JJ Abrams has been refusing to talk with us about the portrayal of time travel on his hit show that is going nowhere (Lost). His most recent endeavor, Star Trek, also deals with time travel, and provides a perfect argument for regulated time travel. After seeing his planet destroyed, Nero decides to go back in time to 25 years earlier and destroy all federation planets. If time travel is unregulated, we are going to have some scary mother fuckers from the future trying to destroy our planet. Sixty six billion rational beings died because one asshole found out how to time travel and no one was regulating. Do you think this would have happened had there been some regulators?
The film also partially explains how they are able to travel through time. People in the film are able to travel through time by going through a black hole that they created. This is accomplished with a mysterious “red matter.” What is this red matter? I have been doing some experiments with red materials, and I am able to rule out the following: strawberries, cherries, beets, and hot sauce. Too bad.
It should be noted that while this movie was super entertaining and awesome it also has some interesting things to say about time travel. The film correctly asserts that when a person goes back in time he alters history – a new chain of events that cannot be predicted unfolds, and an alternate reality is created. Time travel, then, is some pretty serious business. To some, going back in time and changing history is cheating. To us, it’s a logical way to stop climate change. And meet JFK. And travel the Oregon Trail.
In the middle of the movie, the Spock who has traveled 25 years back in time meets with that hottie Captain Kirk, who had just been thrown off the space ship by the Spock existing in the present. The Spock who time traveled tells Kirk that he cannot tell young Spock that he exists, or something crazy on a cosmic degree will happen. However, at the end, we learn that this is complete bullshit; the two Spocks can meet, making it possible to be in two places at once. Does that mean you can be in 10 places at once? Twenty five? What if more Spocks went back in time? How many Spocks can meet before the universe implodes?
Perhaps the most important question was asked by some technician. When he meets the time travel Spock from the future, he asks, “do they still have sandwiches there?” Great question. I certainly hope so. I like tomato on toast with salt. Maybe the red matter is tomatoes?
