By Chris Snellgrove
| Revealed
After Enterprise fizzled out, a brand new movie introduced the world’s best sci-fi franchise again to life: Star Trek (2009), a snazzy reboot that introduced again the characters and impeccable vibes of The Authentic Sequence. To mollify followers frightened that the brand new movie would fully retcon older Star Trek media, Paramount set all of its Trek reboot movies in a parallel universe that was fully completely different from the acquainted “prime” universe. What most followers don’t notice, although, is that this parallel “Kelvinverse” (so named after Kirk’s father’s doomed starship) would have been not possible with out “Parallels,” an often-overlooked episode of Star Trek: The Subsequent Technology.
In that episode, Worf returns from a bat’leth match solely to search out himself slipping out and in of various realities; this permits him to expertise the lives of various Worfs whereas seeing how various things might be aboard the Enterprise-D. He’s married to Deanna Troi in a single actuality, for instance, and is the primary officer of the ship in one other. Ultimately, Worf (with the assistance of Information, Geordi, and the remainder of the senior officers) discovers that this all began as a result of his shuttle by accident weakened the barrier between completely different quantum realities, and he is ready to fly again to his personal actuality whereas closing the dimensional fissure behind him.
How Worf’s Multiverse Journey Created The Star Trek Reboot
This makes for a enjoyable episode (particularly in case you’re a Worf fan), however what does this story need to do with Star Trek (2009)? Again in 2008, that movie’s cowriter, Bob Orci, gave an unique interview to TrekMovie, and their dialog centered totally on how the brand new film’s timeline may exist with out erasing all of the franchise lore that got here earlier than it. Orci principally gave followers a crash course on quantum mechanics, and he cited Information’s feedback from “Parallels” to sum up that “all potentialities that may occur do occur” in numerous different realities.
That will sound fairly fundamental, particularly for individuals who are acquainted with Marvel’s numerous motion pictures and TV exhibits involving the Multiverse. However the MCU was lower than a yr previous when Orci gave this interview, and the Multiverse was not but even a sparkle in Kevin Feige’s eye. Subsequently, the author walked Trek followers by way of how the upcoming Kelvinverse movie was rooted strongly in each real-world quantum mechanics (which the interviewer helpfully identified is called the Many Worlds Principle) and the Trek lore established in “Parallels.”
The Many Yawns Principle?
For Star Trek followers, the Many Worlds Principle is each blessing and curse: it permits for telling tales in numerous realities, contextualizing settings just like the Mirror Universe and explaining how the Kelvinverse and any future reboot realities can exist alongside the Prime Universe of exhibits like The Authentic Sequence and The Subsequent Technology. However (as Crimson Letter Media not too long ago identified), this concept arguably cheapens the drama of the alternatives our characters make. Not solely is there a dimension the place they made a totally completely different selection, however the existence of numerous different dimensions means it doesn’t actually matter who lives and who dies as a result of everyone seems to be alive someplace else.
Whether or not you’re keen on or hate the narrative sandbox it created, “Parallels” paved the way in which for the existence of Star Trek (2009), a film that saved the franchise when Trek was falling into cultural obscurity. These reboot movies are controversial amongst some followers, however their success undeniably helped make Star Trek right into a mainstream hit as soon as once more. When you’re one of many followers who hated it, that in all probability received’t hassle anybody concerned; in any case, quantum mechanics tells us that there’s a universe on the market the place that is your favourite movie sequence of all time!