It is established on screen that the Xindi probe attack of 2153 was never supposed to happen, because the history (the "original" history) had no record of it, right? In episode "Storm Front pt.2" we see Captain Archer observe the timeline correcting itself, almost everything getting back into place etc.
Now, let’s take a brief look at the facts concerning this major event that was never meant to happen, along with the consequences:
- Seven million people died - people who were never meant to die that day! There's a good chance that there was important people among them, or people whose offsprings could have played major historical roles in years to come.
- NX-01, a famous starship commanded by an important historical figure, undertook a year long mission that it was never supposed to undertake, meaning that in the original timeline, the NX-01 crew spent an entire year doing something completely different.
- The general climate on Earth changed radically – human trust in aliens (along with Vulcans) diminished, xenophobia became a major issue, large isolationist movements started forming (Terra Prime).
- Earth’s topography changed! Xindi probe carved a huge, four thousand kilometers long canyon from Florida to Venezuela.
- Starfleet changed – began retrofitting ships with more advanced weaponry, like photonic torpedoes. MACO’s became an integral part of ships’ crews.
- Jonathan Archer – an important historical figure, one of the founding fathers of the Federation, returned from Delphic Expanse a changed man - guilt ridden and disillusioned. This must have affected a lot of choices he made during the course of his career, choices that had considerable impact on Federation history.
- Vulcans planned and nearly executed a preemptive strike against the Andorians under a false premise that the Andorians possessed Xindi weaponry – yet another huge historical event (with major consequences on interspecies relations) that most certainly played out differently than in the original timeline, because of the Xindi thing.
Taking all this under consideration (as long with many other things not mentioned here), is it not safe to conclude that the timeline Nero entered and changed in ST XI was in fact NOT the same timeline in which TOS and the 24. century spinoffs took place, but in fact a DRAMATICALLY different one?
Now, let’s take a brief look at the facts concerning this major event that was never meant to happen, along with the consequences:
- Seven million people died - people who were never meant to die that day! There's a good chance that there was important people among them, or people whose offsprings could have played major historical roles in years to come.
- NX-01, a famous starship commanded by an important historical figure, undertook a year long mission that it was never supposed to undertake, meaning that in the original timeline, the NX-01 crew spent an entire year doing something completely different.
- The general climate on Earth changed radically – human trust in aliens (along with Vulcans) diminished, xenophobia became a major issue, large isolationist movements started forming (Terra Prime).
- Earth’s topography changed! Xindi probe carved a huge, four thousand kilometers long canyon from Florida to Venezuela.
- Starfleet changed – began retrofitting ships with more advanced weaponry, like photonic torpedoes. MACO’s became an integral part of ships’ crews.
- Jonathan Archer – an important historical figure, one of the founding fathers of the Federation, returned from Delphic Expanse a changed man - guilt ridden and disillusioned. This must have affected a lot of choices he made during the course of his career, choices that had considerable impact on Federation history.
- Vulcans planned and nearly executed a preemptive strike against the Andorians under a false premise that the Andorians possessed Xindi weaponry – yet another huge historical event (with major consequences on interspecies relations) that most certainly played out differently than in the original timeline, because of the Xindi thing.
Taking all this under consideration (as long with many other things not mentioned here), is it not safe to conclude that the timeline Nero entered and changed in ST XI was in fact NOT the same timeline in which TOS and the 24. century spinoffs took place, but in fact a DRAMATICALLY different one?
