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The Star Trek canon consists of the television series Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture and its sequels. The non-canonical status of the various novels, comic books and Star Trek: The Animated Series was decided by Gene Roddenberry, who also, unsuccessfully, attempted to have the Trek films Star Trek V: The Final Frontier and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country declared apocryphal.
According to current editors at Pocket Books, current rights holders for publishing Star Trek fiction, no novels or other printed stories are considered canon by Paramount Pictures, owners of Star Trek. This includes the Voyager novels Pathways and Mosaic (both by the series producer Jeri Taylor) which were, for a time, considered canon but stopped being so after Taylor left her position with the series. This viewpoint is considered controversial by many fans of Star Trek fiction, some of whom consider the literary works to be superior to many examples of the televised and filmed Star Trek. In addition, no reference works based upon the series are considered canon, either, even though they may contain canonical elements. This includes works such as the popular Star Trek Chronology.
No animated series episode is considered canon, however elements from the animated series have been introduced into canon by clever live-action episode writers, an example being the "Kaswahn" ritual mentioned in the episode "Yesteryear" which remained officially non-canonical until it was mentioned in a 2002 episode of Star Trek: Enterprise called "The Catwalk". Many Star Trek fans do not accept the Enterprise series as canon, with some alleging it violates continuity with earlier series and movies, and others basing their opinion on it violating aspects of fanon. Others believe it takes place in an alternate universe that follows a different timeline than that established in the Original Series and recently this reasoning has been expanded by some to include all "modern Trek" series and movies.
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