Time Trekkers Trekkies abound in this lifetime, grasping onto the fictional representation of life outside our galaxy and time outside our collective consciousness. Captain Picard, himself transported to Nexus, realizes in a blissful moment that nothing is real and that he must return to reality to save his crew, and himself. Captain Kirk, slain almost a century ago in battle, is transported forward in time to assist Captain Picard in this daring mission to thwart the villain. The very concept of moving forward in time after one's death is difficult enough to grasp. Then ponder one question more, as the Star Trek screenwriters suggest that events take place at the same time in parallel universes - thereby allowing a man who existed a hundred years ago to step into a future century and alter the course of its history.
Time ceases to be linear.
It warps and spins, runs along side, and doubles back on itself. No wonder Star Trek has been followed religiously for so many years. It creatively ponders the very issues that physicists and mathematicians, historians and theologians, have been trying to understand for centuries. It is quite fitting that we look to fictional stories about space to grasp the notion of time in its most scientific terms. Time, as defined by the laws of physics, is as vast as space, and is as difficult to understand.