| abstract | - Consider the last Enterprise episode, which is an attempt to show that Enterprise is in the main timeline. Riker, after talking with Enterprise crew on the holodeck, decides to reveal the cloaking device conspiracy (from the TNG episode "The Pegasus"). But in that TNG episode, he doesn't reveal the device before he visits the Pegasus. He doesn't reveal the conspiracy until he is forced to by the Romulans. Unlike in the original timeline, the history of the NX-01 crew convinces Riker to go ahead and reveal the plot instead of wavering until his hand is forced.
* Further evidence: A number of crew members in Ten Forward at the start of These Are The Voyages... have the flat collars used in the first few seasons of TNG - but The Pegasus occurred in Season 7. By then, everyone in the main continuity had the stand-up collars.
* Additional evidence: The ship is named Enterprise. Later-era shows give Enterprise counts that include only NCC 1701 through 1701-E. Zephram Cochrane, Lily Sloane, and others were told during Star Trek: First Contact that Picard and co. came from the Enterprise; this influenced the later naming. It may also have influenced the design; Lily spent a lot of time in the Enterprise-E. design, including places usually reserved for engineers.
* The Voyager episodes "Hope" and "Fear" suggest that the pre-First Contact timeline's NX-01 was named USS Dauntless. This dovetails nicely with the mirror universe ISS Avenger.
* Also see the "NX-01 becomes the NCC-1701" suggestion below.
* It is only this episode that is in an alternate timeline (and that stupid gothic-romance-IN-SPACE episode from Season 3), not the whole of Enterprise.
* Given that a picture of the Enterprise NX-01 appears on a wall in Star Trek Nemesis, it can be taken that Enterprise is in the past of the "prime" Star Trek timeline. So maybe "before" the events of Star Trek: First Contact some things had been different (e.g the name of the ship, the design of the ship, whatever), but "after" First Contact the timeline had been changed to fit what's shown on Enterprise -- and this is the "real" timeline, not an "alternate" one.
* Perhaps Nemesis happened in a "Close Enough" Timeline. The TNG films after First Contact have been accused of giving their leads Character Derailment. If those happened in a different timeline than the main TNG series, then that is explained. And this makes a nice divergence point.
* The point is that there have been a million and one examples of Close Enough Timelines in Star Trek -- First Contact being just one of them. In each case, the "Close Enough" Timeline becomes the official Star Trek timeline from then on. So Enterprise having had the events of First Contact take place in its past does not mean it's set in a different timeline (which somehow delegitimises it in the eyes of the Fan Dumb) -- it means it's set in the latest version of the correct timeline.
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