Star Trek SNW finally settles decades-old canon issues (spoiler commentary for S02E03)
anotheruserwithnoname
(Image credit: Startrek.com)
I say spoiler right in the headline, and I mean it. Read no further if you have yet to see Star Trek: Strange New World’s latest episode, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow. (The image above is a publicity image and is also in the trailer, so it’s not really a spoiler.)
The TL;DR is: one single line of dialogue fixed nearly 30 years of canon issues. I am not exaggerating. More under the break. And this will be a long one:
thisisstarfleet
I’ve been saying for years now that the “prime” timeline has been continuously altered since the first time travel episodes. The DTI guys in “Trials and Tribble-ations” basically confirmed it back in 1996 when they wondered why everyone always assumes that they would be aware of changes they caused.
Just to pick my favorite theoretical example, Lily Sloane got a good look at the inside of a 24th century ship and that informed the work that she and Cochrane did for the next 50 years, which influenced what Starfleet designers and engineers put into their ships for the 50 years after that, which is why the NX-01 seems “advanced” for a 22nd century ship.
Making it part of the canon of the universe in no way takes away from what came before.