The atavachron was a time travel device from the planet Sarpeidon.
The device was capable of sending individuals back into the planet's past at any point. When James T. Kirk, Spock, and Leonard McCoy beamed down to Sarpeidon to investigate the lack of people on the planet, they were able to determine that, knowing their planet would be destroyed, Sarpeidon's inhabitants fled into the past. Since the device sets their cell structure to the era they enter, attempts to return to the future would instantly kill them. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were accidentally transported through time, but were recovered. (TOS episode: "All Our Yesterdays")
Following the encounter, Commodore Antonio Delgado wanted to use the Guardian of Forever to study the atavachron's creation, but was unsuccessful. (DTI novel: Forgotten History)
Appendices[]
References[]
External link[]
- Atavachron article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.