Talk:Time-jump mechanism

Wait wait wait a minute... this isn't right at all. The time travel portals from the UK stories are, as far as we know, completely unrelated to the Trans-Time Dimensional Portal, which despite its name is shown solely as a means for traveling across space. The name doesn't crop up until Back from the Dead, long after the time traveling stories were done with, and is never used to describe the TF:TM charactes' time travel devices. -- Repowers 06:29, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Time Wars, Part 1 - The Autobots, Soundwave and the Terrorcons jump back to 2009 using a trans-time dimensional portal. It is named as such on the last page of UK #199. Later when Soundwave and the Terrorcons arrive in #201, they reference the trans-time dimensional portal again. --Xaaron 15:49, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Ahhhh, so they did. My apologies!

However -- in checking this, I notice the device in Time Wars looks a lot different than the one from Target: 2006, which is never referred to as a TTDP. Artistic license, or two different mechanism? -- Repowers 16:05, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

I don't think time travel was ever done the same way twice in the UK. There was the "time platform" you stand on from Target 2006 and Burning Sky, Galvatron's time travel remote, the "time portal" Unicron constructed in Legacy, and then the TTDP from Time Wars.

Honestly, I think we might be better off just having one big page for Time Travel or Time Travel Technology across all the fiction. That way we wouldn't have to worry about whether one term applied to all of the tech or not. Toss in the Quintesson time window, the Dragon Mound, and you got yourself a page. --Xaaron 16:30, 20 April 2008 (UTC)

Eh, that kinda goes against the grain of Wiki spirit, though. Any distinct device/entity/character/structure generally gets its own page. We've done other such all-encompassing pages where some thematically related stuff was dumped onto one long page, and they never really look or flow very well. Half the time we (I) end up going back and breaking them up into their components.

Since the TTDP and the distinctive "step through a shimmery wall of energy" style both debuted at the same time, I think that could be considered a clear dividing line. Maybe the pre-Time Wars devices can be lumped under this page's name, with a very prominent "see also" linking to the TTDP, which would cover its use in Time Wars and the US stories. -- Repowers 03:02, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

There's still an inherent confusion to matters, though. I mean, on the left we have various forms of time travel devices used in the UK. On the right we have the trans-time dimensional portal from the US that allows travel through SPACE. And right in the middle we have Time Wars, with the trans-time dimensional portal that allows travel through TIME.

Although repetitive, I think the Time Wars TTDP stuff should be on BOTH pages. The time-jump page also doubles as an explanation of the mass substitution effect and the exchanges that were made, so it just makes sense to have the TW TTDP stuff here as well as a "specific type of time-jump mechanism" used. Plus, it'll wrap up the UK time travel adventures in a nice little bow, instead of a "To Be Continued on the fiction page for TTDP" line. Then, the TTDP page would cover the two distinct forms of the device -- the UK version that allowed time travel (again), and the US version that allowed space travel. --Xaaron 03:45, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

So, on this page, a catch-all for the UK's various time-travel devices, including the TTDP as it was used for time travel. And on the TTDP page, the Time Wars stuff (again) and the US stuff? Sounds good to me. -- Repowers 03:53, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

Also, as regards tying it to the Dragon Mound and whatnot, maybe there's enough time travel devices to make a category? There's this page, the TTDP, the Dragon Mound, the Chronosphere, transwarp drive... there's gotta be more. Maybe even Elita One's power? -- Repowers 03:56, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

The Quintesson Time Window, being named "Unicron"...was anything explicitly named when Rad and the kids went back and met High Wire, or in Binaltech when the Protector's spark came back? --Xaaron 04:10, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[a general time-travel devices page] kinda goes against the grain of Wiki spirit, though'

Disagree. While it's true that we should create pages for each individual device... one thing the wiki is sorely lacking in is survey/overview pages. a page with short capsule views of these devices, accompanied by "for more information on this, see the main article for this device" would be most useful, I think. -Derik 10:51, 7 December 2009 (EST)