CT>        Both are true.  The Trek universe only holds up within the
CT>minds of its fans.  It's completely subjective.
CT>        True, but that's where the reader/viewer has to make their own
CT>personal adjustments to the whole thing.
CT>        That's the subjective part coming to play.  Everyone has a 
lightly
CT>different view of what Trek is, therefore the whole point of Canon is 
oot,
CT>unless 1 person on this planet is voted to be the final arbitor.  Not 
likely
        I agree with every statment above.  I reserve the right to
 exclude things that I *don't like* from my own personal internal
 Star Trek, but I make no claim that yours has to be the same.
        Other than that I agree whole heartedly with what you say in
 this post.
JPH> But I also believe that canon can be a useful concept as a
JPH> *starting point* from which to begin discussing the show.
CT>        On that we can both agree.
CT>        And there are times when it's too time consuming or costly to
CT>listen to the continuity director and go back and fix something.  It's
CT>almost a breeding ground for YATI's!
JPH> To debate the canonical truth
JPH> of Star trek is actually sort of silly.
CT>        Bingo!  So why can't everything be canon?
CT>                        Christopher
        Well, when it comes to *starting points* then saying that
 everything is *canon* makes the thing sort of vague and hard to
 understand.  Given that we've spent a couple of posts essentially
 shouting the same thing at each other and thinking that we were having
 an argument, making things easier to understand would seem to be a good
 thing.
        If you were to say "Everything is equally valid", meaning that
 everything from books and TV is open to discussion, then I'd agree
 without reservation.
        "Canon" for my use means where we start out at, and has no other
 value, so when discussing Peter David's "Vendetta" and the movie "First
 Contact" we can say that FC was established on screen and is therefore
 a logical starting point, even though "Vendetta" was a better story and
 had somethings in it that are actually better that the movie.
        The Trek we see from here on in will be based more on FC than
 Vendetta, and so the things established in FC will have more relevance
 than the things that appeared in Vendetta.
        IMHO, TPTB should have read the books and stolen the good bits
 out of them.  I also think that being a little more serious about
 continuity (Rather than less as in Voyager) would be a good thing.
        But really I liked the story portrayed in Vendetta better...
Jay P. Hailey 
Chief Editor
THE UNIVERSE: TREK
 * OLX 2.1 TD * "I know how toast works!" - Tom Servo
--- Maximus/2 3.01
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