I started writing this article last year but it soon spiralled out of control, so I had to take a break from it. Given how long it became, I’m releasing it in several parts. Also, I’m not covering Discovery here.
Star Trek is a massive, sprawling franchise that has been with us for over fifty years. In that time, numerous writers, directors and producers have worked on the show, so it’s no wonder that the franchise has accumulated a fair amount of continuity errors and inconsistencies – some accidental, some deliberate.
However, what’s also true is that science-fiction tends to attract the kind of people who spend a lot of time obsessing over details and wanting everything to fit together into a coherent and logical narrative. In fact, as part of my research for this post, I ended up reading a 68-page forum thread on continuity errors in Star Trek, which went down such rabbit holes as the relative merits of Voyager and Enterprise; whether Chekov was on board the NCC-1701 during the episode Space Seed, and even the definition of canon itself. Having emerged from that thread with some inspiration, and some ideas of my own, I now present to you a range of Star Trek continuity errors that we, as fans, have to come up with some really creative explanations just to rationalise them away. Continue reading