Okay, #Trekkie CoSo. 🖖 It's #SNW time!
Today for #OnlySky, we talk about Strange New Worlds' time travel episode, which takes place more or less now in Canuckistan 🍁, and raises the classic Would You Kill Baby Hitler question around La'an's past.
Does it work? Does *any* time travel episode in #StarTrek? What does this #SFF trope actually do - and does the romance help or hinder?
Come for the morality play! Stay for the poutine & Carol Kane!
#CoSoTV #ScienceFiction
https://onlysky.media/mclark/tomorrow-and-tomorrow-and-tomorrow-how-time-travel-creeps-into-trek-today/
@MLClark I'm glad someone else picked up on the "Would you kill baby Hitler" trope.
I'm glad the time travel went somewhere else other then Los Angeles for a change. Of course, they're filming in Toronto ... The early intent was to pass off Toronto as New York City, but then they decided to just call it Toronto.
Time travel episodes by definition make no sense, unless it's to "close the loop" and fulfill what was intended to happen.
Exactly that, Stephen. I talk about the contrived nature of the trope in the article. Even shows like DEVS, which *expressly* acknowledge infinite time streams, still ultimately have to contrive reasons we should care about certain timelines in particular.
It's a problem that attests to human limits to fully understanding what life in a multiverse would entail--let alone to building a coherent ethics from that view of reality. We are small, fleeting critters in a big, big cosmos.
@MLClark @WordsmithFL that is how it would be in real life I think for the average multiverse traveler. I know there are an infinite number of Julie's, but this one is in trouble and needs my help, or, but this one is beautiful and I love her, etc. As I think you are saying, we will never be able to wrap our heads around the multiverse. Nor should we. Each instantiation of a person is a real person. Doesn't matter if they are one of many.
@DavidKMresists @MLClark @WordsmithFL It's important to remember that the multiverse and time travel are parts of science fiction (I know scientists are working on these ideas IRL but this work is dubious) so the starting point for the average consumer is normal life in our collective universe. Consequently, suspended disbelief is required for enjoying a multiverse or time travel story because we will always default to our IRL experiences. Don't worry about trying to make it all make sense.
@danielbsmith @DavidKMresists @MLClark There's something to be said for a popcorn movie. Turn your brain off and be passively entertained for two hours.
@WordsmithFL @DavidKMresists @MLClark I don't think people have to shutdown their minds to enjoy these stories. Time travel stories have been some of the most interesting stories that I've ever experienced. They can be genuinely brain-bending and cognitively engaging. I just think there has to be some kind of mental shift to accommodate them. Accept the premise of the story world being presented and understand that this world does not follow the rules of the real one.