Star Trek (film)/Headscratchers: Difference between revisions
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* Just what did the ''Narada'' need with all that bilge water?
** Does anyone else wonder why the ''Narada'', a mining ship, was carrying sufficient ordnance to destroy 47 well armed Klingon warships, AND several Federation ships as well?
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*** I'll admit it's an impefect analogy, but even the firearm I carry for personal defence would dominate 100+ years ago. Given the mindboggling jumps in technology in the [[Star Trek]] universe, something as simple as a mining (ph/l)aser would dominate technology from the same step backwards.
*** It's a Romulan ship, they carry enough weapons to wipe out 47 Klingon fighters when they go out to the grocery store to pick up eggs.
*** Compare the weapons technology on Archer's Enterprise to that of Kirk's Enterprise, and that's about the tech gap you're dealing with re: the ''Narada'' vs. past-time ships. If it carried any weaponry at all, even limited weaponry for antipiracy purposes, it could still be a dreadnaught-level combatant in past centuries.
** The ''Narada'' could've been designed to stay out for years at a time. Hence, they'd need a lot of water. It saves energy to not just replicate water whenever you need a drink.
*** Well, if it's drinking water, why was Nero wading in it?
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** Spock demonstrates how a few well-placed energy blasts are enough to tear the whole drilling apparatus to bits. How can it be, then, than in the whole of Vulcan nobody thought "hmm, there's this huge needle-shaped thing drilling a hole in our planet, why don't we send a few fighters against it?"
*** Who said they had any fighters? And who said they didn't try and get blown up by Nero's ship?
**** Look at ''[[Star Trek:
** For that matter, why drill at all? If the red matter can create black holes all by itself, surely a missile containing a drop of it slamming on the surface of the planet (or hell, just blowing up a good distance away) would destroy it?
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**** Yeah, but you still wouldn't have destroyed the drill.
**** Don't forget that the ''Jellyfish'' was equipped with 24th-century weapons.
** Also, shuttles require pilots. This isn't the Klingon Navy we're talking about here, 'suicide-piloted bomb' is not gonna be the first option they try.
** Why was the Chief Engineer being sent on an away team right after a battle? Shouldn't he be supervising the repairs? Couldn't someone else handle the explosives to destroy the drill?
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* 2009 movie: Aside from the aesthetic differences, Earth in the 23rd century doesn't seem very different from Earth in the 20th century. Bars look and function in the same way, San Francisco Bay hasn't changed at all (take THAT, global warming!), the flag of the state of California is still in use, and people apparently still listen to the Beastie Boys.
** This seems very much in keeping with the prior installments. See also ''[[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier|Star Trek V the Final Frontier]]'' (Yosemite and "camping out" are still the same), ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' (Kirk and Picard's houses in the Nexus are very 20th century), and ''[[Star Trek:
** My theory is that it was a subversion of [[I Want My Jetpack]]. It was perhaps meant to be a more realistic vision of what the future would be like. Honestly, I could see that atmosphere happening in the 23rd century.
** Someone must've gone back in time and altered it. It must be -wait for it-''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Sabotage]]''! Seriously, I could walk into a bar in 1809 and it'd still function pretty much the same way, except I'd be thrown out for being a Negro who came in through the front entrance. [[You All Meet in An Inn|Or maybe meet a Barbarian and a Bard.]]
** Why wouldn't California still have a flag? The Federation is just that: a ''federation'' that various planets' governments sign on with, not an empire that supplants them. National and state governments can still exist on Earth, they just quit fighting each other and have entrusted planetary diplomacy and defense to a broader authority. As for global warming, in Picard's day they'll be ''raising continents from the sea'', so it's possible the sea levels rose as predicted, but people in Kirk's era have since lowered them back to their historical levels.
*** Or the extra seawater all flowed into that gigantic trench in Florida that the Xindi probe's attack had created, bringing global sea levels back to normal...
**** If they needed a trench that badly, there wouldn't have been a Florida. See [https://web.archive.org/web/20131103223832/http://geology.com/sea-level-rise/florida.shtml this map] for what sea level rise will do to the Sunshine State.
**** Obviously the trench was formed first, ''then'' the flooding from global warming happened. Perhaps environmentalists ''let'' it happen to make up for falling sea levels.
**** Alan Dean Foster's novelization makes reference to government officials from Washington, Beijing and Moscow junketing to Iowa to inspect the ''Enterprise'' under construction. That's an indication, though not a conclusive one, that the United States, Russia and China all still exist as national entities in the new Trek universe.
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******* Okay, speaking as someone who has actually watched the original series, I'm going to blow your mind: there were women on the Enterprise who wore pants. No, not just in the pilot episode. You would occasionally see a female crew member in the background wearing the regular men's uniform. Of course, all the prominently featured women still wore miniskirts, but at least it looks like pants were an option for everybody, just as skirts were an option for everybody in Next Generation.
******** From what I remember reading Gene intended for the women in TOS to wear pants just like the men and the leading female ''actresses'' vetoed the idea. They didn't want to look like men and came up with the miniskirt uniforms.
********* Not what I heard. Zoe Saldana (Uhura) talked about the skirts, saying she personally would've liked them to be longer but that they added a youthful touch and brought back the whole 60's skimpy outfit thing and that it was a necessary addition. See it [https://web.archive.org/web/20100325112808/http://www.hulu.com/watch/71293/access-hollywood-zoe-saldana-and-karl-urban-talk-star-trek here] at about 3:40.
********** But that doesn't have anything to do with the uniform styles in TOS! Zoe Saldana wasn't even ''born'' then!
*********** [[Timey-Wimey Ball]]!
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** Speaking of red matter, why is it that, in a movie where they're vomiting weird-looking CGI effects onto the screen till you'd think Lucas was involved, they couldn't bother coming up with a Maguffin that looked any more exotic than a lava lamp?
* Really. No one's mentioned the [[You Are in Command Now|cadet to captain thing]] yet? I mean, sure, This Troper and his friends always made jokes about low-ranking ensigns making admiral in Star Wars given [[Star Wars|Darth Vader]]'s [[You Have Failed Me...|violent tendencies]]. But they never expected Abrams and company to play this '''''straight''''' in the new film. Kirk goes from an admittedly talented officer candidate to captain of the Federation's most prized warship? [[Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale|In a few days]]. And no, being a [[Big Damn Heroes|big damn hero]] isn't enough of a justification. Most people get a nice medal and a promotion for that - not a medal and ''six'' promotions. Also, Spock was just as important in the overall victory and outranked Kirk to begin with, already holding the rank directly ''below'' captain? So why didn't, by the same logic, he get promoted to Starfleet Command? Honestly, this troper really liked the film overall... but this bugs the crap out of him.
** In the history of all real militaries ever, it is universally the case that if you save the planet Earth from certain destruction, you get promoted to Captain. No matter what. Name a single historical figure who saved he entire planet earth from literal destruction and didn't get promoted to captain as a result.
***** The above comment made This Troper smile. :)
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**** Surely the real problem is not Kirk getting promoted to captain after the event, it's him being promoted from cadet to First Officer by Pike in the first place, despite there being no possible reason to do this.
***** Also, it seems the WHOLE crew basically go from cadets to crewing the Federation flagship if the end of the episode is anything to go by.
*** That doesn't matter. Heroics =/= command ability. In order to be an effective commanding officer it is ''essential'' ([https://web.archive.org/web/20120520022039/http://trekmovie.com/fan-reviews-star-trek-film/ as several fans serving in the military have said in their reviews of the film]) to have extensive ground experience. Command is more than about luck and leadership ability. It's also about having experience. Kirk does ''not'' have experience. There may be no precedent ''against'' said situation (since said situation has never occured, thereby meaning it is neither evidence against, nor for) but there are ''similar'' incidents in history. Napoleon, for instance, is reputed for having an ''exceptionally'' quick rise in the chaos of the French Revolution, where officers were being killed off left and right, going from lieutenant to general in eight years. That's more ranks than Kirk jumps, to be sure (though not by much), but the ratio is overwhelming and vastly different. The only circumstance This Troper can come across that resembles the situation at all is Nathan Bedford Forrest, who did indeed rise to the rank of colonel (the equivalent rank within the army and air force) within a few years of his enlisting as a private. But I've still yet seen anyone who did it in a matter of days and whose multiple superiors were overlooked (Uhura, Scotty, McCoy, Sulu, even Chekov, Spock, etc, etc.).
**** [[Jimmy Stewart]] (yes, ''that'' [[Jimmy Stewart]]) went from Private to Colonel in four years, a rise that's considered ''extremely'' rapid. Cadet to Captain in five seconds is beyond ridiculous.
**** To quote Pike from the novelisation: "You two make a swell team." He saw the potential of Kirk and Spock together and made a snap decision based on gut instinct. Clearly, it worked. Besides: 1)Everyone else was needed where they were, i.e. Uhura at communications, Chekov at navigation, Sulu at the helm, etc, and Kirk had nothing to do; 2) he probably had no expectation of it being anything but a temporary promotion; and 3)Kirk was born to command and Pike knew it. You can't teach that kind of instinct, and you get it maybe a few times in a generation.
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** Because it's symbolic. Everyone else is a legitimate Starfleet officer. Kirk, on the other hand, doesn't appear in colors until we see him striding onto the bridge wearing command gold. It makes that moment just that much more of an emotional gut-punch for old fans, as we see that the wild boy of the film has become the Captain we fell in love with. (Why yes, it is sentimental. So sue me.)
* Why are the European posters for the new movie so much cooler than the American ones? We've got a bunch of colorless mugshots of the actors and a blurry outline of the Enterprise, while Germany, for example, has [https://web.archive.org/web/20131026221919/http://downloads.scifinews.de/file_74803.html this.]
** I'm in Canada and you can get that one here. I saw it in my local Wal* mart. Maybe the stores near you just aren't carrying it.
** It's to make up for decades of getting movies, TV shows and games months after the US.
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***** To be honest, I'd chalk it up to the test being stupid; Spock isn't even a cadet at this point, he's a full blown commander, and soon-to-be XO on Starfleet's new flagship. As he's the one who programmed the stupid test for the last few years, I'd assume he knows it back to front, so I'll lay the blame on whoever came up with it.
****** It depends on how the test played out in the movie, which I can't really remember. If the ''only'' option was to go rescue the Kobayashi Maru, then yeah, the test is dumb and serves no purpose. And even if it's designed well, it only works so long as the cadet doesn't know there wasn't any right answer - Kirk already knew that, so his reprogramming the simulation was really a more honest approach than playing it straight (it at least clued Starfleet into the fact that the gig's up).
******* It's EU novel content and thus not in-continuity, but Sulu passed his Kobayashi Maru test by never going into the Neutral Zone at all. His reaction was to send a flash message to Starfleet HQ that an immediate diplomatic contact with the Romulans was needed at the highest levels re: a freighter possibly in trouble in the Neutral Zone, and that unless otherwise ordered he was going to keep his ship out as his decision was that the risk of starting a war by entering without permission was too high to justify a rescue mission when he couldn't even confirm a ship was there. The examiners accepted this as a valid example of decision-making under pressure.
***** Who says it's the ''Captain's'' death he was referring to? ''Someone'' is going to die. You either fear dying, and you fear letting people die.
** Two things: one, it is never stated in canon just how Kirk (Kirk-Prime, let's call him) reprogrammed the Kobayashi Maru test to be winnable, only that he did -- the explanation you're given is Fanon at best. Second, and more important, this ''is'' a different Kirk. Indeed, the fact that he's kind of a brat who needs to mature to become the natural leader inside of him is kind of his plot arc, no?
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** [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|Evidently the shows' representation was inaccurate.]]
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[[Category:Star Trek/Headscratchers]]
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