Time Patrol And Starfleet

Words have meanings and connotations. When many sf fans read Manse Everard's reference to "logic," they will think not of the consistency between propositions without which we would not succeed in saying anything but of Spock and his lack of emotion. In fact, if someone who perceives a threat feels fear, then he is thinking consistently, i.e., logically, about the perceived threat while responding to it with an appropriate emotion. I have met someone who thought that The Lion King was illogical because it involved talking lions. Of course, if it is a fictional premise that some lions can talk, then it is fully consistent with that premise to present conversations between leonine characters. Here, "logical" seems to have been misunderstood as meaning "expected" or "familiar."

Time Patrol and Star Trek are two sf series about high tech organizations, the Time Patrol and Starfleet. There is some time travel in Star Trek and Spock is shown as deducing its logical implications. When the Enterprise has been transported to the twentieth century, the crew had better not interfere with events on Earth if they want to be as sure as they can of returning to the twenty second century from which they had departed. There is also some time travel illogic in Star Trek but let's not spoil the evening with that now.