Monday 4 April 2022

The Time Patrol: Main Points

After the Technic History, let's summarize the main points of the Time Patrol series:

the Patrol prevents other time travelers from either accidentally or deliberately changing the past.

However, the Patrol must sometimes alter past events to preserve its own version of history.

Neldorian time criminals succeed in changing the past but the Patrol changes it back.

A quantum fluctuation in space-time-energy changes the past and the Patrol fails to restore its preferred timeline.

The Patrol identifies the personal causal nexus who must be eliminated so that the preferred timeline can be restored.

A Danellian informs Manse and Wanda that, even in the absence of other time travelers, the Patrol would be necessary to counteract quantum fluctuations.

At the Patrol Academy, Babylonian recruits were given a war of the gods routine and a trainer told Manse that his class were being given the truth or as much of it as they could take.

Question: Do Patrol agents include Nazis perpetrators of the Holocaust?

8 comments:

S.M. Stirling said...

Probably there are Patrol agents in the German military and civil bureaucracies, mostly middle-management types but well-placed to tap into the flow of information.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!

Paul: And besides Stirling's suggestion, I can imagine the Patrol infiltrating agents into the middle ranks of the Soviet bureaucracy.

Mr. Stirling: One problem with this infiltrating of agents into the Soviet/Nazi bureaucracies is that they would have to actively collaborate in the horrors and evils of these regimes. Even allowing for a Benthamite style belief in the greater good to be gained from the Danellians, it still must have caused acute crises of conscience for these Patrol agents.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Unless the Patrol recruited suitably ruthless agents to work in such eras.

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

The Patrol probably did exactly that. And some of these agents probably eventually ended up being sent to the exile planet. I can't really see Manse Everard becoming a Chekist or one of the bureaucrats cold bloodedly planning the Final Solution.

Ad astra! Sean

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

Sean,

Everard certainly would not but what were some other Academy classes like?

Paul.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

An alarming thought: classes in how to become a mass murderer to advance the greater good leading to the Danellians.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

There would have to be a Hitler Bodyguard Squad (and ones for Stalin, etc.)...

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

What a dismal thought, the Time Patrol being compelled to guard monsters like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, etc.!

Ad astra! Sean