
  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.

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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

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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 .

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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
