Temporal Cold War and the 24th century

[Azar Kel]

I have been giving a lot of thought to this temporal cold war thing that is going on in Enterprise. I am currently running a massive campaign that entails four different series (game casts) and have been looking for that everpresent/everneeded tie-in to the current series on the air. Our group has been role playing Star Trek on and off for about four years. So we have very literaly matured in game as well as out of game in both our gaming tastes and our story/plot tastes. Gone are the days of grandly dramtic and fantastic stories where every week the players save the galaxy. It has taken us a long time but we have switched from story driven role-playing to the more subtle character driven role-playing. So in the inherant gaming desire to interact somehow in the current Enterprise series I have come to the conclusion that the temporal cold war back story is the tie in to the modern day story line.
So in my day-time while-at-work-and-by-all-means-should-be-doing-my-job game brainstorming, I have developed two theories as to the beginings of the temporal Cold War and in both instances I keep coming back to the same conclusion: I think that the Federation actually started this war. Let me summarize my two theories so you can know them but what I would like is some gamer-to-gamer trekkie-to-trekkie insight if you would be so kind.

THEORY 1 The Janeway Incident

I think that perhaps Janeway started the temporal cold war in Endgame. We have no clue as to the status of the alpha quadrant other than Starfleet in the "alternate" future portrayed in Endgame. We DO know that Janeway altered it DRASTICALLY in favor of the Federation in Endgame. That future no longer exsists. There might be galactic powers that are unhappy about that.

THEORY 2 Yesterday's Enterprise

The Federation once again destroyed an exsisting future when they sent the Enterprise C back. Now I don't think that this single incident would be the cause of the temporal cold war that exists in Enterprise. What I do think is that the Federation has time and time again changed things. I also know that the Federation isn't the ONLY power with Temporal Investigations. So logic would demand that someone, somewhere knows that the Federation has strongarmed the temporal continuim. Now you and I know that they didn't really do anything wrong (although Endgame is debateable) but I still see strong evidence that the Federation did indeed start this cold war.

So the big question is...What do YOU think?

[ghosty]

We partially discussed the Temporal Cold war in this thread http://forum.trekrpg.net/showthread....&threadid=2665 although we didn't tie the storyline into events of the 23rd/24th century.

I'm not a great fan of Voyager so I'm not the best person to analyze the events of Endgame...it seems to me that Janeway's actions were more to help and save her own crew and friends from their fates rather than the Federation...it would seem that Starfleet was able to defeat the Borg without the Voyager.

Yesterday's Enterprise has a special place in my heart as the war ravaged Federation plays a part in my campaign. It all spawned from a short story one of friends wrote some years back. The current version (as told by me goes something like this).

The USS Saratoga under the command of Captain Benjamin Sisko is ordered investigate the dissaperance of the USS Enterprise.

They find the Enterprise just after the events potrayed in Yesterday's Enterprise...the Enterprise C has entered the temporal rift and the Enterprise D is a free floating wreck with the remnants of Klingon birds of prey scattered about. The away team recovers a few survivors but none of the senior staff except a badly damaged Data.

Chief Engineer O'Brien manages to temporarily repair Data so that he could reveal all that he knew to Sisko. Sisko is puzzled, if the Enterprise C made it back to Narenda III then the future should have changed. He communicates with Admiral Nechayev who orders him to liasie with the Temporal Warfare Division (formerly the DTI).

Anyway the Temproral Warfare Division is worried because communications with their research station on the Forever Planet has gone off line. They suspect a connection and Sisko takes the Saratoga to the Forever Planet to find a Klingon raider led by Commander Worf had taken the planet.

Sisko defeats the Bird of Prey and his executive officer, Commander Shelby leads a successful ground assault which retakes the Forever Planet from the Klingons to find that the Klingons had destroyed the equipment that studied the Guardian.

Interrogation of Klingon prisoners (orbital phaser fire on stun can stop any Klingon) prove fruitless until Security chief Tuvok mindmelds with one of them to discover their plan.

The Klingons had raided the Forever World hoping to destroy the Temproral Warfare Division's most valuable asset. While on planet they suddenly loose contact with their ship and learn that the future had been changed but as they are on the Forever Planet did not change. Using the Guardian they learn about the Enterprise C. So Worf leads a team through the guardian to sabotage the Enterprise-C at the point it emerged back into Narenda III destroying it and maintaining the timeline.

Sisko knows he has to stop Worf, so he sends Shelby Tuvok and his intelligence officer Jadzia Dax through the Guardian while he takes the Saratoga to fight off Klingon reinforcements.

Shelby and co. step through the Guardian and battle the Klingon team. Dax duels Worf and they kill each other in single combat whilst Tuvok and Shelby neutralise the bomb the Klingons had planted on the warp core.

The battered twosome returns through the Guardian to be confronted by a devestated Forever Planet, and the arrival of the USS Enterprise (of the real timeline) to investigate why the Forever Planet went off line...

I'm not sure how that could tie into your theory but it could well be that its a cause and effect scenairo, each attempt to brute force the timeline leads to others trying to brute force the timeline back into the version they prefer...but that may just spawn more parallel dimensions (ala Parallels)...

[Azar Kel]

Well I didn't mean to imply that Janeway did what she did for the Federation, but I don't think that say the Romulans would see it that way.

[Captain Zymmer]

Hmmmm....interesting

Both

Time travel always leads to ehadaches though in the long run, so I am trying to avoid it...but in the end is as much a part of Star Trek as Human lookin aliens who are not humans.

So what is the Cold War about then?

[ghosty]

True but what did Janeway change that pissed off the Romulans...she brought the Voygaer home earlier that's about all...well okay she did bequeath the Federation with some very advanced weapons and technology earlier than they would have acuqired it...but do the Romulans know about it...and if the Federation in the spirit of the alliance built during the Dominion shares the mother lode I don't see why the Romulans can complain.

[Captain Zymmer]

I dunno...I sometimes think Endgame is a nightamre we should pretend never happend

I mean transphasic torpedoes are a bit unsettling.

[Azar Kel]

I think that regardless of war time treaties a Romulan is a Romulan...

Plus I just need to throw in that the Romulans DO know about the Enterprise C, a la Sela, AND Narendra III did not turn out in favor of the Romulans. Were it not for the Klingon Federation Peace the Romulans would probably be in a tad better place.

[ghosty]

On reflection, the Narenda III incident may have been a lot worst for the Romulans. I'm sure that the Klingons would have first extracted a bloody vengence on the Romulans before dealing with the "honourless" Federation.

So it could well have been in the Romulan interest to keep the timeline as it stands. While they know about why the Narenda III operation failed thanks to the capture of Tasha Yar, Tasha could well have told them of the consequences as well. Personal surivival is a good reason not to mess with the timeline.

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Another question I think we should ask ourselves is, how smart are B & B? could they have come up with something so devious, or are we greatly overestimating them?

[ghosty]

Its not inconcievable that even B&B can have one or two good ideas. Some of the stuff they dreamed up in the good old days of TNG weren't too bad were they?

[Azar Kel]

You know, I have a really hard time bashing B&B simply because Rodenberry left Berman in charge, it is no small task and you really have to trust someone to leave that kind of legacy in their hands,...

[Commodore 2]

I wish Roddenberry had left it with me....some of this stuff B&B concocted would never have seen the light of day

[ghosty]

Look I'm for criticising B&B as much as the next guy but can we get back on track here...

As I said in another post, maybe we should hang onto any scenarios, story arcs or campaigns based on the Temporal Cold War until they tell all in Enterprise which I expect would come either mid-season or as the season finale (I think it'll be the latter)...that's what I've decided to do...time travel opens too many cans of worms than I care to deal with without a focused storyline and if it keeps changing on TV, then there's no point to it.

I had great difficulty during the last two seasons of DS9 running games because of the always changing fortunes of war. I remember two weeks before PALE MOONLIGHT I ran a scenario where the Romulans joined the Dominion's fight against the Fed/Klingon alliance...well you can guess how quickly I had to retcon the whole situation...

[Azar Kel]

Yeah we did one where we discovered the cure for the diseased Founder's like two days before that episode....