Due to tech problems, this's a continuation of my previous post. Sorry about any rules violations; I'm just trying to get all my text uploaded.
fireproof78 said:
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Also, aside from cartography (which is more a matter of speed of plot to me) what other aspects of continuity is Abrams' Trek ignoring?
Me:
Star Trek (2009) mistakes
- I disagree with the time travel model the movie uses (at least the model that the filmmakers have said it uses). The official explanation is that all time travel is controlled by Hugh Everett's "many worlds" theory. The theory, as applied to science fiction, is that when ever a time traveler time travels, his actions generate a new timeline which branches off from the old one. So, for all practical purposes, the traveler always ends up in the past or future of a different parallel universe, while their own carries on without them. Such an interpretation would explain how the alternate reality movies can coexist with mainstream
Star Trek, but the many worlds model isn't how time travel works in the
Star Trek universe. For example, episodes like "The City on the Edge of Forever" [TOS] and "Yesterday's Enterprise" [TNG] show that
Star Trek time travel doesn't create parallel universes (if that were so, then history wouldn't have been changed around the characters as it did).
Unfortunately, that means that the movie's altered timeline overwrites the original one. Although stories were whole sections of the timeline (usually the far future) are erased ("Timeless" [VOY] and "Twilight" [ENT] are two of my favorites), the idea that most of
Star Trek never "really" happened is not a very encouraging thought.
But, given that much of the
Star Trek multiverse is made of different quantum realities created when there is more than one possible outcome of events, at which point the universe in question diverges ("Parallels" [TNG]), it's a reasonable assumption that the two
Star Trek timelines coexist through this principle; Nero and Spock's trip through the red matter black hole was the event with more than one outcome; it created a universe where they were thrown back in time, which was the alternate realty; and another where they didn't, which was the continuation of the original timeline.This model would follow the filmmaker's intentions of creating a new
Star Trek continuity that ran parallel to the original but still follow the series' general rules of time travel.
In fact, in the Vulcan school scene, a student can be heard reciting the following Q and A: “What is the central assumption of Quantum Cosmology? Everything that can happen does happen in equal and parallel universes." Although that comment hard to reconcile with the fact that quantum theory was theoretical until the timeframe of "Parallels," it's some canon evidence for my theory, or at the very least of the coexistence of mainstream and J.J. Abrams
Star Trek minus the many worlds theory.
- The officers assigned to the
Kelvin are wearing an
Enterprise-style insignia despite the fact that in 2233 each starship had its own insignia, not to mention that the uniforms existed
before time timeline change. (I suspect the costuming department wanted an obvious Starfleet insignia to avoid confusing new fans, and we're supposed to assume that Starfleet had redesigned and reassigned the
Kelvin insignia to the
Enterprise in the prime universe.)
A variation of the problem has the characters during the main part of the movie wearing a version of the TV show uniform in a timeframe when the turtlenecked uniforms from "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before" [TOS] were in use. (Apparently Starfleet apparel was some how influenced by the
Kelvin's encounter with Nero.)
- Circumstantial evidence from ENT, "The Cage," and "Obsession" (TOS) strongly suggest that the
Kelvin should have had either phase cannons or lasers instead of phasers.
- When George Kirk pilots the
Kelvin into the
Narada at impulse, the ship is clearly being propelled by the warp nacelle. Not only is that impossible, since the
Kelvin is clearly not going at warp speed, but the warp drive was disabled by the
Narada's first salvo, anyway!
- In the
Kobayashi Maru scene, McCoy says the simulated Klingon ships are Klingon Warbirds (a ship mentioned but not seen in "Broken Bow" [ENT]), while the bridge's windows shows
K't'tinga-class battle cruisers.
- If the
Narada’s arrival in 2233 created a parallel universe, then Spock’s arrival in 2258 also created a parallel universe, meaning that the latter half of the movie is set in a completely different reality. The movie basically ignores its own time travel rules (that may or may not even be correct to the franchise in the first place).
- One of the biggest plot holes in the movie is where Kirk explains to Pike that, according to the evidence in Pike's dissertation on the attack on the
Kelvin from the movie's prologue, the Romulan ship that attacked the Klingons offscreen was the same ship that destroyed the
Kelvin (and is currently attacking Vulcan). However, they could not have realized that the
Narada was a Romulan ship since that would have been their first encounter with them. "Balance of Terror" (TOS) makes it very clear that the Federation had no idea who the Romulans are and "The Enterprise Incident" (TOS) notes that Vulcan and Romulan biosigns are so much alike that the
Kelvin survivors should have thought that they were attacked by rogue Vulcans, or at least Vulcanoids, which they would not have connected to the Romulans.
Also, Uhura's claims to know all three Roman dialects is not very likely, given how little the Federation learned about the Romulans over three centuries ("The Defector" [TNG],
Nemesis). A related linguistic problem; the suggestion that Romulan is easily mistaken for Vulcan is disproved by "Minefield" (ENT), where Sato (who is Uhura's better at linguistics) doesn't notice this.
(It's possible that the Federation learned more about the Romulans after 2233 in this timeline, but that should have been explained. The non-canon novelization by Alan Dean Foster – based on older drafts of the script – has the Federation know about the Romulans since before the movie began, in direct violation of "Balance of Terror," so it seems that the movie was written under a faulty premise.)
- "Delta Vega" is used as the name for a planetoid in Vulcan's star system despite the fact that Delta Vega was an aired planet located near the edge of the galaxy, as seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" (TOS). (The name was reused as inside-joke for Trekkies [
Memory Alpha]. Presumably, the Delta Vega featured in this movie was named after the original one, vice versa, or was named after the creation of the alternate reality. Although it can be explained logically, I hate this oddity.)
- Chekov says he's seventeen years old during the movie (as of 2258), meaning that he was born in 2241. However, in "Who Mourns For Adonais?" (TOS), Chekov says that he was twenty-two (as of 2267), which would mean that he was born in 2245! That strongly suggests that the new Chekov is in fact a different person with the same name, which would explain his radically different appearance and why he's suddenly a "whiz kid.”
However, Chekov being a teenage commissioned Starlet officer doesn’t mesh with how the situation was handled for fellow wiz kid Wesly Crusher on TNG, who was only an acting ensign until he was old enough to qualify for the Academy.
- Scotty and Kirk could not have beamed from Delta Vega to the
Enterprise, even with the transwarp beaming formula (which refers to beaming over to another ship while in warp, not the advanced transwarp drive propulsion from
Star Trek III onwards). First of all, the distance was roughly sixteen lightyears ("Home" [ENT]), which is out of range of the movie's era transporters
and the transporters of Ambassador Spock's era. And even if we granted that extensive range, they couldn't have beamed through the
Enterprise's shields.
- Spock convinces Kirk to bring him with to the mission on the
Narada by stating that he’ll be useful since Romulans and Vulcans have cultural similarities. This incorrectly assumes that the Federation is very knowledgable about the Romulans, when in fact this is their second face-to-face encounter and the first one was where they have learned what the Romulans looked like. "Balance of Terror" (TOS) is explicit that the Federation learned almost nothing about the Romulans during their war. Spock, therefore, has no reason to believe that the Romulans have a similar culture to the Vulcans. In fact, multiple
Star Trek episodes prove that that is not the case.
- Kirk's promotion from cadet to captain and assignment to Starfleet's flagship still doesn’t make any sense to me in regards to what we know about Starfleet from the rest of the franchise, but that’s been discussed to death already.
Into Darkness mistakes
- The movie starts with the
Enterprise crew breaking the Prime Directive by not only letting the Nibiru population see their starship, but also by stopping the volcano from erupting. Now, throughout
Star Trek, it varies if comparable situation to the latter are considered violations of the Prime Directive or not, but Pike and Starfleet clearly considered to be so in this case. This fits with a 24th century version of it, but not a 23rd century one ("A Taste of Armageddon" [TOS], "Flashback" [VGR]).
(Also, Pike's dressing down of them -- and indeed, the whole point of those scenes -- works since Spock is completely inflexible to violating the Prime Directive under any circumstances. The problem is, in that case, he would
not have helped defuse the volcano in the first place!)
- Khan's usage of Scotty's confiscated transwarp beaming formula to transport himself from Earth to Qo'noS is impossible. In
Star Trek (2009), Scotty said that the formula would allow beaming to planets in adjacent solar systems, which Earth and Qo'noS are not in. Also, if the formula worked as presented in the movie, then starships are practically obsolete except for specific circumstances.
- Marcus's plan to eliminate Khan depends on Qo'noS being located precisely on the edge of their border with the Federation, which wouldn't be the case, given the Klingon's imperialism due to a resource-poor homeworld (“Day of the Dove" [TOS]), and confirmed in the extended versions of
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
- As her cover, Carol Marcus passes herself off as a science officer (probably an in-joke reference to her original career in
Star Trek II), therefore wearing a blue uniform. However, she was, in fact, a weapons expert. As such, when she was assigned to the
Enterprise for real at the end of the movie, she should have been wearing a red uniform.
- Scotty's warning that firing a missile of unknown properties could cause problems and destroy the ship does not make sense in comparison to all the other
Star Trek stories I've seen, although I will grant that I can't cite a specific source to prove it. Also, why is the chief engineer, not the tactical officer, signing for them anyways? And, when Scotty resigns, Kirk's decision to give Chekov the job is very wrong. The assistant chief engineer, or the highest ranking engineering officer would be promoted.
- When examining the Augments in the torpedos, McCoy notes that the stasis tubes they're in are "ancient." That implication, that the Augments are in the original tubes that they were frozen in when they left Earth back in 1996, is reinforced by Khan's claim that he was the only one thawed out by Section 31. Unfortunately, the
Botany Bay's stasis chambers were shelves built into the wall, not free-standing units ("Space Seed" [TOS]), and, as their freezing predates the timeline divergence, this is the same in this movie. It's possible that the Augment "popsicles" were moved to different portable units by Khan or Section 31during their brief collaboration, but that would conflict with the fact that the tubes were ancient (and why didn't Khan let his people thaw out and collaborate on their escape together?).
One explanation would be that the
Botany Bay had extra stasis tubes in storage, but that raises the question why the crew would pack extra units that would be unnecessary after they reached whatever destination they originally had in mind.
(A related gaffe is that McCoy notes that cryogenic freezing was common before warp drive, which is not only a little at odds with facts from "The Neutral Zone" [TNG] and "11:59" [VOY], but also with the fact that sleeper ships were rendered obsolete decades before warp drive was invented ["Space Seed,"
First Contact]. The
Star Trek Chronology states that the advance was in sublight propulsion.)
- The movie asserts that Section 31 found Khan, got him to work for them, designed the new torpedoes and the
Vengeance, and actually built that monstrosity all within the year between
Into Darkness and
Star Trek (2009). The latter detail is hard to believe;
Enterprise NX-01 took years to build ("First Flight" [ENT]) and the alternate reality
Enterprise was built in more than three (in
Star Trek [2009], we see the mostly complete ship under construction three years before it was launched). And those ships were substantially smaller than the
Vengeance. There's no way that the
Vengeance could have been built in such a short amount of time (and remember that there were no replicators in the twenty-third century ["Flashback" (VOY)]). I would also love to know how Section 31 keep their shipyard near Jupiter secret from whatever version of Jupiter Station (from Silent Enemy" [ENT], "Doctor Bashir, I Presume" [DS9], “Life Line” [VGR], et al) was active at the time.
- Khan's repeated comparison of his followers to his family doesn't really mesh up with the original Khan, who, while generally taking their well-being into consideration (and even respecting the one in
Wrath of Khan who kept naysaying the whole revenge business out of loyalty), nevertheless considered them subjects who had sword to live and die by his orders.
- When Khan demands that Spock beams his popsicle crew to the
Vengeance, the Augment comments that he and the crew will "Continue the work we were doing before [they] were banished." Spock retorts: "Which, as I would understand it, involves the mass genocide of any being you find to be less than superior." The writers of the movie clearly didn't understand the Khan character, since Spock's statement flies in the face of what "Space Seed" (TOS) established about Khan's "work" on 20th century Earth (my emphasis):
Scotty: "I must confess, gentlemen. I've always held a sneaking admiration for this one."
Kirk: "He was the best of the tyrants and the most dangerous. They were supermen, in a sense. Stronger, braver, certainly more ambitious, more daring."
Spock: "Gentlemen, this romanticism about a ruthless dictator is..."
Kirk: "Mister Spock, we humans have a streak of barbarism in us. Appalling, but there, nevertheless."
Scotty: "There were no massacres under his rule."
Spock: "And as little freedom."
McCoy: "No wars until he was attacked."
Spock: "Gentlemen."
Kirk: "Mister Spock, you misunderstand us. We can be against him and admire him all at the same time."
So, was Kahn a dictator with many crimes to his name who needed to be brought to justice? Yes. Was he campaigning the mass genocide of any being he found to be less than superior? No.
- When bargaining with Spock for his frozen crew, Khan warns him that if Spock doesn't cooperate, he'll "target [their] life support systems located behind the
aft nacelle…" (my emphasis). The
Enterprise has
two nacelles and both are located aft, so Khan's speech is meaningless. I'm not even sure if life support is located there, anyway, given that the aft of the
Enterprise is where the shuttlebay is located.
- Scotty's complaint that everything’s a mess after he’s gone one day would appear to indicate that the
Enterprise went to Qo'noS from Earth, waited around, and was chased back to Earth again by the
Vengeance all within twenty-four hours. Bear in mind that it took
Enterprise NX-01
four days to go from Earth to Qo'noS without any detours, which is considered to be too little travel time as it is (see the entry on "Broken Bow" [ENT]). Granted, that was a century ago and alternate reality Starfleet may have far more advanced warp technology than its prime universe counterpart, but there's still no way that the entire mission to capture Khan and subsequent conflict with the
Vengeance took place in a single day; there's far too much happening (there's also the problem of why the Klingons didn't find the
Enterprise during the period of time it was stuck near their borders, but that's another story).
- During the climax, where Spock persues Khan through San Francisco, the idea that they can't beam up Khan because he's on the move conflicts with the fact that the
Vengeance was able to beam Carol Marcus off the
Enterprise even when she moved. Even more glaringly, in
Star Trek (2009), Kirk and Sulu were beamed up in the middle of a free-fall and were moving much faster than Khan was. Finally, if they couldn't beam Khan up, they shouldn't have been able to beam Uhura onto the
flying craft where the fight was (and if they could, they should have just beamed Khan back into his cell via a site-to-site transport).
- Whenever the
Enterprise is seen in subspace, it looks like it's traveling through an energy tunnel. That visual is inconsistent with everything we known about subspace and warp travel from every other piece of non-J.J. Abrams-made
Star Trek (I strongly suspect that Abrams' rather foolishly aped the hyperspace effect from
Star Wars, not realizing that the tunnel effect means slipstream drive – from "Hope and Fear" and "Timeless" [VOY] – or transwarp drive conduits – from "Descent, Parts I and II" [TNG], et al. – both of which are way beyond twenty-third century Federation science).
Even worse, whenever the
Enterprise jumps to warp, we see it streaking away with no tunnel effect, thus making the movie inconstant with itself and the (already-incorrect) warp effect from
Star Trek (2009)! (Also Kirk would know better than to think that the
Vengeance couldn't catch up to them while they were at warp; that's
Star Wars-style thinking again.)
- When Kirk ends his speech by talking about the captain's oath, he concludes with: "And now those words [of the Oath]," but the next lines are a modified version of the "Space the Final Frontier" monologue from TOS,
not an oath.
(Some fans my counter-argue that the monologue is the oath, since "Equinox, Part I" [VOY] mentions that the captain's oath includes promising to "seek out new life" – a part of the monologue – but I'll remind you that the monologue makes no sense as an oath. Anyways, aside from circumstantial evidence in "Broken Bow" (ENT), there's no evidence that the monologue actually exists as a real speech in the
Star Trek universe; it may be purely non-diegetic.)
- Before setting off on their five year mission, Spock notes that no other starship has gone on so long a mission. That statement is in error, since not only were mission of that length common enough in this time frame (per background material in the
Star Trek Chronology), but
Enterprise NX-01 was in space for
ten years ("These Are the Voyages…" [ENT]), albeit over at least two missions with a refit in-between ("The Expanse" [ENT]).
