# Two fictional time travel questions **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 2, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099 "2019-01-02T15:57:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/1 "2019-01-02T15:57:40Z")
In the Star Trek world, did anyone else, like the Vulcans perhaps, discover/invent time travel before humans did? I can think of two, but they were both “alien of the week” stories - the people that made the Guardian of Forever, and the Sarpedians (All Our Yesterdays). (the Sarpedian’s time travel requires you to be “prepared” to live in the past, and Spcok reverts to pre-enlightenment Vulcan thought pattern, which makes no sense. So maybe we should dismiss that one. It didn’t affect anyone outside of their own planet anyway.) Yes, the Borg had it, but I figure they just “assimilated” the tech from humans. I doubt they have a research department. Did Vulcans discover it, and then just treat it as an intellectual curiosity? Because they are too smart to actually risk it? Question two - I never watched the two sequels to Back to the Future. Did Doc Brown ever get his Nobel and Zee-Magnes\* prizes for discovering time travel? Or is it still generally unknown at the end of the third movie? \*They’d create the prize for something as important as the invention of time travel! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/2 "2019-01-02T17:30:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I never watched the two sequels to Back to the Future. Did Doc Brown ever get his Nobel and Zee-Magnes\* prizes for discovering time travel? Or is it still generally unknown at the end of the third movie? Brown tells Marty to destroy that infernal machine, and it should never have been invented. Marty haphazardly destroys it, but not intentionally, at the end of the 3rd movie. You should really take the time to watch the two sequels. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/3 "2019-01-02T17:34:48Z")
In the prequel series Enterprise, which involves a time travel war, the main Vulcan repeatedly states that Vulcans don’t believe in time travel. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/4 "2019-01-02T17:35:49Z")
Didn’t the Xindi (in _ST: Enterprise_) have time travel? I remember the term “temporal cold war” being used a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/5 "2019-01-02T17:46:30Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > You should really take the time to watch the two sequels. I’ve always been afraid the sequels would retroactively make the first movie stupid, and I love that movie too much. I’ll take the chance on missing good sequels just not to ruin BTTF. I mean, I watched Matrix II. And Die Hard II. Highlander II. I’m not going to get burned again. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/6 "2019-01-02T17:50:57Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > In the prequel series Enterprise, which involves a time travel war, the main Vulcan repeatedly states that Vulcans don’t believe in time travel. Ha! I forgot that. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/7 "2019-01-02T17:51:19Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’ve always been afraid the sequels would retroactively make the first movie stupid, and I love that movie too much. > > I’ll take the chance on missing good sequels just not to ruin BTTF. I also recommend that you watch them. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/8 "2019-01-02T17:59:09Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’ve always been afraid the sequels would retroactively make the first movie stupid, and I love that movie too much. > > I’ll take the chance on missing good sequels just not to ruin BTTF. > > I mean, I watched Matrix II. And Die Hard II. Highlander II. I’m not going to get burned again. 🙂 It’s clear when watching the entire set of movies, that Zemeckis envisioned the full trilogy story from the beginning. The two sequels weren’t just fillers that the studio requested because the first one had box office success. So basically you’ve never finished the story. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/9 "2019-01-02T18:09:52Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I’ve always been afraid the sequels would retroactively make the first movie stupid, and I love that movie too much. > > I’ll take the chance on missing good sequels just not to ruin BTTF. > > I mean, I watched Matrix II. And Die Hard II. Highlander II. I’m not going to get burned again. 🙂 > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I also recommend that you watch them. I would too. Watching the first without watching the other two is like refusing to watch the last 2/3 of a film because you enjoyed the first third so much. Seriously. It’s one film split into three parts. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/10 "2019-01-02T18:19:43Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > It’s clear when watching the entire set of movies, that Zemeckis envisioned the full trilogy story from the beginning. The two sequels weren’t just fillers that the studio requested because the first one had box office success. So basically you’ve never finished the story. I don’t think so. The second and third movie are a set; they were filmed at the same time. But until BTTF became a big success, there was no thought about making a sequel - that’s why the sequel puts Jennifer out of the way for so much of the BTTF II; if a sequel had been planned in advance, Doc wouldn’t have brought her with them at the end of BTTF (and why the business about Marty having a thing about being called “chicken” comes out of nowhere in the sequels, but not in the original). That being said, the sequels are worth seeing. P.S. From Wikipedia “Director Robert Zemeckis said that, initially, a sequel was not planned for the first film, but its huge box office success led to the conception of a second installment. He later agreed to do a sequel, but only if Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd returned as well. With Fox and Lloyd confirmed, Zemeckis met with screenwriting partner Bob Gale to create a story for the sequel. Zemeckis and Gale would later regret that they ended the first one with Jennifer in the car with Marty and Doc Brown, because it required them to come up with a story that fit her in, rather than a whole new adventure.[4]” (emphasis mine) ---
**Author:** ![gdave](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gdave/32/3683_2.png) [@gdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gdave)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/11 "2019-01-02T18:21:59Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > Didn’t the Xindi (in _ST: Enterprise_) have time travel? I remember the term “temporal cold war” being used a lot. The Xindi did not have time travel. My recollection is that they were being manipulated by one of the factions in the Temporal Cold War. ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/12 "2019-01-02T18:26:00Z")
What I want to know is what the hell happened to sling shot time travel in Trek?? Post TOS anytime someone got stuck somewhere else in time, they acted like it was forever. Barring an Orb of the Prophets of course. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2019, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/13 "2019-01-02T19:11:47Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > What I want to know is what the hell happened to sling shot time travel in Trek?? Post TOS anytime someone got stuck somewhere else in time, they acted like it was forever. Barring an Orb of the Prophets of course. Come on…that’s the _entire plot_ to **ST: The Voyage Home**! 😃 To the OP: What about the Bad Guys (Devidians?) in _Time’s Arrow Parts 1 & 2_? Portal back to 19th Century San Francisco, they do. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/14 "2019-01-03T01:41:35Z")
How about the "[dikironium cloud creature](http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Dikironium_cloud_creature)” from _Obsession_? > [@](#): > > Spock’s scans revealed the creature could “throw itself out of time sync”, enabling it to be “elsewhere” during phaser or photon torpedo strikes that made such weapons completely ineffective. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2019, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/two-fictional-time-travel-questions/827099/15 "2019-01-03T05:38:31Z")
In “The Naked Time,” it’s implied time travel had yet to be invented in Kirk’s era, since it was accomplished by using a matter/antimatter intermix formula that, according to Spock, had never been tried before.