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

[FederationHistorian]

Was the original question about what's valid/invalid with respect to canon, or what we like/dislike in what was made canon? I was interpreting the OP's question as the latter. Since we are all entitled to our personal likes/dislikes, is it not nitpicking to call out someone's personal likes/dislikes as being nitpicking?

Regarding the above-mentioned point, my meaning was that, if the timeline was split on the day of Kirk's birth, then I might have had his mother in Iowa on the morning of that day, prior to the split. That is, if I were the writer. Which I wasn't. And I accept that.

And that's my response to the question that was asked. What's yours?

My point is that the Narada altered the timeline. Not just significant events, but minor ones as well. its effects would ripple throughout time.

Gary Seven performs his mission in the late 1960s on his own without the presence of Kirk, since Kirk doesn't time travel to the past.

Chronowerx Corporation persist without interruption from Janeway et al. OTHO, maybe there’s no Chronowerx Corporation at all if the 29th century is altered.

Sisko et al. don’t visit 2024 Earth, so no need for Sisko to take the place of Bell and alter his look when he returns (and no coincidental observation of similar looks from Nog). Sisko possibly doesn’t meet Kirk either because of these changes, since Kirk's future has been altered..

Picard et al, as well as the Borg, never travel back to 2063, leaving Cochrane and Lily to perform their flight. There’s also no Ent-E orbiting Earth to draw inspiration from for the NX-01. Who knows if this version of Picard's crew meets Spock, Bones, & Scotty.

At some point, these divergences will affect the ENT crew. No Borg already means “Regeneration” doesn’t happen, and neither does Cochrane’s tale he told at Princeton. And Edison was mentioned to have served in Xindi and Romulans wars. The Xindi crisis isn’t seen as a war in the Prime timeline, so that’s another possible change. Archer seemingly alive in the 2250s at the age of 146 is another change. Archer even being called Admiral instead of President is a change. He might have hated the job of being Federation President and wanted to be referred to as Admiral, but its also possible he lost and never became Federation President. Or never sought the position to begin with.

Robert April never becomes the first captain of the Enterprise, since the Enterprise maiden voyage is a decade later in the Kelvin timeline. April’s a fugitive in the comics instead.

And Enterprise being launched a decade later means no Vina, Uno, Boyce, visit to Talos IV, etc.

Who knows how this has affected the Kelvin versions of the Shenzhou and Discovery.

Eventually we get to Kirk and friends, where Kirk is born in space instead of Iowa, Chekov is 17 instead of 12, Uhura is romantically involved with Spock, the crew meet Romulans 10 years ahead of schedule (and Pike meets them at all), meet Khan 10 years ahead of schedule (and Pike meets an early death), etc.

The Narada changed EVERYTHING.

 

[F. King Daniel]

My point is that the Narada altered the timeline. Not just significant events, but minor ones as well. its effects would ripple throughout time.

Gary Seven performs his mission in the late 1960s on his own without the presence of Kirk, since Kirk doesn't time travel to the past.

Chronowerx Corporation persist without interruption from Janeway et al. OTHO, maybe there’s no Chronowerx Corporation at all if the 29th century is altered.

Sisko et al. don’t visit 2024 Earth, so no need for Sisko to take the place of Bell and alter his look when he returns (and no coincidental observation of similar looks from Nog). Sisko possibly doesn’t meet Kirk either because of these changes, since Kirk's future has been altered..

Picard et al, as well as the Borg, never travel back to 2063, leaving Cochrane and Lily to perform their flight. There’s also no Ent-E orbiting Earth to draw inspiration from for the NX-01. Who knows if this version of Picard's crew meets Spock, Bones, & Scotty.

At some point, these divergences will affect the ENT crew. No Borg already means “Regeneration” doesn’t happen, and neither does Cochrane’s tale he told at Princeton. And Edison was mentioned to have served in Xindi and Romulans wars. The Xindi crisis isn’t seen as a war in the Prime timeline, so that’s another possible change. Archer seemingly alive in the 2250s at the age of 146 is another change. Archer even being called Admiral instead of President is a change. He might have hated the job of being Federation President and wanted to be referred to as Admiral, but its also possible he lost and never became Federation President. Or never sought the position to begin with.

Robert April never becomes the first captain of the Enterprise, since the Enterprise maiden voyage is a decade later in the Kelvin timeline. April’s a fugitive in the comics instead.

And Enterprise being launched a decade later means no Vina, Uno, Boyce, visit to Talos IV, etc.

Who knows how this has affected the Kelvin versions of the Shenzhou and Discovery.

Eventually we get to Kirk and friends, where Kirk is born in space instead of Iowa, Chekov is 17 instead of 12, Uhura is romantically involved with Spock, the crew meet Romulans 10 years ahead of schedule (and Pike meets them at all), meet Khan 10 years ahead of schedule (and Pike meets an early death), etc.

The Narada changed EVERYTHING.

If we can get "relics" appearing in the past with no futures like TCW operatives, it's possible Kirk Prime is in 1986 San Francisco should Kelvin Kirk stop by to visit.

 

[Swedish Borg]

It's unlikely that Daniels still exists in the Kelvin Timeline; So no multiple exchanges with Archer. Archer probably never intervenes in WWII alien Nazis.... Lenin is assassinated, Ghengis Khan time travels to the 24th century. data's head ends up as a decorative element on someone's desk. Picard has hair and is captured by the caretaker, Kirk seduces the borg queen and she separates from the hive and turns it into a democracy.

 

[J. Random Redshirt]

Ghengis Khan time travels to the 24th century.

If Genghis manages to participate in The Savage Curtain, all the better.

My point is that the Narada altered the timeline. Not just significant events, but minor ones as well. its effects would ripple throughout time.

Sounds cool.

Regarding the OP's question, what do you see as the worst canon decision in the history of Trek?

 

[Swedish Borg]

...
Regarding the OP's question, what do you see as the worst canon decision in the history of Trek?

The whole thing about women who can't be Captain, that really damaged the franchise's reputation.

 

[FederationHistorian]

Regarding the OP's question, what do you see as the worst canon decision in the history of Trek?

I already gave my answer earlier in the thread.

 

[J. Random Redshirt]

I already gave my answer earlier in the thread.

Oh, I see it now. Somehow it didn't come up when I did a search.

 

[dupersuper]

Says who?

Not George Takei...

The whole thing about women who can't be Captain, that really damaged the franchise's reputation.

This reading of that line still baffles me.

 

[Oddish]

It's unlikely that Daniels still exists in the Kelvin Timeline; So no multiple exchanges with Archer. Archer probably never intervenes in WWII alien Nazis.... Lenin is assassinated, Ghengis Khan time travels to the 24th century. data's head ends up as a decorative element on someone's desk. Picard has hair and is captured by the caretaker, Kirk seduces the borg queen and she separates from the hive and turns it into a democracy.

Lol!

Sisko is bald and goateed from the beginning. Kira joins a monastery and goes on to become Kai. And Janeway is Picard's exec, and upon arriving at the caretaker array, she jumps ship and uses the array to boot the Enterprise home. She then takes over the Kazon, and becomes the Pirate Queen of the Delta Quadrant.

 

[F. King Daniel]

This reading of that line still baffles me.

Gene himself admitted it was sexist, confirming that reading to be the correct one.

 

[dupersuper]

Gene himself admitted it was sexist, confirming that reading to be the correct one.

Even so, I'll stick with the "you were too obsessed with your career to marry me" take I've had since I first watched it at 4 or 5.

 

[fireproof78]

Gene himself admitted it was sexist, confirming that reading to be the correct one.

Sad but true (cues Metallica). Otherwise Janice would be wanting Kirk to herself not trying to become a captain. Plus the line at end of the episode.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Sad but true (cues Metallica). Otherwise Janice would be wanting Kirk to herself not trying to become a captain. Plus the line at end of the episode.

I wonder why Janice seemed a lot less girly in her own body than she does in Kirk's...

Must be a side effect of the transference called "the scenery-chewing effect"...

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Four simple words:
"The Trouble With Edward."

 

[SithHappens]

imagine this type of thread on a highlander forum, probably hit 28 pages in minutes

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

I just thought of one.

Introduction of characters who smoke and/or vape.

Consider what Roddenberry went through to push his vision of a future where nobody (or at least nobody in Starfleet) was stupid enough to suck on a burning poisonous plant: Tobacco ads were the number one source of revenue for television. With the exception of maybe some of the better children's series, there wasn't a show on television in which none of the protagonists smoked. Not only was the original sponsor of the original, prime-time version of The Flintstones a tobacco company; there are archived Hanna-Barbera-produced commercials in which Fred and Barney hawked cigarettes with as much fervor as they now pitch chewable vitamins and heavily-sweetened cereals. The Surgeon General issued his first report on smoking, the one that led to the first warning label law, the same year "The Cage" went into pre-production, and that warning label law had been in effect for less than two years when "The Man Trap" first aired. There was as much pushback from NBC over Roddenberry's smoke-free ship as there was over his integrated crew.

To give you an idea of the degree of influence the tobacco companies had over the networks, consider this: Debbie Reynolds (yes, Debbie Reynolds as in Singing in the Rain, as in Carrie Fisher's mother), who was an anti-smoking activist, had it written into the contract for The Debbie Reynolds Show that tobacco ads were not to appear with it. The networks violated that clause of the contract, at the behest of the tobacco companies, and Reynolds (who owned the show outright) found that she had no recourse but to cancel the show hereself (which she did).

This wasn't even remotely like Roddenberry going along with network standards on foul language. This was something Roddenberry wanted (and it shows, because the "no smoking" signs in TWOK only appeared in the simulator scenes, and I've heard that he personally ordered them removed before shooting began on scenes taking place on the actual bridge).

And now WTF? Rios smokes cigars? I seem to recall seeing Raffi vaping, too.

 

[STEPhon IT]

TNG compromised with synthohol, I'm sure the showrunners of PICARD could invent a substitute for tobacco and nicotine.

 

[Yanks]

The butchering of Captain Picard in the series "Picard".

Truly sad...

 

[fireproof78]

Addiction and such has been presented in Star Trek before. Smoking and vaping are no different.

 

[Yistaan]

And now WTF? Rios smokes cigars? I seem to recall seeing Raffi vaping, too.

The worst part was that Rios' cigar smoking was portrayed in regards to the direction, setting, and tone as being "cool" and "masculine". That's not the message Trek should be sending to audience members. At least Raffi's smoking was portrayed in a negative light.