Whoever the villain is - why now big 'threat' to Starfleet?

If we re-call all the TOS enemies that Kirk & Crew encountered - they were all defeated within 1-2 episodes with almost no implication of complete doom for Earth/Starfleet otherwise.

A bit of team work, use of wits, blue phaser beams or even some kirk-fu subdued any threat, land or in space.

In this alternative timeline, what could possibly give the mysterious TOS era villain such chops to be a bigger threat than the future Romulan Nero posed?

And why wasn't such a villain, device, power not encountered and threatened Earth in the original TOS time line?

 

With out knowing the entire plot. Who knows what changes int he new timeline lead up to this threat.

 

This is my theory: after the events of the first movie, the villain feels that Starfleet is too weak and unprepared to face potential threats. He points to how badly Starfleet handled Nero. If it was not for the heroism of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise, Earth would have been blown to bits. As it was, the entire planet Vulcan got blown up and Starfleet lost lots of ships. So, the villain decides to force a confrontation between Starfleet and the Klingons in order to in his mind force Starfleet to take things more seriously. Hence, the line in the trailer about Earth not being safe. He attacks Earth to prove to Starfleet how vulnerable they are.

 

Who's to say what threat is to come? It is a alternate reality. We don't know. The villain in the movie is going after Nero's technological papers he wrote while at Rura Penthe. Starfleet can't risk having those papers in the Klingon's hands at their home world on Kronos.

 

Because in the prime timeline Lt. Harrison was content to do his job on the Enterprise and not cause any trouble. Obviously something is different in the Abramsverse that has turned him evil.

 

The synopsis spoke of a threat from within.
Nero destroyed several starships as if they were nothing, destroyed Vulcan and threatened Earth directly.
Maybe that caused some starfleet members (Weller and his buddies) to start asking for less exploration and peaceful missions and a move towards more aggressiveness and militarization.
Enter Cumberbatch, who is used by those factions to spread even more terror and force even those who still view starfleet as a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada to change their views.

 

Could be. Could also be an atmosphere where some hawks in Starfleet see a chance to marginalize the Klingons. After all, Nero destroyed 47 of their ships. They have to be substantially weakened.

Of course, those are more political motives than vengeful ones. But in Cumberbatch's case, they could be tied together, somehow.

Still, what's very odd is that the first words out of the mouth of this "one man weapon of mass destruction" in the movie are, "I can save her," to the father of the sick (dying?) child. That opening scene intrigues me to no end.

 

Why go after the Klingons? After all, they lost 47 ships. Even if you ignore the Ongoing comics, the Romulans have suffered precisely nothing in terms of losses from the Nero situation and has reaped great benefits in terms of having to deal with politically and militarily weakened Federation and Klingons.

 

Watch "Space Seed" followed by the Wrath of Khan.

 

Ok so if Khan gets woken up from suspended animation by a crew who has very little idea what he was all about, what exactly does Khan acquire that makes him a 'one man weapon of mass destruction'? As he wasn't so in Space Seed - even if he captured the Enterprise, which could easily be neutralised by other starfleet ships.

A one man weapon of mass destruction - that is one heck of a billing to someone who could have easily been so in the original time line.

 

Khan gets his hands on a weapon that can destroy plants. For the sake of argument lets call it the "Genesis Wave".

 

It would have to be some clever bit of writing to logically connect the actions of Nero to the rise of someone of such danger.

 

You mean like how Kruge was connected to Khan?

 

The genesis device is one single torpedo which did not exist until around 20+ years after the events of TOS.

And again, even if it isn't genesis, but some other device or superpower of great magnitude existed in the 2250's, surely this would have happened in the original time line.

 

Kruge is just a Klingon commander who wanted Genesis, if Khan never got his hands on Genesis leading to the accidental formation of a new planet, Kruge would just have gone on about doing other things - he would still be a klingon commander, he wouldn't be anymore powerful or threatening.

 

It still answers your question. TOS villain gets hold of a WMD making him more threatening than he was in TOS.

It still answers your question. Villain from movie III is connected to villain from movie II by plot device from movie II.

 

It doesn't - because that 'WMD' would have existed in the original timeline, any 'evil' character from TOS would have gotten hold of it and tried to cause trouble, the alternative time line angle is not needed to justify its existence.

Secondly, that 'WMD' is deemed to be more threatening than a 24th century romulan super ship commanded by a crazed romulan armed with red matter.

 

We've no idea what WMDs exist in either Universe. Very few WMDs have been known to our heroes until they (and we) first encounter them. The villain and the WMD can both be brand new or only one or the other can be.

Is it?

 

Because the original TOS timeline was a Cold War timeline. Mass destruction was threatened by other "states"-- Romulans, Klingons, even the Borg. The "Abramsverse" timeline is a post-9/11 timeline, in which countries do indeed go to war with individuals, and are endangered by them. I think you can even see that in the imagery of the trailer.

 

Probably the most unrealistic part of Star Trek was the destruction of 47 Klingon ships. Not to change the subject but, that just didn't make sense. After Nero was imprisoned, why didn't the Klingons dismantle his ship?