warpus
Sommerswerd asked me to change this
Yeah, that appeals to me too, but I'm realistic!
I realize that each series and even individual episodes are written and produced by different people.. people who are more interested in entertaining the audience more than anything else.It's just unrealistic to expect a fully self-contained Universe that's near-perfect in consistency when you're talking about a Hollywood creation. Within 1 season, sure, that's sort of doable.. it doesn't really happen very often, but it's doable. 7 season? Eh, that's much harder. Across multiple series and almost a dozen movies? Come on, be realistic.. Why do you think they did a "reboot"? There's just too much baggage to try to keep track of. Which I'm sure they do try - just not nearly as hard as some people would want them to.
Yeah, it's just the people who make these episodes don't care as much about that... and in many cases they really can't.
There isn't an accepted-by-the-studio "canon". They don't have a big book that outlines what the Star Trek Universe is like and what's contained within it. It's the fans that each have their own notions of what should be contained in this canon. There are fan community (sort of) accepted pillars that not too many people would disagree about, but the disagreements start with the details...
So it's not like the studio can even reference some sort of a book that lists the canon - because such a thing doesn't exist. So it's not like they can hire a "consistency guru" to oversee production of each episode. Not only would he have no background material to reference when making his "this isn't consistent" calls, it would also incredibly stifle the production of the show. I suppose he could first produce a giant "Star Trek Bible", but the Star Trek Universe isn't exactly very consistent.. So where do you start and what do you throw out? It's impossible, at this point. If it was done before the show began, it would be.. but..
I mean, you can get incredibly picky with this stuff, and different fans view different things as being important. If you're going to have a guy making sure that there aren't any consistencies.. guess what! There's been decades of Star Trek! It's all incredibly inconsistent.. You're not going to be able to make the next episode inconsistent when the entire Universe is already out of whack.
Me? I care about consistency, but not in such a pedantic manner. If a species shows up in episode 2 and then they're back in episode 17 with a slightly different type of nose, I won't care too much. If a minor's character name is messed up - meh, mistakes happen. The sort of consistency problems I have an issue with is something that has a huge impact on the story. If the story is about a planet that they're trying to get to because it has the fountain of youth on it - and in season 2 all of a sudden that is conveniently forgotten.. THEN I'll start moaning and groaning about consistency. Most of the things other Star Trek complain about? Doesn't bother me too much.
I do demand a universe I can immerse myself in when I watch a movie or read a book.. but it doesn't have to be 100% consistent to the very last detail. That's just an unrealistic expectation.
