I think behind the scenes Abrams and the other higher up folks at Paramount had a good laugh at the trekies, by not bothering to deal with the continuity errors. I just don’t undertsand how all this happened, especially in an age when directors release “special directors cut” editions with all the nerdy stuff (like Watchmen for example). Trekies didn’t even get that bone thrown to them.

However with all this, I was thinking that we should just consider the Abrams Star Trek the “Mirror Universe” told as revisionist history. Once the Abrams version is no longer “Hot Stuff” hopefully a writer knowledgeable about “canon” can come along and upend the whole story and say, “well, that was the Mirror Universe and nobody told you so at the time”. BTY, I was influenced to this idea on another board.

My point is, we should just accept this universe to be the mirror universe of the Terran Empire. It makes all the continuity issues more tolerable:

1) This would explain why the USS Relativity doesn’t show up to fix the timeline. Because it’s the mirror universe and the future Federation doesn’t care about what happens in the Mirror Universe timeline.

2) This would explain why there is no George Samuel Kirk. The Mirror Kirk may not have had a brother in the Mirror Universe, so he is essentially George, but is named Jim due to the destruction of the USS Kelvin and early death of his father Lt Kirk. It also explains why he is such a trouble maker without conscience, unlike the original Captain Kirk. Mirror Kirks background was never discussed, so to a certain degree anything goes.

4) This would also explain why Uhura and Spock have a relationship. This Mirror Spock doesn’t care about his bond with T’pring and with the destruction of Vulcan she dies anyway. Not the best explanation in the world, but its better than just outright ignoring the Amok Time episode.

3) Why does Pike not get court martialed for doing such a poor job defending the planet Vulcan and directing the Federation fleet? Because he is an officer of the Terran Empire, not the Federation. To some degree the Terran Empire doesn’t care otherwise, whether Vulcan survives or not. Since the Romulan Empire is independent in the Mirror Universe, the issue of defeating a new powerful Romulan Ship is a more pressing matter than saving Vulcan.

4) It would also explain why the USS Kelvin looks so weird. The design of the Kelvin that we see in the Abrams film could have been influenced by the appearance of the more advanced Constitution class USS Defiant, which appeared in Tholian space during the time of Captain Archer from the Terran Empire, not the Federation. This could explain the earlier diversion of the timeline that precedes Nero and Narada and makes everything so radically different (i.e. technology differences, earlier ecounters with the Cardassians and the existance of nokia)

I think it will be cake for writers to retcon this version of Star Trek in the future. If the Tholians could open a gateway into an alternate future universe, then the Red stuff that Spock was using could do the same effect into the past. In fact this timeline could be an attempt by the Terran Slave resistance to keep the Terran Empire from losing power to the Alliance with the assistance by maniputating the time line in the Mirror Universe behind the scenes.

I’d like an Abrams-produced HBO Star Trek show starring Bruce Greenwood as Pike!