Star Trek Canon

For all your discussion of canon policies, evidentiary standards, and other meta-debate issues.

Discussion is to remain cordial at all times.
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Lucky
Jedi Master
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Star Trek Canon

Post by Lucky » Fri Mar 20, 2015 9:30 am

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Memory_Alpha:AOL_chats/Ronald_D._Moore/ron053.txt wrote: <<As a writer, do you ever feel the weapons in Trek are *too* powerful? A hand phaser could probably punch a hole in a boulder -- ducking behind a rock or tree for cover wouldn't help much.>>

I agree. The weapons are way too powerful to present them in any realistic kind of way. Given the real power of a hand phaser, we shouldn't be able to show ANY firefights on camera where the opponents are even in sight of each other, much less around the corner! It's annoying, but just one of those things that we tend to slide by in order to concentrate on telling a dramatic and interesting story.
Paula Block (head of Star Trek licensing at Paramount) wrote: Canon is what's produced for the TV and Movie screens. Books aren't. End of story.
Ronald D. Moore (writer and co-producer) wrote: "You have to remember that things like CD-ROMs and the various "official" manuals put out by Paramount are not done in conjunction with the writing/producing staffs and that the authors are usually simply extrapolating information based on what's actually been seen on screen."

"We do use things like the Encyclopedia, the Chronology, the Technical Manual etc. for reference, but unless it was explicitly mentioned on screen, we won't feel bound by anything stated even in those books."
Publisher: Pocket Books Star Trek Series: Star Trek Title: STAR TREK THE NEXT GENERATION TECHNICAL MANUAL ISBN: 978-0-6717-0427-8 Page: VII wrote: To any would-be Star Trek writers, we'd like to emphasize that this is NOT required reading. If your writing a Star Trek story, you will probably be doing yourself and the audience a disservice if you use more than a very tiny amount of this material. Remember, Star Trek is about people; the technology is merely part of their environment. As Gene points out in his introduction, the real mission of the starship Enterprise is to serve as a vehicle for drama.

An important word of cation: All Starfleet personnel are hereby advised that any previous technical documentation in your possession may be suspect because of an ongoing Starfleet program of disinformation intended to confound and confuse the intelligence assets of potential Threat forces. Such documents should therefore be verified with Federation archives and this Manual for authenticity.
http://web.archive.org/web/20100628174255/http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/help/faqs/faq/676.html wrote: 07.10.2003
How do the Star Trek novels and comic books fit into the Star Trek universe? What is considered Star Trek "canon"?

As a rule of thumb, the events that take place within the live-action episodes and movies are canon, or official Star Trek facts. Story lines, characters, events, stardates, etc. that take place within the fictional novels, video games, the Animated Series, and the various comic lines have traditionally not been considered part of the canon. But canon is not something set in stone; even events in some of the movies have been called into question as to whether they should be considered canon! Ultimately, the fans, the writers and the producers may all differ on what is considered canon and the very idea of what is canon has become more fluid, especially as there isn't a single voice or arbiter to decide. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was accustomed to making statements about canon, but even he was known to change his mind.

In the publishing world, there used to be two exceptions to the novel rule: the Jeri Taylor- penned books "Mosaic" and "Pathways." Many of the events in these two novels feature background details of the main Star Trek: Voyager characters and were to be considered as references by writers on the show. Now that the show is over, some of those events may never be incorporated into a live action format, so the question of whether details from these novels remain canon is open to interpretation.

With regard to the Animated Series, there are a few details from the episode "Yesteryear," written by D.C. Fontana, that reveal biographical background on Spock and planet Vulcan. Details from this episode have been successfully incorporated into the canon of Star Trek (such as in "The Forge") and now that the Animated Series is out on DVD, we hope that even more can make its way in!
http://web.archive.org/web/20031010095813/http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/help/faqs/faq/676.html wrote: 07.10.2003
How do the Star Trek novels and comic books fit into the Star Trek universe?
 
As a rule of thumb, the events that take place within the live action episodes and movies are canon, or official Star Trek facts. Story lines, characters, events, stardates, etc. that take place within the fictional novels, the Animated Adventures, and the various comic lines are not canon.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule: the Jeri Taylor penned novels "Mosaic" and "Pathways." Many of the events in these two novels feature background details of the main Star Trek: Voyager characters. (Note: There are a few details from an episode of the Animated Adventures that have entered into the Star Trek canon. The episode "Yesteryear," written by D.C. Fontana, features some biographical background on Spock.)
So what does this add up to?

Picard
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Re: Star Trek Canon

Post by Picard » Sun Apr 05, 2015 5:17 pm

Basicallly...
1) Dialogue > visuals.
2) Only live action TV movies and series are canon.
3) "Official" manuals and other "official" things are not canon.

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