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Time Travel in Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)
"There may be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash." (Spock, TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever")
The Series
TOS: The Naked Time The first time travel in Star Trek is little spectacular and occurs at the end of the episode when the Enterprise escapes from the collapsing planet. While the ship is moving to the past, the (mechanical!) clock on the bridge is running in reverse direction, amounting to three days altogether. The clock is obviously not an autonomous ship system, as it would have been synchronous to the "biological clocks" of the crew (i.e. forward) in that case, but displays a Federation time signal. It is mentioned at the end of the episode that the same method may be purposely used to travel to the past. We don't know if exactly that is done on later occasions. It seems that the slingshot effect (TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday") is the preferred method.
In the remastered version of this episode the look of the clock was
updated. Also, the new chronometer displays not only hours, minutes (left) and
seconds (right), but the stardate on the left side and the shipboard time on the
right side. The label "shipboard" is an obvious problem, as it
insinuates that the clock itself is located on board, which is not possible as
it would have to run forward all the time.
Classification: travel to the past, without consequences
TOS: Tomorrow is Yesterday Though it is one of the most exciting descriptions of a time travel, this episode raises a bunch of problems to be explained. First of all, beaming Air Force pilot Christopher out of his cockpit should already have set off a new timeline and potentially have caused a paradox. At latest Kirk's decision to keep him aboard should have altered history. When the decision is already made and Christopher has no future on 20th century Earth any longer, Spock nonetheless finds out that Christopher will have a famous son. Obviously this record remains unscathed just as the rest of the ship and its crew, indicating that they are somehow protected against paradoxes all the time (this will routinely happen almost every time someone in Star Trek travels to the past, so in later occurrences it is often not worth mentioning). Besides, Spock's attitude that insignificant individuals have no influence on the timeline is unusually arrogant and illogical.
Secondly, the efforts to restore the old timeline are redundant. Basically the dilemma can be solely resolved by traveling back to the very instant when Christopher first spots the starship. Nevertheless the Enterprise crew steals the films taken by Christopher from the Air Force base, though they will never have existed once the timeline is corrected. It is useless likewise to beam back the Air Force sergeant who found the intruders, since the timeline will eventually be restored by beaming back Christopher at an earlier absolute time. The whole hassle may be entertaining but is futile in the end.
Thirdly, it is impossible to use the
transporter at warp speed without matching velocities. However, exactly this
would be required to beam the two people back while heading
towards the sun for the time leap. Moreover, even if impulse
speed were sufficient, Earth would be out of transporter range
within a second, unless the short time leap backward could be
done in orbit. In this case traveling back in time and forward
would be separate procedures. In this episode, however, both time
travels look like they are meant to be one continuous motion in time.
Classification: past incursion, corrected
TOS: The City on the Edge of Forever In this episode McCoy, who has become temporarily insane after an overdose of cordrazine, travels back to New York in the 1930s using a time portal, the Guardian of Forever. Obviously the Federation ceases to exist in the instant he rescues the pacifist Edith Keeler and thus involuntarily enables the Nazis to win the Second World War. So when McCoy enters the time portal, history is immediately altered. The landing party of the Enterprise are the only remnants of the old timeline, while the Enterprise has disappeared together with the rest of Starfleet. Though it is not explicitly mentioned, the planet has to be shielded against changes in the timeline, an effect that will be used as a loophole in several other episodes. We do not know what happens to McCoy in New York after changing the timeline. Probably he is protected likewise, since he would otherwise cause a paradox with unknown impact.
Based on the recorded data of McCoy's disappearance, Kirk and Spock select exactly the right instant to enter the portal and to correct history. It is quite astonishing that the two officers arrive only a few days before McCoy, since, based on what the portal shows, a delay of only one second would have led to a deviation of many decades, let alone a wrong place to arrive at.
Basically any of McCoy's actions in the
past could have changed the timeline. Fortunately Spock has
records of both timelines shown in the portal, one prior to and
one after McCoy's incursion. So Kirk and Spock can conclude that
Edith Keeler is the focal point of the timeline switch and they
do not have to speculate on it. The inevitableness of Edith
Keeler's death makes this episode probably the most tragical of
all Star Trek, not only for Kirk and McCoy. However, it is
improbable that Edith Keeler dies in the same accident in the
original timeline without Kirk, Spock and McCoy being at the
scene as well as in the final (restored) timeline where the
three are in a way responsible for her death. Maybe this is an incidence of a
predestined timeline, but there is no further evidence.
Classification: past incursion, corrected
TOS: Assignment: Earth Unlike in almost all other episodes the Enterprise,
using the slingshot effect, travels back in time intentionally to
investigate an atomic bomb detonation in Earth's atmosphere in
1968. Such missions seem to be prohibited by the Temporal
Directive in the 24th century and later. Having arrived in the
20th century, the Enterprise crew and a mysterious man called
Gary Seven both attempt to prevent an nuclear conflict, however, they hinder one
another in doing so. The result of the uncoordinated
efforts is a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere about 100 miles
above the surface, whose investigation is exactly the reason for the time travel
in the first place. So this episode presupposes a predestined timeline that is
not actually changed by any of the time traveler's actions. This is inconsistent
with most other episodes, and especially not with the two other occurrences of
the slingshot effect where there is no sign of predetermination.
Classification: predestined past incursion ("causality loop")
TOS: Wink of an Eye In a broad sense this episode involves time travel. Time elapses very fast for the Scalosians with respect to the Enterprise crew and the rest of the universe. The crew notices nothing of the Scalosians' presence but some insect-like humming, the latter being just moving and speaking too fast to be perceived. Vice versa, the Scalosians see the Enterprise crew stand still. The effect of imperceptibility requires a speed ratio Scalosians/Enterprise of roughly 1,000,000. In this case Kirk and Spock would have spent several decades on the fast time level and should have aged accordingly, while only a few minutes would have passed by from the perspective of their crewmates. Besides, already at a ratio of 100 a human being, whose aural perception has a cut-off frequency of typically about 15kHz, could not hear any talking or noise of the accelerated people while still being able to see them.
The most striking inconsistency of this episode is that the effect is not due to some technological device that alters the course of time itself, but is based on the solely biological acceleration of organisms. When Captain Kirk drinks the drugged coffee, his body begins to run faster as well, while he stays within our space-time. The problem is that body functions, e.g. heartbeat and blood circulation, metabolism and neural activity, are subject to strict physical and biological limitations, and cannot just be accelerated, let alone by a factor of some 1,000,000. Not only is a brain working at multiple light speed a biological miracle, it is also physically impossible within normal space-time. On the other hand, the problem of UV or, vice versa, IR shift in case of different time levels does not occur in this episode. While the speaking frequency of the accelerated person is of course much higher and actually too high to be perceived by a normal human, light coming from the person is subject to the normal laws of physics. So the invisibility effect in this case is based on the inertia of the human eye and possibly on a Doppler shift that is not negligible -- and not because the light waves themselves are "accelerated". The internal sensors of the Enterprise, however, should have been able to track the Scalosians' movements, since we can suppose they are much more advanced than present-day image sensors.
In one scene of this episode Kirk fires a
phaser at the Scalosian woman Deela. The phaser not being
accelerated, Deela is able to move faster and can avoid it. Here the question crops up
how to accelerate inanimate matter
or energy, which would require a completely different method than
for lifeforms. If we assume that the beam moves at light speed and take this as a
speed reference,
Deela's acceleration ratio would be even in the range of 100,000,000. It would be
associated with a significant Doppler shift of outgoing light with every
of her movements, not to mention relativistic effects. However,
irrespective of the light beam's actual speed, Deela would never
be able to make way for it. This is due to the simple fact that
she could perceive the beam as late as it reaches her eyes, and this
is certainly too late to react.
Classification: different time levels
TOS: All Our Yesterdays It is a really weird idea to send back the whole population of a doomed planet to the past, since this would cause millionfold paradoxes that interfere with each other, even if all time travelers did their best to obey the non-incursion directive. However, exactly this was done on the planet Sarpeidon. The time portal itself and Mr. Atoz (A to Z) are not affected by the paradoxes, or the paradoxes just do not become obvious.
The fact that the time traveler's organism
has to be "prepared" in order to survive in
the new time suggests that there is a kind of temporal signature
of matter. However, this concept does not appear in most other
time travel episodes. Moreover, back in the past Spock behaves
like an ancient Vulcan, which seems to be a sign of adaptation to
the current time, paradoxically although Spock has actually not been adapted
and is about to die because of it. This twist doesn't make any sense.
Classification: past incursion, without visible consequences
The Movies
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Using the slingshot effect, Captain Kirk & crew "time warp" to the 20th century in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey to get hold of a humpback whale. It is not evident why it is necessary to land the ship in San Francisco which probably consumes much more energy than staying in orbit. Moreover, the ship on the ground could be detected any time. In the 20th century the crew members do no care very much about the timeline, and they produce a lot of possible paradoxes due to their mere presence and their actions. The most severe error is to reveal the formula of transparent aluminium which will almost certainly alter history and lead to a paradox. Moreover, Chekov's phaser and communicator which remain in the past and the unforgettable hospital scene with a patient suddenly growing a new kidney and other "miracles" will surely entail consequences. Finally, Gillian Taylor who may have given birth to children leaves the 20th century without anyone considering the consequences.
On an ironical side note, the windows of Starfleet
Headquarters in the 23rd century are still made of glass which gets
shattered by the storms induced by the Whale Probe. Glass could be still in use,
but in such a crucial place?
Classification: intentional past incursion, without visible consequences
Credits
Thanks to Vinnie for the note about the glass windows in the 23rd century.
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