Tragic Past Should Not Be Altered is when a tragic moment in the past should not be stop or alter.
There are multiple reasons why these tragedies shouldn't be stop. Most time they are too important in human history. These type are often real life events. These tragedies may actually lead to something better for future generations. Or in a worst case scenario, averting one tragedy can lead to a worst one in its place.
In most cases, people will be very aware that attempting to change the tragic past is a bad idea. Of course it often leads to the past being altered somehow and they now have to fix it. And because of that, they may experience some moral dilemma of making sure the tragedy must happen. Especially if they were the main reason why the tragedy happened in the first place.
Contrast to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and Make Wrong What Once Went Right. Overlap with Set Wrong What Was Once Made Right. Often related to Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act
Examples:
[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
- Star Trek has many episodes dealing with this trope. Often leading to the erasure of Starfleet.
- In Star Trek: The Original Series, "The City on the Edge of Forever", a drugged up McCoy enters into a time portal to Earth's past and did something that altered the present and erased Starfleet. When Kirk and Spock followed McCoy into the time portal during the Great Depression, they learned what cause the time disturbance; the survival of social worker Edith Keeler by McCoy who advocated for the US not to enter the second World War until it was too late Nazi Germany won the war. This meant that Edith had to die which get complicated since Kirk was falling in love. At the fated moment, Edith ends up dying after being hit by a car. But not before Spock had to stop Kirk from saving her and who in turn stopped McCoy.
- In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Past Tense", Sisko, Bashir and Dax get accidentally transported to September 2024 Earth, days before the Bell Riots, a important moment in which hundreds of homeless in Santuary Districts were killed by the national guards trying to stop the riots. However, thanks to one Gabriel Bell who protected hostages and the fact many homeless were innocents trying to make a living, it brought a much needed social reform. Sisko is very aware of the situation they are in and tries to make sure him and Bashir don't change the future. Unfortunately, the two are attack by some ghost, a derogatory word for violent homeless, which leads to Bell trying to help and getting killed. This ends up erasing Starfleet with only the crew of the Defiant being unaffected. In an attempt to fix the timeline, Sisko takes the identity and role of Bell even though it means his death. Luckily Sisko does survive and they are able to set the time right by having two of the Sanctuary guards place Bell's id on one of the dead homeless.
- Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:
- "A Quality of Mercy" is a case of making sure a tragic future happens. Pike knows he will end up disfigured and disabled after a training accident. While Pike accepts the outcome of his fate, he starts to have second thoughts when he meets one of the casualties in the incident as a child. He then attempts to change the future but is confronted by a alternate future Pike who gives him a time crystal to see the alternate future. In it, he managed avert the tragedy and continue being captain of the Enterprise. Sadly this ends up dooming Starfleet during the events of "The Balance of Terror" in there first encounter of Romulans in hundred years. In a stark contrast to Kirk more proactive approach to the encounter, Pike tries to be more diplomatic. However, the Romulans sees it as a sign of weakness and it ends up starts a war. Not only that, the Enterprise suffer bigger casualties which includes Spock, the key figure of finally bringing peace with the Romulans.
- In "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow", a agent of the Department of Temporal Investigations fails in preventing a time assassin from altering the 21st century and thus causes a future in which Earth is uninhabitable and its people in a losing war against the Romulans. Oh, and Starfleet doesn't exist. La'an, along with an alternate Kirk, then go to the past to see what was the divergent moment and prevent it. At first they assume the divergent point was the destruction of a cold fusion reactor by a Romulan, but it turns out it was a means for the time assassin's true task;the death of a young Khan Noonien Singh, the warlord of the Eugenics War and Na'an's ancestor. The Romulan attempts to convince Na'an to kill since with him gone, the world would never look at Na'an as Khan descendant. Na'an in the end saves Khan and kills the time assassin. The incident naturally rattles Na'an since she now has to live with the fact she help protect a future murder.
