What do you consider to be the Prime Timeline?
- Thread starter HotRod
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I will die on the hill of 'don't care'
I would too, but I can’t be bothered.
I’m very much locked into the “Parallels” way of thinking. There are millions or billions of different timelines, universes, quantum realities, whatever you want to call them. We saw a handful in that episode alone where the difference was as small as the flavor of Worf’s cake or as large as Bajor overthrowing Cardassia and becoming a major antagonist or Picard dying during the Borg crisis/Wolf 359.
Hell, there could be a timeline where Admiral Janeway mysteriously disappeared on a secret mission, Tuvok is institutionalized and both Seven and Chakotay are dead.
So, get your torches and pitchforks…for me it goes like this…
The Prime timeline is TOS-Enterprise and all the TOS-TNG films.
Kelvin timeline (JJ-verse) is self explanatory.
Nu-Trek timeline (The Kurtzman-verse) is Disco, Picard, Lower Decks, SNW and probably Prodigy (although it seems more connected to Prime)
as for the mirror-verse…every timeline has its own.
now I dunno where nu-Trek branched off from Prime but it had to be before Saru left Kelpia because we saw Georgiou pick him up in a Disco S1-2 style uniform and shuttle.
In my mind, most or all of the stories from nu-Trek happened in the Prime Timeline just maybe a bit different and vise versa. For me the biggest divergence would be the Gorn stuff and maybe Burnham being Spock’s adopted sister. Maybe the Klingon attack didn’t kill her parents but she still joined Starfleet and was assigned to the Shinzou. Maybe La’an and her family were taken by Orions and subjected to the slave markets in the borderlands instead of becoming incubators for the XenoGorn with Gorn first contact happening in Arena as we’ve presumed for 60+ years.
this should be a pinned post at the top of every forum here and probably everywhere no matter the franchise.
This is one aspect of the discussion I hate. I LOVE Lower Decks. It’s probably my 4th favorite series only behind TOS, DS9 and maybe TNG. I consider it a different timeline but it changes nothing about my love/enjoyment. Same goes for SNW, love it despite the at times radical changes they have made that gets my fanboy dander up.
in fact, I don’t hate any of the Trek shows Classic or nu. I like some better than others but I’ll watch them all if they are on.
Hell, there could be a timeline where Admiral Janeway mysteriously disappeared on a secret mission, Tuvok is institutionalized and both Seven and Chakotay are dead.
So, get your torches and pitchforks…for me it goes like this…
The Prime timeline is TOS-Enterprise and all the TOS-TNG films.
Kelvin timeline (JJ-verse) is self explanatory.
Nu-Trek timeline (The Kurtzman-verse) is Disco, Picard, Lower Decks, SNW and probably Prodigy (although it seems more connected to Prime)
as for the mirror-verse…every timeline has its own.
now I dunno where nu-Trek branched off from Prime but it had to be before Saru left Kelpia because we saw Georgiou pick him up in a Disco S1-2 style uniform and shuttle.
In my mind, most or all of the stories from nu-Trek happened in the Prime Timeline just maybe a bit different and vise versa. For me the biggest divergence would be the Gorn stuff and maybe Burnham being Spock’s adopted sister. Maybe the Klingon attack didn’t kill her parents but she still joined Starfleet and was assigned to the Shinzou. Maybe La’an and her family were taken by Orions and subjected to the slave markets in the borderlands instead of becoming incubators for the XenoGorn with Gorn first contact happening in Arena as we’ve presumed for 60+ years.
this should be a pinned post at the top of every forum here and probably everywhere no matter the franchise.
This is one aspect of the discussion I hate. I LOVE Lower Decks. It’s probably my 4th favorite series only behind TOS, DS9 and maybe TNG. I consider it a different timeline but it changes nothing about my love/enjoyment. Same goes for SNW, love it despite the at times radical changes they have made that gets my fanboy dander up.
in fact, I don’t hate any of the Trek shows Classic or nu. I like some better than others but I’ll watch them all if they are on.
As the first officer, and as someone suggested above, Uhura could have both covered it up. Spock would have known the Enterprise's system better than anyone at this point.
And I'm starting to think the Talosian had more influence than the two parter suggested.
To this day, I don’t understand how what timeline a show takes place in makes a difference in enjoying it or not. If it’s not your bag on the quality of the show, that’s cool. But when it comes to continuity, I can just handwave it away on the idea of its shows that were made decades apart. If I have to be bothered to come to a headcanon rationalization (and I truly hate those things), it’s that all the mucking around in the timelines is making the shift in appearances. But generally, I couldn’t give two shits. To be fair, the number of discrepancies we’ve all handwaved can fill up a book. In fact, I think it’s filled several.
That's the million dollar question.
It doesn't
That at least can kinda be explained... I haven't seen "Acquisition" since 2018 (oh shit, that was 6 years ago!), but weren't the Ferengi never identified by their name? Maybe they were just unknown species 847? And then "Dear Doctor" name dropped the Ferengi, but if the Valakians from that ep didn't share their data about what the Ferengi looked like...
That might come down to whether or not their final season is their final season in advance...
That’s interesting, because I find that I like and appreciate DSC and SNW more when I treat them like their own thing and NOT trying to shoehorn them into TOS.
Strange New Worlds helps me to appreciate characters from TOS even more because it greatly expands their character lore. Let's be honest, Uhura wasn't much more than a glorified operator throughout most of TOS. SNW has made her much more than that. The same can be said for all the other legacy characters that appear in the show.
Same for me, and with early Discovery. It broaden the world in a new way and I welcome it because it does what I didn't expect.
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I get that. Conversely, the Christopher Nolan Batman films greatly expand the lore of the characters from the Adam West ‘60’s Batman TV show without actually claiming that they are the same characters or take place in the same continuity. Because I assume that Nolan didn’t feel the need to use the show as a crutch to get people to see his movies.
"Crutch" implies the stories can't work on their own.
They do.
And are very satisfying when brought together with TOS.
So is Kelvin being connected. As is the Mirror Universe. It's all much more interesting from different levels.
Mileage will vary. Crutch would not be s term I'd use.
They do.
And are very satisfying when brought together with TOS.
So is Kelvin being connected. As is the Mirror Universe. It's all much more interesting from different levels.
Mileage will vary. Crutch would not be s term I'd use.
You’re welcome to your opinion.
Batman is hardly a good comparison as the character has had dozens of different runs of the character, with no connections between them. A serial from the 40's has nothing to do with a comic from the 50's, which has no connections with a show from the 60's, which has no connections with another comic run from the 70's, which has nothing to do with Tim Burton movies from the 80's/90's, which had no connection with Nolan's trilogy, or the Matt Reeves The Batman. Batman has had dozens of timeline. Star Trek has two.
No.
I agree, there are almost ∞ amount of Timelines, Universes, Parallel Quantum Realities along with the other Dimensions that goes with them (e.g. Fluidic Space Dimension that Species 8472 inhabits/originates from).
While the rights holders states that there are 2x Timelines only, from everything I can see, it makes more logical sense for 3x Timelines given all the changes we see.
But, IMO, there are 3x Major Timelines that the fans generally should focus on.
There are some good arguuments to move Lower Decks, Prodigy, & ST:PIC to Prime 1.0 AKA Old-Prime Timeline, but given that some of the effects/elements of ST: DSC & even ST:SNW show up in LD/PRO/PIC, they could also technically fit in the Neo-Prime timeline.
But that's a minor quibble in the grand scheme of things.
Show some random person off the street an episode of TOS, an episode of SNW, and one of the Kelvin Movies, and they'll say it's three different versions of the TOS Era.
As far as the Rights Holders, I'll cut-and-paste what I said about them elsewhere:
They're filthy rich Corporate Democrats or Country-Club Republicans, waiting to see who the Koch Family or Wall Street tells them to support, hanging out on their yachts after a "tough" day of playing golf. They've never seen an episode of Star Trek in their lives. Their decree in the late-2010s that CBS-brand Star Trek was "Prime" was a business decision, that was probably recommended by those "in the know" who were beneath them, and nothing more. It doesn't take into account any new developments because they hadn't happened yet. And I doubt they care about any new developments. They made their business decision, and they'll stick to it until it makes business sense to change it.
As far as the Rights Holders, I'll cut-and-paste what I said about them elsewhere:
They're filthy rich Corporate Democrats or Country-Club Republicans, waiting to see who the Koch Family or Wall Street tells them to support, hanging out on their yachts after a "tough" day of playing golf. They've never seen an episode of Star Trek in their lives. Their decree in the late-2010s that CBS-brand Star Trek was "Prime" was a business decision, that was probably recommended by those "in the know" who were beneath them, and nothing more. It doesn't take into account any new developments because they hadn't happened yet. And I doubt they care about any new developments. They made their business decision, and they'll stick to it until it makes business sense to change it.
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