47 Klingon Ships and Uhura

[M'Sharak]

Re: 47 Klingon Ships and Uhura--Nitpicking Time

It started when I used the multi-quote feature...

Try looking just below the text-entry box on the Reply to Thread screen. Do you see something which reads "You have selected 1 post that is not part of this thread. Quote this post as well, or deselect this post"? If so, clicking on "deselect this post" should clear that up.

Something has been nagging me since seeing the film...in the scene with Uhura talking to Gaila and Kirk hiding under the bed she mentions she was in the communications room and monitored a battle between 47 Klingon battlecruisers and a Romulan vessel.

There was no mention in that scene of a Romulan vessel, only that "a Klingon armada was destroyed - 47 ships."

Now one would think this would merit immediately informing her superiors about a major space battle involving two bordering space powers but instead no one finds out about this until later onboard Enterprise when Kirk brings it up to Pike and Spock and Uhura confirms her discover.

Not so. Examine the dialogue:

UHURA: Strangest thing... I was in the long range sensor lab.
GAILA: Yeah, I thought all night...
UHURA: I was tracking solar systems and I picked up an emergency transmission.
GAILA: Really?
UHURA: Yeah. From a Klingon prison planet.
GAILA: No.
UHURA: Yeah. A Klingon armada was destroyed, 47 ships.
GAILA: So, you're not going back to the lab tonight?
UHURA: Gaila, who is he?
GAILA: Who's who?
UHURA: The mouth-breather hiding under your bed.

Note in particular the underlined parts. Uhura was scheduled for an all-night shift, but returned to her quarters early, which strongly suggests that she did, in fact, report the emergency transmission to her superior and was then dismissed.

One would think that a Cadet would inform their superior officer of such a discover particularly when a single Romulan vessel manages to destroy 47 Klingon ships. No wonder Narada was able to attack Vulcan so easily...no one was informed of it until it was too late.

To recap, it's a simple thing to read between the lines of the dialogue quoted above and to see that her superior officer was informed, after which Uhura was sent home for the remainder of her scheduled shift, and that there was nothing in the intercepted transmission which mentioned a Romulan vessel (or, apparently, any vessel at all besides those 47 Klingon craft which were destroyed.)

 

[Admiral_Young]

Re: 47 Klingon Ships and Uhura--Nitpicking Time

My mistake about the mention of a Romulan vessel...I think I mixed that up when it was being discussed on the bridge. The dialogue still dosn't give any indication that she reported the battle to a superior officer and then was dismissed. We don't even know where she immediately came from when she was changing her outfit. All I'm saying is that i would have liked to have seen an added line that she reported this...I'll have to go and watch the scene again

 

[Jeri]

M', thanks. I went to another thread, and it cleared up by itself.

 

[MvRojo]

Re: 47 Klingon Ships and Uhura--Nitpicking Time

My mistake about the mention of a Romulan vessel...I think I mixed that up when it was being discussed on the bridge. The dialogue still dosn't give any indication that she reported the battle to a superior officer and then was dismissed. We don't even know where she immediately came from when she was changing her outfit. All I'm saying is that i would have liked to have seen an added line that she reported this...I'll have to go and watch the scene again

Gaila says that Uhura's back early, obviously from her job at communications where she monitored the transmission. Having her say, "I told my superior officer" is unnecessary since it's implied by the fact that she was sent home early.

 

[Timo]

Regarding the string of amazing coincidences that is STXI, there would have been a pretty simple way to write this particular plot twist without making it a string of coincidences.

As written, the heroes are saved solely because two things happen together: Sulu forgets to release the parking brake, and Kirk overhears bits of discussion that make him realize what they may be facing. Now, if we remove Kirk from the equation, we remove the entire movie. Several people probably overheard those bits of discussion, but only Kirk would be capable of putting the pieces together (and wrongly so, because the "space storm" this time around didn't mark the arrival of the villain, but of Spock, but all's well that ends well). So it's not a big coincidence that the ship with Kirk aboard would be the only one to survive.

Just leave out the parking brake bit. If Kirk manages to work out their dire straits in time, there is no story requirement for the Enterprise to be lagging behind the rest of the fleet. Kirk might simply convince Pike to stop to think for a while, or to slow down. The rest of the fleet would decide not to follow Pike's lead (understandable because Nero would be jamming communications, and one ship falling behind would not be seen as a warning sign, but would be interpreted as a mere malfunction of some sort), would continue their merry way, and would perish.

Just one example of how the story as written is built on a pile of coincidences, when it actually doesn't have to be...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Pauln6]

She's his friend if nothing else; and he obviously needs her at those couple of moments.

That's what you do in a tense crisis situation. Abandon your post in the command center because your shipmate is sad.

Yes Trek crews have often been portrayed as unprofessional. If Uhura isn't capable of carrying out her duties when on the bridge she and Spock really should be on different ships. In my view, she should have been placed in charge of the bridge, then she would have had the authority to place someone else in charge of the bridge and leave her post. We wouldn't be whining about them placing Chekov in charge over Uhura then

It's not unusual for other crewmen to be given the more technical aspects of Uhura's job either. Spock often did so in TOS, which was annoying. At least she didn't spend the whole movie repeating the computer...

 

[Shazam!]

It's not unusual for other crewmen to be given the more technical aspects of Uhura's job either.

I heard that it's not unusual to be loved by anyone.

 

[Pauln6]

It's not unusual for other crewmen to be given the more technical aspects of Uhura's job either.

I heard that it's not unusual to be loved by anyone.

Not for Kirk, no!

 

[Shazam!]

Oh, and Uhura leaving the communications lab early as a result of informing her superiors and being dismissed could just as easily be read as she left early because she just felt like leaving, which is actually more likely as she makes a habit of abandoning her post throughout the movie.

 

[David cgc]

You know that's odd. When I served in the military you didn't abandon your post without proper authorization prior to leaving it. In fact it was a general order that you did not leave your post w/o permission.

If she was temporarily in charge, she could have left the post, but that would require she appoint someone, no matter how temporary, to assume command.

There's precedent for us not seeing her do that explicitly but assuming it happened. Think about how whenever some crew had to leave the bridge in TNG a bunch of extras would rappel in from the ceiling, unasked, to fill their stations.

 

[Shatmandu]

She probably did inform her superiors about the message.

And should get fired for that.

She should get fired for informing her superiors about a major space battle between two powers? (Edit: Ooooops.)

I mean, Galia assumed that Uhura was going to be in the sensor lab all night. Therefore, I assume that once she picked up the message, her superiors came in a took over the lab to analyze the situation, and had all the cadets leave.

Problem solved.

Exactly, Tom Servo. All it takes is a little imagination and common sense to fill in the blanks.

I'm always amazed when science fiction fans, who I assume would be fairly creative people, can't think through something this simple. There are still people who get stuck on Khan knowing Chekov.

Joe, agreeable

 

[Nightfall to-Ennien]

Whenever some crew had to leave the bridge in TNG a bunch of extras would rappel in from the ceiling, unasked, to fill their stations.

I always assumed that, given starships operate largely without the ability to call extra crew in to work, had assumed that all major posts had at least two people assigned to man them at any given time. One at the actual post, and one on-call, able to be called in by a single button-press on a console, just in case someone was injured, or had to take a leak or something.

 

[Jeyl]

And I don't think Uhura would be following him were the situation not unique. She's his friend if nothing else; and he obviously needs her at those couple of moments.

Ya, getting shouted at, mocked and racially insulted by Kirk after losing his mother and his home planet is not enough for her to stop Kirk from doing what he did. Heck, she just accepts it later like 'whatever'. Does she go to Spock afterwards? No.

 

[Jeyl]

Re: 47 Klingon Ships and Uhura--Nitpicking Time

Having her say, "I told my superior officer" is unnecessary since it's implied by the fact that she was sent home early.

This is why I love the portrayal of Uhura's character in the new Trek movie. Her only useful contribution is off screen and instead 'implied' while she starts undressing herself. it's always the other characters that make any use of it.

 

[Pauln6]

Whenever some crew had to leave the bridge in TNG a bunch of extras would rappel in from the ceiling, unasked, to fill their stations.

I always assumed that, given starships operate largely without the ability to call extra crew in to work, had assumed that all major posts had at least two people assigned to man them at any given time. One at the actual post, and one on-call, able to be called in by a single button-press on a console, just in case someone was injured, or had to take a leak or something.

Uhura's position is akin to TNG's ops as well as external communications so she is doing a lot of tweeting in the background. I'm sure she would have tweeted for a repalcement before she left her post. I mean they must have some process in place for tea breaks and toilet breaks too.

The issue for me is that she sneaked away from her post without permsisson for purely personal reasons. I really liked the scene but original Uhura was a good officer and one of the few women that didn't go weak at the knees when a man came by. It worked for this scene but I don't think that the modern version should start down this path and be girlier than the original (no offence intended to girls here - I mean this in the sixties context where the women were at the mercy of their emotions and could barely function as officers half the time without a slap from Kirk to bring them back to their senses)

 

[Yeoman Randi]

I heard that it's not unusual to be loved by anyone.

Heh, that was pretty good!

 

[Jeri]

And I don't think Uhura would be following him were the situation not unique. She's his friend if nothing else; and he obviously needs her at those couple of moments.

Ya, getting shouted at, mocked and racially insulted by Kirk after losing his mother and his home planet is not enough for her to stop Kirk from doing what he did. Heck, she just accepts it later like 'whatever'. Does she go to Spock afterwards? No.

Not a good idea; Sarek was seen following his son off the bridge. He caught up with him in the transporter room. They had a crucial father-son talk there.

 

[Jeyl]

Not a good idea; Sarek was seen following his son off the bridge. He caught up with him in the transporter room. They had a crucial father-son talk there.

While the mothers remained fridged.

 

[Jeri]

What?

 

[JarodRussell]

Re: 47 Klingon Ships and Uhura--Nitpicking Time

One would think that a Cadet would inform their superior officer of such a discover particularly when a single Romulan vessel manages to destroy 47 Klingon ships. No wonder Narada was able to attack Vulcan so easily...no one was informed of it until it was too late.

To recap, it's a simple thing to read between the lines of the dialogue quoted above and to see that her superior officer was informed, after which Uhura was sent home for the remainder of her scheduled shift, and that there was nothing in the intercepted transmission which mentioned a Romulan vessel (or, apparently, any vessel at all besides those 47 Klingon craft which were destroyed.)

Didn't Pine ask her with a swollen tongue if the ship was Romulan, to which she replied 'Yes'? So she knew it was a Romulan ship.