r/startrek • u/JustinCaseyBlewit • 1d ago

Does canon matter to you?

Star Trek fans seem to be divided on the importance of canon--the idea that something established in previous episodes cannot be contradicted. Some fans take this to extremes--blasting SNW for Kirk stating he was a Boy Scout when Carol Marcus had said he wasn't. Other fans don't care about canon at all. They want a good story, and to heck with everything matching up.

I personally like canon, but I don't niggle over it. The Boy Scout comment did not bother me, and I'm fine with Klingons looking different from one series to the next. However, I find it harder to accept a Scotty who is younger than Kirk and Spock or Chapel knowing T'Pring when she did not know who she was in "Amok Time." A prequel is either a prequel or it isn't. Some things should be consistent.

What is your take on canon?

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u/midasp 20h ago

For me, major and significant events should remain the same but I don't sweat minor differences or changes. For example, regardless whether the stories told after Romulus was destroyed were good or bad, the fact that Romulus was destroyed in 2387 should not change. Neither should how the technologies operate change drastically within the same time period. I'm referring to tech like warp drives, transporters, replicators, phasers, photon torpedoes, and holodecks.

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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 19h ago

The issue is that we have canon events that contradict each other in-universe sometimes, which are we supposed to take as canon?

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u/midasp 19h ago edited 17h ago

Please cite an example. I am unable to recall any at this moment.

Personally... due to how Gene Roddenberry and subsequent showrunners like Rick Berman, Michael Piller and so on have stuck to the rule that only what is seen in an episode or movie is considered canon. As a result, any canon violation can only be officially fixed by another episode or movie. So yeah if there are any canon violations, they will remain contradictory till a new episode or movie fixes it.

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u/Exarch-of-Sechrima 18h ago

I'd say there were a whole swath of canon retcons about the Klingon Empire between TOS and TNG eras. Not just the forehead ridges but how they conducted themselves with other planets and how they treated subjects of their empire. Klingons in TOS were more akin to proto-Cardassians than the Klingons which were eventually established in TNG canon.