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The Sherlock Holmes canon consists of the stories and novels written by Arthur Conan Doyle. This was decided by the Baker Street Irregulars, a group of Holmes enthusiasts, to distinguish the original stories from the pastiches that followed Holmes' retirement, and is probably the first use of the word in this context.
Defining the Middle-earth canon is difficult, because many key writings were not published by J. R. R. Tolkien before his death. A considerable number of Tolkien fans do not believe that a canon can be defined at all, preferring to observe the evolution of Tolkien's stories in the many versions and drafts published posthumously in the History of Middle-earth series. Most, however, agree that The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are canon, and also include a substantial amount of material published in The Silmarillion, Unfinished TalesUnfinished Tales (full title Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth is a collection of stories by J. Tolkien that were never completed during his lifetime, but were edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and published in 1980. Unlike The Silmarillion, and other posthumous books, as well as information from Tolkien's lettersThe Letters of J. Tolkien (BooksEnthsiast.com) is a selection of J. Tolkien's letters published in 1981, edited by his son Christopher Tolkien and the biographer Humphrey Carpenter. The selection contains 354 letters, dating between October 1914, when Tol. More details on this issue can be found in the Middle-earth canonIt is remarkably difficult to speak of what is "true" in the context of J. Tolkien's Middle-earth legendarium, or what texts should be considered canon; quite a few readers do not believe that any clear canon exists at all. There are various reasons for t article.
The Star TrekStar Trek collectively refers to six science fiction television series, ten motion pictures, and hundreds of novels, video games, and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the early to mid 1960s. canon consists of the television series Star TrekStar Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. It spawned a strong fandom ( TV Guide rated it #1 in its list of the "25 Top Cult Shows Ever"), and was followed by five additional televisio, , , , , and and its sequels. The non-canonical status of the various novels, comic books and was decided by Gene Roddenberry, who also, unsuccessfully, attempted to have the Trek films and 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. As a result, there has been much confusion among the fan base whenever a series or movie (most notably in recent years, Enterprise) contradicts a conjecture or assumption made by the Chronology or other reference books (for example, the date of first contact with the Klingons, the early history of Starfleet, etc.).
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.