Temporal Investigations Agency...

[Sanehouse]

Thinking about the USS Relativity, I got to thinking... Do you think that the Temporal Investigations Agency only handles timeline changes from their past (as done when Sisko went into the past and met Kirk, and with the USS Voyager), or do you think it's possible that they might also keep the timeline of their future (for example, a 29th century timeship upholding the integrity of 30th century events) intact?

[Atekimogus]

Well given the easy at which our protagonists jump backwards and forwards through time this seems like a fair assumption.

That said I wholeheartedly hate the whole idea of such an agency, it was done well for Trials and Tribble action but immediatly got stupid in Voyager and went on to become unbearably in ENT with the absolutly stupid temporal cold war.

Given how often our heroes changes the timeline with their actions in the past it seems really unbelievable that there is an agency who corrects the timeline. Who is to say what timeline is the correct one? Why didn't they prevent Kirk & Co's whale shopping? Oh yes, earth would be destroyed but so what, that seems like it would have been the correct timeline.

Why wasn't their a 29th century ship of the agency waiting in orbit around earth during FIRST CONTACT preventing the borg from interfering with the timeline? If 4 quantum torpedoes of a 24th century ship were enough to handle a sphere I expect a 29th vessel to handle such a threat without a problem whatsoever.

So even if their existance is a given I must say they either do a really sloopy job or are surley the sort of people you would NOT want to watch over your timeline.

[Sanehouse]

It could be that the producers didn't think of the Temporal Investigations Agency until after First Contact was filmed. That's the only explanation I can think of. Unlike the USS Relativity, I don't think the producers could send someone back in time to the 1960's and give them the idea of the Temporal Investigations Agency.

[Tyyr]

The only way I can make the TI make any sense to me is if they aren't actually protecting the timeline. They're actually preserving the timeline most beneficial to the Federation. For instance Janeway's little jaunt back to Voyager in the finale. TI should never have allowed that. However it seems to have been beneficial to the Federation so they let it slide. Sort of like Kirk and the whales. So TI isn't really guarding anything, they just make sure that changes to the timeline benefit them.

[Deepcrush]

The only way I can make the TI make any sense to me is if they aren't actually protecting the timeline. They're actually preserving the timeline most beneficial to the Federation. For instance Janeway's little jaunt back to Voyager in the finale. TI should never have allowed that. However it seems to have been beneficial to the Federation so they let it slide. Sort of like Kirk and the whales. So TI isn't really guarding anything, they just make sure that changes to the timeline benefit them.

Agreed fully!

[Sionnach Glic]

Tyyr's hit the nail on the head there. It's far more likely that they're simply making sure the UFP rises to power.

[Mikey]

Fourthed. For all the rhetoric of the "temporal prime directive," TI sure seems to be most interested in self-service.

[Sanehouse]

Unfortunately, I can't think of any reason why the return of the USS Voyager would be beneficial to the Federation itself. Beneficial to all those aboard the Voyager, certainly, but beneficial to the Federation as a whole? The only reason I can think of how the Voyager would make that much of a difference is because of all the new technology and Delta Quadrant information they had gathered during their years in the Delta Quadrant, but during the last few years of their journey, surely they had transmitted all the data they had picked up there to Starfleet when they were able to have two-way communication with each other. Such data would include detailed specifications of all new technologies, I would think.

[Captain Seafort]

Voyager's return in and of itself wouldn't have benefited or harmed the Federation. The manner of its return, on the other hand, is another matter. They gave the Borg, one of the Federation's greatest enemies, a serious thumping.

[Sionnach Glic]

Indeed, Voyager single-handedly crippled the Borg. That alone is a massive advantage to the UFP.

[Mark]

And brought back futeristic tech.........which raises a new point.

If history was changed and things don't pan out how they are supposed too, then future Janeway wouldn't go back in time, thus Voyager would never have made it home much less with the tech. Another Trek paradox here it seems.

[Captain Seafort]

Unless you apply the parallel universe model demonstrated throughout Trek, and outright stated in STXI.

[Mark]

I like how that theory only applies when the writers want it too

[Captain Seafort]

The parallel universe model can be pretty easily demonstrated to be the applicable description of time travel in Trek - there are plenty of cases that simply couldn't work any other way.

[Mikey]

The parallel universe model can be pretty easily demonstrated to be the applicable description of time travel in Trek - there are plenty of cases that simply couldn't work any other way.

And reciprocally, AFAIK no cases in which it demonstrably couldn't work.