Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="John Crichton" data-source="post: 873594" data-attributes="member: 4779">As usual with Trek threads, Mark has now forced me to respond...  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />Continuity.It has been toyed with.  It has been manipulated.  In some cases it is ignored and in other it is stretched beyond reason.  Kinda feels like another piece of entertainment, ya know?  Comic books.  Ever read one that has been around for around 30 years?  Sometimes the stories don't jive, right?There have been 25 (and growing) seasons of Trek, consisting of at least 20 episodes per season splashed over 5 different shows plus 10 feature films.  That's over 500 separate episodes.  Now, most comic fans will agree that any individual comic is probably more like a third or half of one hour of a TV show (on average).  Let's use one half for the sake of arguement.  If you add all that up and you assume one issue of this fictional comic comes out per month we would be over 80 years in the making at this point (not even counting the feature films).Multiple writers, different visions, different series and the like have all contributed to the somewhat scattered continuity of Trek.  But considering all that there is of it they haven't done such a bad job.  Most comics around for that long (say 30+ years) have so many different arcs/spinoffs or versions that it's almost impossible to distinguish what the "real" storyline is anymore.I have in front of me the "Star Trek Chronology" by the Okuda's.  It is current to "First Contact" & season 2 of Voyager (1996).  These people aren't just fans, they work on the shows, the films and are considered the source for the "unofficial" Trek Chronology/Continuity (notice the capital letters? <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":p" title="Stick out tongue    :p"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":p" />).  What they have put together in the book takes a few liberties, as one would expect, but overall is very well done and accurate.  Clocking in at around 300 pages, they don't even really touch on the storylines of the episodes themselves so much as important events in the timeline.  It starts with Chapter 1.0 The Distant Past - 15 billion years ago and takes us to 2371 and then as far as the 123rd Century.  It also takes into account (outside of the timeline) alternate timelines in another chapter which is an interesting read.My point is that there is a respectable amount of attention to detail in the Trek Chronology.  Now I know that people will (and have been) complaining more about the inconsistancies in Enterprise and even later eps of Voyager.  But I guarantee you it's not as bad as you may think.  There is SO much in the Trek universe that has been done by so many different folks that I'm surprised that we can even have a timeline this clean.My advice:  Enjoy the stories they are telling.  If they seem to tread a bit on your idea of what is Trek canon, wait for the story to end before trying to scrutinize every little detail.  There are certain things that happen in Trek, like time travel, that will play havoc with the main timeline.  Now with a show set in the past, there is just more chance for error.  Now, this book is by no means official but it does make sense.  Going by what it says here (and from startrek.com) the Romulan Wars begin 5 years after the first mission of Enterprise.  The book does note that the date is conjecture to TOS ep "Balance of Terror."  EDIT:  The Wars end in 2160 and the Federation is formed the year after.  So we are seeing a fairly critical point in the history of Earth/Starfleet/The Federation.  The only point of contention with the current plans for Enterprise would be that we should at the very least hear something about the Romulan Wars before the series (assumed) 7 year run concludes.  According to this book, the Wars would happen (if one season = one year) around the very end of season 4 or even early on in season 6. END EDITI could rant on and on about this.  But I'll spare all of you.  Basically, the chapter about the 22nd Century is pretty spartan (barely 5 pages).  There is alot of history that can be thrown in there.  And as for using things such as the Borg in Enterprise (which by the way I am on the fence about, but I will hold judgement until viewing the episode) I have little problem with that.  Enterprise's ratings (Trek in general) have been plummeting.  If it takes an old foe to spark a little interest in what is gearing up to be a very entertaining season finale (in a few eps) then so be it.  The Enterprise folks have done nothing so far to shatter what has been previously established in Trek canon.  They have made many stretches but can you really blame them?All in all, I am looking forward to the coming course correction.</blockquote>

Verification