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TOS original or Remastered, which is canon?

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I've always thought of canon more as the stories and the appearance of ships, planets, etc. Chekov is an only child was established in a story. That's part of canon. (at least TOS canon. If NuChekov was born four years earlier then there's no telling what else is different.)

To me. canon is the accumulation of the stories, not trying to explain why Kirk was missing his insignia.
Nah, thats continuity.

No, it's the other way around.

"Canon" is the officially recognized set of stories.

"Continuity" is the exercise of giving the illusion that it all makes sense.
I think thats what I was saying. Canon has nothing to do with how old Chekov is or if he's an only child. Nor is it about the design of the ships or look of a planet. Those fall into the relm of continuity.
 
Anything is possible in an infinite universe.

No, it isn't. That's a sloppy misreading of how probability works, not to mention how the laws of physics work. No matter how big the universe is, it's all bound by the same laws, and therefore the only things that are possible are those that are allowed by the laws of physics, biology, chemistry, etc.

Yes. It is. Again, the universe is infinite. Twenty years ago, everybody thought that the nine planets (now 8) in our solar system were the only planets in the universe. Now we know there are hundreds, possibly thousands of extrasolar planets in our galaxy alone, some of which may be Earth-like. Beyond what we can see of the known universe, who knows how other solar systems have evolved. We know that our planet is just the right distance from our star to support life as we know it. There may be, and probably are hundreds or thousands of other planets in our galaxy alone that are just the right distance from their sun to produce life as we know it. Maybe even humanoid. It happened here, why not somewhere else? Or are the laws of physics and biology that produced us exclusive to our little rock? I think not. We also know that the laws of physics that we know change dramatically around black holes ("Into The Universe With Stephen Hawking" - Science Channel). So who's to say that in the outer reaches of the universe that we haven't detected yet, there are somewhat different laws of physics? That's just speculation, but possible nonetheless. I believe anything is possible. That's faith. YMMV. But without that kind of open mindedness, mankind would still be rubbing sticks together to make fire.

But since your whole post is predicated on that nonsensical "anything is possible" mantra repeated over and over as an article of faith, I'm not even going to bother trying to reason with you point-by-point. After all, we're not talking about real science here. We're talking about what's canonical within a work of make-believe, and this tangent is irrelevant to that.

Oh please. There's noting nonsensical about "anything is possible". It's called keeping your mind open to the endless possibilities of the universe. You should try it sometime.
 
No, it isn't. That's a sloppy misreading of how probability works, not to mention how the laws of physics work. No matter how big the universe is, it's all bound by the same laws, and therefore the only things that are possible are those that are allowed by the laws of physics, biology, chemistry, etc.

Well, that's not exactly so. Einstein, and more so Hawking, have shown that the "laws" of physics break down at the quantum level at extremes of speed or accelleration (e.g. gravity).

Besides, our understanding of the universe is being refined, and often changed, in little and big ways every day. you can't dismiss a story about far flung adventure because it's impossible to go beyond the sea, or you'd fall off the edge of the Earth anymore.
 
^No, I'm a writer with a bachelor's degree in physics. Which means I do have an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out.
 
^No, I'm a writer with a bachelor's degree in physics. Which means I do have an open mind, but not so open that my brains fall out.
Well I almost had it right.

Still, I'll defer to you on matters of physics over beaker or zim. ( if thats okay)
 
When I think of the changes Trek has made over the years of its evolution, I think of Arthur Clarke's Odyssey novels and how he changed prior events based on real world delvelopments. Of course, he had said each of the books took place in their own parallel universes, but it still showed that it's necessary to make changes to keep from being outdated in technology and other things. Like Leningrad being mentioned during The Voyage Home. Sure, it could change back in the next couple hundred years, but if that area were to be mention in any new Trek stories, it would probably reflect Saint Petersburg.

Nothing is written in stone.
 
Although I agree for the most part with Christopher, the mention of Clarke remined me of this:

"If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible, he is almost certainly right; but if he says that it is impossible, he is very probably wrong."
Arthur C. Clarke

Not saying you're elderly Christopher. :lol:
 
Our causal part of the multiverse is finite.
I would not say interspecies progeny is imposssible via genetic engineering.
As to warp drive, it is hard to say when it will occur.
 
someone must rail against the slide toward Orwellian revisionism that the new FX represents. (Okay, I really don't feel that strongly about it, but no one should pass on the opportunity to use the phrase slide toward Orwellian revisionism in RL? :lol:)
The original FX are still available on the Blu-Ray. And I don't accept the idea that there has to be some kind of conflict between the old and the new. The old ones are cool, but the new ones are cool too. They're just variations on a theme, which is a good thing in art.

No matter how nice the result may be, a 1965 Corvette won't be a 1965 Corvette when West Coast Customs is done with it. :lol:

Nice to know though that you are okay with the idea of ripping out all those show tunes in The Weight of Silence, maybe throwing in some Greenday, Nickelback and Audioslave instead, all in an effort to reach "younger audiences*." (Show tunes? Who listens to show tunes, anyway?:lol: ) And maybe replace all that programmable matter, hard sci-fi stuff with some kewler Transformer technobabble because the kiddie-winks do love them Transformers. And the main characters should be deaf, dumb and blind vampires, because you can never go wrong with a Twilight tie-in, right? :p
No worries though; we'll call it The Weight of the Silence-Enhanced so folks can tell the difference.:rofl:

There is something to be said about authenticity and respecting the art and effort of others. The new FX is not about that, IMO. YMMV.

*(I know a young man, 17, who is really into BTO at the moment; this younger audiences will only like newer stuff is a myth, foisted on us by corporations trying to sell us their wares.)
 
Watched Ultimate Computer last night. Liked some of the effects, didn't like some of the effects. I didn't like the combat scenes - I think it was the massive amounts of ultra-bright fast-moving stars. They completely distracted me from the action. And I found the death of the Excalibur unsatisfying. Granted the original was just a quick flash, but the new effect didn't even have an explosion - turning, wheeling, ZAP, peel off. You can sort of see the Excalibur start to tumble, but it would have been more emotionally effective with a big explosive flare like the original.
 
Query: The original effects sequences on the Blu-Ray discs...have they also been upped to high def, or are they still pretty much in standard def?
 
No matter how nice the result may be, a 1965 Corvette won't be a 1965 Corvette when West Coast Customs is done with it. :lol:

Well, TOS-R is more like a 1965 Corvette with airbags and a GPS added, but most of the design and detailing left intact. I mean, the FX shots in TOS constituted only a couple of minutes or less per episode, given the limited budgets at the time, so it's only a very small percentage of the whole that's been modified.

Nice to know though that you are okay with the idea of ripping out all those show tunes in The Weight of Silence, maybe throwing in some Greenday, Nickelback and Audioslave instead, all in an effort to reach "younger audiences*." (Show tunes? Who listens to show tunes, anyway?:lol: ) And maybe replace all that programmable matter, hard sci-fi stuff with some kewler Transformer technobabble because the kiddie-winks do love them Transformers. And the main characters should be deaf, dumb and blind vampires, because you can never go wrong with a Twilight tie-in, right? :p
No worries though; we'll call it The Weight of the Silence-Enhanced so folks can tell the difference.:rofl:

That's a spurious analogy on multiple levels. TOS-R didn't change the meaning of any of the updated FX shots, it merely tried to represent the exact same events and locations in a more visually effective (and less recycled) way. Not a single line, not a single fragment of the story of any TOS episode, was altered.

A better analogy would be if a magazine reprinted my debut story "Aggravated Vehicular Genocide" and accompanied it with an illustration that more accurately represented the story's aliens than the Kelly Freas artwork that accompanied the story in Analog. I would have no problem with that, since Freas depicted them in a totally different way than what I had in mind, and I've posted my own illustration on my website as part of the supplementary material for the story.

Not to mention that the version of that story on the website is slightly rewritten to improve the accuracy and plausibility of certain elements, and that I've recently done an even more radical rewrite of the story as the first part of a spec novel I'm writing. As I believe I've already remarked, it's hardly unprecedented for artists to revise their work, to try to remedy past mistakes or shortcomings. It's not holy gospel. It's an attempt to entertain and enrich the audience, and if the original version of a work contained mistakes or shortcomings, it's not a crime to try to remedy them. After all, the original version of the work will still be available, so nothing's being destroyed or censored. It's just a process of refinement.

And for what it's worth, there are one or two things in "The Weight of Silence" that I might choose to revise in a future edition of the story, in order to bring it more in synch with ideas I've had since the story was written. And yes, I might even rethink the names of some of the show tunes, since it turns out that some of them actually are the titles of pop songs I wasn't aware of. Fidelity to the essence of a story is good, but fanatical purism about the tiniest details, even the mistakes, works against that.

Now, it's true that the people who did the revisions in TOS-R were not the original creators. But there's no doubt that Roddenberry himself had no problem with revisionism and saw a lot of things in TOS that he would've been happy to change. I bet he would've loved TOS-R.

There is something to be said about authenticity and respecting the art and effort of others. The new FX is not about that, IMO. YMMV.

I think the new FX were extremely respectful and authentic. They didn't redesign the Enterprise or the shuttlecraft to look more "modern," they didn't throw in a bunch of swooping camera moves and music-video cuts to be "stylish"; they made every effort to be faithful to the aesthetics and stylistic integrity of TOS while still living up to their mandate to create FX shots that would pass muster in HD.
 
There is something to be said about authenticity and respecting the art and effort of others. The new FX is not about that, IMO. YMMV.

I think the new FX were extremely respectful and authentic. They didn't redesign the Enterprise or the shuttlecraft to look more "modern," they didn't throw in a bunch of swooping camera moves and music-video cuts to be "stylish"; they made every effort to be faithful to the aesthetics and stylistic integrity of TOS while still living up to their mandate to create FX shots that would pass muster in HD.
This really comes down to perspective and a matter of opinion. And neither side ain't gonna convince the other.
 
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