Battlestar Wiki:Canon: Difference between revisions

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Latest revision as of 05:10, 30 September 2019

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This guideline is generally accepted among editors and is considered a standard (not policy) that all users should follow. However, it is not set in stone and should be treated with common sense and the occasional exception. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page.

"Canon" and "Non-Canon"

In science-fiction works, the term "canon" describes characters, events, and locales that are generated, recognized officially by the creators of the fictional universe, and shown to an audience in the context of a dramatized or written story. The term was originally a term used to differentiate heretical from accepted scripture in the Catholic Church.

A "non-canonical" story, in comparison, is not considered an official element of the storyline in a particular work of fiction, commonly a series of novels of a television program.

For fans of the work, identifying canonical stories, characters and the like can reduce the level of confusion in keeping track of storylines. Determining whether an officially-licensed work is canonical or not is often a point of debate for many fans of a show or story. Aside from that, the distinction is mainly important for the shows' writers who need to know what source material to use and can't be expected to know the details of dozens or possibly hundreds of novels.

The SF television show Babylon 5 is unique in that all published works are considered canonical by the series's creators. However, other shows such as Star Trek have many officially licensed stories (books and comics) that are considered non-canonical and whose story content is therefore sometimes contradicted by the aired episodes or theatrical films later. The Star Wars franchise generally attempts to unify its licensed novels and comics into the central movie storyline, but the movies are not bound by details established in the novels either; while they sometimes make references to novels or comics, they also contradict them in other places.

Official

Aside from stories, "official" sources are another important resource. This refers to an approved document or piece of information that has been used collectively by the production staff of any series or movie as a starting point for writing and filming, but has (so far) been used only behind the scenes. This differentiates it from canonical information, which has made its way to the screen for the viewing audience. Since this information has not appeared on screen, writers and other production staff are free to violate official sources if they believe a story could benefit from it, and viewers should therefore not grant it the level of reliability of canon information. Jane Espenson described one such official source as "quasi-canon."^[1]

What's Canonical in Battlestar Galactica?

The Battlestar Wiki:Citation Jihad project article details sources that are considered official information for the Original Series and Re-imagined Series.

Battlestar Wiki recognizes all content from any aired episodes (including the Battlestar Galactica 2003 Miniseries and, at present, Galactica 1980) from the Original Series, the Re-imagined Series, Caprica, and Blood and Chrome, interviews and podcasts from cast and crew, and publicity information from the Sci Fi Channel as canonical unless otherwise retconned or retracted by the official sources.

Battlestar Wiki is an encyclopedia for all officially-licensed Battlestar properties, aired or printed, canonical or non-canonical. Thus, to prevent non-canonical storylines (from comics and novels) from conflicting with canonical aired information while fulfilling the wiki's mission of chronicling all officially-licensed stories, Battlestar Wiki marks articles with non-canonical characters, events and situations in accordance with its separate continuity policy.

Battlestar Wiki does not allow fan fiction or fanwanking of any kind in whole or in part in any article.

References

↑ Anders, Charlie Jane (24 January 2010). Detailed Map Of Battlestar Galactica's Twelve Colonies (backup available on Archive.org) . Retrieved on 29 January 2011.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-In science-fiction works, the term '''"canon"''' describes characters, events, and locales that are generated and recognized officially by the creators of the fictional universe.
+{{guideline}}
-For fans of the work, identifying canonical stories, characters and the like reduce the level of confusion in keeping track of storylines.
+{{Battlestar Wiki List of Policies}}
-In contrast, a non-canonical work involves characters, events and locales that match one or more criteria:
+=="Canon" and "Non-Canon"==
+In science-fiction works, the term '''"canon"''' describes characters, events, and locales that are generated, recognized officially by the creators of the fictional universe, and shown to an audience in the context of a dramatized or written story.  The term was originally a term used to differentiate heretical from accepted scripture in the [[w:Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]].
-*Are officially-licensed works, such as novels or comics, which contradict aired content of the parent show
+A '''"non-canonical"''' story, in comparison, is not considered an official element of the storyline in a particular work of fiction, commonly a series of novels of a television program.
-*Are [[fan fiction]], [[BW:FANW|fanwanking]] or other unofficial works which are not sanctioned or approved by the copyright holder
-Some science-fiction TV shows, like ''[[w:Babylon 5|Babylon 5]]'' or the ''[[w:Star Wars|Star Wars]]'' franchise have integrated much of its derivative novels, comics and other works as part of their canon. In contrast, the ''[[w:Star Trek|Star Trek]]'' franchise only considers filmed material (except for ''[[w:Star Trek: The Animated Series|The Animated Series]]'') canon, but not any kind of tie-in literature, like comics and novels, although those have to be consistent with the source material, and in recent years have usually been consistent among each other.
+For fans of the work, identifying canonical stories, characters and the like can reduce the level of confusion in keeping track of storylines. Determining whether an officially-licensed work is canonical or not is often a point of debate for many fans of a show or story. Aside from that, the distinction is mainly important for the shows' writers who need to know what source material to use and can't be expected to know the details of dozens or possibly hundreds of novels.
+The SF television show ''[[w:Babylon 5|Babylon 5]]'' is unique in that all published works are considered canonical by the series's creators. However, other shows such as ''[[memoryalpha:Star Trek|Star Trek]]'' have many officially licensed stories (books and comics) that are considered non-canonical and whose story content is therefore sometimes contradicted by the aired episodes or theatrical films later. The ''[[w:Star Wars|Star Wars]]'' franchise generally attempts to unify its licensed novels and comics into the central movie storyline, but the movies are not bound by details established in the novels either; while they sometimes make [[Wookieepedia:List of C-canon elements in the films|references to novels or comics]], they also contradict them in other places.
+==Official==
+Aside from stories, '''"official"''' sources are another important resource. This refers to an approved document or piece of information that has been used collectively by the production staff of any series or movie as a starting point for writing and filming, but has (so far) been used only behind the scenes.  This differentiates it from canonical information, which has made its way to the screen for the viewing audience.  Since this information has not appeared on screen, writers and other production staff are free to violate official sources if they believe a story could benefit from it, and viewers should therefore not grant it the level of reliability of canon information.  [[Jane Espenson]] described [[Battlestar_Galactica_Map_of_the_12_Colonies|one such official source]] as "quasi-canon."<ref name="io9">{{cite_web|url=http://io9.com/5742034/a-detailed-map-of-battlestar-galacticas-twelve-colonies?skyline=true&s=i|title=Detailed Map Of Battlestar Galactica's Twelve Colonies|date=24 January 2010|accessdate=29 January 2011|last=Anders|first=Charlie Jane|format=|language=English}}</ref>
 ==What's Canonical in ''Battlestar Galactica?''==
@@ Line 14: / Line 19: @@
 '''The [[Battlestar Wiki:Citation Jihad]] project''' article details sources that are considered official information for the [[Original Series]] and [[Re-imagined Series]].
-Generally, content from any ''aired'' episodes (including the [[Miniseries|''Battlestar Galactica'' 2003 Miniseries]]) from the Original Series and Re-imagined Series, interviews and podcasts from cast and crew, and publicity information from the Sci-Fi Channel website can be considered canonical unless otherwise [[Continuity errors (RDM)|retconned]] or retracted by the official sources.
+Battlestar Wiki recognizes all content from any ''aired'' episodes (including the [[Miniseries|''Battlestar Galactica'' 2003 Miniseries]] and, at present, ''[[Galactica 1980]]'') from the Original Series, the Re-imagined Series, ''[[Caprica_(series)|Caprica]]'', and ''[[Blood and Chrome]]'', interviews and podcasts from cast and crew, and publicity information from the [[Sci Fi Channel]] as canonical unless otherwise [[Continuity errors (RDM)|retconned]] or retracted by the official sources.
+Battlestar Wiki is an encyclopedia for all officially-licensed ''Battlestar'' properties, aired or printed, canonical or non-canonical. Thus, to prevent non-canonical storylines (from [[comics]] and [[List of Books|novels]]) from conflicting with canonical aired information while fulfilling the wiki's mission of chronicling all officially-licensed stories, Battlestar Wiki marks articles with non-canonical characters, events and situations in accordance with its [[BW:SEP|separate continuity]] policy.
-On Battlestar Wiki, we include non-canonical, officially-licensed characters, situations, events from novels, comics and the like for both ''Battlestar Galactica'' series as independent articles marked as ''[[BW:SEP|separate continuity]]'' works.
+Battlestar Wiki does not allow [[fan fiction]] or [[fanwanking]] of any kind in whole or in part in any article.
+== References ==
+<div style="font-size:85%"><references/></div>
+==See Also==
+[[w:Canon (fiction)|Canon (fiction)]], from Wikipedia.
 [[Category:A to Z]]
 [[Category:Terminology]]
 [[Category:Hollywood Buzzwords]]
+[[fr:{{FULLPAGENAME}}]]