Who disregards the continuity after the Kirk era?

[Admiral James Kirk]

I don't accept Enterprise as a prequel to Star Trek. I freely disregard Voyager. I enjoy both TNG and DS9. On a good day I embrace them as sequels to Star Trek. On a bad day I do not. The only things I never disregard are Star Trek Seasons 1-3, TAS, Star Trek Movies 1-6 and Star Trek 09. Sometimes I embrace Generations.

 

[startrekrcks]

Some people hate Trek 09 and that is their decision if they want to like it or not, anyway.

 

[Apophis]

I don't accept Enterprise as a prequel to Star Trek.

The more I read these threads on canon, Enterprise vs. TOS et al the more I start to think that Enterprise was meant to be a prequel to and later shows sequels to the TOS movie era. I mean when people say Enterprise doesn't look like a prequel to TOS, well this is true but TOS the TV show doesn't look like a prequel to TMP-TUC. Enterprise, the Movies, TNG etc all flow nicely into each other from a technology / 'look & feel' perspective. It's only the orignal TV show that looks out of place.

But it's really not fair to blame later shows (including Enterprise) for violating certain elements of TOS, when IMO the violations started with the TOS movies. From a practical standpoint (in-universe) it's hard to imagine how technology and such changed so dramatically in only a few short years between the TV show and TMP. I know the reasons why: the creators felt it needed an update since so much time had passed. But why does TOS itself get a pass here but later shows (esp. Enterprise) get raked over the coals when they didn't begin the process?

In regards to story continuity I agree that there are some issues with TOS vs everything else, but again, I think the intent (beginning with TMP) was to look at the original TV show as a sort of 'low-res' version of the Trek-verse and going forward they would be showing things as they 'really' were. This includes, for good or ill, some revisions of continuity and events.

I mean TOS is my favorite series, and there is much of later Trek that I dislike (esp. the magic technology) but I hate to see them unfairly blamed for things that were well underway before they existed.

To recap, I think that the revisions to and de-emphasizing of TOS began with The Motion Picture, not later shows. They merely continued a process begun before they were created. And, as much as I love TOS, Ent to TMP-TUC to TNG and beyond all look pretty consistent as an evolution of technology, etc - with some small to medium continuity issues depending on how closely one cares to look at those issues.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It's threads like this, where everyone says things like "episode X counts, movie Y doesn't" that makes me glad Paramount includes all TV/film Trek in the offical canon irrespective of quality.

It also reminds me how silly Gene Rodenberry was to try to "decanonize" STV. Wasn't that about the time he decided that "there are no three nacelled dreadnoughts or one-nacelled destroyers in my Trek universe"? I knew he'd lost it when he decided nacelles were somehow important.

Thank god nobody gave him a tick sheet for which episodes and films to keep and which to bin before he died.

 

[BK613]

I have watched all of TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and about the first two seasons of ENT (and some select 3rd and 4th season shows.) And all of the movies. Although it hasn't always been the case, these days, the only general requirement I ever have as a viewer was for each to be relatively consistent within itself (and with that expectation lowered if I learn that production of the show changed hands.) So I guess I've come to view them as closely-paralleled but separate universes.

Having said that, a show or series lost points* with me in the past if it knowingly did something explicitly arrogant (like throwing the hope and promise of TOS-Mirror, Mirror under the bus to set up that farcical substitute) or did something annoying stupid (like VOY-Threshold.)

TOS though is the only series I was ever passionate about. It was the one that I fell in love with as a kid, the only one that really inspired me, and only one that I have owned on VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray.


*(I have come to call these mini shark jumps, after the phrase jump the shark. Each one caused me to care a little less about that show or series.)

 

[plynch]

Nice analysis, Neumann.