How much does canon violation annoy you?

[The Wormhole]

The problem with the bald young Picard, it is an insult to the audience. It's saying "the audience isn't smart enough to figure this out unless we make the young Picard in the photo bald."

The impression I got was they wanted a picture of Tom Hardy as a younger Picard in the movie, to help sell the idea that Shinzon is Picard's clone. Since Hardy was shaving his head to be Shinzon, young Picard had to be bald by necessity. The only real alternative was to have Hardy wear a toupee, but that could have looked silly, so they went with the bald look.

Which there is nothing wrong with. It's easily explained that he had his head shaved for any variety of reasons, he lost a bet, hazing, charity. There are worse continuity errors in Star Trek, hell worse things in Nemesis to get hung up on.

 

[Kelthaz]

I've spent the past minute or two just staring at these words trying to think of some canon violations that might have bothered me, but I can't even remember any canon violations. Just goes to show how little they annoy me.

 

[M'Sharak]

How much does canon violation annoy you?

Very little, in fact. Away from places like this and left to my own devices, it would rarely occur to me to think of canon violation at all (unless perhaps briefly to consider how absurd a term it really is to be applying to television entertainment.)

 

[F. King Daniel]

23rd century: Clunky: Consistent with TOS.

22nd century: Sleek: Too reminiscient of 24th century, IMO.

Differences in visual appearances don't really bother me. One was a trail blazer doing this type of show for the first time in a very rudimentary environment, the other came forty years later and had many more toys at their disposal.

All I ask is that it respect what came before.

As far as I'm concerned, those are the same ship, just seen through the eyes of different real-life eras.

Does a "real" Gorn look like a guy in a rubber suit? No. Did Saavik get plastic surgery between II and III? No. You just suspend your disbelief a little and enjoy. Same goes with the aesthetics (see also: TOS and STXI's versions of the 23rd century).

 

[Forbin]

Ah, so they got a different ship-actor to play the Romulan ship in Enterprise! I get it!

 

[siskokid888]

It doesn't annoy me, in fact for me, part of the fun of the Trek universe is trying to concoct explainations for obvious descrepencies. I try to do it with not only the series and films, but the novels as well. I don't think its something to get upset about - its a fictional universe with different interpetations which, I think, make it interesting, not annoying.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

Stuff that bugs me:

-Romulans having cloaking devices in the 22nd Century when Balance of Terror clearly implies that it's a brand new development.
-People in the Federation knowing about the Borg before the Enterprise encounters them in Q, Who.
-The characterization of Zephram Cochrane not being anything like in Metamorphosis (First Contact was still fun, though).
-Spock suddenly having a never-before mentioned brother in Star Trek V. Who's a lot less of a traditional Vulcan than Spock is (So what was Sarek's problem with Spock, then?).

Stuff that doesn't bug me:

-Delta Vega going from a planet near the Galactic Barrier in Where No Man Has Gone Before to being near Vulcan in ST '09.
-Picard being bald as a cadet.
-Smooth-headed Klingons suddenly having ridges.

 

[Gary7]

Ah, so they got a different ship-actor to play the Romulan ship in Enterprise! I get it!

Exactly. This is why I would have been fine if the revisited Defiant had a little more realism to the corridors, and not obvious replica homage to the original.

But yeah, the gravest violation for me was introducing the Borg in Enterprise. That was just irresponsible. I mean c'mon... they can't think up another type of alien for them to encounter?? The Star Trek franchise had a very clear defined beginning for the Borg already, in The Next Generation. Enterprise stomped all over it.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

The problem with the Borg on ENT wasn't so much the canon violation (you could go either way on whether it was a true violation depending on how you choose to rationalize it), but a bigger problem: it was an unimaginative and lazy way to try to shore up the sinking ratings.

 

[F. King Daniel]

No, you're thinking of the decon chamber.

 

[Kegg]

^
No, Temis is on to something there. Including Next Generation elements in Enterprise was a lot like, well... including Next Generation elements on Voyager (that show had two episodes about Ferengi, and just as implausibly).

And in fairness, it's also true of including Next Generation elements on Deep Space Nine, including, most famously, Worf, but also that ill-advised Q episode and the continuing adventures of Lwaxana Troi.

Anyway, I remember once as a kid I lost sleep over canon violations, wishing there was a way to fix them all.

I'm pretty apathetic to them now. The Star Trek universe mostly fits and hangs together. Okay, so the Trill on The Next Generation aren't anything like the Trill on Deep Space Nine, and I'll be damned if there's any coherent-sounding rationale to deal with Romulan forehead bumps (and their absence), but eh, that's the show.

 

[TheLobes]

The problem with the Borg on ENT wasn't so much the canon violation (you could go either way on whether it was a true violation depending on how you choose to rationalize it), but a bigger problem: it was an unimaginative and lazy way to try to shore up the sinking ratings.

To be fair, you could easily replace 'ENT' with 'VOY'. By the time of Enterprise, only Charlie Sheen could violate the borg any harder than they already had been.

 

[F. King Daniel]

 

[Anwar]

The problem with the Borg on ENT wasn't so much the canon violation (you could go either way on whether it was a true violation depending on how you choose to rationalize it), but a bigger problem: it was an unimaginative and lazy way to try to shore up the sinking ratings.

To be fair, you could easily replace 'ENT' with 'VOY'. By the time of Enterprise, only Charlie Sheen could violate the borg any harder than they already had been.

Eh, it started with TNG. Though, with something as dead-end as the Borg you can't really tell more than one big story with them before they lose their luster.

 

[antiquityscion]

Kazon space took up half of the DQ?

an exaggeration....but it seemed to span a pretty long distance.

Actually, they appeared to occupy a region between 1000 and 1500 light years (The Enterprise D travelled much further than that under normal warp travel), and for much of season two, the only Kazon we saw was Cullah and his crew, who was following Voyager because Seska wanted to have Voyager for herself.



So, no.

Still, they had all the Kazon tribes all over the place. If you travel for 2 seasons at Warp (I guess cruising speed is what? warp 5 or 6?), and you still are bumping into the Kazon, their territory spans pretty far. It may be far flung territory, more a claim than actual control like the Mongol Empire, but still a large territory.

Janeway even tried to form an alliance with the Trabe, because she knew she had a long way to go in space where Kazon (and other dangers) were, until she found out they were just as bad.

In fact, Jeri acknowledged it was odd the Kazon were still cropping up as Voyager was heading home at Warp, and that's why the Kazon were dropped.

http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Kazon

VOY: Kazon space taking up half the delta quadrant​

No it doesn't. Voyager's journey through the Delta Quadrant would have taken 70 years, and they got through the Kazon's territory in two. Two is not half of seventy, not even close.

​

Jeeze I already addressed that! Don't take me so literally, k?

 

[Finn]

Was this back in the days when Voyager was actually at warp?

Alright, I see.

 

[Anwar]

I don't see what the problem is with the Kazon showing up often. I mean, in Farscape no one complained the Peacekeepers kept showing up.

 

[Gary7]

There's nothing wrong with the Kazon being spread around... various offshoots or factions... maybe they even had a stable wormhole or two to help them get around.

 

[Harvey]

I don't see what the problem is with the Kazon showing up often. I mean, in Farscape no one complained the Peacekeepers kept showing up.

The Peacekeepers who already had a presence in the Uncharted Territories and were chasing after Crichton most of the time? Their presence makes sense to me.

 

[Butters]

More by the silly things that become canon and have to be violated. Like the 1992 Eugenics War, the Earth-Romulan war without visual communication, no female captains, that sort of stuff.