Memory Beta:Contradictions and continuity

In the expansive world of Star Trek, there are bound to have been contradictions and other problems with continuity. In order to remain an inclusive archive, it is important to not exclude or marginalize information on the basis of it seeming to be in contradiction to any other source.

Canon
The filmed continuity of Star Trek is often called "canon". Because Memory Alpha has an extensive system of archived info about these sources, contradictions in canon continuity are often addressed there. Memory Beta exists to chronicle all licensed publications of Star Trek, and note can be taken of ways that licensed properties seem to differ from canon, but canon is regarded as the definitive form of Star Trek.

Most licensed properties do try to model themselves after canon, usually because the license to create a Star Trek publication given to creators requires that they represent the canon films and episodes with which Star Trek originates.

Sometimes, material on Memory Beta describes sources that do not mesh well with the continuity of canon. With consideration of this, inline italicized background notes formats are recommended but canon takes precedence in terms of determining the overall tone and structure of the article.

Retroactive continuity
Within canon, there is the possibility of retroactive continuity, where re-releases of older material are given new details or are remastered. Since Memory Beta exists for publications, extensive documentation of the changes of the filmed canon sources is not necessary here, as that would be redundant duplication of the work of Memory Alpha, where newer info takes precedence, and older material is marked as having been retroacted. Since both original and remastered sources have been the basis of publications, Memory Beta documents them equally without necessarily needing to make such extensive notices and comparisons of retroactive material.

In cases where licensed sources have been re-edited, however, Memory Beta in most cases has the full burden of honoring the later source, while noting the original publication's differences in background information.

Media sources
Many times, editorial programs will change and create new approaches to continuity in licensed sources.

All due effort is to be taken to separate sources from different media in the body of articles. Starting a new paragraph should be mandatory (as all citations should be at the ends of paragraphs), and dividers such as subsectioning can be used as well. In chronological narratives, information from a comic source will be chronicled and properly cited, and then a new paragraph or subsection is required before moving on to a novel or game from a different company or editorial program.

Sometimes, one licensed source may reference another licensed source, giving them a shared continuity, but it is rare to occur except as a homage, and do not always lend themselves to remain completely consistent.

Outside of the body of the article, separation of media sources can be described more briefly, using reference tags that transclude the citations to an Appendix section. These reference tags of individual points in the introductory sentences, paragraphs and sidebars of an article allow the sources to be clarified even though they are not separated.

Subsectioning
Subsection titles in the article body must observe POV, that they remain coherent to an observer within the continuity of Star Trek. From the point of view of a person in the Star Trek continuity, they are not aware they are characters in a thing called Star Trek: Destiny or Star Trek Online, so calling a subsection name in said character's biography shouldn't make that kind of reference.

Continuity
The intention of any licensed Star Trek source is usually (if not always) that the publication takes place in the continuity of some aspect of canon Star Trek. Although not specified or explicitly stated in each source, any publication will take place in the Star Trek primary universe, although a number will explicity provide that they also or exclusively take place in the mirror universe or the Kelvin timeline, with the added implication that the Kelvin timeline has its own mirror universe. There are occasional [[parallel universe]s encountered, but usually they are presented from the point of view of a person in the primary universe. In this way, we see those universes are parallel and alternate to the POV of the primary universe.

Unless a source has a notation that they are venturing or existing in another universe, we should never consider any contradictions in continuity as indicating the story is in some other universe other than those represented above.

Explained contradiction
The most extreme example of the difficulty of this approach is the canon form of the mirror universe, where the Terran Empire fell in the 24th century. Numerous valid licensed publications made before that was explored in canon do show the 24th century mirror universe in a very different form. Since every licensed mirror universe story where the mirror universe is or has been previously crossed over with the primary universe, it follows that there is a chance there are multiple mirror universes being encountered based on the paradox of having their reality crossed with another.

Other sources that contradict with canon or other licensed publications do not involve alternate reality crossovers, so this possibility of an "explained contradiction" is not valid in many other cases.

Star Trek after canon
Many stories present alternate futures, usually with the understanding of whether a predestination paradox in in play. In most all cases, it is clear that the future is unwritten, obviously because licensed sources don't tend to be honored when new productions are created.

Some exceptions are sources that take place after the last chronological canon production, which was the 2387 segments of 2009's Star Trek. Some comics, websites, novels and games have all been licensed to take place in this post-canon era. While they are correctly licensed to be published, and remain valid sources to this wiki, a later development of post-2387 canon could of course invalidate the concept.

In a special case of collaboration, post-canon "set after their series" novels of Pocket Books and the 25th century collaborated on a number of websites and a novel to narrate and chronicle the gap between their two continuities. The sole novel,, describes how STO represents a continuity where reality has diverged from that of the Pocket novels, in particular depicting the continued existence of the Borg.

The Pocket Books editorial program has included Destiny and the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, which has addressed a story thread that the Borg were destined to be stopped permanently, thus explaining how much of the time travel in Star Trek and the Temporal Cold War has determined that a universe where the Borg are stopped cold in the 24th century is the "correct" version of the universe, and that achievement is only possible because no other universes where the Borg survive could be considered viable.

There are a number of possibilities of how this could play out and they will ultimately determine how these continuities are treated on Memory Beta. A new or later canon production could override the far reaching implications of the post-Destiny novels and show a different version of the 2380s and 2390s, but remain uncontradictory with STO. It is equally possible new canon could invalidate the idea that STO is the 'actual' future of the primary universe, but be compatible with the post-Destiny Pocket material. Since these possibilities are impossible to predict, there should remain a hiatus on calling either as an "alternate timeline to canon" or an "alternate future". While they've confirmed they are alternate timelines to each other, their relationship to canon cannot be established until such time as canon proceeds.

A third possibility is that the post-Destiny novels and the STO 25th century will both be incompatible with a theoretical future canon production. Since they have established each other as alternate to each other unto themselves, they would both become explained contradictions and be developed as a special case on Memory Beta, just as the non-canon mirror universe has already been explained to be.

Real history
It would be nice to consider the Star Trek publications' universe as being our universe, but there are problems with that assumption. Historical fact is a valid source on Memory Beta, but only for sources mentioned or seen in Star Trek. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter have been mentioned in Star Trek, but Barack Obama and Donald Trump have not. So policy dictates we only give articles to those mentioned.

A further problem exists in that we have now passed several points in Star Trek history without having seen Star Trek come to pass. On a case-by-case basis, The Eugenics Wars and similar sources have explained most of the 1980s and 1990s contradictions between real-life history and Star Trek, but the absence of Anton York and Buck Bokai from modern newspapers is disheartening. According to some Star Trek stories, however, William Shatner and Gene Roddenberry have gotten to visit people from the Star Trek universe, so we know that it is a separate reality.

More to the point of Memory Beta's appraoch for editors, our historical fact policy extends to cover that we are responsible in biographical info about category:"real" people as Wikipedia or any other reputable wiki would be.