Way behind on the show, but saw the internet blowing up about how DSC (and presumably SNW, most of the Short Treks installments, the upcoming Academy show, and any other direct spinoffs of it) had been retconned to be set in a parallel universe all along.
Having very mixed feelings about the modern shows, esp. in. regards to how they break canon (sometimes for seemingly no real constructive reason), I do very much like the idea of them being AU material, since that would resolve almost all the discrepancies and "allow" for the creative freedom that the current Powers That Be want without stepping on the toes of older shows and movies (heck, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" [SNW] literally established that SNW isn't in the original prime timeline, anyways, so I'm a little surprised we didn't have the "it's not canon" theories and debates until now).
All that said, I seriously doubt Paramount is going to change the party line that it's all prime universe, irregardless of the logic or illogic therein (esp. with new DSC-adjacent shows in the pipeline). Given that Mike McMann basically admitted that they planted the "DSC could be another universe" seed mostly to get fans talking, I suppose it'll remain in that zone of uncertainty ("probably not, but it could be..."), at best. So I suppose the creators are the ones who won, given how they broke the Trekkie corner of the internet with everyone talking about their DSC Easter egg?
(FYI, for those who're arguing that the SNW/LDS crossover episode "Those Old Scientists" proves that DSC/SNW cannot be a parallel universe, it's not actually iron-clad proof; the time travel happens through the Guardian of Forever, which, as we know from "Yesteryear" [TAS], channels the "time vortex, the focus of all the timelines of our galaxy" [my emphasis]. So, if all timelines are accessible through the Guardian, then Mariner and Boimler could easily have ended up in the past of another quantum reality, like the hypothetical DSC/SNW one.
(Also something to think about: We know from "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" that the SNW timeline was changed from it's original pre-SNW configuration in the 1990s, creating an altered timeline going forward. Per writer comments, the Kelvin Timeline, one of the only known times that time travel created a free-standing parallel universe, is a quantum reality. So, a branch of the franchise we know has had time-travel alterations long before the DSC era, along the lines of the Kelvin Timeline, has now been tied to alternate quantum realities that exist outside of the prime universe. To quote Pirates of the Caribbean, "That's very interesting.")
Having very mixed feelings about the modern shows, esp. in. regards to how they break canon (sometimes for seemingly no real constructive reason), I do very much like the idea of them being AU material, since that would resolve almost all the discrepancies and "allow" for the creative freedom that the current Powers That Be want without stepping on the toes of older shows and movies (heck, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" [SNW] literally established that SNW isn't in the original prime timeline, anyways, so I'm a little surprised we didn't have the "it's not canon" theories and debates until now).
All that said, I seriously doubt Paramount is going to change the party line that it's all prime universe, irregardless of the logic or illogic therein (esp. with new DSC-adjacent shows in the pipeline). Given that Mike McMann basically admitted that they planted the "DSC could be another universe" seed mostly to get fans talking, I suppose it'll remain in that zone of uncertainty ("probably not, but it could be..."), at best. So I suppose the creators are the ones who won, given how they broke the Trekkie corner of the internet with everyone talking about their DSC Easter egg?
(FYI, for those who're arguing that the SNW/LDS crossover episode "Those Old Scientists" proves that DSC/SNW cannot be a parallel universe, it's not actually iron-clad proof; the time travel happens through the Guardian of Forever, which, as we know from "Yesteryear" [TAS], channels the "time vortex, the focus of all the timelines of our galaxy" [my emphasis]. So, if all timelines are accessible through the Guardian, then Mariner and Boimler could easily have ended up in the past of another quantum reality, like the hypothetical DSC/SNW one.
(Also something to think about: We know from "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" that the SNW timeline was changed from it's original pre-SNW configuration in the 1990s, creating an altered timeline going forward. Per writer comments, the Kelvin Timeline, one of the only known times that time travel created a free-standing parallel universe, is a quantum reality. So, a branch of the franchise we know has had time-travel alterations long before the DSC era, along the lines of the Kelvin Timeline, has now been tied to alternate quantum realities that exist outside of the prime universe. To quote Pirates of the Caribbean, "That's very interesting.")
