Abrams Trek Has To be Full Reboot.

[StarMan]

This isn't anything revolutionary, granted...

So the latest creative team partitioned off their version of Star Trek from the prime universe (generally speaking, the Universe in which Star Trek operated until their tenure) and the alternate universe, which their product operates in. You know the deal; Nero arrives via his special anomaly and off shoots a brand new Universe independent of the PRIME™ timeline.

What were the conditions of this particular temporal event that make it distinct from all other temporal events that took place in the Prime timeline? By this, I am making the assumption that every temporal event observed in Star Trek prior to Trek ’09 occurred within the same Universe. Every trip back in time, alteration and fix-er-upper were all in the aforementioned PRIME™.

The precedence set by time travel in the prime timeline would therefore preclude the theory explaining the current paradigm. It’s all well and good to point at quantum theory to back the point up, but that point, for consistencies sake (they are the keepers of the canon, yes?) ought to reverberate back to all iterations. Consequentially, there would be no Prime universe; every temporal event we have witnessed has resulted in an offshoot to another Universe which we subsequently observe.

So the way I see it, there is either no PRIME™ (and never was), or the events of the past two movies are taking place within the Prime timeline. Whether it always happened from a particular POV… to quote The Doctor (Who)… “Wibbly wobbly timey wimey”.

It ends up being a proper reboot. The Alternate Timeline in an Alternate Universe Theory is wholly inconsistent with all previous temporal events.

 

[F. King Daniel]

It ends up being a proper reboot. The Alternate Timeline in an Alternate Universe Theory is wholly inconsistent with all previous temporal events.

You say this like Trek's ever been consistent with time travel prior to 2009. Remember "Time Squared", where the other Picard and shuttle fade away magically? Or "Tomorrow is Yesterday" where Spock beams Captain Christopher into his younger self which somehow makes everything right? Or "Yesteryear" where Spock wishes Thelin peace and long life in his timeline before he goes back to "fix" history? How time travel works is up to whoever is writing at the time.

According to "Parallels", any event has an infinite number of possible outcomes. On stardate 2233.04, either a giant Romulan deathship appears from the future or it doesn't - two possible outcomes, two branches of history.

 

[Mudd]

I just call it a new version of Star Trek and move on.

 

[Melakon]

Doesn't ST2009 itself have the characters theorizing they're in an alternate universe?

 

[ChristopherPike]

If Chris Hemsworth turns up in two years' time, it'll have turned out to be a big screen take on "Yesterday's Enterprise". Just stretched out into a trilogy.

Eventually they'll be a full reboot, with no concessions made to what's gone before and a complete reimagining of all the characters. Better left until sometime after the 50th Anniversary celebrations die down though.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Doesn't ST2009 itself have the characters theorizing they're in an alternate universe?

Yup
[YT]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bMK0qLVt0UU[/YT]
and here's the "Parallels" clip I mentioned earlier:
[YT]http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MzUEu7Gb7Cg[/YT]

 

[The Doctor]

This is a topic that has never been covered before and I have great hopes for a reasonable and sensible conclusion to this question.

 

[Ovation]

This is a topic that has never been covered before and I have great hopes for a reasonable and sensible conclusion to this question.

You must be newly arrived to this timeline then. Welcome. Sadly, I fear your expectations will not be met here, though perhaps your arrival will alter...the course of history.

 

[Franklin]

I just call it a new version of Star Trek and move on.

Well now, that's not fun.

This is a topic that has never been covered before and I have great hopes for a reasonable and sensible conclusion to this question.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I just call it a new version of Star Trek and move on.

Same here.

 

[bbjeg]

I heard this POV before and I always looked at it like this; if the Prime timeline ceased to exist, Prime Spock would have disappeared, along with Nero, and his ship. I consider the two timelines to be existing with each other, just like the mirror universe.

 

[Dukhat]

So the way I see it, there is either no PRIME™ (and never was)...

No, it is the prime TOS timeline up until the Narada shows up, because everything that takes place prior to Nero's incursion in 2233 is thirty years before TOS even takes place.

 

[BillJ]

Full reboot or not. Settle in with a cold beer, relax and watch the movies.

 

[Poltargyst]

Yes, in previous time travel episodes, the Prime reality was changed without creating a new branch.

Yes, this time in the Abrams production, time travel created a new branch off of the Prime reality.

I blame Q.

 

[SiddFinch1]

A wizard did it

 

[bbjeg]

Yes, in previous time travel episodes, the Prime reality was changed without creating a new branch...

Who's to say branches weren't created?

 

[BigJake]

I don't think it really matters that much, but if you really must:

You know the deal; Nero arrives via his special anomaly and off shoots a brand new Universe independent of the PRIME™ timeline.

The "prime" timeline long ago established that it was one of an infinite number of alternate universes, some of which featured in the TNG episode "Parallels." (I think that's the correct title.) So if it helps any, I guess you could think of the NuTrek universe as a radical outlier among those alternate universes.

I don't think it's necessary, though. The tie-in to the "prime" universe was a nice nod, but the reboot universe is otherwise very much its own thing.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Yes, in previous time travel episodes, the Prime reality was changed without creating a new branch...

Who's to say branches weren't created?

Well, in all other instances I'm aware of (Yesterday's Enterprise, ST:FC, etc.), the timeline was reset at the end to the same one that it started out as.

 

[bbjeg]

Yes, in previous time travel episodes, the Prime reality was changed without creating a new branch...

Who's to say branches weren't created?

Well, in all other instances I'm aware of (Yesterday's Enterprise, ST:FC, etc.), the timeline was reset at the end to the same one that it started out as.

Tell that to Sela and the Borg on ST:Enterprise.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ There's no proof that those things didn't exist before the episodes that introduced them.

Indeed, it seems clear that the Borg's appearance on Enterprise established a closed time loop...