Comment Stream

Re: TNG S5: Cause and Effect

As I see it the Bozeman and the Enterprise had to be stuck in the loop for the same number of iterations. Suppose at the time of the explosion they're both destroyed and the loop is thus repeated-- the Enterprise is launched back some number of days (say ~4, the stated 17 day chronometer difference divided by the number of iterations we see) to when it first entered the looping area of space. There isn't necessarily the requirement that the Bozeman only spent 4 days before it encountered the spacial anomaly which causes the collision. For the crew of the Bozeman, they could be repeating a section of time spanning a year+ (the 3 weeks since they left port thing couldn't bound the start, in this case). Consequently, it would be more difficult for them to detect the instances of deja-vu because of the extended time period, and would cause them to become more and more out of sync with the "proper timeline," inflating the chronometer difference to 80 years while the Enterprise's is only 17 days. There are other explanations too, but I see this as one possible way to reconcile the conundrum the Bozeman's presence introduces.