WARNING SPOILER ALERT!
Be warned, there are spoilers ahead for/from/of Star Trek XI, Sonic Generations, and the Sonic Genesis Story Arc by Archie Comics..
I should probably start of with a bit of info for Star Trek XI or just simply “Star Trek” according to the movie’s actual title (I don’t care what J.J. Abrams calls it, it will always be Star Trek XI to me!). Star Trek as a franchise had a very complex time line spanning just over 4 decades of television shows and movies (officially only things appearing on screen were considered canon however there were elements written by official Star Trek people such as books, comics, dictionaries, encyclopedias, map books, etc.,etc., that fall into kind of a gray area). This time line just kept expanding and becoming more complex from 1966-2008 and over course over this 42 year period there were many inconsistencies and continuity errors. This plus the failure of the prequel TV series “Enterprise” lead to Paramount to only one option, reboot. But how do you reboot a franchise with a enormous cult following without pissing of f most of the fans and retconning 40+ years of material. Well that’s easy, time travel.
That’s right kids time travel is the easiest solution in retconning any franchise without pissing many people off. It also helps to have a really good writing staff. See in Star Trek 11 it is mentioned that a massive supernova destroyed planet Romulas after Spock incorrectly calculated when this would take place (in other words they didn’t have enough time to evacuate because Spock is getting old and missplaced a decimal somewhere). This then pisses off a group of surviving Romulans who were on a mining colony or something so they try to kill Spock who meanwhile has a ship that is capable of destroying this supernova before this super nova destroys the galaxy, that’s right the entire galaxy. Well unfortunately for the pissed off Romulans and Spock they attack Spock’s ship while he was saving the day and caused them to go back in time (once again Spock must have misplaced a decimal, I guess even Vulcans can get Alzheimer’s). So now instead of being in the “present” (present as it Star Trek’s present of 2387) they are stuck in the “past” (past as in Star Trek’ s past of 2233) though the pissed off Romulans at first don’t believe it and start blowing shit up and killing people in probably the most epic Star Trek movie opening ever. You know what just go and rent the movie from Netflix or something. I’ll wait. I promise this blog will still be here when you get back.
Welcome back
Did you enjoy the movie?
Good.
So to make a long story short they did the whole travel through time retcon thing the right way (just wish they went back to before “Enterprise” and eliminated Scott Bakula from the Star Trek time line he was great for Quatum Leap but crappy for Star Trek except for the last Season and a half of Enterprise but it still got canceled so not many share my feelings on that I guess).
Now you must be asking yourself what does this rambling on Star Trek have to do with the Sonic Franchise? Easy it’s called Generations and Genesis.
Let’s start with Sonic Generations first as it’s only been recently announced and there’s not information on it…yet. All we really know from the plot of this game is that an unknown enemy (probably Eggman…or pissed off Romulans) has created time holes causing Sonic and friends to go through time and meet Sonic from 1991 in Green Hill for some reason. I hate to break it to you guys but the only thing filled with more continuity errors and time line inconsistencies than a science fiction series that spans 42 years, 11 movies, and 5 TV series is a video game series that spans 20 years, 24 main games, 30 spin offs, and 4 arcade games. Yikes.
Just like Star Trek was before it’s reboot, Sonic has faced a lot of negative reviews and though the last game and half of the game before that were good (just like the last season and a half of Enterprise were good) it’s time to reboot the Sonic game continuity and the best way to do that *drum roll* time travel! Depending how you want to look at time travel if Sonic travels back in time because of these “time holes” any events that occur after his arrival will alter his future (just like in Star Trek 11, the Romulans altered the past thus altering the futures of the Enterprise crew). This is of course if we ignore predestination paradoxes and the many worlds theory, for arguments sake we will. So just like the ending of Sonic ’06 none of what you played [possibly] never happened (now if only Sonic ’06 never happened).
Basically because Sonic goes back in time a whole new time line has formed and Sonic Team/Sega/whoever else wants to make a Sonic game basically have a clean palate to paint on (except for bio-ware because they did the opposite they brought us to the future saying Chronicles takes 2 years after the final battle with Eggman taking place in a game that hasn’t been/probably will never be released).
Still don’t believe me about the whole time travel retconning the entire time line thing? Then let me present to you the most damning piece of evidence yet: Archie Comics!
Ok maybe not so much Archie Comics as a whole but their Sonic Comic publication. I’m sure by now many of you have at least heard of the upcoming Genesis Saga in Archie’s Sonic. From what I’ve gathered from the spoilers I’ve read online they’re not quite doing the time travel thing. I guess Eggman has rebuilt the Death Egg to reshape Mobius to his liking which in the process totally alters the past lives, events, etc., of all the characters putting Sonic where? That’s right Green Hill Zone doing what he was doing in Sonic 1. And it seems as though it will just be Sonic 1 because even though part 2 of Genesis is an awesome rehash of the Sonic 2 Box art it apparently starts off in Labyrinth Zone. All I know is that Sonic better be on Westside Island before he arrives on Angel Island in Part 3 where Knuckles has been tricked for the umpteenth time…or I guess in this case it would be the first?
What is real interesting to note about the Genesis saga is that it will end in October which is followed by November which is most likely when Generations will be released which really gives Ian Flynn and his team of awesomness an opportunity continue with their new story line. See the way I figure it because Ken Penders has been a pain in their asses since he left Archie when Ian Flynn and the other Sonic Archie Team peoples found out Sega was doing Generations (because we all know that Sega tells Archie what their upcoming plans for games are so their artists and writers can do an adaption so more games can be sold) they probably figured “Hmm Ken Penders keeps saying we stole his story lines, characters, and what not so why don’t we take Sega’s game idea one step furthers and give the fans one hell of a retconning Sonic 20 anniversary birthday bash!” All I can say is that when Ian Flynn leaves Archie I just hope he doesn’t pull a Ken Penders and the Archieverse Sonic time line has to be totally retconned again because even though everythings being down awesomely by amazing writers I am starting to get tired of all of my favorite franchises retconning their entire existence so I hope you’re reading this Straczynski!
Now I just would like to remind everyone that Sonic Generations and Sonic Genesis are still a few months away so it’s possible that some or all I have said here does not come true because really at this point everything is just speculation. We will just have to wait until November to see.
Happy 20th Anniversary Sonic!
Tags: Archie Comics, Babylon 5, Enterprise, Genesis, Genesis Saga, Ian Flynn, Ian Flynn is Awesome, J. Michael Straczynski, Mobius, rant, reboots, retcons, Scott Bakula, sirf, sonic & knuckles, Sonic 1, sonic 2, sonic 3, sonic chronicles, Sonic Franchise, sonic game previews, Sonic Generations, Sonic Genesis, sonic the hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, Sonic the Hedgehog Franchise, Star Trek, Star Trek 11, Star Trek Enterprise, Star Trek XI, time travel
