What's in YOUR 'head canon'?

[Rahul]

These are both fascinating ideas. I already kind of thought that about Cochrane and the Phoenix project, but this is pretty interesting interpretation of WWIII.

1) WW3 wasn't a nuclear war between nations. It was more akin to a worlwide civil war, where nations crumbled, and militaristic/religious/xenophobic terrorist groups fought against gouvernements and each other, resulting in a worldwide period of chaos and failed states. Nuclear warheads were exploded, but not against other nuclear armed nations but against "terrorists", and a lot of radiation came from reactor catastrophes from unfunded and unmaintained nuclear power plants. Basically: More "Mad Max", less "The day after". The "Eastern coalition" mentioned in "First Contact" was a radical hacker group that gained control of satellite systems and targeted them against their "enemies".

2). Zephrane Chochraine wasn't a drunk hobo that stumbled upn a warp drive. He was one of the most prestigous scientist in the world, with his own institute, that was refitting the Phoenix way before WW3 started. But when gouvernement fell, cities delved into chaos, he turned into a bitter alcoholic. He and his scientists stayed and continued working, but were bogged down without funding and the need to self-supply during the chaos.

Star Trek was for me always about slow progress through technology and human enlightenment, fighting against major setbacks like predjudices and war. A potential WW3 was pretty much in line with what people thought about human development in the 60s, and a lot of Trek looked like a linear progression from today. I was never a fan of the "total apocalypse - then rebult everything from scratch"-interpretation from First Contact. This is my interpretation to fit them both together.

This is a fantastic idea which had never occurred to me. I really like this one.
--Alex

4).The "Earth-Romulus" war was entirely fought in Federation space - by Romulan drones against Earth ships. Much like the USA is droning Pakistan and Afghanistan today, Romulan tried to disupt the Earth Alliance with drone attacks. That's why nobody ever saw a Romulan - they only fought their technology. It ended, when the Romulan drone program was shut down after much escalating and use of nuclear weapons. Earth propaganda immediately turned that into a "victory". A treaty was signed (with Romulan signature in absence) to make the use of weaponized drone ships illegal - that's why we never saw Romulan drones like in ENT later in the future in TOS or TNG. Only a few hundred years later, with the economic powers of many different races combined, the Federation suddenly became equally powerfull as the Romulans. Basically, for Earth it was their "Independence war". For the Romulans, it was Vietnam.

Thanks!

This is a practice that is particularly common among Jews. There is a pretty widespread phenomenon of people who don't believe in God still considering themselves culturally Jewish and will go as far as going to temple every Sabbath and observing the Mitzvot. Given how Leonard Nimoy's Judaism influenced Vulcan culture, I'm all for this.

As for the Vulcans:
1) They are a logical, atheist species, that keeps their religion and spirituality as part of their culture. Like many atheists today that sill go to church regularly, the scientific minded Vulcans don't "believe" in gods and only let their actions determined by logically proven things. But their ancestors were religious, and that religion is part of Vulcan heritage that deserves to be preserved, not as part of history in museums, but in actual engagement and continuiation of practice.

Oh, interesting! I didn't knew about that!

 

[Tracy Trek]

My head canon about Lon Suder from Voyager is that even though he was a Betazoid, there was something wrong with his telepathic abilities. Otherwise wouldn't he feel his victims terror when he killed them. Perhaps he was meant to be one of those individuals like Tam Elbrun whose telepathy didn't switch on at puberty, but rather he had to grow up being subjected to everyone's thoughts all the time. And if Suder was a person like that, maybe it drove him insane to the point of homocide.

 

[Tenacity]

Lon Suder ... wouldn't he feel his victims terror when he killed them

Maybe for Suder that was a part of his attraction to harming people? He personally enjoyed experiencing the feelings of terror, fear, pain and helplessness.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The idea that Vulcans feel everything as fully as we do but just don't show it, that is DEFINITELY in the category of head canon.

Haven't they said that explicitly in several episodes?

 

[Tenacity]

I was never a fan of the "total apocalypse - then rebult everything from scratch"-interpretation from First Contact.

Given the speed of recovery over the following fifty to one hundred years, a "total apocalypse" simply can't be what occurred. The majority of Earth (and it's population) must have been largely untouched by the war.

Haven't they said that explicitly in several episodes?

Pretty much yes.

Vulcans have a ongoing internal battle to control their intense emotions, and they are down inside a more passionate people than Humans are.

Their "have no emotions" is a public front mandated by their culture.

 

[F. King Daniel]

"Emotions run deeply within our race, in many ways more deeply than in humans." - Sarek, ST'09

 

[publiusr]

To me, in TOS, our space shuttle was a true TSTO, and we had better tech ealier on. The drones and 3D printers we have now we had in the 70's

 

[UnknownSample]

Haven't they said that explicitly in several episodes?

No. They have, however, stated the contrary in episode after episode after episode. Abrams movies don't count. They are so firm and consistent about this that it's amazing it could be overlooked or misunderstood.
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It's fun as head canon. You have to assume Vulcan is pulling a mass scam on the galaxy, though, and that only you the viewer perceive the hypocrisy... Really, go through the episodes. Lately, after having been confronted with this idea, I've been watching with these lines of dialogue in mind. I was slightly worried I'd find I'd made some huge mistake over 50 years of viewing... but no, countless lines appear showing they control what they feel, not just how they behave and register on their faces.

 

[Tenacity]

and that only you the viewer perceive the hypocrisy

As the audience, we do get to "see behind the curtains."

And it's not like the Vulcans having secrets is that much of a secret.

 

[Captain_Amasov]

Well, Tuvok started out trying to reject vulcan emotional control:

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Also, that vulcan master tells Tuvok at the start of the episode that he was "frightened" by Tuvok's rejection of vulcan teachings too. The conversation between the vulcan master and Tuvok is pretty overt about how vulcans "feel" emotions: http://www.chakoteya.net/Voyager/511.htm

 

[Nerys Myk]

The idea that Vulcans feel everything as fully as we do but just don't show it, that is DEFINITELY in the category of head canon.

Haven't they said that explicitly in several episodes?

No. They have, however, stated the contrary in episode after episode after episode. Abrams movies don't count. They are so firm and consistent about this that it's amazing it could be overlooked or misunderstood.

If they didn't feel they wouldn't have to control their emotions. Spock, Tuvok and T'Pol have all had episodes about emotional control and the lack there of. The TNG episode "Sarek" centered around emotional control.
Why wouldn't the Abrams' movies count? Their approach is consistent with what was seen before,

 

[F. King Daniel]

Most of the Vulcan stuff from ST'09 was taken straight from "Yesteryear", written by DC Fontana. If anyone thinks she doesn't know Vulcans, they need a slap.

 

[Rahul]

Yeah, the Vulcan struggle and suppression of their emotions is pretty consistent. I even remember Spock being jealous about Data (in that TNG-two-parter), in that Vulcans aspire to just act on logic, and not emotions.

The thing to disagree on is this: How much do they actually feel when they suppress their emotions? Are they truly able to "almost not feel", or are they "feels, but don't let them influence your actions, only act upon logic".

 

[UnknownSample]

If they didn't feel they wouldn't have to control their emotions. Spock, Tuvok and T'Pol have all had episodes about emotional control and the lack there of. The TNG episode "Sarek" centered around emotional control.

Do you think we disagree about all that? We don't.

Sarek was experiencing the degenerative effects of a disease. Normally a Vulcan's suppression of emotion (feeling) would be much more successful.
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The big misunderstanding about Vulcans is that it's either that they (1) feel nothing and never did, like robots, OR (2) that they feel EVERYTHING we do at the same intensity, but just hide it. Both (1) and (2) are simplistic and wrong.
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A lot of the misunderstanding is over the word "emotion", I now think. It refers to feelings, but I think many think it just refers to expressing feelings. So every time Spock talks about Vulcans controlling emotion, a lot of fans think he's just talking about behavior.

 

[Cyke101]

Yeah, the Vulcan struggle and suppression of their emotions is pretty consistent. I even remember Spock being jealous about Data (in that TNG-two-parter), in that Vulcans aspire to just act on logic, and not emotions.

The thing to disagree on is this: How much do they actually feel when they suppress their emotions? Are they truly able to "almost not feel", or are they "feels, but don't let them influence your actions, only act upon logic".

I dunno how much I should trust the poster with the Andorian avatar about Vulcan characteristics. I smell racial bias!

 

[Nerys Myk]

Do you think we disagree about all that? We don't.

I think the disagreement lies elsewhere.

Sarek was experiencing the degenerative effects of a disease. Normally a Vulcan's suppression of emotion (feeling) would be much more successful.

Yes it's about control.

The big misunderstanding about Vulcans is that it's either that they (1) feel nothing and never did, like robots, OR (2) that they feel EVERYTHING we do at the same intensity, but just hide it. Both (1) and (2) are simplistic and wrong.

IIRC, they feel it stronger than we do. That's why they feel they must control and suppress their emotions. The nuclear war that nearly destroyed Vulcan was the result of out of control emotions.

A lot of the misunderstanding is over the word "emotion", I now think. It refers to feelings, but I think many think it just refers to expressing feelings. So every time Spock talks about Vulcans controlling emotion, a lot of fans think he's just talking about behavior.

It's both.

 

[Tenacity]

OR (2) that they feel EVERYTHING we do at the same intensity

No, Vulcans emotions are more intense than ours.

They are a species of homocidial maniacs whose passions are kept in check only through frequent meditation and a societal imposed philosophy of peace and logic.

Exhibiting emotions is "bad taste."

 

[Smoked Salmon]

Nothing substantial as I think the Trek universe is pretty well structured, albeit I tend to ignore the non-canon stuff like novels.

In Generations, Shatner intended Kirk's last words to be his life flashing before his eyes. So when I watch this scene I imagine that he sees the TOS crew and their adventures together and says "oh my" when he realises he is alone (not alone as in with nobody, but alone from his true family, his crew). He knows at that point that he's dying - "I've always know I'll die alone" - and the "oh my" is a combination of this, realising what he has seen and done in his life and knowing he will never see his friends again.

In TNG's Birthright when Data has his dream I like to imagine that Data in that instance is us, the audience. We are the bird. The people who have the untapped power of imagination, where anything is possible.

I like to imagine that Peter Preston was not only Scott's nephew but that Preston's father had passed away and Scott had been forced to play a father role, which is why the death hits him so hard.

In First Contact when Picard smashes the Enterprise models and Lily says "you broke your little ships" Picard does not just realise he is Ahab, but that the symbolic smashing of the ships is him acting in a way not consistent with the legacy of ships named Enterprise and their crews and it is this symbolism that brings him back on track.

 

[Cyke101]

In the 123rd century, the Andromeda Galaxy will indeed suffer radiation levels so high as to make the galaxy uninhabitable, meaning the Kelvans were right all along. Out of sheer goodwill, the Federation will help intergalactic refugees in the spirit of the merriest, jolliest, most blessed of all holidays, Captain Picard Day.

HO! HO! HO! MAKE IT SO!

 

[dswynne1]

In my head canon, there were many more ships called "Enterprise" before the NX-01; they weren't part of Starfleet, and most were operated by civilian operations.