Written by Chris Snelgrove | Printed 16 seconds in the past
After Enterprise disappeared, a brand new film revived the world’s biggest sci-fi collection. Star Trek (2009) is a classy reboot that brings again the characters and ideal ambiance of the unique collection. To assuage followers nervous that the brand new films would fully reimagine outdated Star Trek media, Paramount has set all of its Trek reboot films in parallel universes which can be fully totally different from the acquainted “Prime” universe. However what most followers do not understand is that this parallel “Kelvinverse” (named after Kirk’s father’s doomed spaceship) would not have been potential with out “Parallels,” an often-overlooked episode of Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology.
In that episode, Worf returns from the Battress Event to seek out himself shifting out and in of various realities. This enables him to expertise the totally different Worf lives and see how various things occur on the Enterprise-D. For instance, he’s married to Deanna Troi in a single actuality and is the ship’s first officer in one other. Finally, Worf discovers (with the assistance of Knowledge, Geordi, and different senior officers) that all of it started as a result of his shuttle by chance weakened the barrier between totally different quantum realities, permitting him to return to his personal actuality whereas closing the dimensional rift behind him.
How Worf’s multiworld adventures spawned a Star Trek reboot
This could be a enjoyable episode (particularly if you happen to’re a fan of Worf), however what does this story need to do with Star Trek (2009)? Again in 2008, the movie’s co-writer Bob Orsey gave an unique interview to Trek Films, and the dialog primarily centered on how a brand new film timeline might exist with out erasing all of the lore of the collection that got here earlier than it. O’Shea basically gave followers a crash course in quantum mechanics, quoting Knowledge’s remark in “Parallels” to summarize that “all the pieces that may occur truly occurs” in varied different realities.
This may increasingly sound very primary, particularly to those that are aware of Marvel’s varied films and TV exhibits that cope with the multiverse. However when Orci gave this interview, the MCU was lower than a 12 months outdated, and the multiverse hadn’t even sparked in Kevin Feige’s eyes but. There, the creator defined to Trek followers how the upcoming Kelvinverse film is strongly rooted in each real-world quantum mechanics (often known as the many-worlds principle, because the interviewer helpfully factors out) and the Trek lore established in “Parallels.”
Concept of yawning rather a lot?
For Star Trek followers, the numerous worlds principle is each a blessing and a curse. This enables us to inform tales in several realities and contextualize settings just like the Mirror Universe to elucidate how the Kelvinverse and future reboot realities can coexist with the Prime Universe of exhibits like The Unique Sequence and The Subsequent Technology. However (as Pink Letter Media not too long ago identified), this principle arguably cheapens the drama of the alternatives the characters make. Not solely are there dimensions with fully totally different decisions, however the existence of numerous different dimensions implies that it does not actually matter who lives and who dies, as a result of everyone seems to be alive someplace.
Whether or not you just like the sandbox of created tales or not, Parallels is the film that paved the way in which for Star Trek (2009) to exist and saved the collection at a time when Trek was slipping into cultural obscurity. Whereas these reboot movies have been controversial amongst some followers, their success has undoubtedly helped make Star Trek a mainstream hit once more. In case you had been one of many followers who hated it, the officers most likely will not care. In any case, quantum mechanics tells us that there’s a universe on the market that’s your favourite film collection of all time.
