Torpedoes (XII spoilers)

Additional SPOILER space because I'm a nice guy...








So, what exactly was the idea behind those torpedoes again?

They were supposed to be those super-WMDs, and yet its creator thought it wise to hide his cryogenically frozen friends in them...? Where's the logic in that? Did I miss anything?

 

Yeah, I'm slightly confused about why they were inside.

 

Spoilers:




He was trying to smuggle out his buddies, and that was probably the best way he could do it. He probably had more rein when tinkering with weapons and whatnot.

The weapons themselves were long range warp missiles, so he could technically have fired them off with inert warheads and picked them up later as one plan.

 

I kinda saw it that way and the installation he destroyed at the start was where they were supposed to be stored, presumably a S31 facility.

 

Oh, well - I think this is a needlessly convoluted way of bringing the cryo-buddies into play. Come to think of it, these bits where the outcome (the villain needs to care about some weapon) leads to some crazy, prior story detail (so he must have put his friends in there) are what took me out of the story during this movie at different points.

 

Spoilers (big, big ones):






No, he didn't appear to know that the torpedoes weren't what he said they were.

Remember he wanted Enterprise to park in the Neutral Zone and hit the target from there with the implication that the origin of the weapons wouldn't be discovered, or they wouldn't be an overt "Federation missiles are raining down on us" like a starship in system firing conventional weapons would do (which gives Kirk and all the desire to do it). He didn't seem to want to start a war just yet, rather build tensions up so as Starfleet could be made more and more militarized and capable.

 

O, and I must say, I really got a Wing Commander IV feeling when watching it. Similar story in many ways.

 

Marcus didn't know.

But you should still see the movie again. I will, on Sunday

 

I actually thought maybe Marcus' plan was to send the torpedoes to Kronos and cause havoc on the Klingon homeworld.

But that didn't work out! Especially since they did appear to be highly volatile.

 

I don't really remember, but I think Kirk told him, yes.
But I also don't think the revelation that Khan tried to get himself and his people out of Marcus' grasp came as much of a shock to the good admiral.

 

Super spoilers, obviously:



That's one thought that I had but forgot about. They could create quite a lot of destruction, though they very well may have just jacked the closest vessel and got out of there; it doesn't seem like "he" cared about the Federation other than wanting to get back at intelligence.

Marcus would have known that Khan would be coming back to some extent, and giving him all of his buddies would increase the threat he poses by...a hell of a lot.

I think Marcus really thought Kirk would follow orders now and launch without hesitation (Pike and leading up to it all). Said missiles' original payload very well may have been quite destructive. Knocking out the Klingons' homeworld in addition to Khan would be a win-win.

 

Yeah, he probably underestimated Kirk. I think it was Marcus who allowed him to take him as first officer and then gave him his command back, presumably cause he thought Kirk would kill Khan and fire ze missiles without hesitation.

Is it possible that Marcus/S31/whoever made the missiles around them as blackmail?

 

Didn't Khan say at one point that he put them in the torpedoes, or am I remembering stuff I think I remember?

The more I think about the torpedoes the more puzzled I get. I have to see the movie again.

I don't think Khan would have crashed the Vengeance if he had know about his people (I think he tried to take the Enterprise out with that manoeuvre too).

 

Or maybe, Marcus saw it as a way to get rid of a problem. It would be unlikely that the occupants would survive the impact, and hopefully you take out Kahn at the same time.

 

That's kinda my thought, but then Khan's plan was kinda silly. Did he expect Starfleet to try track him and arrest him? If Kirk had just fired ze missiles at Kronos then Khan would probably be toast. But then Khan's plan makes sense again...because there is no way he could've expected that!

But if Khan put them in the missiles, then what his end plan? Carol seemed interested in the missiles to the point she got on to the Enterprise and said it was because of her father rather than anyone else.

I dunno. I can sorta make sense of it in my head, it could be either.

 

It doesn't seem like there was much in the way of a warhead though (didn't do much when they did detonate), and it seemed like they didn't have an exact fix on Khan, rather just an "area" to bombard. Khan's beaming location was verified, and it was time-sensitive for how long he would be in that area, so they'd saturate said area with warp capable missiles outside of threat space, most likely killing Khan in the process.

For that you'd need more explosive power than what was show later on. Khan could have replaced the warheads with people. That ring-sized explosive would be quite potent when increased in size, say about human-sized. That'd be more in line with saturating an area.