And we never learn why Kirk would have missed this chatter. We have to speculate in order to cover that angle, and saying "Uhura was in on it, too" is basically as workable as saying "there never was any chatter, the accident was two days ago, and the fake Mendez is telling Talosian lies when only our heroes are within earshot".
In other words, the writers never figured out that one, and our attempts at covering it are all gonna be conspiracy theories of one sort or another. Which of course goes well with the idea that the whole story is about a lie within a lie...
Pike's accident as shown in DISCO appears to occur on a fairly modern vessel of the time.
Or then the engine room of the
Discovery, doubling for Pike's fateful one, is utterly antiquated, and the only thing new aboard NCC-1031 is the shuttlebay floor.
Oops, ninja'ed. But never mind:
Of course, the Enterprise refit was state of the art(?) during TMP
Or then the refit merely brough it (almost) apace with the rest of the fleet. The
Reliant looks the same inside and out, and apparently was in service during "Court Martial" already...
Timo Saloniemi