[...] The Enterprise timeline was changed a bit as well, so I'm not having any trouble with that.
The
Enterprise timeline was changed a bit as well? You mean by the Temporal Cold War during the series or by something that happens in
Star Trek XI?
This is, of course, absolutely non-canonical and cannot be backed up by anything shown within the
Star Trek franchise (and it is seen purely from an in-universe point-of-view as well)...
There MUST have been some kind of change in the pre-
Enterprise timeline (or perhaps even before that - in the
First Contact past? Earlier?) since it seems almost impossible that ENT would eventually lead to TOS... seen from technological, stylistical or historical standpoints.
There are too many discrepancies in the pasts of ENT and TOS (and TNG, as well) to assume that these series are all parts of the same timeline (the dating of the Eugenic Wars or World War III, the first contacts with Klingons and Romulans, differing looks of characters like Zephram Cochrane et al.). It is also possible that every differing fact (there are sometimes even three different versions of the same event) belongs into a timeline of its own.
The way it seems now, ENT could be very much the prequel to
Star Trek XI... and to
Star Trek XI only.
Star Trek XI's past - the events surrounding the U.S.S. Kelvin - has a different look compared to TOS' past (as seen in
The Cage), so it apparently doesn't lead up to TOS.
Of course, extra-universal, all these discrepancies are merely shoddy research done by the writers of the respective series/episode on the one hand and techological progress in the real world on the other hand... or are part of the all-too-comfortable 'Reboot!' theory... but that's where retconning comes in.
Bernd Schneider has made a very detailed list of stuff-ups within Star Trek's timeline(s) on his website...
www.ex-astris-scientia.org/inconsistencies/history-earth.htm
