Ever since my captain (well, one of them) did the first Krenim mission, and the suggestion was first made, my question (possibly channeling McCoy's thoughts on Genesis) has been: "And then what?"
So let's say we go ahead and build a flying time gun, with the generous assistance of our entirely trustworthy allies, the Krenim... and then what?
Suppose we do find the perfect spot to change history in our favor... and then what?
Hooray, the war is over! And we still have... someone (Nog?) flying around the galaxy at the controls of a ship that can wipe entire civilizations out of having ever existed...
Now what?
Are they going to keep it around, "just in case"? Make a few more "tiny", "harmless" edits? Even if they do the IMO sensible thing and dismantle it (or blow it up), the idea still exists - the genie, as they say, is out of the bottle.
Will we even be told what happens, or will it be one more dangling plot thread?
EDIT: Since the war was ultimately resolved through "conventional" time travel, of the sort that's possible through other means - the Guardian of Forever, slingshot maneuver, etc etc - IMO the best solution might be to fire the time gun at itself, retroactively and entirely removing it from the timeline, similar to the end of the original two-part VOY episode. Just leave a temporally-shielded note to try something else, and not waste time (hah) going down a blind alley.
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"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
It gets kind of weird though, when one considers it can also be in the hands of the player, it was rather strange when the Annorax became available to players before even the second mission in which it would be in NPC hands was released, so there could be TWO Annorax ships, as if one wasn't scary enough to be around O.o.
And sell the floor plans to the Lobi Consortium, of course.
Bonus points if doing that right away, instead of trying to hold the Iconians back until the weapon is ready, means that we don't lose all those ships and people with that brilliant "get everyone together and charge straight at them" *cough "plan."
Still wondering how he managed to dodge that particular doff assignment.......
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My forum single-issue of rage: Make the Proton Experimental Weapon go for subsystem targetting!
Since it's existence is itself now plot-required (for Midnight), they can't actually erase it from history anymore like in Voyager.
If I had to make a guess at this point, the Krenim, or Sela, or some other wacko who wants to undo some past disaster with no care for the consequences will get ahold of it. For this purpose it doesn't really matter if it was permanently modified to only make portals or if it can still just erase things like before. Then we'll have to stop them and blow the ship up.
To everyone who voted for VOY and Krenim: you have only yourselves to blame for this godawful story.
— Sabaton, "Great War"
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There is a principle in time travel fiction I have heard called, "Conservation of History" which is a play on Conservation of Momentum. In effect, it results in, 'whatever you do in the past has already happened' and, in fact, your participation is required to bring about the history we know. No matter what you do in the past, it can't change history because it already happened that way.
It's also mis-named "Predestination Paradox" but it is not a paradox at all, nor does it in any way impact your free will to choose. The end result will be that you do exactly what needs to be done in the past to insure your future plays out as it has, which is exactly what we have happen in Midnight.
There is a less commonly used aspect of Conservation of History which is that the farther you get from the point of temporal disturbance, (assuming you can alter history,) the less its effect. Let's use an hypothetical example here, if you will indulge me:
Assume you time travel back and kill Hitler. (A famous plot point of the post-war era of SciFi.) Conservation of History says that WW2 still happens with some other madman in charge, and that by a decade, century, or millennia from the alteration, the 'new' history is virtually indistinguishable from the 'old' one.
This is the opposite of the Butterfly Effect. In this case, rather than a butterfly's wings starting a storm on the other side of the world, you could create a storm on one side of the world without disturbing the butterfly at all. This is why Annorax, despite all of his manipulation, couldn't undo his wife's death. Time heals itself.
Thus, the timeship as a weapon is useless. No matter what you do with it, you can only eventually get the same result you had before you began.
Oooh! Story idea! You go back in time to kill Hitler, but accidentally mis-identify some poor TRIBBLE as Hitler and instead you kill Archduke Ferdinand. Not only don't you alter history, you actually create the circumstances that turn Hitler into a radical!
They had the plans for the ship for over 200 years, and never saw fit to recreate it til now, because as they themselves felt, the slow decline of their empire was probably in the cards all along; but their persecution and near extinction at the hands of the Vaadwaur was not.
If anything, the Krenim will probably just be asked to be left alone like they were before. They really seemed to have no interest in the galactic political stage.
At most, I could see some of them acting as consultants for temporal affairs and whatnot. Their understanding of all things relating to time manipulation will more than likely be very appreciated, but other than that? The Krenim will more than likely be a non-issue from here on out.
This! For the right price, you can wipe out anyone or anything. It's gonna cost ya though.
"17822 was a very interesting year on Ferenginar. In that year alone, over twenty thousand Grand Nagi held office; the Ferengi Financial Exchange crashed 3152 times, while setting 12322 record highs; there were 41098 civil wars; an unknown number of Ferengi-incited interstellar wars (estimates are in the millions); and the Ferengi sun went nova at least once a week.
In other words, 17822 was the year Ferenginar discovered time travel."
-- Legends of the Ferengi, Ira Steven Behr and Robert Hewitt Wolfe
And remind us yet again that they didn't bother to watch Year of Hell because if they did they'd know the Annorax designed temporal shields make it immune to all attacks?
Well, that's not quite what he did but the ship we used was hastily constructed and unfinished, likely lacking major systems.
What, more hastily constructed than the Voyager's temporal shields made on a broken ship while under constant attack that still manage to be somehow better?
Yeah I don't think so.
You mean like nukes in WWII, which set of a COLD WAR, only this time with TEMPORAL weaponry?
Hey they've got to lead into it somehow. That's not saying "TCP arc confirmed!" but that little gem from ENT is pretty much the only significant future conflict (besides the war with the Sphere Builders) that Cryptic could nudge the setting towards.
I actually like it, it very immediately builds continuity between STO's galactic fun-land and the IP on which it's (to varying degrees) based without resorting to yet another nod, cameo, or other reference.
Notable missions: Apex [AEI], Gemini [SSF], Trident [AEI], Evolution's Smile [SSF], Transcendence
Looking for something new to play? I've started building Foundry missions again in visual novel form!
The temporal cold war was such a ludicrously bad idea that the only way the sane writers of season 4 ENT saw fit to end it was with space TRIBBLE. That's how much contempt they and the audience had for it.
The Temporal Cold War was a good idea in concept, it was just very poorly executed on the show.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
And I think part of the reason they didn't reuse the Relativity is because they wanted costumes that looked less Star Trek-y but also because the Relativity bridge is actually the movie Sovereign bridge with parts of Voyager's sickbay grafted on. I'm not sure they had access to the sets.
Answer- Now the Federation has to make sure the ship doesn't fall into the hands of any other faction. Only the Federation can be trusted with such a weapon.