Talk:Third Galactic War (MG Universe)/@comment-5870856-20151127025532/@comment-5870856-20151205010146

I tried replying to this a long time ago, but Wikia chose that time to troll me and said I couldn't post it because my login had timed out or something, after which I ragequit and left. Anyway, this is the first chance I've had to finish that reply since then, so apologies for the delay.

Anyway, I just (or rather, a week ago) watched an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, entitled The Best of Both Worlds (probably one of the best episodes of the series, if not the franchise period), in which the Borg finally attack the Federation. While I was watching it, I was thinking it seemed like they were setting up Commander Shelby as the new first officer of the Enterprise and were hinting that Capt. Picard might be killed off. As I recall, there was talk at the time that Patrick Stewart was thinking of leaving the show, so when he was assimilated by the Borg just as the Enterprise had prepared a superweapon capable of destroying the Borg cube (marking the end of Part 1, as well as the fourth season - talk about a painful cliffhanger!), fans were genuinely concerned that he might be killed off and that Riker would take command, with Shelby as the new No. 1.

Of course, they saved the good captain, narrowly defeated the Borg and saved the day, albeit with lasting psychological scars for Picard that rarely come up again (this being the era of the instant reset button for television). To be honest, as much as I love Picard and I'm glad they didn't kill him off, I was a bit disappointed at the whole "no consequences" ending. Mainly, I think it was that I really liked the dynamic between Riker and Shelby and wanted to see that developed further, and because I agreed with Picard that Riker was not only ready to take command, but that it was past time for it.

So, how does this actually tie in to the Third Galactic War? Well, I decided on a headcanon for the episode, in which the Borg invasion is some sort of temporal splitting point, a moment from which a number of different timelines diverge - one where Riker accepts his commission on the new ship and leaves the Enterprise (to be replaced by Shelby); one where Picard resists the Borg attempt to extract information on the weapon from his head, allowing the Enterprise to destroy the Borg at the cost of Picard's life, leading Riker to take command with Shelby as his new No. 1; one where the Borg defeat the Federation and humanity is scattered across the universe, beginning a new chapter in our history (based on a fascinating conversation had between Picard and Guinan in Part 1); and one where Picard is saved, the Borg are defeated and everything goes back to normal, namely the actual events of the episode.

The second-to-last of the above possibilities reminded me a lot of the Third Galactic War scenario described here, one where the primary spacefaring powers fall and new factions rise up to take their place. That got me thinking - what if the events surrounding Dark Prophecy, the Chaos Crisis and related stories were a similar "temporal tipping point" which led to a bunch of separate timelines, including this one, and we had stories taking place in all of them, in effect turning MG into a limited multiverse? Then, when interuniversal transportation via Locubrermour/the Nexus (which I'm pretty sure was a thing at some point) occurs in the distant future, the timelines can start interacting.

It's a bit of a half-baked idea, but I'd like to know what you think of it.