False Canon

History and PoliticsStarships and TechnologyBiographiesFormer False Canon

 

As explained in the article "What is Canon?", only information directly taken from the episodes or movies can be canonical. However, in fandom, and even in official publications, a number of notions are commonly regarded as canon facts although there is little to no support for them. Reasons for such false canon are that fans constantly attempt to rationalize problems or to fill gaps in biographies or specifications. In some other cases, misconceptions and over-interpretations of canon facts have been perpetuated, sometimes unwittingly in reference books or on the official website startrek.com.

Note Many more examples may be added if we take into account a number of ship class names, registries or other secondary evidence that were likely made up behind the scenes, by Greg Jein (Constitution registries) or by the Okudas (registry of the USS Antares) without ever appearing on screen. But seeing that much of this information is required in order to be able to call designs by their names, such little facts are accepted as apocryphal canon here at EAS. And eventually the NCC-501 of the USS Antares even made the transition from apocryphal to full canon when it appeared in TOS-R: "Charlie X".

 

History and Politics

 

Starships and Technology

 

Biographies

 

Former False Canon

 

See Also

What is Canon? - definitions, reasons, interpretations and the EAS canon policy

Warp Drive and Romulan History - how a throwaway line from TOS continues to cause unwarranted confusion

Biography Inconsistencies - gaps in biographies and other anomalies

 

Credits

Thanks to all the people at the SCN who have joined the discussion, particularly to Patrick Carroll for bringing up the false canon issue and for his suggestions about the female captains, the Voth and other things. Special thanks to Patrick Kovacs for pointing out that "Marines" used to exist behind the scenes and that there is no fixed date for the human-Klingon first contact and to Cameron Leatham for the quote about the origin of the Borg. The information about the name "Rihannsu" comes from Christopher Mace. The mention of Type-12 phasers was found by Matt, the Iloja of Prim reference by Tuskin38.

 


MACO @ Memory Alpha

 


Back to Investigations index

TopShare
View as gallery