This episode proves that the method of time travel matters.

[SG-17]

Stargate has shown that the method of time travel matters. A Solar Flare induce temporal event will send you, and anything else involved back (or forward) in your same timeline, while Ancient time travel technology uses the "new reality is created the moment you go back in time" thing. At least that is the conclusion that I've come to after watching 1969, 2010, The Last Man, Continuum, Time, and now Twin Destinies.

[General Jumper One]

Yup, because you can't replicate everything perfectly, doing it the "natural" way is the way to do it.

[s09119]

Stargate has shown that the method of time travel matters. A Solar Flare induce temporal event will send you, and anything else involved back (or forward) in your same timeline, while Ancient time travel technology uses the "new reality is created the moment you go back in time" thing. At least that is the conclusion that I've come to after watching 1969, 2010, The Last Man, Continuum, Time, and now Twin Destinies.

Not really. The effects of both seem to be exactly the same.

[DigiFluid]

I don't think they've actually been consistent at all.

Erasure of Timelines
2010 -- Using solar flare and Stargate wormhole to erase existing timeline completely.

Before I Sleep -- Janus' Time Jumper allows Weir to correct the Atlantis problem, thereby erasing her original timeline.

Moebius -- Timeline A causes Timeline B, which elects to erase itself and cause Timeline C--our Stargate universe.

The Last Man -- Sheppard learns from a past he didn't experience, before travelling back in time and erasing said past from ever happening.

Continuum -- See Moebius

Time -- See Moebius


Alternate Approaches
1969 -- An combination of solar flare and Stargate wormhole causes pre-destination paradox (Hammond).

It's Good To Be King -- Janus' Time Jumper was used to observe and accurately predict events on the planet, even factoring in that someone would come along who knew how to read Ancient--a possible pre-destination paradox in itself.

Twin Destinies -- Timeline A directly interacts with Timeline B to avert itself. No Timeline C involved.

[s09119]

Yeah, but it all depends just on how much was changed that determines what ended up happening.

[TheHomegaMan]

I don't think they've actually been consistent at all.

Erasure of Timelines
2010 -- Using solar flare and Stargate wormhole to erase existing timeline completely.

Before I Sleep -- Janus' Time Jumper allows Weir to correct the Atlantis problem, thereby erasing her original timeline.

Moebius -- Timeline A causes Timeline B, which elects to erase itself and cause Timeline C--our Stargate universe.

The Last Man -- Sheppard learns from a past he didn't experience, before travelling back in time and erasing said past from ever happening.

Continuum -- See Moebius

Time -- See Moebius


Alternate Approaches
1969 -- An combination of solar flare and Stargate wormhole causes pre-destination paradox (Hammond).

It's Good To Be King -- Janus' Time Jumper was used to observe and accurately predict events on the planet, even factoring in that someone would come along who knew how to read Ancient--a possible pre-destination paradox in itself.

Twin Destinies -- Timeline A directly interacts with Timeline B to avert itself. No Timeline C involved.

They've stuck to a few core rules for time travel, namely the solar flares and Ancient technology bit. The problem comes in that other than those basic rules, time travel has been done purely for the sake of doing a time travel episode.

That's what troubles me so much about Twin Destinies: by any of the established Stargate time travel "rules", what happened should have been largely impossible. Telford back on Earth makes sense, but the rest is total BS. There's no way that Destiny +12 should have moved backward in time. The fact was, they took the easy way out with Destiny +12 going back in time. Two out of the last four episodes have pretty much ended with "Here, have another shuttle." Rather than actually stick with the idea that Destiny is damn near crippled, the writers dropped an hour long cop out on us, as well as once again making sure Telford can't spend more than a few episodes at a time on Destiny.

Spoiler:

That said, I love how they've set things up for Common Descent.

Things just felt forced this time around, as if the writers said "OK, they're really badly off. Let's drop a total solution in their laps."

[s09119]

It's their rules of time travel, they can add to them however they like. You could argue it was just as "impossible" for SG-1 to travel back in time via a solar flare and a wormhole in "1969."

[Gatefan1976]

It's their rules of time travel, they can add to them however they like. You could argue it was just as "impossible" for SG-1 to travel back in time via a solar flare and a wormhole in "1969."

It's thier rules true, to a certain extent. Once you set precedent, you either have to follow your own rules, or give a reason why you break your previous rules. If you don't, a bunch of people on the net will jump up and down and say "You can't do that!!"

[TheHomegaMan]

It's their rules of time travel, they can add to them however they like. You could argue it was just as "impossible" for SG-1 to travel back in time via a solar flare and a wormhole in "1969."

Internal consistency. I assume you're familiar with the term? I don't care what their rules are, so long as they are reasonably followed. They haven't done that.

Besides, 1969 laid down the basic idea of solar flares interacting with Stargates to travel through time. Twin Destinies basically has a solar flare instead send the entire ship back, rather than going with the established "solar flare messes with wormhole en route, potentially sending it to a different point in space while always a different point in time." There's a huge difference between introducing a new concept and ignoring precedent. It was pretty obviously done to get yet another shuttle aboard, and give an easy copout for fixing the ship. I don't see why this is so hard to get.

Spoiler:

Not to mention set up Common Descent

[KEK]

That sounds more like an addition to the rules, rather than a breaking of them to me.

[The Swarm]

WoW hold your horses people...unstable wormhole usualy vaporizes you.
Time traveling becouse of it isthe exception not the rule.

[TheHomegaMan]

That sounds more like an addition to the rules, rather than a breaking of them to me.

"Wormholes near or passing through a solar flare shall cause time travel, except when the heroes need spare parts or the writers want to do a 2 Rush episode."

Canon puts time travel due to solar flares as happening in wormhole transit. Pretty sure Destiny didn't go through one. Can we at least all recognize that this was a case of writers finding past precedent inconvenient and rewriting it purely to accomplish a specific goal?

[KEK]

"Wormholes near or passing through a solar flare shall cause time travel, except when the heroes need spare parts or the writers want to do a 2 Rush episode."

Canon puts time travel due to solar flares as happening in wormhole transit. Pretty sure Destiny didn't go through one. Can we at least all recognize that this was a case of writers finding past precedent inconvenient and rewriting it purely to accomplish a specific goal?

No. A solar flare can cause a wormhole to go back in time, but why assume only a wormhole?

[TheHomegaMan]

No. A solar flare can cause a wormhole to go back in time, but why assume only a wormhole?

Because 13 years of canon have established that time travel is the effect of the interaction between wormhole and solar flare. They have stuck to this general rule regarding solar flare and time travel, except when it neatly solves problems for the heroes. As a result of being inconsistent with prior precedent, they've given the ship the spare parts it so desperately needed, and they are now better off shuttle wise than they were at the start of the series. It's too convenient, and they used the lazy explanation of "unpredictable things happen inside a star" to get around the all too convenient inconsistency.

[Egle01]

Because 13 years of canon have established that time travel is the effect of the interaction between wormhole and solar flare.

It's not like they had every other episode about solar flares and wormholes. And as far as I can remember, it's the first time they've established a connection while in a star! It's only logical that by doing new things we learn more about SGverse physics.