Abrams: Star Trek Split Timeline

[Vic 17]

For fans of the original series and beyond, according to J.J. Abrams, don’t worry, because it’s all good and the adventures they love are still valid.

 

When Star Trek XI was created, the timeline alterations were meant to free Star Trek writers from the shackles of years of Star Trek canon stretching from the original series through Star Trek: Enterprise, so that writers could create new and fresh adventures.

 

But some of the changes were upsetting to established fans, and Abrams comprehends those emotions. “The notion that when this one character, Nero, arrives in his ship, that basically the timeline is altered at that moment, so everything forward is essentially an alternative timeline,” he said. “That is not to say that everything that happened in The Original Series doesn’t exist. I think, as a fan of movies and shows, if someone told me the beloved thing for me was gone, I would be upset.

 

“But we didn’t do that.  We’re not saying that what happened in that original series wasn’t good, true, valid, righteous and real. Let people embrace that. We’re not rejecting that. That, to me, would have been the big mistake. We’re simply saying that, ‘At this moment, the very first scene in the first movie, everything that people knew of Star Trek splits off into now another timeline.”

 

 

 

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[GhostofMajorHayes 10]

Abrams and co. sound a bit nervous that they may have alienated many longtime Star Trek fans.

[trekz 7]

Gee, could blowing up a certain planet and creating a love interest where there was none have alientated anyone??? :)

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I think he's still holding out hope to maybe get it though some fans heads that the original time-line, read: Universe, including the Original Vulcan, is still intact.

 

Why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, some fans persist in believing it is an 'altered time-line' story totally escapes me. It almost seems some are just simply determined to cling to that idea no matter how many times anyone, including the Authors and Director states the contrary.

[GhostofMajorHayes 10]

Gee, could blowing up a certain planet and creating a love interest where there was none have alientated anyone??? :)

 

Maybe, just a little bit. :)

[trekz 7]

I suspect that if in discussing this, Abrams or the writers used the example of the canon Mirror Universe and used the phrase parallel universe, as in yet another parallel universe, that that would get through to some hardcore TOS fans. It also would have been possible to have one of the Spocks make that comment, which could still happen. Something like: In parallel worlds, Vulcan still exists.

 

Or, alternatively: In parallel worlds, Nurse Christine still has the hots for Spock!

Edited January 2, 2012 by trekz

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I doubt it would have mattered even if someone had looked straight into the camera and said it, trekz.

 

If I may interject on the subject of the Spock/Uhura relationship issue; any fan of TOS who never saw some potential for them to be an item in the prehistory of that series, even from only Uhura's POV, should turn in their Nerd cards, they weren't paying close enough attention.

[trekz 7]

Well, as Spock said, there are always possibilities....

 

Part of what I'm trying to say is that more "Star Trek" examples should be used to make their parallel universe point, because that is what Trek fans should be focusing on. For me, the more that "alternate timelines" are mentioned, I think of alternate meaning instead of, rather than in addition to. Parallel to me means others at the same time.

Edited January 3, 2012 by trekz

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I admit to also having uncertainty over the 'altered/alternate' time-line question at first but as soon as it was clarified for me by the writers as early as THIS then the debate for me was over.

 

I now understand the term 'alternate' as used in the film to be regarding their, the alternate universe character versions, personal futures. Had Nero not been delivered by the black hole to their reality their futures would have been different. IOW, they now live an altered existence than they would have experienced had Nero not arrived. I believe this makes perfect sense within the Many Worlds (Parallel Universes) Theory.

 

Frankly, it is cutting edge science fiction and I predict it will remain a part of how TT stories are told in the future. But also complex and confusing? It can be, but so can Single Timeline Theory, if you recall. IMO, STT is far more complicated than MWT. Time Travel within the MWT completely eliminates all potential Paradox's. :-)

 

I just wish the whining portion of the fanbase, (not you) would stop it and the personal research of how MWT works would begin. We owe it to ourselves and Trekdom to overcome the years of brainwashing STT has caused and get on with 21st Century Sci-Fi.