cannon? - Star Trek (1973) Discussion

[–] Jimmy-128 9 years ago

As of 2006, yes. Roddenberry declared it not-canon in 1988, but when the cartoon was released on DVD in 2006, CBS Studios (which currently owns the rights) reversed the decision and made the show part of the official canon. It shows up on Star Trek's official website, for example.

Which is a pity, in my anything-but-humble opinion, because there are many things in the cartoon which simply don't match up with the regular series--Spock's ability to send telepathic messages over long distances (as he does in "The Lorelei Signal"), for example.

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[–] joubqa 8 years ago

The canon issue with TAS is a bit complicated...
I like to think the stuff that's referenced elsewhere in ST is canon but some of the stuff that doesn't fit is not...

for example lorelei signal happened mostly as it is shown in TAS, but the part about spocks long range telepathy part didn't happen like that because that ability is not established elsewhere as possible. Though, there were instances in TOS (The Gamesters of Triskelion and A Taste of Armageddon) where Spock mind melted through a wall with the guard when in captivity, so even that's debatable...

The mind melt with the cloud in One of Our Planets is Missing is a stretch, though even that could be explained with the clouds telepathic abilities allowing such a long distance telepathic link.

for more info see the part Questionable canon here: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series

and also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek:_The_Animated_Series#Canon_issues

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[–] Jetfire1959 8 years ago

for example lorelei signal happened mostly as it is shown in TAS, but the part about spocks long range telepathy part didn't happen like that because that ability is not established elsewhere as possible.

Please read my reply above this one.

In our screwed up world the light at the end of the tunnel is likely an oncoming train

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[–] Jetfire1959 8 years ago

Spock's ability to send telepathic messages over long distances (as he does in "The Lorelei Signal"), for example.

Initially, I had a problem with this as well. However a friend pointed out something to me. You'll notice that only Nurse Chapel "heard" him. This is because they had shared consciousness in the past. His was in her body briefly in the old ep "Return To Tommorrow".

In our screwed up world the light at the end of the tunnel is likely an oncoming train

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[–] BrianRaess_Is_FinallyGone 8 years ago

There are episodes in TOS that don't match up to other episodes of TOS, so it's really no different. You just have to take all the discontinuity as a grain of salt.

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[–] princessFirefly 9 years ago

Thank you. I didnt like what Spock did there either. I thought it was abit much.

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[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] !!!deleted!!! (19664510) 8 years ago

"Cannon?" No, since that's a weapon.
"Cannoon?" No, since that's not even a word.
"Canon?" Yes. The 2009 film even contains events from the animated series.

Despite what some people here are saying, Roddenberry never said the cartoons weren't canon. His a-hole of an assistant, Richard Arnold (who was later fired for ineptitude), did.

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[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] !!!deleted!!! (19664510) 8 years ago

In an interview, Arnold claimed that he was fired shortly after Rodenberry's death because he and Gene had insisted on quality of the merchandising, rather than quantity. However, the flipside of that is that it is generally agreed amongst fans that the quality of the pocket book novels had a majorn downswing due to Arnold's cripplingly strict writer's guidelines and his saying what could and could not be written about in them.

Arnold was covering his butt when he said that. He was fired because he was making very bad decisions in Roddenberry's name, and as a result, the folks at Pocket Books, DC Comics and FASA were all complaining to Paramount about how poorly he was mismanaging the licenses. Authors were jumping ship because they refused to work with Arnold, stories were becoming weaker since Arnold kept making ridiculous changes to them, and so forth. He was the worst thing to happen to Trek in years, and the situation much improved following his termination.

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[–] IMDBozakforyou 8 years ago

Eyezombie... But is it canyon !???

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[–] rmontro 8 years ago

I liked the answer they gave to this question on the Mission Log podcast. They said it didn't really matter. I tend to agree. Other than the above discussion bout Spock's telepathic abilities, there's nothing here that radically changes anything.

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[–] seregear2 7 years ago

What about the life support belts? They chose not to ever use them in any future Trek series, supposedly because it was cheaper to stick the actors back in a space suit, than it was to make them glow. So that technology just disappears from the "Universe"...

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[–] spudrudder 7 years ago

Which is ironic, considering it seems it was cheaper to draw and animate the normal character models as simply glowing for the animated series. Ah, the differences between mediums are funny.

That said, you could always head canon that McCoy or someone else discovered the continued usage of the belts was unhealthy and advocated for them to be decommissioned. *shrug*

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