For anyone that is upset by the direction taken in the new Star Trek, I believe it is well within the realm of possibility of what has transpired over the last 40 years of the franchise. Every iteration has dealt with time travel, has dealt with the alteration of the timeline. In fact, some of the best episodes and movies have dealt with these issues. But even with all the changes, I believe the characters have been given additional layers, but at their core, they are the same individuals they have always been. Well, at least the original crew is. Who knows how the events in the new film will trickle down to your favorite characters on the Enterprise-D, DS9, and Voyager. Were any of those characters ancestors on the Kelvin, or any of the other ships destroyed by the Narada (Nero's ship)? What about Tuvok? Were his parents or grandparents on Vulcan when...? ...you know.
That drastically changes the timeline. Some events just won't happen the same way, some won't happen at all. How does the loss of the Vulcan Science Academy change scientific advancement? How does this shift the balance of power over time in interstellar politics?
I would like to note that even as poorly received as Star Trek: Enterprise was, it was not jettisoned from the canon of the series. They do make reference to Scott Bakula's character and his pet beagle.
But will the Klingons of subsequent sequels have head ridges or not? They made a joke of it in DS9, and then attempted to actually explain it in Enterprise. Time will tell on that one.
