Timeships were vessels which had undergone temporal transit. Some timeships were designed and constructed for that purpose, while others underwent time travel through accidental or external forces.
Time-travel pods, Wells-class starships, and Aeon-type ships were built for use as timeships. (TNG: "A Matter of Time"; VOY: "Future's End", "Relativity")
The Federation experimented with sending vessels back in time as early as 2268, but timeships were not regularly built or used until after the 24th century. (TOS: "Assignment: Earth"; TNG: "A Matter of Time")
In the 23rd century, the USS Enterprise used the light-speed breakaway factor to travel through time. (TOS: "Assignment: Earth") By the 29th century, timeships used both temporal rifts and a temporal displacement drive to travel through time. However, these ships required a great deal of experience to control, with inexperienced pilots running the risk of creating temporal explosions if any of their calibrations were off. (VOY: "Future's End", "Relativity")
Use of a timeship or time travel is banned by the Temporal Prime Directive and care must be taken to avoid disrupting the timeline or you risk creating a Temporal paradox.
List of timeships
Officially designated timeships
These timeships were either operated exclusively to travel through time, or were sent on time-travel missions in addition to their primary goals.
- Note: the USS Enterprise is included because its mission to 1968 was officially a historical research mission, making it possibly the first ship intended for temporal travel. For details on "accidental" time ventures, see below.
Ship Name | Government/Agency | Type | Commander(s) | Dates | Image | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
unknown | unknown | unknown | Lazarus | Distant past (2267) | TOS: "The Alternative Factor" | |
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) | Starfleet | Constitution-class | Captain James T. Kirk | 2268 (1968) | TOS: "Assignment: Earth" | |
unknown | unknown | Time-travel pod | unknown | 26th century (22nd century, 2368) | 26th century Time travel pod | TNG: "A Matter of Time" |
Berlinghoff Rasmussen | ||||||
Aeon | Starfleet | Aeon-type | Captain Braxton | 29th century (2373, 1967) | VOY: "Future's End" | |
unknown | Borg Collective | Borg sphere | Borg Queen | 2373 (2063) | Star Trek: First Contact | |
USS Relativity (NCV-474439-G) | Starfleet | Wells-class | Captain Braxton | 29th century | VOY: "Relativity" | |
Lieutenant Ducane | ||||||
unknown | United Federation of Planets | Time-travel pod | unknown | 31st century (2152) | 31st century Time travel pod | ENT: "Future Tense" |
"Unsanctioned timeships"
These starships and vessels were primarily intended for uses other than time travel, however through accidental or unofficial action they traveled to different eras.
Apocrypha
In the Department of Temporal Investigations novel Forgotten History, it is revealed that the newly-formed Department of Temporal Investigations attempted to create their own timeship in 2270, using the original engines of the USS Enterprise (Which were then the only engines known to be capable of performing a slingshot maneuver due to it being exposed to a unique set of conditions during its travels). However, their first attempt to create a timeship resulted in the ship being badly damaged after it overshot its target destination date and returned to a point before their original departure to avert the accident (Simultaneously confirming that time travel could genuinely change history rather than simply creating a new timeline, as the future ship ceased to exist once the time of the originally-scheduled test-flight went by without the younger ship launching).
The second attempt to create a timeship in 2273 included a dimension-shifting capsule taken from the Vedala combined with the original engines, with the goal of travelling into the future of parallel universes (Allowing them to witness potential environmental threats without risking changing history), but the incompatible nature of the two technologies resulted in the ship becoming trapped between 2273 and 2383 until Lucsly and Kirk were able to bring the ship back into sync with its true timeline, Lucsly simultaneously teaching Kirk how to make any ship capable of performing a slingshot maneuver in future.
Template:Ship types
External link
- Timeship at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works