Summary
Star Trek’s most important time travelers have made a lasting impact on theStar Trektimeline. Time itself is a different kind of final frontier forStar Trekcharacters, sotime travel stories have been a staple ofStar Treksince the beginning of the franchise. Temporal anomalies, chroniton particles, Klingon time crystals, and encounters with all-powerful beings like Q (John de Lancie) can send characters all over theStar Trektimeline. Intentional time travel is also possible with the slingshot effect perfected by Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the USS Enterprise crew inStar Trek: The Original Series,and the Federation’s own technology in the 31st century.
Before time travel becomes commonplace inStar Trek’s future, it’s still considered incredibly risky, and the Vulcans even consider it"unfair,“according toStar Trek: Enterprise’s Subcommander T’Pol (Jolene Blalock). When time travel does become as convenient as warp drive, the ability to alter history in any one faction’s favor creates the conditions ofStar Trek’s Temporal Cold War, which inadvertently makes time a relatively malleable construct. To that end,most ofStar Trek’s important time travelers take on desperately high stakes, where time travel is often the only answer to save the Federation, the people of Earth, or even all sentient life in the galaxy.
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2404
2378
Return Trip
None
In an alternate future, the USS Voyager’s journey back to the Alpha Quadrant is not without terrible hardship, soVice Admiral Kathryn Janeway(Kate Mulgrew) discovers a way to bring the USS Voyager home much sooner, avoiding over 22 casualties and Lt. Commander Tuvok’s (Tim Russ) slow mental decline. With a stolen Klingon Chrono-deflector,Admiral Janeway returns to her own past to provide Captain Janeway with future technology designed to succeed in a battle against the Borg, which will give the USS Voyager access to a Borg transwarp hub, and a near-immediate way home.
Admiral Janeway’s sacrifice in Star Trek: Voyager’s series finale keeps the Alpha Quadrant Borg-free for decades.
Admiral and Captain Janeway manage a compromise that will satisfy both of them. Admiral Janeway’s wish for Voyager’s faster return is granted when the Captain agrees to use the hub to get home, and Captain Janeway’s desire to destroy the hub is fulfilled whenAdmiral Janeway infects herself with a neurolytic pathogen before sacrificing herself to the Borg, who assimilate the pathogen. Admiral Janeway’s sacrifice inStar Trek: Voyager’s series finale keeps the Alpha Quadrant Borg-free for decades.
2259
Federation Time Travel Technology
InStar Trek: Strange New Worldsseason 2, episode 3, “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”,Lt. La’an Noonien-Singh is handpicked by a dying Federation time agent (Christopher Wyllie) to complete an important missionthat ensures the preservation ofStar Trek’s Prime timeline. Before heading back to the past, however, Lt. Noonien-Singh is transported to an alternate timeline where Starfleet is at war, and accidentally takes the United Earth Fleet Enterprise’s Captain James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) with her to the early 21st century.
La’an and Jim’s love story is pivotal to La’an’s character growth inStrange New Worlds, but La’an’s greater impact on the overall timeline comes after discovering Sera (Adelaide Kane), a time-traveling Romulan, is also in 21st century Toronto.Sera intends to kill a young Khan Noonien-Singh (Desmond Sivan) and prevent the rise of the Federation, but La’an takes matters into her own hands to thwart the Romulan plot after Sera kills Kirk in cold blood. Lieutenant Noonien-Singh’s key mission shakes La’an to her core, but is ultimately a success for the Federation.
2401
Q
In 2401, a dying Q asks for help from Admiral Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) to correct the mistakes that Q made in the past. With his power reserves depleting, Q transports Picard into an alternate timeline, where Earth is ruled by the xenophobic Confederation, in a complete reversal from the hopeful Federation that Picard knows well. From their alternate present,Picard and the La Sirena crew travel back to 2024 Los Angeles, where they have to prevent the incident that altered the timeline.
Jean-Luc Picard has to make sure that his ancestor, Renée Picard (Penelope Mitchell), launches a historic mission to Europa, despite past Q meddling and the alternate timeline’sBorg Queen (Annie Wersching)trying to reconstruct her Borg Collective in the 21st century.Renee Picard’s mission becomes a load-bearing event in constructing the hopeful timeline ofStar Trek’s future, in addition to being an important part of Jean-Luc’s own history, so Picard’s involvement is instrumental.
2286
Slingshot Effect
When a mysterious probe shuts down everything in its path and threatens to destroy Earth unless it can communicate with long-extinct humpback whales, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) andthe USS Enterprise crew must go back to a time before the whales' extinction. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) makes the calculations to use a slingshot effect that takes the crew’sstolen Klingon bird-of-prey, renamed the USS Bounty, back to the 20th century. There, marine biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks) helps Kirk and Spock by introducing them to two of her whales, George and Gracie.
The USS Enterprise crew used the Slingshot Effect method to time travel on two earlier occasions:Star Trek: The Original Seriesseason 1, episode 21, “Tomorrow is Yesterday”; andStar Trek: The Original Seriesseason 2, episode 26, “Assignment: Earth”.
The danger to Earth that precipitates Admiral Kirk and his crew’s journey through time is underscored inStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home,which shines as a comedic time-travel story that sees the Enterprise crew interact with the then-present 1980s.Spock’s idea to physically retrieve the humpback whales from the past ensures the survival of Earth in the 23rd century, since there was no other way to call off the powerful probe.
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2373
Bajoran Orb of Time
Bajoran Orb of Time thanks to Major Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor)
With the Bajoran Orb of Time aboard the USS Defiant, Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and theStar Trek: Deep Space Ninecrewfind themselves nearly a century in the past, at Space Station K-7 with Kirk’s USS Enterprise. While trying to find a way back to their own time,Sisko’s crew discover Klingon Arne Darvin (Charlie Brill) means to kill Captain James T. Kirk with an explosive tribble, and search through the rapidly multiplying critters to find and disarm the bomb. Although the trip back in time seems accidental, the Prophets work in mysterious ways, suggesting that Sisko’s crew were always present to ensure Kirk’s safety in the 23rd century.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 5, episode 6, “Trials and Tribble-ations” expertly weaves in archival footage fromStar Trek: The Original Seriesseason 2, episode 13 “The Trouble With Tribbles”, in celebration ofStar Trek’s 30th anniversary.
2380s
Temporal anomaly
On a return mission to the Delta Quadrant,Captain Chakotay (Robert Beltran)and the original crew of the USS Protostar were pulled into a temporal anomaly that opened above the planet Solum in the 25th century. Solum had suffered a bloody civil war resulting from the planet’s First Contact with Starfleet, which had occurred between the time Chakotay left and the Protostar’s arrival. The people of Solum, the Vau N’Akat, called for vengeance on Starfleet, and installed a weapon called the Living Construct on the USS Protostar, which would destroy Starfleet from the inside. Rather than endanger Starfleet,Chakotay sends the Protostar back in time, kicking off the events ofStar Trek: Prodigy.
Borg Temporal Vortex
Recreated Temporal Vortex by Lt. Cdr. Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton)
Against Starfleet’s orders, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) elects to engage the Borg near Earth, and follows a Borg Sphere through a temporal vortex to 2063, just days before humanity’s first warp flight and subsequent contact with the Vulcans.With the intent of assimilating Earth in the past, the Borg pose an existential threat, and Picard reckons with the trauma that feeds his singleminded vengeance against the Borg. Commander William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) leads the away team in Montana that helpsZefram Cochrane (James Cromwell)to keep history’s historic warp flight on track. Both storylines inStar Trek: First Contactare integral to the survival of Earth.
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2258
Earlier in 2258 & 3188
TheRed Angel inStar Trek: Discoveryseason 2creates a compelling mystery for the USS Discovery crew to decode. The bursts of red light signal important people and places for the Discovery to visit and gather resources to battle against Section 31’s Control A.I.before Control goes rogue and eliminates all sentient life in the galaxy.The stakes are high, but Commander Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) is dedicated to the mission that Burnham is destined to undertake – even when Burnham must lead Discovery 900 years into the future to win against Control.
Commander Burnham’s actions as the Red Angel are important, but Burnham has the most impact on theStar Trekuniverse in the 32nd century. Being relics of the 23rd century gives the Discovery crew a unique perspective, andBurnham embraces the chance to show the future that reconnection is possible after the Burn devastated interstellar travel. Starfleet begins to rebuild in a brighter future that wouldn’t have been possible without Discovery’s reminder of Starfleet’s heyday and Michael Burnham’s optimistic convictions.
Ambassador Spock (Leonard Nimoy) intended to use red matter to create a singularity that would prevent the destruction of Romulus in the2387 Romulan supernova. Too late to save Romulus,Spock creates a red matter black hole to stymie the supernova’s further damage, which pulls Spock back in time to 2258. Spock is pursued by a surviving Romulan captain, Nero (Eric Bana), who swears vengeance on Ambassador Spock for failing to save Romulus. Nero’s actions in the past create an alternate reality, where history plays out much differently from Spock’s memories.
Unable to return to the future or the Prime Timeline, Spock helps the USS Enterprise crew in the Kelvin Timeline when it’s logical to do so, and becomes a mentor to the younger Spock (Zachary Quinto).Ambassador Spock lives the rest of his life in the Kelvin Timelinethat he is ultimately responsible for creating, and which continues on after his death.
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31st Century
Star Trek: Enterprise’s Agent Daniels hails from the 31st century, when time travel has become common enough to be weaponized, and the Temporal Cold War is well underway. At least once a season, the ever-secretiveDaniels appears to Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) with missions designed to keep the Federation’s enemies from playing havoc with the timeline. Federation time travel technology protects Daniels' life after his apparent death, as well as Daniels' knowledge of the future, which remains intact despite the Cold War’s temporal incursions.
In the 32nd century, Agent Daniels continues working for the Federation under the code name of Dr. Kovich (David Cronenberg), where he takes a special interest in the crew of the USS Discovery. Kovich’s modus operandi and wealth of knowledge about past and future events fit in perfectly with the explanation that Kovich is Daniels.
As an agent dedicated to preserving the United Federation of Planets,Agent Daniels' importance to the timeline can’t be understated. Daniels takes Archer with him to theUSS Enterprise-J in the 26th century, revealing the impact that Archer’s present actions have on the future. When Daniels himself can’t take the mission, Daniels enlists Archer’s help instead. Each of Agent Daniels’Star Trek: Enterprisestories has the same goal of making sureStar Trek’s United Federation of Planets doesn’t cease to exist.
