Bullshit. The fact that it's an alternate reality is a major story point, and is explained rather explicitly on screen. They even use the specific phrase "alternate reality".
I'm betting that Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman haven't claimed that it's all taking place in the original Trek Universe, at all, but that they've been misquoted or misunderstood by Trek-ignorant interviewers, or by drooling fanbois who heard only what they wanted to hear, and reported that to others.
The last 5 major interviews that Abrams, Orci and Kurtzman have done (go see youtube for them) have all said that Nero comes from the TNG universe (and Spock too) go back in time and alter the past (ie the death of Kirks father). It is a "alternate" first meeting of the TOS cast of characters.
They have all addressed this "alter" and have all said "no". This is not some and I will quote Orci "not your illegitmate Trek. It is real. It is the new altered time line". Don't get upset at the messager. The fact that I raised 2 questions and some of you have gotten upset is your problem.
Here is your answer straight from Orci's fingers as posted at Trekmovie - I highlighted a couple pertinent points in bold - Orci says quite plainly that this is an alternate timeline and it can't be fixed as you are suggesting:
TIME TRAVEL/TIMELINES
Robogeek: Why doesn’t Spock Prime try (or even want) to fix/restore the timeline, and save Vulcan?”
BobOrci: Two reasons: The RED MATTER Device is destroyed, so even if he wanted to go back in time, he can’t.
Secondly, our story is not based on the linear timeline of Einstein’s General Theory of relativity upon which most movies about time travel are based (like say, BACK TO THE FUTURE, or TERMINATOR, both of which I LOVE). The idea of a fixable timeline has been a wonderful staple of sci-fi since the 50’s, but in reading about the most current thinking in theoretical physics regarding time travel (Quantum Mechanics), we learned about the speculative theories that suggest that if time travel is possible, then the act of time travel itself creates a new universe that exists in PARALLEL to the one left by the time traveler. This is the preferred theory these days because it resolves the GRANDFATHER PARADOX, which wonders how a time traveler who kills his own younger grandfather would logically then cease to exist, but then he’d never be around to time travel and kill his grandfather in the first place. Quantum Mechanically based theories resolve this paradox by arguing that the time
traveler, in killing his grandfather, would merely split a previously identical universe into a new one in which a man who is his grandfather in another universe is killed in the new one. The time traveler does not cease to exist, although he is no longer in his own original universe (where he is now missing). Or something.
To summarize above on the time travel issue, going back in time is the equivalent of stepping into a parallel universe, according to current speculations based on Quantum Mechanics.
Starfleet and Spock, basing their decisions on this theory, would see that their is NO SUCH THING as “rectifying” the situation in a MULTIVERSE.
… and finally, my ace in the hole, a TEMPORAL PRIME DIRECTIVE.
BobOrci: For those who care to truly analyze the movie, a parallel reality is clearly expressed both by the dialogue (Uhura) but more importantly by the plot and how the characters behave within it (like the fact that Spock talking to himself doesn’t interfere with his own existence, etc…). However, I understand for some it is a distasteful or unintuitive concept, and for those people, the movie works just as well if they think of it as linear. Just like the movie is both a prequel and a sequel, depending on your point of view.
BobOrci: In our Universe, as long as I am here, you can’t just slingshot around the sun and linear time is a misconception from the middle part of the 20th century.. A good analogy for what we have done here would be to imagine we were rebooting the modern adventures of a sailor, who at the time that his stories were told, it was believed the earth was flat. Now, years later, here in the re-whatever, we know the world is round. So our story exists in a world where the world is now round, despite that being a “canon” violation.
