Is Temporal Anomaly Solely a Star Trek Term?

[Cli-Fi]

I have not heard the term used much beyond Star Trek. Any other books/mediums use it too? Post Star Trek Time Travel? I think only 12 Monkeys has used it.

 

[2DaveWixon]

As a term, you may be right. Or are you speaking of a concept? (and if so, can you define your term a little? Certainly, I'd call to mind Asimov's The End of Eternity, Simak's Our Children's Children and Time and Again, and Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" -- all of them seem like stories about "temporal anomalies to me...)

 

[Cli-Fi]

As a term, you may be right. Or are you speaking of a concept? (and if so, can you define your term a little? Certainly, I'd call to mind Asimov's The End of Eternity, Simak's Our Children's Children and Time and Again, and Heinlein's "By His Bootstraps" -- all of them seem like stories about "temporal anomalies to me...)

My concern is describing my time travel story to the audience. Will they understand the concept of what a temporal anomaly is without the reference to time travel until much later, if they have never seen Picard utter those words before?

 

[Brian G Turner]

IMO the use has been so widely popularised through Star Trek that it should be recognisable. I may have used it myself.

 

[SilentRoamer]

Yeah I agree with Brian.

It is interchangeable with Temporal Distortion is you prefer that terminology.

 

[2DaveWixon]

My concern is describing my time travel story to the audience. Will they understand the concept of what a temporal anomaly is without the reference to time travel until much later, if they have never seen Picard utter those words before?

I think that rather depends on who/what your audience is.
An audience that is steeped in SF will have no problem with the term, as @Brian G Turner and @SilentRoamer have said. I think, though, you might have more of a problem with an audience that has had little experience with SF in general or time travel stories in particular.
(On the other hand, that is true about many other terms we often use/see in our preferred reading matter...)

 

[Cli-Fi]

I think that rather depends on who/what your audience is.
An audience that is steeped in SF will have no problem with the term, as @Brian G Turner and @SilentRoamer have said. I think, though, you might have more of a problem with an audience that has had little experience with SF in general or time travel stories in particular.
(On the other hand, that is true about many other terms we often use/see in our preferred reading matter...)

For this purpose I am generally talking about finding representation for the story. I outlined the story with the ideas I have in mind and then summarized the plot for my own general purpose last night. I hope to have a completed rough draft of a manuscript within the next six months. I would hope that agents who specialize in sci-fi would know of the term, but you can never be sure of that. However, since my story starts with temporal anomalies happening inside a nursing home, there are no other real ways to describe it without sounding super cheesy. "Multiple time travel events," just doesn't flow as nicely.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Yeah I agree with Brian.

It is interchangeable with Temporal Distortion is you prefer that terminology.

Distortion and Anomaly evenly sits OK with me, I am more worried about the word temporal.

 

[Vladd67]

Distortion and Anomaly evenly sits OK with me, I am more worried about the word temporal.

temporal - definition of temporal in English | Oxford Dictionaries

 

[Phyrebrat]

Even I've used it - either conversationally or in a short - and I don't even write scifi.

(On second thoughts, that's probably not a good recommendation, then...)

pH

 

[hopewrites]

Even I've used it - either conversationally or in a short - and I don't even write scifi.

(On second thoughts, that's probably not a good recommendation, then...)

pH

Personally I think that makes it a great recommendation. It shows it's not a strictly SF term, and not a strictly ST term.

I prefer "anomaly" to "distortion" when we don't know what happened to time-space, but recognize that something if off about it.

I prefer "distortion" to "anomaly" when the anomaly has been identified as a distortion, with the distorting mechanism identified or not.


When I heard it on ST I thought it was a perfectly normal use of words, not genre specific jargon. Described the problem they were dealing with neatly.


So even if your audience has somehow never heard or seen the phrase "temporal anomaly" before, the meaning will be clear.

 

[Cli-Fi]

Personally I think that makes it a great recommendation. It shows it's not a strictly SF term, and not a strictly ST term.

I prefer "anomaly" to "distortion" when we don't know what happened to time-space, but recognize that something if off about it.

I prefer "distortion" to "anomaly" when the anomaly has been identified as a distortion, with the distorting mechanism identified or not.


When I heard it on ST I thought it was a perfectly normal use of words, not genre specific jargon. Described the problem they were dealing with neatly.


So even if your audience has somehow never heard or seen the phrase "temporal anomaly" before, the meaning will be clear.

OK Good. I was worried, I don't read too many time travel stories, and when I do they usually mentioned wormholes or even harder sci-fi concepts that have to do with the physics of multi/infinite dimensions or faster than light travel. My story isn't that technical so I thought temporal anomaly would be the perfect medium

 

[Danny McG]

Move away from Trek and towards Dr Who. Nothing conveys your intent better than "It's a timey-wimey thing"

 

[Cli-Fi]

Move away from Trek and towards Dr Who. Nothing conveys your intent better than "It's a timey-wimey thing"

I already have something similar to that when characters are talking about the science behind Time Travel.. Does anyone know if that is trademarked???