They are clearly "restarting" the series with the whole change-the-past concept. By doing that, they have papered over alot of things that weren't canon. Thus, Kirk knew how to drive a car this time because this time he ended up in a situation where he needed to....whereas before he had his dad around. Spock's mom died this time. And this time Spock/Uhura are an item.

Whether or not any of the new plot elements work...I dunno. I agree, Uhura/Spock is kind of a stretch. But they seem to have definitely kept the original characters and spirit of the show while simultaneously creating a ton of new fans. Whatever the plot issues, it's mission accomplished for them.

“Whatever the plot issues, it's mission accomplished for them.”

If by “mission” you mean “make a pile of money,” you’re right. Understand, I’m not against making piles of money. I’m probably as pure a capitalist as you’ll ever meet. But there’s the issue of artistic integrity, too. If you want to create a new character, then be truly creative and create a new character. Don’t recreate an established character.

The problem (for the writers) is that it might be impossible to write the story they want around the characters they want, as established. And to write an entirely new story would forfeit the commercial capital of the original. So what we have is a combination of a lack of imagination and lazy opportunism.

So, now that you’ve got me thinking about it, it’s worse than I thought!