History Literature / StarTrekDepartmentOfTemporalInvestigations

* CatchingUpWithHistory: The Temporal Displacement Division is tasked with helping those who end up being flung (either by accident or deliberately) into the 24th century get acclimated to their new home. Two of the more notable cases they handle are [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries Lts. M'Ress and Arex]], who both found their way there via very different means of time travel.

* TyrannosaurusRex: [[spoiler: Borgified, of all things]].

* SpaceElves: The Deltans are fleshed out in ''Watching the Clock'', and have aspects of this trope.
** The Vedala in ''Forgotten History'' fit the bill. They're generally benevolent, older than other spacefaring races, very advanced and isolationist, and seem ever-so-slightly smug about their status in relation to younger "child" races. Behind their reasonable manner is the clear belief that [[OurElvesAreBetter Vedala are better than you]].

* TwentyThree: Most (although not quite all) of the calendars used in the different chapters have some sort of connection to characters and locations in the chapter. The chapter that uses the [[UsefulNotes/{{Discordianism}} Discordian]] calendar has a brief bit at the beginning about how the usual New Year cranks are claiming some sort of significance in the fact the CE year and Stardate year are both multiples of 23. (That's not the only reason for using that calendar; there's also a major scene set on the dwarf planet Eris.)

* OtherMeAnnoysMe: T'Viss is scandalized to learn her alternate universe self is not a physicist, but a reclusive artist on Vulcan.

* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe. Lucsly's still not letting Dulmur live down that time he told Sisko he wanted to meet Kirk.

** Lucsly thinks this is what ''should'' be done after Janeway's actions in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E23Endgame Endgame]]", only to be informed that actually, Janeway's actions were right.

* AscendedExtra: Dulmur and Lucsly were one-off characters as part of a FramingDevice for an episode of Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. The DTI as a whole fits this trope as well, as it was never mentioned again on television after that episode.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: ''Watching the Clock'' refers both to the DTI's role in protecting and monitoring the timeline, and to the mundane nature of its agents, who are most certainly not Starfleet-style adventurers. The DTI know that if they're having an adventure, they've already screwed up, and it's going to pay hell with the paperwork. No, they're 9-to-5 government employees, and like to keep things as unchaotic and, ideally, dull as possible.

** Felbog the Choblik is a reference to Nebogipfel, the Morlock from Baxter's ''The Time Ships''. Tigellan Chronic Hysteresis, meanwhile, is a nod to Series/DoctorWho.

* SequelHook: Sort of. Before he is captured at the end of ''Watching the Clock'', "Future Guy" is said to have been hiding in the 22nd Century during the Romulan War. In other words, the time frame of the Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch.

*** George Faunt himself is a twofer shoutout, his first name being that of the main character of ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' and his last name a reference to Jason Faunt, the actor who played Red Ranger Wes in [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Power Rangers Time Force]].

Part of the Franchise/StarTrekNovelverse. A DayInTheLimelight for the titular [[TimePolice Department of Temporal Investigations]], which monitors the integrity of the timeline and protects the history of the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' universe from attempted [[CosmicRetcon Cosmic Retcons]].

* ContinuityPorn: Almost every time-travel story in Trek canon and the Franchise/StarTrekNovelverse gets a mention. Other nods are more integral to the plot - the Null from ''Literature/StarTrekTitan'' is referenced as the reason why the Axis of Time has only just made contact with the modern era. Only when galactic drift brought them past the Null was it felt acceptable for the Axis to send out scouts into our time, explaining why it's only now been discovered.

* CheckovsGun: It's made clear early on that the star slingshot method of time travel only works with the Enterprise's unique chroniton-emitting engines, due to an unreplicatable accident in [[Recap/StarTrekS1E6TheNakedTime The Naked Time]]. However, Kirk was later able to do it with a run-of-the-mill Klingon ship in [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome The Voyage Home]]. DTI agents have long been frustrated trying to figure out ''how'' Kirk pulled that off, and it's one of the main reasons why they dislike him. In the climax, [[spoiler:Lucsly and Kirk are trying to solve a TimeCrash, but while the former's Technobabble is insufficient to directly solve the crisis, Kirk relays enough of it to Spock and Scotty that they are able to figure out how make their current engines emit chronitons, which helps fix both the current problem and the whale probe crisis much later.]] Lucsly, for his part, is unhappy when he figures this out, but begrudgingly goes along with it.

** Also, Scott's meeting with Kirk shows the man has shifted from the bold explorer of the original series, to the man seen in "[[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture The Motion Picture]]".

* InsaneTrollLogic: [[spoiler:Lucsly, seeing Spock wrangle a confession out of Grey, suffers dissonance so bad he declares Spock must be covering for Kirk's actions, somehow.]]

* BigDamnKiss: [[spoiler:Between Noi and Lucsly, of all people]].

* FandomNod: Garcia calls the Suliban's mysterious Sponsor "Future Guy", then immediately tries to take it back.

* ArcWelding: Every single TimeTravel episode gets at least a ShoutOut. The ArcWelding is particularly notable in ''Forgotten History'', which links all of Captain Kirk's time-travel experiences (in [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the Original Series]] and [[WesternAnimation/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeries the animated series]]) to create the story of the DTI's origins and early activities.

** Agent Daniels gets brought up, with more than a few jabs at his actions. One particular line of his, on how schoolchildren in the 31st century apparently have temporal communicators at their desks, is shot to pieces, with Shelan pointing out this is utterly idiotic and nonsensical. Jenna Noi basically says Daniels was making it (and some other things he said) to convince Archer to trust him, and it's implied Daniels is infamous among his fellow agents for this sort of thing.

** The Tandarans have long been at the forefront of temporal physics, which has made them a frequent target in the Temporal Cold War, since they provide much of the R&D that the Federation's future agencies use in the war. What their uptime enemies don't realize is that the very attacks they launched against Tandar's past to preemptively sabotage their work are what impelled them to invest in temporal research to begin with (which also makes it a SelfFulfillingProphecy).

*** George Faunt himself is a twofer shoutout, his first name being that of the main character of TheTimeMachine and his last name a reference to Jason Faunt, the actor who played Red Ranger Wes in [[Series/PowerRangersTimeForce Power Rangers Time Force]].

** The chapter focusing on Janeway's debriefing mentions pretty much every ''Voyager'' time-travel episode, including "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS1E2Parallax Parallax]]", "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E8FuturesEnd Future's End]]", "[[StarTrekVoyagerS3E20BeforeAndAfter Before & After]]", "[[StarTrekVoyagerS4E8YearOfHell Year of Hell]]" and "[[StarTrekVoyagerS6E23Fury Fury]]". It also makes mention of [=DS9=]'s Gaia incident ("[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E22ChildrenOfTime Children of Time]]"), the Red Orb incident, Kira using the Orb of Time ("[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E17WrongsDarkerThanDeathOrNight Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night]]"), and the destruction of the Paraagan colony from ''Enterprise's'' "[[StarTrekEnterpriseS01E26S02E01Shockwave Shockwaves, part 1]]", or the events of the animated series' "[[Recap/StarTrekTheAnimatedSeriesS1E2Yesteryear Yesteryear]]", both which Dulmur uses an example of temporal mutability.

--> -- '''Laarin Andos''', Director, Department of Temporal Investigations

** In the {{Flashback}} sequence, Spock is surprised that his human collegue thinks of [[Recap/StarTrekS1E8Miri the Onlies planet]] (a parallel Earth where most of humanity died) as "home". He then reflects that he doesn't know how he'd react if he encountered [[Film/StarTrek a timeline where Vulcan was destroyed]].

* ''Watching the Clock'', which focuses on Lucsly and Dulmur, DTI field agents from the ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations Trials and Tribbleations]]".

* "The Collectors", an e-book novella about a temporal artifact from far further in the future than any yet discovered.

* "Shield of the Gods", an e-book novella that continues from Time Lock's SequelHook.

* JurisdictionFriction: It is a ''de facto'' rule that temporal police from future centuries (such as Jena Noi) have authority over earlier ones, since they have more knowledge and more capabilities, but this is only grudgingly accepted by the DTI. Mostly, it's because the Temporal Prime Directive mandates that they be kept in the dark, which makes it hard to trust the future time cops they sometimes have to work with. Andos explains as much to Garcia, reminding her that they cannot take for granted that uptime agencies, even those from the Federation, necessarily have the same values and priorities as they do. Noi gets a taste of this herself in "The Collectors", which makes her a bit more sympathetic towards Lucsly and Dulmur (who reassure her that they have nothing against her personally, they just feel a lot more comfortable when she's not messing with their own timeline).

** After realizing where they are, the ''Enterprise'' crew and T'Viss discuss the events of the Forge trilogy from ''Enterprise''. In the same discussing, Kirk's inner monologue notes he's been studying up on Vulcan history after not recognising Sarek during "[[Recap/StarTrekS3E22TheSavageCurtain The Savage Curtain]]".

* JurisdictionFriction: It is a ''de facto'' rule that temporal police from future centuries (such as Jena Noi) have authority over earlier ones, since they have more knowledge and more capabilities, but this is only grudgingly accepted by the DTI. Mostly, it's because the Temporal Prime Directive mandates that they be kept in the dark, which makes it hard to trust the future time cops they sometimes have to work with. Noi gets a taste of this herself in "The Collectors", which makes her a bit more sympathetic towards Lucsly and Dulmur (who reassure her that they have nothing against her personally, they just feel a lot more comfortable when she's not messing with their own timeline).

* TenMinuteRetirement: Lucsly, after his faith that the DTI will protect the timeline's integrity is shattered when, on advice from a future agency, he is refused permission to prosecute Janeway for her actions in "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS7E23Endgame Endgame]]". Dulmur talks him into returning.

* MindRape: Lirahn uses her powers of coercion to force Ranjea and Garcia into a sexual frenzy. Though they both are able to cope with, it kills most of Garcia's desire for her partner. This is tragic in one way, since it means they can't have a physical relationship,[[note]]Ranjea originally turned Garcia down because Deltan sex is dangerous to most other races, but the event made him realize she was more resilient than average.[[/note]] but it also paves the way for them to form a [[TrueCompanions comfortably platonic bond]], free from UnresolvedSexualTension.

* TheLoad: Lucsly and Dulmur are completely clueless and defenseless in a future they know nothing about. Noi is still glad to have them along, even if they have trouble keeping up, and they have the advantage of being beneath notice when the trouble starts, since nobody considers them a threat.

* ClosedCircle: The time lock is designed to contain any security breaches within the vault, similar to the more traditional Star Trek SelfDestructMechanism, except rather than destroy the vault, it places it in what is essentially temporal stasis if it is not deactivated within a few hours. Though it is possible for those inside to communicate with the outside, those inside the vault are otherwise on their own until the time lock is released.

** Garcia and her fellow trainees discuss how out-of-character the whole "Borg travelling through time" thing from ''First Contact'' was, and eventually conclude someone gave them time-travel tech on purpose. [[spoiler:They're right.]]
** When the subject of the Guardian of Forever comes up, T'Viss is apparently of the opinion that something that declares it's meant to ''protect'' time only to then let one crazed medical officer break history isn't doing its job. T'Viss speculates it's just a long broken-down piece of junk.

** Lucsly thinks this is what ''should'' be done after Janeway's actions in "Endgame", only to be informed that actually, Janeway's actions were right.

* TenMinuteRetirement: Lucsly, after his faith that the DTI will protect the timeline's integrity is shattered when, on advice from a future agency, he is refused permission to prosecute Janeway for her actions in ''Endgame''. Dulmur talks him into returning.

* BreakTheBadass: We get to see Kirk immediately after "The City on the Edge of Forever". The death of Edith Keeler has burnt out any and all desire to study time travel in him.

** "All Our Yesterdays" is recapped in full. Delgado points out how idiotic and farcical the whole thing was.
** "Amok Time" proves vastly important to the events of the middle story.

** In the {{Flashback}} sequence, Spock is surprised that his human collegue thinks of the Onlies planet (a parallel Earth where most of humanity died) as "home". He then reflects that he doesn't know how he'd react if he encountered [[Film/StarTrek a timeline where Vulcan was destroyed]].
** The first time the ''Enterprise'' tries a slingshot, Spock has brief glimpses of the events of "Assignment: Earth", just as Kirk had brief glimpses of the future in "The Voyage Home".

** The fate of the [[spoiler:first]] timeship is similar to the events of "Time Squared", disappearing from existence when the events that caused it to be destroyed don't happen.

** Also, Scott's meeting with Kirk shows the man has shifted from the bold explorer of the original series, to the man seeing in "The Motion Picture".
** Spock, post-V'Ger merging, has become more accepting of emotions, reflecting his character development from ''Wrath of Khan''. Another reason the Vulcans are so alarmed by this is because he's reminding them a bit too much of Sybok.

** During the events of "Assignment: Earth", the ''Enterprise'' has a new historian, to replace Marla [=McGivers=], after her "departure" at the end of "Space Seed".

** Kirk already has a public reputation for being the first Starfleet captain to be court martialled (from "Court Martial"). In defending himself, he brings up all the times he's messed with the Prime Directive, like saving stagnant societies from computers, or outside interference.

** After realizing where they are, the ''Enterprise'' crew and T'Viss discuss the events of the Forge trilogy from ''Enterprise''. In the same discussing, Kirk's inner monologue notes he's been studying up on Vulcan history after not recognising Sarek during "The Savage Curtain".

* LampshadeHanging: "The Omega Glory" is done over with a fine-toothed comb, as the illogic of much of the last act's twist is pointed out (like how the supposedly ancient flag looks very new).

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Meijan Grey's reaction to causing the events of "Yesteryear", and by extension nearly erasing Spock from history.

** Less subtly, the idea from the original series that "sometimes alien planets have cultures exactly like Earth because that's just a thing that happens" gets retconned away; the identical-to-Earth planet from "Miri" is actually an Earth that fell into our universe from a parallel reality, and the planet from "The Omega Glory" that had the US flag and constitution turned out to be cultural contamination.

** The events of "We'll Always Have Paris" and "Time Squared" from TNG are revealed to be related (the anomaly from the latter was a side-effect of Manheim's experiment in the former).

** Lucsly and Dulmur handled clean-up for many time-travel related issues, including helping with the aftermath of "Captain's Holiday", and debriefing Janeway on her return from the Delta Quadrant, or dealing with the fall-out from "We'll Always Have Paris" (which ties in to "Time Squared").

** The part of the climax dealing with Lucsly and Dulmur has the local area go to hell in the same way the ''Enterprise'' did in "We'll Always Have Paris".
* CallForward: Korath appears, dabbling in time-travel technology. The Sponsor notes he will create the Temporal Deflector, despite the changes Janeway caused in "Endgame".

** The chapter focusing on Janeway's debriefing mentions pretty much every ''Voyager'' time-travel episode, including "Parallax", "Future's End", "Before & After", "Year of Hell" and "Fury". It also makes mention of [=DS9=]'s Gaia incident ("Children of Time"), the Red Orb incident, Kira using the Orb of Time ("Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night"), and the destruction of the Paraagan colony from ''Enterprise's'' "Shockwaves, part 1", or the events of the animated series' "Yesteryear", both which Dulmur uses an example of temporal mutability.

* AscendedExtra: Dulmer and Lucsly were one-off characters as part of a FramingDevice for an episode of Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine. The DTI as a whole fits this trope as well, as it was never mentioned again on television after that episode.

* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Quite a bit, to the point that the DTI has a Temporal Displacement Division to deal with people who suddenly find themselves in the 24th century. In "The Collectors", Dulmer, Lucsly and Jena Noi get flung to [[spoiler: a point 20 ''million'' years into the future]].

* MeaningfulName: Dulmer and Lucsly are anagrams of [[Series/TheXFiles Mulder and Scully]].

** Lucsly and Dulmer handled clean-up for many time-travel related issues, including helping with the aftermath of "Captain's Holiday", and debriefing Janeway on her return from the Delta Quadrant, or dealing with the fall-out from "We'll Always Have Paris" (which ties in to "Time Squared").

** The chapter focusing on Janeway's debriefing mentions pretty much every ''Voyager'' time-travel episode, including "Parallax", "Future's End", "Before & After", "Year of Hell" and "Fury". It also makes mention of [=DS9=]'s Gaia incident ("Children of Time"), the Red Orb incident, Kira using the Orb of Time ("Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night"), and the destruction of the Paraagan colony from ''Enterprise's'' "Shockwaves, part 1", or the events of the animated series' "Yesteryear", both which Dulmer uses an example of temporal mutability.

--> '''Dulmer:''' Somebody's exterminated one of our own, and they didn't even leave us our memories. We can't even grieve properly.

** There is a short one during the firefight in the Vault, during which Dulmer uses one of the time gizmos lying around to travel back in time a few minutes to help ''himself'' neutralize the renegade Bozeman crew. Lucsly is predictably upset, since they're not supposed to do that, but Dulmer points out that he already saw his future self during the fight, so he had to travel back in order to preserve the timeline. Lucsly grudgingly concedes that he's right. (Perhaps this is why Lucsly [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E06TrialsAndTribbleations hates time loops]].)

* FireForgedFriends: Noi's relationship with Lucsly and Dulmer was always a bit strained, since their interactions were limited to Noi showing up unannounced and throwing her authority around. Not to mention their different philosophies on protecting time (Noi describes the DTI's attitude as "puritanical"). Their mutual struggle in this story changes the dynamic of their relationship substantially. Lucsly and Dulmer see that Noi's agency still respects the Federation's core ideals, while Noi gains a better appreciation for the DTI's steadfast commitment to protecting their shared timeline, despite how disadvantaged they are technologically.

* TheLoad: Lucsly and Dulmer are completely clueless and defenseless in a future they know nothing about. Noi is still glad to have them along, even if they have trouble keeping up, and they have the advantage of being beneath notice when the trouble starts, since nobody considers them a threat.

* InterspeciesRomance: Dulmer develops a relationship with the liaison he works with at the new DTI branch office on Denobula, Cymmen, who is emotionally supportive through the long months of waiting while events slowly unfold in the Eridian Vault. Though hesitant at first, since Denobulans are polyamorous, Dulmer nevertheless eventually becomes Cymmen's third husband. This turns out to be advantageous for him, as his shared marital responsibilities mean the demands of his job (which are what doomed his first marriage) are much less of a strain.
* LudicrousPrecision: Lucsly wishes Dulmer a happy birthday at the end of one of his messages from within the time locked vault, much to Dulmer's amusement. This means that Lucsly, with his usual clockwork precision, had been keeping track of the time differential despite the fact that, by that point, days outside the vault were seconds inside.
* NoSenseOfHumor: Lucsly normally plays this trope dead straight, but attempts to subvert it in Dulmer's absence with a few ''very'' dry jokes.

* TemptingFate: Dulmer curses the cruel irony that the trouble on Eris started only seconds after he said farewell to Lucsly by wishing him an uneventful day.