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Star Trek: 10 Worst Time Travel Episodes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 ส.ค. 2024
- It's hard to tell a time travel story without any paradoxes, but these episodes didn't even try.
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Ascension happened to make Sisko believe he was the Emmisary, not the Bajoran people. I liked that episode.
Agree I think they missed the point saying it was about making the bajoran’s accept Sisko it was all about him accepting he was the emissary
I don't believe the narrator ever watched this episode. Her conclusions were way off. Felt like someone just reading a script put together to try and even out the bottom ten across all the shows.
@@jakezzfunk8876 Ellie didn't write the script. She's just the presenter. I can't remember but I think Marcus wrote this one? The credits are at the end 👍
I agree, this was a trial for Sisko, so that he would step up to the role he never wanted.
@@ashedarke well Marcus starts off this video with ether "Groundbreaking or Unwatchable"? Its science Fiction. 😉
You missed the point of "Accession." The Prophets didn't send Akorem back to prove to the Bajorans that Sisko was the Emissary. They sent Akorem back to prove to Sisko that Sisko was the Emissary. They did it to make him come to terms with and finally accept his role. And "Shattered" was a lot of fun. And it actually kind of makes sense that each section of Voyager would be tied to major events when you consider that certain points in time have more "weight" than others (cough fixed points in time, Miss WhoCulture Presenter cough) and would therefore be a natural draw for anomalous time shenanigans.
100% this ^
I was going to say this exact thing when I saw this post (about Accession, not the Voyager episode).
yeah i keep getting the impression that some of these videos are written by people who researched star trek rather than know star trek, that episode was very clear that it was all about prompting Sisko to act when confronted with evidence of what damage a false emissary could do
@@stevenr6397 Exactly. Sisko was VERY uncomfortable being the Emissary up to this point. Even though the Bajoran deities turned out to be real entities, he didn't feel it was his place. The whole point of what the Prophets did with Akorem was to show Sisko he IS the Emissary, and is needed.
Also to say that every section was a major event would be incorrect, at least as far as the viewer knows. Astrometrics seems to be set during an ordinary day aboard Voyager sometime in the future. And that's not even mentioning that we don't see all of the different sections so there could have been more normal days. I'm pretty sure their assessment of "Visionary" is also wrong if memory serves me correctly
In Time's Orphan, they weren't sending feral Molly back to get younger Molly back. That happened by accident. They had to make the gut wrenching decision whether to send feral Molly back to the planet, the only place she'd be happy, because it was clear it wasn't working on the station. They had to come to terms with losing their daughter forever.
For anyone with kids, Time's Orphan is a really powerful episode
Agreed.
It's like they haven't bothered to watch all the episodes in these lists. Seems like every list has some major factual error about the character/event/story being ranked.
Agreed... and for those viewers open to the themes, possibly one of the most emotional episodes, especially the scene in which feral Molly leads young Molly back to her parents.
This episode DOES NOT deserve the #1 spot here... Especially with the frequent misunderstanding of episodes (see "Accession"), I am starting to think this channel trolls its viewers to get more comments. 🤔
@@RandallHallKaizenReiki My guess is they watched part of those episodes, went "I don't like this" and just put it in the do not watch pile.
I had buried this memory 😭
I liked Shattered. Just a fun episode. It was like a clip show, but with different, new interactions...much like Relativity. My biggest beef was the turbo lifts somehow working and going from timeframe to timeframe.
Different parts of the ship are in different points in time so the turbolifts traveling through time makes sense, but when they switched timelines the actual turbolift technically shouldn't exist anymore, youd just find yourself floating in an empty shaft.
I'm coming up on to that episode, and I have been looking forward to it. Nothing wrong w/ deep episodes that make you really think or that effect future events but there is also nothing wrong with fun episodes like Shattered
shattered was always one of my favorites. personally the only thing that could have made it better is if chakotay had to work with crew members from different points of time. like bring back kes, and perhaps members who have died like the bajoran who couldn't feel until he mind melded with tuovk, maybe even have tuvix again for an episode. would be fun twist and give a final swan song to some characters.
1. "Non-Sequitur" was NOT a Time Travel episode, it was an alternate-timeline episode.
2. "We'll Always Have Paris" was NOT a Time Travel episode, it was a Time-amok episode.
3. "Firstborn" wasn't just about preventing Worf's death, it was about SHAME and GUILT. Alexander's SHAME and GUILT for not being capable of helping his father because he wasn't a warrior.
I know when I heard "Non-Sequitur" at 10 I was immediately yelling "NOPE!"
It's not even an alternate timeline, but a word created by the aliens that accidentally put Harry in that situation in the first place. More like the episode "The Royale" from TNG with the casino. They felt bad so they created what was essentially a pocket universe with a better life for Harry that gave us a neat little peak at "What if...?"
@@alexanderbaker898 You haven't seen the episode in a while have you? Harry intersected the aliens' timestream causing an accident that "mixed things up" as the alien is quoted saying. He then tells Harry that he could try to recreate the accident, but there's no guarantee that it will fix things and that he could end up in even more alternate times.
They didn't create ANYTHING for Harry, nor a pocket universe.
@@j.rileyindependentproductions
I just watched it not that long ago... I'm on Season 5 of my Voyager ReWatch if that helps give a better idea
@@alexanderbaker898 I litterally pulled it back up on Paramount+ and referenced what happened for my reply to you. There was no pocket universe or the likes... granted, your concept would have made much more sense and been better writing (how a ship can cross a timestream as if it were a river...), but the accident caused a change in time, NOT an artificial reality just for Harry. Wishful thinking perhaps? Headcannon to explain the absurdity of the writing?
Excellent points. Thanks👍
I was with you til Shattered. Definitely a top 100 episode overall of Trek. Best thing the writers ever gave Robert Beltran to do.
I agree. Really love this Episode.
100%. Beltran got screwed over. Bad native American guidance from a fake advisor, and poor script writers left him with almost to work with, and he still rocked the shit out of it.
Seriously! Of course they weren't going to just do random normal days, because that wouldn't make for good TV! Is it contrived? Sure, but that's kind of the point. Plus, they got to knock out Seska, which is always satisfying to watch!
I completely agree with you on that. Definitely his best episode!
@@GraceSerenityK I think Patrick Stewart said that they film all of the episodes featuring routine missions, they just only show the episodes where something exciting happens.
#5 No, no, no, you missed the point completely. The Prophets didn't send the poet to the future to prove to the Bajorans that Sisko was the Emissary, they did it to convince Sisko.
I was about to say that. He was doubting himself about it and was planning to just drop it, before that dude showed up.
I was going to say the same thing. The Prophets literally said they sent him to the future “for the Sisko.”
I think it's also a bit of showing Bajor that their path is forward, not going to the past.
In Accession, the point of the profits sending Akorem into the future to Bajor wasn't to prove to the Bajorans once and for all that Sisko was the Emissary. It was to get Sisko to finally accept his path as Emissary. That was kinda the point of the whole episode.
Yes, it was weird how the Bajorans were so quick to accept the older caste system, but they were a people in turmoil after a long and brutal occupation.
It's not a perfect episode, but I wouldn't say it's bad in any sense. In fact, it's a really good episode. And it's also an extremely important episode in terms of Sisko's arc.
Not to mention, Akorem was a legendary figure from Bajor's past, so him suddenly appearing and claiming to be the Emissary was credit from the perspective of the Bajorans.
Have you seen modern world politics? I'm not at all shocked people would quickly revert to "the good ol' days" seeing as how so many want to do so in reality.
Yeah, looking at the state of things today, I can absolutely see people eagerly reverting back to the brutality of the "Good ole days"
"Time's Orphan" is one of my Favorite Stories(not just ST)! That it didn't Change History does Not make it Pointless!
Elder Molly UNDERSTOOD what happened, and Young Molly belonged with her Family, just like her Family decided Elder Molly belonged on the Planet. The Decision wasn't made FOR Molly, but BY Molly, and That is the Important Time Travel issue there. Much like "Land of the Lost" did "Elsewhen"(another Favorite), the Elder knew what the Younger went through, as opposed to "Fury", where Kes just can't Convince Kes out of Anything!
Hugs!
I disagree with Accession being a bad episode honestly. I really enjoyed it when I watched it and I felt it was an important part of Sisko's arch towards accepting his role as the Emissary.
I absolutely agree that it doesn't do much for the Bajorans however since they were basically convinced he emissary right off the jump.
I agree. I think this episode confirmed what Sisko already knew when he willingly gave up the role. As Elle said, Sisko didn't want it, so for him to see what kind of Bajor would exist with this new "emissary" was paramount for him to appreciate his role, perhaps his most important.
Indeed, this was the episode that pushed Sisko to embrace being the emissary.
I also agree it wasn't for the Bajorians it was for Sisko, his denial of being emissary changed and he started taking on the role!!
I agree, I think the odo prophet even comes out and says this when they’re asked why he was sent forward in time “For the sisko”
Arc.
A theory about Spock's regression in "All Our Yesterdays": Remember that Vulcans are a telepathic race. TNG's "Sarek" showed that you don't have to actually touch another person, via a mind meld, to effect them telepathically. It is likely that the reason Vulcan was on the verge of annihilation is that all these raging, emotional telepathic minds were feeding off each other, amplifying each other's rage and passions, nearly to the breaking point, which is where Surak comes in. By stressing emotional control, and a lot of social distancing, they backed away from the abyss.
So, enter Spock, in "All Our Yesterdays", pre-Surakian Reformation. All those raging, passionate Vulcan minds, being all ragey and passionate, find a relatively unprepared Spock, with the added incentive in the form of a young Mariette Hartley in a fur bikini, and it's time to play.
She was a true beauty.
@@scottslotterbeck3796 Is. As of this writing, she's still very much alive.
Good theory, and it is also true that the itabocon was designed to alter the physiology of the time traveler and Spock being more alien may have been affected more fundamentally
@@johntabler349 "Atavochron", for the nitpickers in the audience... ;)
Also supported by Immunity Syndrome. Spock literally felt a ship full of POST Surak vulcans cark it. A planet full of pre? With a telepath with a demonstrated history of being overwhelmed by those he makes mental contact with? He's gonna be tearing that bikini off with his teeth
For a galactic organization that has laws against time travel? they sure do an awful lot of time travel.
But more often time travel happens TO them! I'm gonna just ignore the entire first three seasons of Enterprise...
The Prophets did it to convince SISKO he was the emissary, not the people. Sisko started embracing his role after that.
Shattered is literally one of my favourite voyager episodes (besides Relativity) :c
But then I'm terrible at analyzing as people always find many points I'd never see...
Edit: I found 11 people who also liked shattered, there surely are more but I'm not going to search the whole comment section
Update: +2
Count me in, I also liked Shattered.
All our Yesterdays. Spock and McCoy at the end:
Spock: There's no further need to observe me, doctor. As you can see, I've returned to the present in every sense.
McCoy: But it did happen, Spock.
Spock: Yes, it happened. But that was 5,000 years ago. And she is dead now. Dead and buried. Long ago.
Spock has love ripped away. Even he cannot forget it. Still gives me chills the way Spock delivers this.
Kirk, as we know, would also have love ripped away in "City on the Edge of Forever." Another time-travel episode.
Yes! I consider All Our Yesterdays as a pretty good episode, and one of the best of season 3.
The Star Trek novel sequel to this, "Yesterday's Son" is excellent, all about the son Spock didn't know he left behind.
Kirk was unbelievably conflicted...Yes, he loved Edith, but not at the expense of a Nazi Earth...Until Spock explained, Mc Coy must have thought that Kirk had committed the equivalent of second-degree murder...
Forgiving the actually practicalities of the entire planet’s population time travelling and the inherent risk to the timeline that presents, even as a kid I always thought that escaping your planets impending doom by travelling into its past a really clever story idea.
@@deepskymike767 I agree, I am not sure why the Angels on Doctor Who were supposed to be evil.
Akorem Laan was sent by the prophets to convince Sisko to accept his own role as Emissary. By the end, he embraced it completely including giving the blessing of the emissary to the family when they asked for it. It literally had nothing to do with the faith of the Bajoran people.
Yes, and it caused a monumental headache for Starfleet Command that one of their captains had been assigned supernatural status, not by Sisko himself, but by the Bajoran people...Starfleet reluctantly accepted it, because of the Prime Directive...
Shattered is one of the best episodes of Voyager,
First Born? Shattered? Visionary? ACCESSION?! Would not have expected those. Meanwhile, #3 is generous for Fury. A truly truly terrible episode IMO. Voyager's worst, and yes that includes Threshold. Always appreciate different perspectives though. Thanks for the list and wonderful presentation and editing as always.
Agreed on Fury, for sure. That was a rough episode, and bringing Kes back at that point seemed too little too late, for me. I feel like her breaking out on her own while sending crew forward on their journey was a good enough send off for the character. One of those "hat on a hat" situations.
My biggest gripes about that episode:
1. She evolved beyond the need of a spaceship (aka Voyager), so why is she now in a spaceship?!
2. If she's in a warp drive-esk spaceship, how the hell did she catch up with Voyager?
3. If she's in a warp drive-esk spaceship, how the hell is she going to get to Ocompa before she dies?
4. If she has the power to even just FIND Voyager after so many "shortcuts", let alone reach the ship and get to Ocopma, then she had the power to send Voyager home at the end... Why didn't she?
As a writer myself, this bugs the hell out of me everytime I am too lazy to skip episodes when it autoplays.
I think your complaint about shattered was a nitpick. It wasn’t a terrible episode. The biggest problem with it (which I’m shocked wasn’t your main point) was that Borg-Seven actually helped them and didn’t try to take over the ship. She would’ve been the REAL “villain” of that episode.
Also Astrometrics was "just an ordinary day"
Agreed, that one was one thing that really jarred for me in that episode. She was pretty much human seven in borg costume rather then the real borg seven.
Not Really. Think about what is going on in the time period she is from. The Borg are losing to 8472 and Voyager is "assisting" in defeating them. These events confirm to her that the Borgs attempt to stop 8472 are successful. What would she gain trying to take over a ship fractured in time, nothing. In fact, such an action could cause alterations in the timeline that lead to the destruction of the Borg at the hands of 8472. It's in the Collectives best interest to assist and insure the restoration of a timeline where they are victorious over 8472.
I can also see the borg just default resisting any time travel hijinks they aren't directing.
That said, I definitely think it was a missed opportunity to have her just agree right away.
@@jsross33 most people don't get that the borg don't really like to mess with the timeline, unless they lost something extremely important.
I liked shattered. At least it was Chakotay centred.
Minor correction: In Non sequitur , Tom came to Harry's aid, not the other way around. That distraction is what kept Tom out of trouble, but Harry was the one initially in trouble.
My theory about All Our Yesterdays: Vulcans have a telepathic connection (as seen in "The Immunity Syndrome") and their logical (or illogical) state is telepathically reinforced, which is why Spock reverted to a savage state when going into the past. It doesn't matter what state humans were in 5000 years ago because McCoy isn't telepathically connected to them.
I just always thought it was his damn Vulcan logic telling him to be savage. Without the telepathy though.
It's a GOOD explanation, but not in canon! (But probably SHOULD be! )
@@DMSProduktions I always wondered if it was a direction they were intending to go in but the show was cancelled so they couldn't. One fact that reinforces this theory is that McCoy was possibly the only person who understood how deep the Vulcan telepathic connection was. He and Spock had a conversation about it in "The Immunity Syndrome" in which Spock impressed upon him that their telepathy could stretch over great distances, even light years. So, McCoy reminding Spock of this in "All Our Yesterdays" does jibe with what came before.
Very Good Call! Should have been Stated Canon feature.
Hugs!
@@MichaelPhillipsatGreyOwlStudio Seems to point to it!
What I learned today is that Voyager missed a huge opportunity to have an episode called "We'll always have Paris." It could be an alternate reality plot showing realities where Paris is the only consistent member of the crew, and Paris could be jumping around the realities showing us the outcome of having different crews.
Lower Decks did and episode called "We'll Always Have Tom Paris"
I watched "We'll Always Have Paris" when it first aired, and it bothered me even as a child how Data just knew which one of his temporal copies was the Right One to fix the time splitting anomaly. He doesn't explain why he's correct, he just declares it, the other Datas agree, and they solve the problem. It bugged me then, and it bugs me now.
Not to mention, he uses a contraction... and improper grammar!
What about Data’s internal chronometer? Could that explain it? But yeah, doesn’t make a lot of sense I guess.
@@tomkerruish2982 I don't think the "Data can't use contractions" thing, was a thing at that point in the series yet. They mentioned it of course but it wasn't cemented into the character quite yet. He said a contraction or two during the 1st season as it is.
@@LordLOC Yes, and it would've been jarring for him to give the grammatically correct answer, "I! It is I!" to the question, "Which one [of us is in the correct time continuum]?" But what's this fandom without nitpicking?
@@tomkerruish2982 I mean sure that's true - but I wouldn't really call it nitpicking in this case. More like, the character wasn't fully defined and some fans either don't realize that or accept that lol or you know, it is nitpicking :D
"Shattered" happens to be my favorite Voyager episode. It is the episode I keep coming back to whenever I want a little taste of Voyager. I'm sure there are better episodes, but this one holds my attention.
Shattered is actually one of my favorite Voyager episodes. The issue Jakotay has, that we don't actually see, has actually been seen twice since. Daniels has it the Enterprise season 3 pilot, and it's been seen on Lower Decks too.
How can the mudd episode in discovery be one of the worst. This is one of the only discovery episodes I watch more than once.
Still love you all just this one I don’t agree
i found discovery caused me to puke uncontrollably. Harcourt Fenton Mudd was on Discovery? Oh! the horror, the horror.
The Mudd episode was an awesome Heist story. This is nonsense
@@TheShootist i found that nobody asked you
@@TheShootist the mudd episode in discovery is one of my favorites. It has a rich story which makes sense logically based on mudd character.
Also, this was a very unique story related to time travel. Never been one like it other than cause and effect but there no one was controlling the loop
@@tomgl6684 I do love discovery but the mudd episode seems to be the most “trek” of the early episodes. Not sure if right word
Fun fact: "Time's Orphan" was originally drafted as an episode of The Next Generation, in which a young Alexander would have fallen into the timewarp and emerged as a feral teenager. Worf would have reluctantly let his son return to the past, without the reset button. This was because some of the TNG writers really hated Alexander and wanted to write him off.
Time's Orphan. Not just the worst time travel episode, it was the worst "O'Brien Must Suffer" episode.
I get it. Alexander was not a good character.
@@GabePuratekuta Seems to me the writers could have written him better instead of "Meh, I don't like this character. Let's just kill them off!"
I think the bigger issue wasn't that Alexander was not a good character, it's that after a couple round of trying to make Alexander a thing, Worf was just irredeemably bad as a father.
I seem to have repressed or forgotten this episode and I can see why.
For that last one, Molly was unfortunately not important enough a character to make the change to her permanent. More importantly, it was one of the later season episodes, which means that in order for it to work as a permanent change, it would have to be an ongoing story, and the show runners already had a lot on their plate.
I've only ever watched this episode once, really isn't a great episode in my opinion because Molly was never more than a tiny part in an occasional episode.
This is a fair point and kind of what I was thinking. They should have honestly left the idea in the writers room until they had time to actually tackle it.
I think everyone misses the whole point of the episode as it is. Needless to say, Older Molly literally sacrificing her entire life/existence so that her younger self can "go home" was quite well done. And yes, she totally knew that's what she was doing and what would happen. The point of the episode is loss, and accepting loss. The O'Brien's had to accept they lost their daughter once, got her back (kinda) then had to accept they were going to lose her again, forever in the end. It was just a happy accident that Older Molly found Younger Molly and helped her "go home".
I never realized how bad shattered was. I also never realized how much I like that episode, despite how bad it is lol.
Same! It might not be the best episode ever but was so much fun
I loved it, too! LOL
I can understand all but one of the episodes on this list and maybe it's because I'm a huge Voyager fan. But "Shattered" is actually one of my favorite Voyager episodes.
First, it is a time travel episode. Second, it's BECAUSE the different areas of the ship are critical points of the ship's journey. It doesn't matter why that happened. Maybe they just stick out for some reason on the time-space continuum. It DOES make sense that initially Chakotay is the only one who can pass into the different sections since he was right at the focal point of what happened. There is also a small explanation as to what did happen as it was the way Chakotay prevented it from happening again.
We also got to see some of the crew back in their former Maquis personas like Torres.
Yes, it was filled with nostalgic moments but that's the POINT of the episode. It could only have happened in the final season. There's no way it could happen at any other point.
So, I agree with 9 out of the 10 episodes except for Shattered. Nice job otherwise.
I respectfully disagree with many of the entries on this list.
"Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad" is my favorite DSC episode.
DS9 "Visionary" is a very entertaining entry into the 'O'Brien must suffer' collection.
"Accession" is a pivotal moment in Sisko's character arc as he begins to embrace his role as The Emissary.
"Shattered" is a lot of fun. It's like 'Voyager's greatest hits' without resorting to a clip show.
I suggest the following alternative entries for worst time travel episodes:
Endgame (VOY)
Shockwave (ENT)
Assignment: Earth (TOS)
Mercy (PIC)
Endgame they have on list of 10 best timetravel episodes. Video is like 1+ year old by now.
Endgame is easily one of the best written episodes, but the second worst time travel episode behind Fury. We know that the Federation polices time travel violations like a hawk, and yet Janeway going back in time to get Voyager back to Earth decades ahead of schedule somehow is totally okay.
Honestly I really enjoyed shattered! It was ridiculous yes, but getting to see more chaokotay and others was so much fun! Even if it wasn't exactly good. It was fun!
Yep. One of the really good VOY apisodes.
Shattered was the best episode in the final season besides Endgame. I enjoyed it entirely. Even though I agree about Fury this channel doesn’t seem to like Voyager much☮️🖖
I get the distinct impression from your reviews that you have never seen these episodes, and if you have it was only a cursory glance. You guys need to work on that. It’s really important that the actual Star Trek fans review Star Trek. I don’t feel like most of you guys are Star Trek fans except for Sean and Adam. Could we have more of them please??
They are just pumping out these video's cos they have to, most are editorially terrible.
Oh for a time machine. I had to sit through 30 seconds of UNSKIPABLE COMMERCIALS to watch this video!🤪
I actually really enjoyed shattered. I thought it was pretty cool
In Visionary, I liked that O'Brien travels to the future using a radiation device than sends his future self back in his place as he can no longer survive. I though this was a pretty fresh take versus other time travel tropes. In Accession, I think the prophets goal wasn't to convince the Bajorans that Sisko is the the emissary, rather to convince Sisko to embrace the role.
I liked the Voyager episode "Shattered", oh well each to their own. Fury did suck though, majorly suckage.
Are you crazy?! Shattered was one of the BEST of Voyager's episodes. It was like a grand tour of Voyager's best moments and characters. Fantastic!
Future's End was also a terrible time travel episode. Nobody wanted to see 90s LA in Voyager.
Shattered is one of my favorite Voyager episodes.
Non Sequitur.
"The temporal anomaly which caused this was barely explained"
In this episode actual, yes.. I agree.
However, the way it WAS described said just enough for me to always link it with another episode where it was explained a bit more.
Call it head cannon revision / linkage..
But I always took this episode to be a sort of semi-sequel to TNG's Parallels based on Worf's multi-Parallel, time is a factor in the equations situation. Worf's "Quantum Fissure" and Harry's "Time Stream, which weaves through the galaxy like a thread" both seem to just happen with little to no cause. their shuttles just happened to hit the damn thing and things went bad. Worf jumped a single reality which is likely where it would have stayed had it not been for Geordie's Visor and Kim would likely have just died.
Why would harry have simply just died and Worf didn't ? Well, look what happened the last time a Star Fleet shuttle hit their stream. They blew a hole in it and kept sticking their fingers in until they nearly caused all of realities to merge with themselves. If I were an alien that called the time stream home, I would put up a defense system of some sort. Unfortunately for Cosimo, Voyager's transporter beam complicated the situation and ended up throwing Harry into another quantum reality. To make sure he didn't create another Worf situation, they sent a watcher to make sure this time.
Visionary..
Time stuff often happens when it comes to Romulans and Romulan tech.
Be it their forced quantum singularity warp drive, the chronitons they send out like stink lines in a comic strip, they get everywhere and mess things up. In this case, to me it makes sense that he would have this ability at just the right time because if the Romulans hadn't been present, he wouldn't have had the powers after his accident.
Accession.
The wormhole aliens didn't do this to show or prove to the people of Bajor that Sisko was the emissary.
It was to show to Sisko, HE IS the emissary.. so he better learn to love it. lol.
I love Non Sequitur, one of my favorites. Should have been a 2 parter.
Shattered is cool. Visionary is also a very good episode. This list is weak.
Shattered's one of my favorite episodes of the franchise and those were all major points for the ship and crew's timeline--aside from the one in Astrometrics with future Icheb and Naomi of course--that they had to be included. As for First Born... Alexander was a terrible and useless character so it makes sense a time-travel episode including him would be bad.
E2 needed to be on this list, and maybe Assignment Earth, but Ascension was a really good episode.
“Assignment Earth” was a terrible episode. A back door pilot for what would have been a bad tv show.
Non-Sequitur is one of my favorite early Voyager episodes. Harry Kim is a better man than I, as I wouldn't be so much in a hurry to get back to the Delta Quadrant...
@The Critic I mean I can understand the confusion as the scenario can easily be caused by time travel
Shenanigans.
I rather enjoyed Shattered, yeah it was basically a clip-show playing in the past (and potential future) events, but it highlighted the major events in Voyager's travels, and theory is that such events would leave big markers upon the space-time continuum versus days where they were all sat around twiddling their thumbs, hence why they featured in the different sections of Voyager's temporal dismemberment... :)
Im surprised the entirety of Picard Season 2 didnt make the cut xD
any episode with Harcourt Fenton Mudd is gonna be fun though ... he's one of the better villains gene ever created
Is "We'll always have Paris" even a time travelling episode, apart from that multiplied Datas? And Picards romance is clumsy on purpose as he is torn about her to this day.
I love just how many utube vids use the 'Timey Wimey' phrase from Dr. Who whenever talking about time travel. Dr. Who really is the ultimate 'influencer'
I like "Shattered". It's as though someone took the concept of a clip show and turned it into something creative and enjoyable.
With regards to "All Our Yesterdays", as I understand it, humans as we are now, biologically have existed for around 300,000 years. Doesn't seem very far-fetched (to me at least) that McCoy is pretty much unchanged.
Has everyone else at WhatCulture gone on holiday and left Ellie doing all the vids? :). I agree with others that the point of Accession was to show Sisko that he was the Emissary, not the Bajorans. And Shattered is just a really fun episode. Not all episodes need to make sense! And of course the biggest "reset button" time travel episode ever was Yesterdays Enterprise and that didn't make the list cos it's just a bloody good episode! (OK so it wasn't a reset eventually, but at the time it was aired it was a total reset!) :)
I liked Time's Orphan. The only thing I didn't like about it was that there was yet another inconsistent use of time travel. After all, Star Trek has a tendency to waffle between "write character out of existence", "time loop", "parallel realities", and so on. For comparison's sake, both this episode and Voyager's Timeless. Both essentially have the same thing happen, a character's future self changes their past. But in Harry Kim's case, the message he sent still exists along with a direct message to himself. This would mean that future Harry's timeline still exists.
"All Our Yesterdays" has a lot of details behind it. There was more to Spock's reversion than we were shown. Vulcans are telepathic to a degree even when not using the mind-meld and get a degree of mental and emotional support by way of "networking" with their fellow Vulcans. When Spock and McCoy go back 5000 years in the past, Spock unconsciously connects with primitive Vulcans and begins to behave primitively. It's only after McCoy makes him aware of his behavior that he's able to fight against those primitive urges.
That's a good observation.
At first I was really perturbed by Discovery giving Sarek and Michael long distance telepathy; but then I remembered that it was already established to a degree in the Original Series.
In "The Immunity Syndrome" Spock could feel the Vulcan crew of the Intrepid die from the other side of the anomaly. And in The Motion Picture he could sense V'Ger calling out across space.
@@HermanVonPetri Also in the OG movies with Spock sensing V'Ger from lightyears away, and Sybok sensing the fake Sha-Ka-Ree entity.
In Deep Space 9's Accession, I always thought that the prophets sent the ancient Bajoran poet to the present in order to convince Sisko, not the Bajoren people, that he truly was the emissary. Kai Opaca even appeared to Sisko in a vision, as if she were sent by the prophets to get him to question whether he did the right thing by publicly abdicating his title as Emissary.
"Year of Hell" gets an honorable mention but not bcuz of what was stated in the video. The end of the episode had the whole thing erased when Anarax's ship overloaded, erasing the entire "year of hell" and showing Voyager back at Day One. Yet in a later episode Tom Paris commented about the "year of hell." How could he know about it if it never happened?
Are you sure it was a later episode and not the earlier episode where Kes was jumping back in time?
I really liked Discovery's Magic... time travel episode. It used a twist on the Cause and Effect resetting time loop. The Worf/Alexander one was a bit shit.
Shattered was excellent. Sure the time travel plot device here was bonkers, but it made for a really good episode.
The Molly O'Brien one was really good as a tug on the heart strings and it gave us a 'Bollocks'.
All the others -:spot on.
I like Shattered. It was clear there were some mundane time sections, like where they laid in wait in engineering, but other than Astrometrics they were largely ignored.
Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad was fun the first time but gets tedious on re-watch
So the _correct_ timeline is one where Harry suffers and remains unhappy. That's O'Brienian-levels of hilarious.
For the final entry on the list, it would have made for some interesting new story telling line for DS9 when developing O'Brian's character, having to deal with the fact that his toddler daughter was now an adult but still mentally a child. I don't remember which season it was in but then again, i can't remember how many time plot episodes always seems to end with the events of the episode being voided from the time line which would create a paradox. Take the Final Episode of Voyager, if Future Janeway never goes back in time, the events of the final episode will not happen, but if Janeway does go back in time, she'll need to present the Crew with the same information from the other timeline.
One could also surmise that anytime any time, anyone travels through time, their effect on history would mean that the timeline they returned to was not the same one they left, and such they no longer exist in that other timeline and are just missing, lost to the memories of others while they assume the lives of their counterparts in a different timeline.
Ahhhh stop. Accession is not about the Bajoran people having no faith in Sisko as the Emissary, it is about Sisko having no faith in him being the Emissary. They didn't send the "false Prophet" to strengthen the Bajorans faith, but to strengthen Siskos faith.
It was never about the Bajorans having doubts.
Magic To Make The Sanest Man Go Mad is probably my favourite Discovery episode. It's the closest it's ever come to old Trek, but by this point it's clear that they are not doing the episodic format.
"All Our Yesterdays" is so unrealistic! Storing data on 5" shiny metal disks! Preposterous!
Nah. "Shattered" is solid, you're just filling spots. But hard agree on "Time's Orphan" - 50 minutes no one will ever get back.
To be fair to Accession.... the Prophets weren't trying to prove anything to the Bajorans, they were helping Sisko through his own spiritual quandry, showing HIM that he is truly meant to be the Emissary, and getting him to realize that it is not only important, but that it is something he could actually enjoy if he let himself do so.
"Visionary" has no business being on this list........... That was a great episode...
I agree. I get the impression from Eli's videos that she hasn't even seen the episodes in question. The suggestion made that O'Brien is jumping around time when the Romulans were around is simple coincidence is disproven in the episode.
The time jumping was caused by the type of radio isotope O'Brien was hit by *combined* with the presence of the Romulan artificial quantum singularity power core of the warbird.
Worst part about Visionary no one talks about: Past O'Brien dies and is replaced by Future O'Brien... who could not possibly exist with the death of his younger self. Only way that could've worked is if he left on that temporal stabilization device for the rest of the series.
I see your point but " it doesn't matter I'm you and your me!'' I hate temporal mechanics'.
I agree with most of this list but your review of Shattered for being the important days of the ships history reminded me of the Red Dwarf joke about when the crew would like to go back to "I'd choose a week last Tuesday, we got all the laundry done." Imagine if they'd done an episode where it was just Wednesday on the bridge 🤣
The human race wasn't all that different 5,000 years ago. Humans were building cities, creating art, worshipping their gods, and waging wars just like we are today. Go check out the civilizations in the Fertile Crescent around 3000 BCE.
The fact there are ten "worst" time travel episodes tells me there are way too many to begin with.
Personally, I don't think there are any "worst" time travel episodes. LOL I like them all!
An issue I had with Time's Orphan was that many of the central themes of the episode, namely the morality of deliberately changing your future to knowingly affect someone else's past was already explored, and done far better, in the previous season's episode Children of Time. The Defiant crew encounter a temporal anomaly that causes them to meet a colony of their descendants who arose after the crew were thrown back in time and stranded on a planet. The crew attempt to leave the planet and avoid the anomaly, but doing so would cause the colony to never exist. It's a much better example of how while your future isn't written for you, for others it's history.
My candidates for the 10 Worst Star Trek Time Travel Episodes would be: "Star Trek: Picard" Season 2, Episodes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.
#1 ... seriously? That would have been a boring, stupid, agonising subplot. People would have been fed-up of potty-training Molly back into the 24th century after one episode. It would be suffering for suffering's sake, both for Molly, and the parents.
It was a beautiful episode. Besides, Molly wasn't brought back through handwaving and technobabble. Miles and Keiko were actually willing to let their daughter go for her sake, because they did not want her to suffer as some research object. It was adult Molly who guided her younger self back. Was that a bit contrived that she ended up at the same point in time and space as young Molly? Maybe. But the message was clear. "If you love something, you have to let it go sometimes." Time travel is never that good of a plot device, and it was pretty much "obscure magic time portal whoopsie", but the story they told was nice, and I really felt that Molly would be lost. The fact that old Molly sent her younger self back was not nullifying the gravity of the situation in my opinion at least.
As others wondered, has the narrator even watched the episode?
Harry gave up his better life for Tom. Now that's friendship goals.
The Harry Mudd episode is the only good discovery episode
Harry never went to Paris's aid in the pilot episode ... it was the other way round.
Which then begs the question why would Paris get into a fight with Quark over Lobi crystals - when he was aware of the scam?
This never made any sense storywise...
It's possible that Harry's "replacement" in that timeline simply didn't fall into Quark's scheme and thus, with Paris still being in that bar, something else unfolded that landed the hot-headed Paris in enough trouble to get arrested by Odo. Crystals or not, I found this convincing enough as an explanation. Shaky, but ok.
I mean, it’s possible that Tom was just exaggerating and he simply violently grabbed Quark.
I enjoyed the DS9 episode was when Rom joined Star Fleet Academy. Quark and Rom take him and they end up in the 1950’s.
To be fair to Shattered, one of the time periods (the Astrometrics Lab) was just a normal peaceful day. But it wouldn't have been a very fun story if every time period was like that.
Visionary and Shattered were great. You don't deserve to be called a Trekkie.
This list is nitpicky. We liked these episodes and I'm glad that they undo the messed up things that happened when time was disrupted. TrekCulture kills me with this. If these bad things hadn't been reversed we would have lost too much, too many people, ships.... Y'all suck for this
5 was a great episode, and it was not for the Bejorans, it was for the Sisco.
Shattered was probably one of my favorite episodes of voyager, I really wouldnt say it was good, but it is stupid fun.
The Disco ep you put on here is actually one of my favourite episodes of season 1, but I definitely get why people might have problems with it. Personally I think it’s one of the franchises better time loop eps.
It took me a moment to realize that you were talking about Star Trek: Discovery.
Also made me realize that it would probably be a much better show if it WAS Star Trek: Disco. Get down tonight!
Shattered? ...Shattered?! But the fact that every part of the ship seen was at a critical moment of the past is what makes the episode so fun, and is the whole point. The only paradox here is saying that its fun but also bad for the same reason.
That Kes episode was painful. It was like the producers were like - your character is interesting but we need to replace you with someone far more attractive that we can centre every single episode around ... but also, we are going to bring you back one more time and just crap all over the character just to ruin your last noble action and hopeful send off, to rub it in that we got rid of you.
Hope it doesn't cause any long term mental health issues for you.
You make a side point about Jeri Ryan I've commented on before: Was she hired for her looks?
Yes, Obviously! They Quickly put her in a Tight Catsuit, accentuating her Bust(A feature that Borg should have Removed as superfluous!). This doen't mean that her Acting wasn't Good- It was the Best! It is the Immaturity of the Production Staff to need to write in Sexy, rather than Work on what they Had! Kes had Potential(but a petite build), and Seven had Potential(ample build), and they Displayed where their Minds were!
It's true that Fury was an even crappier send-off. But also, the real reason why Jennifer Lien was fired from Voyager has been revealed in recent years: Her mental health problems had already surfaced and were creating problems on set.
@@Caidoe_Esthov sure? I always heard Garret Wang would have been the one to be written off, but then he was voted on some "sexiest man alive" list and they decided to give Kes the axe. Which I'm fine with. Also Neelix was better after she left.
@@countluke2334 The Garret Wang vs Jennifer Lien issue was basically a rumor that they allowed people to believe at the time. In 2020, various cast members were interviewed for a book called Star Trek Voyager: A Celebration. In it, the cast members basically described some of Lien's mental health problems that were apparent on set and led to the producers letting her go.
@@Cleopatra7Philopator - I agree that she is an incredible actor, but personally the character got annoying. In season 5 there were very few episodes that were not built specifically around her character
Spock should use the Hulk logic. "Don't make me angry, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry".
“Shattered” (Star Trek Voyager) is one of my favorite episodes! I love the fractured temporal fields setting.
In All Our Yesterdays, the "librarian", Mr. Atoz, was supposed to apply a treatment to the travelers to acclimatize them to the target time period. It would cause them to be like the people of that period, adapted in terms of immune system, psychology, etc. Spock was treated and that is what caused the reversion of his psychology. Kirk and McCoy were not, which would cause them to die if they stayed in the past (an idea developed differently in Star Trek: Discovery, but a similar concept of people being adapted to their native time).
"Assignment Earth" was a good episode. If it had been picked up as a series I would have tried to watch it, even if Teri Garr's character had been recast
You know, Visionary kind of seems like something that would match with the events of the Kes time shifting story
Firstborn was one I didn't like until it was revisited in STO recently...
It was? Gotta check STO out again sometime.
Time travel in Trek is either very very good or just horrible. A good example of this is how Tasha Yar volunteers to go back with the Enterprise C and station herself at Tactical to give the Enterprise a better chance. Great episode. Why Tasha's daughter believed Picard sent her back makes no sense. It diminishes the sacrifice Tasha made and portrays her daughter as holding a grudge. In addition, wouldn't the Romulans have benefitted greatly from Tasha's communicator technology, giving them a tactical advantage for almost 100 years. If they knew she was from the future, which they must have if her daughter knew, the future should not have been the same. Starfleet was more militant and Tasha would have had a lot of knowledge. But none of this is discussed.
It makes sense Bones would basically be the same man now as 5000 years ago. Human civilization was around then, if he keeps all his knowledge there wouldn't be any significant difference. Humanity has been pretty settled for at least 100,000 years
The Prophets didnt send the poet forward in time to convince the Bajoran people that Sisko was the Emissary, they did to convince Sisko that he was in fact the Emissary . And it worked!
Visionary is a classic episode!
100%
Nicely Harsh! Loved it! Well done!
The point of Accession was not that the Bajorans needed to accept Sisko as the Emissary. It was that he needed to accept the role.