Discrepancies

[Salone31]

Hey guys,new lad here, don't know if these have even answered if they have feel free to delete the thread.
On numerous occasions the writers of the show have said any discrepancies with Canon will be explained away in the same episode or in the following couple. A few things that I've seen take me away from the prime universe and haven't been explained. (I am enjoying the series, however hard to fit it into established canon and like others don't understand why it couldn't be set after TNG era.)

Holographic coms and not viewscreen

Warp capable shuttlecraft

Enterprise Delta on discovery

Entire redesign of klingon ships (the Kingons them self I can just about live with)

To me, it seems like there is absolutely no reason to set it in the time they have, especially if they wanted to play around with new tech (spore drive anyone).

Those are my two cents anyway, again, I'm new, treat me gentle and bloody live long and prosper.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's a reboot, as much a prequel to TOS as Gotham is to Batman (1966). Enjoy it as such, or torture yourself trying to explain everything away.

Or just pretend Q sneezed really hard, or something.

 

[Crazyewok]

One think I cant seem to forgive is the redesign of the Klingons.

There appearance from the TMP onwards and there ships are Iconic!

There was nothing wrong with them. Why fix what wasn't broken? Ships like the D7 and Bird of prey are timeless like the millennium falcon in star wars.

What needed fixing was Klingon culture but that could be done without destroying them visually.

 

[CorporalClegg]

None of these things require an explanation.

The holograms are a stylistic choice - one I don't necessarily agree with for dramatic reasons - but they're obviously there because, with the technology we have now, the viewscreens aren't very futuristic.

There's no reason to think smallcraft can't be warp capable.

The delta stopped being about the Enterprise 40 years ago. It's the [legal] trademark of the franchise. Its inclusion is kind of mandatory.

Saying one element of the Klingon redesign is okay but they other isn't seems kind of cherry-picky to me.

And the reason why mushroom mobiles don't exist in the "future" (and why the show was specifically set when it was) will mostly likely end up as one of the main conceits of the series - especially in allusion to something of the real world.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

The showrunners said it would be the prime timeline that we are seeing but I'm not so sure anymore that it is literally set in the past of TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY as we know them. My guess is that the showrunners have used the term 'prime timeline' to differentiate Discovery from the abrams movies. However in the discovery prime timeline, everything that we've seen before will happen, it will just look different. Kirk will still go on his 5 year mission in 2265, he's just going to be doing it in a 2017 version of a constitution class ship. I think the term 'everything old is new again' is how I'm looking at this. Does this make any sense?

 

[F. King Daniel]

The showrunners said it would be the prime timeline that we are seeing but I'm not so sure anymore that it is literally set in the past of TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY as we know them. My guess is that the showrunners have used the term 'prime timeline' to differentiate Discovery from the abrams movies. However in the discovery prime timeline, everything that we've seen before will happen, it will just look different. Kirk will still go on his 5 year mission in 2265, he's just going to be doing it in a 2017 version of a constitution class ship. I think the term 'everything old is new again' is how I'm looking at this. Does this make any sense?

Yes, but how does Voyager make any sense in a world where the have holograms anywhere on the ship 120 years before? Or how does it or DS9 work in world with a working spore drive that can jump anyone anywhere in the galaxy? Plug in any member of the crew and with one jump Voyager's home, or the Niners are in the Gamma Quadrant without needing the wormhole. And we've seen over and over on Discovery that it works.

 

[Mudd]

"It looks kewl" is the only explanation you'll get.

 

[Ithekro]

Be funny if someone managed to retcon in that Terok Nor and Empok Nor were the Cardassian Spore Drive Stations, but for whatever reason it failed on them, Empok Nor badly, and Terok Nor was refitted as an ore processing station over the last planet it jumped to (Bajor). They spent the next decade stripping out the drives before the Bajorians starting to really resist.

Empok Nor still has the drive, but no spores. Dominon long range transporters are a refined version of the system using much less of everything, but with an unknown (to the Federation) range limit. Dominion science only manages to get it to work on the individual level, as full on starships have issues with it one would assume.

 

[Agony_Boothb]

Yes, but how does Voyager make any sense in a world where the have holograms anywhere on the ship 120 years before? Or how does it or DS9 work in world with a working spore drive that can jump anyone anywhere in the galaxy? Plug in any member of the crew and with one jump Voyager's home, or the Niners are in the Gamma Quadrant without needing the wormhole. And we've seen over and over on Discovery that it works.

Well we've only seen holograms used for communication and nothing akin to a holodeck, personally i hope they don't go anywhere near the holodeck. As good as Jason Isaacs would look in a pair of tights, i don't want to see anyone getting trapped in a stupid robin hood program. As for Voyager, i guess if they ever did a reboot, the doctor would probably be able to go everywhere? I dunno, I'll worry about it if they ever decide to do a voyager reboot. As for the spore drive, yeah it works for now. I don't think using a human as a supercomputer to navigate the ship is going to work long term and they can't use the tardigrades. I guess they could create a super computer 120 years in the future but maybe something else will go wrong preventing it's use.

My way of making sense of the changes is just my way. I don't expect anyone else to prescribe to it. I honestly don't mind if this is the prime timeline or the sort-of-prime timeline, or some new timeline that follows the old one very closely but not exactly. I'm just going to go with the flow.

 

[Charles Phipps]

The short version is that it's a higher budget work and they don't want to stick to the "canon" of appearances because it's ridiculous to do so when the original Enterprise doors opened with a rope.

But in the old days Trekkies used to SPECULATE on these discrepancies and have FUN reconciling them rather than just get mad about them like:

Holographic coms and not viewscreen

The more utilitarian Starfleet comes as a result of the ships needing to be easier to repair and less fragile after a horrifying war with the Klingons. As a result, they go to switches and piping which makes the ships much much easier to work as well as less bells and whistles but sturdier by far.

Warp capable shuttlecraft

Starfleet stopped making them because they realized it was an unnecessary luxury and encouraged people to take longer trips when they should stick closer to larger and better protected vessels.

Enterprise Delta on discovery

A hypothetical ship design which was eventually picked up by actual fans of the ship....or it's just an Easter egg.

Entire redesign of klingon ships (the Kingons them self I can just about live with)

The D7 is actually a depiction of its type rather than its model. D-1 for example could mean "Starfighter", D-4 could mean Frigate, and D7 could mean Dreadnought.



To me, it seems like there is absolutely no reason to set it in the time they have, especially if they wanted to play around with new tech (spore drive anyone).

Alternatively, this is the future of ENTERPRISE which is slightly different from The Original Series due to the events of First Contact and The Temporal Cold War. In this reality, the Earth lost 7 million people to the Xindi Attack and thus pressed its starship program much-much further and faster than in Kirk's time.

 

[Salone31]

Some great views and personal opinions on why it does/doesn't fit. It seems like we all have our bug bears and how we choose to acknowledge/ignore them.
I'm happy star trek is back and even though I have my qualms,I'm sure I can live with them. If not, I'll head to the mirror universe and become an evil forum troll!

 

[Charles Phipps]

Please show up in the Nitpickers thread. It's a great place for discussing thee things.

 

[Tuskin38]

Yes, but how does Voyager make any sense in a world where the have holograms anywhere on the ship 120 years before? Or how does it or DS9 work in world with a working spore drive that can jump anyone anywhere in the galaxy? Plug in any member of the crew and with one jump Voyager's home, or the Niners are in the Gamma Quadrant without needing the wormhole. And we've seen over and over on Discovery that it works.

The holograms in discovery are not as advanced as the ones in later series, they flicker, they're transparent.

And obviously the spore drive is going to be abandoned, the show runs have all but said it.

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Hey guys,new lad here, don't know if these have even answered if they have feel free to delete the thread.
On numerous occasions the writers of the show have said any discrepancies with Canon will be explained away in the same episode or in the following couple. A few things that I've seen take me away from the prime universe and haven't been explained. (I am enjoying the series, however hard to fit it into established canon and like others don't understand why it couldn't be set after TNG era.)

Holographic coms and not viewscreen

Warp capable shuttlecraft

Enterprise Delta on discovery

Entire redesign of klingon ships (the Kingons them self I can just about live with)

To me, it seems like there is absolutely no reason to set it in the time they have, especially if they wanted to play around with new tech (spore drive anyone).

Those are my two cents anyway, again, I'm new, treat me gentle and bloody live long and prosper.

It’s a complete and utter reboot/revamp. That’s all the explanation you’ll get/need.

 

[Tuskin38]

Enterprise Delta on discovery

That was always meant to be the symbol for Starships in Starfleet, but the production department on TOS screwed up once or twice.

The Spore drive will gone for some reason or another by the time it ends.
The witers/showrunners have said things will line up, story wise, for TOS to happen.

 

[James T Kirk]

welcome to star trek

 

[Kor]

The delta symbol is for all of Starfleet. The merchant marine crew in "Charlie X" had a different symbol on their shirt... because they weren't Starfleet! But somebody in the costuming department thought that meant that every ship was supposed to have a different emblem. So a couple ships did get them. Then Roddenberry and co. put the kibosh on that.

The holograms are only projections of light, not solid to the touch like holodeck holograms.

Many shuttlecraft have had warp capability already. Otherwise "The Menagerie" makes no sense.

Kor

 

[The Librarian]

Part of the recurring problem here is that people assume that because we've never seen something before, it couldn't have been done, or that common fanon is something set in stone from the show itself. We know from TOS that they have touch- and gesture-sensitive controls, for example, even if they mostly use buttons. Warp capable shuttles is something consistently demonstrated in TOS as well, no matter what the technical manuals claim. Touchscreens exist now, as do transparent displays. There's no reason for them not to be used in the shows, especially since we know that they're used before and after the TOS period. The displays we see are exactly what all the consoles from the movies on are supposed to be like but it was never practical to do. It's no different than the change from fixed pictures inside monitors (like around the TOS bridge) to simple CRTs to full computer graphics and even interactive displays.

"It looks kewl" is the only explanation you'll get.

Just because you reject "because 23rd century technology should be at least as advanced as 21st century" as an explanation doesn't mean that it hasn't been given as one many times over.

 

[Campe]

One think I cant seem to forgive is the redesign of the Klingons.

The Klingons have gone through numerous revisions over the years. It’s time to let this go.

 

[Prax]

Why does Burnham have to say "computer, mirror" when she can just walk over to the sink?