Is Star Trek: Strange New Worlds set in an alternate timeline?

 Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has changed canon…or has it?

There’s no denying that some things are different in the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds universe than they were in Star Trek: The Original Series. Some of it makes sense as it has been over 55 years since Captain Kirk led the Enterprise. Changes were bound to happen. But some discrepancies can’t be explained with the passage of time.

In Strange New Worlds, Spock is engaged to T’Pring and has a relationship with her, though, in The Original Series, the two had not seen each other since childhood. T’Pring only appeared onscreen in The Original Series one time, and that was in “Amok Time” when Spock discovered she didn’t want him as her husband after all.

Also, Nurse Chapel didn’t come aboard the Enterprise until after she was already engaged to Dr. Roger Kirby, and he had gone missing. She wanted to be on a starship to find her fiance. On Strange New Worlds, Nurse Chapel hasn’t mentioned a fiance. In fact, she breaks up with someone she has been dating. So it doesn’t seem like we’ll be seeing Dr. Kirby unless he’s going to come on later, and Chapel will fall for him then.

Then, of course, there’s Lt. Sam Kirk. It was never mentioned that he had served aboard the Enterprise nor that he knew Spock or any of the other crew members that made it onto the ship under Captain Kirk’s command. And he was married and had a child by the time Operation: Annihilate aired, with a son who was at least eight years old. So he doesn’t have much time to get married and have a child before his brother takes over the Enterprise.

These scenarios are some of the reasons that has Nerdist.com postulating that Strange New Worlds could be in an alternate timeline. And it kind of makes sense.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds could use the time crystals to change the timeline.

On Star Trek: Discovery, Captain Pike encountered time crystals which enabled him to see his future. The fact that he saw that future could have, in essence, changed his future. Though another version of Pike appeared to Captain Pike in the season finale to warn against changing his fate, that doesn’t mean his destiny is solidified. There are ways around things that Star Trek doesn’t want to happen in the future and ways to change the future without affecting the current timeline.

The films in the Kelvin timeline have been popular with many fans, but would a streaming series maintain its popularity if fans were to learn that Strange New Worlds wasn’t set in the original timeline? And if it is set in the current timeline, will we learn why all these changes were made? Perhaps the producers just wanted to spice things up a bit to give the writers more material to work with, more relationships to build.

What do you think? Is Strange New Worlds set in an alternate timeline?