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Should Spock Prime Spill His Guts?

slappy

Commodore
Commodore
I was thinking, it wouldn't be illogical (no pun intended) for Spock Prime to go to Starfleet and just start telling them everything he knows about his timeline. The universe has already been altered in such a fundamental way that there's no reason to try and avoid it. Also, that's the easiest way to get everyone to immediately trust him. Once the location of the Doomsday Machine, Botany Bay and Guardian of Forever are confirmed to be true, who's gonna doubt him? Nobody, that's who.
 
Given his actions in (2009), I don't see that happening. He avoided directly going to speak to NuSpock about how Kirk would be important to him. Yes, he handed Scotty his own theory for Warp-beaming. But, that was act simply to get Kirk and Scotty where they needed to be. It was simply logically required to get them to the Enterprise.

Beyond that, his plan was to hide out on some new Vulcan colony probably as some semi-anomymous wise council to the Vulcan leadership.

It might be logical to fast-forward the Federation to all the correct answers, but it wouldn't be right.
 
If this new universe/timeline came into being because of changes made in the past maybe it would be safe to let this new universe unfold as it does without trying to tinker with it? So maybe Spock should not spill the beans.

I think there are arguments for both sides.
 
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Only the parts of what went on in the prime universe relevant to the story of Nero and what led to the eventual destruction of Vulcan. I think it's only proper that the full story of that event is told. The historical record and the Vulcan people deserve this to have been well-documented. The rest he should be tight-lipped about. This universe will take care of itself very well without him.

I'm wondering if Nimoy's participation in this movie was done to address this topic. Spock Prime is the 900 pound canary in the room. His knowledge and what could be done with it can't be ignored. He undoubtedly has answers to problems and invaluable advice to give about common conflicts.
Maybe Spock approaches him in desperation at some point to get information to save Kirk's life, thinking Spock Prime would certainly help because he would not want to see Kirk die. They discuss the merits of Spock Prime giving advice, and Spock Prime convinces Spock that he must be on his own to solve the problem.
Or something like that.
 
Besides the fuglyness of the new Enterprise this is the one hangup I have left with the Nuverse. It's really starting to bug me like no plothole or character flaw ever has before. Every time it comes up a kind of glazing over or ridicule of it causes it to quickly go away with little real substance ever being given to the subject.

Hearing Spock explain exactly why he should not spill his guts may help me get over this issue but, simply repeating his statement to Valeris, ("the Universe will unfold as it should") isn't good enough. It's been established by Spocks own word that Universe ending paradox's are fundamentally impossible in this timeline so why the beef with sharing potentially life saving information???

The only valid reason I can see for doing so is, Spock telling all eliminates opportunity to revisit/rehash TOS story-lines, as the recent AICN spoilers suggest is what we're getting.
 
What's to say Spock won't use his knowledge to subtly guide and influence aspects of the new universe for the better. Quietly, behind the scenes...
 
That's actually very good, Relayer1. :) At least with that we get a sense of Spock putting his knowledge to good use over just sitting back mutely watching people die in situations he may have provided some assistance. Even if his shared intelligence doesn't achieve a desired effect at least he tried.
 
So there's still threats on their way to Earth, such as V'Ger and the whale probe. That presumably didn't change when the timeline changed. Does anyone honestly think that Spock Prime wouldn't give the information he knows about them to Starfleet, knowing that things could work out differently and those threats could indeed destroy the Earth?

Of course, in real life, I doubt those things will be touched on at all in the new films. And it's not like I really care about them anyway.
 
So there's still threats on their way to Earth, such as V'Ger and the whale probe. That presumably didn't change when the timeline changed. Does anyone honestly think that Spock Prime wouldn't give the information he knows about them to Starfleet, knowing that things could work out differently and those threats could indeed destroy the Earth?

Of course, in real life, I doubt those things will be touched on at all in the new films. And it's not like I really care about them anyway.

There's some ideas for comics / novels !
 
Yeah he should. This isn't his timeline, so he isn't interfering with the natural evolution of anything. Maybe there's a Doomsday Machine on the way to gobble up the Federation. Maybe not. Might as well just clue Starfleet in to "go check over there for a big, white, coney looking thing." If they don't find anything, no harm done.

Hmm, this raises an interesting possibility in light of certain casting spoilers which I will code...

What if Spock Prime hears that the Botany Bay has been intercepted and tells Starfleet, "Khan is on board. He'll try to tell you he's changed, but he hasn't. Lock him up immediately." But this time around - he wouldn't have caused any trouble if Spock hadn't opened his big fat yap about it?
 
I was thinking, it wouldn't be illogical (no pun intended) for Spock Prime to go to Starfleet and just start telling them everything he knows about his timeline. The universe has already been altered in such a fundamental way that there's no reason to try and avoid it.

What I'm wondering is why Spock, who used the "slingshot-around-the-sun" maneuver to go back in time and save Earth in ST:IV, doesn't do the same thing to save Vulcan?
 
Yeah he should. This isn't his timeline, so he isn't interfering with the natural evolution of anything.

I agree. If the NuTrek universe is really an alternate universe, then why the need for secrets or discretion? What would be the point of a lifetime of experiences and lessons learned, if not to share it and enrich the world (galaxy)?

Of course, claiming that the NuTrek universe is an 'alternate' or 'branch' universe goes against every previous example in Trek, from 'City on the Edge of Forever' to 'Yesterday's Enterprise' to 'Time's Arrow' to 'All Good Things', which all pretty clearly depict time travel as altering the current timeline, not creating a new one. In that case, Spock should be attempting to travel back in time to prevent Nero's interference in order to 'set things straight' (as our protagonists did in COTEF).

It's about as well thought-out as anything else in NuTrek, which is to say... it isn't.
 
What I'm wondering is why Spock, who used the "slingshot-around-the-sun" maneuver to go back in time and save Earth in ST:IV, doesn't do the same thing to save Vulcan?

Because the movie was made for humans, and Earth is protected by the power of Plot Armor. Vulcan didn't get so lucky.
 
So there's still threats on their way to Earth, such as V'Ger and the whale probe. That presumably didn't change when the timeline changed. Does anyone honestly think that Spock Prime wouldn't give the information he knows about them to Starfleet, knowing that things could work out differently and those threats could indeed destroy the Earth?

Of course, in real life, I doubt those things will be touched on at all in the new films. And it's not like I really care about them anyway.

There's some ideas for comics / novels !
A novel was written, called "The Hazard of Concealing", which dealt specifically with Spock Prime's future knowledge. Unfortunately, a dispute between Bad Robot and Pocket Books saw the novel (due Summer 2010) cancelled.:(

When the elder Spock surfaces from the future, will he be able to escape a sinister plan wrought by the enemies of the Federation, or will their quest to exploit Spock’s knowledge succeed, with disastrous consequences?
 
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