I've been reading the reviews and they say that JJ Abrams wanted to create a franchise that'll work for the next 10 years. So he tweaked a lot of things but left a lot of room for things to go more 'classic'. He knows that he'll alienate a lot of old fans, bewilder a lot of fans, but he was trying to make it more accessible. And as far as I know, he pretty much threw the book out the window.