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Is Prodigy still canon? (startrek.website)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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As you may have heard, Paramount cancelled Prodigy, halting production on its almost-complete second season, and removed the show from its service. The primary reason to do this, other than to streamline their content in light of the service's upcoming merger with Showtime, was to generate a tax loss -- a disturbing trend among streaming services.

Placing the commercial question aside, this has implications for the franchise. If Prodigy has effectively been deleted from the historical record and is no longer available to watch, is it still canon? The last time something equivalent happened was when the original Animated Series was unavailable for decades, and it was largely not treated as canon by subsequent shows. Nowadays it is counted as official canon (which introduces some complications), but it's also widely available. The likelihood that they will tell a story in the future where this makes a difference is low, but it's still worth clarifying.

What do you think?

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[–] T156 1 points 1 year ago

If Prodigy has effectively been deleted from the historical record and is no longer available to watch, is it still canon?

Yes. Unless otherwise stated or contradicted, it was on television or film, and is therefore considered canon.

The last time something equivalent happened was when the original Animated Series was unavailable for decades, and it was largely not treated as canon by subsequent shows.

From memory, it was Roddenberry who wanted to decanonise the animated series (for what reason, we may never know), but it was specifically stated as "not canon", rather than being left ambiguous.

But the show being inaccessible doesn't mean that it isn't canon either.

What do you think?

I think that it'll still be treated as canon, but in the same way that lower decks treats the animated series, with little hints here and there, rather than an out-and-out acknowledgement. If there's a contradiction in whatever new series takes its place, then that is what will happen.

Personally, I think that where the show is now isn't the worst stopping point either. It's at a place where it could be neatly picked up as a separate series, with little by way of problems.