Nero is not going to be the love child between Spock and the Romulan Commander. Think about it: Abrams wants this movie to attract the average viewing audience, not just Trek nerds like us. So he's not going to base Nero's motivation on a plot point from one episode of 1960's Trek that the average viewing audience will most likely have never seen. Yeah, I know it worked for Wrath of Khan in the 1980's, but it won't work here in 2009.
However, this still doesn't answer the question: What is Nero's motivation for wanting to kill Kirk in the past? That is the one point that this movie HAS to be based on, and if Abrams and Co. give a flimsy excuse for it, the whole movie will be meaningless.
So what's his motivation? Here's my take:
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
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Nero is a prisoner on a 24th or 25th century Romulan prison ship, perhaps a political prisoner from an organization or cult that opposes Unification. Somehow he and his fellow prisoners take control of the ship, somehow use it to travel back in time to a point where he thinks he can kill Kirk for whatever THE REASON is that he hates Kirk so much. Unfortunately, he ends up going too far back and kills George when he thinks he's killing Jim. This is the start of the corrupted timeline. So he leaps forward to when Kirk is a cadet on the Enterprise. At this point (and this is just speculation on my part), the bridge will look more like the classic TOS bridge). He attacks the Enterprise, killing Pike in the process. This creates more corruption in the timeline. Because of the heroics of cadets Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Uhura, they are later posted to the Enterprise as officers years later. However, the timeline has been significantly altered so that now there's more advanced technology by 2266 than there was in TOS.
But what is Nero's motivation for all this? Obviously, because both Nero and Old Spock are clearly from the post-Nemesis original TNG universe, this is not a reboot, but in fact a changing of the timeline to create an alternate reality that still fits into the "regular" ST story (unlike, say, the non-connection between the old BSG and the new BSG). I'm guessing that Unification has something to do with it, and the fact that because old Spock is still alive and following Nero (and possibly making contact with his younger self to warn him that a crazy Romulan from the future is trying to kill him), that Nero decides to kill Kirk instead. But that's still a flimsy theory.
Interesting ideas. I especially like the re-unification plotline. That's too big a deal to passover when dealing with a story that involves Spock and Romulans from the 24th century. I hope at least that part's right. Also, someone posted that George might not be Jim's dad. I twist like that would be cool, too.
Perhaps in the 24th Century, reunification may be succeeding. This might lead a very prejudiced group of Romulans (Nero and Gang) to resort to trying to desperate measures, and attempt to prevent Kirk's birth.
Once this fails (Kirk having been already Concieved before his father is killed on the USS Kelvin), he might then go Forward in time to the Original Series timeline, and go after Vulcan.
In the meantime, this plot is not revealed upfront, but looms in the background as Kirk and McCoy go through some shenannigans at Starfleet Academy, the Kobayashi Maru cheating (Kirk's moanising might be used to get access to the simulator computers), then meeting Spock as crewmen on the Enterprise under Pike.
Pike might be Killed or Injured (The EW article does mention the "doomed" Christopher Pike), Kirk takes command in an emergency (dispite being under probation due to Kobayashi Maru, hence no yellow shirt), and they try to solve the puzzle as to who and why they were attacked.
Enter Older Spock, who guides the younger Spock in solidifying his relationship with Kirk.
This is the birth of the very close, loyal friendship between Kirk and Spock, with McCoy already a close friend of Kirk from the Academy (both country boys, so they have a lot in common already).
Older Spock might be working in secret through his younger self (less contamination to the Timeline that way) to help find Nero and his gang.
At some point, the older Spock may be revealed to Kirk and McCoy when the younger spock appears to be acting "illogically" (scanning on specific frequencies for not readily apparent reason, for example).
I may even imagine Nero moving to attack Vulcan at some point.
In the process, it will be revealed what happened to the Kelvin (beyond a mysterious attacker looking for "Kirk" and destroying her who has never shown up again until recently).
In order to target Vulcan, Nero would probably need a lot of resources, which he could not bring back in time, hence the planetside missions.
Kirk's use of the Escape Pod might be a covert mission, taken without consulting his crew, to find Nero's "base".
The "creature" he encounters could be native to that icy planet, and after discovering the base, we get an action-packed finale to stop Nero from attacking Vulcan to prevent peace between Vulcan and Romulus.
Here's how this could fit in with general canon:
- Romulans not heard from for 100 years before Balance of Terror, yet attacking Kelvin: Crew of Kelvin don't know they are Romulans (Nero could be staying covert, and with Kelvin not surviving, sobody would know).
- Pike seeming to be Killed, but actually surviving and promoted to Fleet Captain, and passing command to Kirk sets up for "The Cage". Maybe a Canon issue. Or Kirk never meets him, but is brought on board to command the Enterprise by Spock on advice from Future Self.
- When Romulans are revealed for who they are, it is done only to certain Bridge crew, with a promise of secrecy. Might explain Spock's reaction in Balance of Terror to push for battle, and part of his respone may be to hide the knowledge of the previous encounter. They were not meant to encounter them.
