Not being a big Star Trek fan myself, it wasn't until the restaurant after seeing the new movie a few months back that my friends explained to me how this film had essentially re-booted the mythology of the Star Trek universe via Eric Bana's character's trip back in time. He killed Kirk's father, destroyed Vulcan... All things that never happened in the original Trek.
Is that right? (I'll admit, the Bad Robot logo brought me to the theater, not the Trek brand) The fallout of Bana's actions are, we get to see Spock as the captain of the Enterprise, a new backstory for all the characters, and Spock loses his mom to the red matter device, etc. And although the story focuses on the characters that the audience would most identify with Star Trek, I think that Bana's character gives us the best lesson about where lost is heading in Season 6.
Bana's Romulan, distraught over the bad end of his world, goes back in time 25 years to kill Spock and change the future. He returns to the past and starts shooting up the galaxy making some pretty substantial changes in the future. But, at no time does Bana's character blink out of existence. In fact, the movie makes a point of telling us that Bana and his mining crew have been wandering around the galaxy for years waiting for Spock. Even after Vulcan is destroyed, and the future destruction of the Romulan homeworld is averted (maybe, there'd eventually be some sort of course correction... right?) -- Anyway, Bana's character is still there in the altered future. Still existing despite the changes.
You have to imagine that out there in the universe, there's another version of Bana still alive, still mining, still married to a wife that would never be killed. The future has been changed, but the Bana character that changed the future still continues on now part of a timeline that will never produce... well, him. And although he's 'fixed' the future, he doesn't get to reap the reward of his actions. He doesn't get to wake up in his own bed, with his wife and family.
And that's what I think is going on here. In 1977, Jack and company changed the future. They averted the crash of 815. I think we've seen enough evidence of this happening. The radio transmission of the numbers as Ajira 316 was landing on the makeshift runway, the Dharma era barracks that Sun and Locke were kicking around with Ben, etc.
There will be a reset, and everybody will get off the plane. Jack will become a drunk, Hurley will stay rich, Kate will go to jail, Locke will remain crippled... But, that doesn't mean that this is the story that the writers are going to tell.
We'll stay with the characters we know and love, the ones that we've spent five seasons with as they realize that what Jack actually accomplished was stranding them in a timeline where they don't belong. They are truly Lost. They can't go back to their old lives, because those lives are occupied by alternate versions of themselves that never crashed on the island. And what then?
Another example, and this is where Back to the Future got it so completely wrong. Marty McFly goes back to 1955. He gets his dad to punch Biff out, effectively changing the future for the better. But when he travelled to 1985, he should've run into himself: A Marty McFly that was the product of all of the experience of growing up in a happy home with a successful father. What he destroyed, and can't ever recover, are the specific set of circumstances that produced him, the Marty that went back to 1985 accidentally.
I think that we're about to get a new definition of being 'Lost' where Jack, Kate, Saywer, et al, have to face the fact that eventhough they've set the future 'right' that doesn't mean they get to go back to it. They can never go back home. They are lost, not on an island, but in time.
Is that right? (I'll admit, the Bad Robot logo brought me to the theater, not the Trek brand) The fallout of Bana's actions are, we get to see Spock as the captain of the Enterprise, a new backstory for all the characters, and Spock loses his mom to the red matter device, etc. And although the story focuses on the characters that the audience would most identify with Star Trek, I think that Bana's character gives us the best lesson about where lost is heading in Season 6.
Bana's Romulan, distraught over the bad end of his world, goes back in time 25 years to kill Spock and change the future. He returns to the past and starts shooting up the galaxy making some pretty substantial changes in the future. But, at no time does Bana's character blink out of existence. In fact, the movie makes a point of telling us that Bana and his mining crew have been wandering around the galaxy for years waiting for Spock. Even after Vulcan is destroyed, and the future destruction of the Romulan homeworld is averted (maybe, there'd eventually be some sort of course correction... right?) -- Anyway, Bana's character is still there in the altered future. Still existing despite the changes.
You have to imagine that out there in the universe, there's another version of Bana still alive, still mining, still married to a wife that would never be killed. The future has been changed, but the Bana character that changed the future still continues on now part of a timeline that will never produce... well, him. And although he's 'fixed' the future, he doesn't get to reap the reward of his actions. He doesn't get to wake up in his own bed, with his wife and family.
And that's what I think is going on here. In 1977, Jack and company changed the future. They averted the crash of 815. I think we've seen enough evidence of this happening. The radio transmission of the numbers as Ajira 316 was landing on the makeshift runway, the Dharma era barracks that Sun and Locke were kicking around with Ben, etc.
There will be a reset, and everybody will get off the plane. Jack will become a drunk, Hurley will stay rich, Kate will go to jail, Locke will remain crippled... But, that doesn't mean that this is the story that the writers are going to tell.
We'll stay with the characters we know and love, the ones that we've spent five seasons with as they realize that what Jack actually accomplished was stranding them in a timeline where they don't belong. They are truly Lost. They can't go back to their old lives, because those lives are occupied by alternate versions of themselves that never crashed on the island. And what then?
Another example, and this is where Back to the Future got it so completely wrong. Marty McFly goes back to 1955. He gets his dad to punch Biff out, effectively changing the future for the better. But when he travelled to 1985, he should've run into himself: A Marty McFly that was the product of all of the experience of growing up in a happy home with a successful father. What he destroyed, and can't ever recover, are the specific set of circumstances that produced him, the Marty that went back to 1985 accidentally.
I think that we're about to get a new definition of being 'Lost' where Jack, Kate, Saywer, et al, have to face the fact that eventhough they've set the future 'right' that doesn't mean they get to go back to it. They can never go back home. They are lost, not on an island, but in time.
