Easy Weapon-Target life support!

[Unicron]

Just a nitpick neutrons and neutrinos are two different things, the terms are not interchangeable.

I'm sure you're right. I haven't seen the movie in awhile, so my brain might not be remembering which term is used.

That is rather interesting, and adds a little bit to the mystery, IMO.

They also handled Uhura's conversation with the Klingon outpost far better. The saboteurs disabled the UT, which is why they couldn't use it and had to pull out the books. They could have said so in the movie and pulled off the humor better.

I still have a hard time fully reconciling Romulan Ambassador Nanclus's participation in this. We know the Klingons and Romulans had their recent alliance that ended badly (probably with the Battle of the Klach d'kel Bracht) but it's always struck me as odd that the Romulan Ambassador would be so chummy with the Federation President, unless the situation with the Klingons really was that dire that the Federation wanted all the help it could get? Further, even though we know Nanclus was in on the plan, I can't help but wonder how many other Romulans were in on it?

The DC comic Revisitations, which is set in the movie era and focuses on both Harry Mudd and Gary Seven, had a cameo by Admiral Cartwright. It clearly takes place before TUC since he's still in charge, but parts of the story (intentionally or not) do suggest motive for his role in the conspiracy.

Spoiler: Gary Seven's half

A Federation ally has developed a new weapon that could conceivably replace traditional weapons, and Starfleet wants the Enterprise to test it so that it might be a "deterrent" weapon against races like the Klingons. Kirk is chosen because the weapon is based on protomatter, which he naturally dislikes due to Genesis, but his support would convince others if the test works. This form of synthetic protomatter is supposedly stable.

Of course it isn't, and the weapon would have failed catastrophically if Gary hadn't had to intervene sooner than he planned. The alternate timeline he describes would have had the Enterprise destroyed and the Feds hastily abandoning the idea, with the designers finally selling it to the Romulans in desperation. They would attack the Klingons with it, and the Federation would be drawn into a galactic war.

In either case, without this "deterrent" weapon, which Cartwright had genuine faith in, I believe he would have felt Starfleet was running out of political and military options for dealing with the Klingons and other races. When the Praxis disaster raised the possibility of peace as well as war a (presumably) short time later, it would have seemed an ideal opportunity to maintain Federation superiority.

The comic is pretty good IMO, and I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys Trek comics. Along with the Mirror Universe Saga.