[This article is in support of my project to design an unofficial (and free) Fudge role-playing game adaptation of the original Star Trek.]
As mentioned previously (and this might be more of a Part 3a rather than a Part 4, to be honest), I am considering all Star Trek spin-offs to be part of an alternate universe and not the "Classic" universe. (The current tentative title for the game, by the way, is Classic Star Trek: The Unofficial Role-Playing Game.) My reasons for this, apart from my overwhelming preference for the original series, is borne out both by how the depictions on screen and the events behind the scenes led to irreconcilable divergences.
For the latter, I direct your attention to the lamentable canon wars. [See the Karen Dick interview at Trekplace.com.] To sum it up, it all started when Franz Joseph Schnaubelt, who went professionally by the name of Franz Joseph, created two books, Star Trek Blueprints and the Star Fleet Technical Manual. Gene Roddenberry encouraged him and officially approved of his blueprints and manuscripts, even going so far as to recruit Joseph as a technical advisor for a scuttled show and getting his work included in an exhibit at the Smithsonian. Due to a series of fateful misunderstandings caused by differences in how Hollywood and the world of engineering do business, Franz Joseph eventually had his work published by Ballantine with the help of Paramount. Joseph's books transformed the publishing and bookselling industries, and countless Star Trek fans took his works as gospel during the interlude between the original series and the first motion picture. Roddenberry, understandably a bit vexed by the tremendous success of Joseph's books (which were originally to have been published by a company run by his wife, Majel Barrett [see the article]), reversed his previous stance toward the books and actively promoted their decanonization, if you will, beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and especially with Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Although, it must be said, a number of Joseph's ideas and innovations were incorporated.) There has even surfaced something touted as Roddenberry's Rules of Starship Design, ostensibly created with the purpose of invalidating Joseph's designs of several Federation starships previously approved by Roddenberry. [See Franz Joseph's Starships and Roddenberry's Rules of Starship Design by Greg Tyler at Trekplace.com.] In short, some of the divergence of the spin-offs (or maybe much of the divergence) was caused by Roddenberry's (and probably Paramount’s) desire to avoid the necessity of dealing with Joseph in matters of royalties and intellectual property rights. Rewriting history and enforcing "official canon" solves their problems.
With regard to the on screen depictions that justify my alternate universe interpretation, there is such an abundance of examples that it would be pointless to try to list them all. I shall limit myself to just a few. First, both the original series, the spin-offs, and even the movies (e.g. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) are rife with examples of time travel and alternate time lines. Once you take into account as few as one or two discrepancies between them, it is obvious that we are talking not about one time line, but at least two.
Item 1: In the spin-offs and movies, Romulans have modified "angry brow" foreheads, whereas Vulcans do not. In the original series, Romulans and Vulcans are identical, to the extent that when a Romulan is seen by Terrans for the first time ever ("Balance of Terror"), Spock is immediately suspected by one member of the bridge crew of being a Romulan spy. What possible purpose it could serve to alter the appearance of Romulans (other than satisfying someone's alien forehead fetish) is beyond me. Obviously, we are dealing with an alternate universe here in which Romulan evolution diverged from their Vulcan kin to the point where they were not identical.
Item 2: Beginning with Star Trek: The Motion Picture and continuing with every subsequent movie and television depiction, Klingons have — you guessed it — modified foreheads. In the original series, Klingons were no more distinguishable from Terrans than Romulans were from Vulcans, except in their manner of dress and their attitude. Budget concerns aside, I think it served to show us how close we really were to being Klingons ourselves, with their hunger for conquering and exploiting those weaker than themselves (amply demonstrated in our own history), were it not for our ability to put our differences aside, promote peace, and work together to help other cultures without interfering with their natural development. In the original series you have this remarkable contrast of who we could be (the United Federation of Planets) and who we are, to a degree, now (the Klingon Empire). The forehead Klingons, I suspect, have no other excuse than that they have a much bigger makeup budget, so it's the fashion to modify everyone's forehead they can get their hands on. With regard to continuity (and disregarding the eagerness of some fans to excuse every single error ever made by retroactively "explaining" it away instead of just admitting that a mistake is a mistake), the only reasonable explanation (and the simplest one) for why forehead Klingons exist in the later spin-offs and the prequel Star Trek: Enterprise, but not in the original series, is that we are dealing with an alternate universe again where Klingons evolved differently. The alternate universe explanation, I predict, will be further vindicated when the next movie, in which the original crew of the original series will be recast with big name stars, will depict not original Klingons, but forehead Klingons. Then there can be no doubt even in the eyes of revisionist groupies that Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Animated Series exist in a separate universe from the "canon" universe of the spin-offs and movies. [Edit: Revisionists are willing to go to ludricous lengths to justify inconsistencies in the spin-offs, as demonstrated by the "Klingon augment virus," but I maintain that the spin-offs are as much of an alternate reality as the rebooted Star Trek movies are. It's the simplest and most logical explanation.]
Item 3: Cloaking devices are a Romulan invention and belong only to the Romulan Star Empire except for one improved cloaking device that was stolen by the Federation so it could learn how to detect cloaked Romulan ships and thereby avert any temptation the Romulans might have of violating the peace treaty and invading Federation space ("The Enterprise Incident"). Cloaking devices were not even known by the Federation to exist until an unknown force (a cloaked Romulan ship) was discovered destroying Federation outposts monitoring the Romulan Neutral Zone ("Balance of Terror"). Yet, this first contact event would be rendered utterly nonsensical by the cloaked Klingon ship encountered by the crew of the Enterprise in the prequel spin-off Star Trek: Enterprise. I rest my case. Not to belabor the point, but Romulans would never trade cloaking technology to any foreign power (military cultures tend to guard their military secrets jealously), especially not another aggressive, empire-building civilization. And as far as Romulans using ships "of Klingon design" ("The Enterprise Incident"), we can be reasonably certain that Romulans are not trading anything they value to acquire those designs, but are more likely experimenting with designs they stole from the Klingons.
If the preceding three items do not prove my case, then nothing will. In my view, there is Classic Star Trek exemplified by the original series, the animated series, and portions of other material such as the Star Fleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, and then there is the Alternate Universe Star Trek exemplified by the movies and spin-offs. I prefer Classic Star Trek, and that is what my unofficial role-playing game is about.
[Originally posted in Fudgery.net/fudgerylog on 29 June 2007.]
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