Nero altered the timeline = altered the original Trek reality

[Franklin]

To be honest, just based on the dialog of the scene on the bridge where they presume Nero is from the future, what happened is open to interpretation. Whether they're now a branch of the prime timeline or they're essentially "recording over" the prime line, in either case it's an alternate timeline, their destinies have been changed, and no one can predict the future. There's not enough information from the discussion to conclude whether or not something new has been created or if an existing timeline has been changed.

However, if the "TOS timeline" had been changed, the question within Trek storytelling would be: how is it corrected? I don't think it can be, and that proves it's a new timeline, not a perverting of the prime one. Consider, if someone did try to go back in time to stop Nero and the Narada, that would still change time, not "correct" anything, because Nero and the Narada never existed at all in the TOS timeline.

To my tortured reasoning, that's the best on-screen evidence that a new universe was created and the old one still exists. There is nothing to correct in the new universe. The moment Nero appears, a new timeline is created whether things happen as they did in the movie or otherwise. The only way to prevent the new timeline is to travel to the future of the prime universe and prevent Nero (and Spock) from going into the black hole in the first place. Of course, that new universe doesn't exist without Nero's appearance. So -- .

And with that, I'm outta ammunition on this.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

So technically, if we agree that the JJ-verse is an alternate timeline, completely cut off from the Prime Universe (with the exceptions of Spock Prime, Nero, the Jellyfish and the Narada), then nobody can bitch and moan about scenes being stolen/homaged to from the original series or movies (Kirk's "KHAAAAAN!", Quinto's "KHAAAAAAAAN!", Spock's death, Kirk's death) seeing as how they're in two different universes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

So technically, if we agree that the JJ-verse is an alternate timeline, completely cut off from the Prime Universe (with the exceptions of Spock Prime, Nero, the Jellyfish and the Narada), then nobody can bitch and moan about scenes being stolen/homaged to from the original series or movies (Kirk's "KHAAAAAN!", Quinto's "KHAAAAAAAAN!", Spock's death, Kirk's death) seeing as how they're in two different universes.

 

[Ithekro]

I'm sure such similar things happen in a lot of alternate universes. For all we know, in a Mirror Universe it is Khan screaming "SPOOOOOOOCK!" when Kirk is killed.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

Regardless of out-of-universe physics, it is canon, within Star Trek, that the theory that "all possibilities that can happen do happen in alternate quantum realities" has been observed at least once to be correct. You pretty much can't say "Parallels" is not canon.

So following from that -- the simple fact that Nero appeared in front of the Kelvin on 2233.04 created an alternate quantum reality --- it really doesn't matter how he got there. Prime Universe = No Nero. NuVerse = Nero. Both of these possibilities happened in alternate quantum realities, the end.

 

[Sindatur]

If your theory is correct, the reason for the existence of this board and our being here is no longer valid. There will be no Jean-Luc Picard or anyone else. Events depicted in TOS will never happen.

Huh? The original shows still exist on DVD etc, so of course they still exist in media form to discuss.

Wait...Your DVDs are still intact? How do you rate such special treatment? JJ Abrams sent a Bad Robot to my house and wiped my DVDs. I've put them in to play, but, now there's nothing but static

Now that you've admitted in Public, that they missed yours, I imagine JJ will get someone on the job post-haste, so guard your DVDs well.

 

[fireproof78]

If your theory is correct, the reason for the existence of this board and our being here is no longer valid. There will be no Jean-Luc Picard or anyone else. Events depicted in TOS will never happen.

Huh? The original shows still exist on DVD etc, so of course they still exist in media form to discuss.

Wait...Your DVDs are still intact? How do you rate such special treatment? JJ Abrams sent a Bad Robot to my house and wiped my DVDs. I've put them in to play, but, now there's nothing but static

Now that you've admitted in Public, that they missed yours, I imagine JJ will get someone on the job post-haste, so guard your DVDs well.

Mine are in an underground bunker, next to my guns, explosives and liquor.

 

[BeatleJWOL]

Uhura says it is an alternate reality, and Spock says that Nero's actions altered the flow of history, and that their destinies have been changed. To me, this indicates reality has been altered, an altered reality, but Nero's actions are actually overwriting the original reality and history, which is why Spock says neither party can anticipate or predict the outcome of a future engagement - reality has been rewritten.

Nope, just the future, which is standard time travel shenanigans.

The point of mentioning an "alternate reality" was that whatever advantage Nero might have had (by way of being from the "future" and thus to some degree familiar with historical events occurring between 2233 and 2389) was negated. His travel into the past (causing a temporal branching point, diverging from the "Prime") meant that he was no longer in the same reality/timeline to which those events belonged. He knew exactly as much about how things were going to play out in this reality as Spock or Uhura did: nothing at all.

That was the whole point of that scene

particularly in-universe.

Out of universe, the "alternate reality" was the nod to Star Trek fans, saying "this is new and different, you should really just relax."

They probably should have had nero go to a existing alternate realities past to avoid confusion.

The setup as presented in the film is already creating confusion, as evidenced in this very thread. Trying to make it even "less confusing" might have made Trek fans nod but most moviegoers would be waiting for the next important thing to happen.

That's why the bridge discussion scene is so brief, and oriented more towards detailing why Nero being from the future isn't as dangerous as it appears.

I believe that Shatner's Kirk is still fighting that rubbery Gorn and switching bodies with Janice Lester back over in the Prime Universe.

And I don't know why people may WANT to believe this. I think there is a group of fans that really don't like ST09 and STID, so they can discount those new stories and hate them even more if a new timeline has wiped from existence the Original stories told up to this point. Maybe this is the case here, maybe not.

well I wasn't going to say anything but: