Spoilers Would you consider the things that Matalas wanted to happen as canon?

[fireproof78]

Because death in fiction is utterly meaningless. It isn't real. It just ends storylines.

I mean, yes and no. I still find death to carry significance if the writers use it effectively. My personal favorite episode "Balance of Terror" makes the horror of war and death quite weighty, even though these characters we have no familiarity with, beyond just meeting them. It carries weight because it impacts the characters.

Same with Data, Jadzia and David.

It's all in the writing. It can be used well, or it can be used poorly. But it is hardly meaningless.

 

[Yistaan]

No I know, I'm meaning that even 35 years ago now the status of TOS being not literal was in place

That was purposeful I think because TNG was basically a reboot that introduced inconsistencies that last to this day. If you watch "That Which Survives". The top speed of the NCC-1701 is established in dialogue:

RAHDA: It doesn't make any sense. But somehow I'd say that in a flash we've been knocked one thousand light years away from where we were.

SPOCK: Nine hundred and ninety point seven light years to be exact, Lieutenant.

RAHDA: We're holding warp eight point four, sir. If we can maintain it, our estimated time of arrival is eleven and one half solar hours.

SPOCK: Eleven point three three seven hours, Lieutenant. I wish you would be more precise.

Doing the math, TOS establishes Starfleet's top speed as 87.67 light years per hour. This is all dialogue from TOS itself.

Come TNG, and suddenly the warp speeds are MUCH slower. Voyager claims that it needs roughly 70 years to cross 70,000 light years. By TOS speeds Voyager should've gotten home in slightly over a month!

There's never been an explanation for why Starfleet ships got so much slower. The only explanation is that when the warp scale was being (re)-defined in TNG, they were told right from the top, presumably by Roddenberry, to ignore TOS speeds and make it so that much of the galaxy was unexplored (instead of exploring new galaxies). They didn't realize back in the 1980s with the internet still to come that Trek fans would analyze and reanalyze every line of TOS and spot the change.

 

[Noname Given]

Nope. If it wasn't on the TV/Movie screen, it ain't canon.

 

[Scionz]

I think there is a blurry line between "correcting canon through statements" and "clarifying creative intent through statements". It's a case by case thing.

An example of the former would be Matalas stating plainly that the motivation of the Borg (Queen) and the Changeling faction was outrage (partially at the hypocrisy of it all) of the saintly Federation devastating both of their kind through the use of the biological weapons in the 2370s. Their alliance and joint plan to techno-biologically attack Starfleet was getting back at them.

This is a verbose explanation of what the Queen said in about two sentence, with a lot of anger and rage behind it, when Picard confronted her. This is not creating canon, but explaining how characters were thinking when writing it.

 

[Yistaan]

the saintly Federation devastating both of their kind through the use of the biological weapons in the 2370s.

The hilarious part is we don't even know if the Prime Federation ever got around to inventing the neurolytic pathogen that came from Bad Future 2404 Janeway's time to destroy the Borg. There's no mention of it in 2402 Picard or even in 32nd century Discovery. The Borg might be blaming the Fed for a pathogen they never ending up creating themselves.

 

[Scionz]

The hilarious part is we don't even know if the Prime Federation ever got around to inventing the neurolytic pathogen that came from Bad Future 2404 Janeway's time to destroy the Borg. There's no mention of it in 2402 Picard or even in 32nd century Discovery. The Borg might be blaming the Fed for a pathogen they never ending up creating themselves.

It depends how we interpret Future Janeway's the dialogue in "Endgame". I'm not sure if it is intentionally opaque or it was just wasn't touched on. I think the implication is that much of the technology she brought to 2378 that Voyager took on the entire Borg with was developed by Janeway and the crew of the Voyager during their 16 year journey through the sliver of the Delta Quadrant left, and the Beta Quadrant. What's not clear is how much Voyager developed and how much is just 2404 future tech in general.

She clearly takes credit for developing technologies, but it's not clear if it is all or some of what she brought. My guess (and its just a guess) is that some stuff like the armor and the transphasic torpedoes Voyager invented specifically to fight the Borg on the trip home, but something like the Neurolytic pathogen was *maybe* a concept she had or maybe it was something Starfleet was developing.

The Borg attacked Starfleet twice in a decade - 2366 and 2372. They were planning on doing it again with an assimilation virus (which might be the ancestor / relative of the actualzied 2401 one) in 2375. If Voyager hadn't disabled them in 2378, it's likely the Borg would have kept trying in the 2380s and 2390s through various means. The Borg, for whatever reason, were obsessed with assimilating a the most significant power they had faced besides Species 8472, that was 60,000 light years away from their center of power, and between 2366 and 2372 developed the ability to punch them in the mouth quite hard.

That's something for Legacy to explore: why the obsession against such a distant enemy? But in any event, if they were in tact in the Future Janeway's timeline for longer, maybe Starfleet developed in that neurolytic virus a radical means of attack by 2400 in case they ever adapted to conventional means.

One thing is clear, for whatever reason, actualized Prime 2401 is meaningfully less advanced than Future Janeway's 2404 in some important ways, but I also think more advanced in others.

 

[Galaxy]

Perhaps some one the things he put on Twitter should have been put in the season. You should not have to clarify that the entire fleet in fact means a large portion of the fleet. I mean it was obvious anyways, they would not leave the border undefended, plus ships on the other side of the Federation are not going to go on multi year trips just for Frontier Day.

 

[darrenjl]

I thought the pathogen was what Icheb was carrying it was just that Voyager were able to deliver it directly into the Queen with the future technology.

 

[Yistaan]

I thought the pathogen was what Icheb was carrying it was just that Voyager were able to deliver it directly into the Queen with the future technology.

It's possible that the pathogen is an evolution of Icheb's biology that was made in Bad Future Janeway's timeline from his DNA. As Icheb died far earlier in the prime timeline than he presumably did in the Bad Future, it's possible the Fed never made the pathogen from him in the prime reality.

 

[aeverett]

I'd consider a few of them head canon, but not actual canon. Like I'm really psyched about Naomi Wildman being a Fenris Ranger. Seriously, seeing sweet little Naomi all grown up and kicking butt would make my day.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Outrage? Really? The Borg and the Dominion are not entitled to “outrage”.

The Borg assimilate everyone, and the Dominion (via the Jem’Hadar) enslave everyone. And they have the gall to be outraged at the Federation?

The Federation has the absolute right to defend itself. That’s all they were ever doing. Neither the Borg nor the Dominion have the right to be outraged at this.

Simply put, the Federation are the good guys here. Outrage, if any exists, is THEIR right, and theirs alone.

 

[The Wormhole]

Outrage? Really? The Borg and the Dominion are not entitled to “outrage”.

The Borg assimilate everyone, and the Dominion (via the Jem’Hadar) enslave everyone. And they have the gall to be outraged at the Federation?

The Federation has the absolute right to defend itself. That’s all they were ever doing. Neither the Borg nor the Dominion have the right to be outraged at this.

Simply put, the Federation are the good guys here. Outrage, if any exists, is THEIR right, and theirs alone.

Nobody thinks of themselves as the bad guys. From the Dominion and the Borg's perspectives they are defending themselves and are outraged by things the Federation are doing. And we are only conditioned to view the Federation as the good guys because the show is told from their perspective. If the show were done from the Dominion or the Borg's perspective, we'd be conditioned to view them as the heroes and the Federation as the villains. Good and evil are just points of view, after all.

Okay, maybe with the Borg that would be a bit difficult since their perspective is very alien compared to ours, but the Dominion? Absolutely, I can imagine a show telling the story from their perspective in relatable terms for us.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Nobody thinks of themselves as the bad guys. From the Dominion and the Borg's perspectives they are defending themselves and are outraged by things the Federation are doing. And we are only conditioned to view the Federation as the good guys because the show is told from their perspective. If the show were done from the Dominion or the Borg's perspective, we'd be conditioned to view them as the heroes and the Federation as the villains. Good and evil are just points of view, after all.

Okay, maybe with the Borg that would be a bit difficult since their perspective is very alien compared to ours, but the Dominion? Absolutely, I can imagine a show telling the story from their perspective in relatable terms for us.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Nobody thinks of themselves as the bad guys.

Doesn’t mean they’re not.

Good and evil are just points of view, after all.

I have never believed that, and never will.

 

[Quantum21]

Head canon, sure.

Perhaps some one the things he put on Twitter should have been put in the season. You should not have to clarify that the entire fleet in fact means a large portion of the fleet. I mean it was obvious anyways, they would not leave the border undefended, plus ships on the other side of the Federation are not going to go on multi year trips just for Frontier Day.

I can just see Matalas pitching this: "the whole fleet, yes the whole fleet..", waving his hands around and not understanding the implications of it. Happens a lot in season 3.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Now everyone 25 or under is an XB, maybe the stigma on them will lift a bit.

Either that or those guys kidnapping and gutting XBs from season one are gonna have a field day.

 

[El Maestro]

I think the more passionate parts of the fanbase already have a head canon problem that reduces the quality of discussion (I see it here a lot), so I think that the musings of a creator being treated as canonical can only make this phenomenon worse.

As it is, canon is tricky because every single aspect of the franchise throughout its entire history will change, retcon, or outright disregard canon as they felt they have needed to.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Now everyone 25 or under is an XB, maybe the stigma on them will lift a bit.

Either that or those guys kidnapping and gutting XBs from season one are gonna have a field day.

IIRC, with the final destruction of the cube, all remaining Borg tech simply disappeared from the assimilated crew, as if it was never there. So technically speaking they are not xBs.

And it seems that they (judging from the Titan’s crew) were none the worse for their experience. Even Jack seemed to recover fully.

 

[fireproof78]

Just sip some Earl Grey and you'll be fine.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Also it seems that none of the assimilated personnel even remember what happened. The ones that reached the Titan’s bridge were totally unaware of how they’d got there.