Star Trek: 10 Times Canon Got In The Way

Back in the day, Gene Roddenberry thought that a great idea would be a simple five year mission to explore strange new worlds, seek out new civilisations and boldly go where no man has gone before.

Canon at that time was a mere spark in the twinkle of the eye of its creator who was just out to make some good allegorical stories, have William Shatner rip his shirt in impossible ways, have Spock say "Fascinating", and McCoy to declare lots of things dead Jim.

But for the love of syndication that would have been exactly what happened, yet nearly 60 years later it's still very much alive and kicking.

When it comes to storytelling this provides a wealth of backstory and material to develop the universe from but in the process of doing just that it can also cause a whole host of problems with just one or two misplaced but originally well intentioned lines that can throw the whole timeline out of kilter. Initially the whole concept of Star Trek: Discovery looked to be punching the franchise into dangerous canon-breaking territory thanks to Spock's never-before-mentioned adopted sister and the wonders of the eponymous starship's magnificent saucer-spinning spore drive.

While all of that was neatly wrapped up and tied off in a few lines at the end of the second season, Star Trek has not escaped the likely unintended restraints of its own storytelling and now it's time to rip those open with the finesse of a battle-thirsty Klingon.

Ahhh Kirk my old friend.. hang on. Wrong universe!

The Kelvin timeline comes in for its share of fair and unfair criticism across the course of its three movies. Did fans need a rehash of The Wrath of Khan? Would the franchise have seen a rebirth on TV if it wasn't for JJ Abrams? Both are good questions and while it managed to write its own future history thanks to the pesky incursion of those Romulans on the Narada, it did manage to still tamper with canon and all in the first ten minutes.

Picture the scene, the USS Kelvin is faced with the mighty Romulan ship from the future, killing George Kirk and seeing James born on a medical shuttle evacuating the devastation. It's an epic way to open what could be considered the finest of those three reboots and helps set up that alternative 23rd Century.

But. If we follow the true path of Star Trek canon, James Kirk was born in Iowa - he even drops that line in The Voyage Home just to cement a point. Later in the movie, it's even noted that the two universes diverged at that moment and not before which means that everything before the destruction of the Kelvin should also occur in the Prime Universe. Never let a good action scene get in the way of plot!