1. The Excelsior is "headed home under full impulse power?" This seems weird given that it would likely take hundreds of years for the starship to return to Earth from out near the Klingon Empire. Maybe "home" for the Excelsior is a nearby starbase, and not Earth Spacedock....?
Agreed with this point - but if the ship had been at warp, then the shockwave would not have hit - so 'plot armour'. Maybe they were just rebalancing the warp core or some such thing, we can hand wave that away?
2. In a similar fashion, the Enterprise never seems to go to Warp to get to the Kronos One rendezvous, and they do not use Warp drive during their escort journey to the peace conference on Earth. I guess the Enterprise could have warped to a certain sector, and then throttled down to impulse to await the Chancellor's arrival, but the two ships being on impulse going to Earth makes no sense.
I guessed they were proceeding at impulse to allow for the formal dinner and to allow for an arrival at Khitomer at the correct time - when everything was ready. It was all rushed.
3. I don't really understand how the advanced sensors of the Enterprise (and presumably Kronos One) don't see a photon torpedo being fired from a cloaked position below the Enterprise. Even with today's technology, I'd think that would be a very easy thing to prove out. Also, no sensors or forensic analysis could show that the Enterprise torpedo bay had not launched torpedoes?
Valeris was in on it and likely had easy access to all the necessary systems to alter logs etc...Ultimately, in the confusion of the event itself, it appeared that Enterprise fired. I guess they could have had a scene where they analysed the trajectory using some sensor logs. But in real life, submarine torpedoes are very hard to detect now, let alone trace to an origin point. Maybe the photon torpedoe is similarly hard to detect.
4. We've repeatedly seen that the transporter keeps logs and patterns of everyone who goes through it. Would it not have been a very simple matter to see that Burke and Samno were the assassins? Maybe they "erased" the data, similar to altering the torpedo inventory databanks?
Valeris was in on it and likely had easy access to all the necessary systems to alter logs. It must have been well planned with help from Starfleet officers - I mean the BOP must have been carrying Federation torpedoes for a start.
5. I actually get very confused about Valeris going to sickbay to murder Burke and Samno. Why would the entire sickbay facility be dark and unstaffed, especially if there are two critical patients in there? Even so, would Valeris not want to scan the room before going in there with a drawn phaser to kill two crewmen to ensure there was nobody that would witness her?
I know she's a Vulcan, but maybe she just acted it out in the moment and did not stop to consider things. In her rush to cover up. Valeris could have scanned the room and she would have detected two people.
6. The Khitomer Peace Conference seems to have absolutely no security. No vessels in orbit from either government (although supposedly all of the delegates arrived somehow)? No internal security watching obvious vantage points for snipers? The Klingon dude / Colonel West somehow gets into the building holding a briefcase that contains a sniper rifle? It all seems very loose for such a tense and critical situation.
Someone managed to take a shot at Trump, despite security. Maybe the conference is held in an isolated area and guests are screened? As for no other ships in orbit, this is a problem with newer Star Trek shows. In TOS and in the movies, we see far fewer ships than in later shows. In TMP, Enterprise is the only ship in range of earth.
7. The Morska listening post sensors can't tell the difference between a Constitution-class Federation starship and a freighter? I'd think even today's tech is better than that. Maybe the Klingons were just too drunk?
This is surely a parallel to Soviet Russia, with it's outdated technology and unmotivated officers? and crumbling infrastructure.
