Bravo Fleet
I hope everyone watching Picard season 3 is enjoying it! As previously announced, anything it introduces or establishes won’t be implemented in fleet canon until the end of the season, so in the meantime, we have to enjoy the ride. However, one tiny detail is forcing the Intel Office to take action now—namely, the year.
We believed that season 2 of PIC occurred in fall 2401, and behind-the-scenes information ahead of S3 suggested it would be set at least a year after S2. It turns out this was wrong – no spoilers, but PIC S3 gave us a stardate, which was March 2401. At present, the year in BF canon is 2401, and at present, our timeline advances 1 year IC for every year OOC – in 2022 it was 2400, and in 2024 it would be 2402.
This presents several challenges. The IO has always been committed to cleaving to on-screen canon over BF’s historical, problematic relationship prioritising personal, non-canon ‘fanon’. It’s important that we can tell stories alongside what’s on screen, expanding rather than supplanting Trek canon. If PIC S3 provides us with events we want to incorporate into fleet canon storytelling, it’s harder for us to do that if we’re in May 2401 IC when the season ends. This also has long-term implications – rumours (only rumours, at the time of writing) abound of a possible new 25th century TV show, which would take years to appear on our screen but could easily be set in 2402 or even sooner. We can’t perfectly future-proof ourselves against canon, but we can take measures to mitigate risk.
As such, with immediate effect, I am amending section 2.2 of the Intelligence Office Policy and reverting the advance of the Bravo Fleet timeline to a rate of 1 year IC for every 2 years OOC. This means it will remain 2401 until January 1st, 2025. On January 1st, 2024, the Bravo Fleet timeline will roughly enter June 2401. I hope and anticipate that this will allow Bravo Fleet to continue to tell stories embedded in Trek canon without surpassing them or causing unnecessary further disruption to our members.
What does this mean for you all? Not much right now. It’s always a bit wishy-washy what the exact current time is. Theoretically, 1 month IC passes for every 2 months OOC, so we’re only at the start of February 2401. Often stories take months to write OOC but may take place over mere days IC, so this adjustment will hopefully make it easier, not harder, to write your characters’ adventures.
And I look forward to many more of those adventures in the year 2401, and especially as Picard season 3 delivers us new canon to shape and expand our universe.
