star trek kelvin timeline ao3

Simple Kelvin Universe Reading List

While the new continuity depicted in the Kelvin Universe isn't directly related to the Lit-verse or the other lists on this site, I thought it would be useful to some people to have a simple chronological reading list for the related comics and books.

• Countdown, Number One
• Countdown, Number Two
• Countdown, Number Three
• Countdown, Number Four
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue One
• Nero, Number One
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue Two
• Starfleet Academy #2: The Edge
• Starfleet Academy #1: The Delta Anomaly
• Starfleet Academy #3: The Gemini Agent
• Starfleet Academy #4: The Assassination Game
• Red Level Down (#20)
• The Voice of a Falling Star (#18)
• Scotty (#19)
• Nero, Number Two
• Nero, Number Three
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue Three
• Nero, Number Four
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue Four
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue Five
• Star Trek Adaptation, Issue Six
• The Unsettling Stars
• More Beautiful Than Death
• Legacy of Spock, Part 1 (#55)
• Legacy of Spock, Part 2 (#56)
• Legacy of Spock, Part 3 (#57)
• Legacy of Spock, Part 4 (#58)
• Where No Man Has Gone Before, Part 1 (#1)
• Where No Man Has Gone Before, Part 2 (#2)
• The Galileo Seven, Part 1 (#3)
• The Galileo Seven, Part 2 (#4)
• Operation: Annihilate, Part 1 (#5)
• Operation: Annihilate, Part 2 (#6)
• Mirrored, Part 1 (#15)
• Mirrored, Part 2 (#16)
• Vulcan's Vengeance, Part 1 (#7)
• Vulcan's Vengeance, Part 2 (#8)
• The Return of the Archons, Part 1 (#9)
• The Return of the Archons, Part 2 (#10)
• Bones (#17)
• The Redshirt's Tale (#13)
• Keenser's Story (#14)
• The Truth About Tribbles, Part 1 (#11)
• The Truth About Tribbles, Part 2 (#12)
• Countdown to Darkness, Number One
• Countdown to Darkness, Number Two
• Countdown to Darkness, Number Three
• Countdown to Darkness, Number Four
• I, Enterprise, Part 1 (#31)
• I, Enterprise, Part 2 (#32)
• (Star Trek: The Video Game)
• (Star Trek Into Darkness)
• Khan, Number One
• Khan, Number Two
• Khan, Number Three
• Khan, Number Four
• Khan, Number Five
• After Darkness, Part 1 (#21)
• After Darkness, Part 2 (#22)
• After Darkness, Part 3 (#23)
• The Khitomer Conflict, Part 1 (#25)
• The Khitomer Conflict, Part 2 (#26)
• The Khitomer Conflict, Part 3 (#27)
• The Khitomer Conflict, Part 4 (#28)
• Parallel Lives, Part 1 (#29)
• Parallel Lives, Part 2 (#30)
• Lost Apollo, Part 1 (#33)
• Lost Apollo, Part 2 (#34)
• The Q Gambit, Part 1 (#35)
• The Q Gambit, Part 2 (#36)
• The Q Gambit, Part 3 (#37)
• The Q Gambit, Part 4 (#38)
• The Q Gambit, Part 5 (#39)
• The Q Gambit, Part 6 (#40)
• Behemoth, Part 1 (#41)
• Behemoth, Part 2 (#42)
• Eurydice, Part 1 (#43)
• Eurydice, Part 2 (#44)
• Eurydice, Part 3 (#45)
• The Tholian Webs, Part 1 (#46)
• The Tholian Webs, Part 2 (#47)
• Deity, Part 1 (#48)
• Deity, Part 2 (#49)
• Live Evil, Part 1 (#50)
• Live Evil, Part 2 (#51)
• Live Evil, Part 3 (#52)
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 1
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 2
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 3
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 4
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 5
• Green Lantern: The Spectrum War, Part 6
• Reunion, Part 1 (#53)
• Reunion, Part 2 (#54)
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 1
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 2
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 3
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 4
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 5
• Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds, Part 6
• Starfleet Academy, Part 1
• Starfleet Academy, Part 2
• Starfleet Academy, Part 3
• Starfleet Academy, Part 4
• Starfleet Academy, Part 5
• Connection, Part 1 (#59)
• Connection, Part 2 (#60)
• Manifest Destiny, Part 1
• Manifest Destiny, Part 2
• Manifest Destiny, Part 3
• Manifest Destiny, Part 4
• (Star Trek Beyond)
• Boldly Go, Part 1
• Boldly Go, Part 2
• Boldly Go, Part 3
• Boldly Go, Part 4
• Boldly Go, Part 5
• Boldly Go, Part 6
• Murder at Babel, Part 1 (#7)
• Murder at Babel, Part 2 (#8)
• Welcome to New Vulcan (#9)
• Yorktown (#10)
• Whom God Destroys, Part 1 (#11)
• Whom God Destroys, Part 2 (#12)
• IDIC, Part 1 (#13)
• IDIC, Part 2 (#14)
• IDIC, Part 3 (#15)
• IDIC, Part 4 (#16)
• IDIC, Part 5 (#17)
• IDIC, Part 6 (#18)

Star Trek: Mapping Out the New “Kelvin” Timeline

Star Trek superfans are sticklers for canon. Star Trek’s official lore spans centuries, from obscure millennia past to the far-flung future of the 31st century. When J.J. Abrams and his production team set out to create a new version of Star Trek in the form of the 2009 film of the same name , they knew they had to address a daunting question. How could they reinvent iconic characters like Captain Kirk , Spock , and Dr. McCoy  without trampling on decades worth of lore?

The answer to that question is the most clever conceit of the current feature film series: Rather than violate canon or create a prequel to the original show, the production team decided to create an alternate reality .

That means the new films are not a reboot of the original Star Trek. Rather, they exist in a separate yet parallel universe to the six TV shows and 10 films that came before. It may seem like a small semantic shift, but it allayed any fears Star Trek fans had that Abrams would barge his way in and obliterate 40 years of existing Trek history.

Even better, Abrams and team actually created a fictional reason for this new timeline (known now as the Kelvin Timeline) to exist, then tied it directly to events that occurred in the original timeline (aka the Prime Timeline).

So how exactly did the Kelvin Timeline come about, and what’s happened since?

Romulus Is Destroyed (Prime Year 2387)

In the year 2387, almost 20 years after the events of The Next Generation , a supernova threatened the entire galaxy. In its path was the planet Romulus , the capital of the Romulan Star Empire . Spock, whose long Vulcan lifespan allowed him to live for over 100 years after Star Trek: The Original Series , promised to help the Romulans. Armed with a substance known as red matter that could disrupt the supernova, Spock took a Vulcan ship to Romulus — but it was too late. The supernova destroyed Romulus. Spock launched the red matter anyway to stop any further destruction.

A Romulan mining ship called the Narada , commanded by a Romulan named Nero , witnessed the planet’s destruction and found Spock. Nero, enraged by the destruction of his planet and the death of his pregnant wife, blamed Spock for what happened. Both the Narada  and Spock’s ship came too close to the black hole created by the red matter. They were both sucked in, with the Narada going in first.

And that’s where the Kelvin Timeline begins…

The Narada and the Kelvin (Kelvin Year 2233)

Over 100 years earlier, in 2233, the Federation starship U.S.S. Kelvin intercepted strange readings on the Klingon border. They went to the source of the readings and found the black hole, with the Narada  emerging from it soon after. The Narada immediately attacked the Kelvin , and Nero realized that he and his entire crew had gone back in time to the 23rd century. George Kirk , the first officer aboard the Kelvin , commanded his ship after the death of his captain.

At the same time, his wife Winona gave birth to a son: James Tiberius Kirk . Only minutes after the future Captain Kirk’s birth aboard an escape shuttle, the Kelvin was destroyed, taking George Kirk with it.

It was this event that sparked the beginning of the Kelvin Timeline. The destruction of the Kelvin didn’t happen in the timeline Nero came from. George Kirk lived to old age and watched his son become captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise . By virtue of Nero’s arrival and the ripple effect it caused, history would be very different in this new universe.

Nero, meanwhile, went into exile, having calculated that because of time displacement, it would not be another 25 years until Spock arrived from the future.

Kirk and Spock Begin (Kelvin Year 2258)

The young Kirk and Spock both began their lives in a new reality. Kirk, raised without a father, became rebellious and was often in trouble with the law in Iowa. Yet he was still gifted. The half-human Spock grappled with his emotions while growing up on Vulcan. He joined Starfleet and became first officer on the Enterprise , under the command of Christopher Pike . Kirk also joined Starfleet on advice from Captain Pike.

In 2258, Nero finally captured Spock Prime. Intent on revenge, Nero used red matter to destroy Vulcan . Starfleet sent an armada, crewed largely by available cadets from Starfleet Academy, in order to find out what was happening. The Enterprise , upon which Cadet Kirk had snuck on board after he was put on academic suspension, arrived late to find the armada destroyed. Nero spared the Enterprise only because he knew the young Spock would be aboard. Pike was captured by the Romulans, but not before he placed Spock in command and appointed Kirk as first officer.

A disagreement over what to do next led Spock to abandon Kirk on a snowy world near Vulcan. Kirk met Spock Prime there and learned about what happened in the other timeline. With the help of Montgomery Scott (Scotty), who was stationed at an outpost, Kirk transported back to the Enterprise and emotionally compromised Spock, forcing him to step down as acting captain. Kirk took command and led the crew to rescue Captain Pike and destroy the Narada . Pike was promoted to Admiral, while Kirk became captain of the Enterprise .

The new crew soon set out on their mission. By that point, the other classic characters of Leonard McCoy , Nyota Uhura , Hikaru Sulu , and Pavel Chekov also joined the crew throughout the course of the mission to stop Nero.

Starfleet’s Militarization (Kelvin Years 2258-2259)

After Vulcan was destroyed, Starfleet — under the command of Admiral Alexander Marcus — began searching distant quadrants of space. Their objective was to find anything they could use to strengthen Starfleet. Not only could that prevent a future disaster like Vulcan, but Marcus also believed that war with the Klingons was imminent. He wanted that war. He wanted to win it, and he believed he was the only one who could. The militarization of Starfleet had begun.

While searching, Starfleet discovered the Botany Bay , a 20th-century spaceship from Earth that carried genetically-engineered humans. These humans, known as Augments , were led by Khan Noonien Singh . Khan and his crew had been frozen in cryosleep since the 1990s, and Marcus awoke only Khan.

Under the new identity of Commander John Harrison, Khan was forced into working for Section 31 , a covert black ops group in Starfleet, to design new weapons and ships that could benefit from Khan’s savagery. Marcus used Khan’s crew against him, but Khan eventually placed them inside the torpedoes he had built and tried to smuggle them to safety. Khan was discovered, and he was forced to flee Starfleet alone.

Khan’s Wrath (Kelvin Year 2259)

Khan believed his crew was dead, so he set out for revenge against Marcus and Starfleet. He bombed a Section 31 base in London, prompting the fleet captains and their first officers to gather in San Francisco. Among those present were Pike, Kirk, and Spock. Kirk had lost command of the Enterprise after violating the Prime Directive , and he was reassigned to be first officer under Pike, who retook command of the ship. Khan attacked the officers and killed many of them, Pike included, giving Kirk his own thirst for revenge.

Khan found refuge on the Klingon homeworld, which was where Marcus — who wanted to use this as a pretext for war — ordered Kirk to take the Enterprise to kill “John Harrison” with the torpedoes Khan had designed. Instead, Spock convinced Kirk to capture “Harrison” and return him to Earth for trial. Kirk then learned that Harrison was really Khan.

Marcus soon arrived aboard an experimental starship called the Vengeance . Never intending for Kirk to make it away from the Klingon homeworld alive, Marcus fired on the Enterprise . Kirk and Khan teamed up to space jump from the damaged Enterprise to the Vengeance , which Scotty had snuck onboard earlier and disabled. There, they could capture Marcus and rescue his daughter, Carol Marcus , a member of the Enterprise crew.

Once aboard, Khan betrayed Kirk, killed Admiral Marcus, and demanded that Spock beam the Augment-filled torpedoes to the Vengeance . Once Spock did so, Khan returned the Enterprise crew members and opened fire. The Enterprise was critically damaged, but Spock played his trump card: He detonated the torpedoes in the Vengeance launch bay, after having Dr. McCoy remove the Augments while they were still on the Enterprise. The Enterprise nearly crashed before Kirk sacrificed his life to save the ship, while Khan crashed the dying Vengeance into the heart of San Francisco.

Spock, enraged at the death of Kirk, chased Khan through San Francisco. McCoy, meanwhile, realized that Khan’s blood had regenerative properties that could return Kirk to life. Uhura transported to San Francisco, where she convinced Spock to capture Khan instead of killing him. Kirk returned to life because of the blood, while Khan was placed into cryosleep once again. One year later, the refitted Enterprise was assigned a new journey: a five-year mission to explore where no one has gone before.

The Five-Year Mission (Kelvin Year 2263)

WARNING: Major Plot Spoilers for Star Trek Beyond Follow!

After spending so much time in deep space, the crew of the Enterprise  became listless. Even Captain Kirk, always the adventurer, thought things were getting a little too routine. A stop at a space station called Yorktown , though, gave them a new mission: rescuing a crew stranded on a planet cloaked inside a nebula . The Enterprise traveled to this strange new world only to be immediately attacked and destroyed by a crew of drone ships. Kirk was the last person to depart the ship, watching the saucer of the Enterprise crash onto the surface from his escape pod.

With most of the crew captured by the leader of the drone swarm, a mysterious alien warrior named Krall , Kirk and the others who weren’t captured regrouped and find their crewmates with the help of a stranded warrior named Jaylah . They ended up boarding the crashed remains of a 22nd-century starship called the USS Franklin , that disappeared in the early 2160s and was never heard from again. The crew repaired the Franklin , which Jaylah had been working on for several years after making the ship her home, and rescued the rest of their crew.

It was then that they learned the truth: Krall was actually Balthazar Eddison, the captain of the Franklin , who had used alien technology to keep himself alive — at the cost of extreme physical mutation. And he had a beef with the Federation: He was a soldier in the Xindi War and the Earth-Romulan War , who felt he was forgotten when peace was achieved and the Federation never rescued his crew. For a century, Krall searched for an ancient artifact known as the Abronath that could power a bioweapon from the planet, and he attacked the Enterprise once he learned it was aboard.

Flying the Franklin , Kirk and his crew followed Krall to Yorktown, where Krall intended to unleash the bioweapon against millions of Federation citizens. Kirk defeated Krall, who was sucked into space and killed. Through his dealings with Krall, who had a similar identity crisis, Kirk came to remember that being a starship captain was his first, best destiny, and that he lived for the adventure with his crew. The crew was given a new starship, the USS Enterprise-A , and they resumed their five-year mission to explore where no one has gone before.

Star Trek Beyond is in theaters now.

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• Memory Beta articles sourced from novels
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comics
• Memory Beta articles sourced from comic adaptations
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• Memory Beta articles sourced from games
• Memory Beta articles sourced from Star Trek Online
• Other realities
• Alternate realities

Kelvin timeline

The Kelvin timeline or alternate reality was a parallel universe created in the year 2233 with the temporal incursion of the Narada , a Romulan civilian mining vessel under the command of Nero , from the year 2387 . The alternate reality differed from the primary reality in a number of capacities, including the attack upon the USS Kelvin , the launch of the USS Enterprise in 2258 , and the destruction of the planet Vulcan by the Narada . ( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek )

• 1.1 Alteration
• 1.2 Destruction of Vulcan
• 1.3 Attack on Earth
• 1.4.1 Q's gambit
• 1.4.2 Final mission of USS Enterprise NCC-1701
• 1.4.3 The Endeavour
• 1.4.4 Terminal expanse
• 1.5 Far future
• 2.1.1 Nomenclature
• 2.2 External link

History [ ]

Alteration [ ].

The Narada was pulled into a black hole and appeared in the year 2233 . Nero launched an attack on the Federation starship USS Kelvin . The Narada severely damaged the Kelvin with its powerful weapons but was crippled when George Kirk rammed his ship into it. The disabled Narada soon attracted the attention of the Klingons. A fleet led by Captain Kor of the IKS Klothos attacked. The Narada 's crew did their best to repel the Klingons, but despite killing many could not hold back the stronger Klingon force. ( TOS movie , novelization & comic adaptation : Star Trek ; TOS comic : " Nero, Number One ")

Destruction of Vulcan [ ]

The Narada attacked Vulcan, destroying all of the Starfleet ships that attempted to intervene save one: the Federation starship USS Enterprise , fresh on her maiden voyage (which due to the timeline change was pushed back to 2258 when it should have been 2245). Though the Enterprise crew tried to foil this plan, the Narada successfully drilled into the core of the planet and placed Red matter there, creating an artificial black hole at the core, which promptly consumed the planet. ( TOS movie : Star Trek )

Attack on Earth [ ]

The Narada then attempted to destroy Earth in a similar manner, but through the actions of Captain Kirk and Spock , an artificial black hole was created which then consumed the Narada . ( TOS movie : Star Trek )

Later missions [ ]

The Enterprise engaged in a series of campaigns against the Klingon Empire , the Cardassian Union , and the Romulan Star Empire , going up against some of the most advanced starships of each. ( TOS video game : The Mobile Game )

After stopping at the Aldebaran colony, the Enterprise prepared to leave the Milky Way galaxy when it intercepted a record-marker from the SS Valiant . Spock was able to analyze the memory banks, revealing an unknown force in the region that forced her captain to destroy his own ship.

Continuing its course to our galaxy's boundary, the Enterprise encountered an unusual force field known as the galactic barrier . Nine crewmembers died, and another was injured—Kirk's friend, Lieutenant Mitchell . The Enterprise also lost her warp capability.

Under the care of Leonard McCoy , Mitchell began to exhibit unusual powers, such as levitation and telepathy. At a senior staff meeting in the briefing room , the crew agreed to maroon Lieutenant Mitchell on "another Delta Vega."

Arriving at Delta Vega I , Kirk and McCoy prepared Mitchell for exile when he attacked Kirk with a blast of energy from his hands. McCoy made a split decision to knock him out with a sedative. He was later beamed down to the planet, with Kirk and Spock, while Scott and Kelso searched the facility for materials they needed to restore the ship's warp drive.

Mitchell revived, escaped his force field, then stunned Kirk and Spock with the energy from his hands. He later met Kelso, and forced his former friend to shoot and kill himself with his phaser.

Scott revived Kirk and Spock, telling them Mitchell had escaped and Kelso was dead. Kirk made a command decision to confront Mitchell, ordering Spock to quarantine the planet and leave if he had not returned in three hours.

Awaiting him in the desert, Mitchell demonstrated his power of illusion to Kirk by transforming the landscape around them into the bar from Iowa. Returning the landscape to its original state, Mitchell forced Kirk to kneel before him and beg forgiveness for his failure and his humanity. As he did so, Spock came up behind Mitchell and nerve-pinched him. Kirk ordered Spock to stand back, then shot and killed his friend.

Kelso and Mitchell were buried in space. Spock later joined Kirk in the briefing room, offering to play chess with him. Kirk accepted the offer, and Spock left for Engineering , leaving him alone in the briefing room.

• The Galileo Seven, Part 1 and Part 2
• Operation: Annihilate, Part 1 and Part 2
• Vulcan's Vengeance, Part 1 and Part 2
• The Return of the Archons, Part 1 and Part 2
• The Truth About Tribbles, Part 1 and Part 2
• Countdown to Darkness, Issue 1 , Issue 2 , Issue 3 , and Issue 4
• I, Enterprise!, Part 1 , and Part 2
• Star Trek Into Darkness
• After Darkness, Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3
• The Khitomer Conflict, Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , and Part 4
• Parallel Lives, Part 1 and Part 2
• Lost Apollo, Part 1 and Part 2

Q's gambit [ ]

Following the apparent "death" of Ambassador Spock in 2387 , Q went back in time and had the USS Enterprise transported a hundred years into the future. In the future, the Cardassian Union and the Dominion had conquered both Bajor and the Federation. However, following Dukat releasing both a prophet and Pah-wraith from the Reckoning Tablet , Q then became a vessel for the prophet and was able to destroy Dukat and the pah-wraith. Q then returned the Enterprise and its crew back to its proper time.( TOS - The Q Gambit comics : " Part 1 ", " Part 2 ", " Part 3 ", " Part 4 ", " Part 5 ", " Part 6 ")

• Behemoth, Part 1 , and Part 2
• Eurydice, Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3
• Tholian Web, Part 1 and Part 2

Final mission of USS Enterprise NCC-1701 [ ]

Following negotiations between the Teenaxi Delegation and the Fabona Republic , the Enterprise docked at Yorktown Station to resupply. During this time, Ambassador Spock has died, Spock and Uhura took a time out from their relationship and Kirk applied for promotion to vice admiral .

An escape pod was found and its occupant, Kalara , informed the Yorktown crew that her ship was stranded on Altamid . Commodore Paris agreed to let Kirk and the Enterprise enter the Necro Cloud to assist her. However, once in orbit around Altamid, the Enterprise came under attack by a swarm of ships . The Enterprise tried to escape but was crippled and boarded by Swarm drones led by warlord Krall and Manas . Kirk and his crew were then forced to abandon ship before it's saucer section crash-landed on Altamid. However, most of the crew had been captured save for Kirk, Chekov, Spock, Kalara, McCoy and Scotty.

With the assistance of fellow crash victim Jaylah , the still-free members of the senior staff were able to reunite at her "house", the wreck of the NX -class variant USS Franklin . After rescuing the prisoners in a raid on Krall's base, they repaired USS Franklin and pursued Krall's swarm to Yorktown Station, where they were able to destroy the swarm by using a radio transmission of the Beastie Boys ' song " Sabotage " to jam its communications. They then pursued Krall into the station and were able to foil his attempt to deploy a biological weapon against its inhabitants.

Kirk turned down promotion to vice admiral and was placed in command of the USS Enterprise -A , still under construction at the time. ( TOS movie : Star Trek Beyond )

During Enterprise -A's construction, Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy were then assigned to the USS Endeavour . Commander Sulu was assigned to the USS Concord and Commander Scott then took a position at Starfleet Academy . Commander Spock and Lieutenant Uhura then took a sabbatical to New Vulcan to assist in rebuilding the Vulcan Science Academy . ( TOS - Boldly Go comic : " Issue 1 ")

The Endeavour [ ]

Kirk and his crew on the Endeavour encountered the Borg , who had followed traces of Borg technology from the Narada to the Alpha Quadrant. Kirk tracked the lonely sphere back to Romulus , where the combined forces of the Endeavour and the Romulans were able to destroy it. ( TOS - Boldly Go comics : " Issue 1 ", " Issue 2 ", " Issue 3 ", " Issue 4 ")

Terminal expanse [ ]

Temporal Agent Daniels takes an early 25th century prime timeline temporal agent into the Kelvin Timeline to help the constitution -class USS Yorktown fight the Sphere Builders and their Klingon allies, who had invaded the Kelvin Timeline to gain an advantage in the Temporal Cold War. Daniels and his assistants are helped in defeated the Sphere Builders by the Yorktown 's Captain, Isaac Garret, and its Science Officer, 0718.

Far future [ ]

Vulcan civilization continued to thrive on New Vulcan by as late as approximately 5259 , where a statue of Spock Prime still stood. While many of the surrounding monuments were larger than life, the monument of Spock was life size. This was at Spock's request, as he felt a larger than life monument would not be logical. ( TOS - Legacy of Spock comic : " Part 4 ")

Appendices [ ]

Background [ ], nomenclature [ ].

The name "Kelvin timeline" does not appear in any canon material, but is CBS Television 's internal name for the alternate timeline created by Nero's attack on USS Kelvin . The name was first revealed to the public in a 2016 interview with Al Rivera , the lead designer of the Star Trek Online video game , before it appeared in the fourth edition of The Star Trek Encyclopedia and The Star Trek Book .

In " Terminal Expanse ", Daniels specifically calls this timeline the "Kelvin timeline".

External link [ ]

• Kelvin timeline article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• 1 Ferengi Rules of Acquisition
• 2 Odyssey class
• 3 Typhon class

Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline explained

We've remodulated our tricorders to help you make sense of the Star Trek Kelvin timeline from the recent Star Trek movies.

Our Star Trek : Kelvin Timeline explained article is here to tell Spock from Spock.

How do you reboot a franchise that’s been around more than 50 years old and whose fan base is, shall we say, passionate about the accuracy of its canon? If you wipe the slate completely clean and start afresh, you lose the benefit of five decades of lore from which to draw inspiration and characters. If you keep the continuity, you’re shackled to decades of details from which you can’t escape. What can you do? If you’re Star Trek, you create the Kelvin Timeline.

The Kelvin timeline, or "alternate universe Trek", creates a new environment in which the events of the more recent Star Trek films (Star Trek, Into Darkness, Beyond) won’t contradict those that came before. It’s also how Spock ended up meeting himself. 

If you want to rewatch the new Star Trek movies, our Star Trek streaming guide will show you where to watch them all online. And if you're curious to see how the new movies stack up against the classics, check out our Star Trek movies, ranked worst to best article. Now, let's dive into the Star Trek Kelvin timeline.

Event One: Nero Travels Through Time 

According to Star Trek (2009), the planet Romulus was destroyed by a supernova in the year 2387. Ambassador Spock attempted to use "red matter", a substance so powerful that a single drop can destroy a planet, to save Romulus by destroying the supernova. He did indeed manage to destroy the supernova, but not in time to prevent the planet’s destruction. To make matters worse, both his ship, the experimental Jellyfish, and the Romulan mining ship Narada were pulled into the black hole’s wake and sent hurtling backwards in time. Spock emerged in 2258 while the Romulans landed in 2233. 

The Narada’s captain, Nero decides to use this opportunity to take out his grief on the organization he holds responsible for the ruin of Romulus and, by extension, the death of his family: the Federation. One of his first acts is to destroy the U.S.S. Kelvin, captained heroically to the very last minute by George Kirk, who lives just long enough to name his newborn son James.

And thus begins the Kelvin timeline. 

Spock, Meet Spock 

Jim Kirk grows up as a rebellious punk constantly trying to outrun his father’s long shadow. Christopher Pike sees something of value in him and urges him to join Starfleet, which he eventually does. Through a contrivance of events, he ends up aboard the Enterprise along with Spock, Bones McCoy, Uhura, and the rest of the Original Series crew. 

It’s now 2258 and Ambassador Spock emerges from the black hole just in time to be scooped up by Nero, who keeps the Jellyfish — and its cache of red matter — for himself while abandoning Spock on the frozen planet of Delta Vega. He wants Spock to bear witness as the Narada drills a hole into the center of Vulcan and releases red matter at the planet’s core. The Enterprise tries to stop him and fails, though they do manage to rescue Spock’s father, Sarek. Nero is eventually defeated, and Spock's young and old take a moment to reflect on their coexistence

Enter Khan, Exit Kirk 

Nero’s too-close-to-success-for-comfort attempt to destroy Earth shifts Starfleet’s ethos from one of discovery to one of protection. They still want to "seek out new life forms," but only to find out how dangerous they are. In Into Darkness (2013), Alexander Marcus, leader of the secretive Section 31, finds the SS Botany Bay, stuffed to the rafters full of augmented humans in cryostasis. He wakes one of them up — Khan Noonien Singh — and forces him to build weapons that Earth could use to defend itself against alien threats. 

Huge surprise, Khan betrays Marcus, exacting vengeance on various Starfleet targets. In doing so, he kills Kirk’s father figure Christopher Pike. Marcus tries to leverage Kirk’s hot-headedness by sending Kirk after Khan, who has fled to the Klingon homeworld of Kronos. He figures Kirk will kill, not capture, Khan, thus removing a threat and evidence of Marcus’ secret project.

Kirk goes off script and keeps Khan alive, much to the chagrin of Admiral Marcus, who tries to blow them all the heck up. The sacrifice that leads to victory happens just as in the original, except in the Kelvin timeline it’s Kirk who gives his life to save his crew. In the prime timeline, Genesis brought Spock back to life, but here it’s Khan’s blood that gets the job done.

That bit of ugliness behind them, the Enterprise receives its five-year-mission. You know the one.

Farewell to Spock 

In Star Trek: Beyond (2016), the Enterprise discovers the USS Franklin, a Federation ship that had been lost for decades. Here’s what’s fun about that: the Kelvin timeline doesn’t start until 2233. The Franklin disappeared before that, so it exists in both timelines, which means a different version of it could theoretically pop up in Star Trek media that doesn’t adhere to the Kelvin timeline. 

In Kelvin, however, the Franklin is half-buried after crashing into the surface of the planet Altamid. Few of its former crew remain, and those that do are unrecognizable, having been transformed by technology they’ve used to keep themselves alive. The Franklin’s captain, Balthazar Edison, now known as Krall, rejects Starfleet ideals of peace. He’s a soldier and he believes that he should be allowed to do what he does best. He returns to starbase Yorktown with the goal of commandeering it to launch an attack on the Federation, but first he’ll have to kill every living thing in residence. Kirk et al save the day, of course. 

This is also the point at which Ambassador Spock leaves the timeline due to the passing of the peerless Leonard Nimoy. Kelvin Spock had been planning to rejoin what remains of the Vulcan people, but instead chooses to honor his other self by remaining in Starfleet.

Crossover With the Prime Timeline 

Keeping track of the Kelvin timeline is important because there are still Star Trek properties operating in the prime timeline, such as Picard . However, there has been a little bit of crossover between the two. Picard takes place long after the titular character has quit Starfleet, and early on we discover the destruction of Romulus was why. 

Picard wanted to launch a rescue mission to save as many Romulans as possible before the detonation of the supernova, but Starfleet pushed back. He went forward with it anyway, but when his ships were decimated by a fleet of rogue synths, Starfleet gave up all rescue efforts. Picard resigned in disgust. Everything that happens after that — and therefore everything taking place in the show — is part of the prime timeline, despite being kicked off by Event One.

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Susan Arendt is a freelance writer, editor, and consultant living in Burleson, TX. She's a huge sci-fi TV and movie buff, and will talk your Vulcan ears off about Star Trek. You can find more of her work at Wired, IGN, Polygon, or look for her on Twitter: @SusanArendt. Be prepared to see too many pictures of her dogs.

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Star Trek: 3 Actors Who Almost Played Riker Before Jonathan Frakes

Jonathan Frakes, the actor who played William T. Riker in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," is arguably one of the most important people in the "Star Trek" universe. Not only did he breathe life into the first officer of the Enterprise-D through his charm, charisma, and the Riker maneuver, but he would go on to direct two "Star Trek" feature films and a number of episodes across six Trek series to date. Frakes is so dedicated to "Star Trek," he even offered to direct the long-awaited fourth Kelvin timeline movie in an email to J.J. Abrams.

With so much commitment to the franchise, it's hard to imagine how different the world of "Star Trek" would be if Jonathan Frakes had not been cast as Riker — not to mention how different the character might have turned out. Maybe Worf might have ended up with Troi, or Riker would have finally gotten the promotion he deserved.

As recounted in "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, and Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The Next 25 Years From The Next Generation To J. J. Abrams," three other actors who were seriously considered for the role included Michael O'Gorman, Billy Campbell, and "Star Trek" legend Jeffrey Combs. According to Adam Shrager's book, "The Finest Crew in the Fleet: the Next Generation Cast On Screen and Off," "Star Trek" fans came much closer to a world without Frakes than most realize. He endured seven auditions over a six-week period and only landed the part when the actor casting agents wanted for the role blew his final audition.

Michael O'Gorman quit acting within a few years of his audition

Had he been cast as Riker, who knows how long Michael O'Gorman's list of credits might have been? As it stands, his IMDb entry is a fairly short one, with six credits spanning from 1987 to 1991, including an appearance in "Miami Vice" and an utterly silly role as a monster vying for the romantic affections of a widow with kids in the long-forgotten (and many would say forgettable) syndicated "Tales From the Darkside" byproduct, "Monsters." A handsome actor with a bit of a Dennis Quaid thing going on, O'Gorman might have made a rather dashing Riker in another timeline.

O'Gorman's name can be found on a Paramount memo to John Pike from Senior Vice President for Paramount Pictures Acquisitions & Co-Productions John Ferraro, who was involved with casting for the series. Dated April 13, 1987, the memo gives the short lists for main "TNG" cast roles, including Picard, Tasha, Data, Geordi, Beverly, Troi, and Wesley. Underneath Riker's name — spelled "Ryker" on the memo — four names are listed: Michael O'Gorman, Gregg Marx (David Banning on "Days of Our Lives"), Jonathan Frakes, and Ben Murphy (Kid Curry on "Alias Smith and Jones").

Although he didn't ultimately land the role, O'Gorman seemed to have made quite an impact, as his name is explicitly mentioned in Ferraro's notes beneath the list. The SVP writes, "For the role of 'Ryker,' Michael O'Gorman seems to be a favorite. He's sort of an atypical choice for the role, however, a good one."

Jeffrey Combs became a Trek legend

Many fans consider Jeffrey Combs, who has appeared in nine roles across four "Trek" series to date, an absolute treasure of the franchise. Although he's sometimes hard to recognize under the makeup, Combs brings a fairly recognizable, distinctive voice and has the ability to infuse his characters with vibrance and charisma. In fact, he's responsible for two of the most appreciated aliens in the franchise — "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" clone Weyoun and Captain Jonathan Archer's (Scott Bakula) Andorian "Star Trek: Enterprise" bestie, Commander Shran.

But before all of that, Combs tried throwing his hat in for the role of Riker. Although "The Fifty-Year Mission" would call him a "front runner" for the role (p. 95), even he knew he wasn't right when he auditioned for the part. On the DVD extras for "Deep Space Nine" Season 5, Combs called the prospect of himself as Riker "ridiculous," admitting, "Even at the time, I thought, what am I doing?"

Fortunately, Combs didn't let that deter him from future Trek auditions — even though he was never able to book anything on "The Next Generation." After unsuccessfully trying for a few roles on "Deep Space Nine," the actor's persistence finally paid off when he landed a gig as a one-and-done alien in "Meridian," an episode directed by Jonathan Frakes whom Combs knew socially. A month later, when his former theater connection René Auberjonois (Odo) was directing an episode, he brought up Combs, noting that it wouldn't matter that he'd recently appeared on the series since the actor would be in prosthetic make-up again. One appearance led to another, ultimately landing Combs the role of his DS9 clone. "That was the beginning of Weyoun, which was a gift of a character. Just a wonderful, wonderful role," Combs mused.

Billy Campbell wasn't commanding enough

As Patrick Stewart recounted in his memoir "Making It So" (while lamenting his back-breakingly snug Season 1 uniform) , Gene Roddenberry's vision for the future was a thirsty one. And with the sexy soldier boy appeal that would land him "The Rocketeer" in 1991, Billy Campbell certainly had the beefcake Roddenberry was looking for in his "Next Generation" cast. That's probably why he was the one person Roddenberry had hoped would play Riker. Up to that point, Campbell was best known for his role as bisexual "Dynasty" character Steven Carrington's one true love.

But Campbell's role as Riker , Enterprise-D's one true lover boy, wasn't meant to be. As "Next Generation" executive producer Rick Berman would recount in an interview with the Archive of American Television, "Campbell was initially cast in the role, but not everyone was willing to sign off on his performance — specifically, not John Pike, who was in charge of Paramount at the time.

"He didn't feel he had a sense of command. He wouldn't follow this guy into battle," Berman recalled. For his part, the producer had disagreed, chalking Campbell's performance up to a bad try out. "I think it was really more that he didn't audition that well for the part," he mused. Campbell would eventually get his chance to shine in the series, even if just for a moment, when he appeared in "The Outrageous Okona" as a dashing space cowboy one could easily imagine throwing back a few drinks with Mal Reynolds of "Firefly."

The Best Star Trek Movie According To Rotten Tomatoes

To date, there have been six feature films based on "Star Trek," four based on Star Trek: The Next Generation," and three set in a rebooted timeline (called the Kelvin timeline by fans). Those 13 films were all released theatrically from 1979 to 2016, averaging one film every three years or so. Up next, "Star Trek: Section 31" is slated for release on Paramount+ sometime in 2025, and it will be the first "Star Trek" TV movie. There has also long been talk of making a fourth film in the Kelvin timeline, but that movie's fate is currently a question mark; I'll believe it when I see it.

The longstanding general consensus is that the odd-numbered "Star Trek" films are bad and unsuccessful, while the even-numbered films are amazing hits. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," for instance, was something of a disappointment at the box office, but "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is held by many to be one of the best in the franchise. "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," despite being an emotionally intense adventure, is often seen as a stopgap film used solely to bring Spock (Leonard Nimoy) back from the dead. It was followed by "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," a popular comedy film that was very financially successful. And so on.

Critical consensus, however, breaks that pattern handily, at least as far as approval ratings on Rotten Tomatoes go. The highest-rated film in the "Star Trek" franchise is an odd-numbered film. The #1 film's approval rating is only slightly higher, however, than a celebrated even-numbered "Star Trek" film from the 1990s. Although the "Star Trek" shows are most notable for their sense of diplomacy and willingness to tackle heady, philosophical problems, the highest-rated films in the series are the most violent, action-oriented ones.

Star Trek (2009)

With a 94% approval rating, based on 356 reviews, J.J. Abram's 2009 "Star Trek" movie is the best reviewed of all the "Star Trek" films on RT. Some Trekkies may find this fact disappointing since Abrams' film is a massive departure for the franchise. Rather than continue with any extant "Star Trek" lore, Abrams created an alternate timeline wherein he could reintroduce Kirk, Spock, and all the rest as younger, hotter, more tempestuous versions of themselves. This was high-octane "Star Trek," full of fights and explosions and death and drama. It's more like "Star Wars" than "Star Trek." Many of the details of Abrams' films — the ships, the characters' personality traits — were derived merely from what a non-Trekkie might know about "Star Trek" through cultural osmosis; Abrams infamously admitted that he knew little about "Star Trek" when he took on the project.

One might understand why Abrams' film was such a hit. A mass audience unfamiliar with "Star Trek" could get excited about a clean "restart," now unthreatened by the decades of lore that came before, while long-term Trekkies could attend out of morbid curiosity. A full-bore reboot of a major entertainment franchise is also a surefire way to generate a lot of ink in the entertainment press, assuring that "Star Trek" would be talked about for a full year leading up to its release.

It certainly didn't hurt that dazzlingly attractive actors played the familiar Enterprise crew. Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, John Cho, Zoe Saldana, Anton Yelchin, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg portrayed the leads roles, and most critics, even those who didn't like the film, admitted that the casting was pretty spot on. The only major criticisms were that the plot was thin, sacrificed in favor of fast pacing and endless action.

Make it so, numbers two and three

With a 93% approval rating, Jonathan Frakes' 1996 actioner "Star Trek: First Contact" came in as the second highest-rated "Star Trek" film on RT. That film, like Abrams', was violence-forward, featuring the kind of plot one finds in typical Hollywood action movies. In the film, an unthinking species of cyborgs called the Borg travel back in time to the year 2063 to stop humanity from launching their first faster-than-light starship and ushering in a utopian age of exploration . The characters, although not well-suited to action — AT ALL — fire weapons and make action-y quips in ways they never had before. This film, mind you, was based on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," a series even more thoughtful and diplomatic than the original.

The action proved to be palatable to a mass audience, however, and "First Contact" was a huge hit. Critics certainly liked it. The only people who complain about "First Contact" are snotty old-school Trekkies like me, who whinge about how unlike the TV show it was.

Third highest-rated, with an 87% approval rating, is Nicholas Meyer's celebrated "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" from 1982. That film was slower and more thoughtful than the films above, but is certainly more action-packed than "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," which was infamously sluggish. It also featured an amazing Ricardo Montalban as the hammy title villain, a character that is difficult to resist.

It was "Wrath of Khan" that introduced the notion that "Star Trek" movies needed a "supervillain" character, and one motivated by revenge. This notion has hamstrung several "Star Trek" movies, leaving their stories uninspired. Four "Star Trek" films in a row had vengeance-bent supervillains at their core: "Nemesis," the 2009 film, "Star Trek Into Darkness," and "Star Trek Beyond."

The lower decks

The lowest-rated "Star Trek" film, as Trekkies might predict, is "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," which has a shockingly low 23% approval rating. That film, as mentioned, was directed by William Shatner and felt sloppy and slapped-together. The special effects are terrible in "The Final Frontier," and the story is badly written. One must admit, however, that the central concept is an excellent idea. In the film, the Enterprise is hijacked and taken to a place in the galaxy where God — the actual physical manifestation of God — lives. "Star Trek" has always been a humanist series, eschewing faith and religion for science and reason. To have "Star Trek" characters facing a real deity would cause an interesting philosophical conflict.

With a mere 38% approval rating, 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis" is the second lowest-rated of the franchise. That film tried the "supervillain" story, forcing the crew of the Enterprise-E to face off against a bitter clone of Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart). The story is convoluted and not interesting, and none of the cast looked like they wanted to be there. Also, "Nemesis" came immediately after 9/11, and it seemed that the world was more keen on stories of destruction and vengeance; the diplomatic world of "Star Trek" couldn't exist at that time. It's no wonder "Nemesis" and the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise," which ran concurrently, both failed.

And third-worst-ranked, with a 48% approval rating, is "Star Trek Generations" from 1994 . The first film to be based on "THe Next Generation," the film was all too obsessed with "passing the torch" from Captain Kirk to Captain Picard. Never mind that Picard had already led seven successful seasons of "The Next Generation," and should have had a story of his own. It's clunky, not very creative, and weirdly stodgy.

3 Historic Kirk Moments Happened In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (But Not The Way J.J. Abrams Did It)

• 3 of Kirk's iconic moments in Strange New Worlds are very different from J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.
• Events in Strange New Worlds, set in 2259-2260, occur differently than J.J. Abrams' 2258 alternate reality in Star Trek (2009).
• Lt. James T. Kirk, played by Paul Wesley, meets Uhura, Captain Pike, and Spock in ways that are the opposite of how they occur in Abrams' Star Trek movie.

3 historic James T. Kirk (Paul Wesley) moments happened in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, and all of them occurred very differently than how they played out in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (2009) . Strange New Worlds is set in Star Trek's Prime Timeline, whereas Abrams' reboot takes place in an alternate reality dubbed the Kelvin Timeline. It's worth noting that Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' events occur in 2259 and 2260, just after Star Trek (2009)'s main story takes place in 2258 in the alternate Kelvin Timeline.

Because Star Trek: Strange New Worlds takes place in Star Trek 's Prime Timeline , the events of the prequel series about Captain Christopher Pike's (Anson Mount) USS Enterprise are canon. Paul Wesley's Lieutenant James T. Kirk and Ethan Peck's Lieutenant Spock are the younger versions of the Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock played by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, respectively, in Star Trek: The Original Series . Chris Pine's Star Trek movie Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto's Spock, and their Starship Enterprise crew live different lives in a separate universe. As J.J. Abrams' Star Trek is a big-budget Hollywood blockbuster, the events of Chris Pine's Captain Kirk's life are decidedly more dramatic than similar Kirk moments in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' Prime Timeline canon.

Strange New Worlds Season 2 Cast Guide Every New & Returning Star Trek Character

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' cast of USS Enterprise legends grows in season 2, including the additions of Scotty and Lt. James T. Kirk.

How Kirk Met Uhura In Strange New Worlds Compared To J.J. Abrams' Star Trek

Kirk and uhura had a very different first interaction.

Lt. James T. Kirk canonically steps aboard the USS Enterprise for the first time in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation." James' first action after meeting his brother, Lt. Sam Kirk (Dan Jeannotte) , is to visit the Enterprise's Port Galley bar. There, Jim notices a distressed Ensign Nyota Uhura (Celia Rose Gooding), who assumes Kirk is there to hit on her. Moments later, experiencing a nightmarish vision , it's Uhura who hits Kirk by accident. Despite getting slugged by the Ensign, James helps Nyota uncover the secret of her waking fears, and a decades-long friendship is forged.

Paul Wesley played two alternate reality versions of Captain Kirk before debuting as Lt. James T. Kirk at the end of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 3, "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow".

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek played Kirk's first meeting with Nyota Uhura (Zoe Saldana) very differently. Kirk and Uhura met in a bar in Iowa in 2285, when Nyota was a Starfleet Academy cadet. Kirk hit on Uhura but was shot down. There was also violence involved, as Uhura's fellow cadets decided to get physical with the Iowa farm boy. Kirk was outnumbered in his bar fight and lost, but he took them all on valiantly (or Jim was foolhardy). A few years later, when he was also enrolled at Starfleet Academy, Kirk dated Uhura's Orion roommate, Gaila (Rachel Nichols).

Star Trek Strange New Worlds Season 2 Episode 6 Ending Explained

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6 places Uhura at the center of the TOS crew's origins, as Lt. James T Kirk helps her solve a mystery.

How Kirk Met Captain Pike In Strange New Worlds Compared To J.J. Abrams' Star Trek

Anson mount's pike didn't dare paul wesley's kirk to do anything.

Lt. James T. Kirk met Captain Christopher Pike in the simplest way possible in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation." Kirk simply entered Pike's ready room and introduced himself to the Captain of the Enterprise . James had just been promoted to First Officer of the USS Farragut, and he beamed aboard the Enterprise to learn the finer points of being a Number One from Lt. Commander Una Chin-Riley (Rebecca Romijn), Pike's First Officer. Kirk and Pike's first meeting was just a friendly handshake.

Captain Pike knew of Lt. Kirk after meeting an alternate future Captain Kirk in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' season 1 finale, "A Quality of Mercy".

J.J. Abrams' conjured a very different relationship between Kirk and Captain Pike (Bruce Greenwood) . After Lt. George Kirk's (Chris Hemsworth) tragic death at the start of Star Trek (2009), James grew up without a father. Captain Pike became Kirk's ersatz father figure , and Chris counseled Jim after his bloody bar fight sparked by Kirk meeting Uhura. Pike, who admired Kirk's father, dared James to enter Starfleet Academy. At the end of Star Trek (2009), Pike passed the Captaincy of the Enterprise to Kirk. In Star Trek Into Darkness , Pike was murdered by Khan Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch), spurring Kirk to seek revenge for the death of his mentor and father figure.

Star Trek 2009 Cast & Character Guide

J.J. Abrams' Star Trek relaunched the movie franchise and reintroduced audiences to Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise.

How Kirk Met Spock In Strange New Worlds Compared To J.J. Abrams' Star Trek

Kirk and spock didn't start by fighting each other in star trek's prime universe.

Kirk and Spock's first meeting in Star Trek' s Prime Timeline canon occurred in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 2, episode 6, "Lost in Translation." Ensign Uhura simply introduced Lt. Kirk to Lt. Spock, and the trio sat together at the Starship Enterprise' Port Galley to share a drink and chat. However, the moment that led Spock toward Kirk was because the Vulcan was intrigued by the frustration James had with his brother Sam, whom Spock is no fan of. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds plays Kirk and Spock's iconic meeting as a low-key moment, as neither they nor Uhura have any idea how intertwined their lives will become or how deeply their friendship will grow.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could not have depicted Kirk and Spock's meeting more differently than J.J. Abrams' Star Trek.

In J.J. Abrams' Star Trek , Kirk and Spock's first meeting was sparked by the Vulcan (correctly) accusing Cadet Kirk of cheating on the Kobayashi Maru training scenario Spock programmed. Kirk next illegally boarded the USS Enterprise, where Commander Spock was First Officer, and challenged the Vulcan's authority repeatedly. Spock had Kirk exiled from the Enterprise for mutiny, but James returned to the starship away. After forcing Spock to violently admit he was too morally compromised to be Acting Captain, Kirk and Spock worked together to defeat the Romulan Nero (Eric Bana) and save Earth. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could not have depicted Kirk and Spock's meeting more differently than J.J. Abrams' Star Trek .

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Cast Bruce Horak, Celia Rose Gooding, Jess Bush, Melissa Navia, Ethan Peck, Babs Olusanmokun, Rebecca Romijn, Paul Wesley, Christina Chong, Anson Mount

Franchise(s) Star Trek

Streaming Service(s) Paramount+

Writers Bill Wolkoff, Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Directors Amanda Row, Valerie Weiss, Jonathan Frakes, Chris Fisher

Showrunner Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers

Where To Watch Paramount+

Star Trek (2009)

Cast Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Winona Ryder, Tyler Perry, Zachary Quinto, Zoe Saldana, Leonard Nimoy, Anton Yelchin, Chris Pine, Simon Pegg, Karl Urban, John Cho

Writers Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Gene Roddenberry

Director J.J. Abrams

Release Date May 8, 2009

Studio(s) Paramount Pictures

Distributor(s) Paramount Pictures

Rating PG-13

Main Genre Sci-Fi

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• Series & Movies

Published May 31, 2023

Kelvin Timeline Counterparts

A look at six alternate timeline versions of notable Prime Universe characters!

StarTrek.com

In addition to the U.S.S. Enterprise ’s core crew, the Kelvin Timeline featured alternate versions of several notable characters who were previously seen in the Prime Universe…

Christopher Pike

After recruiting James T. Kirk into Starfleet, Christopher Pike became a mentor-like figure to both Kirk and Spock . Pike captained the U.S.S. Enterprise during its mission to investigate Nero ’s attack on Vulcan, entrusting his starship to Spock and Kirk when he surrendered himself to his Romulan counterpart. In the wake of that incident, Pike was promoted to admiral and Kirk inherited the Enterprise ’s center seat.

A Prime Directive violation resulted in Kirk being demoted, so Pike once again found himself in command of the Enterprise . Before he could resume that post, Pike was murdered by John Harrison, better known as Khan Noonien Singh , as the 20th Century tyrant assaulted Starfleet Headquarters. Pike’s death struck Kirk and Spock particularly hard, leading them to relentlessly pursue Khan.

Much like his Prime peer, Kelvin Sarek served as Vulcan’s ambassador to Earth, where he met and married Amanda Grayson. Tension marred Sarek’s relationship with his son Spock to a certain extent, as other Vulcans tended to view both Grayson and Spock with a bit of disdain. Sarek sat on the Vulcan Science Academy panel when Spock turned down the opportunity to be admitted to the institution.

Spock managed to rescue Sarek just before Nero’s mining vessel destroyed Vulcan, making the father and son two of the very few survivors who had escaped their homeworld’s demise. With Spock emotionally compromised after his mother’s death, Sarek sought to comfort his son, revealing that he, the ever stoic Vulcan ambassador, had always loved his wife.

Amanda Grayson

Always supportive of Spock, Amanda Grayson supplied her son with the human affection that he did not receive from his father. Grayson’s ancestry often became a target for bullies who wished to taunt Spock, as they knew their words would provoke him to anger. Much as Kirk lost his father in the Kelvin Timeline, Spock witnessed Amanda as she fell to her death during the evacuation of Vulcan.

Thrust into the captain’s chair, Spock needed to both command the Enterprise and process his mother’s passing. When Kirk disagreed with Spock’s decision to regroup with the fleet, he exploited the half-Vulcan’s pain as a means to relieve Spock from his duty. The act clearly made Kirk uncomfortable, but his intentions were noble and the two eventually put the incident behind them. To demonstrate his feelings for Nyota Uhura , Spock gifted her with a vokaya amulet that had belonged to Grayson.

Carol Marcus

Unlike Prime Carol, who often felt suspicious toward Starfleet, the Kelvin Timeline’s Carol Marcus actually joined the interstellar organization as a science officer and expert in advanced weaponry. Curious about a secret project her father was working on, Marcus snuck aboard the Enterprise while utilizing her mother’s maiden name. Marcus’ specialization paid off, as she worked with Dr. McCoy to disarm a long-range torpedo, soon discovering that her father had hidden one of Khan’s followers inside it.

Admiral Marcus beamed Carol aboard the U.S.S. Vengeance as he prepared to eliminate the Enterprise and its crew. Ashamed of her father’s actions, Carol voiced her dissent and was present when Kirk, Montgomery Scott, and Khan commandeered the Vengeance ’s bridge. A year after Khan was captured, Carol officially joined the Enterprise ’s bridge crew as the starship embarked on its five-year mission, though she was not present during the vessel’s visit to Starbase Yorktown.

Although Finnegan aggravated and teased James T. Kirk at Starfleet Academy in the Prime Universe, Kelvin’s Finnegan had a more serious demeanor. Commander Finnegan operated out of Starbase Yorktown, where he coordinated the massive space station’s defenses. Finnegan was present when a mysterious vessel emerged from the Necro Cloud Nebula, as well as when Krall’s armada of swarm ships launched their ambush against Yorktown. Once Kirk and his crew determined that they could disrupt the link between Krall’s ships, Finnegan followed their lead and amplified the raucous broadcast, playing a valuable role in defeating the enemy fleet.

Christine Chapel

Originally a nurse in Enterprise ’s sickbay, Christine Chapel assisted Dr. McCoy as he treated James T. Kirk while the ship made its way to Vulcan in 2258. A failed romance between Chapel and Kirk prompted the nurse to request a transfer to a post on the outer frontier. Interestingly, Chapel was also friends with Carol Marcus, though the nurse was never actually seen on-screen in any of the Kelvin Timeline films.

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Jay Stobie (he/him) is a freelance writer, author, and consultant who has contributed articles to StarTrek.com, Star Trek Explorer, and Star Trek Magazine, as well as to Star Wars Insider and StarWars.com. Learn more about Jay by visiting JayStobie.com or finding him on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media platforms at @StobiesGalaxy.

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Alternate reality

The Narada emerges from a black hole , initiating the changes in the timeline and creating the alternate reality

The alternate reality , also known as the Narada incursion , was a new reality created on Friday , January 4 , 2233 ( stardate 2233.04) when a temporal incursion caused by time travel of the Narada , a Romulan mining vessel from the year 2387 , disrupted the time continuum of the prime universe .

Accidentally traveling back to that point in time, Nero , the Narada 's captain , attacked the USS Kelvin resulting in the deaths of several crew members , including George Kirk and Richard Robau , and the destruction of the Kelvin itself. Spock arrived to the alternate reality in 2258 and was captured by Nero, who used red matter to destroy Vulcan . However, Nero's attacks united the crew of the USS Enterprise , who foiled his attempt to destroy Earth . ( Star Trek )

CBS declared the name of this reality to be the "Kelvin Timeline" in 2016 – see below .

• 1.2 Alteration
• 1.3 Destruction of Vulcan
• 1.4 A fearful Federation
• 1.5 Krall's revenge on the Federation
• 1.6 24th century
• 2.1 Appearances
• 2.2.1 Name of the timeline
• 2.2.2 Crossover characters
• 2.3.1.1 Comics
• 2.3.1.2 Novels
• 2.3.1.3 Games
• 2.4 External links

History [ ]

The Jellyfish

In the prime universe, the Romulan sun threatened to explode in a supernova that could potentially destroy the entire galaxy. Ambassador Spock was able to halt the supernova, via the use of red matter to create an artificial singularity, or black hole , which absorbed the exploding star, but was too late to save the planet Romulus from destruction. The Narada , a Romulan mining ship under the command of Captain Nero, was pulled into the black hole, followed by Spock's ship, the Jellyfish .

Alteration [ ]

The Kelvin rams the Narada

As Starfleet had abandoned efforts to evacuate Romulus following the Attack on Mars ( PIC : " Remembrance "), Nero placed blame on the Federation for the death toll and sought revenge. He emerged from the black hole in 2233. The USS Kelvin was the first ship that Nero encountered and attacked; Captain Richard Robau promoted his first officer , Lieutenant George Kirk, to captaincy before ordering the evacuation of the ship and agreeing to come aboard the Narada . There, Captain Robau was interrogated regarding the whereabouts of Spock, with whom Robau was unfamiliar and, moments after he informed Nero of the current stardate , he was murdered .

Nero then proceeded to attack the Kelvin . Kirk used the Kelvin 's weapons to prevent Nero from destroying the evacuating shuttles departing the ship, ultimately sacrificing himself by ramming the Kelvin into the Narada . Kirk's actions saved some eight hundred lives, including his wife, Winona , and their newborn son, James , but failed to destroy the Narada .

Kirk gazing at the Enterprise in Iowa in 2255

As a major consequence of these events, James Kirk grew up without his father and without the ambitions his father gave him in the prime reality. However, he was persuaded by Christopher Pike to join Starfleet , three years later than he had done in the prime reality.

In the meantime, other events occurred differently. Pavel Chekov was born in 2241 , while the Romulans were confirmed as relatives of the Vulcans. Plans for the Constitution -class were pushed back by a decade and the USS Enterprise began construction in 2255 at the Riverside Shipyard in Iowa , with a number of internal, external, and systems design differences to the prime reality version. It was launched three years later, already as the Federation flagship under the command of Captain Pike. Spock was already promoted to commander by this point. Starfleet continued using the simple <Earth calendar year>.<day of the year> format for stardates, and had already begun using gold, blue, and red colors for their uniforms . They also adopted the Kelvin assignment patch as the sole Starfleet insignia . The Vulcan High Command was reinstated as the Vulcan High Council . Some differences in personal relationships also occurred, such as Spock and Nyota Uhura being romantically involved by the time Kirk joins the Enterprise.

According to the Blu-ray featurette Starships , the Kelvin -type ships were 1,500 feet long, while the Enterprise was approximately 2,380 feet long. This implies that, in the prime reality, Starfleet tried to streamline the size of their ships while, in the alternate one, they did not.

Along with the Enterprise , various technological, scientific, and aesthetic aspects of a multitude of cultures, including those of Earth, varied greatly in difference and advancement in comparison with that of the prime reality.

Destruction of Vulcan [ ]

Vulcan implodes after Nero detonates red matter in the planet's core

In 2258, Nero captured the Jellyfish as it emerged from travel through the black hole. He marooned Spock on Delta Vega , and despite the efforts of the USS Enterprise , he used a portion of the remaining red matter aboard to destroy the planet Vulcan and six billion of its inhabitants, including Amanda Grayson . While marooned on Delta Vega, Spock encountered the alternate James T. Kirk and made him aware of the prime reality and the altered past. He also met Montgomery Scott and gave him the formula for transwarp beaming , which Scott subsequently used to transport Kirk and the young Spock to the Narada , allowing them to prevent a similar fate for Earth by detonating the Jellyfish and its red matter to destroy the Narada .

Before or after capturing Spock, Nero destroyed forty-seven Klingon warbirds at the Klingon prison planet , which is clarified in deleted scenes as being his escape from a twenty-five year imprisonment on Rura Penthe , he had been arrested after the attack on the Kelvin because of his proximity to the Federation-Klingon border . His imprisonment is shown in the Nero comic book limited series.

The crew of the Enterprise officially begins their voyage

Afterward, Christopher Pike was promoted to admiral and Kirk and Spock became, respectively, captain and first officer of the Enterprise , which was officially launched on a voyage of exploration, with much of its commanding crew comprised of those who served aboard it in the prime reality during 2267 : Kirk, Spock, Scott, Chekov, Leonard McCoy , Hikaru Sulu , and Nyota Uhura . Spock maintained a relationship with Uhura and reconciled with his father, Sarek , following the deaths of his Human mother and most of his own people. Ambassador Spock intended to found a New Vulcan colony on which the ten thousand Vulcan survivors would live and thrive. ( Star Trek )

In the following years, the future-derived transwarp beaming technology was confiscated but the knowledge about it remained within Section 31 . ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

A fearful Federation [ ]

Admiral Alexander Marcus

By the late 2250s , the head of Starfleet, Admiral Alexander Marcus , had increasingly become concerned about tensions with the Klingons, who, since they were first encountered , had conquered and occupied at least two planets and had fired on Federation ships half a dozen times. Fearing that the Klingons were coming his way, Marcus went in search of potential resources. He found the SS Botany Bay , recovering its seventy-three occupants. He awoke Khan Noonien Singh from cryogenic stasis , and blackmailed him into designing ships and weapons to prepare for the coming war.

The moon of Qo'noS , Praxis , seems to have been already destroyed by 2259 . Also, the Treaty of Organia was in existence by February of that year, but on the eve of the founding of Sherman's Planet , there was a dispute about it. A Klingon colony was discovered on the planet Khitomer .

This information is shown on background powerwalls in Marcus and Pike's offices. [1]

The Enterprise violated the Prime Directive , altering the civilization on Nibiru during a scientific mission on that planet.

Around the same time, Khan turned on Starfleet, coercing a member of Section 31 into bombing a base of theirs in London . During an emergency meeting in San Francisco , Khan attacked before escaping to an uninhabited area of Qo'noS using the confiscated transwarp beaming formula. During the attack, Admiral Pike was killed, and a vengeful Kirk was given permission to find and terminate Khan. The Enterprise was outfitted with seventy-two advanced long-range torpedoes , with the intent of using these to execute him from orbit.

Khan Noonien Singh as "John Harrison"

When the Enterprise arrived at Qo'nos, Kirk opted to apprehend Khan, rather than firing a torpedo on his location. When they found him, Khan killed a Klingon patrol that had intercepted Kirk's away team and submitted to his authority. Aboard the Enterprise , Khan explained his involvement with Marcus, after McCoy and Carol Marcus discovered his crew were contained inside the missiles supplied by the admiral.

The Enterprise faces off against the Vengeance

Marcus soon arrived on the USS Vengeance , and opted to destroy the Enterprise to cover up the conspiracy. Fortunately, Scott had stowed away on the Vengeance and deactivated its weaponry, giving Kirk and Khan time to space-dive and commandeer the ship. Khan then betrayed Kirk, killing Admiral Marcus, and threatened to resume bombarding the Enterprise unless his people were beamed aboard. The missiles were beamed aboard, but Khan reneged on the deal, forcing Spock to detonate the missiles; however, McCoy had removed the cryo chambers from the missiles before they could be used against the Vengeance .

The Vengeance crashes into San Francisco

Both ships were crippled and began descending due to Earth's gravitational pull. Kirk reactivated the Enterprise 's warp core before it crashed, but at the cost of fatally poisoning him. When the Vengeance crashed in San Francisco, Spock beamed down to execute Khan in retribution, but McCoy realized Khan's blood could be used to revive Kirk, so Uhura beamed over to stun Khan repeatedly so that Spock could simply knock him out. McCoy then performed a blood transfusion , saving Kirk's life. Khan was placed back in stasis with the rest of his people.

Almost a year later , Captain Kirk presided over a memorial for the lives lost because of Khan and Marcus. The refitted Enterprise was rechristened and sent on the first, unprecedented five-year mission , with the aim of promoting a less militaristic direction for Starfleet. ( Star Trek Into Darkness )

Krall's revenge on the Federation [ ]

The Enterprise is destroyed

In 2263 , the Fibonan Republic charged the United Federation of Planets to act as neutral intermediaries in brokering a truce with the Teenaxi , which was carried out by the USS Enterprise . Unfortunately, the Teenaxi's paranoia completely derailed the negotiations, forcing Kirk to abandon them. As a result, an ancient weapon remained in the starship 's archive vault .

Krall , formerly Captain Balthazar M. Edison and commanding officer of the USS Franklin , discovered – from Starfleet logs, accessed through a captured Magellan probe – that this weapon was the second piece of the Abronath . He dispatched Jessica Wolff, now " Kalara ", to lure the Enterprise to him.

Krall – Human physiology reasserting itself – and Manas

Upon the arrival of the Enterprise at Altamid , Krall attacked with his Swarm drones . He destroyed the Enterprise , captured most of the crew, and eventually coerced Ensign Syl into relinquishing the second Abronath piece. His weapon complete, Krall departed Altamid with his Swarm to wipe out all life from the nearby Starbase Yorktown , whose multicultural population he saw as the epitome of the Federation's degeneracy.

The Franklin faces off against the Swarm

Krall's Swarm overwhelmed Yorktown's defenses and was on the verge of breaking inside when he was engaged by the USS Franklin , commanded by Captain Kirk. The Franklin used a VHF radio broadcast to disrupt the Swarm's internal communications network and destroyed most of them. Krall managed to enter Yorktown, but the Franklin physically stopped his ship short of his destination.

The Enterprise -A going to warp

Having drained many Enterprise crew members before and after the battle, Krall had regained much of his Human physiology and was thus able to disguise himself as a Starfleet officer . This allowed him to make his way unimpeded to the central atmospheric processor on Yorktown, where the Abronath's effects would be disseminated throughout the station. He was intercepted by Kirk, and the two fought while Scott redirected the processor to vent into space; Kirk then ejected both Krall and the Abronath out of Yorktown. Shortly after, Krall was consumed by the Abronath, leaving only the Starfleet insignia from his stolen uniform. Following the defeat of Krall, the new USS Enterprise -A , which had been under construction at Starbase Yorktown, was completed and assigned to the surviving Enterprise senior staff to continue their five-year mission. ( Star Trek Beyond )

24th century [ ]

In 2379, Lieutenant Commander Yor traveled from the alternate reality to the prime universe.

In 2379 , Lieutenant Commander Yor , a Betelgeusian time soldier , traveled from this reality into the future of the prime universe. As a result, Starfleet in the prime universe became aware of the alternate reality (along with the ultimate fate of the prime universe Spock). The alternate reality Starfleet in this era had adopted a uniform style similar to that of their prime universe counterparts. ( DIS : " Terra Firma, Part 1 ")

In 2385 , Wesley Crusher mentioned that he had visited this alternate reality, calling it "the Narada incursion" and displaying a graphic of it and all of the other universes for Dal R'El , Rok-Tahk , Jankom Pog , Gwyndala , Murf , and Zero . ( PRO : " The Devourer of All Things, Part I ")

Appendices [ ]

Appearances [ ].

• Star Trek Into Darkness
• Star Trek Beyond

Background information [ ]

Ambassador Spock, a traveler from the prime reality and an inhabitant of the alternate reality

The alternate reality runs parallel, existing as a quantum reality , to the prime reality , which is where many of the events seen in the Star Trek universe have occurred. According to Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci , the conceptual invention of the alternate reality allowed the prime reality to continue. [2]

This intent is also evident in the script of Star Trek . [3] While not completely audible in the film, before being teased by his classmates, young Spock is asked by the computer in the learning center on Vulcan , " What is the central assumption of quantum cosmology? " to which Spock replies, " Everything that can happen does happen in equal and parallel universes. "

As the alternate reality is merely divergent rather than a completely new universe, this means backstory elements pertaining to anything before 2233 hold true for both timelines. Director J.J. Abrams said, " It's actually nice when you're given a box.... when you're given parameters that you have to honor because it gives you limits and then you know that within those boundaries you can be creatively risky. " ( Memory Alpha:Ask J.J. Abrams/Answers )

On the Star Trek audio commentary , the writers stated some events in the new timeline were meant to give insight as to what happened in the prime reality, such as how Kirk and Spock met following the Kobayashi Maru scandal. Roberto Orci opined that identical events would happen in both timelines because the " rules of quantum mechanics tell us that the universes that exist, they exist because they are the most probable universe [....] The things that happened in the original series didn't just happen because they happened, they happened because it's actually what's most probably going to happen. " However, when asked if this meant Spock and Uhura might break up as they were not in a relationship in the prime reality, Orci responded:

Roberto Orci, in a post on Ain't It Cool News [5] as well as in an interview with Star Trek Magazine  issue 146 (p. 40), and J.J. Abrams, in an interview with MTV conducted between the two aforementioned statements from Orci, [6] (X) established a reason why technology in the alternate reality appears to be more advanced than it is during the same period in the prime reality. Scans and telemetry of the 24th century Narada , taken by the Kelvin , were brought back to Starfleet by the survivors on the Kelvin 's shuttles. Therefore, Starfleet's development and construction plans were slightly altered, making everything potentially more advanced, slightly ahead of schedule.

Star Trek Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg had a different view of how the alternate reality diverges from the prime timeline from Orci and Kurtzman, believing events before 2233 were different too:

Comics artist Tony Shasteen approved of the alternate reality, commenting, " I can appreciate what is being done with this alternate universe. I feel like it works with what has come before. I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I appreciate it for what it is. " [8]

Name of the timeline [ ]

StarTrek.com originally differentiated the new versions of the characters introduced in Star Trek with the initials "AR", and some pages used "09" as a disambiguation in the web address. Within their online database, the timeline is interchangeably described as the Nero-created "alternate reality", [9] (X) "alternate dimension", [10] (X) "alternate timeline", [11] (X) and "alternate universe". [12] (X) . After 2016 , some entries in the database were updated to switch to the disambiguation "Kelvin", but retained the interchangeable "alternate" text in the entries themselves. [13] (X)

In an interview, actress Alice Eve called it the "split universe". [14] Simon Pegg joked, " I had this idea. I think that we might all be the mirror universe crew. " Perhaps in the third movie, we'll see that " something's going to go to shit, we're all going to turn bad, Spock's going to grow a beard, and we're going to meet ourselves. That could happen. " [15]

IDW Publishing calls the alternate reality the "new timeline" [16] (X) or the "altered" timeline/continuity. [17] (X) The board game Star Trek: Expeditions calls it the "new universe". As some former Star Trek production staffers, like Doug Drexler , [18] (X) did, author of Star Trek novels Christopher L. Bennett has referred to it as the "Abramsverse", [19] and noted the slang term prefix "Nu", which gave him " the impression that it was the label favored by people who wanted to dismiss the Abrams continuity or make it sound ridiculous. " [20]

Al Rivera, head developer of Star Trek Online , announced that CBS had endowed the timeline with the non- canon "Kelvin Timeline" moniker. [21] Michael and Denise Okuda settled on the name after much deliberation for the fourth edition of the Star Trek Encyclopedia of 2016. [22] In June 2016 CBS Consumer Products , the official guardian of the Star Trek franchise , confirmed that Okuda was actually tasked with creating a new moniker to commercial/promotional ends, and that it, at least where the franchise is concerned, has become the "official" one. [23] The first publication to include reference to this term was The Star Trek Book from June 2016 , before the Encyclopedia was released. After several subsequent print publications such as the 2017 The Art of Star Trek: The Kelvin Timeline reference book , the franchise moniker was for the first time used for a home video format in June 2019 with the release of the Star Trek Trilogy: The Kelvin Timeline Blu-ray Disc set of the three alternate reality films on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the alternate reality.

For internal consistency reasons, especially where the in-universe articles are concerned, Memory Alpha adheres to the "alternate reality" denominator as it is of all the alternatives the only one actually used on screen, when it was uttered by Uhura in scene 153/83 of the 2009 film Star Trek . [24]

Crossover characters [ ]

This is a list of individuals known to exist both in the original and in the alternate reality.

Apocrypha [ ]

A Star Trek Online timeline displaying the prime and alternate realities

The Star Trek screenplay contains a musing from Spock Prime, having been told by Kirk that Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura were all serving in the Enterprise (by this point he takes it for granted that McCoy is as well), while Scott is on the same planet as the two of them, that Kirk's implausible meetings with the people who would become his crew in the prime reality may be the result of the timeline trying to "repair itself" from Nero's damage. The novelization of Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster preserves this exchange.

Writers Mike Johnson and Tim Jones wrote Star Trek: Countdown , a comic book prequel to Star Trek expanding on the events in the prime reality leading to the Narada 's arrival back in time. Johnson and Jones subsequently collaborated on Star Trek: Nero , based on the deleted scenes regarding Nero's imprisonment, and Star Trek: The Official Motion Picture Adaptation . Johnson writes the Star Trek: Ongoing comic series, launched in September 2011 , which explores how some classic stories unfold in the new timeline. In early 2013 , Mike Johnson and Roberto Orci once again collaborated on the tie-in prequel comic Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness which covers the events that occurred roughly a month before Star Trek Into Darkness and also reintroduces famed captain Robert April ( β ) in the new timeline.

Four novels set after Star Trek were set to be published in 2010: Refugees , Seek a Newer World , More Beautiful Than Death , and The Hazard of Concealing . The novels were announced as being on hold as of 14 January 2010 . On his blog, Refugees author Alan Dean Foster speculated the hold was due to the plots of the novels possibly conflicting with the next film. Two years later, Christopher L. Bennett posted " All I can say is that most of the speculations I hear about why the books were pulled are wrong. It wasn't about conflicts with the second movie. " [25] A series of young adult books, Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , following the characters during their time at the Academy, began in November 2010 .

In The Needs of the Many , a novel based upon the Star Trek Online series, when Dulmur , one of the Department of Temporal Investigations agents from DS9 : " Trials and Tribble-ations ", is institutionalized and suffering from temporal psychosis , he has memories of not only his timeline, but of several others as well – including one where Vulcan was destroyed a century prior. Another novel, Watching the Clock , goes into detail about how and why some forms of time travel create parallel alternate realities and others lead to the overwriting of the same timeline. Bennett, the author, stated this was an in-universe explanation for the co-existence of the prime and alternate realities. [26]

Apocryphal appearances [ ]

• Wired : " When Worlds Collide: Spock Confronts the Ultimate Challenge "
• Star Trek: Nero
• Star Trek: The Official Motion Picture Adaptation
• Star Trek: Ongoing
• Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness
• Star Trek: Khan
• Star Trek - Green Lantern: The Spectrum War
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
• Star Trek: Manifest Destiny
• Star Trek: Boldly Go
• Star Trek - Green Lantern: Stranger Worlds
• The Delta Anomaly
• The Gemini Agent
• The Assassination Game
• The Unsettling Stars
• More Beautiful Than Death
• Star Trek D-A-C
• Star Trek: Expeditions
• Star Trek: Rivals
• Star Trek Online
• Star Trek: Bridge Crew
• Star Trek: Fleet Command

External links [ ]

• Kelvin timeline at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Kelvin Timeline at the Star Trek Online Wiki
• Many-worlds interpretation at Wikipedia
• Analysis of changes in the alternate reality (X)
• Star Trek (2009) ships  at Ex Astris Scientia
• Analysis of time travel in Star Trek (2009)  at Ex Astris Scientia
• 1 Alyssa Ogawa
• 3 Daniels (Crewman)

This Controversial New Sci-Fi Gaming Crossover Is Also a Historic First

Never give up. Never surrender. But do it boldly.

In 1999, one comedy film not only became one of the greatest sci-fi movies of a generation, but it also predicted the way in which we all think and talk about fandoms of all kinds in the 21st century. That film was Galaxy Quest , an obvious parody of Star Trek in which actors from a cult sci-fi TV show find themselves fighting for their lives in a real interstellar adventure.

And despite some excellent comics, and constant talk of a TV series reboot , fans of Galaxy Quest can’t get their hands on that much Galaxy Quest stuff. On top of that, there’s never been a Galaxy Quest game of any kind. Until now. But, this first appearance of Galaxy Quest in video game form comes with a catch: it’s attached to a “freemium” Star Trek mobile game.

Galaxy Quest hits Star Trek: Fleet Command

For a limited time, developer Scopley has launched an event in which characters and ships from Galaxy Quest can be earned as playable crew and starships in Fleet Command . Yes, this includes Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), Laliari (Missi Pyle), Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), and Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman). And most importantly, means players can, for the first time ever, command a version of the iconic Galaxy Quest ship, the NSEA Protector.

Designed by Industrial Light & Magic, most sci-fi fans agree that the NSEA Protector is one of the greatest Star Trek-ish ships to ever grace the screen, even though Galaxy Quest is not *technically* a Star Trek movie.

What is Star Trek: Fleet Command ?

Fleet Command is a free Star Trek game that takes a lot of work (or money) to get good.

Star Trek: Fleet Command was launched in 2018, a mobile game that has less to do with exploring strange new worlds and more to do with blowing up enemy starships and buying bigger and better versions of your own. And yes, it’s pretty hard to level up your ships and crew without a few in-app purchases, which makes the gaming experience somewhat contrary to the (mostly) currency-free future Star Trek imagines.

But for diehard Trekkies, you can’t write Fleet Command off completely. A ton of legacy actors from the franchise have done cool crossovers for the game, including LeVar Burton, Brent Spiner , Jonathan Frakes, Rainn Wilson, Sonequa Martin-Green, Alice Eve, and even Michelle Yeoh . And while the ads produced to announce those crossovers are arguably somewhat cooler than the actual game, there’s an old-school arcade space-battle aspect to Fleet Command once you get to the point where your ship doesn’t totally suck. (Which, again is hard .)

It also looks pretty amazing for a mobile game, and adding your favorite ships and crew is somewhat exciting, considering the game is now at a point where it includes literally all eras of Star Trek crossing over at once. Launched exclusively in the Kelvin timeline the game has, in recent years, expanded to include all various eras, which means it is the only Star Trek experience in which Chris Pine’s Captain Kirk can be on the USS Titan-A from Picard , alongside William Shatner’s Kirk from The Wrath of Khan . What Fleet Command lacks in gameplay mechanics, it admittedly does make up for in cool factor.

The Galaxy Quest crew as they appear in Fleet Command.

The crossover of Galaxy Quest ships and crew to Fleet Command is arguably the biggest stunt the game has pulled yet. You can’t really imagine characters from Spaceballs appearing in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes , but that’s exactly what this is like. Curiously, this is the second major crossover between Star Trek and another sci-fi franchise within a mobile game in just the past few months. During San Diego Comic-Con 2024, the Trek mobile game Star Trek: Lower Decks: The Badgey Directive began featuring a crossover between Doctor Who: Lost in Time, while fans of both franchises are hopeful for a TV crossover, too.

Right now, there’s no reason to think that characters from Galaxy Quest will actually appear in a Star Trek upcoming movie. But then again, a few years ago, nobody thought you’d be able to fly the NSEA Protector in the Final Frontier either.

You can learn more about Fleet Command here .

• Video Games