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Discovery Shows It's Awareness Of The Kelvin Timeline

A brief look into what Discovery has shown us about the Kelvin Timeline - Potential Spoilers Ahead for ST: Discovery

By Chris Wilkinson Wed 16 Dec, 2020 12:03 PM - Last Updated: Thu 17 Dec, 2020 8:51 PM
Obligatory Spoiler Warning. Potential spoilers for ST: Discovery Season 3.

When we look into all of Star Trek, one of the most neglected sections, and to some people rightly so, is the Kelvin Universe. We’ve had 3 movies about it which after the first, seemed to go downhill (at least when you look on Metacritic).

Up till now, within the Prime universe we’ve had very little mention of this universe with the only link being the Hobus Supernova. This is understandable considering the Prime universe don’t usually have the ability to hop easily to other dimensions. DiscoKelvin2
Kovich (David Cronenberg)
explains the origin of
a traveler from the Kelvin
Timeline to Dr. Hugh Culber
(Wilson Cruz)
The only time we’ve really seen this, was the Terrans intentionally popping onto our side of the multiverse.

However, over the past couple of weeks in Star Trek Discovery we’ve had a serious drop that finally acknowledges the existence of the Kelvin timeline. This is in the shape of a Lieutenant Commander Yor who came to the Prime universe from the Kelvin. There’s no mention of how this happened other than a mention of an incident with a Romulan mining vessel, but we saw Yor in the latest episode of Discovery. He’s wearing a Security/Engineering TNG uniform from the initial two series of the show, however it’s said he travelled from 2379.

Does this mean that Kelvin universe has slowed down in terms of development, as they’re using that older style uniform when the Prime is now on the, in my personal opinion, superior First Contact uniform we saw in DS9 and the TNG Movies.

Very little detail is given by Kovich about Vor besides that he travelled across and suffered the same as Georgiou. We know he’s a time soldier which would make him involved with the Temporal Cold War which was originally introduced in Enterprise. Does this add an extra element to that particular war, suggesting they began to recruit not only through time, but through the multiverse as well?

One interesting point, while both Georgiou and Vor both suffered a significant effect due to travelling both through time and universe, yet we didn’t see the same happen with Nero or Spock when they were sent back in time. Will this conundrum be answered in this weeks episode or will this be one of those continuity hiccups we sometimes see?

Hopefully, we’ll be given a better picture into the future of the Kelvin timeline either through some follow up movies which could jump further forwardDiscoVoyager4
Season 3 has had its share of
Easter eggs and fan surprises
than the original three. Maybe we’ll get to see a Kelvin Galaxy class, although I’ve no idea how that could look considering how different the Constitution looked.

With the unfortunate loss of Anton Yelchin, it does mean that the cast of the rebooted franchise are a man short. While they may recast this or simply explain away Chekov’s disappearance, it will leave a large gap in the cast. What’s the Enterprise without that plucky young Russian?

Hopefully this nod won’t just be dropped and left at the wayside like some others we’ve seen so far like the USS Voyager and the USS Nog. Whether this be continued in either Discovery, a future movie or even within Star Trek Online.


While there have been a number of open questions asked in this article, I’d love to know what your thoughts are. Did the Temporal Cold War become more complex as the multiverse was involved? Would you like to see a TNG Era Kelvin Timeline? Let us know in the comments below.



WRITTEN BY Chris Wilkinson
EDITED BY Silek
12 Comments
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 1:19 PM
I think they don't understand the difference between a different Universe (Mirror Universe) and an altered Timeline (Kelvin Timeline, Yesterday's Enterprise, First Contact)
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 1:26 PM
I think they don't understand the difference between a different Universe (Mirror Universe) and an altered Timeline (Kelvin Timeline, Yesterday's Enterprise, First Contact)
That's quite an interesting take Bridger although they could be the same thing. Just the mirror universe diverged at a much earlier point.

That's the joy of the multiverse theory Smile
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 2:05 PM
Excellent article, I'm probably in the minority here but I kind of hope this means more stories set in the Kelvin Timeline. While the films were not great, although I did like Beyond, the comics were very well done, especially the Starfleet Academy series and Boldly Go ended wIth so many unresolved plot points before it was cancelled.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 2:09 PM
That's quite an interesting take Bridger although they could be the same thing. Just the mirror universe diverged at a much earlier point.

That's the joy of the multiverse theory Smile
The way they explain it that you have to jump dimensions to get from our Universe to the Mirror Universe and to create an alternate timeline you have to do time travel and do something impactful to change history.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 2:38 PM
There were various non-canon references to the Kelvin Timeline being a separate quantum reality and there's bits in the films where this would make more sense, it's possible they're slipping in a retcon to make that official.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 3:16 PM
The Mirror Universe is an altered Timeline. According to Enterprise, it diverged at First Contact with the Vulcans.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 3:23 PM
The Mirror Universe is an altered Timeline. According to Enterprise, it diverged at First Contact with the Vulcans.
I'd disagree that this is where it changes, as based on the title sequence we saw on those episodes, the terran empire has been around for quite some time, at least since the moon landings if not longer.

Based on how it's styled, I'd almost guess it was either WW2 or maybe as far back as Rome
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 3:37 PM
I think those openings were definitely meant to have a darker tone to them, but IIRC Archer is talking to Sato (I believe it is) about the records they found on the Defiant and he was saying that that point in history is where they diverged from the Prime Universe. Instead of Zephram Cochrane welcoming the Vulcans with open arms, he led an attack on the Vulcan Survey Ship, which led to the conquering of Vulcan and the forming of the Terran Empire.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 3:42 PM
The Terran Empire is strongly based upon Ancient Rome, the latest episode showed this quite a bit with the theatrical performance mentioning gods and the divine emperor etc.

So whilst it's unlikely to be a direct descendant I think it's probably fair to assume that much of Earth history in that timeline/universe is dominated by a similar entity. Multiple fascist regimes throughout history have modelled themselves on, or tried to mimic Ancient Rome so it's not out of the realm of reason the Terrans glorified their style and ways as well.

Regarding it being described as a universe, I think that just makes more sense really if you go along with a multiverse idea. Every decision creates a different universe, or at least those that are large enough to make big changes. So the Nero incident was large enough to push that split off to become its own universe.
It's all semantics anyway, from a fantasy work of fiction; different universe/timeline, it matters not what you call it. The fact is it's a separate location distinct enough from where the main story takes place that works for the plots. A different timeline may as well be a different universe as it's so different from the norm you are used to.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 3:55 PM
They even called Georgiou daughter of Rome that is probably the biggest indicator.
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 4:54 PM
I agree with you Sul about thinking of it more in terms of a multiverse. I'd say the best way to view it is from how Stargate showed it all.

There could be millions of different universes but maybe different due to a single choice. I'm pretty sure current science suggests it could be possible
Wed 16 Dec, 2020 5:07 PM
I agree with you Sul about thinking of it more in terms of a multiverse. I'd say the best way to view it is from how Stargate showed it all.

There could be millions of different universes but maybe different due to a single choice. I'm pretty sure current science suggests it could be possible
I always viewed it a bit like Sliders (ah nostalgia!) where there are infinite universes. Perhaps our Trek Prime and Mirror ones are close-ish because they are fairly similar through pure chance, and others are harder less connected. But tbh we've always seen it's pretty easy to jump between universes as it is to get to the MU so I doubt it's really that important.