Comment on 35 Years Ago, Star Trek Retroactively Created New Canon, And No One Noticed
xyguy@startrek.website 15 hours ago
I guess I’m not sure what the title is getting at.
The article is about the first episode featuring the Cardassians and how they mention the Cardassian war that took place directly before the series currently in progress.
Honestly the point of the article seems to be that changing canon is secondary to telling a really compelling sci-fi allegory story.
A great way to not have to worry a lot about canon is to move far into the future or to go farther into the past.
I don’t really care if they introduce a new thing that wasn’t mentioned before, I get more grouchy about them introducing stuff that directly contradicts really important stuff established in the show. Like “turns out the paradise on earth was bullshit all along” for instance.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 14 hours ago
I think that’s exactly the point, and it’s one that is often disregarded.
And to be honest, the sudden retcon of the Cardassian wars is not very easy to square with the way the Federation was presented in early TNG, existing in an era of unprecedented peace. “Contradiction” might be a stretch, but it’s inconsistent.
StillPaisleyCat@startrek.website 11 hours ago
It’s interesting though.
We get the perception in early TNG that it’s been a long stable period of peace, exploration and expansion that’s suddenly disrupted by the Borg.
Then, we find that there have been significant ongoing regional conflicts with the Cardassians, some in Starfleet service have seen combat and torture, and that there have been marginalized refugees that have been marginalized and largely forgotten the Utopian Federation worlds.
BUT we accepted at the time as an audience.
In fact, unlike many of the elements of TNG that were outraging TOS fans in 1987-1989, there was nary a murmur about this at the conventions or on the BBS about the introduction of the Cardassians and Bajorans or the significant retcons.
As someone who was around for the TOS fan backlash in the early years of TNG, I don’t think that this has anything at all to do with the cumulative weight of lore or lack thereof.
My thought rather is that a show at the height of its popularity can get away with a great deal in terms of retcons and rewriting its own canon/lore.
A new show that does that takes a larger risk and is more likely to attract backlash.
ValueSubtracted@startrek.website 11 hours ago
I’ve been sitting on an essay concept for a few years now, all about how TNG was secretly (and unintentionally) about the end of an era of peace, and the Federation being shocked out of complacency.
The retconned Cardassian war (and to a lesser extent, the Tzenkethi conflicts) is the biggest challenge to address, but their very existence kind of supports the underlying notion that things were never as good as is popularly believed.
All of which is neither here nor there, and I think your point is a good one.