https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2009-05-11/j-j-abrams-notorious-rug-puller-outter/

J.J. Abrams, Notorious Rug-Puller-Outter

By Kimberley Jones, May 11, 2009, 12:45pm, Picture in Picture

If you haven't seen the new Star Trek yet, THEN FOR GOD'S SAKE DON'T READ AFTER THE JUMP.

So I saw the reboot this weekend, and it was fine, and it was fun, although it was not the end-all be-all of awesomeness that critics and fans alike have been saying it is.

But here's what's really been needling me. Again, if you haven't seen it, go no further, because I am about to mightily spoil it for you.

As I understand it, the time travel hook of the piece means that everybody's destiny has been irrevocably altered. Which means that the history and the lore of the entire franchise has been negated, no?

So how come Trekkies – fans not exactly known for their temperance – aren't spectacularly pissed?

I repeat: In one fell swoop these whippersnappers wiped clean 50 years of storytelling.

J.J. Abrams is of course rather fond of this kind of game-changing do-over. No, I refer not to this season's endlessly gotcha! Lost but to the highly divisive time travel arc in Felicity's fourth season.

I mean, honestly, Mr. Abrams, I don't really care if you preserve the sanctity of a franchise that positioned Shatner as savior of the humpback whale, but when you sent Felicity back in time (or was it all a dream?) so that she could go through one more iteration of her Ben versus Noel existential/romantic quandary, something was broken between us that can never be fixed.