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Science Fiction & Fantasy

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    The source material provides plenty of data suggesting that time travel does not 'produce' parallel universes, rather that it modifies the same universe that the time travelers depart from. The plot of movies such as Star Trek IV and First Contact are expressly contingent on this being so; otherwise the crew isn't saving Earth in either movie, they are simply side-stepping their universe and going to a more preferable one. By the JJ Abrams account of time travel, we never should have met Sela; never needed to retrieve McCoy from the past; and so on.
    – Stick
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 21:56
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    @Stick: No, not really. Parallel universes, in this model, fork at decision points so going back in time will easily result in the effects you exemplarise. In fact the source material is fundamentally incapable of suggesting this either way, as I've already described: we cannot directly observe alternate timelines without "entering" them; at that point the distinction of whether they exist or merely hold the potential to exist is entirely undecideable. It's the old "tree in a forest" thing. This is science/formal logic, not screenplay analysis.
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 21:58
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    That's interesting, but in a science fiction situation where suspense of disbelief has already been applied to time travel and the rules established within this particular franchise, there's no longer a need to guess. In Star Trek, ships can travel at FTL velocities, people continually maintain their sense of self during matter-energy transport, species from disparate worlds can occasionally breed, and time travel does not cause or lead to parallel universes - it alters the 'current' universe. I understand what you're saying, but it doesn't apply to Star Trek because 'suspense of disbelief'.
    – Stick
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 22:06
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    @Stick: "people continually maintain their sense of self during matter-energy transport" Oh man don't remind me of Realm of Fear -.-
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 22:23
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    @Stick: It's amazing what you can do when you don't exist
    – Lightness Races in Orbit
    Commented Aug 11, 2014 at 22:28