How much time passes between the final battle with Shinzon and Kirk getting the big chair? (The ship needed some patching up.) IIRC, Kirk was about the youngest fellow to make starship Captain in the original timeline.

Not to mention Shinzon wiped out a good chunk of the fleet based on all the shattered hulks orbiting Vulcan. I don't think anyone else made it of that slaughter alive.

Luke Skywalker went from farmboy on a backwater planet to Rebel hero who blew up the Death Star in only a few days. ;)