Star Trek Continuity - your personal canon?

[Danlav05]

I'm wondering what is everyone's view on continuity?

I know the official rule is 'TV/Movies only' (and possibly not including TAS) but as fans, especially in a time when we only get an AU movie every few years, do you include other stuff?

Things you could count are:

- The Experience: The two rides/walkthroughs featured video footage of proper Starfleet actors on set playing new scenes. Especially created Klingon Korath later showed up in the Voyager finale. Although the original ride was set in modern day Las Vegas it was still technically written 'in world'. The second ride,, Borg Invasion was a cool little sequel to Voyager. Star Trek: The Tour featured a weird thing set on the Titan with Wesley Crusher and Tuvok.

- Fan Films - I personally see Hidden Frontier as the 4th 24th Century show as it was so well written and it featured a plethora of new characters who were properly explore and developed - some I find more interesting than official ones! Farragut, Exeter, Phase II and Continues all seem to be great continuations of the Five Year Mission era and I see no reason why they shouldn't all 'exist'. One little rule I have is that if it has official actors it should be counted as canon, so that brings in Of Gods and Men (I see this as the 7th TOS film), Yorktown: A Time To Heal and the upcoming Renegades

- Video Games: The older ones especially seem to be forgotten almost as they are out of print but these mostly contain official actors back in their parts - the whole TOS returned for one final time to do 25th Anniversary/Judgement Rites; Picard was back in several adventures with friends (there were even a few character crossovers with Martok post-DS9 and Tuvok post-VOY). Online of course has imagined several decades worth of development following Star Trek: Nemesis

Now - a m I saying count everything?! No - some things wildly contradict each other however why restrict yourself? There is so much more to what we saw on screen which is the beauty of the Expanded Universe, to pinch a phrase from the other Star franchise!

The books have their main continuity however with things like the Shatnerverse there have been alternatives. The main range at the minute with Typhon Pact/The Fall etc has taken a different direction to the Star Trek Online Universe.

Comics are a different kettle of fish - IDW publish stuff that contradicts their own publication!!

Yes good storylines should prioritise over continity, but it is fun to see Trek in a wider perspective.

 

[ryan123450]

My personal continuity includes the Prime Universe shows and films (including TAS), most of the Pocket Books Lit-verse (though not all), and a few other books and comics besides. While I like the new films and even follow summaries of what's going on in the Ongoing comics, I wouldn't include them in my list.

It will be fun one day when I get the time to set down and figure out exactly what I consider to be in my personal continuity and what I don't.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Whatever takes my fancy and fits the story I'm watching/reading at the time.

 

[AirCommodore]

For me it is TOS, TAS and the TOS cast movies. If the question were "If you could do Trek over again, what would you keep and what would be changed?", then I would keep parts of TNG to ENT. A few odds and ends in TOS/TAS/Movies would be changed. But for the most part, I prefer the TOS era.

 

[borgboy]

I like for as much as possible to co exist in one continuity. Obviously all the movies and tv shows are "canon". I hate canon debates, as it is usually brought up by people who don't count the books and comics.

Of course, not everything is meant to work together. The Crucible novels aren't compatible with the other novels. The Shatner novels don't seem to be in continuity with the other novels. The current comics seem to not be in continuity with the novel-verse.

I see all continuities as being equal, but since the novelverse is the largest expansion of "canon" I generally view it as the main continuity.

I enjoy fan films, but I'm iffy on how much they count as being official. That doesn't stop them from being good. Of Gods and Men really does feel like it should be part of the official series with Uhura and Chekov there, but Uhura's life would seem to not work with what we see of her in the novel -verse, so different continuities there too.

I vaguely just think of each fan film series as being a separate continuity from the others.

The trick to all those continuities is even if they are separate from each other, they share common stories from the tv series and movies. For example, one version of Spock Prime in the new movies was married to Saavik, while another version married a human woman in the Crucible novels. It mostly makes sense to me anyways.

The history we have is the history we have. I wouldn't change anything, I just wish we had gotten more TOS, more ENT as both were cancelled early. ENT especially went too soon, as the Fourth Season was much better than the earlier seasons. I want more movies and a new Trek tv series.

 

[BillJ]

Everything but "The Cage" and "Threshold" is apocryphal.

 

[Merlanthe]

I count the tv series and movies as canon and everything else as possibilities.

This actually puts me at odds with my best friends boyfriend who counts the tv series, movies and the star trek online game as canon so when debating trek things he will state stuff from the online game as fact when to me its just a possibility. When i speculate on possible theories for stuff that hasnt been explained in the tv series/movies he will say it has already been explained and start spouting stuff from the online game.

Its taken me a while to get it into his head that our ideas of what is canon are different and every now and then i have to remind him.

 

[borgboy]

I forgot about the online game. I gave it a try and after spending hours failing to be able to pilot my ship with any degree of competence, I gave it. It just wasn't for me. So I know next to nothing about the game. I do have the novel based on the game, but I've never gotten around to reading it. I know that the novel-verse isn't in continuity with the game.
Merlanthe, does your friend have any interest in the novels? Have you ever discussed the differences between the novels and the game? I just wonder why someone would accept one version as the true continuation over another version, when both to me seem to equally possible options. I'm guessing this guy doesn't read the books and counts the game because he plays, and likes, the game.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

Stuff that I think is cool happened. Stuff I don't care one way or the other about also happened. Stuff I think is excessively moronic didn't happen.

But also there are parallel universes and alternate timelines to explain away any and all contradictions.

 

[Lucky]

All the series and movies (including TAS). As for other media, I'm tempted to include the Shatnerverse novels since I'm a big fan of his and love the idea of Kirk surviving past Generations.

 

[borgboy]

I did like how New Voyager fan series did a flashforward that connected to the Shatner novels. So New Voyages is in continuity with Shatnerverse. I like Kirk surviving past Generations too. I didn't care for the Shatner novels being kept separate from the novel-verse series, that seemed like they could've stayed in continuity with each other. Now that the Shatner novels are over we won't be getting Kirk in the 24th century anymore

 

[Ro_Laren]

I haven't seen the TAS episodes (except 1), so I don't include that in my canon. I include the deleted Nemesis scenes in my cannon (Wes is back in Starfleet). I'm still up in the air about whether to include JJ's Star Trek movies in my cannon. If they are included, we have to accept that Romulus will be destroyed!!

 

[BigJake]

Everything but "The Cage" and "Threshold" is apocryphal.

I had no idea you were so... formidable.

 

[CRM-114]

I regard the tv shows and movies as canon, even the stuff I haven't seen, which includes most of TNG and almost all of DS9. I do think the "if it's onscreen, it's canon" rule is sometimes applied too stringently by some people. I would point to online debates as to whether information on a screen should count, as it would suggest injokes made by set designers and production staff should be applied literally (making Miss Piggy and most of the actors to play The Doctor related to Clare Raymond from "The Neutral Zone", for example).

As for the novels, they don't interest me much, and the official word is they're not canon, so I leave them out. Same thing for fan films.

 

[SPCTRE]

(In before the inevitable "canon does not mean what you think it means" semantics debate.)

 

[Ithekro]

Continuity so it makes sense to yourself, and hopefully to others. If it doesn't makes sense, either ignore it, or attempt to make it make sense.

Sometimes later canon provides ways to make things make sense without even trying. Like the whole transwarp beaming thing they introduced for Scotty in the 2009 film. When did he do that? Why does Prime Spock know about it and then tell him how to finish it like Scott seems to have done at some point in Spock's life?

Well what other issues are there with Mr. Scott that don't make sense in canon? How about that when he gets out of transporter stasis the first thing he assumes is that Kirk has brought the Enterprise out of mothballs to look for him, except that (later) it is clear that Scott was present on the Enterprise-B when Kirk "died".

The usual answer to this is that Scott's mind was a little messing after being in the transporter for 75 years. But, the 2009 Star Trek and a little TNG episode called "Second Chances" provide another explanation.

After Star Trek VI, Scott retires as he bought a boat. He goes to the Norpen Colony and runs into the Dyson Sphere. Only Franklin and Scott survive. At this point, Mr. Scott attempts to use his transwarp beaming theory to escape. It works, and he and Franklin materialize back on Earth. This transwarp beaming formula and the knowledge of the Dyson Sphere are suppressed by Section 31, but Scott tells Spock about it just to spite Section 31. Scott then goes to the commissioning ceremony for the USS Enterprise-B with Captain Kirk and Chekov. Kirk "dies" and Scott later goes into retirement again, his fate unknown.

However, the Dyson Sphere is huge and effects local space. The transwarp beam gets partly deflected and sends back a copy of both Franklin and Scott to their transport pad. Thinking this was a failure, Scott attempts to preserve their lives in the transporter buffer. This partly works as Mr. Scott is rescued 75 years later by the USS Enterprise-D. Franklin does not make it. Mr. Scott thinks his transwarp beaming failed, but later has a run in with Spock, who tells him different. Scott prefects the method at some point prior to Spock being lost in the Hobus system, informing Spock and the final calculations.


As far as I know, this does not break canon. I don't recall the Enterprise-D crew going into what happened to Mr. Scott, as they seemed surprised to find him there, but accepted it easily since it was the legendary miracle worker Scotty. It keeps both the transwarp beaming theory and the Dyson Sphere off Starfleet's books via Section 31, and allows for both appearances of Mr. Scott to be "correct". One that doesn't know Kirk died, and one that cleanly was there when Kirk died. Also allows for Scott to have told Spock about transwarp beaming so he could tell the alternate Scott about it.

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

My own personal canon (that I work from) includes much of:
- TOS (though exclude any lines about women not being starship captain's, or CO's being uncomfortable with women on the bridge)
- TAS
- TOS Movies (aspects of TFF are to be glossed over)
- TNG
- TNG Movies (aspects of NEM are to be glossed over)
- DS9
- VOY (the Threshold "evolution" was only one possible direction it could take)
- The Early Voyages and Starfleet Academy comics
- Novelverse Andorian sexes

Having not read any other Trek comics I can't comment on them. As for the events of the novelverse, I stopped reading them a while ago so what happens there has no impact on how I view canon--I've included the Andorian sexes and their slow extinction as it is an interesting concept to look at and gives them a fascinating angle.

The 'prime' Universe seen in NuTrek was an alternate of the Prime Universe (as such what happens there has no impact on what I consider 'proper' Trek), so NuTrek it is actually an Alternate Timeline of an Alternate Universe--a universe that includes ENT (seeing as how in every other series its events are never even hinted at).

That's how it works in my mind anyways.

 

[Melakon]

The first show I ever got close to considering what might be canon was The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I accepted events shown on the series as canon, but not stories in the novel tie-ins. This means I do not accept David McDaniel's invention that Thrush is actually a backronym for Technical Hierarchy for the Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity. The series never goes to such extremes. It indicates that Thrush may be a man, may be a woman, or an organization.

In terms of Star Trek, I follow similar rules. I consider all television episodes to be possible canon, though I exclude the animated series for arbitrary reasons. I consider major motion pictures in the franchise possible canon. I do not extend this interpretation to books, comics, fan films, reference sources, fan fiction, actors' autobiographies, or detailed and overly complex interpretations by any random members of the fan community, especially when those interpretations are based on primarily fan publications and/or officially licensed or unlicensed trade publications.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Sometimes later canon provides ways to make things make sense without even trying. Like the whole transwarp beaming thing they introduced for Scotty in the 2009 film. When did he do that? Why does Prime Spock know about it and then tell him how to finish it like Scott seems to have done at some point in Spock's life?

I believe the moviemakers intent was that Scotty worked on transwarp beaming without success until some time after his TNG-era resurrection.

The novel Indistinguishable From Magic....

Spoiler: the novel

Set in 2383, has Scotty presumed dead after the ship he was on exploded. But little do they know he had a last-minute inspiration and teleported away...

 

[Mudd]

I just watch the damn shows and don't worry about it - life's too short.