Sources and Abbreviations
Canon Sources (see Canon page for more detail).
Star Wars
1. The 5 Star Wars movies ("absolute canon" according to Lucasfilm, ie- indisputable):
- Episode I: The Phantom Menace (TPM).
- Episode II: Attack of the Clones (AOTC).
- Episode IV: A New Hope (ANH).
- Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back (TESB).
- Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (ROTJ).
2. Official movie literature ("canon" according to Lucasfilm, ie- only disputable via direct contradiction with absolute canon):
- TPM novelization, Visual Dictionary (TPM:VD or SW1VD), and Incredible Cross-Sections (TPM:ICS or SW1ICS).
- AOTC novelization, VD (AOTC:VD or SW2VD), ICS (AOTC:ICS or SW2ICS), and Inside the Worlds of AOTC (ITW:AOTC).
- ANH novelization.
- TESB novelization.
- ROTJ novelization.
- ANH/TESB/ROTJ classic trilogy Incredible Cross-Sections (ICS or SWICS).
- ANH/TESB/ROTJ classic trilogy Visual Dictionary (VD or SWVD)
3. Extended Universe literature ("quasi-canon" according to Lucasfilm, ie- official but "apocryphal" data, treated more like a written history than direct evidence):
- The "Essential Guide" books such as the "Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels" etc.
- The "sourcebooks" such as the Dark Empire sourcebook etc.
- The various novels, comics, and assorted literature which describe people, places, objects, and events in the Star Wars universe other than those depicted in the movies.
Star Trek
1. The Star Trek movies and TV shows which Gene Roddenberry personally approved ("It ain't Star Trek until I say it's Star Trek"). These sources are almost universally agreed to be canon:
- The original Star Trek TV series (ST:TOS).
- Star Trek: The Motion Picture (ST:TMP).
- Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan (ST2:TWOK).
- Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (ST3:TSFS).
- Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (ST4:TVH).
- Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (ST5:TFF)
- Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (ST6:TUC)
- "Star Trek: The Next Generation" TV series (ST:TNG).
2. The Star Trek movies and TV shows (still "canon" according to Paramount, but lacking Gene Roddenberry's participation or approval). These sources are generally agreed to be canon by the majority of Star Trek fans:
- Star Trek: Generations (ST:G)
- Star Trek: First Contact (ST:FC).
- Star Trek: Insurrection (ST:INS)
- Star Trek: Nemesis (ST:NEM)
- "Star Trek: Deep Space 9" TV Series (ST:DS9).
- "Star Trek: Voyager" TV series (ST:VOY).
3. Diputed sources ("canon" according to Paramount, but disputed by a significant fraction of the fanbase):
- "Star Trek: Enterprise" TV series (ST:ENT). The great difficulty of integrating its events into the continuity of the original series has led to many Star Trek fans abandoning the show and refusing to accept it as canon. One of the most obvious problems is that Kirk and Picard seem to have no recollection whatsoever of a pre-TOS starship named "Enterprise", despite having collections of ships bearing that name dating right back to the present day. There is also the "bumpy head" Klingon problem, the Romulan war problem, the disappearance of the Xindi between ENT and TOS, etc.
- "Star Trek: Mosaic" and "Star Trek: Pathways" (both novels by Jeri Taylor). Jeri Taylor was one of the producers starting in 1990, during the fifth season of ST:TNG, and she declared her own novels to be canon. Note that no other novels were given such special status, not even Gene Roddenberry's novelization for ST:TMP! This declaration of superior status for her own novels (even over Roddenberry's work) has been soundly rejected by a considerable portion of the fanbase. The utterly abysmal entertainment value of these novels only further adds to fan contempt (to give you an example, at one point it regales us with Janeway's memories of her emotional distress at losing a childhood tennis game).
4. The Star Trek official publications (no real status according to Paramount, but many fans still give them credence anyway):
- Star Trek Encyclopedia (ST:E).
- Star Trek Technical Manual (ST:TM)
- Star Trek Deep Space 9 Technical Manual (ST:DS9 TM)
Other Common Star Wars and Star Trek Abbreviations
|
Abbrev |
Expansion |
|---|---|
|
BOP |
Bird of Prey. |
|
BTM |
Star Wars: Behind The Magic. |
|
CSA |
Corporate Sector Authority. |
|
DE/DE2 |
Dark Empire/Dark Empire 2 (a very popular set of Star Wars comics which is noteworthy for the fact that George Lucas himself once gave them out as gifts). |
|
DFR |
Dark Force Rising (a Zahn Trilogy novel). |
|
DS1/DS2 |
Death Star #1 (from ANH) and Death Star #2 (from ROTJ) respectively. |
|
EGWT |
Star Wars Essential Guide to Weapons and Technology |
|
EGPM |
Star Wars Essential Guide to Planets and Moons |
|
EGVV |
Star Wars Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels |
|
GCS |
Galaxy Class Starship. |
|
GL |
George Lucas. |
|
HTTE |
Heir To The Empire (a Zahn Trilogy novel). |
|
LF/LFL |
Lucasfilm/Lucasfilm Ltd. |
|
ISD1 |
Imperator-I Star Destroyer (an older model which was seen in orbit around Tatooine in ANH). It mounts four very heavy 2-gun turrets on each side of its topside superstructure. |
|
ISD2 |
Imperator-II Star Destroyer (a newer model which was seen in TESB and ROTJ). It mounts four heavy 8-gun turrets on each side of its topside superstructure. |
|
KDY |
Kuat Drive Yards (manufacturer of the Nebulon-B frigate, the Imperator-class Star Destroyer, the Executor-class Star Destroyer, and the Eclipse-class Star Destroyer). |
|
KJA |
Kevin J. Anderson (widely reviled as the worst SW novel author out there; his IG-88 stories are the epitome of fan-wankery and he was reponsible for the idiotic claim that the construction of the Executor "nearly bankrupted the Empire" despite being a miniscule fraction of the size of either Death Star). |
|
NDF |
Nuclear Disruption Force. |
|
NR |
New Republic. |
|
OR |
Old Republic. |
|
SOTP |
Spectre Of The Past (#1 of 2 books in the Zahn "Hand of Thrawn" duology). |
|
SSD |
Super Star Destroyer. |
|
TDiC |
The Die is Cast (DS9 episode). |
|
TFN |
TheForce.Net (a very large fan-operated board whose forums are infested with morons; we are talking about rabid EU fanboys who believe the books override the movies). |
|
TL |
Turbolaser. |
|
TLC |
The Last Command (a Zahn Trilogy novel). |
|
VOTF |
Vision of the Future (#2 of 2 books in the Zahn "Hand of Thrawn" duology). |
|
VSD |
Victory-class Star Destroyer. |
|
WEG |
WEG: West-End Games. This was an RPG game retailer that dominated early SW literature publishing. Unfortunately, their interest was in making an RPG rather than staying true to the source material, so they created a lot of serious errors in the official literature. Many of their moronic mistakes (such as the 8km long Executor) are still defended by rabid adherents to their material, some of whom appear to have influence within LucasFilm itself. |
|
WOTC |
WOTC: Wizards Of The Coast. This is a new group which is handling a new RPG. Hopefully their work will not be as abysmally destructive to the official continuity as WEG's material was. |
Go visit the Acronyms and Abbreviations thread on our forums for even more obscure SW acronyms.
Common Real-life Acronyms and Abbrevations
|
Abbrev |
Expansion |
|---|---|
|
AAA |
Anti-Aircraft Artillery |
|
AAM |
Air to Air Missile |
|
AFV |
Armoured Fighting Vehicle |
|
AKA |
Also Known As |
|
APC |
Armoured Personnel Carrier |
|
APFSDS |
Armour-Piercing Fin-Stabilized Discarding Sabot round |
|
ARM |
Anti-Radiation Missile (aka HARM) |
|
ASAP |
As Soon As Possible |
|
ASM |
Air to Ship Missile |
|
ASROC |
Anti-Submarine ROCket |
|
ATGM |
Anti-Tank Guided Missile |
|
ATGW |
Anti-Tank Guided Weapon |
|
AU |
Astronomical Unit (150 million km- the distance from the Sun to Earth). |
|
AWOL |
Absent WithOut Leave |
|
CAS |
Close Air Support |
|
CASREP |
CASualty REPort |
|
CBU |
Cluster Bomb Unit |
|
CG |
Coast Guard |
|
CINC |
Commander IN Chief |
|
CIWS |
Close-In Weapon System |
|
CQB |
Close Quarters Combat |
|
ECM |
Electronic Counter-Measures. |
|
ECCM |
Electronic Counter Counter-Measures |
|
ELINT |
ELectronic INTelligence |
|
EM |
Electro-Magnetic |
|
FAE |
Fuel-Air Explosive (aka thermobaric bomb) |
|
FIBUA |
Fighting In Built-Up Areas |
|
FIFO |
First In, First Out |
|
FLIR |
Forward Looking Infrared Receiver |
|
FUBAR |
Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition |
|
G's |
Acceleration G-force, expressed as a multiple of 1G, which is Earth sea-level gravitational acceleration of approximately 9.806 m/s². For example, an acceleration of 30 m/s² would be approximately 3 G's. |
|
GBU |
Guided Bomb Unit |
|
GIGO |
Garbage In, Garbage Out |
|
GPMG |
General Purpose Machine Gun |
|
GPS |
Global Positioning System |
|
HALO |
High Altitude Low Opening (parachute jump) |
|
HE |
High Explosive |
|
HEAT |
High Explosive Anti-Tank round |
|
HE-FRAG |
High Explosive FRAGmentation |
|
HEP |
High Explosive Plastic |
|
HMG |
Heavy Machine Gun |
|
HMMWV |
High Mobility Multi-purpose Wheeled Vehicle (aka Humvee) |
|
HVM |
Hyper-Velocity Missile |
|
ICBM |
InterContinental Ballistic Missile |
|
IFF |
Identification Friend-or-Foe |
|
IR |
InfraRed |
|
LAV |
Light Armoured Vehicle |
|
LAW |
Light anti-Armour Weapon |
|
LGB |
Laser-Guided Bomb |
|
LMG |
Light Machine Gun |
|
KIA |
Killed In Action (also the very poorly chosen name of a Korean automobile company) |
|
MG |
Machine Gun |
|
MIA |
Missing In Action |
|
MIRV |
Multiple Independently Targeted Re-entry Vehicles |
|
MOUT |
Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain |
|
MRE |
Meals Ready to Eat |
|
NBC |
Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical |
|
OPFOR |
Opposing Force |
|
OPSEC |
Operational Security |
|
PDW |
Personal Defense Weapon |
|
POW |
Prisoner Of War |
|
RADAR |
RAdiation Detection And Ranging |
|
ROE |
Rules of Engagement |
|
ROTC |
Reserve Officer Training Corps |
|
SAM |
Surface to Air Missile |
|
SAR |
Search And Rescue |
|
SAW |
Squad Automatic Weapon |
|
SEAL |
SEa/Air/Land |
|
SITREP |
SITuation REPort |
|
SMG |
Sub-Machine Gun |
|
SNAFU |
Situation Normal, All Fucked Up |
|
SOL |
Shit Outta Luck |
|
SONAR |
SOund Navigation And Ranging |
|
SOP |
Standard Operating Procedure |
|
SRBM |
Short-Range Ballistic Missile |
|
TASM |
Tomahawk Anti-Ship Missile |
|
TLAM |
Tomahawk Land-Attack Missile |
|
TOW |
Tube-launched Optically-tracked Wire-guided missile |
|
VTOL |
Vertical Take-Off and Landing |
Standard Military Phonetic Alphabet
|
Letter |
Phonetic Version |
|---|---|
|
A |
Alpha |