Inspired by conversations with
@Khan 2.0 here's my take on the Orci idea:
STAR TREK: TEMPTATION
CHRIS PINE
ZACHARY QUINTO
KARL URBAN
ZOE SALDANA
SIMON PEGG
JOHN CHO
with
WILLIAM SHATNER as Kirk Prime
SIR PATRICK STEWART as Admiral Picard
BEN CROSS as Ambassador Sarek
MICHAEL KEATON as Lt Anderson
JUDI DENCH as Tuvel
HANNAH MURRAY as Ensign Saavik
and
CLANCY BROWN as Commodore Decker
Commodore Decker assigns USS Enterprise NCC-1701-A to return home a delegation from New Vulcan. There, a temporal rift opens and out comes the Enterprise-F – captained by Kirk Prime. Admiral Picard is also on board.
Via a flashback, we learn that Kirk Prime died on Veridian III, but a second echo was retrieved from the Nexus, which the Enterprise-E encountered following the destruction of Hobus. Accidentally landing back in the Nexus, Picard convinced Kirk Prime to return, guilty for letting him die the first-time round (here CG is used to make Stewart and Shatner look younger).
He reveals that onboard his ship is a time travel device, which he used to travel into the past. He notes that timelines are in flux and this timeline shouldn’t exist.
On the Enterprise-A, Spock’s protégé Ensign Saavik had replaced Chekov as navigator. Chekov has been assigned as Security Chief of the Farragut. One of the Vulcans is Tuvel, who has secretly been liaising with Lt Anderson, the Enterprise-F’s science officer who has been using the time machine to talk to Tuvel (this is a very powerful thing and indeed could be a very dangerous weapon is in the wrong hands) – she wants him to alter the timeline and restore Vulcan. Together, Tuvel and Anderson steal the machine and beam it to their ship, piloted by Vulcan rebels.
Young Kirk and Spock talk about restoring the timeline with Tuvel, as Kirk would get to meet his father and Spock would be reunited with his mom, but Dr McCoy convinces them to ‘snap out of it’!
The two Enterprises together must work to bring down the rebel Vulcans and retrieve the time travel device – then return the Enterprise-F home without causing more damage to the timeline.