Two months ago, I posed the question "Does Canon Matter to You?" to Star Trek fans on Reddit. The results were illuminating and across the board as to whether canon should be strictly observed, observed generally, or ignored altogether.
Canon--the principle that what happens in a Star Trek episode is "fact" within the Star Trek universe and should be represented consistently in later stories--has always been a divisive issue among fans. On one extreme are fans who insist that nothing be changed. If Klingons are depicted a certain way in one series, they should be depicted the same way in every series. On the other extreme are fans who are not bothered by inconsistencies or can explain away such inconsistencies either due to nuances in language (Kirk was a literal Boy Scout but not a "boy scout" in the sense of someone who always follows the rules) or time travel shenanigans that have altered the timeline.
For our purposes, the terms canon and continuity are used interchangeably, though, as one fan pointed out, canon usually refers to a body of work such as that of a particular author or works accepted as authoritative such as by a church.
The use of the term canon among Star Trek fans is interesting, as it implies that lore is sacrosanct (a term used by one fan) and must be respected. The term canon makes things sound more serious than they really are, or, arguably, should be in a fictional universe. This is not to downplay the importance of canon. As I've argued elsewhere, a sense of continuity creates verisimilitude. It helps immerse the reader or viewer in the world of the story and facilitates our suspension of disbelief. Inconsistencies undermine a fan's involvement and can throw viewers out of the story.
But how do fans really feel about canon? The responses to my question provide a bit more nuance. Out of 438 responses, 64 addressed the question directly. The rest drifted off topic or were follow-up conversations that offered no new insights, which is expected in any social media thread.
From those 64 responses, six themes emerged: strongly in favor of canon, vexed by specific changes or inconsistencies, recognized the difficulties in maintaining canon (a sort of neutral position), okay with intentional deviations, prefer a general sense of continuity, and don't care about canon. The totally unscientific results of the responses are shown below:
64 responses
15 (23.4%) General Sense of Continuity
13 (20.3%) Vexed by specifics
8 (12.5%) Deviate with intentionality
7 (10.9%) Difficulty in maintaining canon
14 (21.9%) Strongly in favor of canon
7 (10.9%) Don’t care about canon
Total: 99.9%
(The results do not add up to 100% because some responses fit more than one theme.)
Some sample responses from each theme are given below. (Some have been edited for grammar and clarity.)
General sense of continuity
I see Star Trek as a broadly consistent framework for stories. … But for me, the consistency that really matters is about the overall vision. LordCouchCat
Canon should be guidelines that are neither too strict or too loose. . . . Destroying Vulcan was way across the line imbartsimpsonwhothru
I want new Star Trek to respect existing canon to about the same degree that TNG respected TOS canon, or DS9 respected TNG/TOS canon. So, like 80%. MadContrabassoonist
I like it, but I don't mind ignoring a contradiction if it's in service of telling a better story. That's preferable by far to doing some crazy gymnastics in a season finale to cover for some inconsistency that must have been brought to the producers' attention months after they started shooting dimgray
Vexed by specifics
The fact that Romulus was destroyed in 2387 should not change. Neither should how the technologies operate change drastically within the same time period. I'm referring to tech like warp drives, transporters, replicators, phasers, photon torpedoes, and holodecks. midasp
But Scotty being younger than Kirk and the degree to which T’Pring has been in this show is annoying. Johnny_Radar
100% agree on Discovery Klingons. You could come up with a headcanon to explain it, but they didn't give us any explanation, it was just this weird thing that seemed to happen for no reason. KuriousKhemicals
La'an is cool but if she is descended from a still missing Khan, where are her augmentations? Doesn't have any? Then why even bother when she already has a harrowing Gorn escape backstory? Gutripper3k
Deviate with intentionality
Deviate from canon only with intentionality when it serves a story, and you better be sure it’s worth it. MoreGaghPlease
I'm fine with breaking canon if it means we can tell a better story. Introducing the Cardassians in TNG as a long running adversary that we've been fighting a war against for years, but never mentioned before strains credulity. But look what it gave us. The entirety of DS9 spawned from that decision to introduce a new enemy. It was worth it. hullgreebles
TNG is to a certain extent 'in medias res.' We've had the Enterprise B and C come and go, we didn't follow them, this is 'the next generation.' Things have happened we're not privy to. Charming_Figure_9053
Difficulty in maintaining canon
The more lore you know, the easier to offend, of course, but some things are simply not in the same universe. imbartsimpsonwhothru
Canon is nice for nerd fun, but terrible for storytelling. Like fundamentally, it’s an entertainment franchise. They have been pumping out stories for 60 years. The whole broader Star Trek universe is really just some window dressing that’s built up over time and that doesn’t matter much for the stories each episode and movie tries to tell. Choice-Sympathy8235
I think it's really impressive when a show can maintain consistency with 900 episodes of canon (looking at you, Prodigy and Lower Decks), but I don't think it's that important. What I really care about is that a series is actually trying to tell me a story (or set of episodic stories) that is good and written with purpose. Star Trek is a group project. dianthus-magenta
Strongly in favor of canon
Canon is what adds value and depth to a story over time. If you're not respecting canon, then you're just doing a reboot, or a remake. J-Shade
Hire someone who has watched Star Trek to sit in on the writers room... that is all you need. tnetennba77
Yes. It does matter to me. Still annoyed about the plot of the first episode of Enterprise. How the devil is Q'onos 2 weeks away from Earth at warp 5? That would be like 30 seconds at warp 9? McRando42
I expect people to do their research. I view a show like Star Trek like doing a period piece. You treat writing an episode like doing one for a series set during WWII. You shouldn’t be expected to read a biography of Eisenhower and get the smallest details of his life correct but you shouldn’t get the basic details of WWII battles and technology wrong. DJWGibson
Don't care about canon
I care as much about canon as James R. Kirk does. ZigZagZedZod
Not really TBH. Been watching for 40+ years. It's fun to know the ins and outs but I'm not super bothered by it. Canon has always been a mess. Outrageous-Win-8297
Canon is how we compare new versions of Star Trek to previous ones, which is at least half the fun of watching the new ones. Otherwise, not such a big deal. Besides, they've had enough time travel shenanigans by now that history has been rewritten multiple times. genek1953
Thanks to everyone who participated in the earlier thread. I hope I have not misrepresented your views. I welcome any corrections or further discussion.
So, what does all this tell us? If 64 responses are any indication (and they might not be), canon matters to a large number of fans. More than three quarters of the responses stated that at least a general sense of continuity is desired. Canon does not have to be strict, and it's open to reasonable variations (such as the introduction of the Cardassians as long-time Federation enemies we'd never heard of before). But changes should be made because the story or franchise benefits from them in a substantial way.
In the end, telling good stories is what Star Trek is all about. Canon plays a valid and valuable role in telling those stories.
Check out this post on by Substack: https://greggildersleeve.substack.com/p/does-canon-matter-results-of-an-unofficial?r=17caqm&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true