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Wikipedia:WikiProject Star Trek

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WikiProject Star Trek was formed to foster the creation and improvement of Star Trek-related articles, and to establish guidelines for those articles. Its members endeavor to produce an authoritative reference on Star Trek materials (canon and non-canon), which is easy to read and has a consistent style. To participate, simply add your name to the participants page.

Recent changes in Star Trek-related articles

Parentage

Star Trek episode creation sometimes overlaps with WikiProject List of Television Episodes.

Project alerts

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Article style and guidelines

Template: Star Trek, detailed below, should be placed on every Star Trek page. Please follow the guidelines detailed at Category: Star Trek templates for more specific information.


Infobox

Template:ST episode

All Star Trek articles should contain an infobox when appropriate. These are practical quick reference for traditional datapoints for things like episodes/movies, characters, races, or ships/units. An example of an infobox for the episode "Spock's Brain" is shown to the right.

Article Titles

As per Disambiguation Guidelines, articles should only be disambiguated when the disambiguation is necessary. This is also true for articles on individual Star Trek episodes - the title of the article should be the name of the episode, disambiguated only if the name of the episode is ambiguous.

For example, Spock's Brain is not disambiguated because "Spock's Brain" is not an ambiguous name. However, Arena (Star Trek: The Original Series) is disambiguated because there are other articles with the name "Arena".

All disambiguation on Star Trek articles, when required, should conform to the following naming convention:

e.g. Arena (Star Trek: The Original Series)
e.g. Bem (Star Trek: The Animated Series)
e.g. Brothers (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
e.g. Babel (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
e.g. Scorpion (Star Trek: Voyager)
e.g. United (Star Trek: Enterprise)
  • Title (Star Trek) – for any other Star Trek article or file, disambiguated or equivalent
e.g. Vulcan (Star Trek)

For articles on individual Star Trek episodes, if no disambiguation is needed on the article title, a redirect should be created at the disambiguated title pointing to the actual article. For example, Spock's Brain is an episode article that requires no disambiguation. Therefore, Spock's Brain (TOS episode) has been created as a redirect to Spock's Brain.

In case of ambiguity or inconsistency in capitalisation of words in titles, deference should be given to episode entries in licensed Star Trek compendiums – viz. The Star Trek Encyclopedia.

Fiction on Wikipedia

Editors should keep in mind that Wikipedia is an out-of-universe source, all articles should take an out-of-universe perspective. All articles should also conform to Wikipedia's guidelines on writing about fiction.

Style and format

General

Star Trek (plain text, without italics) should be used when describing the fictional universe, franchise, or related phenomena:

e.g. The Star Trek franchise is one of the most lucrative in television history.
e.g. In the Star Trek fictional universe, Data is an android that is "fully functional".

Star Trek (italics) should be used when referring to specific series, genres, episodes, and movies:

e.g. The series Star Trek debuted in 1966.
e.g. The series Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted in 1987.
e.g. Both Kirk and Picard appeared in Star Trek Generations.
  • Since the name of the original series is properly Star Trek, and to promote clarity, full in-text references to the original series should generally appear as the retronym Star Trek: The Original Series (or its TLA/Es); see below.

Episodes

To reference certain episodes you may use the reference system, an example as follows:

<ref name="Breaking the Ice">{{cite episode| title=Breaking the Ice| episodelink=Breaking the Ice (Star Trek: Enterprise)| series=Star Trek: Enterprise| serieslink=Star Trek: Enterprise}}</ref>

Where "Breaking the Ice" is the title name, series and serieslink also require changing as well as the TLA.

To show the references the below code should be placed at the bottom of the article or above the external links section:

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

Movies

In articles, initial in-text references to movie titles should appear wikified and italicised, optionally followed by its TLA/E:

Title, e.g. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Title (TLA/E), e.g. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (ST2:TWOK)
Title (TLA/E), e.g. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (TWOK)

When listing multiple items, the TLA/E alone for a movie can be used upfront and wikified (see 'Borg' example above in "Episodes").

Subsequent in-text references for movies in the same article need not be wikified, and can either be the TLA/E or abbreviated title:

TLA/E, e.g. TWOK
(TLA/E), e.g. (ST2:TWOK)
brief title, e.g. The Wrath of Khan

Canonicity

Since articles about fictional characters, places, events and objects should be written in an out-of-universe perspective, most of the issues regarding canon vs non-canon simply fall away, as no information should be presented as fact, and it all should be sourced. Canon status can, however, inform the prominence and relevance of information.

Canon

Main article: Star Trek canon

In brief, this is all on-screen material, with the exception of the animated series (see below). Sources for canon information should be noted, ideally with context (was the information in dialogue, seen on-screen or was it from an Okudagram?). Editors are encouraged to not rely on the Encyclopedia's attribution of facts to the episodes and check for themselves, as the Encyclopedia does not always note when it is speculating.

TLA/Es for each also appear. Paramount presently recognise the Star Trek continuity as:

Television series

Films

* For clarity, use of TLAs with Roman numerals to denote films is discouraged.

According to The Star Trek Encyclopedia, Gene Roddenberry unsuccessfully attempted to have elements of the films Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country declared apocryphal.

Speculation from Star Trek writers and backstories created for characters but never indicated on screen are not canon. Spellings of words found in scripts may be used.

Where the remastered version of the original series differs from the older version both versions should be presented. New information (such as new ship models not depicted on the original version), should be explicitly cited to the remastered version.

Semi-canon

There is a body of officially licensed reference work produced by people who have directly worked on the various Star Trek shows and films. These are generally regarded as "true" except where they contradict new episodes. Such works are considered a grey area: the creative teams behind the various Star Trek television series and films are under no obligation to adhere to any conjecture or extrapolation offered in these works. (See individual entries for exceptions.)

Where information from these works is utilized in Wikipedia, a reference should always be noted, either in the References section. Where an article is portraying a mixture of information from various sources, it may be wise to attribute the information directly within the text.

Print

Books
Main article: List of Star Trek novels
Magazines and supplements

see Backstage information

Digital/online

Audio

Backstage information

Some information has been provided only through off-screen anecdotes, such as the names of various species seen in the Star Trek films, computer displays that are not legible to viewers, and the surname of Spock's mother. These are sometimes closer to fanon than official references. Before "Star Trek," Gene Roddenberry spent a great deal of time on the shooting set of "The Outer Limits," where he also met a great many of the actors who later appeared in ST:TOS. These included William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan and Grace Lee Whitney amongst many others. Much of the Star Trek legacy was a tribute to TOL creator, Joseph Stefano, who was largely responsible for almost every successful science fiction film of the late 20th century either anonymously, or under pseudonyms.

Non-canon

While these works are beloved by fans and may commonly be regarded as fanon, they are not official, and if included should always be clearly attributed to their source, and not presented as "true" in the fictional universe.

Treatment of non-canon material within articles is a matter of judgement. It may be useful to consider non-canon material at length, especially if it influences later material, or was a matter of particular controversy (for example, Timeline of Star Trek describes several other timelines which put Okuda's timeline into a historical context), or Vulcan's moon. Much non-canon material is inconsistent with other non-canon material, so attempting to portray a consistent all-encompassing Star Trek Expanded Universe is problematic. In other cases, non-canon material may be better treated as a minor footnote, with a reference to the article about the non-canon work in question.

It is worth noting that this viewpoint is considered controversial by many fans, some of whom consider literary works to be superior to many examples of the televised and filmed Star Trek. The responsibility for deciding what is non-canon rests with Paramount Pictures, the owners of the Star Trek franchise, although Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is generally considered responsible for the fact that The Animated Series (see below) is not considered canon.

Star Trek: The Animated Series (TAS)

No animated series episode is considered canon, however elements from the animated series have been introduced into canon in several episodes. Please view the TAS main article for examples.

Star Trek: Phase II

It is often stated that the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture were followed by a second five-year mission. Gene Roddenberry had planned to produce a new TV series in the late 1970s, and TMP was an expanded version of the original script for the first episode. However, since nothing was ever filmed, and no reference has ever been made on screen to a post-TMP mission, all references to Phase II or a second mission have to be considered non-canon. (Two scripts written for Phase II, "The Child" and "Devil's Due", were later used for TNG.) Note that the semi-canon Star Trek Chronology accepts the validity of the second five-year mission.

Audio

Several original audio adventures featuring Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the U.S.S. Excelsior were produced in the 1990s by Simon & Schuster Audioworks, a company related to Pocket Books. These audio dramas are presently considered non-canon as they are generally categorized the same as the original novels.

Video games

It is generally assumed that none of the Star Trek-based computer and video games produced over the years are canonical, including Klingon and Borg which both featured dramatic storylines shot on film featuring Star Trek actors, and a number of computer role playing games featuring voice work by TV series actors.

Fan fiction (fanon)

  • personal Star Trek websites
  • Star Fleet Universe
  • any other materials not included above

Participants

Please feel free to add youself to the participants page. When listing yourself, please do so in alphabetical order.

Templates

What to type What it's for
{{StarTrek-stub}}
Talk 		The official stub template for Star Trek-related articles.
{{StarTrek-char-stub}}
Talk 		The official stub template for Star Trek character-related articles.
{{StarTrek-novel-stub}}
Talk 		The official stub template for articles about Star Trek novels.
{{WikiProject Star Trek}}
Talk 		The project notice designed to be placed in the talk page of any article that has been or should be edited as part of this Wikiproject.
{{User WPStarTrek}}
Talk 		This can be placed on your user page to show that you are a part of this Wikiproject.

Statistics

Bot-generated statistics (on articles having the project banner on their talk pages).

Star Trek articles by quality and importance
Quality Importance
Top High Mid Low NA Total
  FA 8 5 4 3 20
  FL 1 5 6
  FM 2 2
  GA 5 45 62 46 158
B 15 29 18 24 86
C 15 104 140 122 381
Start 87 271 591 949
Stub 1 4 182 187
List 1 5 12 38 1 57
Draft 9 9
Category 180 180
Disambig 23 23
File 300 300
Project 26 26
Redirect 1 6 9 124 1,553 1,693
Template 65 65
NA 1 1
Assessed 45 282 521 1,136 2,159 4,143
Total 45 282 521 1,136 2,159 4,143
WikiWork factors (?) ω = 7,965 Ω = 4.47


For more information see:

Category:Star Trek articles by quality
Category:Star Trek articles by importance
Wikipedia:WikiProject Star Trek/Assessment
Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Star Trek articles by quality (links to detailed assessment lists)
Wikipedia:Version 1.0 Editorial Team/Star Trek articles by quality log (bot's assessment statistics logs)

See also

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