Theoretical Conclusion

[Aerilon]

Okay, so whilst I'm hoping the writers of Terra Nova actually get to tell the whole story, I doubt they will. Far too many shows as of late end up prematurely cancelled, mainly because they lack the viewers that make it feasible to continue producing the show in question.

This happened with Caprica, Farscape, Heroes, and Stargate Universe for the more common shows here, along with others such as the Cape, the Event, and Outcasts. I'm sure several more shows will follow suit as time goes on, it's to be expected.

Anyway, I was thinking earlier about the events of Terra Nova, specifically everything we know thus far. Granted we don't know a huge amount, but I think we know enough to make some sort of wild guess as to the end game of the show. Now, what do we know?

We know that a probe was sent back in time so that it could be located in the present/future - this seems to be their attempt at finding out whether the past and the future were of the same timeline.

We are told that Terra Nova (and the Terra Nova past) is on a parallel timeline, that would co-exist with the one from which the came from. Thus, the future and the new future can exist together, without overwriting each other. This is where my theory comes to light. I don't believe the timelines are different at all, I believe them to be exactly the same one.

Firstly, the probe. They sent it back 65 Million years ago; did they really expect to find it? Anything could have happened in that time. It would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, it could have melted in a Volcano, it could have been destroyed in a Rock/landslide, or it could have been eaten by a really large Dinosaur (okay unlikely, but humour me). If they're using the probe as proof that the past is a different timeline to the future, then they should have thought about results little more before they sent the thing.

Secondly, if the two timelines are linked, then something must happen to our new colony at some point in time, thus nobody finding out about it in the future. I'm thinking well outside the box, but we know that there is a cataclysmic event at some point in the past that wipes out many of the Dinosaurs, and decimates the surface of the planet. What if it wasn't a meteorite at all, but rather a human-scientific / military experiment gone terribly wrong.

Think, Terra Nova is only the start, they've got thousands of years yet, and if they're high on population control, they're never going to conquer the world. A group of people get together to create a new energy source or something, everything goes wrong, they take half the planet with them in the resulting explosion. Either the future-humans would still evolve as they normally would, or a few survivors manage to keep the population going, thus explaining the 'missing link' in the process.

But yeah, that's all I've got, I think it adds up. My brain hurts a little at the moment, but I do believe my little theory could work. Would be a little lame I suppose, in that there would be no hope for humanity (unless they managed to sort the atmosphere out in the future) but from the perspective of 2149 and 65million BC, it's only ever an everlasting loop.

Thoughts?

[Joe]

I thing that was some movie where they found some leftovers from the long past of people on earth with lot's of high tech stuff that some how got wiped out.

But maybe it's like that sliders episode where they where on a earth that rotating on its axis slightly faster but completing one solar revolution in the same amount of time, has built up a bit of a time lapse due to gravitometric forces. (alt earth same time line)

Or it can be like a stargate and they think it's a time portal but it's not. (not on earth, same time line, but not in any kind of alt reality)

[Steam]

I have mixed views on this, I do think that it is the same time line and like you said would explain the missing link but also it isn't just because(I dont know lol). Besides who knows what probe it was it could have been a space probe so that it would just be in constant orbit or make it so it gets sent to the moon

[LtColCarter]

Okay, so whilst I'm hoping the writers of Terra Nova actually get to tell the whole story, I doubt they will. Far too many shows as of late end up prematurely cancelled, mainly because they lack the viewers that make it feasible to continue producing the show in question.

This happened with Caprica, Farscape, Heroes, and Stargate Universe for the more common shows here, along with others such as the Cape, the Event, and Outcasts. I'm sure several more shows will follow suit as time goes on, it's to be expected.

Anyway, I was thinking earlier about the events of Terra Nova, specifically everything we know thus far. Granted we don't know a huge amount, but I think we know enough to make some sort of wild guess as to the end game of the show. Now, what do we know?

We know that a probe was sent back in time so that it could be located in the present/future - this seems to be their attempt at finding out whether the past and the future were of the same timeline.

We are told that Terra Nova (and the Terra Nova past) is on a parallel timeline, that would co-exist with the one from which the came from. Thus, the future and the new future can exist together, without overwriting each other. This is where my theory comes to light. I don't believe the timelines are different at all, I believe them to be exactly the same one.

Firstly, the probe. They sent it back 65 Million years ago; did they really expect to find it? Anything could have happened in that time. It would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, it could have melted in a Volcano, it could have been destroyed in a Rock/landslide, or it could have been eaten by a really large Dinosaur (okay unlikely, but humour me). If they're using the probe as proof that the past is a different timeline to the future, then they should have thought about results little more before they sent the thing.

Secondly, if the two timelines are linked, then something must happen to our new colony at some point in time, thus nobody finding out about it in the future. I'm thinking well outside the box, but we know that there is a cataclysmic event at some point in the past that wipes out many of the Dinosaurs, and decimates the surface of the planet. What if it wasn't a meteorite at all, but rather a human-scientific / military experiment gone terribly wrong.

Think, Terra Nova is only the start, they've got thousands of years yet, and if they're high on population control, they're never going to conquer the world. A group of people get together to create a new energy source or something, everything goes wrong, they take half the planet with them in the resulting explosion. Either the future-humans would still evolve as they normally would, or a few survivors manage to keep the population going, thus explaining the 'missing link' in the process.

But yeah, that's all I've got, I think it adds up. My brain hurts a little at the moment, but I do believe my little theory could work. Would be a little lame I suppose, in that there would be no hope for humanity (unless they managed to sort the atmosphere out in the future) but from the perspective of 2149 and 65million BC, it's only ever an everlasting loop.

Thoughts?

Guess I'm not buying it. :-) If they are smart enough to build a probe...they would have built in ways to track it. Use a metal alloy that gives off a certain type of radiation that is only found in the 2149 time frame or various other possibilities. I also don't think they're on the past of our Earth...I think its an alternate time line. As for the missing link theory...there is no evidence that man existed (in any of his evolutionary forms) anywhere near the time of dinosaurs.

[thekillman]

it would be possible to make a kind of " impossible isotope mixture" and use that to trace the Probe

[Gollumpus]

Anyway, I was thinking earlier about the events of Terra Nova, specifically everything we know thus far. Granted we don't know a huge amount, but I think we know enough to make some sort of wild guess as to the end game of the show. Now, what do we know?

We know that a probe was sent back in time so that it could be located in the present/future - this seems to be their attempt at finding out whether the past and the future were of the same timeline.

We are told that Terra Nova (and the Terra Nova past) is on a parallel timeline, that would co-exist with the one from which the came from. Thus, the future and the new future can exist together, without overwriting each other. This is where my theory comes to light. I don't believe the timelines are different at all, I believe them to be exactly the same one.

Firstly, the probe. They sent it back 65 Million years ago; did they really expect to find it? Anything could have happened in that time. It would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean, it could have melted in a Volcano, it could have been destroyed in a Rock/landslide, or it could have been eaten by a really large Dinosaur (okay unlikely, but humour me). If they're using the probe as proof that the past is a different timeline to the future, then they should have thought about results little more before they sent the thing.

Secondly, if the two timelines are linked, then something must happen to our new colony at some point in time, thus nobody finding out about it in the future. I'm thinking well outside the box, but we know that there is a cataclysmic event at some point in the past that wipes out many of the Dinosaurs, and decimates the surface of the planet. What if it wasn't a meteorite at all, but rather a human-scientific / military experiment gone terribly wrong.

Think, Terra Nova is only the start, they've got thousands of years yet, and if they're high on population control, they're never going to conquer the world. A group of people get together to create a new energy source or something, everything goes wrong, they take half the planet with them in the resulting explosion. Either the future-humans would still evolve as they normally would, or a few survivors manage to keep the population going, thus explaining the 'missing link' in the process.

I believe there are indeed two different timelines. This being said:

1.) The probe. The probe is a very small needle in a huge haystack (the Earth). It might indeed be made of something which leaves a specific signature in the environment, which may then be identified by an investigator in 2149. This assumes that the probe hasn't been destroyed (eg. volcano), and is someplace "easy" to find. I don't mean that it might be on top of a mountain or under thousands of feet of water and/or rock, but rather, do the people of 2149 even know where on Earth the rift opens 85 million years ago? The rift's exit point might be different from its entry point which could complicate locating the probe. Why might it not be found?

First possibility, that there is a second timeline and the probe cannot be found because it's just not there in 2149. (My personal fave.)

Second possibility, it was completely destroyed in some manner as yet to be determined.

Third possibility, the rift exit location is different from the entry point. No particular reason, it just is. So, if you stood on the spot where you exited the rift, and waited for 85 million years, there might be no guarantee you'd be in Chicago when 2149 rolled along. You might find yourself in Kentucky or in Asia Minor, or under 5 miles of ocean. There has never been any statement (to my recollection) that the rift is in a fixed space in time.

Fourth possibility, the rift does have a fixed, geographical(?) point for entry and exit. We would now have to address continental drift. If the rift entry point is located near 2149 Chicago, the exit point may be somewhere to the south and east of Illinois as that is where Chicago of 85 million years would have been located. The rift point would then have moved as the continental plates shifted across the globe.

Fifth possibility, the rift is fixed in space, but that point is not fixed to a point on the surface of the Earth. So, as the continental plate moved west and north, the rift point would remain stationary. So, while the location of the Terra Nova colony moved west and north, Chicago in 2149 would move in underneath.

2.) The fate of the Terra Nova colony. A military/scientific project with a big downside is an interesting idea. However, I suspect that it wouldn't work for a couple reasons. First, an event of the magnitude you are suggesting would have been recognized in the paleontological records. Second, you are still be talking about over 84 million years ago. Human ancestors started branching off from the apes only in the last 5 million years (or so), and early homo sapiens evolved by as late as 250,000 years ago. That's a long time to keep the family tree growing.

I figure there's a greater likelihood that they get wiped out by a meteor impact. There were still a significant amount of impact events happening at that point the past. It wouldn't be *THE BIG ONE*, but it wouldn't have to be. It could be accomplished by a comet breaking up in the atmosphere, which would result in a number of smaller impacts covering a larger territory, much like one nuclear missile which contains multiple, smaller warheads rather than one big one.

Timing is important in this scenario. It would have to happen while the colony was still small, and condensed in a specific area (10's of miles or so). The impact might not even kill off all of the colonists (depending upon their location at time of impact), but it would leave them with minimal resources and chances for survival. Depending on whether they could communicate with 2149, they might be without a lifeline from the future.

And what of the rift? Potentially, it could be buried or otherwise disrupted due to the energy from the blast. If 2149 tried to communicate and got back no response, they might still send a group through the rift, but to what fate? They could well be sending them towards a death similar to a goa'uld traveling in an incoming wormhole, hitting the gate iris in the SGC.


regards,
G.

[Archaeis]

Just a side note on human evolution, there is no actual "missing link" in the fossil record. The only real question left is whether the Homo erectus that first left Africa and expanded out eventually evolved into Homo sapiens, or if Homo sapiens evolved in Africa after Homo erectus and then expanded out and out-competed them to extinction, thereby replacing them.