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this post was submitted on 07 Jul 2023
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Daystrom Institute
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The most recent and significant canonizations of fanon that come to mind is the use of Geoffrey Mandel’s Star Charts as a basis for the charts we see in the show, and the NX-01 refit finally showing up in PIC. Also, the use of the Black Fleet from The Final Reflection in DIS and the importation of Una’s name and her origin as an Illyrian (although tweaked) from the novels. Also the importation of David Goodman’s wording of the Prime Directive from Federation: The First 150 Years in PRO: “First Con-Tact”.
The use of Diane Duane’s terminology for Vulcan emotional suppression (arie’mnu) also makes me suspect that everything she came up with about Vulcan logic like cthia in her books is in the back of the writers’ minds - especially Kristen Byers, just like they influenced the Reeves-Stevens when they were writing ENT. I wouldn’t be surprised if eventually some of her Romulan stuff made it in as well.
@khaosworks not sure those count as fanon since they appeared in official Paramount authorized material.
Fair enough - but most completely fan created stuff as opposed to licensed doesn’t have that wide a distribution so very few things rise to the level where it’s been accepted enough in the fan consciousness to be fanon. Fewer still get converted into canon. Most of the time it’s contradicted.
I suppose one example would be Ni’Var, which had its origins solely in fanzines. But that doesn’t quite work either since it wasn’t a widely known concept until DIS resurrected it.
The only thing I can think off off-hand that’s widely accepted is that the Klingons got cloaking technology from the Romulans in exchange for Klingon ship designs. But that’s been contradicted to a degree too.
I think that you could consider everything from fanzines and fanfic through licensing to what gets onscreen as a large ongoing dialogue.
Some cool things drift around for a long time, so it’s not even clear if they originated in specific tie-in fiction unless the authors themselves identify who came up with a name - as we can do with Number One being given the name Una.
The preponderance of EPs at this point are fans who bring their own longstanding ideas of canon, but they’re to some extent influenced by the ongoing fan and licensing dialogue.
In some cases, especially with Goldsman who was deep in the fanzine debates of the 70s, I get the idea that he’s intentionally working to counter longstanding fan headcanon or interpretations that he sees as a barrier for new generations to accept TOS.
When we get to tie-in fiction, the writers of licenced products are in most cases also fans, and, like Goldsman, have been immersed in and speculating on past canon for decades themselves. And then the younger television writers have clearly been reading some of the tie-in fiction or playing the games. Or they themselves have been written them, or at least their consultants.
As a Treklit fan, I am seeing that the new shows increasingly draw on the licenced tie-in writing, both books and comics as well as STO.
Discovery season two pulled in the S31 Control AI concept. Picard season three brought STO ships to television, but also paralleled and wove in elements of the the TNG characters from the Relaunch books.
I don’t think it’s reasonable to attribute it simply to Beyer’s influence as a tie-in author who’s now an in-house canon anchor and writer on all the live-action shows. That’s part of it, as are David Mack’s contributions on Lower Decks and Prodigy.
Prodigy has brought the Brikars (originally created by Peter David for the YA Academy books) into onscreen canon. That’s probably my favourite ‘canonization.’ But Mack has also encouraged a restoration of noncommissioned officer roles and several other subtle ‘solutions’ out of Treklit.
Anyway, its an interesting thing to trace.
This is an excellent comment, and honestly should be visible higher up. You should make a top-level post out of this!
Thanks for the encouragement.
I will do that. I might wish to add another example or two.