Has TrekLit retconned any REALLY bad canon?

[Danoz]

I was thinking about to the fact that "Threshold," technically, is canonical. Has this ever been rectified at least partially through literature? Maybe Paris and Janeway had a weird dream or something?

Anything else like this?

(Oh, and I realize novels aren't canon-- this isn't your average newbie "canon" thread-- just wondering if any legitimate trek authors have ever tried to reframe things that didn't make sense in some of the shows).

 

[Defcon]

Well, I guess the most obvious one is The Good that Men do, which tried to explain "These are the Voyages" away.

 

[Karnbeln]

That wasn't REALLY bad canon, though, just disliked by some.

Trip dying was fine, the supposedly non-heroic way he died (although it seems heroic to me) was fine, even the arbitrary plot device to cause it wasn't bad. The only bad thing I see about Trip's death was they just chose a character to off when it wouldn't matter anymore- I was actually WAITING for something like that to happen. They had no plans to explore his death, and it wasn't even a Whedon-esque "now you never know who I may off next!" move because nothing really happened after that. The death itself was fine. Hell, kill them all, just don't make it be all, "Well, the show's over anyway, we won't have to work with this later." Personally, I think the books were wrong in changing it (although I'm sure the book itself is great).

But that rant is off topic, I suppose.

 

[Christopher]

I was thinking about to the fact that "Threshold," technically, is canonical.

Depends on how you define "canonical." As a work of filmed ST, it is technically part of the canon. But it is possible for the creators of a canon to consciously declare past portions of it to be apocryphal, and that's exactly what Berman and Braga have done with "Threshold." In their minds, it never happened. And I see no reason not to follow their lead.

Has this ever been rectified at least partially through literature? Maybe Paris and Janeway had a weird dream or something?

No, it's generally just been ignored. Much like "The Alternative Factor." That's not only a completely incoherent and self-contradictory episode, but its assertions about antimatter and dilithium conflict with everything else in all of ST. And there's never been a followup to it either in canon or in professional literature, except in one Strange New Worlds story, I think. It's just been swept under the rug and not talked about, and I think that's the best way of dealing with it.

The only "Threshold" followup I'm aware of is another SNW story that treats it as something that really happened; it's from the perspective of the lizard babies at the end of the episode, of all things.


To answer the question in the thread title, I'd say that the answer is yes -- in The Good That Men Do. The depiction of Trip Tucker's death in "These Are the Voyages" was thoroughly reinterpreted and explained away. Something along similar lines was done in String Theory: Evolution with regard to Kes's portrayal in "Fury."

 

[seigezunt]

I liked how the Crucible novel re-worked Kirk's death...not sure that counts as retconning, though.

 

[Defcon]

(although I'm sure the book itself is great).

No it isn't.

 

[Rat Boy]

Not a retcon, but Serpents Among the Ruins really redeemed John Harriman from the "Incompetent captain who had Kirk die on him on his first voyage" reputation.

 

[neogothboy74]

(although I'm sure the book itself is great).

No it isn't.

I loved it.

 

[Christopher]

Not a retcon, but Serpents Among the Ruins really redeemed John Harriman from the "Incompetent captain who had Kirk die on him on his first voyage" reputation.

Actually Peter David's The Captain's Daughter did that. Serpents was continuing the redemptive portrayal of Harriman that PAD created in that book and "Shakedown" in Enterprise Logs.

 

[Rat Boy]

Not a retcon, but Serpents Among the Ruins really redeemed John Harriman from the "Incompetent captain who had Kirk die on him on his first voyage" reputation.

Actually Peter David's The Captain's Daughter did that. Serpents was continuing the redemptive portrayal of Harriman that PAD created in that book and "Shakedown" in Enterprise Logs.

It did to an extent, but it came off to me that Harriman had daddy issues. Serpents turned him from someone who might have been a footnote in Enterprise lore to someone who's accomplishments can stand right up there with Archer and Kirk.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Not a retcon, but Serpents Among the Ruins really redeemed John Harriman from the "Incompetent captain who had Kirk die on him on his first voyage" reputation.

Actually Peter David's The Captain's Daughter did that. Serpents was continuing the redemptive portrayal of Harriman that PAD created in that book and "Shakedown" in Enterprise Logs.

It did to an extent, but it came off to me that Harriman had daddy issues. Serpents turned him from someone who might have been a footnote in Enterprise lore to someone who's accomplishments can stand right up there with Archer and Kirk.

Well, even starship captains have daddy issues.

 

[LightningStorm]

The 9 A Time To books made the state of things in Nemesis make sense.

 

[Scott Pearson]

That wasn't REALLY bad canon, though, just disliked by some.

Trip dying was fine, the supposedly non-heroic way he died (although it seems heroic to me) was fine, even the arbitrary plot device to cause it wasn't bad. The only bad thing I see about Trip's death was they just chose a character to off when it wouldn't matter anymore- I was actually WAITING for something like that to happen. They had no plans to explore his death, and it wasn't even a Whedon-esque "now you never know who I may off next!" move because nothing really happened after that. The death itself was fine. Hell, kill them all, just don't make it be all, "Well, the show's over anyway, we won't have to work with this later." Personally, I think the books were wrong in changing it (although I'm sure the book itself is great).

But that rant is off topic, I suppose.

I felt that the circumstances weren't developed enough for me to believe his suicide maneuver was at all necessary.

Archer: I've spilled wine on my uniform. It might stain.

Trip: Maybe if I blow myself up . . .

OK, that may be exaggerating. But my point is the writing didn't come close to convincing me that situation had progressed to such a last resort. And given a choice between retconning his death to make it real and make sense or retconning it to a faked death, then, what the hell, it's nice to have Trip back.

 

[Trent Roman]

I agree with Scott.

Something along similar lines was done in String Theory: Evolution with regard to Kes's portrayal in "Fury."

And Janeway's portrayal , Season 5 to--well, death, I suppose. I wonder if Q fixed the alleged brain damage when she reconstituted Janeway at the end of BD.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Lynx]

Well, Heather Jarman the author of the third "String Theory" book did actually come up with a good try to undo the damage made to the character Kes in the horrible episode "Fury" and for this I'm grateful.

 

[Brendan Moody]

The problem with most retcons to "bad" canon, including The Good That Men Do, is that the need to superficially respect the canon while effectively dismissing it leads to convoluted logic that is often as difficult to swallow as the original story. "These Are The Voyages" is indeed arbitrary and silly, but TGTMD's efforts to explain it are every bit as absurd. (In one of the book's gratuitous shots at TATV, Trip thinks that the circumstances of his faked death are difficult to belief. And indeed they are, which raises the question why the officers and operatives involved developed such an absurd scenario. The answer, of course, is "to fit to the letter of the episode while violating its spirit.") Nearly all such retcons end up throwing good money after bad.

 

[ltcmmanderdata]

i agree with christopher about "the alternative factor", though i am interested in reading the "strange new worlds" story about "the alternative factor" christopher is referring to. its an odd episode to follow up on.

 

[BrotherBenny]

TGTMD was a good retcon to a very bad episode. Please do bear in mind that the Demons/Terra Prime arc was supposed to be another trilogy to end the fourth season and was shortened to shoehorn that episode in as a final farewell to Enterprise and televised Star Trek. It failed on both counts.

As for Threshold, yes it was completely atrocious but it can be retconned by today's writers if they chose to do so. They're the best we've ever had.

 

[Christopher]

i agree with christopher about "the alternative factor", though i am interested in reading the "strange new worlds" story about "the alternative factor" christopher is referring to. its an odd episode to follow up on.

It's the very last story in the very last SNW volume, the appropriately title "Reborn" by Jeremy Yoder. It features Q bringing the casts of TOS, TNG, DS9, and VGR together to save the universe from the Pah-wraiths, and Lazarus is somehow the key to doing that. Yes, you read that right.

As for Threshold, yes it was completely atrocious but it can be retconned by today's writers if they chose to do so. They're the best we've ever had.

Which is why we're smart enough just to ignore it. If the very people who wrote "Threshold" say it never happened, then that's good enough for me. If you like, maybe it was a holonovel Tom Paris wrote.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

I was thinking about to the fact that "Threshold," technically, is canonical. Has this ever been rectified at least partially through literature? Maybe Paris and Janeway had a weird dream or something?

On the contrary, I seem to recall a novel referencing the events of the episode as if it really happened. I want to think it was one of the String Theory novels, but I'm not sure.