Canon v. Non-Canon

[Talondor]

As I understand the gist, Star Trek canon is just the television shows (TOS thru Enterprise, not including the '70s cartoon) and the movies (not sure about the reboot). And non-canon is the other stuff, such as the novels and games.

I know there may be some exceptions, but is that about it? And what is everybody's opinion about including non-canon with the canon, such as alien species, ships, and events?

[Mikey]

As I understand the gist, Star Trek canon is just the television shows (TOS thru Enterprise, not including the '70s cartoon) and the movies (not sure about the reboot). And non-canon is the other stuff, such as the novels and games.

That is indeed how I understand it as well. Pretty much that if it was onscreen, it's canonical (I am not sure about the status of TAS.)

I know there may be some exceptions, but is that about it? And what is everybody's opinion about including non-canon with the canon, such as alien species, ships, and events?

It's not much of an "opinion" issue. Canon is canon; everything else isn't. What may have been in a novel or such is as "true" IU as, say, anything I might make up offhand.

[Graham Kennedy]

As I understand the gist, Star Trek canon is just the television shows (TOS thru Enterprise, not including the '70s cartoon) and the movies (not sure about the reboot). And non-canon is the other stuff, such as the novels and games.

Yep, that's about it.

During Voyager, Jeri Taylor wrote a novel called Mosaic which filled in a lot of Janeway's back story. At the time, she declared it to be canon, and a few elements of it made it into the show. But once she was out of the picture the idea was quietly dropped. Which is good news, since IIRC there's a scene in it where alien insects burn through Voyager's shields by drooling acid on them. I kid thee not.

I know there may be some exceptions, but is that about it? And what is everybody's opinion about including non-canon with the canon, such as alien species, ships, and events?

I include that stuff on DITL, in moderation. Partly that's because there's just so damn much of the EU that I couldn't read it all. It also gets kind of ridiculous when you have dozens of novels set during the times of the TV shows, since there just isn't the time for the crew to have done all that stuff. And be honest, some of the stuff in the EU is just plain ridiculous - the giant Spock from TAS, for instance.

What I especially don't like is EU stuff that reinterprets canon to be other than it obviously is. Like for example the books that bring Kirk back from the dead when he's clearly meant to have died on that planet in Generations, or the Enterprise books that rewrite the series finale. IMO the books and whatnot should write around the canon whilst keeping in with the spirit of it. By all means show us Kirk as a kid, where the canon never really went. Or even use books to explain away canon weirdness, like the "James R. Kirk" tombstone. But don't go saying "this thing that happened in this episode? Didn't actually happen like that."