On 03/19/17, Drew Klenotic said the following...
 
 DK> Why didn't he just make his own universe instead?  Just like with Star
 DK> Wars... They declared everything out side of the movies to be
 DK> "potentially invalid".  All the books... all the games.... all the
 DK> expanded universe stuff.  All because JJ was too lazy to come up with his
 DK> own completely original idea.

FWIW, that seems like a simple answer to me.  The reason is that there are
still a lot of stories that can be told about the Kirk/Spock era.  The
problem with that, is we don't have the actors to play Kirk and Spock
anymore.  What do we do then?  Should we be presented with CGI versions of
the original crew, like they did with Princess Leia and Grand Mof Tarkin?

No thanks!

The problem with telling about the Kirk era, is that many young movie goers
have no real idea who Kirk and Spock are.  So we need to get reacquainted with
the characters.  But if we do that, then we are just retelling stories that
have already been told.  Unless some changes are made, like an alternate
universe.

 "No matter where you go, there you are!" - Buckaroo Bonzai

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