The makers of this decided that they were going to spawn off an 'alternate reality' because of actions of a deranged Romulan from the future. They managed to pull this off by changing some details about the core characters' origins without altering significantly the relationships between the characters that we all have grown to love about the original series. Many of the best feelings I got from the movie were when they got this right. Thoroughly enjoyable and highly recommended for all. The characterizations always drove ST, not the SF details. This was fun, exciting, and a wild ride. What more do you want?