Been a while since I addressed a question, but here's one: It comes from geek buddy Fred from a conversation in which we tried to find the Rosetta stone that would link Star Trek with all the other geek-centric universes. The question, quite simply:
"How can it exist, given that we can't use any novels or comics because they've never been canonical?" This, in contrast to the Star Wars expanded universe which, until recently, WAS. Doctor Who's expanded universe falls under the category of "canonical unless an episode directly contradicts it", which is useful for tying it to other fictional universes (the Doctor has met Sherlock Holmes, Lovecraft's Elder Gods and the Simpsons, for example). Unfortunately, if we can only use onscreen Trek, we can't use its crossovers with Who, or the X-Men, or the Legion of Super-Heroes, all of which are necessarily non-canon. And we consider it cheating to use a historical person, because these are real across most universes, including our own (holodeck versions aren't the real deal either).
But I think I found our onscreen link, and he's called Buck Bokai.
Bokai is a famous (future) baseball player idolized by Sisko. At one point, we're shown his card. It's a prop, right there on the show. And do you see what I see? Let me re-orient it for you:
That's right, before playing for the London Kings, Bokai played two seasons with the Gotham City Bats. In other words, there's a Gotham City in the Trek universe, and so it MUST be the DC Universe/Multiverse as well. But WAIT you scream, Gotham City's baseball team isn't the Bats! It's the Griffins (National League) or the Knights (American League)! Well, that's as maybe. But cities don't spring up overnight, and everything points to Bokai playing in a different or expanded (solar system-wide?) league from the ones we know (25 years in the future of the show's writers). I don't recognize any of those other teams either.
So there you go. Trek and DC OFFICIALLY connect, and from the DCU, you can get almost everywhere. DC characters have crossed over with Marvel characters, Batman has teamed up with Holmes and Judge Dredd, and so on and so on.
Obviously, these are QUESTIONABLE answers. Maybe I've missed an even better decoder ring leading out of Trekspace. You tell me.
Comments
And yet another opportunity for http://www.bleedingcool.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/1236545_ful.jpg I'm still hoping IDW try to do an actual crossover at some point.
The MLB is going to have to do some massive expansion in the next couple of years to catch up with future history.
Though I could see them expanding into Europe and then just hyperbolically re-branding to the "Planetary Baseball League", seeing as how they've been playing the "World Series" in just the U.S. and Canada for decades now...
Abc: Yes, but that's much easier if Trek is in the DCU, since the franchises are already bigger. Have Central City sell its team to Crenshaw and you're on your way.
Punk: Trek doesn't even consider its animated series canonical, and it's harder to get out of Known Space anyway.
I imagine they'll keep doing the shout outs, though, probably getting more specific about it. There was an issue a while back that was revealed at the last minute to be a crossover with Quantum Leap.