What's the worst canon decision in the history of Trek?

[Jayson1]

Wouldn't have a show with a universe people are fascinated by without canon. When you don't set a show in the modern day you basically got to create a whole new world with its rules and restrictions that help define the lives they live.The more you know about Vulcan the more it helps explain characters like Spock, Tuvok and T'pol. Otherwise they are just weird aliens that you can't find. things to relate to in them. Jason

 

[Therin of Andor]

So that line from Insurrection, "A century ago, warp drive transformed the Romulans from "petty thugs" into an Empire" is just dumb all the way around. It's also a mischaracterization of the Romulans. They're a lot of things, but "petty thugs" isn't one of them.

But that is one character's opinion, not necessarily historical fact.

The last few year's of world politics have seen many personal opinions passed off as facts.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The only reason they didn't use the ridges on DS9 is because Terry Farrell either was allergic to the makeup, or didn't look good in it. Or both.

Someone in the production team said (paraphrasing), "We just went on a long search for a very attractive woman and you're going to hide her under that?"

Like if they started showing us Bajorans with no nose appliance and told us they come from Downtown Bajor.

Ro Laren must have moved address before her final appearance in TNG.

 

[Oddish]

Endgame. Creating happy endings for so many characters, then obliterating it. And then never telling us what happens to anyone on Voyager except Janeway and Seven.

 

[at Quark's]

Endgame. Cresting happy endings for so many characters, then obliterating it. And then ne er telling us what happens to anyone on Voyager except Janeway and Seven.

Then again, we don't learn what really happens to the characters after All Good Things either, since that future was erased too. (The only difference being that we got some movies, and now Picard, but that's not the episode's doing).

For the worst canon decision, I'll not go with a major inconsistency, but with a detail on a pivotal chacter: making Kirk suffer such a lame death in Generations. His sendoff in TUC was perfect, and it should have stayed that way, even though I can understand they wanted him in the movie, to 'pass the torch'.

 

[Richard S. Ta]

As for Burnham being Spock's sister and thus being also connected to his parents... well, I must say it gave me some kind of warm ST feelings to have Sarek as a character in the show and Spock in the second season was great in my opinion. But in the end it mostly was only for the sake of establishing those connections to the classic ST, they didn't make that much out of Burnham being Spock's sister, that's true. In other terms, the character Burnham would also have worked quite well without that connection.

I'm a person who by and large enjoys Discovery as well. I loved Ethan Peck as Spock, Anson Mount as Pike and so on in the second season and we do have Discovery to thank for the upcoming Strange New Worlds.

I think of the new Treks, by no fault of it's own, Discovery is the ugly duckling of the new shows. Picard, Lower Decks and (presumably, seeing as they've talked about moving towards traditional one-shot episodes) Strange New Worlds all seem to have a cohesive vision and an idea of the stories they want to tell. Discovery has some great episodes, a strong cast and beautiful production values but now the dust has settled on the third season I do look back on it all and... well, what is Discovery exactly? You could summarise the basic gist of any other Trek show in a few sentences, but not Discovery.

I think when it's over and done with and given about a decade to settle it'll be an interesting show to watch. It's certainly not as bland as Voyager for example, but at least Voyager for all it's inconsistencies has the central premise of getting back home. Discovery is like a David Foster Wallace stream of consciousness story, ghost written as he rambled in his sleep, only not as cohesive and that is really saying something.

Worst canon decision? Having a canon.

Amen to that. I think it's one of the worst words in the dictionary.

 

[Damian]

But that is one character's opinion, not necessarily historical fact.

The last few year's of world politics have seen many personal opinions passed off as facts.

I have to be honest, that line in Insurrection never really bothered me too much. Maybe Dougherty's timing was off, maybe it was 2 or 3 centuries earlier.

We do learn later in Enterprise (well, earlier in the time line) that the Romulans did indeed have warp drive in the 22nd century. And it makes sense....as someone else noted it'd be hard for them to engage in an interstellar war with Starfleet without it.

As much as I harp on continuity, I actually don't sweat the small stuff. It's micro- vs macro- for me. Spore drive bothers me because that's a major storyline of the entire show for the first 2 seasons.

The line in Insurrection is a single throwaway line basically basically thrown in as a comparison to the Son'a. It's not even really a plot point. I consider that a micro-continuity issue.

I don't recall if the Romulan War novels addressed that line at all. Sometimes the novels find ways to explain some seeming inconsistencies in a way that makes sense but I don't recall if that came up at all there.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Bashir being genetically engineered.

 

[Nerys Myk]

It didn't feel earned

This phrase needs to be retired.

 

[Oddish]

Bashir being genetically engineered.

Not disagreeing with you, but how would you have developed his character instead?

 

[fireproof78]

Wouldn't have a show with a universe people are fascinated by without canon. When you don't set a show in the modern day you basically got to create a whole new world with its rules and restrictions that help define the lives they live.The more you know about Vulcan the more it helps explain characters like Spock, Tuvok and T'pol. Otherwise they are just weird aliens that you can't find. things to relate to in them. Jason

Really? Because I was fascinated by TOS pretty much all my childhood with little, if any, interest in TNG. I enjoyed books and art and such, and if one contradicted the other then so what? Spock was always, pardon the pun, fascinating to me even without knowing all about Vulcans. Also a character I strongly identified with.

Ok, this probably came across as way more argumentative than I meant it to be but I think striving for perfection in canon is actually causing less investment in the universe. Largely because it feels like fans are becoming less imaginative, less willing to explain away little inconsistencies in favor of insisting that all be brought in perfect line with canon, and expecting the production team to provide all the answers. In that way canon has become a limitation rather than an asset.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Overusing the Borg until they turned into a joke, I mean Janeway et al. getting assimilated ON PURPOSE, who would have thought of that the first time we saw the borg and they cut a slice of the Enterprise as a matter of course?

 

[1001001]

But that is one character's opinion, not necessarily historical fact.

This is a huge point, which I don't think gets enough attention.

Just because a character states something, that doesn't mean it is "factually true" (in universe). It may just be their perspective, their bias, their experience, etc.

Just like in real life.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Not disagreeing with you, but how would you have developed his character instead?

The writers were doing a fine job before Doctor Bashir, I Presume.

They could have easily still linked him to Section 31 without that extra reason to ge worried.

 

[Damian]

The writers were doing a fine job before Doctor Bashir, I Presume.

They could have easily still linked him to Section 31 without that extra reason to ge worried.

Well, to be fair I don't think they made Bashir genetically engineered so they could create the Section 31 storyline. That probably just came up later, after it was already established he was engineered.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

Well, to be fair I don't think they made Bashir genetically engineered so they could create the Section 31 storyline. That probably just came up later, after it was already established he was engineered.

Yeah, they made him engineered because they thought all characters needed gimmicks to be interesting and didn't care how much it contradicted his established character.

 

[Oddish]

Something else stupid about it was his Mirror Universe counterpart. It's a safe bet that Alt Julian was not able to get any genetic enhancement, but he did not seem to have any mental problems. Completely uninteresting, yes. Mentally deficient, no.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Something else stupid about it was his Mirror Universe counterpart. It's a safe bet that Alt Julian was not able to get any genetic enhancement, but he did not seem to have any mental problems. Completely uninteresting, yes. Mentally deficient, no.

Considering the nature of the MU, it might have been the other way around there.

With Bashir being born with exceptional intelligence, who got a genetic downgrade

 

[The Wormhole]

Something else stupid about it was his Mirror Universe counterpart. It's a safe bet that Alt Julian was not able to get any genetic enhancement, but he did not seem to have any mental problems. Completely uninteresting, yes. Mentally deficient, no.

The way I always looked at it was that Bashir was never a dumbass, he just wasn't as intelligent as his parents wished so they went ahead and got his intellect genetically enhanced. Without the enhancements he probably would have turned out just fine. Maybe not coming in second in his class in medical school, but not anything to be ashamed of either.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Considering the nature of the MU, it might have been the other way around there.

With Bashir being born with exceptional intelligence, who got a genetic downgrade

In that case, maybe in the MU you get a promotion when you foul up your work.