It does. It explains it is a reboot. That is why they have to tell us it is "Prime" every chance they get. For marketing and not to piss off people who make lots of noise about names and dates being reset.
So we’re not talking a reboot like the joker has been rebooted then?
Since he has multiple origin stories?
It’s a reboot where everyone’s character arc is the same (even Sarek, Spock, and Pike), the events of the universe are the same - i.e. Enterprise happened and the federation was formed, and the Xindi attack occurred, and the Third World War and the eugenics wars and all that - but the visuals have been rebooted.
I can see the logic to that but only if we assume that design of visual elements do not constitute historical facts in-universe. Like the design of the Apollo rocket is a historical fact. We’re bascially assuming that the design of the previously established era is not to be treated as factual because it is a fictional era. Ok I also see the logic in that.
Yet, it’s “prime” so as to not upset “die hard fans”, yet people who criticise the changes are told that “it’s not going to look like Star Trek you need to move on - it needs to be acceptable to a wide audience”.
So ultimately it doesn’t matter whether it’s “prime” or not. All that matters is that it says “Star Trek” on it - if it actually mattered whether it was in the TOS universe then it would make sense for it to look like that universe.
But, since it doesn’t matter - because the history of the timeline hasn’t been affected either way because we’re not treating certain things as facts, then why the continued insistence that it’s “prime”?
The Enterprise is bigger and looks different in this universe. That’s cool - I wonder how history unfolded slightly differently in this continuity to make that happen? Will we find out?
No - because it’s the same as TOS.
There’s a chance to come up with a creative and engaging story the writers will never get.
