Meta: "Time Keeps On Slippin' - How SG-1 Died Yet Survived"
A lively discussion on Facebook about time travel in the SG verse has prompted me to finally sit down and write up a way in which it is *our* SG-1 that survives these encounters that usually end with our Heroes dying… heroically.
Ok, so the Stargate writers weren’t exactly the most consistent folks when it came to time travel. They employed two of the three basic theories of time travel, as seen in this graphic, which I think most of us are familiar with. We can list which episode use which theories quite easily:
Fixed Timeline:
“A Matter of Time”, “1969”, “Window of Opportunity”, “Unnatural Selection”, “Prophecy”, “It’s Good To Be King”, “The Quest”, “Unending”
Multiverse:
“There But For The Grace of God”, “Point Of View”, “2010”, “Moebius”, “Ripple Effect”, “The Road Not Taken”, “Continuum”
With our fixed timeline episodes, we never leave our universe. “A Matter of Time”, “Unnatural Selection”, “The Quest” & “Unending” all use time dilation in which a fixed or unfixed area of time space experiences forward time at an altered rate from the rest of the universe. “Window of Opportunity” uses this altered time field as well, however the Ancient’s machine resets the time within to a specific point ten hours in the past again and again.
“1969”, “Prophecy” and “It’s Good To Be King” all use the Novikov self-consistency principle. In “1969” by sending SG-1 back in time, General Hammond who knew he had met SG-1 before kept the past consistent with his own experiences. In “Prophecy”, Jonas’ visions came true no matter what he did in attempt to alter the future, keeping in line with a Newtonian understanding, but not quantum mechanics. And, as Sam mentions, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle makes a fixed future impossible. In “It’s Good To Be King”, Janus the wile Ancient, travels forward and then back in time to provide the prophecies of King Arkon, again keeping the timeline consistent.
Those are the easy ones!
The multiverse theory episodes show variants of our SG-1 traveling to another universe by time machine or quantum mirror and affecting events in another universe’s timeline or another SG-1 arriving in our universe to affect our timeline. In the multiverse theory, the very act of traveling back in time creates branches to other universes, making it impossible for you to return to your original universe.
Use of the Quantum Mirror however, is connecting one universe to another at the same point in time, allowing the traveller to go between universes without altering the past. So starting with “There But For The Grace Of God”, we have Daniel travelling to a parallel universe through the quantum mirror. Daniel’s very presence affects the outcome of events in that universe, however, the knowledge of the origin of the Goa’uld attack he gains there also affects ours upon his return as SG-1 are able to stop Apophis’ attack on Earth.
(Click to embiggen)
“Point of View” also provides an example of travel between parallel universes, though in this instance, it is our knowledge that saves their world.
(Click to embiggen)
“2010” gives us our first example of how travelling back in time creates an alternate universe branching off from the exact moment when the presence of new matter effected the timeline. By sending their note back to a time before their first encounter with the Ashen, they created a universe in which that event was prevented and did not occur. As with this and the remainder examples where new universes are created from events changed in the past, I have places our universe, our SG-1, as the ones that are the result of that change. Who is to say we were not watching alternates in “2010”, “Moebius” and “Continuum” (Hey, *they* did it in “Before I Sleep”!).
(Click to embiggen)
“Moebius” takes us through three different universes. We start with Daniel discovering Ra owning a ZPM almost 3000 years prior and SG-1 goes back in time to retrieve it (despite being well aware of how travelling back in time in the multiverse works!). Their timeship is captured and they are stranded, make a tape for their future selves, and everyone dies except Daniel when they decide to futz with the timeline further. This created a new universe where everyone is geekier, even more irreverent and, well, ok, Teal’c is still Teal’c. Geek!SG-1 now equipped with the same damn information about multiverse time travel, go back in time almost as far, thus creating yet another universe in which they are affecting by their presence. Somehow they manage to defeat Ra, and *our* SG-1 end up with the ZPM. Jack’s fish can be explained away with him never having actually caught a fish in that lake therefore questioning their existence until he sees one. Of course Jack’s utterance of “close enough” and indeed the entirety of the premise is from The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror V” in which Homer inadvertently alters the present each time he travels back in time, believing he is “close enough” when everything is the way it should be but for his family having lizard tongues. So with most of what we saw having not occurred in our universe, Catherine may not even be dead…
(Click to embiggen)
“Ripple Effect” and “The Road Not Taken” both use trans-universal bridges to allow travel between parallel universes, akin to the quantum mirror.
Finally, “Continuum” gives us the first instance of the destruction of a timeline by someone travelling back in time and altering it to create a new one. While Alt!SG-1 is attending the extraction ceremony for Alt!Ba’al (actually a clone), the real Alt!Ba’al goes back in time to prevent the Stargate from reaching the USA. *Somehow* people and such start disappearing, lending to the idea that a universe can be destroyed by the alteration of minute events in its past. Alt!SG-1 *somehow* gate back to Earth, but arrive in the alternate timeline aboard the shipwrecked Achilles in the Arctic. Fast forward a year and having discovered Alt!Ba’al’s time machine that uses solar flares to travel through time, as seen in 1969, Alt!Mitchell goes back in time, killing Alt!Ba’al and creating yet another universe - ours. In the graphic below I have mentioned that our SG-1 then attend the extraction ceremony for Clone!Ba’al, however it could be a clone as in the original universe, or it could indeed be the real Ba’al, whom due to the events of our universe differing, never built a time machine…
(Click to embiggen)
Therefore, in each instance it is our SG-1 that survives.
Ok, so the Stargate writers weren’t exactly the most consistent folks when it came to time travel. They employed two of the three basic theories of time travel, as seen in this graphic, which I think most of us are familiar with. We can list which episode use which theories quite easily:
Fixed Timeline:
“A Matter of Time”, “1969”, “Window of Opportunity”, “Unnatural Selection”, “Prophecy”, “It’s Good To Be King”, “The Quest”, “Unending”
Multiverse:
“There But For The Grace of God”, “Point Of View”, “2010”, “Moebius”, “Ripple Effect”, “The Road Not Taken”, “Continuum”
With our fixed timeline episodes, we never leave our universe. “A Matter of Time”, “Unnatural Selection”, “The Quest” & “Unending” all use time dilation in which a fixed or unfixed area of time space experiences forward time at an altered rate from the rest of the universe. “Window of Opportunity” uses this altered time field as well, however the Ancient’s machine resets the time within to a specific point ten hours in the past again and again.
“1969”, “Prophecy” and “It’s Good To Be King” all use the Novikov self-consistency principle. In “1969” by sending SG-1 back in time, General Hammond who knew he had met SG-1 before kept the past consistent with his own experiences. In “Prophecy”, Jonas’ visions came true no matter what he did in attempt to alter the future, keeping in line with a Newtonian understanding, but not quantum mechanics. And, as Sam mentions, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle makes a fixed future impossible. In “It’s Good To Be King”, Janus the wile Ancient, travels forward and then back in time to provide the prophecies of King Arkon, again keeping the timeline consistent.
Those are the easy ones!
The multiverse theory episodes show variants of our SG-1 traveling to another universe by time machine or quantum mirror and affecting events in another universe’s timeline or another SG-1 arriving in our universe to affect our timeline. In the multiverse theory, the very act of traveling back in time creates branches to other universes, making it impossible for you to return to your original universe.
Use of the Quantum Mirror however, is connecting one universe to another at the same point in time, allowing the traveller to go between universes without altering the past. So starting with “There But For The Grace Of God”, we have Daniel travelling to a parallel universe through the quantum mirror. Daniel’s very presence affects the outcome of events in that universe, however, the knowledge of the origin of the Goa’uld attack he gains there also affects ours upon his return as SG-1 are able to stop Apophis’ attack on Earth.
(Click to embiggen)
“Point of View” also provides an example of travel between parallel universes, though in this instance, it is our knowledge that saves their world.
(Click to embiggen)
“2010” gives us our first example of how travelling back in time creates an alternate universe branching off from the exact moment when the presence of new matter effected the timeline. By sending their note back to a time before their first encounter with the Ashen, they created a universe in which that event was prevented and did not occur. As with this and the remainder examples where new universes are created from events changed in the past, I have places our universe, our SG-1, as the ones that are the result of that change. Who is to say we were not watching alternates in “2010”, “Moebius” and “Continuum” (Hey, *they* did it in “Before I Sleep”!).
(Click to embiggen)
“Moebius” takes us through three different universes. We start with Daniel discovering Ra owning a ZPM almost 3000 years prior and SG-1 goes back in time to retrieve it (despite being well aware of how travelling back in time in the multiverse works!). Their timeship is captured and they are stranded, make a tape for their future selves, and everyone dies except Daniel when they decide to futz with the timeline further. This created a new universe where everyone is geekier, even more irreverent and, well, ok, Teal’c is still Teal’c. Geek!SG-1 now equipped with the same damn information about multiverse time travel, go back in time almost as far, thus creating yet another universe in which they are affecting by their presence. Somehow they manage to defeat Ra, and *our* SG-1 end up with the ZPM. Jack’s fish can be explained away with him never having actually caught a fish in that lake therefore questioning their existence until he sees one. Of course Jack’s utterance of “close enough” and indeed the entirety of the premise is from The Simpsons “Treehouse of Horror V” in which Homer inadvertently alters the present each time he travels back in time, believing he is “close enough” when everything is the way it should be but for his family having lizard tongues. So with most of what we saw having not occurred in our universe, Catherine may not even be dead…
(Click to embiggen)
“Ripple Effect” and “The Road Not Taken” both use trans-universal bridges to allow travel between parallel universes, akin to the quantum mirror.
Finally, “Continuum” gives us the first instance of the destruction of a timeline by someone travelling back in time and altering it to create a new one. While Alt!SG-1 is attending the extraction ceremony for Alt!Ba’al (actually a clone), the real Alt!Ba’al goes back in time to prevent the Stargate from reaching the USA. *Somehow* people and such start disappearing, lending to the idea that a universe can be destroyed by the alteration of minute events in its past. Alt!SG-1 *somehow* gate back to Earth, but arrive in the alternate timeline aboard the shipwrecked Achilles in the Arctic. Fast forward a year and having discovered Alt!Ba’al’s time machine that uses solar flares to travel through time, as seen in 1969, Alt!Mitchell goes back in time, killing Alt!Ba’al and creating yet another universe - ours. In the graphic below I have mentioned that our SG-1 then attend the extraction ceremony for Clone!Ba’al, however it could be a clone as in the original universe, or it could indeed be the real Ba’al, whom due to the events of our universe differing, never built a time machine…
(Click to embiggen)
Therefore, in each instance it is our SG-1 that survives.