Canon gets in the way
Star Trek fans know that, no matter how much time we spend patching the holes with our beer-and-pretzels skull sessions, that the stories of our beloved characters don’t always match up. This has been a problem since the 1970s, when authorized novels were published that flatly contradicted each other. This wouldn’t have been a problem if some of them hadn’t been quite good.
Eventually, Authorities were appointed to patch some of the holes by releasing official documentation; but sooner or later, an Authority would banish a beloved tale to the dustbin. This would happen, the fans would solemnly acknowledge the proclamation, then accept or ignore it as desired in their own private versions.
As time passed, new Authorities would come from the ranks of the fen. New screened, televised, and printed stories would appear, and the new Authorities would take the opportunity to work their own patches in, or negate older ones of which they disapproved. And the fen would take what they liked, and ignore what they didn’t, and spend more beer-and-pretzels evenings arguing uselessly if entertainingly about the merits of individual patches.
Eventually, as any specific fan grew old enough they’d be more likely to decide that a good story is a good story, and if they don’t all match up, well, in some ways that’s even more fun. (See the works of Douglas Adams for a shining example.) And that may be because they have realized that, if you don’t worry about canon too much, you get more stories. And if only 10% (or less) of the stories out there are any good, we’re going to need a lot of them to get our fix.
So, authors, get back to writing that fanfic! There’s a tiny chance that one day, you might be in the position of writing an Authorized sequel… and at least when the day comes, perhaps your experience will give you something interesting to say, and practice dealing with the flame wars to follow 🙂
