The Federation will be able to defeat any Empire invasion.

[NecronLord]

Final summation: The Empire could never conquer or defeat the Federation in all out war because after the all our war is lost by the federation the REAL war begins-a war where the federation gets infinite do-overs

I imagine the Romulans, or the Dominion, or the Klingons or the Borg or the like could never conquer the soopah feddies either then? Y'know, that really takes the drama out of the Star Trek setting.

[Joe Momma]

Which neatly explains why there are hundreds of thousands of these timelines already in existence, as per "Parallels".

Speaking of "Parallels", in that episode we did see an alternate Enterprise-D from a timeline where "the Federation's gone, the Borg is everywhere!" Thus, in at least one timeline the deus ex machina of time travel did nothing to save the Federation from being destroyed.

I don't think it matters much. Using this argument sounds like me saying I could easily kick Mike Tyson's ass...if you warned me of the fight twenty years early and gave me unlimited funding for boxing training, physical conditioning including steroids and whatever other drugs might help, and surgical alterations such as padding under my skin to help soften the blows. Even it's true, it has no bearing on whether I as I am right now could beat Tyson today and is in fact an implicit recognition that I can't do so.

Also, the SW side has temporal spoilers of its own -- powerful Force-users who can predict danger before it occurs, sometimes months or years in advance. It's not gonna do much good to prepare a ship that can create a colony in the past if a star destroyer shows up to vape it a week before it leaves on its voyage.

-- Joe Momma

[Prozac the Robert]

Which neatly explains why there are hundreds of thousands of these timelines already in existence, as per "Parallels". I don't see why you have trouble grasping this. It took them centuries to determine that a FTL technology which leaves long-term trackable distortions in the fabric of spacetime (so-called "warp signatures") can potentially harm that fabric, and even then only because of one person's activism (which they also rejected until the person demonstrated it for them). I don't see why it's so hard to decide that the Federation is dogmatic about certain things; it seems to be written into the script.

It could explain that I supose, although it seems just as likely that they are naturally occuring.

But it also relies on complete stupidity. How could anybody believe that other people's attempts at time travel causes branching, but falsely believe that their own attempts don't?

To use your example, it would be like them discovering that klingon and romulan warp drives can dammage space, and that old federation drives also do, but that their modern ships don't without testing it. That would just be pure madness.

[Lord Pounder]

Final summation: The Empire could never conquer or defeat the Federation in all out war because after the all our war is lost by the federation the REAL war begins-a war where the federation gets infinite do-overs

[/quote]

Is this why Sisko went begging the Prophets for help making a Dominion Fleet dissapear? If the feddies had reliable and useful timetravel why didn't they plant a fleet of their own at DS9, more to the point why didn't the federation take the wormhole sooner, i.e before the Cardassians even conquered the place?

[brianeyci]

Holy shit let this thread die.

Brian

[Darth Lucifer]

I don't think it matters much. Using this argument sounds like me saying I could easily kick Mike Tyson's ass...if you warned me of the fight twenty years early and gave me unlimited funding for boxing training, physical conditioning including steroids and whatever other drugs might help, and surgical alterations such as padding under my skin to help soften the blows. Even it's true, it has no bearing on whether I as I am right now could beat Tyson today and is in fact an implicit recognition that I can't do so.

Holy shit let this thread die.

I think that about sums up this thread. I'd love to contribute something more, but it looks like all the angles have been covered, ranging from Jedi Precognition to 29th Century Federation timeships and hypothetical temporal bases from which to launch the annihilation of the Galactic Empire.

I have to give it to the Empire. There are just way too many variables in Time Travel, even more so if one wants to travel to a time and place he has absolutely no knowledge of. Even if one were to wipe out Coruscant thousands of years in the past with a planet killing weapon, what's to say that may stop the Empire from ever forming?

That's the problem with an argument like this one. Too many what if's. Brianeyci's right...Time to lay this one to rest.

[Thanas]

Just a funny thing I've just noticed:


"Lach" is the german imperative of "laughing"

Although this thread could die now.

[Ghost Rider]

Indeed.

Thread locked.