Canon refers to a recognized and authoritative body of related works.While the ultimate decision falls to NBC/Universal, in the absence of their comments, what is or isn't canonical is determined by the community based on several criteria, primarily the material's consistency with the already established canon.
The Battlestar.Wiki currently recognizes two separate continuities. The continuity of the specific articles is displayed at the top of every article in its header section, next to the comment and edit buttons. On mobile phones, this section can be located as the first text of every article, directly under the infobox.
Article Categories
Articles can fall into one of 5 categories:
- 1978 Continuity - Focused on Battlestar Galactica 1978 and Galactica 1980.
- 2004 Continuity - Focused on Battlestar Galactica 2004, Caprica and Blood & Chrome.
- Other - Focused on works with no defined continuity.
- Meta - Articles focusing on topics from Doylist[Note 1] point of view, with otherwise no defined continuity.
- Disambiguation - Disambiguation page, intended to distinguish between articles of similar subject or title.
Community Consensus
Although, in the strictest sense, only NBC/Universal has the authority to declare what is canon or non-canon, the following examples reflect community consensus, as documented on the Wiki discussion pages or the Battlestar Galactica Discord server:
Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus (Dynamite Entertainment) is considered part of the 2004 continuity. It aligns with the established canon and introduces no significant contradictions. The primary issue is the misspelling of several character names, such as "Jurgen Belzen" being rendered as "Care Ward."
Battlestar Galactica: Cylon War (Dynamite Entertainment) is not considered part of the 2004 continuity, as it contains major inconsistencies. Most notably, it features a Mercury-class battlestar—a design introduced after the First Cylon War—appearing prematurely during the First War. It also depicts Galactica launching Vipers from its "alligator head" instead of its canonical port/starboard launch tubes.
In cases of conflicting information on the same subject, the following hierarchy determines canon priority:
- Dialogue and on-screen evidence from TV shows or films.
- Official CGI used in the production of TV shows or films.[Note 2]
- Officially licensed material.
- Concept art and production props believed to be used in the series or films, though on-screen usage could not be fully verified due to low resolution.
2004 Continuity
Non-exhaustive lists for 2004 Continuity includes:
- Battlestar Galactica 2004 (TV Show)
- Caprica (TV Show)
- Blood and Chrome (TV Show)
- Battlestar Galactica Deadlock (Video Game)
- Battlestar Galactica: Pegasus (Comic)
1978 Continuity
Non-exhaustive lists for 1978 Continuity includes:
- Battlestar Galactica 1978 (TV Show)
- Galactica 1980 (TV Show)
Notes
- ↑ Doylist (also called out-of-universe or exegetic) commentary focuses on real-world reasons behind what happens in a fictional story, especially what the author or creators meant to do. Doylist explanations include things like: “The author changed their mind”, “The actor died, so they had to cast someone else” or “They didn’t have enough money for a prosthetic makeup, therefore they made the character human instead.
- ↑ Some members of the Battlestar.Wiki team were allowed to look into an archive of original VFX models used by the production staff. After independently verifying that the information in them was correct, the team decided that information like starship size, fleet formations, and ship renders would take precedence over on-screen evidence, considering the scaling was often done "per scene" rather than using a uniform pre-determined scale.