Some thought starters:
When we first see Nero (stupid name for a Romulan), he is a youngish dude.
The name Nero makes sense when you consider the Romulan's Roman-esque influence. After all, their home planet is ROMULUS, it's twin REMUS. Those are, of course, legendary names from Earth. I always liked to assume that those are the Terran terms for their planets, as Romulans obviously have no reason to name their planets after ancient Earth legends. Like how the Germans call their country Deutschland in their language but we call it Germany in ours.
So their planets are named after the founders of Rome and the Roman Empire. Also, they have ranks like "Centurion" which call back to that same Ancient Roman vibe that the 60s series gave them, along with the fist on the chest salutes, Caesar haircuts, etc.
The name Nero hearkens back to that.
25 years later we see him again, and without any explanation, he has a bit of his right ear torn off, and what looks like scars from a head plate that had since been removed.
It could be injuries as a result of the Kelvin ramming his ship and causing extensive damage, but it could also be a multitude of things that happened in the 25 years that passed between the encounter with the Kelvin and teh Enterprise engaging his vessel, not the least of which would be the 46 klingon ship fleet Nero destroyed shortly before Starfleet Academy empties it's classrooms to engage the 'lightning storm'.
Uhura talks about the transmission she intercepted about Nero fighting it out with the Klingons. There was a deleted scene(s) of Nero duking it out with the Klingon fleet and being captured/escaping from Rura Penthe. While you and I would have loved something like that, I think they decided it was overload for the average filmgoer.
Sayeth JJ (also click to see other deleted scenes like infant Spock with pointy ears):
"There was a big Klingon subplot in this, and we actually ended up having to pull it out because it confused the story in a way that I thought was very cool but unnecessary. So we have these beautiful designs that we’re going to have to wait and do elsewhere I guess."
In resetting the timeline with his appearance, not only did Nero screw up Kirk's life, but the Klingon Penal Colony destruction would have altered the coming Federation-Klingon war, the Khitomer Massacre and all that crap.
Basically they have a blank canvas now. They are kind of adhering to the idea - also from Lost which makes sense because the Lost writers were involved in this movie - that even alternate realities/timelines have a kind of "pull" that try to make things "come back in line." So like, you see Captain Pike in the wheelchair at the end, Kirk still Captain, Scotty still Engineer, etc. I have a feeling that future stories in this timeline will be their own stories, but always kind of hearken back to what we know.
So, yeah, the Klingons are going to be radically different now. Are they still going to ally with the Romulans after Nero wrecked their shit up? If they believe Nero was a rogue, maybe they will decide an alliance is necessary because of how closely they came to being wiped out by Nero.... etc.
The creation of an alternate timeline like this was brilliant because they still have Kirk & Co., they still have all of these fantastic races that we know so well, Romulans, Klingons, etc..... But they get to tell WHATEVER new story they want, in a way that maintains canonical integrity for the Trek Dorks like us, because Old Spock is the bridge between the two.
Honestly, you need to read the Countdown comics if you haven't yet, I'll let you borrow my iPhone on Sunday for 15 minutes if you wanna just read them on my phone. It shows how our TNG crew post-Nemesis was involved with Spock and Nero before they came through the singularity.
Why did he go to the Klingon system anyway? Nero's ship is mining vessel full of planetary geologists. How the hell would they know where and when Spock would reappear? They probably needed some kind of space/time physicists help to understand where Spock's appearance would be. Maybe they got the help form the Klingon's?
That's answered both in the deleted scenes and the comic. I'll let you read the comic on my phone or if you buy it rather than just explain how Nero's ship got so badass for a simple "mining ship" because it's more fun that way.
Needless to say, timelines for Klingon, Vulcan and Earth are all totally screwed up now.
Yes but beautifully so. Because if they just went back and did a simple "prequel" there would always be one very massive problem: WE KNOW THEY WONT DIE! Scotty dies after being held in the transporter buffer for a long time, Kirk dies after being sucked into the nexus and falling off a rickety bridge in one of the most lame deaths of a hero ever, etc. So no situation of jeopardy would ever really be convincing. Plus, they would have to dogmatically adhere to canon or else freak everybody out.
Now, we get to see them in this alternate reality where an entire new set of adventures can happen. A reality where Uhura wants some Spock lovin' for instance. But it's still our same old crew - Kirk still cheats the Kobyashi Maru, Bones is still Bones, etc. But the writers are totally free to create a new adventure without being tied down by the rules of the previous timeline.
Considering what they could have just done, which is to throw all of the Trek we know down the shitter and just rewrite from scratch - like they have done with almost ever other "reboot" in recent history - I am very glad that they found a way to have their cellular peptide cake and eat it too. Trek geeks' canon is preserved, the spirit of the characters and the universe remains, the writers have a blank sheet of paper to come up with whatever adventures they want, and they can make it as crowd-pleasing as possible while still giving it the brains and dignity that we expect.
The story of what happened in those 25 years to Nero and his crew could be interesting...
Wait for the DVD!
