Anti-time future

AT: "at"

The refitted USS Enterprise-D

Picard and La Forge retired from Starfleet

The anti-time future was a diverging alternate timeline from the original future of the prime timeline. This future was encountered by Jean-Luc Picard in 2370, when Q transfered his consciousness to the body of his older self.

In this future, the USS Enterprise-D had continued to serve as the flagship of the Federation for several decades after 2370. About five years prior to the events Picard encountered, the ship was almost decommissioned until Admiral William T. Riker took interest in his old ship and made it his personal flagship. The ship was refitted with a third warp nacelle and other technologies such as a powerful phaser emitter and a cloaking device.

The Klingons had conquered the Romulan Star Empire, and relations between them and the Federation had deteriorated significantly.

Picard had stepped down as captain of the Enterprise to become an ambassador, before retiring to his vineyards on Earth, where Irumodic Syndrome had began to cause his mental pathways to deteriorate. He had married Beverly Crusher, but the couple had divorced. After the divorce, she had kept the Picard surname and taken command of the medical ship USS Pasteur. The ship had been allowed by the Klingons to deliver medical supplies to the plague victims on war torn Romulus.

Worf and Riker were both interested in courting Deanna Troi, but neither did so because of the other person. Troi later died, and Worf and Riker became enemies for the next 20 years. Worf became a member of the Klingon High Council, but his position diminished and he was relegated to the governorship of a small Klingon colony on H'atoria.

Geordi La Forge eventually retired from Starfleet, married Leah Brahms and became the father of three children and an author. He took ocular implants to replace his VISOR. Data held the Lucasian Chair at Cambridge University. He had emotions, was able to use contractions, and had added a streak of gray to his hair.

This future was altered when Q interfered by transferring the consciousness of Picard from 2370 to the body of his older self. The Enterprises from three time periods created the anti-time eruption and were subsequently successful in collapsing the anomaly. When Picard's consciousness was returned to his 2370 self, he shared his experience of how the future was going to unfold with the crew. He wanted to allow them to make different life choices. A new future was then created for the prime timeline. (TNG: "All Good Things...")

Appendices

Background information

No specific year was given for the future events. La Forge however stated that it had been close to 25 years since the crew were all together on the Enterprise-D. The Star Trek Chronology used this statement as a basis of dating the events to 2395. However, this would be based on the assumption that the crew of the Enterprise-D disbanded concurrent with the end of TNG Season 7 in the original future timeline, although Picard seems to make the same assumption when he states in the present timeline "A lot can happen in twenty-five years." The episode's script also describes the characters as having aged twenty-five years.

According to comments by Michael and Denise Okuda in Star Trek Encyclopedia, (3rd ed. p. 15) the anti-time future should be considered as an alternative quantum reality.

The prime timeline events as they have been seen unfolding in the feature films indicates a clear divergence from the future events depicted in "All Good Things...". After Picard had shared his knowledge of that future to the crew, the Enterprise-D was prematurely destroyed in 2371 in Star Trek Generations. Deanna Troi averted her death and eventually married Riker. Worf and Riker did not become enemies. Data died in 2379 while still in Starfleet service, as was seen in Star Trek Nemesis. Romulus was destroyed in 2387 as was seen in Star Trek. The only events that weren't altered were the replacement of La Forge's VISOR with ocular implants in Star Trek: First Contact and the commissioning of the Negh'Var warships by the Klingon Empire as seen in DS9: "The Way of the Warrior".

Apocrypha

Captain Data of the USS Enterprise-E in 2387

Apocryphal works suggest some of the events of the anti-time future are still part of the new timeline.

• The comic series Star Trek: Countdown portrayed Picard as the Federation ambassador to Vulcan in 2387, as well as Data being still alive, after he had been "reborn" through the memory transfer to his brother B-4.
• "The Path to 2409" on the official Star Trek Online website states Beverly Crusher assumed the command of the USS Pasteur in 2385. The game also depicts the peace treaty between Federation and the Klingon Empire being dissolved in 2399, and a few Galaxy-class starships have undergone the same refit depicted in the anti-time future.