Any star? I mean, what if you could harness the energy of, say, a Vin Diesel or a Rob Schneider?

This guy thinks anything is possible because he's a Many Worlds fan. By his way of thinking (which I agree with) Santa could be real, simply traveling through worm holes that he opens and closes with magic. And it might be just as likely that you can't tavel through time like this because it allows for paradox, something this univese does not like.

@moff:
(bows)

let me see if i follow, desmond has become 'unstuck in time' due to possible brain damage from radiation or electromagnetic energy....

so when the the tralfamadors show up?

it's funny but when i consider the plot of lost it actually makes considerably more sense if i assume it was something written by vonnegut.

Lots of the time travel aspects of the show are heavily influenced by Vonnegut, and why not? Vonnegut had an interesting take on it. In last weeks episode, someone even used the phrase "unstuck in time," though I don't remember if it was Faraday or Minkowski.

Anyway, Faraday is one of my new favorite characters. He seems like he actually has some idea of what is going on, at least sort of, and, unlike everyone else on the show who may know something, Faraday doesn't seem particularly evil or dangerous.

@moff: But they are the types of stars that burn hot and furious early in their life and then slowly exhaust their fuel, cooling down int dwarf stars. You'd need something closer to a Type 2 supernova... like Keanu Reeves or Gary Busey.

But would the traversable wormhole theory explain why only Desmond's consciousness time traveled, but nothing physical did?

@moff:

It depends...Vin Diesel in Pitch Black or Vin Diesel in Chronicles of Riddick because there was a definite difference between those two.

Maybe the wormhole would destroy anything physical?

Maybe they can go back in time and undo all the hiatus and repeat BS. Oh yeah, while they're at it, rewrite the loser episodes so that they are at least coherent.

Just a confusing plot device for a peripheral character meant to jump start a show that has "lost" its way. What the hell happened to this formerly good show?

Michio Kaku is the physics equivalent of a high-priced call girl. If there's a paycheck or a media appearance in it for him, he'll back up anything with his special brand of handwaving.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that Desmond is the main character of LOST?

Something about his storyline is telling me that the show is more about him than any of the other characters.

@Gopherit: Hahaha! One day I hope to be called the "physics equivalent of a high-priced call girl." Everybody loves a slut who can talk about wormholes!

@HyMinded: seriously. Now there's time travel invovled? I do believe I see a shark on the horizon. Maybe Desmond should put on his water skis.

Maybe I misread something, but since when did wormholes have event horizons? Plus I thought wormholes were more of a "wouldn't that be cool if they were real" theory than "oh yeah, they exist, here's the math" theroy.

How can you guys even say that the episode wasn't enjoyable? It was its own palpable self-contained storyline and a very dynamic and interesting one at that. Give the episode a bit more time to sink in and come around at the end of this season you may see the relativity of it all... There is a purpose for Desmond's travels and I am on the boat to wait and see how everything plays out.

@Jeff-Minor:
While time-travel to alter the past may be theoretically impossible in Single Universe theory, the Multiverse theory allows not one but two ways.

One: Travel back in time, alter past, then continue along divergent path.

Two: Travel to another Universe where the Big Bang occurred later on yet everything went on the same as in your own universe. Therefore in effect It's the same as time-traveling to the past.

Time travel is impossible because there's nothing to travel to. The past no longer exists, and the future doesn't exist yet.

@samuelk: Yeah, and it bothers me a little. I mean, I hate all the time travel business because I hate time travel. It's lazy and stupid imho. But Desmond now as the main character is weird because it obviously wasn't that way in the beginning and that makes me think of the crash survivors as peripheral, rather than Desmond and if that's the case, season 1 & 2, at the least, were a kinda joke and I'm not OK with that. I spent a lot of time wondering about them and their flashbacks. I don't really care much about Desmond's multi-dimensional love story. I mean he's cool and all, but I didn't sign up for Somewhere In Time.

@Hart: Exactly! Shifting focus to Desmond and his time travels is just more proof that the writers have no clue what story they are telling. I fully expect to hear that next season, Desmond picks up an orangutan sidekick. Makes about as much sense as time travel or anything else this show has tossed off.

@Defendant: The past is not dead, it's in storage. The future exists as probablility vectors which branch off, creating other timelines. Please, don't you watch Stargate? I've learned everything I know about the multiverse from bad sf shows.

If you take a look at the referenced Doctor Kaku's new book, he uses a TARDIS on the cover of a physics book... so cool. Now I want to read it.

The Langoliers have eaten the past. There's no going back.

@MilesFromNowhere: ha ha, good one.

Time travel has always rubbed me the wrong way. My gut can't make much sense of it even after reading enlightening lay-friendly write-ups. Then again my gut can't make much sense of anything starting with and beyond the basics of quantum mechanics. I can follow it up to a certain point and then... whoooosh.

@Gopherit: That's got to be the best way to put it, EVER. If you ever want a surefire way to make a physicist's eyes roll, mention Dr. Kaku.

@moff: Touche, Sir. Touche.

Kaku would try to legitimize crop circles if it would get him on television.

He's thrown his lot in string theory, but unlike Lisa Randall and Brian Greene, he no longer works on the subject.

anyone who has watched this show over the past few years, and has been paying even the slightest bit of attention, even just the tiniest bit, would have realized that the whole freakin' thing is about TIME paradoxes....

verdict: not jumping the shark.

I'll never understand where this idea comes from that someone who wasn't on the first episode of a show as intricately plotted out as Lost couldn't become the main character. Is the main character of a novel always in the first chapter?

@JesusDeSaad: there could be another option: you travel back in time, change past in such a way that you should not be able to be there (i.e. kill your own grandmother), then past changes so that you can be there (i.e., she wasn't actually your grandmother, therefore you didn't actually kill your grandmother, or whatever, something like that). Ooh, maybe another option: you go back, change past to make paradox, then you and everything related to the paradox disappear) This is fun!!

@Defendant: Thanks for clearing that up.

I hate to pick nits here, but please, please learn the difference between "conscience" and "consciousness." Telephone-game-style phonetic spelling (ie, using "tenants" when you mean "tenets") is only a few steps above illiteracy.

@lukeoneil47: Main characters in first chapter? The idea comes from clear precedence. There are always, of course, exceptions, but by and large, yes ... absolutely! Doesn't mean it can't be otherwise, but not concentrating on a main character until half-way through the story? Possible, but iffy.

I get where you're coming from, I really do, but at the same time, would you seriously say that the writers might have intended from Day One, for Desmond to be the main character and were OK with him being virtually non-existent for the entirety of season one and the vast majority of season two? C'mon, that's ridiculous.

Hey, I LOVE wacky experimentation with narratives (big-time Lynch fan), but I'm just saying it's a little icky when it becomes obvious the writers were meandering not because they meandered, but because they didn't cover it up well enough. In other words, they had time to kill so they killed it with side stories and maybe later, they've decided those are good stories and to integrate them more. Perhaps "unfair" to die-hard fans of the original focal characters. It's OK, though, great show regardless and perhaps that's the point.

@Jeff-Minor: It's called fiction for a reason. It will never be a reality, let alone a possibility.