07-19-2022, 02:20 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-19-2022, 05:31 PM by FaceInTheCrowd.)
That last point goes back to the near-universal science fiction rule that people who travel in time (or, in this case, stand close enough to the time machine when someone else does) are insulated against the effects of time changes. This actually makes some sense, because if you were building a portal to send people back in time, you'd want some sort of "protected lifeguard" in place who wouldn't be affected by changes to the timeline who could recognize a bad result and take the necessary steps to undo it. Or maybe the Guardian just preserves you in this kind of a situation because it's an ***hole that enjoys rubbing it in when you muck up your own history.
Trek's "don't meet yourself or you'll destroy the universe" rule was about meeting your doppelganger from the antimatter universe. I don't think original Trek ever addressed the consequences of meeting your past self in time travel (it might have come up in one of the later Treks, but if it did I don't remember it). I do recall some time travel story where meeting your past self would have catastrophic effects on all of space-time, but offhand I can't remember what it was.
I think all of the potential ways going in after McCoy could have gone wrong fall under the category of "it's either that or just sit here and wait until we starve to death."
And McCoy definitely should not have been tinkering with his instruments while the ship was rattling. He should have packed everything up and waited until he was back in sickbay. I don't think we ever saw him do that again, so maybe he learned from the experience.
And I wonder if the Enterprise Kirk knew was gone because it was now the ISS Enterprise on its way to plunder some planet on the other side of the quadrant.
Trek's "don't meet yourself or you'll destroy the universe" rule was about meeting your doppelganger from the antimatter universe. I don't think original Trek ever addressed the consequences of meeting your past self in time travel (it might have come up in one of the later Treks, but if it did I don't remember it). I do recall some time travel story where meeting your past self would have catastrophic effects on all of space-time, but offhand I can't remember what it was.
I think all of the potential ways going in after McCoy could have gone wrong fall under the category of "it's either that or just sit here and wait until we starve to death."
And McCoy definitely should not have been tinkering with his instruments while the ship was rattling. He should have packed everything up and waited until he was back in sickbay. I don't think we ever saw him do that again, so maybe he learned from the experience.
And I wonder if the Enterprise Kirk knew was gone because it was now the ISS Enterprise on its way to plunder some planet on the other side of the quadrant.