starfleet and, indeed, the Federation have through most of Star Trek’s storytelling centuries are not with time travel per se, but what you do when you “go there.” In other words, the “Temporal Prime Directive” only forbids interference – like its earlier, namesake cousin, geared to inperson first contacts – out of fear of a massive “butterfly effect” of unintended quantum consequences to the Prime Timeline across centuries. Like Edith Keeler’s erasure enabling fascists to prevail and end Earth’s outreach even after World War Three in “The City on the Edge of Forever” (TOS) or Gabriel Bell’s erasure sparking much the same in “Past Tense” (DS9) . Our DTI agents may grouse about Kirk’s eventual 17 time trips, but until we’re given clues to the contrary onscreen it appears there wasn’t even a formal agency yet charged with temporal oversight then – both in canon time and in production time. Indeed, “Yesteryear” (TAS) shows the Guardian of Forever in use by academics and Starfleet, only a few years after its “discovery” by Kirk’s Enterprise – albeit with strict observance-only rules, akin to the “duck blind” protocols in studying lesser-developed cultures. And in “Assignment: Earth,” Kirk’s log blithely breezes along as if the ship’s 300-year backtrack to 1968 is as routine as just another colony check-in, with the “lightspeed breakaway factor” from “The Naked Time” (and, later, Star Trek IV) completely normalized in fleetspeak. But yes, by the time of the Defiant away team’s stumbling into 2024 on the eve of the Bell Riots – in DS9’s third season – Bashir can speak of an articulated Starfleet “temporal displacement policy.” Back in 2286 (and 1986), Spock and Kirk had no such concerns about their whale hunt’s ripple effects in Star Trek IV – only their gut reaction against taking Dr. Gillian Taylor with them into her future. Supposedly, time-travel itself was finally banned centuries later, but at great and stubborn cost. The Temporal Accords of 2769 held for a while but were increasingly ignored, and the Temporal War flamed up in the 30th century, via Michael Burnham’s mother Gabrielle, as seen in “Die Trying” (DSC). Even with time factions laying low in a Temporal Cold War, the eventual final putdown of the Na’khul, via Vosk’s last-gasp World War Two Nazi incursion in “Storm Front” (ENT), finally led to the banning of all timetravel technology – apparently! – by the 32nd century, as seen in “That Hope Is You,” (DSC). Of course, only time will tell... if it sticks! As a longtime Star Trek author of bestseller The TNG Companion, editor, consultant, interviewer, and archivist, Larry Nemecek hosts The Trek Files weekly for Roddenberry Podcasts, livestreams Trekland Tuesdays Live, and leads the Portal 47 monthly “backstage” fan experience and Trekland Treks location site day tours from larrynemecek.com. He is also producer of The Con of Wrath documentary, and his updated Star Trek: Stellar Cartography map/book set continues to help fans and Star Trek TV creators alike. CANON FODDER PUTTING CONTINUITY IN THE FIRING LINE DATACORE LARRY NEMECEK 38 STAR TREK