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Black people are stealing Star Trek from its rightful owners, white people. Sure.If I was being really paranoid, I'd say "yeah of course they replaced the first Captain of the Enterprise with a black man...just as they replaced the first ever Doctor Who with a black girl." As has been said MANY times already, this isn't about equality or representation, it's about claiming what others had built. It's about saying "this is ours now" because they can't or don't want to create their own characters.
Part of the pain of the Discovery redesigns for me is that it came attached to the whole Axanar fiasco, which was set around the same time period and made the much more creatively-interesting choice of treating it as a period piece.
They’ve said numerous times that the Animated show isn’t canon even if they borrow stuff like “Yesteryear” from it occasionally.
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At the end of the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, all licenses for Star Trek spin-off fiction were renegotiated, and the animated series was essentially "decanonized" by Gene Roddenberry's office. Writers of the novels, comics and role-playing games were prohibited from using concepts from the animated series in their works.[12] Among the facts established within the animated series that were called into question by the "official canon" issue was its identification of Robert April as the first captain of the USS Enterprise in the episode "The Counter-Clock Incident".
The Star Trek Chronology by production staffers Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda does not include the animated series, but does include certain events from "Yesteryear" and acknowledges Robert April as first captain of the Enterprise.[13] The timeline in Voyages of the Imagination dates the events of the series to 2269–2270, assuming the events of the show represented the final part of Kirk's five-year mission, and using revised Alan Dean Foster stardates. In the updated October 1999 edition of their book: The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future, Michael and Denise Okuda state that:
David Gerrold, who contributed two stories to TAS, stated in an interview his views on the canon issue:In a related vein, this work (i.e. book) adheres to Paramount studio policy that regards the animated Star Trek series as not being part of the "official" Star Trek universe, even though we count ourselves among that series' fans. Of course, the final decision as to the "authenticity" of the animated episodes, as with all elements of the show, must clearly be the choice of each individual reader.'[14]
Writer-producer D. C. Fontana discussed the TAS Canon issue in 2007:Arguments about "canon" are silly. I always felt that Star Trek Animated was part of Star Trek because Gene Roddenberry accepted the paycheck for it and put his name on the credits. And D. C. Fontana—and all the other writers involved—busted their butts to make it the best Star Trek they could. But this whole business of "canon" really originated with Gene's errand boy. Gene liked giving people titles instead of raises, so the errand boy got named "archivist" and apparently it went to his head. Gene handed him the responsibility of answering all fan questions, silly or otherwise, and he apparently let that go to his head.[15]
I suppose "canon" means what Gene Roddenberry decided it was. Remember, we were making it up as we went along on the original series (and on the animated one, too). We had a research company to keep us on the straight and narrow as to science, projected science based on known science, science fiction references (we didn’t want to step on anyone's exclusive ideas in movies, other TV shows, or printed work). They also helped prevent contradictions and common reference errors. So the so-called canon evolved in its own way and its own time. For whatever reason, Gene Roddenberry apparently didn’t take the animated series seriously (no pun intended), although we worked very hard to do original STAR TREK stories and concepts at all times in the animated series.[16]
But if Chakotay wasn't descended from the Rubber Tree People, those vision quests could be really problematic.I've sent certain segments into fits by pointing out there's not a single character in the franchise that must be *Insert Race Here*.
Don't forget Lower Decks!They do still have a one-week trial free with any new account. If you're curious to see whether Discovery, Picard, and SNW are worth paying for, you could pick a convenient week and binge some stuff. Personally (as you can already tell from this thread) I'd start with Disco S3 and whatever SNW is available by then.
I need to watch that some time. It was a leading fan answer to the question of what Discovery was originally supposed to be about.That's funny, I just happened to rewatch that last night.
I'm not a fan film guy, Axanar only came to my attention because of the lawsuit, but I really liked it. I liked Soval bridging the gap between the Enterprise and TOS eras. I liked the backstory given to Garth (one of the half-dozen war heroes whose escapades were "required reading at the Academy"). I even liked the documentary style (and tried not to think about the likelihood of the Klingon general who lost the war agreeing to sit down for an interview).
And I much prefer the simple explanation for the war (this is what the Klingons do, they conquer things) over the weird fear that the Federation was going to destroy their identity or whatever from Discovery.
Maybe I'll feel differently in five years, but I hope that decision is locked in a box and the key cast into Mount Doom. SNW is giving me hope that Trek can be good again and I don't want to see it dipping into the Picard S1 playbook.Do wonder if they will be able to resist having Pike find a way out.
I don't want them to change the continuity, but I'd like to see some play with the question of whether it is really immutable for him. I would like to see at least one situation that looks like it could be the one and he finds another way. But in the end, what I want to see is that there is a moment that he knows this is it and he hasn't dodged it after all and he could totally dodge it now. But he doesn't dodge it because it is what needs to be done. There are people that need saving and it is his duty and he can't ask someone else to do his duty for him.Maybe I'll feel differently in five years, but I hope that decision is locked in a box and the key cast into Mount Doom. SNW is giving me hope that Trek can be good again and I don't want to see it dipping into the Picard S1 playbook.