Battlestar Wiki:Canon: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 18:14, 29 May 2007

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. 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 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.

The SF television show Babylon 5 is unique in that all published works are considered canonical by the series creators. However, other shows such as Star Trek have many officially-licensed stories (books and comics) that are not considered non-canonical because the story content often contradicts the aired episodes or theatrical films of the program. The Star Wars franchise attempts to unify their officially-licensed novels and comics into the central movie storyline, with general success.

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 and Re-imagined Series, interviews and podcasts from cast and crew, and publicity information from the Sci-Fi Channel website 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.

@@ 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.
+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.  The term was originally a term used to differentiate heretical from accepted scripture in the [[w:Roman Catholic Church|Catholic Church]].
-For fans of the work, identifying canonical stories, characters and the like reduce the level of confusion in keeping track of storylines.
+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.
-In contrast, a non-canonical work involves characters, events and locales that match one or more criteria:
+For fans of the work, identifying canonical stories, characters and the like 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.
-*Are officially-licensed works, such as novels or comics, which contradict aired content of the parent show
+The SF television show ''[[w:Babylon 5|Babylon 5]]'' is unique in that all published works are considered canonical by the series creators. However, other shows such as ''[[memoryalpha:Star Trek|Star Trek]]'' have many officially-licensed stories (books and comics) that are not considered non-canonical because the story content often contradicts the aired episodes or theatrical films of the program. The ''[[w:Star Wars|Star Wars]]'' franchise attempts to unify their officially-licensed novels and comics into the central movie storyline, with general success.
-*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.
 ==What's Canonical in ''Battlestar Galactica?''==
@@ Line 14: / Line 11: @@
 '''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 and Re-imagined Series, interviews and podcasts from cast and crew, and publicity information from the Sci-Fi Channel website 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 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.
+Battlestar Wiki does not allow [[fan fiction]] or [[fanwanking]] of any kind in whole or in part in any article.
+==See Also==
-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.
+[[w:Canon (fiction)|Canon (fiction)]], from Wikipedia.
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 [[Category:Terminology]]
 [[Category:Hollywood Buzzwords]]