Star Trek Guide

Star Trek: How Picard Connects to Both the Prime and Kelvin Timelines

Star Trek: Picard will take on the task of merging events from both older and newer events from the Trek universe, spanning several timelines.

The upcoming CBS All Access series will feature Patrick Stewart returning to his star-making role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from Star Trek: The Next Generation. And the show's backstory is already making a name for itself in uniting the two major Trek timelines through one event: The destruction of Romulus.

In the 2009 Star Trek film from director J.J. Abrams, the home planet of the Romulans was destroyed when it collided with a supernova. Leonard Nimoy's Ambassador Spock created a black hole to stop the star, but it wound up consuming him instead, sending him back and time and creating an alternate timeline. This new reality, dubbed the "Kelvin" timeline, is where the events of the reboot trilogy are set.

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However, back in what's known as the "Prime" timeline, Romulus remains destroyed. The effects of that disaster are still lingering as Picard begins, with the former admiral having apparently mounted an unsuccessful rescue mission on the day of. It's an event that appeared to have broken his trust in Starfleet, leading him to spend his days in the family vineyard.

"That movie gave us a wonderful plot point to draw from, and happened to sync up with Picard’s timeline," Picard executive producer and Star Trek (2009) co-writer Alex Kurtzman told GamesRadar. "So when we were looking at the ways in which Picard’s life could have been changed in surprising ways, the idea that the supernova totally diverted the course of his life became a wonderful well to draw from."

Despite the event being pivotal to the two timelines, Kurtzman -- who also runs Star Trek: Discovery and is the overseer of all Trek projects on All Access -- is quick to clarify that Picard does not take place in the Kelvin timeline. That means, when Picard takes to the stars once more, there's no chance he'll run into Chris Pine's James T. Kirk or Zachary Quinto's Spock. Instead, Picard will show how the incident that created the Kelvin timeline affected life in the Prime universe.

"I don’t think we set out to link it to the film deliberately," Kurtzman said. "But actually it was kind of fun to be able to do that. Certainly, when we made the movie we couldn’t have predicted [this show] was coming 11 years later, but it’s nice to be able to create a continuity of Star Trek."

Star Trek: Picard stars Patrick Stewart, Alison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Evan Evagora, Isa Briones, Santiago Cabrera, and Harry Treadaway. The series is set to premiere on CBS All Access Jan. 23, 2020.

Source: www.cbr.com