A temporal field was an energy form which had been closely related to instances of time travel. Known to be created both naturally and artificially, temporal fields could be dispersed by exposure to tachyon particles. (VOY: "Coda")
Overview[]
Temporal fields were utilized by 29th century timeships to create temporal rifts. Created by a temporal field generator, the stability of such a field was determined by the proper calibration of the vessel's temporal matrix. In an alternate timeline in 1996, 20th century industrialist Henry Starling utilized the stolen timeship Aeon to travel into the future, but the instability of the temporal field he generated caused a massive temporal explosion in the 29th century, destroying all of Earth's solar system. This timeline was later negated by the crew of the USS Voyager, who were able to destroy the Aeon moments before it entered the rift. (VOY: "Future's End", "Future's End, Part II") Another 29th century timeship, the USS Relativity, created these fields through the use of temporal field emitters which were controlled by the temporal navigation console. (VOY: "Relativity")
In 2373, while trapped in an illusion by an unknown alien, Captain Janeway came to believe she had become trapped in a temporal loop. In an attempt to disrupt any temporal field which might be causing the loop, Janeway initiated a tachyon burst from a shuttlecraft. (VOY: "Coda")
In another alternate timeline in 2374, Voyager generated a temporal field in the form of temporal shielding, which protected the ship from the alterations to the timeline initiated by Krenim scientist Annorax using his weapon ship. This anomalous temporal reading was enough to throw off Annorax's calculations when planning a temporal incursion, causing him to inadvertently revert the Krenim Imperium to a pre-warp state. The timeline in which these events occurred was negated when, as a result of massive battle damage, a temporal incursion was initiated within the weapon ship itself, erasing it and all of the damage it did to the timeline from history. (VOY: "Year of Hell", "Year of Hell, Part II")
The time portal discovered on the Bajoran colony world of Golana later that year utilized a temporal field for allowing objects to travel through time. After eight-year-old Molly O'Brien fell through the portal, arriving three hundred years in the past, her father, Miles O'Brien, Deep Space 9's chief of operations, was successfully able to modulate the portal's temporal field generators in order to re-establish the field, and retrieve Molly using a transporter beam. (DS9: "Time's Orphan")
A unique planet discovered in the Delta Quadrant by the Voyager crew in 2376 produced a powerful temporal field, a result of the planet possessing a tachyon core. The field manifested itself in the form of a temporal differential between the planet and the surrounding space, the passage of one day on the planet corresponding to 1.03 seconds as experienced on Voyager. The crew developed a plan whereby The Doctor would beam to the surface on an information-gathering mission for three seconds, giving him almost two days to gather data. However, when they attempted to beam him back, the temporal field interfered with the transporter's confinement beam, preventing the crew from retrieving him. Eventually the crew was able to reinitialize the containment beam and transport The Doctor back, after he experienced nearly three years on the planet. (VOY: "Blink of an Eye")