Headcanon - The Discovery/Strange New Worlds Vs TOS conundrum
This is how I personally consider Star Trek Discovery and Strange New Worlds in relation to The Original Series.
Headcanon/canon-fix, sort of.
Posted also at Dreamwidth, Tumblr and AO3.
Discovery is set in a divergence timeline, very close to the main but different, unwillingly created by doctor Gabrielle Burnham when she used the Red Angel suit to travel through time.
Doctor Burnham was meant to be left for dead by the Klingons and miraculously survive the brutal attack (either disabled or needing a long recovery), with Michael to grow up with her. Michael would eventually pursue a scientific career that would lead her to meet and work with astromycologist Stamets.
But, by removing herself from her own time and being officially recorded as dead, doctor Burnham changed not only the future of her own daughter (who was left orphaned) and of Sarek's family (the house where Michael was adopted into) but also the lives of people either she or her daughter were meant to meet or influence, and even bigger events within the Federation, as no Commander Burnham was meant to serve in Starfleet.
All the people doctor Burnham was meant to meet, work with or inspire, or were meant to meet a Michael Burnham who didn't grow up in a Vulcan household, had their lives changed. For most of these people, the changes were subtle (a childhood love that was never experienced, a schoolmate that never was, a fellow scientist who started their research without a Burnham at their side), for others the course that was set for their life was drastically modified.
The perceived death of a Gabrielle Burnham and consequent different career for her daughter Michael caused changes such as the enlisting of Kirk's older brother, Samuel Kirk, while Stamets and his friend Straal have the opportunity to start their research that lead to the spore drive.
Captain Pike also grows into a similar and yet different person, both in personality and in how he approaches his role as captain and relates to his crew. The Pike he was meant to be was recruited as a cadet by Section 31 to take part to black ops. As a young officer, he would be involved in a top-secret mission to recover a time crystal to finally replace the one destroyed during the Klingon attack to the Burnhams. The mission would be brutal and the discover of the Daedalus Project would test Pike's moral compass so much that he would destroy the time crystal and then leave Section 31, but not before his personality was drastically influenced and the heaviness of this dark secret weighting him, making him a strict and somehow cold commanding officer, vary of especially females officers. While achieving a successful career, he wasn't meant to become the most decorated captain of his time, like his divergence counterpart.
Spock, with the presence of a sister he wasn't meant to have and consequent split attention from Amanda, grows into a slightly different Vulcan teenager, and his different life leads him to the decision to get to know T'Pring, the Vulcan his father chose for him as his future bondmate, and start a physical and romantic relationship with her - while his counterpart shared no time with her and his only memory of her is how she looked when they both were children.
The ripples of the changes reached out beyond timespace, sparkling the creation of a different Mirror Universe that would reflect the essential presence and influence of Michael Burnham, a universe that would eventually cross Burnham's path.
It is unknown if the Spock whose message to Picard Michael watches in the future is the Spock she learned to call "brother" or the Spock that continued with his life unaltered, and who never knew a person called Michael Burnham, and it's likely no-one will ever know, unless Michael manages to find her way back to the past and live through it to witness her brother's attempt (or not) to unify Vulcans and Romulans.
The change to the timeline also means that it is unclear if Pike's fate is really set as it looks, or if whenever Pike discovered to his future - or attempted to change it - he actually accessed his future, and not the future of the Pike who was meant to be.
Notes: Since the decision to make Michael Burnham Spock's lost sister, the new course for tv Trek is placing one retcon after retcon, so much that Strange New Worlds feels like a soft retcon to most of what didn't work/is outdated in both The Cage and The Original Series.
While Strange New Worlds - from what I read - sounds entertaining and refreshing, it's becoming clear that the more the series will continue the more it'll be hard to see these new Enterprise iterations as prequel to The Original Series. It's hard to reconcile the Jeffrey Hunter!Pike from the lost 1965 pilot to the charming and wonderful character played by Anson Mount. Not to mention Peck!Spock and the heavy retcon of his relationship with T'Pring, or why M'Benga is suddenly the CMO but then he'll be demoted to just physician (senior?) under Kirk. And please, let's not even talk about Chapel, who is an (OC) complete new character, and Spock's feelings for her.
It's not only the big things but also the small things: I can't just see Celia Rose Gooding as a young Nichelle Nichols (although they both have charming smiles!) nor I can't see any reasons to put Sam Kirk in Starfleet (another Kirk - let's remember that technically George on the Kelvin is TOS canon, since it's pre-split, and Winona's presence, while not confirmed canon, would imply that she's could be an officer as well). Yeah - I have a beef with most of the decisions that impact on characters or relationships established on TOS.
But. The material itself is good (and the casting even more) and it would be a great disservice to dismiss it and pretend it doesn't exist. This is my attempt at keeping The Original Series as it is, untouched, and at the same time saving everything that has been narrated in new Trek so far.
This is also a way for me to keep all three Spocks (well, actually five, if we include Prime in AOS and Mirror) together to be played with - and yeah, to keep a door open for Pike's escape to his fate.
Headcanon/canon-fix, sort of.
Posted also at Dreamwidth, Tumblr and AO3.
Discovery is set in a divergence timeline, very close to the main but different, unwillingly created by doctor Gabrielle Burnham when she used the Red Angel suit to travel through time.
Doctor Burnham was meant to be left for dead by the Klingons and miraculously survive the brutal attack (either disabled or needing a long recovery), with Michael to grow up with her. Michael would eventually pursue a scientific career that would lead her to meet and work with astromycologist Stamets.
But, by removing herself from her own time and being officially recorded as dead, doctor Burnham changed not only the future of her own daughter (who was left orphaned) and of Sarek's family (the house where Michael was adopted into) but also the lives of people either she or her daughter were meant to meet or influence, and even bigger events within the Federation, as no Commander Burnham was meant to serve in Starfleet.
All the people doctor Burnham was meant to meet, work with or inspire, or were meant to meet a Michael Burnham who didn't grow up in a Vulcan household, had their lives changed. For most of these people, the changes were subtle (a childhood love that was never experienced, a schoolmate that never was, a fellow scientist who started their research without a Burnham at their side), for others the course that was set for their life was drastically modified.
The perceived death of a Gabrielle Burnham and consequent different career for her daughter Michael caused changes such as the enlisting of Kirk's older brother, Samuel Kirk, while Stamets and his friend Straal have the opportunity to start their research that lead to the spore drive.
Captain Pike also grows into a similar and yet different person, both in personality and in how he approaches his role as captain and relates to his crew. The Pike he was meant to be was recruited as a cadet by Section 31 to take part to black ops. As a young officer, he would be involved in a top-secret mission to recover a time crystal to finally replace the one destroyed during the Klingon attack to the Burnhams. The mission would be brutal and the discover of the Daedalus Project would test Pike's moral compass so much that he would destroy the time crystal and then leave Section 31, but not before his personality was drastically influenced and the heaviness of this dark secret weighting him, making him a strict and somehow cold commanding officer, vary of especially females officers. While achieving a successful career, he wasn't meant to become the most decorated captain of his time, like his divergence counterpart.
Spock, with the presence of a sister he wasn't meant to have and consequent split attention from Amanda, grows into a slightly different Vulcan teenager, and his different life leads him to the decision to get to know T'Pring, the Vulcan his father chose for him as his future bondmate, and start a physical and romantic relationship with her - while his counterpart shared no time with her and his only memory of her is how she looked when they both were children.
The ripples of the changes reached out beyond timespace, sparkling the creation of a different Mirror Universe that would reflect the essential presence and influence of Michael Burnham, a universe that would eventually cross Burnham's path.
It is unknown if the Spock whose message to Picard Michael watches in the future is the Spock she learned to call "brother" or the Spock that continued with his life unaltered, and who never knew a person called Michael Burnham, and it's likely no-one will ever know, unless Michael manages to find her way back to the past and live through it to witness her brother's attempt (or not) to unify Vulcans and Romulans.
The change to the timeline also means that it is unclear if Pike's fate is really set as it looks, or if whenever Pike discovered to his future - or attempted to change it - he actually accessed his future, and not the future of the Pike who was meant to be.
Notes: Since the decision to make Michael Burnham Spock's lost sister, the new course for tv Trek is placing one retcon after retcon, so much that Strange New Worlds feels like a soft retcon to most of what didn't work/is outdated in both The Cage and The Original Series.
While Strange New Worlds - from what I read - sounds entertaining and refreshing, it's becoming clear that the more the series will continue the more it'll be hard to see these new Enterprise iterations as prequel to The Original Series. It's hard to reconcile the Jeffrey Hunter!Pike from the lost 1965 pilot to the charming and wonderful character played by Anson Mount. Not to mention Peck!Spock and the heavy retcon of his relationship with T'Pring, or why M'Benga is suddenly the CMO but then he'll be demoted to just physician (senior?) under Kirk. And please, let's not even talk about Chapel, who is an (OC) complete new character, and Spock's feelings for her.
It's not only the big things but also the small things: I can't just see Celia Rose Gooding as a young Nichelle Nichols (although they both have charming smiles!) nor I can't see any reasons to put Sam Kirk in Starfleet (another Kirk - let's remember that technically George on the Kelvin is TOS canon, since it's pre-split, and Winona's presence, while not confirmed canon, would imply that she's could be an officer as well). Yeah - I have a beef with most of the decisions that impact on characters or relationships established on TOS.
But. The material itself is good (and the casting even more) and it would be a great disservice to dismiss it and pretend it doesn't exist. This is my attempt at keeping The Original Series as it is, untouched, and at the same time saving everything that has been narrated in new Trek so far.
This is also a way for me to keep all three Spocks (well, actually five, if we include Prime in AOS and Mirror) together to be played with - and yeah, to keep a door open for Pike's escape to his fate.