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We all remember seeing various Behind The Scenes documentaries about Star Trek and catching sight of the extensive show “Bibles” and technical manuals. Huge folders. Binders overflowing with information, guarded by committed experts who have a mission to ensure that over 800 episodes, 13 movies, and numerous other media all somehow sync up and make sense.
Now that Star Trek really is hopping about its own timeline, with Discovery and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds going backward while Picard pushed forwards in time, this challenge is getting harder.
In the latest issue of SFX Magazine, showrunner Akiva Goldsman spoke about these challenges and said that while they welcome the guardrails and guidelines the continuity gives them, they aren’t afraid to challenge it, or even change it, for the sake of the show:
“We will body-check canon when we need to, and we have. We’ve moved some folks around in terms of timelines, we put some folks together who aren’t necessarily canonically together at the same time, we pull some things forward because, ultimately story wins. But trying to stay within canon is an awfully fun exercise and leads to solutions that you might not come up with if you didn’t have those boundaries.
We don’t really worry about it. […] But we’re thoughtful in the same way that we’re thoughtful of Pike’s journey and where he has to go and how that works. I don’t mean his death, because God knows we’ve talked about that until we’re blue in the face, just where he is canonically in terms of location, who is or isn’t on the Enterprise.”
He sums it up as:
“We are thoughtful, but not slavish.”
Picard Season 3 was a continuity triumph, in its finished form. It came off as a lovingly crafted greatest-hits album that gave viewers exactly what they wanted. You never know, it could catch on? The second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds will run on Paramount+ from June 15th.
