Continuity is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The priority should be the needs of the narrative, the conceptual and emotional impact of the story, not just the shallow question of whether things "fit." Valtane dying is narratively important to "Flashback." It's the crux of the whole story. It's too important to disregard. Valtane is hardly the first continuity change in canon, and as a rule, the later version outweighs the earlier version. Data not using contractions superseded Data using contractions. The Cardassian war superseded the peacetime status of the first two TNG seasons. DS9-style Trill superseded "The Host"-style Trill. And so on. Creation entails revision. As with software, the updates replace the old versions. And obviously canon outweighs tie-ins. That's not even a question.
There was another novel I recall that depicts Chekov leaving the ship to start his tactical training (in preparation for his role as security/weapons officer in TMP) while Arex arrives to take his place. As an aside, that was one thing I realized that was consistent between TMP and TWOK, that of Chekov taking his position at the weapons station on the bridge after his little, um, brain parasite incident. There weren't many things in TWOK, outside the obvious set design, that were carried forward from TMP into TWOK.
And sometimes you guys come in and somehow tie it all back together Sometimes all an inconsistency needs is a creative mind to come in and explain that it really wasn't inconsistent at all.
Memory Alpha says: "When Kirk attempts to once again prevent the Talin from destroying themselves, a nuclear missile impossibly targets and strikes the Enterprise, seemingly indicating that Kirk's actions have revealed the presence of the Enterprise. The ship is nearly destroyed, and Talin IV is swept by firestorms..." "Prime Directive" - and its position in the timeline by the Pocket Books Timeliners between TOS and TAS - was waaaay before the "Crucible" trilogy. Why I recall the bridge module being badly damaged is because that sequence (coincidentally) resembled one of my own fanfic stories from 1980. I was involved in discussions with some of the timeliners when they were making their decisions. Yes, the module is badly damaged in "Crucible", but the events of "Crucible" were deliberately outside the regular novel timeline. It was also badly damaged in "Black Fire".
Yeah, that goes without saying. I usually find those things fit with the story (though occasionally I notice an author will reconcile something "on the side", probably just for the fun of it I guess, but not in any distracting way). Is that where I'm thinking of Chekov heading for tactical training and Arex coming on board to replace him?
Well, yes and no. Chekov deciding to take tactical training is a plot thread in The Face of the Unknown, but it's The Latter Fire by James Swallow that shows him leaving and Arex coming aboard. I originally wrote the epilogue of TFotU with Chekov already departed at the starbase and Arex being promoted from the Enterprise night shift, but I read TLF early enough that I was able to revise the ending of TFotU to lead directly into it, with a mention that Chekov would be leaving soon and Arex would be joining the crew to take his place.
For me, TAS works much better with the order of events (and new stardates) as shown in the "Star Trek Log" adaptations, ignoring the stardates used in the actual Filmation series. They are all placed after TOS - and the novel "Prime Directive" - as in the Timeliners' Timeline.
I'm curious... would it be feasible to place some episodes of season one (other than WNMHGB) in late 2265? Say up until "Charlie X" at least, given the Thanksgiving reference? Or would that screw with Vanguard and other references too much? If "Dagger of the Mind" would be January or February of 2266, that would track with the "last year's Christmas Party" references there. It seems at least some of the Timeliners want to ditch the Thanksgiving date for "Charlie X," but it's one of the few relatively concrete dates given in TOS, my gut instinct is to hold onto it. The "March 23" from Vanguard for "Errand of Mercy" is another touchstone I tend to go by, but without shifting some previous episodes into 2266 rather than the "Okuda"/"official" dates, early 2267 is just waaaaaay too overcrowded, even without adding in novels and comics.
According to its Historian's Note Reap the Whirlwind ends before "The Corbomite Manevuer". Since Reap the Whirlwind ends in (IIRC) January of February that places all the early season 1 episodes in 2266. There's also a stardate assigned to Open Secrets by a later novel that's lower than the TOS season 1 ones (excluding "Where No Man Has Gone Before", of course"), for those that like stardates. Me, personally, I'm currently reshuffling the five year mission with a new day count based approach (using Timeliner info I concluded that the stories I have in my personal timeline amount to a surprisingly low 5.5-ish years!), so using early 5YM space is critical. I elected to ignore the Historian's Note and the stardate and go with the Thanksgiving thing. Also "Errand of Mercy" was March 23, not May 23.
I was about to say probably the best Timeliner to talk to about this would be @Jinn, but I’m too late! For myself I would love to accept that Thanksgiving date, but since I accept as many Litverse chronoclues as possible, those Vanguard points Jinn mentions pretty conclusively exclude it being in November. So 23rd century Federation Thanksgiving is in January apparently. The current Timeliners document does have Charlie-X in November 2265, however, ignoring the Vanguard reference and pulling Charlie X out of production order in this one special case.
The whole "It's Thanksgiving on Earth" thing in "Charlie X" is ridiculous, a symptom of Trek's excessive America-centrism. Thanksgiving is only celebrated in a handful of countries -- the United States, Canada, Grenada, Liberia, a few others -- on different dates in October and November. There is no single global Thanksgiving date. One presumes that Kirk, as an Iowan, was celebrating the American holiday, but perhaps we can surmise that in the future, there's some different, more global day of thanksgiving, perhaps commemorating the end of WWIII or something. If so, it could be on any date whatsoever.
Of course, however until something like that is actually shown to exist in Trek, whether in canon or licensed material, I'm going with what the writers were referencing. I prefer to base my dating assumptions around the few firmer examples we have than to arbitrarily make one up and base everything on that. YMMV, obviously.
Interesting. Would that be placing it before "The Corbomite Maneuver" and ignoring Uhura's uniform color change, or placing it as the first episode in which she wears red?