Star Trek canon
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The Star Trek canon consists of the television series , ', ', ', ', and the ten motion pictures based upon the series.
Canon
The canonicity of some works – both those usually considered canon (the live series and movies, as above) and non-canon (all other licensed materials) – has been a source of some discussion. The status of the various novels, comic books, ' was decided by Gene Roddenberry as being non-canon at around the time ' (TNG) was released. Before this point there was no official policy either way, and many reference books and other works had been presumed to be canonical. Roddenberry also said he considered elements of the films ' (ST5:TFF) and ' (ST6:TUC) to be apocryphal, although these films remain full canon.Paramount Pictures, owners of the Star Trek franchise, has maintained the definitions of canon since Roddenberry's death in 1991. This means that, while the writers of subsequent Star Trek TV and film productions were not forbidden from referring to concepts introduced in a non-canon source, they are also not obliged to consider any of them when developing storylines. This has led to many occasions in which official "canon" stories contradict "non-canon" stories, particularly those from the novels and comic books.
Further complicating the issue is exactly which version of a live action work is precisely canon. The Director's Cut DVD of ' (ST2:TWOK) is a good example of this: this special edition and the TV version include scenes cut from the theatrical release which add significant background information, such as details about the family and backstory of Montgomery Scott. No official statement has been made on the issue, but the inclusion of said scenes during the regular course of any official version of source material means they are generally de facto canon. However, this does not apply to extra non-canon scenes that do not appear during the usual course of any official release; for example, various character scenes that were cut from ' but later included on their DVDs.
Semi-canon
Official works licensed by Paramount Pictures but not included in canon are considered semi-canon – a grey area – by some: these include reference works like the popular Star Trek Chronology and technical manuals about Star Trek 'technology'. Such works are generally written by major contributors for on-screen materials (the live series and movies) and contain canonical elements. On-screen canon evidence supersedes information in reference works whenever there is a contradiction.Non-canon
According to the editors at Pocket Books, current rights holders for publishing Star Trek fiction books, no novels or other printed stories are considered canon by Paramount. These non-canon works also include the novels Pathways and Mosaic, both by the series producer Jeri Taylor. This viewpoint is considered controversial by many fans of Star Trek fiction, some of whom consider the literary works to be superior to many examples of the televised and filmed Star Trek. Confusing the issue further, the [StarTrek.com FAQ] currently lists those two novels as being canon. This confuses the issue, since it raises the issue of who exactly at Paramount Pictures defines the canon: the production staff of the Star Trek movies and television programs, or executives higher up in the company, and what happens if a minor point of canon conflicts between the two.Various official computer games based on Star Trek have been released – often by Paramount's sister firm Simon and Schuster – but these, too, are discontinuous from the canon.
No episode is considered canon; however, elements from the animated series have been introduced into canon by live-action episode writers, an example being the "Kaswahn" ritual mentioned in the episode "Yesteryear" which remained officially non-canonical until it was mentioned in a 2002 episode of called "The Catwalk." The non-canon nature of TAS remains an area of controversy among fans as the series introduced several key pieces of backstory for the Trek universe, including details of Spock's childhood, and the identification of Robert April as the first captain of the Enterprise. Neither of these elements have as yet been officially introduced into canon.
There is similar ambiguity regarding licensed Star Trek trading cards and the related collectible card games.
Fanon
Star Trek fanon encompasses anything else produced by fans or their opinions and not sanctioned by Paramount, including the plethora of Star Trek websites except [official websites]. Some Star Trek fans do not accept Star Trek: Enterprise as canon: given its shorter run compared with the other later series due to its low ratings and its great unpopularity among fans, and the fact it violated previously established canon in numerous instances. Others believe it takes place in an alternate universe that follows a different timeline than that established in (TOS).Canonicity of other materials
Unofficially decanonized material
While official policy of Paramount Pictures is that all live action Star Trek is fully canonical, interviews and commentaries with writers and producers have revealed that there was an unofficial but widespread policy in the Star Trek production offices that certain parts of Star Trek were to be ignored outright and treated as if they never existed. These elements were parts of Star Trek that the producers (and largely fans) considered to be in conflict with existing canon, and not worth acknowledging. Particularly, the events of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and the (VOY) episode "Threshold" received this treatment.Despite over 560 hours of canonical Star Trek produced after ST5:TFF, not a single reference to any of its events has ever been made in canonical on-screen Star Trek since then. In fact, some later works outright contradict or ignore these works, such as the episode "Sarek" of TNG, which mentions that Sarek's first wife was from Earth (contradicting the "long lost" secret Vulcan princess he supposedly married before Amanda Grayson according to ST5:TFF). Despite the seemingly monumental engineering achievements in "Threshold" (being able to achieve infinite/transwarp speed, even if the process is injurious to organic life), they are never mentioned again in VOY or any other canonical source. Futhermore the episode "All Good Things..." has several scenes set in the future, one in which warp 13 is attained, not only reaching, but shattering the 'Warp 10 Barrier' with no infinite speed or ill effects on people (although it is important to note that "All Good Things..." was made several years before "Threshold"). Another possible explanation is that different time periods use different scales for warp factor, as the original series uses a different scale than that of the following series. Therefore, it is possible that in the timeline shown in "All Good Things...," the scale for warp was revised, hence making it possible to have warp 13.
Roddenberry canon and personal canon
Roddenberry canon is a term used by fans to refer to Star Trek subject matter that Gene Roddenberry – creator of TOS and TNG – approved of and is considered canonical, instead of what Paramount Pictures considers canonical. This means disregarding parts of ST5:TFF and ST6:TUC (see Canon), and the animated series. Some fans also use this rationale to discount anything produced after Roddenberry's death, or anything after the original series or some other arbitrary point where they believe that Star Trek diverged from the wishes of Roddenberry.The term "personal canon" has been used to describe such selective rejection of aspects of the Star Trek franchise by fans, in what is often called Krypto-revisionism.
Star Fleet Universe
The Star Fleet Universe is a separate, officially licensed, and consistent but schismatic canon of Star Trek that first split in 1979 with the production of the Star Fleet Battles wargame set in the Star Trek setting, and later the Star Fleet Command computer game and Prime Directive Roleplaying game. It is a separate canon that because of limitations in its license, it can only use the original series, the animated series, and the Franz Joseph reference works to base its setting from, and has expanded to create an entirely separate and far more warlike setting.FASA
In 1982, around the time of the release of ST2:TWOK, FASA was licensed to produce a Star Trek roleplaying game. With a dearth of official references, FASA created large amounts of background material on the Star Trek universe. For the next five years, they would become the de facto standard canon among fans, with various fan produced manuals, as well as official novels, based on the similar setting. These included an explanation for why Klingons looked different between the original series and the movies, and the names of starship classes, such as the ships now known as Miranda class starships being called "Avenger class starships". This canon was not contradicted in official materials of the time: ' (ST3:TSFS) and ', and other officially licensed books of the time like Mr. Scott's Guide to the Enterprise, were consistent with and based on the FASA materials.However, in 1987, TNG began to significantly contradict many assumptions of FASA about the direction of Star Trek. After FASA produced their Star Trek: The Next Generation Officer's Manual after the first season of TNG, which tried to reconcile and retcon on-screen events into the FASA canon, Paramount Pictures revoked FASA's license to publish Star Trek materials, saying that their works were too militaristic for Star Trek. Shortly after the license was revoked, new licensed manuals and source materials were published that quickly contradicted virtually everything created by FASA and all the assumptions about Star Trek canon that had been established over the last several years, in what was interpreted by some as a continuity reboot since so much canon had been revoked and replaced.
Franz Joseph materials
In 1973, Franz Joseph, a naval architect who was interested in Star Trek, was licensed by Roddenberry (who at the time controlled Star Trek licensing personally though his company Lincoln Enterprises) to produce official reference works about Star Trek. He produced the Star Trek Blueprints (ISBN 0-345-25821-5), a comprehensive deck-by-deck set of blueprints that provided in exacting detail every aspect of the starship Enterprise. Following both Roddenberry's strong approval of the work and their large success to the fan community, in 1975 he followed by producing The Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual (ISBN 0-345-34074-4), which gave not only general details about the Enterprise, but included new starship designs.Information from the book was used in the production of the first three feature films. The opening to included a scene where the names and registry numbers of ships mentioned in the Technical Manual were read in the background, while ship schematics copied directly from the Technical Manual were used as displays on the bridge in both ST2:TWOK and ST3:TSFS (including a close up in the latter). These uses by the production staff of Star Trek on screen cemented their image as official parts of Star Trek canon at the time.
For many years, these reference works formed the backbone for treatments of the Star Trek setting. Their general assumptions about Starfleet and the galaxy as a whole were the basis of the Star Fleet Universe and FASA's version of Star Trek, as well as most novels about Star Trek. This book was one of the materials that was stripped of its canonical status at around the same time as FASA's version of Star Trek and its ideas about Star Trek were ignored from that point on.
Klingon language
Also in the Star Trek universe, issues of what is and is not canon also are rife in the various Klingon-speaking communities.The Klingon Language Institute (KLI) takes the policy that Klingon is only canon if sanctioned by its creator, Marc Okrand; this essentially limits canon to what appears in the books The Klingon Dictionary, Klingon for the Galactic Traveller, the tapes Power Klingon and Conversational Klingon, the various movies up to and including ST6:TUC (Klingon in the later movies tended to be done without Okrand's involvement) and various articles in the KLI's journal, HolQeD; however, various interviews and conversations with Okrand have also been considered canon. Whether the Klingon in the novel Sarek is canon is debated, although the author, Ann C. Crispin, states in the introduction to that book that the Klingon in that book was okayed by Okrand.
Other groups have used Okrand's work and expanded upon it – for instance, Glen Proechel's Interstellar Language School – or include various other Trek novels, novellas or movies in Klingon language canon.
See also
External links
- ["What is Canon?"] at Ex Astris Scientia
- ["The Star Trek Canon"] at ST-v-SW.Net
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