Whatever happened happened?

Went to see the new Star Trek. Great movie! A re-boot rather than a remake.
Like the excellent Battlestar Galactica TV series this movie takes us back to the beginning and starts again and so we get to see Kirk, Spock and co come together as the Enterprise crew.
This could, of course, have been a problematic formula since millions of people know what's supposed to happen, but the writers have given it a big twist - history has been changed and anything is now possible. We are now in a universe where some significant characters have already died before their time. An entire world has ceased to exist. All bets are off! Isn't time travel fun!
I look forward to the next movie. Anything could happen. In theory, you could kill Kirk off in episode 2 and make Uhura the captain... Could be interesting!
The intriguing thing is that this movie was made by the Bad Robot team who are also giving us Lost. In Lost we are being asked to believe that history can't be changed, yet in Star Trek nothing is set. Of course, they don't need to operate with the same philosophical framework in both shows, but it does make me wonder. In Lost, Daniel Faraday talks about "constants" and "variables". Maybe there are some things which need to happen, but some things which can be changed... Can destiny (or predestination?) be possible without removing free will or creativity? Intriguing... Looking forward to seeing where JJ Abrams and co take this...