Not true. Non-canon topics and discussions are just fine. It’s when someone uses a non-canon source to prove something, is when the issue of non-canon versus canon comes up..
Yes, that's about it.
I’m confused. First of all, where in either Metamorphosis or FC was it stated what age Cochrane was when he made his flight? The Companion’s de-aging of Cochrane had nothing to do with how old he was in FC..
It is a fact that in the physical sciences important discoveries tend to be made by scientists aged in the range between twenty and forty. So we can presume that Zefraim Cochrane probably "discovered the space warp" when he was somewhere between 20 and 40, although the interval between Cochane's discovery and the first voyage in a manned warped ship is not specified, nor is Cochrane's age when he made his first warp voyage.
In "Metamorphosis":
COCHRANE: That's what I call it. As a matter of fact, Captain, I didn't crash here. I was brought here in my disabled ship. I was almost dead. The Companion saved my life.
SPOCK: You were injured?
COCHRANE: I was dying, Mister Spock.
KIRK: You seem perfectly all right now. What was the matter?
COCHRANE: I was an old man.
KIRK: You were what?
COCHRANE: Well, I don't know how it did it, but the Companion rejuvenated me, made me young again, like I am now.
SPOCK: I prefer to reserve judgment on that part of your story, sir. Meanwhile, would you please explain exactly what this Companion of yours is?
COCHRANE: I told you, I don't know what it is. It exists, it lives, and I can communicate with it.
MCCOY: That's a pretty far out story.
KIRK: Mister Cochrane, do you have a first name?
COCHRANE: Zefram.
KIRK: Zefram Cochrane of Alpha Centuri, the discoverer of the space warp?
COCHRANE: That's right, Captain.
MCCOY: But that's impossible. Zefram Cochrane died a hundred and fifty years ago.
SPOCK: The name of Zefram Cochrane is revered throughout the known galaxy. Planets were named after him. Great universities, cities.
KIRK: Isn't your story a little improbable, Mister Cochrane?
COCHRANE: No, it's true. I was eighty seven years old when I came here.
KIRK: You say this Companion found you and rejuvenated you? What were you doing in space at the age of eighty seven?
COCHRANE: I was tired, Captain. I was going to die, and I wanted to die in space. That's all.
SPOCK: True, his body was never found.
COCHRANE: You're looking at it, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: If so, you wear your age very well.
McCoy says:
MCCOY: But that's impossible. Zefram Cochrane died a hundred and fifty years ago.
And I say that McCoy's "150 years" should be between 125 and 175 year, allowing for imprecision.
Cochrane said:
COCHRANE: No, it's true. I was eighty seven years old when I came here.
If Cochrane was 87.000 to 87.999 years old when he came there 125 to 175 years earlier, he would have been born about 212 to 262.999 years earlier, and would probably have made his great discovery probably aged aged 20 to 40 about 172 to 242.999 years earlier.
Did the S.S. Valiant use warp drive to reach the edge of the galaxy, hundreds or thousands of light years from Earth?
In "Where No Man Has Gone Before":
Captain's log, Star date 1312.4. The impossible has happened. From directly ahead, we're picking up a recorded distress signal, the call letters of a vessel which has been missing for over two centuries. Did another Earth ship once probe out of the galaxy as we intend to do? What happened to it out there? Is this some warning they've left behind?
And:
KIRK: This is the Captain speaking. The object we encountered is a ship's disaster recorder, apparently ejected from the S.S. Valiant two hundred years ago.
However, i believe the transcript of the second statement left out the word "almost" in "almost two hundred years ago". So I just watched the beginning and Kirk does say "The object we encountered is a ship's disaster recorder, apparently ejected from the S.S. Valiant almost two hundred years ago."
So the Valiant became missing over two hundred years earlier, and ejected the recorder almost two hundred years earlier, implying that part of the voyage of the Valiant was exactly two hundred year before "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
So Zefraim Cochrane might or might not have discovered the space warp before the Valiant left Earth.
James Cromwell who portrayed Zefram Cochrane in
Star Trek: First Contact was born on January 24, 1940, and his scenes were filmed something between the beginning of production on 8 April 1996 and the end of production on 2 July 1996, and thus when he was aged.between about 56 years and two months and about If someone assumes that a movie character is usually supposed to be about the same age as the actor who portrays them, they would assume that Zefraim Cochrane was about 56 in
Star Trek: First Contact .
According to the official - but not necessarily canon or correct - chronology, "Metamorphosis" happens in 2267 and Cochrane's first warp flight in
Star Trek: First Contact happens in 2063. So according to "Metamorphosis" Cochrane should have disappeared about 2092 to 2142 aged 87, and thus been born about 2005 to 2055 and made his discovery about 2025 to 2095. By assuming a degree of vagueness in McCoy's 150 years I thus make it possible for Cochrane to make his warp discovery when
Star Trek: First Contact says it happened.
But if someone considers McCoy's 150 years to be 150.000 to 150.999 years, then Cochrane disappeared about 2116.001 to 2117.999 aged 87.000 to 87.999, and thus was born 2028.002 about 2028.999 to 2030.999, and made his great discovery about .2048.002 to 2070.999. That time span also includes 2063, but is a much narrower one.
If Zephram Cochrane was 56 in 2063, he would have been born about 2006 to 2007, and would have been 87 about 2093 to 2095, and "Metamorphosis" about 125 to 175 years later would be about 2218 to 2270. But if someone considers McCoy's 150 years to be 150.000 to 150.999 years, "Metamorphosis" would be about 2243 to 2246, over twenty years earlier than it's date in the official chronology. Making Cochrane 20 to 40 years old in 2063 makes him born about 2022 to 2043, and thus 87 years old in 2109 to 2131, and thus "Metamorphosis" exactly 150 years later would be about 2259 to 2282, thus including the official date of "metamorphosis".
So two reasons why many fans consider
Star Trek: First Contact to contradict "Metamorphisis" is that they consider time spans mentioned to be exact and not approximate, even when mentioned by characters who aren't as precise as computers, or Spock, or Data, and that they consider characters to look like the actors who portray them. The first assumption unnecessarily narrows down the possible time spans of various events, and the second assumption involves assuming that characters are the same age as their actors, which is not necessarily true and in some cases is obviously wrong.
Another reason is that "Metaamphosis" didn't mention first contact with Vulcans or any other aliens, and did mention Alpha Centauri (with a rather controversial meaning) and
Star Trek: First Contact makes first contact with Vulcans an important part of the plot and doesn't mention Alpha Centauri at all.
What is shown on screen is canon. However, that doesn’t mean that everything shown on screen will be consistent. James R. Kirk is just as canon as James T. Kirk, but it’s not consistent..
My head canon or fanon is that James Kirk has several middle names, one being Tiberius and on starting with an R. When Kirk entered Starfleet he chose James R. Kirk as the official version of his name instead of other possible versions. Possibly Kirk thought that Robert, or Rhadames, or Radagast, or whatever, was a better name than Tiberius. But in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" Kirk saw his best friend create a tombstone for Kirk with "James R. Kirk" inscribed on it, and later dropped that tombsone on that best friend. Kirk couldn't stand seeing or hearing "James R. Kirk" any more, so he changed the official s Starfleet form of his name to James T. Kirk. There are othe rpossible explanations, but I consider this the most natural.
That would be a very silly thing to do if topics like this make you run for the hills. Because there are topics like this on the TrekBBS all the time.
"That much is certain."
