A different time stream

[targis]

They said on the show that when they went back in time that they went into a different time stream and their actions wouldn't affect the future but then the sixers said that who controlled the past controlled the future.

The way I understand it is that if they are in a different time stream then they are in a AU and whatever they do there wouldn't change the future where they came from since that future is on another stream. So I don't understand how controlling Terra Nova could change anything back in their original time stream.

[Vergon6]

Either, they aren't really in a separate time stream or maybe they just mean that whoever controls the past, will have determining factor how they shape the future of the planet in this new timestream.

[jpfort1957]

Somethig is up!!! They don't seem to want to kill the dinosaurs that would eat them...........they want to just chase them away, if possible???The guys in the towers with the big sonic cannons were aiming at the gound around the dino's feet. That doesn't seem like much of a survival plan.

Maybe they haven't quite found that other stream yet?

[krpto]

I'm thinking the government or at least some of its scientists told its people that they dont have to worry about terra nova effecting the past and creating a butterfly effect due to it being a new time stream so that the people wouldn't object to sending groups to the past where in reality they have no idea what effect them going to the past will have.

[Clois/is/hot]

^^^That's how I took the comment and the Sixers figured out the Gov/Scientists BS the time stream theory to the people.

Then we find out later when the show ends a meteor didn't kill off the dinosours...people did. Dun..dun..dun.....

[darkphoenix21]

Either, they aren't really in a separate time stream or maybe they just mean that whoever controls the past, will have dedtermining factor how they shape the future of the planet in this new timestream.

That's how I understood it. It seemed more of who has the control so far and it seems that the sixers have thrown a wrench on things. And it looked like Mira and her crew know something the others don't.

[dru-zod2501]

Either, they aren't really in a separate time stream or maybe they just mean that whoever controls the past, will have determining factor how they shape the future of the planet in this new timestream.

I thought that, otherwise why make such a conspiracy about who made the drawings? But it then begs the question, if they aren't in a separate timeline, then why didn't the changes they made before the pilot have any effect on the present/future and why didn't the probe register in their time? All great questions I can't wait to have answered.

[Xanderman]

But it then begs the question, if they aren't in a separate timeline, then why didn't the changes they made before the pilot have any effect on the present/future and why didn't the probe register in their time? All great questions I can't wait to have answered.

Because if it's the same timeline, one universe, then nothing they do is changing the past. They are only fulfilling their own roles in the past, unknowingly. Basically a causal loop. What this might mean is that mankind has no real hope or future in the past, but rather, they need to somehow use their time in the past in some way, learn something/develop something/themselves that can be returned to the future to save it/help it. Either that or they all leave Earth in the past, go to another planet via spaceships or wormholes/"stargates", and all traces of their civilization or presence in the past gets wiped out by the meteor that ends the dinosaurs. Heck they could even go so far as to say these humans in the past end up being the "missing link" to the origin of the human species on Earth. They seemed to make it a big point that it was a one way trip. But that's obviously not going to end up being true. So when she said whoever controls the past controls the future, she might have been referring to the future they all left--that one day these people from the past would return to the future to help it. As for the probe, if it's the same timeline, it might not register because it gets destroyed/deactivated in some way (by natural means or on purpose by someone that also goes back in time). Either way I hope it's not actually another time stream/timeline, as who cares if you pollute/destroy one world when you can just hop into the next one. Mankind can fart its way across universes to its heart's content. Parallel universes sicken me.

[Saber]

Somethig is up!!! They don't seem to want to kill the dinosaurs that would eat them...........they want to just chase them away, if possible???The guys in the towers with the big sonic cannons were aiming at the gound around the dino's feet. That doesn't seem like much of a survival plan.

Maybe they haven't quite found that other stream yet?

I notice that also… maybe the don’t want to be responsible for another type of environmental catastrophe. You know big dino poop fertilizes and enriches the soil which is able to produce more trees, which then produces cleaner air as the filter. Maybe the dinosaurs are the key to the eco problem in the future.

[Baron Karza]

I doubt they're in an alternate timeline.

The new colony just happened to be conveniently set up some 20 million years before the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs. There's every chance that the Terra Nova project either was a complete failure or is actually meant to serve another purpose altogether. The government is involved, so...

As for the probe itself- the commander's son probably found or will find a way to accelerate himself forward through time and will use the probe to do it.

Then an alternate timeline will split off and become the Star Trek universe.

[supercatmom]

OK my take is that there are alot of secrets in Terra Nova to keep us in suspense.

There in another time line so that what they do does not affect their future but something is wrong.
Maybe the sixers are from this time line future.
Also something was said to the effect that Terrsa Nova had a different purpose then what everyone thought and the head guy's son didn't like it and that is way he is awol.

[Exedore]

Because if it's the same timeline, one universe, then nothing they do is changing the past. They are only fulfilling their own roles in the past, unknowingly. Basically a causal loop.

Another possibility is that it's the same timeline and you can attempt to make changes in the past but history is resistant to changes; generally things course-correct so that the major outcome remains the same even though details might change. Unless you are successful in doing something that is big enough to finally create huge changes in the timeline, thus completely rewriting the future.

I remember there was an episode of Twilight Zone (the original series) where someone attempts to prevent Lincoln's assassination. He fails but his actions in the past create a minor change in his present (a man who was a waiter is now a rich guy because his ancestor, a 19th century policeman, believed the time traveler and tried to saved Lincoln; he failed of course but became famous for his efforts). Or Denzel Washington's movie, Déjà Vu, where their attempts to change the past initially only create small changes (the present remains basically the same) until they make a strong enough impact by sending Denzel back.


Damn I have a headache now.

[Baron Karza]

I'm not at all sure that whether it's an alt timeline or not will really make any difference to the story. After that last episode I don't think the writers are even taking their jobs seriously. The main issue is probably the "true" purpose of the pilgrimages. The sixers are probably criminals on a sort of work-release and know the real story and won't spill it because of some (insert techno-babble here) that prevents it (or maybe good ol' fashioned hostages back home).

[Xanderman]

Another possibility is that it's the same timeline and you can attempt to make changes in the past but history is resistant to changes; generally things course-correct so that the major outcome remains the same even though details might change. Unless you are successful in doing something that is big enough to finally create huge changes in the timeline, thus completely rewriting the future.

I remember there was an episode of Twilight Zone (the original series) where someone attempts to prevent Lincoln's assassination. He fails but his actions in the past create a minor change in his present (a man who was a waiter is now a rich guy because his ancestor, a 19th century policeman, believed the time traveler and tried to saved Lincoln; he failed of course but became famous for his efforts). Or Denzel Washington's movie, Déjà Vu, where their attempts to change the past initially only create small changes (the present remains basically the same) until they make a strong enough impact by sending Denzel back.


Damn I have a headache now.

Or something like the movie The Time Machine (remake), where the inventor discovers that he can't go back in time and change something that's connected to the reason he goes back in time. He creates a time machine to save his fiancee's life, however no matter what he does he can't save her. And later he learns it's because if he saves her, then his younger self would never create the time machine, and no machine means no going back to save her. However I found this concept flawed because he could have simply told his younger self that he had to create a time machine and go back in time and save her. She didn't have to actually die for him to create the machine, his younger self only needed to be convinced.

I'm not at all sure that whether it's an alt timeline or not will really make any difference to the story. After that last episode I don't think the writers are even taking their jobs seriously.

Lol. Bad writing aside I doubt they're actually in another timeline/universe, as that's too much of a convenient solution. Pollute the hell out of one universe and just jump into another, problems solved. I think it's one universe/one timeline (or at least, that's my preference). Who knows, maybe the fracture/anomaly that the future scientists discovered was created or sent to the future by these people from the past, or is connected to their existence in the past in some way, as if the universe "demanded" that the fracture/gateway open up when it did in order for the past to be fulfilled...

Picard: It's like the chicken and the egg, Will, the chicken and the egg! We-we think it started in the past, but it didn't. It started right here, in the future! That's why it's getting larger in the past...
Riker: What's getting larger in the past, your head?
Picard: No, I was talking about your ego.
Josh: I hate to interrupt, but what does any of this have to do with MY show you guys?
Picard: Shut up Wesley!

[SnowBird]

Seems like it should be the same time-line or they couldn't go back in time to change the future. I think they are just trying to train each generation not to make the same mistakes. The present looked pretty dismal with the polution and over population so that may be their priorities along with not using up earth's resources or making weapons of mass destruction.