Summary
- J.J. Abrams' Star Trek films influence the newer shows and are particularly influential in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.
- The visual language established by Abrams, including lens flare and artistic choices, is adopted by both Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard.
- Abrams' movies introduce new elements to the Star Trek canon, such as Uhura's first name being confirmed as "Nyota" and enhancements to transporter technology.
J.J. Abrams' Star Trek films reimagine the era of Star Trek: The Original Series with elements that have been adopted by the franchise's newest shows. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds borrows the most inspiration from Abrams' updated visions, as a show set aboard the USS Enterprise NCC-1701. Star Trek: Discovery has nods to alien designs and concepts that originated in the Kelvin Timeline movies. Even Star Trek: Picard, though it takes place a century later, acknowledges certain story elements from Abrams' movies, going so far as to make them integral to the plot of Picard season 1.
The production design of Abrams' Kelvin Timeline Star Trek movies is inspired by Star Trek: The Original Series, expanded and buffeted by a 21st-century feature-film budget, to interpret what could have been if creator Gene Roddenberry had access to modern technology when producing TOS in the 1960s. The TOS movies featured updated designs that persisted into the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond, so it's not unreasonable to imagine visions of the future that evolve even further. Star Trek shows in the modern era run with these visions, as if in agreement that Abrams is on the right track in conceptualizing the Kelvin Timeline.
