In my opinion, a long running series of stories, novels, radio episodes, television episodes, etc. that on one hand is not an anthology but has continuing characters and setting but on the other hand does not have a strongly serialized story and plot, should be considered a series of experiences that could possibly happen to the characters and thus which do happen to the characters in some of the countless alternate universes in which the characters and their setting exist.
If many alternate universes do branch off each second - if the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics is correct, for example - then every time a family is formed, or a group of people are hired to work together, or a group of people are assigned to be the crew of a space ship, etc., etc., they will have many different futures in different alternate universes.
And if the creators of a television series are more or less imagined by the viewers to have somehow gained accurate information about events in the future and in an alternate universe where persons, places, and things exist which don't exist in our universe, then the viewers should find it easy to go a little step farther and imagine that the creators have gained knowledge about events in many different alternate universes, and that the creators have selected what they think are good stories from among the events of countless alternate universes.
There is no reason for the viewers of highly episodic television series to imagine that all of the episodes happen one after another in the same alternate universe, especially considering the extreme improbability of all the events in a long running television series happening one after another in one alternate universe.
I doubt that many creators of television shows, especially the creators of non science fiction shows, thought about it in exactly those terms, but the widespread indifference to continuity in US televisions shows before the last few decades indicates that they did tend to think of episodes as sort of competing possible experiences of the protagonists instead of experiences which all happened to the protagonists one after another.
For example, Kenny McCormick was killed in almost every episode of South Park during the first five seasons, but would be back alive in the next episode.
For example, I remember a Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent cartoon where villain Dishonest John angrily told Greenie the Genie he knew where he could go, and Greenie did go, but he took Dishonest John with him to the inferno. And then Greenie told Dishonest John he had used up his last wish. But Dishonest John showed up in many later episode.
And I remember "Pottsylvania Creeper" a story in The Bullwinkle Show (23 September to 30 September 1962), featured the title man-eating plants loose in the USA eating people. And each time a Pottsylvania creeper ate someone it smiled. In the last episode, Boris, Natasha, and Fearless Leader entered a submarine for Pottsylvania but a creeper seed blew into the hatch right before it closed. When the submarine arrived, the hatch opened and a smiling creeper emerged. But Boris and Natasha appeared in many later episodes.
Thus there seemed to be a general idea in early television that the various episodes weren't totally true in other episodes but were merely various possible events that might possibly happen to the protagonists.
So there is a good bit of reason in considering all TNG episodes to be things which happen to the protagonist after they are assembled on the Enterprise D in "Encounter at Farpoint" in different alternate universes. So each and every episode of TNG should happen in a separate alternate universe branching off from that of "Encounter at Farpoint", except for episodes which are clearly sequels to other episodes. The last episode, "All Good Things" was merely one of countless possible events which could have happened, and thus did happen in alternate universes, at that time.
TNG had a number of story arcs spread over several episodes such as the Q arc, the Borg arc, Worf's Klingon arc, etc., etc.
And it is reasonable to consider all DS9 episodes to be things which happen to the protagonists after they are gathered on Deep Space Nine in "Emissary" in different alternate universes. So each and every episode of DS9 should happen in a separate alternate universe branching off from that of "Emissary", except for episodes which are clearly sequels to other episodes. The last episode, "What We Leave Behind" was merely one of countless possible events which could have happened, and thus did happen in alternate universes, at that time.
DS9 was much more serialized that TNG and a much higher percentage of its episodes were part of various story arcs.
And the same things should be true about Voyager and Enterprise, and their episodes should happen in a large number of alternate universes.
If most episodes of the various Star Trek series happen in alternate universes, that can explain a certain category of inconsistencies. For example, the Voyager episode "Flashback" could be considered a sequel to events similar to but not totally identical to those in
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, since Mr. Valtane seems to be killed in "Flashback" but survive in
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
This is my interpretation of the question of Star Trek continuity and canon. Everything in movies and television shows is canon, but most of the events happen in their separate alternate universes and won't be remembered in other alternate universes.
Don't have time to read all of this ATM, so forgive me please if I repeat someone. From my standpoint, canon has always been a discussion, although the terms and goals of the discussion have changed over the decades....
Excuse me, what do you mean by ATM? I don't think that you mean an Automatic Teller Machine, and that is the only thing that I can think of ATM standing for.
