Why Did The Enterprise Hide In The Ocean?

[TRON JA307020]

This may have been talked about before but I have only been here a short while. At the beginning of the movie the enterprise is hidden in the water to supposedly hide from the aliens. But when they need to save Spock the Enterprise looms put of the water right in view of the aliens. Wouldn't it have been better to orbit the planet? The aliens would at most seen just a small dot or shape on the horizon. Hiding the ship in the water brought the ship to close to prying eyes. I have only seen the movie once so I don't remember if they explained this in the movie. Anyone know or have a explanation?

 

[RandyS]

Real World answer" The effect of seeing the ship rise out of the ocean was "cool".

No other reason I can think of.

Personally, I thought that was the most moronic part of the film, and for all the reasons you mention.

 

[TRON JA307020]

Real World answer" The effect of seeing the ship rise out of the ocean was "cool".

No other reason I can think of.

Personally, I thought that was the most moronic part of the film, and for all the reasons you mention.

Dang I was hoping there was some reason.

Uh maybe there was some kind of weird magnifying field that surrounded the planets orbit that made the enterprise look 10 times bigger if it would have orbited the planet? Yeah yeah that's the ticket.

 

[fireproof78]

I would imagine that they wanted more line of sight monitoring of the tectonic activity that would be producing the volcanic explosion. Such plate tectonics could be observed more closely under the ocean, where you might see the movement prior to the eruption.

In addition, you can avoid the transporter problem of being seen beaming in, even when you are certain no one is around. Observation teams can swim ashore and observe without worrying about the transporter effect being seen or heard.

I'll not pretend that the rule of cool applies in this instance, but I'm also not bothered by it.

 

[TRON JA307020]

I would imagine that they wanted more line of sight monitoring of the tectonic activity that would be producing the volcanic explosion. Such plate tectonics could be observed more closely under the ocean, where you might see the movement prior to the eruption.

In addition, you can avoid the transporter problem of being seen beaming in, even when you are certain no one is around. Observation teams can swim ashore and observe without worrying about the transporter effect being seen or heard.

I'll not pretend that the rule of cool applies in this instance, but I'm also not bothered by it.

Maybe the scanners on this enterprise are a sophisticated but I would assume the scanners could monitor the volcanic explosions and plate tectonics. The scanners could also be used to monitor a safe time to beam someone down. When Kirk and McCoy are running from there seem to be lots of hidden places to beam a team down to .

 

[RandyS]

I would imagine that they wanted more line of sight monitoring of the tectonic activity that would be producing the volcanic explosion. Such plate tectonics could be observed more closely under the ocean, where you might see the movement prior to the eruption.

In addition, you can avoid the transporter problem of being seen beaming in, even when you are certain no one is around. Observation teams can swim ashore and observe without worrying about the transporter effect being seen or heard.

I'll not pretend that the rule of cool applies in this instance, but I'm also not bothered by it.

I'm not actually bothered by it either, even if I thought it was dumb. I just can't think of another explanation. It's not like the Nibu had telescopes after all. The Enterprise could have just stayed in orbit. There was no reason to hide it in the ocean.

 

[Nebusj]

Anyone know or have a explanation?

There's not one explicitly given in the movie. We are left to conclude that --- somehow, impossible as it may sound --- something about the nature of the planet would make transporter operations from orbit difficult or impossible. (I know, I know, transporter being flaky? But bear with me.) And shuttle operations near the volcano were clearly marginal; even the short run from the ocean to the volcano stressed the shuttle to the point of collapse.

So we are left to suppose that, I assume, magnetic ash from the super-volcano made it impossible to work safely from orbit, and therefore, it had to be done from the ground. In which case hiding under water is probably as good as could be done.

(We might wonder why not do it at night; the simplest resolution seems to be that the planet didn't have the twelve hours to wait.)

 

[TRON JA307020]

Anyone know or have a explanation?

There's not one explicitly given in the movie. We are left to conclude that --- somehow, impossible as it may sound --- something about the nature of the planet would make transporter operations from orbit difficult or impossible. (I know, I know, transporter being flaky? But bear with me.) And shuttle operations near the volcano were clearly marginal; even the short run from the ocean to the volcano stressed the shuttle to the point of collapse.

So we are left to suppose that, I assume, magnetic ash from the super-volcano made it impossible to work safely from orbit, and therefore, it had to be done from the ground. In which case hiding under water is probably as good as could be done.

(We might wonder why not do it at night; the simplest resolution seems to be that the planet didn't have the twelve hours to wait.)

That's a pretty decent explanation. I would buy that one. I wish the writers would of thought of something like that to explain why the big E was hidden in the water.

 

[fireproof78]

I would imagine that they wanted more line of sight monitoring of the tectonic activity that would be producing the volcanic explosion. Such plate tectonics could be observed more closely under the ocean, where you might see the movement prior to the eruption.

In addition, you can avoid the transporter problem of being seen beaming in, even when you are certain no one is around. Observation teams can swim ashore and observe without worrying about the transporter effect being seen or heard.

I'll not pretend that the rule of cool applies in this instance, but I'm also not bothered by it.

Maybe the scanners on this enterprise are a sophisticated but I would assume the scanners could monitor the volcanic explosions and plate tectonics. The scanners could also be used to monitor a safe time to beam someone down. When Kirk and McCoy are running from there seem to be lots of hidden places to beam a team down to .

But, you have no control of who will see what when you beam down. In the new movies, there is a definite limitation to the transporters as far as functionality (line of sight, holding still, etc.). Which, to be honest, is about as common as the other series having the transporter breaking every other episode.

I would imagine that they wanted more line of sight monitoring of the tectonic activity that would be producing the volcanic explosion. Such plate tectonics could be observed more closely under the ocean, where you might see the movement prior to the eruption.

In addition, you can avoid the transporter problem of being seen beaming in, even when you are certain no one is around. Observation teams can swim ashore and observe without worrying about the transporter effect being seen or heard.

I'll not pretend that the rule of cool applies in this instance, but I'm also not bothered by it.

I'm not actually bothered by it either, even if I thought it was dumb. I just can't think of another explanation. It's not like the Nibu had telescopes after all. The Enterprise could have just stayed in orbit. There was no reason to hide it in the ocean.

Another reason that I can think of is the possibility that the atmosphere would limit tectonic observation.

A simple line of dialogue would actually have helped this matter.

"You realize how ridiculous this is?"

"If the Nibiru's atmosphere allowed our sensors to scan more accurately, it wouldn't be necessary."

"It's still ridiculous. Think about the hull!"

 

[Nerys Myk]

It's the cadet to captain of STID, of course its been discussed before. And like cadet to captain, I can't explain it in universe.

Sometimes you just have to let art flow over you,

 

[Tosk]

They literally could have dropped their stupid cold-bomb into the volcano from high above it and no one would have been the wiser. Problem solved.

 

[wulfio]

Real World answer" The effect of seeing the ship rise out of the ocean was "cool".

No other reason I can think of.

Personally, I thought that was the most moronic part of the film, and for all the reasons you mention.

also the shot of kirk and mccoy jumping off the cliff in to the water.

 

[Cyke101]

Real World answer" The effect of seeing the ship rise out of the ocean was "cool".

No other reason I can think of.

Personally, I thought that was the most moronic part of the film, and for all the reasons you mention.

also the shot of kirk and mccoy jumping off the cliff in to the water.

That part's easy to explain, though: it's part of the "IMAX 3D VIEWING EXPERIENCE" (tm)

 

[HIjol]

Why did the Enterprise hide in the ocean?

Why, to get to the other side, of course!

 

[Franklin]

There is no good answer, and I've always said there's not supposed to be. It was meant to be stupid and reckless, and it relied on luck to work, probably just like most of young Kirk's command style to that point (let's remember luck has always been a good friend of our captain). We're supposed to roll our eyes at it. It's like off-roading in your dad's Cadillac Escalade: fun, but irresponsible and a bit dangerous. A 35 or 45 year-old Kirk would've saved the planet too, but not that way.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Why did the Enterprise hide in the ocean?

Because the beach would be to obvious.

 

[Cyke101]

There is no good answer, and I've always said there's not supposed to be. It was meant to be stupid and reckless, and it relied on luck to work, probably just like most of young Kirk's command style to that point (let's remember luck has always been a good friend of our captain). We're supposed to roll our eyes at it. It's like off-roading in your dad's Cadillac Escalade: fun, but irresponsible and a bit dangerous. A 35 or 45 year-old Kirk would've saved the planet too, but not that way.

Your analogy reminds me of the soliton wave from TNG. The wave was traveling at warp speed and was losing control, threatening to destroy the planet at the end of its path. The plan was for the E-D to catch up to it, overcome the wave, get in front of it, and then blow it up with aft torpedoes. But instead of going over or around it, the Enterprise went *through* it, causing a fair amount of damage to the ship.

The Enterprise was clearly faster and could change course to pass it by. There was even enough time between passing up the wave and destroying it to mount a rescue mission in the ship (which needed to happen because of the damage from going through the wave in the first place). But no, Picard said to charge right through.

So it makes no other sense than because it made for good action packed TV. And frankly, I think Picard yearned for a dune buggy ride on a desert planet.

 

[Franklin]

There is no good answer, and I've always said there's not supposed to be. It was meant to be stupid and reckless, and it relied on luck to work, probably just like most of young Kirk's command style to that point (let's remember luck has always been a good friend of our captain). We're supposed to roll our eyes at it. It's like off-roading in your dad's Cadillac Escalade: fun, but irresponsible and a bit dangerous. A 35 or 45 year-old Kirk would've saved the planet too, but not that way.

Your analogy reminds me of the soliton wave from TNG. The wave was traveling at warp speed and was losing control, threatening to destroy the planet at the end of its path. The plan was for the E-D to catch up to it, overcome the wave, get in front of it, and then blow it up with aft torpedoes. But instead of going over or around it, the Enterprise went *through* it, causing a fair amount of damage to the ship.

The Enterprise was clearly faster and could change course to pass it by. There was even enough time between passing up the wave and destroying it to mount a rescue mission in the ship (which needed to happen because of the damage from going through the wave in the first place). But no, Picard said to charge right through.

So it makes no other sense than because it made for good action packed TV. And frankly, I think Picard yearned for a dune buggy ride on a desert planet.

They are cowboys, after all.

 

[Cyke101]

There is no good answer, and I've always said there's not supposed to be. It was meant to be stupid and reckless, and it relied on luck to work, probably just like most of young Kirk's command style to that point (let's remember luck has always been a good friend of our captain). We're supposed to roll our eyes at it. It's like off-roading in your dad's Cadillac Escalade: fun, but irresponsible and a bit dangerous. A 35 or 45 year-old Kirk would've saved the planet too, but not that way.

Your analogy reminds me of the soliton wave from TNG. The wave was traveling at warp speed and was losing control, threatening to destroy the planet at the end of its path. The plan was for the E-D to catch up to it, overcome the wave, get in front of it, and then blow it up with aft torpedoes. But instead of going over or around it, the Enterprise went *through* it, causing a fair amount of damage to the ship.

The Enterprise was clearly faster and could change course to pass it by. There was even enough time between passing up the wave and destroying it to mount a rescue mission in the ship (which needed to happen because of the damage from going through the wave in the first place). But no, Picard said to charge right through.

So it makes no other sense than because it made for good action packed TV. And frankly, I think Picard yearned for a dune buggy ride on a desert planet.

They are cowboys, after all.

If they're cowboys, I want them to go up against a stiff, pompous sheriff. It's time for NuStyles!

 

[Nerys Myk]

This galaxy ain't big enough for the two of us Kirk.