Fair enough, but that interpretation gives a lot of credence to those who would say that this is "some other Kirk," the same way that the crews in the Mirror Universe or "Yesterday's Enterprise" aren't "the" crews.
Well, the Picard, Riker, Guinan, Tasha, etc. in "Yesterday's Enterprise" are definitely the same people, just having different life experiences. That's what's happening here. It's not like
Galactica where you have a totally new cast of characters with similar names. These are supposed to be the same Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. that we know, with the same genetics and the same personalities, just living their lives under modified circumstances.
Although I'm not so sure about Chekov. He does seem to be older than his original-timeline counterpart. If he was conceived years sooner, he couldn't be genetically identical, just similar, like an older brother. Which is possible, given the change in actors. Although that makes it ironic that Yelchin resembles Walter Koenig so strongly.
To be honest, my initial reaction is somewhat along these lines. Unless the story is about restoring the original timeline (and Orci didn't say one way or the other), it's going to matter less to me how this turns out--much like how I'm not particularly invested in the fate of the Marty McFly who grew up with Biff as a stepfather.
So how do you feel about the
Myriad Universes stories? Or the Shatnerverse? Or the hundreds of Trek novels that are no longer compatible with the canonical timeline as it now stands? Trek Lit is full of alternate histories.
Anyway, I think it's a given that the story isn't about restoring the original timeline, because if this film is at all successful, there will be sequels with the same cast, continuing the same continuity. And Orci said outright that the original timeline still exists; it hasn't been erased.
To use my Doctor Who analogy again, it could be that the novel lines end up on parallel tracks, too, but occasionally reference this situation. Some of the DW tie-ins have implied that the Big Finish fiction and the BBC Books fiction lead to different versions of the Ninth Doctor, for example, and the existing ST continuity may end playing around with similar notions as well.
Like I said, the Trek novel line already encompasses parallel histories, thanks to the Shatnerverse and
Myriad Universes. I'm not in a position to say what specifically will happen, but there's certainly well-established precedent for the sort of thing you propose.
Personally, I'm just glad to know where to put the movie in my personal ST Chronology file. It'll go on the Alternate Timelines page along with the MyrU novels and the like. Though eventually, if sequels and movie-specific tie-ins accumulate sufficiently, it'll no doubt get a separate list to itself, like the Mirror Universe does.
But as discussed, there will no doubt be ideas from the movie that we can assume are part of the main continuity's history as well.
I imagine that future novels will try to incorporate as much as will fit into the continuity of "ST-Prime" after the movie comes out...or at least, they will if people
like the movie. If not, the novels may end up just preferring to go with the idea of ST-Prime chugging along and ignore the events of the film.
Heck, people didn't like NEM or ENT much, but the novels have gotten a lot of material from incorporating their ideas. Good or bad, this movie is part of the Trek canon, just as much as the Mirror Universe is part of the canon. Anything it establishes about the larger background of the universe -- the history of Starfleet, Earth, Vulcan, and the characters before the changes, the existence of planets or species we haven't seen before, physical laws or particles or elements -- is going to be applicable to the main timeline as well. And that means it's part of the overall tapestry we novelists have available to build on, regardless of which timeline our novels may be set in.
It is a different Kirk, Orci's nonsensical rambling about souls notwithstanding.
It's not nonsensical, just figurative. Genetically, biologically, neurologically, it's the same man, just raised with different life experiences. That means that whatever aspects of his personality come from nature rather than nurture can be assumed to be the same. "Soul" is just a metaphor for that.
"This is just a Myriad Universe story" speaks volumes.
Hey, now... speaking as one of the chroniclers of the
Myriad Universes, I object to the "just," as if there's something inferior about such tales. Given how well the MyrU line seems to have been received, I think a lot of people would disagree with that assessment. There's definitely room for exploring alternate versions of the Trek reality. With 40 years of continuity, there's a lot of baggage and limitations on storytelling, so there's value in getting the freedom to set that aside, to tell stories that retain the essence of the characters and the universe without being locked in by continuity details.
) then I won't be buying any Trek books other than the TNG/DS9 ones. These characters are important to me and I won't support their assassination.
