You probably already know that there’s a new Star Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, coming out this week. This film, the third in the series of films that has variously been called the Abramsverse, or nuTrek, or The-Star-Trek-films-without-colons, but what we are now supposed to call the Kelvin Timeline, appears to have had a rocky development, and an oddly low-key marketing campaign, which made some (including me) wonder if the studio was disappointed in the film. But the buzz is picking up as we approach opening day, and the early reviews are encouraging, so maybe we won’t be disappointed this time.

But, as a hardcore Trek fan, it is my duty to look ahead and start worrying about the next Trek film, which is yet untitled, but everyone is calling Star Trek 4, although we all know there already was a Star Trek IV, and this next outing is really Star Trek 14. But anyway, the suits at Paramount are already planning this film, even before this week’s release of Star Trek Beyond, suggesting they are expecting Beyond to do well. We also learned that Chris Hemsworth, who is today best known for playing Thor in the Marvel movies, is being brought back to reprise his role as George Kirk, James Kirk’s father, in this newest Trek.

Film critic Devin Faraci at Birth. Movies. Death. has written a provocative piece about this news, and I want to piggyback on his ideas a bit. Devin notes that the attack on USS Kelvin and George Kirk’s sacrificing his life was the best moment we’ve seen in the Kelvin Timeline so far, which is absolutely right. He goes on to conclude that Hemsworth’s return to Trek can only mean that Star Trek 4 is going to be a time travel story.

I think that’s probably right, although I would add a few caveats. It doesn’t have to be a time travel story. Kirk’s father could appear in a holodeck simulation, a la “These Are the Voyages…”, the series finale to Star Trek: Enterprise. He could be seen in an old recording, a la Jack Crusher in “Family.” He could be a shapeshifter messing with Kirk’s head, or a vision as in “Journey’s End.” He could be Mirror George Kirk. I mean, really. This is Star Trek we’re talking about.

Still, the cynic in me says that no one is being that creative, and tends to agree with Devin that this will be a time travel story, where Kirk and possibly others will travel back in time to the destruction of Kelvin. Devin has something really smart to say about that:

Imagine if the crew of the Enterprise learns they are not only in an alternate timeline, but they’re in the bad timeline. What if the crew has to go back in time and save the Kelvin, in the process erasing themselves (and this whole alternate universe series of films) from existence? What if Kirk, who still has daddy issues in Beyond, gets to meet his dad, prove to his dad he’s great and then, as he’s fading out of existence Back to the Future style, his dad tells Alt Kirk that he’s going to raise his son (our Kirk) to be as good as this man from the future? Get weird, get scifi, revisit the moral quandary at the heart of City on the Edge of Forever, the best episode of Trek ever.

I’d be okay with that. I’d be okay with the series writing itself away. I would not be okay with just some bullshit time travel junk that doesn’t have any impact.

Exactly right, Devin. It has already been noted by many fans that in every other Trek story about alternate timelines, when our heroes discover one, they dedicate themselves to righting the wrong and restoring the “proper” timeline. But in the 2009 Star Trek, our heroes figure out they are in an alternate timeline and, well, shrug it off and move on. Devin is overlooking the additional fact that in this alternate Kelvin Timeline, billions of Vulcans died as the result of one madman messing with the timeline. If that isn’t an incentive to try to fix things, I don’t know what it. Especially for Spock, right?

I think Devin’s story would do a lot to redeem the other Kelvin Timeline films. It would turn the set of four into one long story arc, something close to an eight-hour “what if” Trek episode. It would also have the real world effect of “wiping out” the Kelvin Timeline, and would be taken as some as effectively an apology for ever starting it. I’d be okay with that, too.

The cast of the Kelvin Timeline films are aging (as are we all.) They were younger than their Original Series counterparts in 2009. Today, just three movies in, they’re roughly the same age as the original cast. At a rate of just one movie every 3-4 years, it’s not going to take long before Chris Pine will need granny glasses to read A Tale of Two Cities. This new cast is the best thing the Kelvin Timeline films have going, but they won’t be around forever. Devin’s story would allow them to retire from the roles with dignity.

P.S.: Mentioning that the cast “won’t be around forever” requires that I acknowledge the untimely passing of Anton Yelchin. I am more than twice Anton’s age. For people of my age, the death of someone as young and full of life as Anton was is just a tragedy beyond words. We can only guess at what great performances we have all been deprived of by losing him so soon. Rest in peace, Anton.