How would you retcon Strange New Worlds?

I never said that it did. I said that placing Pike's accident before WNMHGB would place it years too early in the ST Timeline.

I just double checked my Star Trek Timeline, and I have "WNMHGB" taking place in May of 2265 and "The Menagerie" taking place in March of 2267, so just shy of two years. So I'd probably put Pike's accident late in 2266, say sometime after October.

Assuming that the accident happened months before anyone started talking about it seems needlessly convoluted to me and doesn't add much of anything to the story IMO.

 

According to the wiki Pikes accident happens same year as BOT.


And interesting factoid brought up by the episode:

• The episode establishes that Pike's accident takes place seven years after the events of SNW Season 1 (or, at least, this episode). This is a shorter timeframe than the 10 years Pike suggests in SNW: "Strange New World". In the alternate timeline, Spock says the accident took place "six months ago". Therefore, in the "prime" timeline, Pike's accident, Kirk being assigned command of the Enterprise, and the events of TOS: "Balance of Terror" take place within a period of six months. If the episodes of Season 1 of TOS take place in chronological order, then the events of TOS: "The Menagerie, Part I" and TOS: "The Menagerie, Part II", which aired before Balance of Terror, also take place during that same six-month period. However, they were produced after it, and the production order is usually intended to reflect the chronological order they were intended to be viewed. In this case, The Managerie two-parts would be set after the mentioned six-months period.