The term canon refers to the established, unchangeable rules, story, timeline, etc. For the Catholic Church, the Bible is canon, as is Canon Law. It is to them, the undisputeable truth. For Tolkien fans The Lord of the Rings is canon. It is material that cannot be changed or altered. In Star Trek, however, everyone has their own canon. Some only consider The Original Series, where others accept various combinations taken from all of the series, movies, novels, games, Genes early thoughts, Genes later thoughts, the official Paramount position, etc. Every Star Trek group, forum, board, list, and individual fan will have a different view of canon. So this page is for players in my games. This is my explanation of Pirate Trek, or Star Trek According to The Crimson Pirate. It lists what I consider canon, what I consider guidelines, what I'm neutral about, and what I won't touch with a 10 meter cattle prod. Your mileage may vary.

Canon

This is material that I consider to be 'set in stone' more or less. Obviously some things are open to interpretation based on dialogue, or other factors. However this is the primary source material for "Pirate Trek" which is the version of the FASA Star Trek universe used in my games.

1. Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)
2. Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS)
3. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP)
4. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (TWK)
5. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (TSFS)
6. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (TVH)
7. FASA Star Trek: The roleplaying Game (STRPG or FASA STRPG)
8. FASA Star Trek: Starship Tactical Combat Simulator (STSTCS, STCS, FASA STSTCS, FASA STCS)

Guidlines

This is material that may contradict the previous sources in some instances, or mess with established Trek as it was at the time I started playing (which was before most of these were produced). It may have brought to light things that were not previously known, and thus filled in already in a different way to facilitate game play. Most of this material I will include, or consider. Some I will not. By this time Gene was well into his control freak hippie era, and was trying to erase anything that didn't jive with his neo communist utopian ideal. He began trying to rewrite history, and even attempted to eliminate the animated series from existence. Generally, if it is a race, ship, or something concrete I'll include it. If it is a characteristic, cultural, or historical change I won't. If your one of my players and you don't find something from these sources in the game material, then ask. I won't hurt you, I promise....

1. Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG)
2. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DSN or DS9)
3. Star Trek: Voyager (VOY)

Nuetral to Negative

This is material that I don't generally consider or include. By this point the franchise was in the habit of contradicting itself on almost every point. Genes hippy utopianism had died with him. Control of the franchise was given to Berman, and Braga(SP?) who treated it as a cash machine. Exceptions will be on a case by case basis, so if you like something, ask. I'll review it, we'll discuss, and then we'll see.

1. Star Trek VII: Generations
2. Star Trek VIII: First Contact
3. Star Trek IX: Insurrection
4. Star Trek X: Nemesis
5. Last Unicorn Games Star Trek Roleplaying Game (LUG, LUG ST, LUG STRPG)
6. Decipher Star Trek Roleplaying Game (DST, DSTRPG)

Forget About It

This is material I really wish didn't exist, and won't be included in Pirate Trek. It almost always ignored, rewrote, or unacceptably altered established Trek, and did bad, bad things with the franchise.

1. Star Trek: Enterprise (ENT)
2. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (TFF)
3. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (TUC)
4. ANY AND ALL Star Trek Novels-If you bring up a point based on something in a novel I will throw you out of my game, my apartment, and chase you down the street beating you with a rolled up newspaper! If your a big fan of the various novels, maybe my gaming group isn't for you.

Here are some specific points on which I differ from what is currently considered canon in most circles.

Firing While cloaked: According to the dialogue in two episodes of TOS (Balance of Terror, and Enterprise Incident) the reason the Romulan ships could not fire while cloaked was that they didn't have sufficient power to do both. If you'r in a vessel equipped with a cloaking device, and you have sufficient power units to arm a weapon and power the cloaking device, then in Pirate Trek you can cloak, and fire. Of course it is like firing a flare, and any opponents will have a good idea of where you are, so choose your shots carefully.

Romulan Origins:I go with the original explanation, which was also used by FASA. The Romulans were seeded on their homeworld by the Preservers in a prehistoric, neolithic (or even more primitive) stage. Their relationship to Vulcans is about the same as Humans to Alpha Centaurans. They DID NOT come from disaffected Vulcans fleeing the reforms in huge colony ships. Let me repeat DID NOT!

Constitution verses Enterprise:The original Enterprise, as seen in TOS was a Constitution class vessel. It went through several refits, and finally was almost completely redesigned around newly developed technology in the movie era. At this time it was designated as a new class, since it was radically different from its original design, and the class was designated Enterprise in honor of the most noteable Constitution class ship, and first Enterprise class ship. For reasons I haven't quite figured out some, or many, I don't know, consider the Enterprise class ships to be later marks of the constitution class. I don't. In Pirate Trek there are the older 'Connies' and the newer Enterprise classes. Many surviving 'Connies' were refit to enterprise Class.

Reliant verses Miranda:Well, at least the other side has a reasonable explanation for this, even if I don't accept it. The vessel named Reliant, seen in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was given in various publications at the time as the class ship of the Reliant class. Some years later it came to light that the designers had originally called it Miranda, but the name was changed for the movie. I go with Reliant class. Most others go with Miranda class, though I shall destroy the fools in a reign of fire! Ahem, anyway, the model was used and reused, and kit bashed, and used again ad nauseum leading to dozens, maybe hundreds of ships being considered variants or subsets of the class, or new classes derived from the older class. Again I consider them all variant marks of the Reliant class. So go suck a bug!

If you detect some hositlity it really isn't my fault. People keep changing things around, and screwing up the things that make sense to replace them with things that don't

Name of the Klingon Homeworld:It's Klinzhai, not Q'Nos (sp?). I Don't know where they got that one from. After decades of Klinzhai being the homeworld, Q'Nos suddenly appeared in TNG or one of the later series. It probably crept out of a novel, and as far as I'm concerned it can creep back.