The best move Star Trek 4 could make is to leave the Kelvin Timeline behind and bring the Starship Enterprise and crew commanded by Captain James T. Kirk (Chris Pine) into the Prime Universe. The yet-untitled Star Trek 4 will be produced by J.J. Abrams and Bad Robot and directed by Matt Shakman (WandaVision). Excitingly, Star Trek 4 will reunite the movie cast including Pine, Zachary Quinto as Mr. Spock, and Karl Urban as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy. It's both a sequel and a potential new beginning for the Star Trek movie franchise, but Abrams' popular cast needs to leave its alternate reality and become part of the Prime Star Trek universe.
Star Trek is currently in the midst of a TV renaissance that aims to be greater than the franchise's heyday in the 1990s. In 2022, five Star Trek series will stream new episodes on Paramount+, and those five shows are set in different eras and are even aimed to bring new audiences and demographics to Star Trek. Star Trek: Discovery, which is soon to conclude season 4 and has been renewed for season 5, explores the 32nd century far beyond established Star Trek canon. Star Trek: Picard is set at the dawn of the 25th century, although season 2 will also involve time travel and an alternate reality. The animated series Star Trek: Lower Decks and Star Trek: Prodigy both take place in the fan-favorite late-24th century era. Finally, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is a prequel set in the years before William Shatner's Captain Kirk takes command of the Starship Enterprise.
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies were huge blockbusters that also brought new fans to the franchise, although by 2016's Star Trek Beyond, the film saga fizzled out at the box office. When Star Trek 4 is released in December 2023, it will join a thriving Star Trek TV universe that is continuing decades of real-world (and centuries of in-universe) canon. Thus Star Trek 4 may create confusion or, worse, ambivalence among Trekkers because Abrams' movies are set in a different reality than the adventures of Star Trek: Discovery and Picard. With all of the action and excitement happening in the Prime Universe, here's why the Kelvin Timeline of J.J. Abrams' Star Trek movies is no longer relevant and or advantageous, and why Star Trek 4 should bring the movies' Starship Enterprise crew into the Prime Universe.
Abrams' Movies Were Made With No Star Trek TV Shows But Things Have Changed
When J.J. Abrams rebooted Star Trek in 2009, the franchise had been off television for 4 years after the low-rated Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled. Abrams' trilogy revived interest in Star Trek and provided necessary upgrades to bring the franchise visually in line with modern blockbusters. But Abrams' Star Trek movies also didn't have to compete with any Star Trek TV series currently on the air, especially not shows that adopted Abrams' visuals and cinematic tone to create Peak TV Star Trek series as engaging as Abrams' movies are. The Kelvin Timeline was also a product of corporate issues regarding Star Trek's rights, and creating an alternate reality allowed Abrams to tell new Kirk and Spock stories that wouldn't break established canon - but Star Trek 2009 also ingeniously tied back to the Prime Universe so that the Kelvin Timeline coexists alongside it.
However, Star Trek 4 will arrive in a completely different era of the franchise and the new film also beams into a marketplace where Marvel Studios and Star Wars have primed audiences to invest in their shared universes across movies and TV shows. It doesn't make sense for Star Trek 4 to exist in a disconnected Kelvin Timeline so that Kirk and Spock's next voyage has no bearing on the events of Star Trek: Discovery or Picard. Rather, Star Trek needs to also embrace the shared universe, and the biggest draw Star Trek 4 can create is to bring Chris Pine's Kirk and his Enterprise crew into the Prime Universe.
Abrams' Star Trek Fits In The Prime Timeline Now
Another reason J.J. Abrams set Star Trek 2009 in the Kelvin Timeline was so he could upgrade all of the aesthetics and technology and handwave the changes because it's all happening in an alternate reality. But since Star Trek Beyond, Star Trek on Paramount+'s shows have similarly enhanced visual styles that synch with Abrams' movies. The Enterprise of the Star Trek movies now matches the look and style of Star Trek: Discovery and Picard and audiences would easily accept seeing Kelvin's Kirk and Spock in the Prime universe. The key to this idea working would be bringing the movie Enterprise and crew over at a specific point of the Prime Timeline that isn't the 23rd century of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds or the 24th century of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
How And Where Abrams' Star Trek Can Join The Prime Timeline
There are numerous ways the Starship Enterprise can leave the Kelvin Timeline and cross over into the Prime Universe. For example, Star Trek: Discovery season 3 reintroduced the Guardian of Forever (Paul Guilfoyle), who sent Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) back in time and into the Mirror Universe. Star Trek 4 could even have Chris Pine's Kirk and Zachary Quinto's Spock encounter the Guardian of Forever in the Kelvin Universe and the time portal could easily whisk the Enterprise into the Prime Universe. A sci-fi solution can also be conjured as to why Kirk and his crew don't die from crossing both time and universes the way Emperor Georgiou and Yor, a time soldier from the Kelvin Timeline's 24th century, were fatally afflicted.
The best point in the Prime Universe where Star Trek 4's crew and Enterprise can arrive would be in the early 25th century of Star Trek: Picard. Visually and technologically, Star Trek: Picard's era is the best fit for Abrams' Enterprise to land in. Plus, Star Trek: Picard season 2 involves a timeline incursion that creates an alternate reality similar to the plot of Star Trek 2009 that created the Kelvin Timeline to begin with. It's possible that Star Trek 4's Enterprise and crew could arrive after the events of Star Trek: Picard seasons 2 and 3. Because nothing yet has been written of the 25th century beyond what Picard is doing, it's an ideal final frontier for the Kelvin Kirk and Spock to arrive at.
Why Star Trek Needs Kirk And Spock Back In The Prime Timeline
As radical an idea as Star Trek 4 bringing Chris Pine's Kirk, his cast, and his Starship Enterprise to the Prime Universe is, it would also close the circle considering how the Kelvin Timeline was created in the first place. Further, such a move would benefit everyone. Overall, the Kelvin Timeline has outlived its usefulness. The Kelvin Timeline has only been minimally explored in the previous three Star Trek movies, which all involved massive threats to Earth and the United Federation of Planets. In the years after Star Trek Beyond, audiences are growing more and more invested in the Star Trek series on Paramount+, all of which are expanding the Prime Timeline's canon in fascinating ways. It's a disservice to the Star Trek movies' crew that they're now stuck in an alternate reality that isn't nearly as interesting or relevant as the Prime Universe, where the real action of Star Trek is.
Star Trek 4's Enterprise and crew jumping to the Prime Universe would bring Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and their crewmates to the Star Trek timeline that really matters. And, if they arrive in the post-Star Trek: Picard 25th century, the Star Trek movie cast would be far enough in the future where the Prime Universe's Kirk, Spock, etc. are long dead, which wouldn't disrupt Star Trek: The Original Series and TNG's canon. As a result, the Prime Universe would have the original Enterprise and younger versions of Captain Kirk and his crew alive again, ready to explore a brand new future. No matter how exciting their adventures may be in the Kelvin Universe's 23rd century, nothing the Enterprise does there really matters. But if Star Trek 4 brings the movie's Kirk and Spock into the Prime Universe's 25th century, the Starship Enterprise can truly boldly go where no one has gone before.