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YESTERDAY'S ENTERPRISE AND TASHA YAR EXPLAINED (last updated 3/30/92)
This posting is intended to cut down on the "often asked questions" that
seem to pop up every few months in the rec.arts.startrek.misc newsgroup
concerning "Yesterday's Enterprise" and Tasha's life and death. It is one
of a number of periodic postings posted to r.a.s.*. Please refer to the
"LIST OF PERIODIC POSINGS TO r.a.s.* NEWSGROUPS" article for a full list of
periodic postings.
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A lot of people seem to be having trouble understanding the time travel
involved in this episode (and cluttering up the net every few months
because of this). I'm not the best at explaining these sorts of things,
and if anyone else can in less space, feel free to email me. Anyway... in
"YE" they start out in the "peaceful" timeline (PT) indicated by the top
line in the diagram below. When the Enterprise-C broke through the
barrier, it changed history as we know it (from the time of the battle
onward) to a more hostile one (in which the Klingons are at war with the
Fed and Tasha never died). When they sent the Ent-C back through the rift.
it fixed whatever went wrong with the Klingons/Federation, and restored the
timeline to the one we know (including Yar being dead at the hands of the
slime beast in a Glad Bag). So no, Yar isn't still alive these days. And
also no, Yar didn't "never exist and thus couldn't have died due to
slimey". *Everything* we know about the time before "YE" happened exactly
as we saw because sending the alternate-Yar back repaired all the damage to
time.
Tasha dies
---------> (B) ---------> (C)
/
Ent-C (A) <-------------------------
battle \ \
---------> (D) ---------> (E)
Tasha doesn't die
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There is one real timeline - the one where Tasha gets killed by a mud
monster AND where an alternative time-line Tasha has a daughter called Sela
(apparently - I haven't seen Redemption but I think I've got the idea).
The only alternative time-line (well, as far as Tasha is concerned) is the
alternative one we see in Yesterday's Enterprise.
Time for an ASCII-diagram! :
Real timeline :
---------------
Alt Tashsa gets
sent back through Alt Tasha Real Tasha Alt Tasha Real Tasha Sela
wormhole into the gives birth born dies (old killed turns up
real timeline. to Sela. | age?) | |
| | | | | |
V V V V V V
...-----------------------------------~~--------------------------------...
<-------- Alt Tasha lives -----~~--------->
<-------------~~------- Sela lives -------------...
^ <-~~- Real Tasha lives ->
|
|
+-------<---------------<-----------------<--------------+
|
^
Alternative timeline : |
----------------------
Alt Tasha
Alt Tasha decides to go
born through
| wormhole
| |
V V
...----------------------------------~~--------------------------------...
<-~~- Alt Tasha lives ------>
Yes, there are two Tashas alive at the same time, living seperate lives but
this doesn't mean that they are constantly mucking up history. They are
simply two seperate people - maybe they have the same DNA structure but so
what - you can think of them as clones if you like. History wasn't even
changed - history has always been like this. During the first season we
saw the real Tasha walking about, but the Alternative Tasha was around as
well, we just didn't see her.
This is really simpler than it may look because we are dealing with
alternative universes, not time travel as many people seem to think. Just
to clarify this point let`s look at the Enterprise-C's history. The E-C
starts off in the real timeline, gets transported through the wormhole into
the alternative timeline. Then the events off Yesterday's Enterprise occur
and the alternative Tasha decides to go back through. The E-C then returns
to the real timeline and gets captured by the Romulans.
This explains everything clearly and simply but it does leave two questions
- the most obvious being "How did the alternative Guinan know that her
timeline was wrong?", or indeed WHY did she think so? The standard
assumption with alternative universes is that there are an infinite number
all progressing along happily. None is more correct than any other - it is
just that we are (for the majority of the time) being shown one particular
timeline.
The other problem is what was the wormhole that the 'real' timeline crew
saw right at the beginning of Yesterday's Enterprise? According to my
chart nothing special happens at all at that point in the real timeline.
My theory is that the wormhole just happened to occur at the same time in
the real timeline as it did in the alterantive one. The real Guinan then
somehow projected her conciousness through the wormhole (not on purpose)
and into the alternative Guinan, making her believe that everything was
wrong. This just happened to be at the same time as the E-C came through .
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Again, if you know of any other topics that should be included in this
list, feel free to email me at one of the addresses below. Thanks to
everyone who contributed to this article.
--Otto "HACK-MAN" Heuer