As long as a small percentage of fans are the only ones who care about "canon" (and they will watch the show anyway) the writers and showrunners will have a great deal of freedom to make changes.
But experience has shown that a lot of the really dedicated fans won't necessarily keep watching the show anyway.
Of course they will. Even the fans who HATE the show will still watch it. This was true for ENT and even the Kelvin films too. Because haters need to watch the show enough times to be familiar with it so they can convincingly argue that it sucks. Really, it's not the existing fans that the franchise has to worry about, because those fans will stay on pretty much no matter what. It's the casual "I'll only watch it if it seems pretty good" viewers that they have to suck in and keep their attention. Fans will be loyal up to a pretty extreme point, and they'll still spend money even if they're not. Casual viewers, though, will just ignore you.
And they do a fantastic job. However, there is a a certain level of production values that CBS wants represented of their brand. As much as I love the TOS aesthetic, I also respect the fact that they want to expand the look to match 2017 shows. They do have to compete. Generally I agree, but we are also dealing in a future with multiple alien races who might not have the same visual acuity as humans or assign meaning to the same colors. Also, not everything humans do is practical. Which is one of the reasons I'm sticking by personal theory that the Discovery was inspired by or commissioned by the Vulcans in some capacity.
I have a very simple rule: It all may be canon but how was it 90% of the time? The way it was 90% of the time is what I consider to be correct. The 10%? I don't throw up my arms and lazily say, "None of it's consistent!" I write it off as the minority that it is. Either they were careless and made an honest mistake, they deliberately ignored something for a particular reason, or they were still trying to figure things out. One of those three categories. As far as women not being allowed to be Captains in "Turnabout Intruder", either it can be taken to mean "Kirk's personal world of being a Starship Captain doesn't admit him to have a woman in his life", or taken as the way it looks. Which I strongly disagree with. We saw Number One in "The Cage" as First Officer? Are you telling me she reached the glass ceiling? Someone will argue that Kirk agreed "It isn't fair" but even if it's canon, it doesn't deserve to be.
Canon is important because, without it, the world that has been built seems shaky and haphazardly put together. That said, small discrepancies can be forgiven when you consider that 50 years' worth of material has been produced. But large changes are harder to forgive. Take VOY for example: one episode features the crew going back in time to the 1990s. But there's no sign of the Eugenics Wars. Is it really unreasonable for the writers to read a brief history of the Star Trek universe so that they don't completely gloss over a plot point featured in like four episodes and two movies? There's a line between minor discrepancy and "we don't really care about contradicting previous material".
Not to be that guy, but when Tuvok and Paris go into Rain Robinson's office at the observatory, there's a model of the Botany Bay sitting on the ledge and a photograph of its launch taped to her computer monitor. Edit: And by computer monitor, I of course mean filing cabinet
Not exactly right, but close. From http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Future's_End_(episode): Despite no explicit allusion to the Eugenics Wars here, Rain Robinson has a toy model of the SS Botany Bay near her window and a photograph – stuck to a filing cabinet in her office – that depicts the same sleeper ship's launch; the Botany Bay is established, in "Space Seed" and Star Trek II, as having been launched very soon after the Eugenics Wars. Robinson also has, on her desk, a Talosian action figure, which was released as part of the Star Trek 30th anniversary line-up from Playmates Toys. The window - http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x08/futuresend1_154.jpg The filing cabinet - http://voy.trekcore.com/gallery/albums/3x08/futuresend1_275.jpg In TrekLit, Rain Robinson is a character in The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh, Volume 2 by Greg Cox. http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Khan_Noonien_Singh,_Volume_2
Yes but there was also an action figure of a Talosian from "The Cage" among her trinkets. #ThatGuy EDIT: Ninja'd by CorporalCaptain
Thanks. I only knew about the model and looked up the "DY-100" article on Mem Alpha, and also saw the photograph. I could have sworn it said computer. It must be late...or is it early.. Edit: It says that it also appeared in another episode of Voyager(Drone) on a computer display, like on Voyager's screen.
During the 90's, Playmates were churning out a ridiculous number of Trek action figures. Here's a list . Who didn't have an "Identity Crisis" transformed alien Geordi figure?
Wow, there's a Picard "Tapestry uniform" action figure. I just don't remember ever seeing Star Trek action figures. There was X-men(those were the most popular) Batman, Ninja Turtles, and GI Joe. And maybe power rangers.
I really wanted it, as well as the Gorn one. But, yeah, the Playmates figures were everywhere, from Payless Drug (now Rite Aid) to K-Mart, and Target. I didn't get nearly the collection of those like my Star Wars one, but I definitely got a variety.
Some of my favourites were 19th century Worf from Generations and Mutated Tom Paris from Threshold. Tom even came with the salamander children.