i'm currently still trying to absorb the changes made to story continuity via the film.
The new film? I haven't even seen it yet, but from what everyone's saying, continuity does not exist between either of the two TV series and the new film. Tim Burton did what he wanted, and that doesn't affect the events in the original series. I can understand not wanting to deal with alternate realities though, declared (PT) or undeclared (Tim Burton, Lara's books).
This made me wonder, though -- generally we accept Depp/Burton's right to rewrite the story, without the slightest explanation. Is Lara doing exactly the same thing? If so, why do most of us mind it so much? Or, why don't we mind it with the new film?
I've never seen the last Star Trek movie reboot, but I know they "justify" changing ST history by having Leonard Nimoy give a little intro speech about some terrible alien assault on time that screwed everything up, and made the entire history within Trek different. I'm glad no one thought that was needed for DS fans; it seems a little silly.