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Spoilers Starship Design in Star Trek: Picard

I'm on record saying a lot of DSC's writing is lacking and just plain lazy retconning just to make the show more "hip" and exciting, I just think the ENT examples are easy to explain what with the minefield incident happening 114 years before the TOS episode and Starfleet's penchant for being very nervous about previously unseen and potentially dangerous alien technology. That's why we don't hear about the Borg between "Regeneration(ENT)" and "Q Who?(TNG)" and even the El-Aurian refugees in GEN don't openly mention the Borg during their scenes aboard the Enterprise-B.
Perhaps, but the cloak being over a century old tech and still a surprise in TOS makes it pretty sketchy. ENT really doesn't work as a prequel to TOS, it works as prequel to DIS pretty well though.
 
Still no indication of canon discussion. Just fan interpretation.

He asked if the timeline changed after FC. I pointed out that it didn’t. Because, canonically, nothing was mentioned about the timeline changing. I’m using ‘canon’ as my evidence.
 
Perhaps, but the cloak being over a century old tech and still a surprise in TOS makes it pretty sketchy. ENT really doesn't work as a prequel to TOS, it works as prequel to DIS pretty well though.

I've always wondered why they didn't just retcon the crap out of everything at the end of "Storm Front."With the whole timeline up for grabs, they could have cleared up all of that stuff.
 
But humour me, I am not trying to argue as much as honestly trying to understand. What is your interpretation of the history of cloaking devices that is consistent with all the depictions?
That there is variation within the technology and cloaking is an umbrella term for various types of devices.
He asked if the timeline changed after FC. I pointed out that it didn’t. Because, canonically, nothing was mentioned about the timeline changing. I’m using ‘canon’ as my evidence.
Well, there were some changes since humans encountered the Borg (even if they are not called that) much sooner than Q Who or whatever episode Q decides to mess with humanity.
 
That there is variation within the technology and cloaking is an umbrella term for various types of devices.
In Balance of Terror they speak specifically about 'invisibility being theoretically possible' though, which is super odd thing to say if it has been known and seen to be perfectly practically possible for over a century and prominently used in a recent war.
 
I'm weird too. I accept that continuity (visual and otherwise) is fluid and things will be changed in a modern production set in the same continuity.
Ok. But I think saying 'continuity is fluid' and 'there are multiple continuities' are just different ways of saying practically the same thing.
 
In Balance of Terror they speak specifically about 'invisibility being theoretically possible' though, which is super odd thing to say if it has been known and seen to be perfectly practically possible for over a century and prominently used in a recent war.

It is tough to tap dance around “Balance of Terror”.
 
I'd have never used cloaks in DSC. At all. But it is what it is and now we're stuck with it. We either ignore it or head canon our way around it.
 
I doubt they're that brazen. I think it's just lazy writing and they're hoping we can ignore a lot of it and focus on everything else in the show. Sadly, we're Trekkies and we notice things.

I still say we can head canon a lot of this away as the experiences of only some Starfleet officers or classified technology but then I'm one of those fans who tries not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Trek can be notoriously dismissive of its own internal continuity for the sake of being "bold" and "exciting."
 
If that is their behind the scenes thinking, that’s fine. I just don’t want them to piss on my shoes and tell me it’s raining.

Actually, I honestly don’t think that. I think that they’re just not overly concerned with TOS and ‘how it all fits together’ as some fans like to think they are. They are not watching old episodes of TOS to make sure that their writing isn’t contradicting it. They market the show as being a ten year prequel to TOS but pay it only the most minimal of lip service.

Now with that said, I don’t think there’s necessarily anything wrong with that, because despite what CBS states, I view DSC as its own thing, not connected to TOS in any way. I find that I enjoy the show much better that way. Just don’t ask me to accept DSC as a prequel to TOS when the producers of DSC don’t even care that much about it.
 
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There's a sadistic part of me that hopes DSC ends with the ship and crew returing to the 23rd century and changing the timeline so that it becomes the TOS aesthetic right down to the uniforms and ship appearances. That all of DSC up to the final season or even finale is retconned and we end the series heading straight for TOS. But that's not likely to happen. ;)
 
Ok. But I think saying 'continuity is fluid' and 'there are multiple continuities' are just different ways of saying practically the same thing.
It's a fine line. I'm more than happy tossing out stuff that doesn't work like UESPA (original edition),laser pistols, Vulcanis, Data's graduation date and the 1701 being an Earth ship with out creating an new continuity because that stuff has little or no impact on the larger universe. I'm also cool with changing or updating visuals and "surprise" relatives for the same reason.
 
I doubt they're that brazen. I think it's just lazy writing and they're hoping we can ignore a lot of it and focus on everything else in the show. Sadly, we're Trekkies and we notice things.

I still say we can head canon a lot of this away as the experiences of only some Starfleet officers or classified technology but then I'm one of those fans who tries not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Trek can be notoriously dismissive of its own internal continuity for the sake of being "bold" and "exciting."
Mistakes are one thing, intentional retcons are another. Like the Disc Ent looking different from TOS Ent is not a mistake it is an intentional change. Also, that they referred the Klingon cloaks as 'invisibility screens' the term used in Balance of Terror strongly implies that they did not just forget that episode, they intentionally contradicted it. And that is the point at which I'm personally done with headcanoning explanations. If the writers intentionally contradict the old continuity then I treat it as separate continuity. In the long run it will be way easier that way.
 
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