If I do run a campaign again, It’s only going to be set around the TOS/TAS timeline. SNW/DIS exist in an alternate timeline so they won’t effect my campaign, I’m also not concerned with having my campaign stick to any idea of cannon or 100% matching what might be expected from tv shows or movies. I am also likely to pull elements from SFU to add to my campaign to fill out the world/setting with more factions and galactic political events and goings on. I might also mix in some TNG factions (cardassians, ferengi).
This is my slice of Trek that makes for an enjoyable experience
1 Like
I’m ignoring Discovery & Lower Decks. I haven’t seen the other newer series. I saw the 1st 2 seasons of Discovery and the 1st season of Lower decks and was not impressed at all. However if I can lift or modify something from the Discovery RPG material to fit I will.
Discovery was painful to watch as it had bad writing, tons of really bad science errors (the one about viruses not killing there host made me have to stop watching and take a break when I checked out seasons 1 & 2 from the local library as that and other bad science was making me ill.) , along with bad set design, and lighting, continuity issues, the acting, writing and the characters were not likable at all.
Lower Decks was annoying the characters were not sympathetic and I could stand the ADD/ADHD behavior that the show and characters had. (Maybe some one in the future thought that having more alpha waves would make people calmer and relaxed and ignored that this is not true and the characters got there brain waves messed up which is why the characters stupid kids with ADD/ADHD. People with ADD/ADHD make excises amount of alpha waves and alpha wave are not an indicator of a relaxed state.)
1 Like
Nothing but Star Trek, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and Star Trek: The Next Generation for me. I liked some Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager episodes but don’t care for the militaristic and nihilistic direction the franchise went after Star Trek: The Next Generation and the “prequel” series all conflict too much with what came before them so they’re out.
1 Like
I have decided to put the Discovery, TOS and TNG in the same timeline for my group since I’m interested in the Control existence/events/consequences since they are in 2372 with a section 31 operative player in charge of the ship IA human/computer hybrid
1 Like
TOS, TNG, DS9 and VOY were pretty good overall, but the inconsistent continuity of the prequels and bad writing of the recent series really turned me off. And as far as I’m concerned, the Kelvin timeline never existed.
1 Like
I can definitely see your point. I do like DS9 a lot, though if I am honest it is hard for me to choose a favorite. But I can easily point out the unwatchable drek 
I liked DS9 because they did a good (for Hollywood, passable for reality) job of a paramilitary organization that prefers exploring the boundaries of the known universe and knowledge being forced to turn from that to a war oriented stance. There were MANY episodes the centered around a characters principles being hit head on by the reality of conflict.
I consider TOS as a separate line because it was from an program era that required a show to meet certain formulas. I still really enjoy it, but I acknowledge the different times.
TNG has good and really really bad episodes. But they understood how to tell a good story though they still tried to stay episodic.
ENT and VOY had their good parts but the overall plot arcs were bad. Just garbage. Which really makes Kate Mulgrew’s treatment so bad in my eyes. I think she was the best actor to play a Starfleet Captain, but the writers turned her into schizoid captain of the multiple personalities. The way her characters personality flipped and flopped episode to episodes made the show unwatchable. But it would be a disservice to Mulgrew to not acknowledge she was able to portray each and every steaming pile they threw at her. Very good actress.
For ENT, it didn’t actual get good until the very last episodes when they knew they were cancelled.
As for the new stuff, I have only seen a little. I just couldn’t make it all the way through season one of STD and PIC, the whole grim dark grim evil is really good blood blood torture vibe they doubled down. It was so anti-trek none of the original Trek fans I know (defined as people who have actually watched TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT) will even acknowledge them. I understand that people that have never seen them have no frame of reference, but when we get some of the younger crowd (younger than 30’s) to sit down and watch TNG or DS9) they usually have a WTF moment and ask about the rest of Trek while abandoning STD/PIC.
The animated show is a study of hazing and just uncouth behavior with a Trek logo slapped on it. South Park is designed to be insulting and call people out. The animated Trek tries to have the insult part without a purpose other than showing bulling, hazing and when bigotry is OK. The episode I did see surprised me it wasn’t on a late night adult only channel/stream.
As for the Kelvin Trek. I really enjoyed the first one, and though they did a decent job with the Romulans, the Romulan ship was a pile. And the flashing light shaky cam cinematography wasn’t a good choice. I did like the casting, though better writers and script could have been better. The last two movies took whatever was good in the first and threw them away for big flashy things while destroying great characters and storylines. They are a case study in how to take a great cast and concept and throw it away. If existing characters and storylines do not have what you need, create new. But it makes it even worse when a bad story also destroys an existing and well loved existing character and storyline. Khan is an iconic Trek character and it would have been very difficult for another actor to step in in the first place. But to totally subvert the actual characters story as well? Meh, we saw how that went.
1 Like
I don’t think you mean Prodigy here, because Prodigy is absolutely fantastic. It not only introduces the ideals of the Federation and Starfleet, it shows how those ideals can inspire people to work together for a better future.
And Lower Decks is hilarious, but it grows beyond just jokes and easter egg references to older Trek to having good character development and stories.
I thought that Picard S1 made the case that even if the Federation was darker than we expected, the good guys still fought for a better future.
I’ve watched all of those, and I like the new stuff.
4 Likes
Second.
(Also I need to type more than 10 characters, so, for a second time: Second!)
2 Likes
I’ve watched TNG, DS9, ENT when they were originally aired, and I quite enjoy DIS, PIC, SNW, and LD. I haven’t watched Prodigy yet. The other shows truly show their Star Trek legacy. And DIS Season 3 felt so optimistic during the grim dark real word stuff going on. That’s why I am watching Star Trek. Also PIC 3 ended on a hugely optimistic note. So, yes, these shows are canon to me.
If I would start a new campaign, I’d either continue my current timeline (concurrent with the end of VOY and LD) or I’d be tempted to start a campaign in 2502 after the events of PIC season 3. But there I am still missing a lot of starship profiles.
1 Like
I am with you. The multiverse of Star Trek is the only way to reconcile the story and technology inconsistencies.
TOS, TAS, and the first six are certainly Prime.
Ent, SNW, Disco are a timeline created when the Borg went back in time.
Voy and DS9 play out like episodes of each is Prime and the E/S/D timeline. I say this because events and technologies don’t seem to return.
Lower Decks is spoof and delightful, but I would not consider anything happening in LD to be canon elsewhere.
The TNG movies do the same thing appearing to be at once Prime and E/S/D again with stories and technology the doesn’t come back.
The JJ movies are their own universe and they say that formally on screen. Which makes them acceptable.
Picard, well that seems to be a different universe entirely each season, and not Prime either.
I am am a fan of one more than another, but if I was GM and my players want to play a crew in one style or another, I will give them my best.
4 Likes
Although for me all series (except the Kelvin’verse (which BTW did not split from the Prime TL, but was always a separate TL)) are part of the same timeline, I follow a different approach for my campaigns. None of them take place in the Prime TL, so I can do whatever I want.
2 Likes
for me it’s all prime timeline but it’s also largely irrelevant. the exact details of what happens in any episode of TOS TNG, Discovery etc are likely going to be MOSTLY irrelevant to the adventures of my crew. I mean discovery’s impact timeline wise amounts to “there was a major war with the Klingons that saw the fractures empire reunited and eventually peace was formed” not a huuuge deal TBH.
TOS TNG and voyager largely deal with single events on a single ship (TNG had the Klingon Civil war and the stuff with the Borg that had greater implications but beyond that not a whole bunch) DS9 has pretty big implications sure but if you’re playing in the time period you proably want to do Dominion War stuff.
Ultimately when I GM I borrow from anything I can for inspiration, I’ll borrow from Non-Trek for ideas if it comes to it. And if a player wants to take an idea from an “offical trek source” I’m going to talk it over with them and not rear up and claim “IT’S NOT REALLY PART OF THE PRIME TIMELINE” (especially when CBS/Paramount says otherwise) that said I completely ignore the discovery Klingon re-design. the newest episode of SNW proves even CBS/Paramount has realized nobody likes them
2 Likes
For my campaigns, ENT (except the series finale), TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY (for all its warts) are canon, as are the first 9 movies. The parts of TAS that Roddenberry considered background canon (especially the parts regarding Spock’s personal history) is also canon.
The abomination that was the ENT series finale is only a holodeck scenario created by Troi, so it didn’t actually happen. (So, no stupid Trip suicide, nor the stupid Shran situation…none of it.) It is, though, part of Riker’s experience during the Pegasus episode.
I can’t include ST X, just because the plot was much too silly and they tried too hard to make it a TWOK-clone.
Nothing Bad Reboot or Kurtzman Trek exists in my campaigns. Their third rate garbage isn’t Star Trek, and never will be in my mind.
3 Likes
Personally, only stuff from 2005 or earlier is canon for us, plus maybe SNW.
We weren’t fans of Discovery and it basically writes itself out of canon anyway - although the Klingon war will probably be part of our canon. Picard is set too late. Kelvin only affects the prime in that Spock dies/disappears. We haven’t seen Lower Decks so we can’t include that. I haven’t seen Prodigy so I can’t include that anyway.
So yeah, TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, the films up to Nemesis, plus maybe SNW.
2 Likes