Alternate reality The alternate reality was a new reality created on 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 resulting in the deaths of several crew members , including 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 . However , Nero ' s attacks united the crew of the , who foiled his attempt to destroy Earth . ( ) History . 2387 . In the prime universe , a supernova in 2387 threatened 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 " " . Alteration . Nero placed blame on the Federation for the loss of his homeworld 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 Commander 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 murder ed . 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 800 lives , including his wife , , and their newborn son , , but failed to destroy the " Narada " . 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 to join Starfleet , three years later than he had done in the prime reality . In the meantime , other events happened differently . was born in 2241 , while the Romulans were confirmed as relatives of the Vulcans . Plans for the 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 . 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 . 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 . In 2258 , Nero captured the " Jellyfish " as it emerged from travel through the black hole . He marooned Spock on , 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 . 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 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 " . Afterward , was promoted to admiral and Kirk and Spock became 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 , , , and . Spock maintained a relationship with Uhura and reconciled with his father , , following the deaths of his Human mother and most of his own people . Ambassador Spock intended to found a New Vulcan colony for the 10 , 000 Vulcan survivors to live and thrive there . ( ) In the following years , the future - derived transwarp beaming technology was confiscated but the knowledge about it remained within Section 31 . ( ) A fearful Federation . By the late 2250s , the head of Starfleet , Admiral , 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 for potential resources . He found the , recovering its seventy - three occupants . He awoke from cryogenic stasis , and blackmailed him into designing ships and weapons to prepare for the coming war . The moon of Qo ' noS , , 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 . 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 torpedo es , with the intent of using these to execute him from orbit . 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 discovered his crew were contained inside the missiles supplied by the admiral . Marcus soon arrived on the , 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 " . 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 poison ing 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 . ( ) Krall ' s revenge on the Federation . 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 . As a result , an ancient weapon remained in the starship ' s archive vault . Krall , formerly Captain Balthazar M . Edison and commanding officer of the , 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 . Upon the arrival of the " Enterprise " at Altamid , Krall attacked with his Swarm drone s . 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 . 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 . 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 . 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 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 , , which had been under construction at Starbase Yorktown , was completed and assigned to the surviving " Enterprise " senior staff to continue their five - year mission . ( ) Appendices . Background information . 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 writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci , the conceptual invention of the alternate reality allowed the prime reality to continue . This intent is also evident in the script of " Star Trek " . While not completely audible in the film , before being teased by his classmates , young is asked by the computer in the learning center on , " " 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 . " " ( ) 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 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 as well as in an interview with ( p . 40 ) , and J . J . Abrams , in an interview with MTV conducted between the two aforementioned statements from Orci , 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 . 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 . " " 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 " , " alternate dimension " , " alternate timeline " , and " alternate universe " . . After , some entries in the database were updated to switch to the disambiguation " Kelvin " , but retained the interchangeable " alternate " text in the entries themselves . In an interview , actress Alice Eve called it the " split universe " . 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 . " " IDW Publishing calls the alternate reality the " new timeline " or the " altered " timeline / continuity . The board game " " calls it the " new universe " . Author of " Star Trek " novels Christopher L . Bennett has referred to it as the " Abramsverse " , 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 . " " Al Rivera , head developer of " Star Trek Online " , announced that CBS had named the timeline the " Kelvin Timeline " . Michael and Denise Okuda settled on the name after much deliberation for the 2016 edition of the . In June 2016 CBS Consumer Products , the official guardian of the " Star Trek " franchise , has confirmed that Okuda was actually tasked with creating a new moniker , and , at least where the franchise is concerned , that it has become the official one . The first publication to include reference to this term was " The Star Trek Book " from . Crossover characters . This is a list of individuals known to exist both in the original and in the alternate reality . Apocrypha . 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 Scotty 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 film ' s novelization by Alan Dean Foster preserves this exchange . Writers Mike Johnson and Tim Jones wrote " " , 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 " " , based on the deleted scenes regarding Nero ' s imprisonment , and " " . Johnson writes the " " comic series , launched in , 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 " " which covers the events that occurred roughly a month before and also reintroduces famed captain 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 . 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 . " A series of young adult books , " " , following the characters during their time at the Academy , began in . 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 , 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 .