Temporal Cold War

The Temporal Cold War was a conflict fought between multiple time-traveling factions operating from different points in time, each attempting to implement its own preferred version of history, often in direct violation of the Temporal Accords, which were policed by temporal agents of the 31st century. In their efforts to gain dominance over the time stream, factions in the Temporal Cold War often avoided direct confrontations with their enemies in favor of inciting proxy conflicts to achieve their goals. ()
== Factions of the Temporal Cold War ==
* Nazi Germany (20th century):
** Earth nation from an alternate timeline.
** Received advanced technology from the Na'kuhl in exchange for resources and assistance in the construction of a temporal conduit leading to the 29th century. ()
* American Resistance (20th century):
** Group of Americans from an alternate timeline where the Na'kuhl helped Nazi Germany invade the United States of America.
** Helped the crew stop the Na'kuhl and reset the timeline. ()
* Sphere-Builders (21st–22nd century, 26th century in a possible future):
** Beings from a transdimensional realm capable of examining possible futures.
** Manipulated the Xindi in an effort to destroy Earth.
* Xindi Council (21st–22nd century):
** Manipulated by the Sphere-Builders into attacking Earth. ()
** For more information on the role of the Xindi in the Temporal Cold War, see Xindi incident.
* Cabal (22nd century):
** Suliban terrorist organization working for a mysterious benefactor in exchange for advanced technology. ()
** For more information on the role of the Cabal in the Temporal Cold War, see "Enterprises conflict with the Suliban Cabal" below.
* Tandarans (22nd century):
** At war with the Suliban since 2144.
** Aware of the Temporal Cold War. ()
* Klingon Empire (22nd century):
** Destabilized by the Cabal.
** Aided by United Earth. ()
* Suliban renegades (22nd century):
** Former members of the Cabal.
** Assisted the Enterprise crew during its first mission. ()
* United Earth (22nd century):
** Aided by temporal agent in correcting changes to the timeline. ()
** For more information on the role of United Earth in the Temporal Cold War, see "Enterprises conflict with the Suliban Cabal" below, Xindi incident, and Temporal War.
* Tholian Assembly (22nd century):
** Competed with the Cabal to acquire a from the future. ()
* Andorian Empire (22nd century):
** Assisted United Earth during the Xindi incident. ()
* Humanoid Figure (28th century):
** The mysterious benefactor of the Suliban Cabal.
** Capable of communicating through time but not time travel. ()
* Na'kuhl (29th century):
** Faction opposed to the Temporal Accords.
** Escalated the Temporal Cold War into an all-out conflict by launching an attack on the 29th century after altering Earth's past. ()
** For more information on the role of the Na'kuhl in the Temporal Cold War, see Temporal War.
* (31st century):
** Interstellar coalition that employed temporal agents to enforce the Temporal Accords and insure the integrity of the timeline.
** Opposed to the Cabal's benefactor, the Sphere-Builders, and the Na'kuhl. ()
Conflict 	Temporal powers	Proxy powers	Allies	Other factions
Suliban conflict	 	 	 	
Suliban conflict	 	 	 	
Xindi incident 	 	 	 	
Xindi incident 	 	 	 	
Na'kuhl conflict 	 	 	 	
Na'kuhl conflict 	 	 	 	
== Enterprises conflict with the Suliban Cabal ==
Starfleet first became aware of the Temporal Cold War in April 2151, when a Klingon courier named Klaang crashed in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. Spurred by a desire for Humanity to display an ability to manage its own affairs, Enterprise captain Jonathan Archer elected to push up the launch of Enterprise by three weeks in order to return Klaang to his people. During the course of this mission, the Enterprise crew encountered a group of Suliban on Rigel X, who were actively opposing the Cabal, a group which was taking orders from a faction in the 28th century. Through Sarin, one of the leaders of a resistance group combating the cabal, Archer learned of the Temporal Cold War and of the Cabal's attempts to destabilize the Klingon Empire. When Enterprise returned Klaang to Qo'noS, the Klingon High Council was made aware that the Cabal had been staging attacks within the Empire, trying to make it appear as if one house were attacking another. ()
That September, the Enterprise crew became aware of another faction in the Cold War, represented by Captain Archer's own steward, Crewman Daniels. Daniels revealed that he was from the 31st century, and that he worked for a group of temporal agents who were actively opposing the other factions and attempting to maintain the integrity of the timeline. Daniels enlisted Archer's help to locate Silik, a senior member of the Cabal, who had boarded Enterprise in disguise. Daniels was later apparently killed by Silik, who attempted to steal his Temporal Observatory so it could be delivered to the Cabal's benefactor. Archer managed to destroy the observatory, however, forcing Silik to leave empty-handed. ()
The next year, the Cabal engineered the destruction of the Paraagan II mining colony, framing Enterprise for the disaster in an attempt to sabotage their mission. Daniels reappeared, however, and aided the crew in retrieving proof that they were not responsible, thereby allowing Enterprises mission to continue. ()
Later that year, the Enterprise crew learned that the Tholians were in some way involved in the Cold War, when they attempted to steal an from the 31st century. Enterprise eventually became embroiled in a three-way power struggle with the Tholians and the Cabal, both of whom wished to obtain the ship. This fight was ended when Commander Tucker managed to activate the ship's temporal beacon, allowing Daniels' faction to retrieve the vessel. ()
== Xindi incident ==
* Main article: Xindi incident
In 2153, the Xindi launched a devastating attack on Earth which resulted in the deaths of seven million people. Afterwards, the Cabal's benefactor provided Captain Archer with intelligence indicating that the Xindi were being backed by another faction in the Cold War, and informed him that the Xindi were located in the region of space known as the Delphic Expanse. ()
Embarking on a mission to find the Xindi before they could launch another attack to destroy Earth, the Enterprise crew soon became aware that the faction influencing the Xindi was responsible for the construction of the spheres in the Delphic Expanse, for the purpose of reconfiguring space to make it habitable for their species, as a prelude to invasion. Having the ability to examine alternate timelines, these 'Sphere-Builders' became aware that, in the 26th century, the forces of the would ultimately defeat the Sphere-Builders and drive them back into their transdimensional realm. Knowing that the Federation would never come into being if Earth were to be destroyed, the Builders contacted the Xindi and informed them that, in the future, Humanity would be responsible for their destruction, and that, to ensure the survival of their species, they must destroy Humanity first. ()
Eventually, Archer was able to convince the Xindi Council that Earth was not a threat to their survival, and that in fact, the Sphere-Builders were the threat to the Xindi. Captain Archer and his crew were eventually able to destroy the Xindi primary weapon before it was used against Earth, and make peace with the Xindi. They also destroyed the Spheres, banishing the Sphere-Builders back into their realm. ()
== The Cold War heats up ==
* Main article: Temporal War
During the 29th century, the Temporal Cold War escalated into an all-out conflict that quickly spawned Temporal Wars all throughout the timeline. In the chaos, the most dangerous faction of the Cold War, the Na'kuhl, led by a fanatic named Vosk, narrowly escaped capture by temporal agents by using a form of stealth time travel, but found themselves trapped in an alternate 1944 where the Nazis had successfully invaded the East Coast of the United States. The Na'kuhl allied themselves with the Nazis and provided them with advanced weapons in exchange for materials and manpower with which to build a temporal conduit. The Na'kuhl succeeded in returning to their own century, igniting the very conflict that led them to escape to 1944 in the first place.
In a last-ditch effort to restore the timeline, Daniels transported Captain Archer and Enterprise to 1944, hoping that they could prevent the attack on the 29th century before it took place. Due to the massive alterations to the timeline that had taken place, multiple paradoxes had occurred, causing temporal anomalies to rip through the time stream. These anomalies severely injured Daniels, who died in Enterprises sickbay, but not before informing the crew of the necessity of stopping Vosk.
Meanwhile, the Cabal's benefactor decided to take advantage of the chaos, ordering Silik to stowaway on Enterprise when Daniels sent them to 1944. Silik was given orders to steal the specifications of the temporal conduit the Na'kuhl were constructing so that his master could gain the ability to physically travel through time. Silik was eventually discovered and imprisoned in Enterprises brig. However, realizing they had a common enemy in Vosk, Archer and Silik teamed up to stop him. After infiltrating Vosk's compound, they were successful in deactivating the shields around it, although Silik was killed in the process.
With the shields around Vosk's compound deactivated, Enterprise was able to move in and destroy it with photonic torpedoes, just as Vosk was about to enter the conduit, thus preventing him from initiating the conflict which led to his arrival in the first place. This had the effect of resetting the timeline and reversing Daniels' death. Bidding farewell to Captain Archer, Daniels informed him that the Temporal Cold War was coming to an end thanks to Archer's actions. Daniels subsequently returned Archer and Enterprise to their proper place and time. ()
== Legacy ==
Despite the erasure of Vosk's invasion of the 29th century, the Temporal Cold War had lasting consequences. Although the timeline had largely been restored to its original shape, the grave dangers posed by widespread time travel had become clear, resulting in time travel technology being outlawed and destroyed. ()
In 2381, Steve Levy, a conspiracy theorist, thought that Beckett Mariner apparently impugning the crew to FNN reporter Victoria Nuzé and being transferred to Starbase 80 as punishment was all part of some "Temporal Cold War shenanigans." ()
== Appendices ==
=== Appearances ===
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=== Background information ===
According to Brannon Braga, the Temporal Cold War arc was created at the request of the studio, which wanted something more "futuristic." (Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond, ENT Season 1 DVD special features) "And I think we talked about that for fun," Braga reminisced. "Time travel, we learned, was invented in 1996, and some terrible accident happened that none of us know about. And the nations that invented it, three, four nations, secretly did a temporal accord never to use it again. But they're all paranoid, so they'll have agents in the 1950s. You could do a cold war within a cold war. The Russians and the Americans both have agents from 2013 in the '50s. You could do some really postmodern kind of thing with the Temporal Cold War." ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) While Braga called the concept a "nifty idea", he later admitted that it "probably would have worked better as a separate show." (Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond, ENT Season 1 DVD special features)
Rick Berman was eager to embrace the notion. He commented, "The idea that in the distant future... that time travel became possible but there were very very arduous rules about who could do it and what you could do, but there were people who were breaking the rules and there were people who were messing around, and there were other groups who were kind of watching over, and if you combine that with a variety of alternate timelines you can have a ball... because you can deal with changing things that can be historical changes that can immediately be undone by resetting things. It gives us a lot to play with." (Star Trek Time Travel: Temporal Cold Wars and Beyond, ENT Season 1 DVD special features) Berman also stated, "When we put those three words together, Temporal Cold War, there was something really cool about the possibilities, about a kind of a stagnant, warlike situation that existed in time." ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features)
Ending the story arc of the Temporal Cold War was partly due to Manny Coto deciding to bring it to an end. "I thought, you know, Manny, in season four, kind of set the Temporal Cold War aside, as best I could [determine]," Brannon Braga observed, frowning. He then laughed, "You know, I guess he wasn't that interested in it." ("In Conversation: Rick Berman and Brannon Braga", ENT Season 1 Blu-ray special features) Coto himself remarked, "I felt that everything that had been said about the Temporal Cold War had already been said. I felt a heavy reliance on time travel at the beginning of Enterprise. I wanted season four to be a relatively time travel free season and that's why I debated writing it into season four." 
According to actor John Billingsley, Paramount also bore some of the responsibility for ending the Temporal Cold War. Billingsley recalled, "I definitely felt as if there was a dictate on high from the network level, or from the studio level, to end the temporal time war, wrap it up immediately. I tended to concur on the broader point that the temporal time war never really got off the ground, the storytelling was too attenuated, and that it needed to die. At the same time I think the network forced them to tie it all up so abruptly that the way in which they had to do it was not as deft as it needed to be." 
=== Apocrypha ===
The novel Watching the Clock explains factions involved in the Temporal Cold War avoid incursions in the time frame between the birth of the Federation in the 22nd Century and the destruction of the Borg in 2381. Previous novels explained that the Federation was indirectly responsible for both the creation and eventual destruction of the Borg Collective. Intervening in this time frame was seen as too risky for any faction because in every potential timeline where the Federation cannot destroy the Borg in 2381, the Collective assimilates the entire galaxy by the 27th century. The novel also establishes the motives of the Cabal's benefactor as being attempting to eliminate the ancestors of key temporal scientists who would attend an important conference in 2381 that would lead to the construction of a subspace defense grid that would alert anyone to attempts from future time travelers to interfere with history, thus hindering attempts to alter the timeline.
The Temporal Cold War underpins multiple storylines in the alternative future timeline of Star Trek Onlines "Agents of Yesterday" expansion. During their war with the Iconians, the allied forces of the Alpha, Beta, and Delta quadrants inadvertently play a part in causing the Temporal Cold War, due to attempts by the alliance to use a Krenim weapon ship (like the one designed by Annorax). Though the experiments were aborted, the incursions accidentally changed the fate of the Tuterians, who would become the Sphere-Builders. An alliance between the Sphere-Builders and radical factions of the Na'kuhl, Krenim, and Vorgons would later go on to participate in the Battle of Procyon V against the Federation and its allies. Players, as temporal agents working with Daniels, would play a key role in resolving the battle.
=== See also ===
* Temporal arms race
=== External links ===
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de:Temporaler Kalter Krieg
fr:Guerre Froide Temporelle
nl:Tijdelijke koude oorlog
ja:時間冷戦
Category:Time travel
Category:Conflicts