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. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 . --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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