Oh come on Spock, it sucks! Big Deal. (SPOILERS)

Especially since Khan was going back to his pre-exile plan which Spock pointed out was basically exterminating anyone Khan and his followers saw as inferior.

 

Yes saving the Earth a couple of years ago and stopping the plans of a war-mongering Admiral doesn't seems much.
Perhaps ships should be given to more of the people who sat on their hands while Nero attacked or let Marcus operate unhindered. Perhaps people who are good at paperwork or would watch planets getting destroyed should be captains.

 

So Kirk's apparent recklessness/idiocy is redeemed by the incompetencies/non-actions of his peers?

 

Does anyone here not remember what happened on Ba'Ku in ST Insurrection? Well, its more or less the same thing. They can't allow the inhabitants of the planet to see them or else it will no doubt interfere with their history or their beliefs. In Insurrection, all of their beliefs sort of went down the drain when they saw Cmdr Data decloak right in front of them in all his android glory...

So anyway, Kirk clearly said "They saw us, big deal." Not "it sucks, big deal."... LOL

 

The best of a bad bunch?

What is Kirk's idiocy in STID? He didn't get Spock to fill in his paperwork correctly is the biggest mistake I saw.
In the land of TOS the PD was only exercised on planets that weren't of strategic importance and didn't have medicines or dilithium that the Federation wanted. In TOS the Enterprise was sent to save Miramanee's planet.

Maybe accepting the 1st Officer position on the Enterprise under Pike - if he hadn't stopped Khan at the meeting they would all be dead - and he would be in charge :he he he he evil cackle:

People are blaming Kirk for 'The Vengeance' plowing into SanFran. Are you kidding?