or is he? I don't read much of the surrounding non-screen materials of the Abramsverse, so I don't know what's supposed to have happened with nuSarek between Star Trek XI and STID. It seems like every other character who had a decent-sized role in the previous movie and didn't die came back in STID except Sarek. So Spock Prime is off on the New Vulcan colony. Is Sarek there? And if not, why not? Spock Prime and Sarek Prime had a troubled relationship, but that seems to not be as much the case in the Abramsverse. Wouldn't Spock Prime appreciate the opportunity to get more time with Sarek? To look on it as a second chance at a better relationship?
Who knows? Maybe he is. But that's not what this movie was about. Remember, Sarek only appeared in one episode of the original series. He's not a member of the Enterprise crew, so there's no reason to expect to see him in every movie.
I imagine that when Spock Prime got off the phone with new Spock, he turned back to his game of 3D chess with new Sarek, who muttered, "Ungrateful brat never calls me when the ship's in danger...."
no, but in this timeline they've made it an important point that there aren't that many Vulcans left, and there's a new Vulcan colony. It makes sense that Sarek would be there.
There is a deleted scene in ST09 when nuSarek encounters Spock Prime. However they don't actually meet face to face, IIRC. We don't know if they ever did meet; although since Spock Prime was so adamant about not giving his younger self any details about his future (as we saw in STID), I doubt it. Spock Prime probably uses a pseudonym.
Sarek is probably busy being a senior Vulcan representative somewhere. I'd have thought all surviving Vulcans would have given a genetic specimen to ensure the survival of the species, but not all the survivors will be on New Vulcan.
NuSarek is about 120 and OldSpock about 150. Would you really wanna "hang out" with your younger father from an alternate timeline?
What gets me is in the last movie it is Spock prime who tells his younger self that he has located a planet suitable for Vulcans. How did Spock prime become that important in such little time to determine which planet for them to relocate to? If he did then surely Sarek is well aware of him by this time. The Enterprise crew sure is as seen in this movie. If not then new Spock should have got Uhura to patch the communication between him and Spock prime in his quarters or some private location near the bridge so nobody would know there were two of them.
Yes, there wasn't really anything for Sarek to do in this film, but I would love to see Ben Cross reprise the role again, too.
I don't think it takes much time to go over Federation data on uninhabited Minshara class planets and Spock meddling with politics, well, this is what he has done the last years on Romulus so it is hardly surprising that he continues his activities instead of simply doing nothing.
As a half-Vulcan from an alternate timeline, Spock Prime had a hard time convincing the Vulcan survivors to follow him, but he won them over with song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGF5ROpjRAU