Alpha Canon, Beta Canon, Head Canon. Or: Do we get robbed of stories and adventures with our heroes when they die seemingly unnecessary deaths on screen?
posted on:
This is a very late response to something I read some years ago on social media in response to beloved Star Trek characters being killed off on screen.
The short answer:
No.
The long answer:
No, because there are books, and comics, and games, and audio dramas, and fan fiction, -- and what you dream up in your head. What's on the screen may be official, but it's not all there is. The tv series and films only show us one way a story can go. There are so many more. The screenwriters aren't the only people allowed to write stories. And even if you don't write stories, you can still imagine them. That's what your head is for. Use it.
The even longer answer:
I love Star Trek. The good, the bad, the ugly. All of it. Slap "Star Trek" on it and I'm going to watch and love it. No matter what. Is it always perfect? No. Do I have nitpicks? Of course.
How I deal with these cases is as follows:
- I know that Star Trek is story, not real life, and I treat it as such,
- I ignore alpha canon and stay with the books,
- Five words and a Hashtag1: I refuse to accept that. #headcanon.
About a)
A story is a story is a story. Someone imagines it and tells it. And because that someone is a human, there may be parts of it that are not perfect or to our liking. And that's ok, because it's just a story, a work of fiction, something imagined. I cannot be robbed of anything by someone else's imagination. And therefore, if a beloved character dies, I am allowed to imagine a different turn of the story.
About b)
In Star Trek everything on screen is official and therefore "alpha canon". Only what you see on screen counts for everything that comes after. The stuff that happens in the books and comics, the games, and the audio dramas is officialy licensed, but not official canon. Not really at least. Or only until it is contradicted on screen. Or something in between. But who cares? I certainly don't. And the only people who actually should care are the screenwriters. Because for everybody else this "beta canon" is a great enrichment to the world we love so much. Just think about all the adventures our beloved characters and a whole lot of new ones can go on! There are novels and comics that continue storylines or even whole shows after they have been concluded on screen. There are stories that are set inbetween seasons or even episodes. I bet there are stories that are set during episodes. There are whole new series written. Star Trek in the novels is huge. There even was a whole "LitVerse" of interconnected novels that came to an end in an epic trilogy in 2021. In short:
- Sometimes books are written, but their stories get contradicted later by what happens on screen.
- Sometimes books are written to right the wrongs that happened on screen. (#TripLives)
- Most of the times both alpha and beta canons live happily alongside each other.
About c)
And sometimes, if neither screen nor book does our favourite hero justice, we can still dream up our own stories. We can write them down as fan fiction or just keep them for ourselves in our heads.
Onscreen, "alpha" canon is not everything. In the end, Star Trek is just2 a story. A dream. And you, my dear reader, can be the dreamer. ;)
- Elena.
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