Poll Do you consider Discovery to truly be in the Prime Timeline at this point?

[Rahul]

The most amazing thing about the (currently ambigous) canon status of DIS is:

No matter the timeline:

• prime Universe
• Kelvin timeline
• DISCO-verse (visually rebooted prime)

ENTERPRISE is from now on the ONLY Trek property that is definitely canon! In all iterations!
You know? For all the abuse the show got around here - not the justified criticism about early writing quality, but the general toxicity towards it around here, despite it really being very vanilla in terms of canon issues - we as fans kinda' deserve this...

 

[ChristopherPike]

As a series that apparently falls in the gap between "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before", it simply doesn't work for me. Had they set it with breathing room enough before or after the Original, like Star Trek: Enterprise or the Next Generation, I would've said that's fair enough. But it's practically concurrent with my favourite, and simply doesn't fit on any kind of visual level. I don't believe there wasn't a better way to update, without losing so much of what I liked about the set designs, the exterior FX and stuff everybody else seems to think doesn't matter anymore. The Starfleet ships are a sidestep in the aesthetic Matt Jeffries gave us, and they extrapolated backwards through the NX to the Phoenix. All the Klingon redesign work is horrendous and doesn't even look like it belongs in the Star Trek universe. A lot of it actually seems to make the JJ Abrams films appear stunningly traditional and lovingly faithful to the Prime by comparison. Had they not destroyed Vulcan for shock value alone, and portrayed Kirk taking a longer career path to Captain, it would've been the most you could reasonably expect from an origin prequel setting.

 

[cultcross]

I don't care particularly, and if I do care to speculate, then my answer would be that if TOS and TMP can exist in the same timeline, then so can DSC.

 

[Refuge]

Discovery talks the talk but it doesn't do the walk.

It doesn't fit.

 

[Spot261]

I don't see that the Prime universe has ever been particularly consistent or unified, I can cope with the idea it has been re imagined yet again.

 

[Ovation]

It's got starships with nacelles, phasers, Vulcans, Klingons, other Trek aliens...it's Star Trek. Good, bad, meh...it's all Star Trek. Doesn't really matter all that much, as long as I'm entertained.

Oh, many years ago (decades, now, really), I used to worry over how it all fit together--especially time travel stories in Trek. But growing older has done one thing as far as my enjoyment of Trek (or any other franchise that purports to have some sort of "canon" or "continuity"--loose or tight). I just stopped worrying about any of it, apart from whether I am entertained. Life is too short for me to get that worked up about the minutiae anymore (have enough of that to deal with in my work).

Obviously, I can only speak for myself. I know the "world-building" is very important to some viewers. It can even be a fun exercise to try to make it all fit (and, admittedly, there are frustrating moments scattered throughout the franchise when it comes to making things fit). But, at the end of the day, it's mainstream, commercial entertainment--and of that, I have modest expectations. Trek easily meets them, in every iteration so far (again, for me). Not every single episode, of course, but, in the main, Trek has, and continues, to offer me diverting, fun entertainment. When that stops being true, I'll stop watching.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Sure. Whatever works.

It's definitely a reboot. The timeline is just a matter of perspective and ultimately irrelevant unless there's an episode that's a direct precursor to something else specifically. But Star Trek has never been that high-concept.

 

[Tuskin38]

Sure. Whatever works.

It's definitely a reboot. The timeline is just a matter of perspective and ultimately irrelevant unless there's an episode that's a direct precursor to something else specifically. But Star Trek has never been that high-concept.

They've had sequel episodes.

 

[Spot261]

They've had sequel episodes.

Yeah, but they hardly add up to a well streamed and thought out consistent time line across the franchise

 

[Krandor]

Yeah, but they hardly add up to a well streamed and thought out consistent time line across the franchise

So is TNG a reboot in your eyes?

 

[Spot261]

So is TNG a reboot in your eyes?

I wouldn't particularly consider the question meaningful, in some places it fits with TOS, others it doesn't, but equally neither are remotely internally consistent anyway, so why sweat it? As @cultcross rightly pointed out, TOS doesn't fit with TMP, which doesn't fit with TWOK. Doesn't stop me enjoying them.

 

[CorporalClegg]

They've had sequel episodes.

Nope.

 

[Krandor]

I wouldn't particularly consider the question meaningful, in some places it fits with TOS, others it doesn't, but equally neither are remotely internally consistent anyway, so why sweat it? As @cultcross rightly pointed out, TOS doesn't fit with TMP, which doesn't fit with TWOK. Doesn't stop me enjoying them.

I agree and the fact that people are getting so bent out of shape the DSC doesn't fit and claim it is reboot but none of the others are is annoying. Each is different and is a product of the times they were made.

 

[Krandor]

Nope.

There were no sequel episodes? What is Naked Now? Trials and Tribbleations?

 

[Tuskin38]

Nope.

DSC's mirror episodes were semi sequels to 'In a Mirror Darkly', like how IAMD was a sequel and prequel to The Tholian Web and Mirror Mirror.

There were no sequel episodes? What is Naked Now? Trials and Tribbleations?

The Naked Now wasn't a sequel.

 

[The Wormhole]

Fuck no, Discovery is not the Prime Universe, regardless what anyone says. Honestly, at this point I don't get why they insist on romanticizing a continuity that hasn't been active since 2005, but then even when Star Trek admitted they were doing a different timeline they still kept it as a branch off of the Prime Universe as a means of keeping Leonard Nimoy around.

But really, wouldn't it be better for all concerned if Discovery were a separate continuity? Then they could have some freedom to move the storyline wherever they wanted. As it is, we know the Klingon war burns itself out and spore drive turns out to be a dud if we adhere to the Party Line that this is the Prime Universe.

People lose their minds over the "D7" Klingon ship designation in DSC. Where in canon sources was the configuration we see in TOS referred to as a D7? A DS9 tribute episode 30 years later? Cmon kids there's more important shit to lose your mind over.

Actually,. that's not really as silly as it sounds. The simple truth of the matter is, in order to know what that Klingons have a ship design known as a D-7, you'd have to look it up. Which means the writers probably checked out the Encyclopedia, Memory Alpha, or they just Googled it. All three options include images of the D-7. So by labeling a different design "D-7" they actively chose to ignore the very canon they claim they are upholding.

And really, the whole debacle was easily avoidable, they could have either have used a different name, or even just used the original D-7 design. And don't anyone pull the "it was designed in the 60s, it has no place on modern TV" line. Freakin Abrams kept the D-7 design mostly unchanged in Trek XI. If the design is good enough for a big budget theatrical movie in 2009, it's good enough for a TV show in 2017.

Is there a reason hair should be mentioned?

Well, for Klingons, their hair is part of their mythology. Kahless made the first bat'leth by shaping a strand of his hair and then dipping it into lava and hardening it into that shape. Kind of hard for someone who belongs to a hairless race to pull that off, even if he is their messiah.

 

[cultcross]

equally neither are remotely internally consistent anyway

Quite - it isn't even between Trek properties. Within series they aren't consistent. TOS season one is all over the place on background details depending on the writer and as for TNG, who remembers all that "What are countries? What is a flag?" crap from season one? Evidently not the characters, in later seasons.

Well, for Klingons, their hair is part of their mythology. Kahless made the first bat'leth by shaping a strand of his hair and then dipping it into lava and hardening it into that shape. Kind of hard for someone who belong to a hairless race to pull that off, even if he is their messiah

A minor detail from one of 700 plus episodes. Klingons gained ridges and changed their culture basically overnight, and that was all in one timeline (and no, not because of ENT s4, it was accepted as one timeline long before that). But they can't be bald because of a legend referenced in a mediocre episode of TNG?

 

[Refuge]

I would buy the 'it's not a consistent imaging anyway' argument if 'Discovery' wasn't concertedly trying to fit in at times and then not at other times. That is what inconsistent means. Sarek is not a bad copy of previously seen Sarek. So why did they bother doing that for Sarek and Vulcans but screwed around with the Klingons? Why tell us we are positioned before Kirk and Spock and have his 'sister' if we are not supposed to be referencing TOS?

Don't even start on the technology. That isn't a colour scheme inconsistency or a current production values interpretation. I see a holographic 'exchange' and think - what the? How does that fit with TOS in ten years? Good thing the makers of Discovery aren't doing a World War Two story, they'd all have smartphones

 

[cultcross]

The technology has been basically the same in every Trek era. It might look a bit different, but even that isn't consistent in terms of advancement - look at the big ass tricorders in STII. The core gadgets though are the same every time. It's part of Trek's standard operating model. They're plot devices. They do what the plot requires them to do, in any era.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Well, for Klingons, their hair is part of their mythology. Kahless made the first bat'leth by shaping a strand of his hair and then dipping it into lava and hardening it into that shape. Kind of hard for someone who belongs to a hairless race to pull that off, even if he is their messiah.

Oh my, an inconsistency in Star Trek. What ever shall I do?