It’s all canon. The consequences of dicking around with the time stream so often have taken their toll.
Nothing could have generated the gazillion hours of screentime, both TV and movies, to say nothing of the books and comics, and not have some inconsistencies develop, but overall ST has shown a remarkable degree of consistency in its canon. If you don’t like this new reboot - and I have to admit I have my doubts - just say it takes place in an alternate universe. There are plenty of those already in ST, after all.
You know that kid Q had? He’s in a room somewhere, punching reality.
As I’ve posted before, the way TOS handled the Romulans in Run Silent, Run … er, that is, in “Balance of Terror” made inconsistencies almost inevitable, especially when they started trying to flesh out the earlier history of the Federation. In that episode, it’s asserted that the prior war between the Federation and the Romulans (ends 75 or so years prior to the episode, IIRC) was fought with nuclear weapons (instead of phasers and photon torpedos), without any visual communication between the sides. Needless to say, this concept of earlier Federation capabilities has long since bit the Twinkie.
I will be interested to see how they treat the situation, but if they are not willing to adhere reasonably close to a decent sense of continuity, I’ll be upset/disappointed.
It’s a few decades too late to worry about that, innit? It’s a movie. Relax and enjoy.
Just out of curiosity, when did this remarkable concept of “canon” get started, and who is its arbiter?
Ah, to heck with the history of Federation-Romulan relations – how are they going to reasonably stick with a canon that had the Eugenics Wars ending ten years before our now?
I see according to the timeline, this year we’re sending a successful spaceprobe to Saturn, and in less than ten years “sleeper ships” will be obsolete.
The whole ST canon is borked and adhering to it would just make it subject to ridicule by modern audiences. Plus, most of the ST canon is crap, anyway. If the new ST movie invalidates all of that – more power to 'em, Scotty!
All the fans who’ll be crying bitter tears over it will at least be able to dry those tears on their authentic Starfleet uniforms with the correct braid to indicate their service and rank. Gold braid can soak up a lot of bitter tears, I bet.
Worse yet, you will remember The Final Frontier more vividly than ever.
There was a time in my life when I cared about the Star Trek canon, and worried whether my favorite parts from the books were going to ever be widely accepted. It bothered me that the racial characteristics of the Klingons and the Romulans completely changed places several times during the series. Etc.
Then I grew up.
I got this when it came out in 1980: Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology, by Goldstein & Sternbach. Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology | Memory Alpha | Fandom
It pathed out the near future, but became obsolete (and non-canon).
I got used to Paramount violating canon long ago.
What the hell are you talking about. I’ve seen every Star Trek Film and there is no such film.
That movie sucked. Sure, we had Sharon Stone offering to get tied up, but the plot made no sense!
Well it may be too late now for Star Trek (mainly because of the multiple authors), but any fiction is more satisfying if it has consistency.
I’ve read many Rex Stout novels featuring Nero Wolfe for example and it helps me get into the world when I meet familiar characters.
I don’t like science fiction where random discoveries are introduced because the author didn’t plan the plot.
I don’t like anachronisms in films or TV.
Let’s have some standards!
It’s an urban legend. People keep dredging it up.
You may want to see this news story about fan outrage at the new direction the franchise is taking.
Other people have addressed this, but there’s another problem (at least for me); I like the canon that’s been before. This doesn’t mean my DVDs will spontaneously combust, and I can still enjoy what I have before, but it does mean that there’s a chance there won’t be any more new stuff set in the situation I do like.
In other words; if you like the TOS episodes, this doesn’t invalidate the ones already existing, but it may well mean that the chance there will be new episodes is decreased. Not a huge problem from those, but kind of a big one for the newer series and books.
Yeah. What does a slut need with a starship?
So what pieces of TOS are being violated (can’t get to the Onion at work)?
Is the big deal that Spock apparently never served under Christopher Pike? Will Klingons already look like Worf? Will they already have a space shuttle *before *the transporter breaks down that first time? What?
To spread the love?
I’ve seen the movie and was going to post about it in this thread, but it’s so spoileriffic I think a new thread would be better. So I’ll just go off and make one.
She’s spreadin’ somethin’!
:: rimshot ::
Thanks, folks. I’ll be here all week.