Temporal Cold War - Good or Bad

[amforster]

I know a lot of people got annoyed about the temporal cold war BUT...

I actually liked the idea.

It was never fully implemented in the show. I always hoped they would include it heavily with perhaps several eps where they travel to the the future and interact with characters from TNG/DS9/Voyager.

That way we could have had things that appeared not to be canon and they could have been explained away....

The Xindi idea was rubbish.

Another cool idea would have been to intergrate the temporal cold war into the mythology surrounding Section 42. It could have turned out that there is no mention of the first enterprise in any of the other series BECAUSE the whole ship and crew became agents for Section 42 (and lets say at the time Section 42 was a good thing that turned bad over time or something).... This could link in with the time war so that it turns out that they are crucial to setting up the federation and ensuring that the time travel people don't disrupt things. Could even have linked up with the up coming theatrical release.

Never would have needed to introduce the Xindi at all.

The show could end with a spin of show called Star Trek: Section 42

This show would be a little like Torchwood crossed with Doctor Who but set in the star trek universe. Could either have the timeship relativity from the 29century OR might dispense with ships altogether and just have time travel every episode.

Just an idea..

[Ice Wolf]

The Temporal Cold war was just idiotic. The show was better without it, especially when it focussed on first contact with races from the past series. The show should have focussed more on the lead up to the formation of the federation and the Earth-Romulan War.

What is Section 42, isn't it Section 31?

Time travel is only good in small doses because most people (including writers) have trouble wrapping their heads around it.

[knowles2]

It is Section 31, would love to see a series base on those guys.

[nx01a]

The Temporal Cold war was just idiotic. The show was better without it, especially when it focused on first contact with races from the past series.

I loved the Temporal Cold War. It expressed the importance of the NX-01 time period, and I enjoyed the Suliban and their mystery benefactor. 'Earth in peril' tends to be the big draw for non-Trek fans, and the entire future of Earth and the Federation is at stake with time travel. I was hoping that the Cold War would be a vehicle to see cameos from TNG/DS9/VOY characters, not the horror of holodeck 'These are the Voyages...'.

The show should have focused more on the lead up to the formation of the Federation and the Earth-Romulan War.

I agree entirely. I hoped Future Guy was a Romulan from the future attempting to change the outcome of the Earth/Romulan War... which ironically is akin to what JJ is doing with ST: XI. ENT should have been set a few years later and dealt with the war, I agree. Two years of exploration and build-up, just like DS9, then the Romulan War [just like ENT did with the Xindi.]

What is Section 42, isn't it Section 31?

Oh yes! Section 31 is an entirely non-Gene concept, but it works SO well.

Time travel is only good in small doses because most people (including writers) have trouble wrapping their heads around it.

ENT only used the Cold War 3 times a season: 3 times in season 1, 3 times in season 2, and 3 times in the season 3/4 finale/premieres.

One of my favourite episodes of ENT is 'Future Tense'. I think the TCW would have been developed further in later seasons if not for the cancellation. The interference of Future Guy or the Tholians or whoever should have jeopardized the events and first contacts the NX should have been making, threatening the foundations of the Federation and the future.

[DigiFluid]

A war across time is an awesome idea--for any sci-fi series that doesn't already have 30 years of established television history.

The Xindi idea is pretty damn cool, but also not for the past-tense of a series with 30 years of history.

Season 4 had ideas worth exploring, and if they were absolutely dead-set on a prequel, is where they should have started. But by then I'd totally purged this b-stard child of sci-fi from my mind.

[nx01a]

I don't get where they could have gone in the future. There's only so much 'ship at warp encounters problems' that I can take. Unless it was a black-ops Section 31 show, I doubt I would have been interested.

[the fifth man]

For the most part, I didn't mind the idea behind the temporal cold war.

[Ncc-72452]

I hated it.

To this day, I don't know what the "correct" history of that time frame is. Supposedly, the whole Season 3 arc was never suppose to happen. How did this change the timeline? Are you telling me that the death of several million people, the diversion of Enterprise from her original mission for a full year, and an entire war didn't alter the future??? What history does TNG, DS9, and Voyager remember? Is this "Alternate" history their history? Or is the Trek universe in an Alternate Timeline now?

I know that Archer's actions in the Season 4 premiere supposedly "Fixed" everything, yet they all still remembered Season 3. If everything was fixed, how did they remember it?

You know, I REALLY hate the Temporal Cold War.

[Gregorius]

The temporal cold war might've been a good idea had Enterprise not been a prequel. Being a prequel they had to deal with the event to come and by having the temporal cold war they were wrecking established cannon.

However, had Enterprise been a sequel to Voyager, perhaps set in the 29th century, it might've worked. They could've used such a TCW to explain inconsistencies within the established cannon.

[The Mastage Kidd]

I hated it.

To this day, I don't know what the "correct" history of that time frame is. Supposedly, the whole Season 3 arc was never suppose to happen. How did this change the timeline? Are you telling me that the death of several million people, the diversion of Enterprise from her original mission for a full year, and an entire war didn't alter the future??? What history does TNG, DS9, and Voyager remember? Is this "Alternate" history their history? Or is the Trek universe in an Alternate Timeline now?

I know that Archer's actions in the Season 4 premiere supposedly "Fixed" everything, yet they all still remembered Season 3. If everything was fixed, how did they remember it?

You know, I REALLY hate the Temporal Cold War.

Word of god (tv tropes expression, look it up ) says that the world we see in tos/tng/etc is the world at the end of enterprise. The beginning of season 4 just stopped the timeywimey wacky paradox stuff that was going on in that episode. The Xindi attack on Earth is part of the Star Trek universe's main canon. The Xindi are Federation members in the TNG era. (one of hundreds we never see )

{addition} got so caught up answering your question I forgot to answer the threads. lol. The temporal cold war is good in small doses, but too much of it causes confusion just as it did for poor Ncc-72452.

[nx01a]

It wasn't confusing for me. Various factions tried to alter the timeline, some did [the Sphere Builders, the Suliban/Future Guy with that burnt colony] but their 'changes' were either actually part of the timeline already [I refuse to believe Earth didn't eventually 'repair' Florida, Cuba and Venezuela] or really didn't have any meaningful impact [3500 dead and sadly inconsequential alien colonists whose deaths ultimately didn't end the NX-01's mission].

[The Mastage Kidd]

It wasn't confusing for me. Various factions tried to alter the timeline, some did [the Sphere Builders, the Suliban/Future Guy with that burnt colony] but their 'changes' were either actually part of the timeline already [I refuse to believe Earth didn't eventually 'repair' Florida, Cuba and Venezuela] or really didn't have any meaningful impact [3500 dead and sadly inconsequential alien colonists whose deaths ultimately didn't end the NX-01's mission].

There's no such thing as a change to the timeline without meaningful impact. That's why timefleet exists, after all. All of the ones that stuck were already part of the tng timeline. Earth didn't use time travel to undo the Xindi attack, but they did resettle those area eventually.

[nx01a]

I meant terraform the areas sliced.
Chaos theory butterflies are one thing, but killing those people didn't create the post-apocalyptic future that Archer saw at the end of that episode; him not being there did. Archer = important to the timeline. 3500 random aliens = not important to the timeline. I'm sure the timeline of that alien species was altered, but it didn't have a massive or even relevant impact on the Federation's core timeline. It still got formed, as did Daniels' time agency.

[The Mastage Kidd]

I meant terraform the areas sliced.
Chaos theory butterflies are one thing, but killing those people didn't create the post-apocalyptic future that Archer saw at the end of that episode; him not being there did. Archer = important to the timeline. 3500 random aliens = not important to the timeline. I'm sure the timeline of that alien species was altered, but it didn't have a massive or even relevant impact on the Federation's core timeline. It still got formed, as did Daniels' time agency.

Seeing as we've never seen the timeline that included those aliens it's hard to say what impact losing them had.

[nx01a]

I'd say that the entire TOS-VOY era was the timeline that included those colonists not having died. Still, we saw Riker and the Ent D intact and seemingly unchanged by their deaths in 'These Are The Voyages'. So, no biggie.