Canon (Star Trek)
Encyclopedia
The Star Trek canon is the set of all canonical
material in the Star Trek
universe. It is usually defined as comprising the television series Star Trek
, Star Trek: The Next Generation
, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
, Star Trek: Voyager
, Star Trek: Enterprise
, and the motion pictures in the franchise. However, the official Star Trek website acknowledges that this definition is not set in stone, but that the notion of what constitutes canon in Star Trek is fluid, open to interpretation and debate.
The following is a glance at the less-obviously canon elements of Star Trek, as well as some of the in-canon contradictions.
, an hour-long show was actually 51 minutes long, excluding commercials
. Modern DVD releases of those episodes are also 51 minutes long. However, , an hour-long show on television is only about 42 minutes long. The canonicity of the missing nine minutes of material in modern airings of TOS episodes has never been addressed. Likewise, when special two-hour-long episodes are aired as two one-hour-long episodes in syndication
, several minutes of material is often cut to make time for the duplication of the opening and closing credits. The canonicity of this cut material has also never been addressed. Finally, the remastered TOS episodes released in 2006 present several visual differences from the episodes originally aired.
Based on the amount of creative control Roddenberry exerted over the first seasons of Star Trek, some people argue that only Roddenberry-approved material should be considered canon. Considering only Roddenberry's material canon would eliminate from canon anything Roddenberry didn't like, as well as everything made after his death, including six movies and three TV series.
However, Roddenberry exerted that control over the first two seasons of The Original Series, only. Also, Roddenberry himself pre-emptively rebuked such an attitude. He had hoped that Star Trek would go on after his death. As Star Trek was constantly improved by each following generation, he expected people to look back upon its humble beginnings as just that, the simple beginnings of something much bigger and better. Roddenberry clearly never intended Star Trek to be limited to his work, but to include all the hopefully superior work of future generations. Therefore, "Roddenberry approved material" only applies in effect to things that would de-canonize Star Trek: the Original Series, and does not prevent future expansions, thereby making the subject of the Original Star Trek clearly canon, however, it still does not answer the questions revolving around Star Trek's season 3:
himself was something of a revisionist when it came to canon. People who worked with Roddenberry on Star Trek: the Next Generation remember that he used to handle contradictions between series canon not on a series-by-series basis, nor an episode-by-episode basis, but point by point. If he changed his mind on something, or if a fact in one episode contradicted what he considered to be a more important fact in another episode, he had no problem declaring that specific point non-canon. (According to his various quotes in The Making of Star Trek, Gene was more concerned with the overall message and tone of Star Trek, than the timeline of events between the series, or the technology)
, in an interview about Star Trek: The Animated Series, commented on Roddenberry's parsimony and how it originally affected "canon":
s. Such is the case, for example, of a scene revealing that the character of Peter Preston was the nephew of Scotty
in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
.
Similar to the issue ofThe Animated Series, Roddenberry is quoted as saying he did not like the films, and "didn't much consider them canon". There exists no definitive list of which films in particular Roddenberry disliked, or what elements in them he did not consider canon, but there is some direct information on what he disliked about certain of the films. Gene Roddenberry
jokingly considered elements of Star Trek V to be "apocryphal at best", and particularly disliked the idea that Sarek had fathered a child (Sybok) with a Vulcan before Amanda. Roddenberry made similar statements about elements of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
. Nevertheless, both films are included in Trek canon
. Ralph Winter said they should have recognized the film's plot was too reminiscent of V'ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture
.
Certain reference books such as The Star Trek Encyclopedia
, Star Trek Chronology, TNG Technical Manual
DS9 Technical Manual, and 1968's The Making of Star Trek (which is the bible to the original TV series) are considered semi-canon. Unlike the novels and novelizations, these reference manuals have never been explicitly named as non-canon, and the fact that they were officially sanctioned by Desilu and Paramount and given to episode writers as guides serves to give them an aura of credibility. Roddenberry himself considered the Technical Manual as part of the "background" of Star Trek. Meanwhile, Michael Okuda
and Rick Sternbach
, two art and technical consultants since Star Trek: The Next Generation and the authors of several of the Technical Manuals, considered their work "pretty official". However, they stop short of naming the books canon, leaving the debate open.
The Making of Star Trek is exclusively canon to Star Trek: the Original Series, and possesses some technical data in a less specific, "for writers" format, and is more focused on the overall presentation of data for the viewer. It was intended to be read by the writers of new episodes of Star Trek, and does not contradict any existing information in the series.
Star Trek writer and co-producer Ronald D. Moore
dismisses the Technical Manual's material as "speculation", and says that the writing staff did not consider it canon. However, Viacom
, the parent company of Paramount, seems to believe differently. In a series of posts to the official Star Trek website's forums, Viacom Senior Director Harry Lang left no doubt that he considers the reference books as canon.
Some writers like to include elements from popular non-canon or semi-canon works into canon episodes. Such is the case of the first names for Hikaru Sulu
and Nyota Uhura, which were first used in the novel "The Entropy Effect
" and the reference book "Star Trek II Biographies", respectively. Several concepts that first appeared in the Animated Series have also been used in other Star Trek productions, such as Kirk's middle name, first used in the episode "Bem" before it was used in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
. The animated episode "Yesteryear
" first introduced The Forge and the city of ShiKahr, which were later included in the Enterprise three-part story that started with "The Forge". However, despite the fact that elements borrowed from the Animated Series are considered canon, the status of the series as a whole remains in a gray, semi-canon area.
Many of the original novels published by Pocket Books
are not considered part of the canon. This was a guideline set early on by Gene Roddenberry, and repeated many times by people who worked with him.
However, even this rule is not without rare exceptions. Two Voyager novels written by Jeri Taylor
(co-creator and then producer of Voyager), Mosaic and Pathways, were written early on in Voyager' s run and detailed the background of the show's main characters. These were meant to be canon, and to be used as references by the show's writers when fleshing out the characters. These two novels are sometimes named as exceptions to the "no book is canon" rule. However, as some of the background information mentioned in those books was never referenced in an episode of Voyager, or was contradicted in episodes written after they were published, their status as canon is still open to debate.
The novelization
s of episodes and movies are not considered canon. This is a tradition that goes back to Gene Roddenberry himself. Roddenberry wrote a novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
, which included many tangents and new material that were not part of the movie, such as revealing that the woman who dies in the transporter accident was Kirk's lover. While this novel filled in many gaps left in the movie, Roddenberry is quoted as saying it should not be considered canon.
The Star Trek comic books and Star Trek magazines are not considered canon.
broadcasts. The transcripts of the text can often be obtained through behind-the-scenes pictures and interviews. This leads to the question of whether material that is in the episodes but cannot be seen clearly should be considered canon. There is no valid answer for all of this extra material. In many cases, this material tends to simply be inside jokes inserted by the production staff. Other miscellaneous information, such as the biographical information seen on a computer display in "In a Mirror, Darkly", has been clearly declared to be semi-canon.
The canonicity of extra features found on home DVD releases, such as deleted scene
s, has never been explicitly addressed, though it is likely non-canon.
, the Star Trek: The Experience
attraction, Star Trek fan productions or Trekdom is considered canon.
was first conceived by James Doohan
for the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and consisted only of a few words. Later, Marc Okrand
proceeded to flesh out the sparse vocabulary into a real language, complete with grammar rules and phonology
, and went so far as to publish The Klingon Dictionary
; the Klingon Language Institute
was created soon thereafter. Okrand's Klingon language was used to write the Klingon dialogues heard in several Star Trek movies and episodes. Despite these facts, however, Ronald D. Moore
stated "Whether or not [Trek writers] use the language as spelled out in Marc's dictionary is up to the individual writer," and that he "find[s] the dictionary cumbersome and usually find[s] it easier to make [the language] up phonetically."
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
material in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe. It is usually defined as comprising the television series Star Trek
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the Star Trek franchise. Roddenberry, Rick Berman, and Michael Piller served as executive producers at different times throughout the production...
, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe...
, Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Trek: Voyager is a science fiction television series set in the Star Trek universe. Set in the 24th century from the year 2371 through 2378, the series follows the adventures of the Starfleet vessel USS Voyager, which becomes stranded in the Delta Quadrant 70,000 light-years from Earth while...
, Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: Enterprise is a science fiction television series. It follows the adventures of humanity's first warp 5 starship, the Enterprise, ten years before the United Federation of Planets shown in previous Star Trek series was formed.Enterprise premiered on September 26, 2001...
, and the motion pictures in the franchise. However, the official Star Trek website acknowledges that this definition is not set in stone, but that the notion of what constitutes canon in Star Trek is fluid, open to interpretation and debate.
The following is a glance at the less-obviously canon elements of Star Trek, as well as some of the in-canon contradictions.
TV series
As a rule, all Star Trek TV series that aired are considered canon, However, this policy does not make clear which release version of the various episodes are the canon versions: there are longer and shorter versions of several episodes. For example, in the 1960s during the original run ofStar TrekStar Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek is an American science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry, produced by Desilu Productions . Star Trek was telecast on NBC from September 8, 1966, through June 3, 1969...
, an hour-long show was actually 51 minutes long, excluding commercials
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
. Modern DVD releases of those episodes are also 51 minutes long. However, , an hour-long show on television is only about 42 minutes long. The canonicity of the missing nine minutes of material in modern airings of TOS episodes has never been addressed. Likewise, when special two-hour-long episodes are aired as two one-hour-long episodes in syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
, several minutes of material is often cut to make time for the duplication of the opening and closing credits. The canonicity of this cut material has also never been addressed. Finally, the remastered TOS episodes released in 2006 present several visual differences from the episodes originally aired.
Star Trek: The Original Series
- Roddenberry-approved material
Based on the amount of creative control Roddenberry exerted over the first seasons of Star Trek, some people argue that only Roddenberry-approved material should be considered canon. Considering only Roddenberry's material canon would eliminate from canon anything Roddenberry didn't like, as well as everything made after his death, including six movies and three TV series.
However, Roddenberry exerted that control over the first two seasons of The Original Series, only. Also, Roddenberry himself pre-emptively rebuked such an attitude. He had hoped that Star Trek would go on after his death. As Star Trek was constantly improved by each following generation, he expected people to look back upon its humble beginnings as just that, the simple beginnings of something much bigger and better. Roddenberry clearly never intended Star Trek to be limited to his work, but to include all the hopefully superior work of future generations. Therefore, "Roddenberry approved material" only applies in effect to things that would de-canonize Star Trek: the Original Series, and does not prevent future expansions, thereby making the subject of the Original Star Trek clearly canon, however, it still does not answer the questions revolving around Star Trek's season 3:
See, people can easily catch us, and say "well, wait a minute, in 'Balance of Terror', they knew that the Romulans had a cloaking device, and then in 'The Enterprise Incident', they don't know anything about cloaking devices, but they're gonna steal this one because it's obviously just been developed, so how the hell do you explain that?" We can't. There are some things we just can't explain, especially when it comes from the third season. So, yes, third season is canon up to the point of contradiction, or where it's just so bad... you know, we kind of cringe when people ask us, "well, what happened in 'Plato's Stepchildren', and 'And the Children Shall Lead', and 'Spock's Brain', and so on — it's like, please, he wasn't even producing it at that point. But, generally, [canon is] the original series, not really the animated, the first movie to a certain extent, the rest of the films in certain aspects but not in all... I know that it's very difficult to understand. It literally is point by point. I sometimes do not know how he's going to answer a question when I go into his office, I really do not always know, and — and I know it better probably than anybody, what it is that Gene likes and doesn't like.— Richard Arnold, 1991
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Gene RoddenberryGene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
himself was something of a revisionist when it came to canon. People who worked with Roddenberry on Star Trek: the Next Generation remember that he used to handle contradictions between series canon not on a series-by-series basis, nor an episode-by-episode basis, but point by point. If he changed his mind on something, or if a fact in one episode contradicted what he considered to be a more important fact in another episode, he had no problem declaring that specific point non-canon. (According to his various quotes in The Making of Star Trek, Gene was more concerned with the overall message and tone of Star Trek, than the timeline of events between the series, or the technology)
Another thing that makes canon a little confusing. Gene R. also had a habit of fully de-canonizing things. He didn't like the way the animated series turned out, so he proclaimed that it was not canon. He also didn't like a lot of the movies. So he didn't much consider them canon either. And – okay, I'm really going to scare you with this one – after he got TNG going, he... well... he sort of decided that some of The Original Series wasn't canon either. I had a discussion with him once, where I cited a couple things that were very clearly canon in The Original Series, and he told me he didn't think that way anymore, and that he now thought of TNG as canon wherever there was conflict between the two. He admitted it was revisionist thinking, but so be it.— Paula Block, 2005
Star Trek: the Animated Series
Additionally, David GerroldDavid Gerrold
Jerrold David Friedman , better known by his pen name David Gerrold, is an American science fiction author who started his career in 1966 while a college student by submitting an unsolicited story outline for the television series Star Trek. He was invited to submit several premises, and the one...
, in an interview about Star Trek: The Animated Series, commented on Roddenberry's parsimony and how it originally affected "canon":
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 DC 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.
Films
As of 2011, all Star Trek films produced are considered canon. However, much like for TV series, this policy fails to note which version of the films is canon. This leaves unknown the canonicity of scenes missing from the theatrical version of a film but included in home releases or director's cutDirector's cut
A director's cut is a specially edited version of a film, and less often TV series, music video, commercials, comic book or video games, that is supposed to represent the director's own approved edit...
s. Such is the case, for example, of a scene revealing that the character of Peter Preston was the nephew of Scotty
Montgomery Scott
Montgomery "Scotty" Scott is a Scottish engineer in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by James Doohan in the original Star Trek series, Scotty also appears in the animated Star Trek series, seven Star Trek movies, the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Relics", and in numerous...
in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the second feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise. The plot features James T...
.
Similar to the issue ofThe Animated Series, Roddenberry is quoted as saying he did not like the films, and "didn't much consider them canon". There exists no definitive list of which films in particular Roddenberry disliked, or what elements in them he did not consider canon, but there is some direct information on what he disliked about certain of the films. Gene Roddenberry
Gene Roddenberry
Eugene Wesley "Gene" Roddenberry was an American television screenwriter, producer and futurist, best known for creating the American science fiction series Star Trek. Born in El Paso, Texas, Roddenberry grew up in Los Angeles, California where his father worked as a police officer...
jokingly considered elements of Star Trek V to be "apocryphal at best", and particularly disliked the idea that Sarek had fathered a child (Sybok) with a Vulcan before Amanda. Roddenberry made similar statements about elements of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. Released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Nicholas Meyer and...
. Nevertheless, both films are included in Trek canon
Canon (fiction)
In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...
. Ralph Winter said they should have recognized the film's plot was too reminiscent of V'ger from Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
.
Publications
- Reference Books
Certain reference books such as The Star Trek Encyclopedia
The Star Trek Encyclopedia
The Star Trek Encyclopedia: A Reference Guide to the Future is an encyclopedia of all the in-universe information from the Star Trek live-action television series and films. The Encyclopedia was written by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda, with Debbie Mirek, and illustrated by Doug Drexler...
, Star Trek Chronology, TNG Technical Manual
Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Technical Manual is a paperback reference guide detailing the inner and other workings of the fictional Federation starship Enterprise-D and other aspects of technology that appeared in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.Authored by Rick Sternbach...
DS9 Technical Manual, and 1968's The Making of Star Trek (which is the bible to the original TV series) are considered semi-canon. Unlike the novels and novelizations, these reference manuals have never been explicitly named as non-canon, and the fact that they were officially sanctioned by Desilu and Paramount and given to episode writers as guides serves to give them an aura of credibility. Roddenberry himself considered the Technical Manual as part of the "background" of Star Trek. Meanwhile, Michael Okuda
Michael Okuda
- Work in Star Trek :In the mid-1980s, he designed the look of animated computer displays for the Enterprise-A bridge in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. This led to a staff position on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987 as a scenic artist, adding detail to set designs and props...
and Rick Sternbach
Rick Sternbach
Richard Michael Sternbach is an illustrator who is best known for his space illustrations and his work on the Star Trek television series.- Early years :...
, two art and technical consultants since Star Trek: The Next Generation and the authors of several of the Technical Manuals, considered their work "pretty official". However, they stop short of naming the books canon, leaving the debate open.
The Making of Star Trek is exclusively canon to Star Trek: the Original Series, and possesses some technical data in a less specific, "for writers" format, and is more focused on the overall presentation of data for the viewer. It was intended to be read by the writers of new episodes of Star Trek, and does not contradict any existing information in the series.
Star Trek writer and co-producer Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
dismisses the Technical Manual's material as "speculation", and says that the writing staff did not consider it canon. However, Viacom
Viacom
Viacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
, the parent company of Paramount, seems to believe differently. In a series of posts to the official Star Trek website's forums, Viacom Senior Director Harry Lang left no doubt that he considers the reference books as canon.
Some writers like to include elements from popular non-canon or semi-canon works into canon episodes. Such is the case of the first names for Hikaru Sulu
Hikaru Sulu
Hikaru Sulu is a character in the Star Trek media franchise. First portrayed by George Takei in the original Star Trek series, Sulu also appears in the animated Star Trek series, the first six Star Trek movies, one episode of Star Trek: Voyager, and in numerous books, comics, and video games...
and Nyota Uhura, which were first used in the novel "The Entropy Effect
The Entropy Effect
The Entropy Effect is a novel by Vonda N. McIntyre set in the fictional Star Trek Universe. It was originally published in 1981 by Pocket Books and is the second in its long running series of Star Trek novels .-Plot summary:The Enterprise is engaged...
" and the reference book "Star Trek II Biographies", respectively. Several concepts that first appeared in the Animated Series have also been used in other Star Trek productions, such as Kirk's middle name, first used in the episode "Bem" before it was used in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country is the sixth feature film in the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the last of the Star Trek films to include the entire main cast of the 1960s Star Trek television series. Released in 1991 by Paramount Pictures, it was directed by Nicholas Meyer and...
. The animated episode "Yesteryear
Yesteryear (TAS episode)
-Plot:Spock returns from a time-traveling research project he has been conducting with the use of the Guardian of Forever. When he emerges from the portal, he discovers that apart from Kirk , no one onboard the Enterprise recognizes him...
" first introduced The Forge and the city of ShiKahr, which were later included in the Enterprise three-part story that started with "The Forge". However, despite the fact that elements borrowed from the Animated Series are considered canon, the status of the series as a whole remains in a gray, semi-canon area.
- Un-televised events (Fictional Novels)
Many of the original novels published by Pocket Books
Pocket Books
Pocket Books is a division of Simon & Schuster that primarily publishes paperback books.- History :Pocket produced the first mass-market, pocket-sized paperback books in America in early 1939 and revolutionized the publishing industry...
are not considered part of the canon. This was a guideline set early on by Gene Roddenberry, and repeated many times by people who worked with him.
And as long as Gene Roddenberry is involved in it, he is the final word on what is Star Trek. So, for us here – Ron Moore, Jeri Taylor, everybody who works on the show – Gene is the authority. And when he says that the books, and the games, and the comics and everything else, are not gospel, but are only additional Star Trek based on his Star Trek but not part of the actual Star Trek universe that he created... they're just, you know, kinda fun to keep you occupied between episodes and between movies, whatever... but he does not want that to be considered to be sources of information for writers, working on this show, he doesn't want it to be considered part of the canon by anybody working on any other projects.— Richard Arnold, 1991
However, even this rule is not without rare exceptions. Two Voyager novels written by Jeri Taylor
Jeri Taylor
Jeri Taylor is a television scriptwriter and producer who is known for her contributions to the Star Trek series. She is an alumna of Indiana University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta.-Star Trek screenwriting:...
(co-creator and then producer of Voyager), Mosaic and Pathways, were written early on in Voyager
- Novelizations of Episodes and Films
The novelization
Novelization
A novelization is a novel that is written based on some other media story form rather than as an original work.Novelizations of films usually add background material not found in the original work to flesh out the story, because novels are generally longer than screenplays...
s of episodes and movies are not considered canon. This is a tradition that goes back to Gene Roddenberry himself. Roddenberry wrote a novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek: The Motion Picture is a 1979 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the first film based on the Star Trek television series. The film is set in the twenty-third century, when a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches the Earth,...
, which included many tangents and new material that were not part of the movie, such as revealing that the woman who dies in the transporter accident was Kirk's lover. While this novel filled in many gaps left in the movie, Roddenberry is quoted as saying it should not be considered canon.
- Other publications
The Star Trek comic books and Star Trek magazines are not considered canon.
Alternate Timelines
All elements from "Alternate Universes" (out of timeline plots) are non-canon in relation to anything but their own canon: they are self-contained unless the events literally "overlap" with "normal-universe" events, and succeed in affecting them.Miscellaneous
One final issue comes from text that appears on props, (such as computer displays) but is not legible during the episode except in modern HDTVHigh-definition television
High-definition television is video that has resolution substantially higher than that of traditional television systems . HDTV has one or two million pixels per frame, roughly five times that of SD...
broadcasts. The transcripts of the text can often be obtained through behind-the-scenes pictures and interviews. This leads to the question of whether material that is in the episodes but cannot be seen clearly should be considered canon. There is no valid answer for all of this extra material. In many cases, this material tends to simply be inside jokes inserted by the production staff. Other miscellaneous information, such as the biographical information seen on a computer display in "In a Mirror, Darkly", has been clearly declared to be semi-canon.
The canonicity of extra features found on home DVD releases, such as deleted scene
Deleted scene
In Entertainment, especially the film and television industry, Deleted scenes are parts of a film removed or censored from or replaced by another scene in the final "cut", or version, of a film...
s, has never been explicitly addressed, though it is likely non-canon.
Other materials
Nothing that takes place in Star Trek gamesStar Trek games
The enduring popularity of the Star Trek science fiction franchise has led to numerous games in many different formats, beginning in 1967 with a board game based on The Original Series and continuing through 2010 with online and DVD games.- Board games :...
, the Star Trek: The Experience
Star Trek: The Experience
Star Trek: The Experience was a themed attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, based on the Star Trek entertainment franchise. It opened in January 1998, closed in September 2008, and was scheduled to reopen in the Neonopolis Mall on May 8, 2009 in time for the premiere of the...
attraction, Star Trek fan productions or Trekdom is considered canon.
Klingon language
The Klingon languageKlingon language
The Klingon language is the constructed language spoken by the fictional Klingons in the Star Trek universe....
was first conceived by James Doohan
James Doohan
James Montgomery "Jimmy" Doohan was a Canadian character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek...
for the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and consisted only of a few words. Later, Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand
Marc Okrand is an American linguist and is most notable as the creator of the Klingon language, which he speaks.-Biography:Okrand worked with Native American languages. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1972...
proceeded to flesh out the sparse vocabulary into a real language, complete with grammar rules and phonology
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
, and went so far as to publish The Klingon Dictionary
The Klingon Dictionary
The Klingon Dictionary is a book by Marc Okrand describing the Klingon language. First published in 1985 and then again with an addendum in 1992, it includes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary...
; the Klingon Language Institute
Klingon Language Institute
The Klingon Language Institute is an independent organization located in Flourtown, Pennsylvania, USA. Its goal is to promote the Klingon language and culture.- General :About 2500 members in over 50 countries all over the world have joined the KLI...
was created soon thereafter. Okrand's Klingon language was used to write the Klingon dialogues heard in several Star Trek movies and episodes. Despite these facts, however, Ronald D. Moore
Ronald D. Moore
Ronald Dowl Moore is an American screenwriter and television producer best known for his work on Star Trek and the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries and television series, for which he won a Peabody Award for creative excellence in 2005 and an Emmy Award in 2008.-Early life and...
stated "Whether or not [Trek writers] use the language as spelled out in Marc's dictionary is up to the individual writer," and that he "find[s] the dictionary cumbersome and usually find[s] it easier to make [the language] up phonetically."
External links
- What is considered Star Trek "canon"? article at StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek website.