Your Headcanons?

[BunBun299]

Minor Star Trek head canon. And the evidence is thin, but it exists.

Romulans have a bit of Klingon in them. This is why the Romulans, who are famously descended from Vulcans, have head ridges and lack the telepathic abilities of their Vulcan cousins. The only evidence I have for this comes from The Enemy. An injured Romulan needs a transfusion, all Vulcans on the ship aren't compatible, but of all people on board, Worf is. So I believe that at some point, way back in the day when the Romulans left Vulcan, they stopped by Qo'nos and slept with a few Klingons while there. And a few Klingon genes have been in the gene pool ever since.

I think if you mentioned this to any modern Romulan, they would at best consider it a huge insult, or maybe even shoot you.

[Dînadan]

Minor Star Trek head canon. And the evidence is thin, but it exists.

Romulans have a bit of Klingon in them. This is why the Romulans, who are famously descended from Vulcans, have head ridges and lack the telepathic abilities of their Vulcan cousins. The only evidence I have for this comes from The Enemy. An injured Romulan needs a transfusion, all Vulcans on the ship aren't compatible, but of all people on board, Worf is. So I believe that at some point, way back in the day when the Romulans left Vulcan, they stopped by Qo'nos and slept with a few Klingons while there. And a few Klingon genes have been in the gene pool ever since.

I think if you mentioned this to any modern Romulan, they would at best consider it a huge insult, or maybe even shoot you.

Never considered that before, that's quite clever. I'd always thought that it was a racial trait (e.g. in real life East Asians having epicanthic folds or black people tending to have larger lips than whites, etc), and most (if not all) ridged Vulcans rejected Suraks teachings (hence why we never saw any ridged Vulcans in the 'modern' eras) and most of those who rejected Surak's teachings were ridged (hence why most Romulans had ridges).

Similarly, my headcannon attributes the differences in appearance of Andorians over the various series being the various different appearances being different ethnicities.

[SnakeCL]

This is probably going to sound stupid (I know some people have the same view on "Canon"), and not exactly in-keeping with the tenure of the thread, but I'm trying, honest!

But in my headcanon, Trek as a whole is a re-enactment, not an exact canon. It uses the budgets, film-making, and techniques and technological ideas we have at our current time, and we tell a story that we were given (god, deity, inter-dimensional being, q, muse, time traveler, etc.). Why do they use CRT screens on the TMP bridge? Because flatscreens weren't common place. Why didn't we have LCARS style designs on the earlier ships when we essentially have configurable displays and touchscreens now? Because we hadn't thought up that idea yet.

Trek is a very loose framework, where we can have fun conversations about how this technology works, and how this works, but it should never be a hard canon because its going to hamstring itself and we'll be too hung up on trying to twist things that make no sense into fitting a desired canon. So in my head I just view each series, and each design as a product of its time, and my head doesn't explode when something gets updated or a uniform that should look a certain way doesn't. Its pretty much the opposite of the "historical documents" from Galaxy Quest.

[Nessus]

That's more or less how I view it as well. I mean, I don't add the extra layer of it being an actual in-universe dramatized reenactment, as TBH, that seems redundant (I mean, that's exactly what it already is IRL, just subbing "historical" for "fictional"). But I don't feel at all beholden to accepting stuff that was obviously a limitation of it's time, or a mistake, or some other form of artificiality in the medium. There's inevitably all kinds of stuff in movies or Tv shows that one has to take as an impressionistic representation rather than a literal one, due to one thing or another.

In fact it really weirds me out so see that sort of thing not only taken so seriously, but to see fans twist themselves into knots trying to keep it all incorporated. The Klingon forehead thing is kinda the flagship example, but it extends to all kinds of things.

The stuff I've run into most has been modelers and costumers who replicate parts of the shooting minis/props/costumes that were clearly never part of the "real" in universe item. Like the English text and numbers on imperial Storm-trooper guns ('cause they were made of found objects glued together, with serial numbers and manufacturer logos and stuff that you can sometimes still make out in archive photos, but not in the films), or the black-and gunmetal checkerboard two-tone on Darth Vader's helmet (old photography triick for making "black" items read better in 2D: Vader's actual in-universe helmet is supposed to just be black). That stuff makes sense if you're replicating the prop as a piece of moviemaking memorabilia, but not if you're trying to replicate the actual character for cosplay purposes or whatever.

I've actually gotten into weird arguments with other sci-fi modelers about this. Because IMO you have to accept hat the shooting model isn't fully accurate to the "real" ship, because up close it's got removable panels with exposed screw heads, blatantly identifiable model kit parts, sloppy paint masking and brush marks, to say nothing of differences in proportion, detail, and color between different sized models of the same ship. It's entirely possible to build a model that is more accurate to the fictional ship by being less accurate to the shooting mini(s).

And then there's the Star Destroyer class thing. When ESB was made, ILM built larger, improved models of the imperial Star Destroyers. But they didn't really hold themselves to strict accuracy to the original ANH model, so as a result, the ESB models have different proportions and greeblies. This isn't really noticeable on film unless you're really looking for it. Crazy (IMO) fans will stridently insist that these are totally, deliberately meant to be a different class of SD, despite it being obvious that The modelmakers at ILM were only building to "close enough" standards, rightly thinking almost no-one would ever notice, so it didn't matter. Never mind that they did the same exact thing with the Falcon, and that none of the various scales of Falcon model built for any of the movies agree with each other in proportion or detail. Never mind that this sort of practice was completely normal in the film industry, and has effected everything from Star Trek to the Alien films, and continues on even in the modern CG age.

At a certain point, you have to accept that what you're looking at is just imperfect artifice. That "accuracy" isn't a finite state, but an impressionistic superposition state between the various filming assets and the conceptual "real" fictional object. But apparently that makes some people's brain glitch.

[The Romulan Republic]

Some more that I thought of- not sure how strongly I buy them but they're interesting possibilities, at any rate:

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer- Amy killed Tara.

I remember reading somewhere once (I think it might have been TV Tropes) that it shouldn't have been possible for Warren's shot to kill Tara, based on the angles or something. I have no idea if this is true, but it leads to the interesting possibility that some outside force lead to Tara's death- namely, Amy.

We know Amy is a witch. We know that she is personally fixated on and holds a grudge against Willow. She even uses Tara's death as part of a revenge ploy on Willow in season seven. And its not a huge leap that she's jealous of her old friend's relationship with Tara. We also know that she was keeping a close eye on, and had sympathies with, Warren (from the comics).

So its not a huge leap that she... gave the bullet a nudge, so to speak.

Of course, that might be contradicted by Willow not being able to resurrect Tara because she died a "natural" death. I suppose it would depend on what constitutes a "natural" death.

2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

Spike in the Wishverse was killed by the Master.

Its plausible that he would still show up in Sunnydale to cure Dru, even without Buffy there, but I can't imagine him pulling a coup on the Master as easily as on his replacement the Anointed One, nor can I plausibly imagine the Master tolerating his attitude for long.

3. The Dresden Files.

The entire series is a massive series of gambits by Margaret Dresden... vs. Margaret Dresden.

We know that Margaret was a rebel, and a schemer, and affiliated with a lot of the people who founded the Black Council, and that she eventually broke away from them. We know that she's heavily tied in with the Winter Court, which is the main opposition to the Outsiders (the Black Council's allies/puppet masters). We know that there is seemingly a split in the Black Council between the "well-intentioned extremists" and the ones who just want to bring on the apocalypse, and that the Outsiders are capable of turning people's minds/natures (Nemesis). And we know that Maggie planted lots of things to help her offspring down the line (Lea's guardianship, though that might have done more harm than good, as well as her knowledge of the Ways and the messages she left for Thomas and Harry via Soul Gaze). And I believe there was something about Harry's birthdate having significance as well.

So... Maggie rebels against the White Council. She helps form the "Black Council" to destroy the old order. However, the Black Council is formed by alliances with some very evil beings, and becomes infiltrated and slowly turned by the Outsiders, shifting from "reform by any means necessary" to "destroy the world by letting the Outsiders in". Margaret goes on the run, and sets stuff up so that after her death, her sons can destroy the organization she created.

The entire series is, in large part, a post-mortem chess game of Margaret Dresden vs. Margaret Dresden.

Honestly, a lot of this is canon, and the rest is plausible speculation.

Edit: Oh, and an obvious one:

Rey is Luke's daughter.

[The Romulan Republic]

Another Dresden Files one:

Kincaid is MacBeth.

Kincaid, in The Dresden Files, is an immortal supernatural (probably part-human) assassin. So what's the connection to MacBeth?

Well, first off, Kincaid is a Scottish name, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong).

Add to that Jim Butcher's history of referencing Shakespeare, and the similarities between Dresden Files and "Gargoyles" (I've also read that the character of Marcone was inspired by Xanatos). "Gargoyles", of course, also features an ant-hero/anti-villain MacBeth who survived to the present day.

Finally, there's Kincaid's title, the Hellhound. And what does MacDuff famously call MacBeth right before their final duel? Yeah.

I mean, maybe Butcher just picked the name because he thought it sounded bad ass, or whatever. Maybe he had some other reason. But I can't help but wonder if it was a deliberate reference. Hence, my fondness for "Kincaid is MacBeth".

[Draco Dracul]

One for me is that because he wanted to get through the academy solely on his own merits Tom Paris entered Starfleet Academy under the name Nicholas Locarno.

[The Romulan Republic]

One for me is that because he wanted to get through the academy solely on his own merits Tom Paris entered Starfleet Academy under the name Nicholas Locarno.

You know, I think I had basically the same idea. Don't know how well it would fit with canon, but it makes more sense than two virtually identical men with virtually identical stories.

[phantom000]

Star Trek Historiography

Historiography is the study of history itself, how it is recorded, organized and interpreted. So imagine Nog reading about the history of Earth, what exactly would he found? How would it be organized and what would the historians of the Federation considered the important events/developments?

Here is my answer. In the 23rd century the history of Earth is divided into four principle periods, five if you count the prehistoric which of course goes all the way back to the formation of the planet.

Ancient Period, sometimes called the Archaic Age or simply 'Antiquity' begins near the end of the Neolithic period, i.e. the dawn of human civilization. Here is where one finds the first evidence of agriculture, writing, the forging of metals, domesticating animals, organized communities, specialization of labor, et cetera. While many of the early kingdoms expanded their sphere of influence over vast tracks of land many of these early 'empires' would mostly a loose collection of different states.

Medieval Period includes what we call 'the Middle Ages' but also much more. It begins with the rise of the Roman Empire in Europe and the establishment of the Qin Dynasty in East Asia. The Medieval Period is marked by the rise of new imperial states which are different from those of the ancient world because they are much more centralized. There is also the rise of a new secular authority, rulers whose power is based more on law and military power rather than religion. It is also noted for a slow but steady progress in the fields of science and mathematics and for a 'pre-industrial' technology using water and wind power to drive simple machine tools.

Early-Modern Period is also known as 'Old Earth' begins about 1500 which marks the beginning of what was later called 'globalization' It is here we see the establishment of representative nation states which shift power from military to civilian authority, the discovery of the scientific method which would lead to a scientific and later an industrial revolution. The spread of commerce and international trade pushed society from a labor based economy to a currency based economy. While this is the period of some of mankind's worst events such as the eugenics wars, it did ultimately set the foundation for the period that followed it.

Federation Period or the modern period, begins on exactly April 5th 2063 when humanity made first contact with another alien race. It is in this period that man kind begins to spread out a crossed the galaxy and becomes a player in inter-stellar affairs.

[Asvarduil]

My headcanon for why Sisko was able to successfully punch Q, thus driving him off of DS9 more or less permanently, is because Sisko's partially "Prophet" nature allows him to interact out of phase with normal space-time, as evidenced by his "visions" of the Prophets. Because of this aspect of his nature, when he punched Q, he wasn't punching a projection of Q, he actually, successfully punched Q.

As to why Sisko defeated about 12 genetically-enhanced Jem'Hadar supersoldiers, it's a mixture of both experience and training. Jem'Hadar are cloned, and in the words of one, "One who lives to 30 is an honored elder." Sisko is certainly older than 30, and has decades of Starfleet training and experience on a variety of worlds and environments. His age is not a liability due to Federation medicine.

This isn't to say that the Jem'Hadar are untrained. That being said, the Jem'Hadar fighting tradition, is not the same as the Federation/Alpha-Beta Quadrant traditions and systems. The Jem'Hadar fought by Sisko literally couldn't know what he was going to do, so he was able to flatten a number of them, before one got smart and stunned him.

Oh, as for that? The Jem'Hadar who pulled that miracle off I think was trying to kill him. Sisko's unusual nature made the killing beam not work properly, and thus stun him instead. Sisko can (probably) be stunned, but I think it unwise to try.