Hi, Ric here again.
So the reason I’m doing this video is to address something that’s being bothering
me for a while.
As you may or may have summarized, I look into lore from scifi from TV, film and video
games and an annoying trend started to make itself apparent.
Star Trek Discovery, Destiny 2, Star Wars, all of these franchises have expanded universes
of lore that has seen numerous retcons and reboots.
So I started asking the question, what is the importance of continuity?
Now when I say continuity I don’t just mean, oh there was a window that was broken, now
it’s fixed, but the sort of laws that govern lore, the canon.
Why do I get so worked up when a series directly conflicts with what has come before?
Beware spoilers for these series as I can’t really talk about them without addressing
the plots.
In Science Fiction, we’re dealing with incredible worlds that push the boundaries of what we
can believe as an audience.
A stable sense of continuity therefore goes a long way in creating that sense of immersion
and believability that we need to stay invested in this fictional world.
It creates an overarching narrative that long term fans of the franchise follow and on a
completely personal note, as someone who catalogues and presents different areas of this story,
changes to this narrative are annoying as it feels like someone undoing my work, by
undoing theirs, or even someone else’s.
The tales we see on screen, or read, or anything, are built upon two things, a theme and the
universe in which you want to tell it.
World building is a very crucial step in making your vision believable, it’s like the Mos
Eisley cantina scene, our plot (that’s Luke and Obi-Wan) walks through this new universe
and sure, everything else here is superfluous.
They need to talk to the Bar tender, the arrogant criminals at the bar, and ultimately Han and
Chewbacca.
But that’s it.
For the sake of the narrative, that’s all they need.
But all these other creatures, the band, the atmosphere becomes so much more believable
with all these extra additions going about their own lives.
That is what lore is, the background upon which the narrative is constructed and when
it’s done well, with care, it’s fantastic.
Canon is the consistency of this lore.
It’s a promise that the world that’s been built has rules its inhabitants have to abide
by, just like life.
So when these get disregarded it can be jarring.
Take Destiny 2, I’ll quickly fill in the basics of Warmind here, the focus of this
expansion was around Ana Bray and Rasputin.
The latter a Warmind AI that operates a system spanning defense network and the former, a
member of the family who constructed it centuries ago.
The point is until this expansion came out, Ana Bray was definitively dead.
Also there were several Warminds.
During the course of this 2-3 hour campaign, both these are contradicted and one isn’t
even addressed at all.
So why does it matter?
Did the storyline being told make sense?
Well aside from nitpicking, yeah.
Little rushed but yeah.
The irritation for me comes from the declaration that what you thought you knew can no longer
be trusted, it is now irrelevant.
The foundation on which this narrative has been built can no longer be trusted because
who’s to say that the events we just witnessed won’t be changed later to suit someone else’s
vision.
This is different from the Star Wars Legends approach.
When Disney took control of the Star Wars IP, they did away with all the media that
had cropped up around the films in favor of establishing their own continuity.
The stories that existed beforehand therefore, no longer ‘happened’.
However, it does gather all these stories under one label, clearly establishing what
belongs to what camp.
However, it’s not an irrelevant collection of tales at it gave rise to many concepts
and characters that are being utilized even in the current canon.
The Legends material itself has a sort of continuity but it has become very convoluted
with storylines branching all across the universe and timescale so cherry picking the best bits
to add to a new reboot might be the right approach.
A better example of this is the Kelvin Timeline.
The 2009 films have nothing to do with the TV shows but are still reboots of the franchise,
both in lore and visually.
However they are set in an alternate timeline so rather than replace the events of the shows,
they are happening elsewhere in an isolated reality.
This keeps both franchises alive.
The only show that is relevant to both is therefore Star Trek Enterprise, and look here,
a nod to the continuity.
It is little bits like this that form another justification for sticking to the canon.
These feel like small inside references that astute fans can claim as a reward then talk
about after the event with anyone who will listen.
It cultivates the fandom by creating a world that can be enjoyed beyond the initial experience.
So when those stories get ignored or changed without reason to serve a plot element or
a greater agenda, it’s only natural to feel a little slighted.
Now let’s be clear, these franchises don’t owe audiences anything but a series that sticks
to its established rules is far more immersive.
Although there are different expectations from various franchises based on varying levels
of adherence to canon.
Take Doctor Who for example.
The whoniverse has no continuity really and even celebrates that fact at times.
But it does have a get out of jail free card in the fact that it’s a show about altering
timelines.
So any storyline that happened could conceivably un-happen in an instant.
Dr Who is what you get when you create a show on an episode-by-episode basis with most storylines
not exceeding beyond one season.
Sure it’s got its big consistent villains such as Davros, the Master and events that
occurred like the Time War and these remain as relatively fixed points for the sake of
familiarity but the show itself is about change.
So in this case the world matches the theme.
Still, occasionally this does mean that you get the occasion “Killed the Moon” style
episode… but you know what?
History changed, it never happened.
However a series like Star Trek has a different expectation.
A reputation built when the Next Generation aired and picked up as a sequel to the original.
Same themes, same world, just new stories set far enough removed from the original that
the new aesthetic can be excused.
An expectation compounded when Star Trek DS9 and Voyager aired concurrently and maintained
that visual evolution even into the Next Gen era films.
Because of this over arcing devotion to the lore, smaller aspects that don’t add up,
such as the exact dates for the Cardassian Border Wars, can be excused and are often
overlooked by even the most diehard lore hounds.
But this makes it more noticeable when something steps event further outside the bubble, such
as the episode “Threshold” which is frankly just weird.
Now Star Trek Discovery is an interesting one.
Its visual style is a complete reboot but it’s still set in the universe of the shows,
saying that means that those expectations that were formed from TNG onwards are automatically
going to apply here.
Add to that that proximity to TOS and then there’s more continuity to take into consideration,
the expectation to adhere to something more than just the here and now stories.
With such a drastic revisualization of a franchise it needed to nail the rest of the expected
consistency and for the most part, it did.
The addition of the USS Defiant and its origins in the Mirror Universe arc and the classification
of the Stamets’ research aid in maintaining the truths of later series, but other issues
such as Spock’s half-sister and most notably, the designs being so radically different that
it barely looks like Star Trek at times still need to be addressed.
Now Discovery’s second season is apparently going to focus more on tying Discovery in
with existing canon as at the minute it feels very out there, to the side so I’m reserving
my opinion here.
But if any series demonstrates the importance of continuity and canon, it’s Star Trek.
A sense of order has to be maintained to provide a sense of investment and unify the audience
and fans in a shared understanding of the universe being created.
An adherence to this can provide many sceptics the means to overlook other changes or mistakes
in service to the plot and endure even a complete visual overhaul.
Destiny 2 has its issues, but the inconsistency in its lore only really affects a small percentage
of players as the majority don’t familiarize themselves with every facet, but the themes,
tone and style of the game remain unchanged.
Star Wars substituted a complex and overloaded reality for its own simpler one, cherry picking
from what was excluded to create a more uniform tale.
2009 Star Trek voluntarily removed itself from continuity to explore its own narrative
but Discovery is trying to have the best of both and redesign everything while trying
to adhere to its legacy.
Canon, Continuity and Lore aren’t everything but I stand by me opening statement.
“We’re dealing with incredible worlds that push the boundaries of what we can believe.
A stable sense of continuity therefore goes a long way in creating that sense of immersion
and believability that we need to stay invested in this fiction universe.”
Sure, sometimes it can get in the way of telling the tale you want to tell, and in those instances
a compromise has to be made, whether it’s the plot that has to shift to accommodate
the lore or the lore has to retroactively edited to allow for a story, somethings got
to give and that’s just the nature of storytelling.
But is it really too much to ask for both?
Thanks for listening to this, I’m a little biased I guess but even before I ran a channel,
lore and the canon that it cultivates meant a lot to me as a fan but I’m open to change
just as long as it can be justified beyond the whim of a writer, and yes I know it’s
not an easy task.
Most people accept that, that’s why the Star Trek fandom divides things into Memory
Alpha and Beta by itself but building a cohesive storyline requires commitment to something
bigger than the “here and now.”
Thanks again, I’ve been Ric and I’m interested to see what you guys think.
What’s important, lore, continuity or do you just want to see a good story?
Until then I’ll see you next time.
Goodbye.