Abrams Trek Has To be Full Reboot.

How many of those involved red matter?

 

There are multiple universes in Trek, multiple timelines, and a dozen different ways to go between any of them, from red matter (as Set Harth mentioned) to slingshots, to warp engine malfunctions, to transporter malfunctions, to the Guardian of Forever, to the device in "All Our Yesterdays", to Q, to anomalies, to what-have-you.

Who's to say each one of those methods produces the exact same kind of dimensional or time travel? We have an N = 1 for red matter, and it apparently creates time travel that causes an alternate reality to occur independent of the one that was original. People wanted original ideas from Abrams, et al. Hey, there's an original idea.

 

You'd have to discount the Mirror Universe and "Parallels" for this to be true.

 

aaaaaand we have a winner.

From a story point of view it's a big honkin' McGuffin, but it works as an excellent way to explain why this is different than every other time travel instance we've seen in Trek so far.

Except "Parallels".
And "Yesterday's Enterprise"

Conclusion: OP, like many "fans" out there, slept through the whole "alternate reality" conversation in the film. Too talky for modern audiences, I suppose...

 

OP, the difference is the nature of the plots. On a basic level, in oldTrek the whole audience perspective was usually given from somebody travelling back and involving themselves in 'fixing' the splinter reality so that it re-aligns with something they already know. I guess NuTrek takes the tack that nobody fixed this one, so it continues on parallel to the original instead of merging back into it.

Admittedly oldTrek (usually) insinuated that there is only one timeline and the reason repairs 'needed' to be made was that if they didn't then the original ceased to exist. But while this was the prevailing view, exceptions did occur. The "fight your fate!" splinter of TNG: Time Squared, or the whole underlying premise of TNG: Parallels which basically contradicted the normal way these things were presented to us in oldTrek. TOS: Mirror, Mirror and all of its DS9 and ENT sequels would also seem to confirm the idea that 'parallel', rather than 'replacement', timelines exist within the Trek causality.

So in summary: Trek time travel logic is basically whatever the writer decides it is at the time.

 

A thousand times this. Trek time travel has never been consistent, and it's entirely because the above statement is true.

 

Beer? Feh. Coke in a large cup with way too much ice, and popcorn with so-called "butter." That's the way to watch movies.

ETA: They really have me conditioned, don't they?

 

PICARD: Report, Lieutenant.
WORF: Readings fluctuated momentarily. It appeared to be a ship, but then it vanished.
DATA: The phenomenon is closing in on itself, Captain.
PICARD: Very well. Prepare a class one sensor probe. We'll leave it behind to monitor the final closure.

But instead

Robau: Report, Lieutenant.
Kirk: Readings fluctuated momentarily. It appeared to be a ship, but then it vanished.
Ensign: The phenomenon is closing in on itself, Captain.
Robau: Very well. Prepare a class one sensor probe. We'll leave it behind to monitor the final closure.

 

Time travel in Star Trek:
Expectations:

Reality:

The Doctor explained it best

 

"That Wizard came from the Moon."