Was the Show Enterprise Set in an Alternate Timeline?

I’m Rick Robinson, and I am an avid sci-fi fan and a political junky; I produce podcasts and streaming radio programs, and I also write for Twitchy and now, not only do I produce ‘The Loftus Party Podcast’ I am also a contributor to the site here effective, well immediately.

I love all things Star Trek, even the odd numbered Trek films…. I know I know! I’m a nerd I get it.

ANYWAY, I discussed this particular epiphany in short form on one of my podcasts

I have to admit I only started connecting these dots once I had watched the entire show several times through. Still, it occurred to me, what if things were so out of sync with the history as told during Star Trek (TOS) because this version of events happened in a parallel universe? Now wait hear me out!

Exhibit one: In the 24th century The USS Enterprise NCC 1701-E captained by Jean-Luc Picard traveled back in time to stop a Borg incursion in the past. This was the central plot to ‘First Contact,‘ and it also put them front and center for ‘First Contact Day’ the day the human race learns we are not alone in the universe of Star Trek. This also means that Zefram Cochran and a handful of mid-21st century humans saw firsthand advanced Vulcan technology comparatively and 24th-century technology as well.

Exhibit Two: The Borg, presumed destroyed at the end of ‘First Contact’ were not killed off, at least not entirely, and were later recovered over a hundred years later as featured in “Restoration’ These first two points are critical because according to our current understanding in Quantum Theory if time travel were possible whenever someone jumps in time, especially backward, then they would in fact be creating an alternate timeline to account for them being somewhere it would have been impossible for them to have been before.

This theory would explain a great many things and makes the show much more palatable. If it had been explained this way at the time it might have even gotten at least one more season. The fan complaints were myriad and I know because I voiced a lot of the same ones. In TOS history ships of Enterprise time were Daedalus-class starships these were much more clumsy ships and much less technologically advanced than the NX-01. Could this be because before The Borg tried to destroy Earth in the past that ship type never existed? Remember according to TOS cannon there were no view screen technologies and limited sub space radio communications, transporters didn’t exist yet and yet here sits the NX-01 looking remarkably similar to the ship seen by Cochran when the Enterprise E crew saved Earth. Add in the chasm in Florida, the temporal cold war and Zefram Cochran being legitimately surprised humanity had survived much less gotten so far out into space during TOS episode Metamorphosis and folks that gives us a genuine mystery.

This is actually the first of a series of articles on this topic that will continue on my sub stack shortly. So as we say in the biz stay tuned!