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In Star Trek (2009), Did the Original Timeline Survive?


Usually, in Star Trek, when there's a timeline change, the indication is that the original timeline is gone and replaced with the new one. In City on the Edge of Forever, Kirk makes a comment that if they don't get the timeline straight, that millions of people who never died before will die.


Much of the time travel in Trek created suspense by declaring a need to restore the original timeline.


It's already been discussed in other questions about how, in the new movie (simply titled Star Trek with no subtitle or series number) they were unable to restore the original timeline. While some of this is open to interpretation, it seemed like in this instance, for the first time, in Trek, there was an alternate timeline that was seen as an alternate possibility - no reference was made to it replacing the original timeline.


In this movie, was there any reference to the original timeline still existing? In this movie, was the original timeline still considered to be intact?




Answer



To say Star Trek is inconsistent with time travel would be a massive understatement. Each story involving it usually has its own rules which are established or inferred during that story. This is part of the nature of having a science-fiction dynasty where dozens of writers contributed to the canon.


That said, the writers of the film Star Trek sought to reboot the franchise while respecting the original canon we all enjoyed. As part of the reboot, they had Spock and Nero's actions create a new timeline that's similar, but crucially different from the original. This was meant to be irreversible, as to establish a new canon. In addition, they sought to do this in a manner that shows the original canon still exists.


The mechanism they used for this was Spock. By having the original Spock get hurled back in time into this alternate timeline, the writers show us that the stories we grew up on are still there, but they're inaccessible to this new Enterprise crew. Otherwise old Spock wouldn't be the Spock we knew from TOS and TNG, as his memories would have been presumably overwritten with the new historical events of the film. During the film, there's a scene on the bridge where they establish this in-universe:



Spock: Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party.


Uhura: An alternate reality.


Spock: Precisely.



In addition, the makers of the game Star Trek Online, which takes place in the original timeline, released this image which helps clarify where their game fits into the new status quo. Timeline of key Star Trek events



The 'Alternate Timeline' being the one of Star Trek (2009). This nicely lays out how the two timelines are related, and shows they both continue to exist.


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