How well did Countdown tie in with the film? [spoilers]

[Tom Riley]

Um... I've only seen the movie, I haven't read Countdown... But I thought his motivation was explained just fine in the movie alone... lol... I mean, he had to watch his wife, family, friends, everyone he knew, the place he grew up, his whole life outside of mining, completely destroyed. That's gotta be pretty traumatic. I could see it being enough to push the wrong guy off his rocker and into some nasty decisions. I thought that came across pretty clear in the movie.

 

[Myasishchev]

I don't see why a mining vessel shouldn't be powerful. A mining vessel's job is to crack open celestial bodies to reveal the goodies inside.

The ability to destroy a planet ... er, I mean, the ability to extract ore from a compliant chunk of rock does not translate directly into combat power. Bucket wheel excavators are truly terrifying, immense constructs capable of cracking open the crust of our planet, but one's not going to stand a chance against a tank.

No, but take, say, that fortified earthmover that guy ran amok with a few years back. Few weapons systems from a hundred and thirty years ago could have stood up to it. The ones that could destroy it would have difficulty hitting it.

The major components of a warship are already present. It must have shields, to defend itself from pirates and/or natural phenomena (like FTL supernovae ), and of course it must have a warp drive, likely one much faster than anything fielded even on top-of-the-line military vessels, much as my crappy Dodge Neon can outrun any car made in the 19th century. The weapons could have been fabricated and probably were (they don't really look like classical photon torpedoes, but some kind of missile with chemical or fusion propulsion).

The Narada versus the Enterprise, I feel, is best analogized by a hypothetical match-up between the Exxon Valdez, armed with some surplus Soviet anti-tank missiles, and the U.S.S. Monitor.

 

[Captain Randy Hall]

Well, not perfectly tbh.

Firstly, I have to say, without the Countdown backstory, I can imagine Nero's motivations might seem a bit weak and not particularly well fleshed out.

as for the continuity?

well, the Jellyfish itself says it was commisioned by the Vulcan Science Academy - hmm - unless Geordi is a member of the VSA, not quite.

Spock Prime in the film says he was on his way to save Romulus when the star went nova. Was he? Don't think he was.

I'm aware this is just good nit-picking, and ultimately Countdown did a great job in providing some backstory. Calling Worf over to the Narada like he would do with Robau and Pike was a nice touch.

I thought the comic series added a great deal to the movie. It seemed thin on plot regarding Nero's reason to hate the Federation and why Spock camem out of the anomaly 25 years later. What was Nero doing all that time" Playing tiddly-winks? He could have taken over both the Federation and Romulus with his advanced technology.

So much for rage being a help for strategy.

 

[Small White Car]

well, the Jellyfish itself says it was commisioned by the Vulcan Science Academy - hmm - unless Geordi is a member of the VSA, not quite.

The comic made it clear that Geordi wasn't in Starfleet, but was in private industry. So the Vulcans hired him to design a ship. He did. They built it. They paid for it. They launched it and own it and "commissioned" it.

I don't see the problem.

 

[Daneel]

well, the Jellyfish itself says it was commisioned by the Vulcan Science Academy - hmm - unless Geordi is a member of the VSA, not quite.

The comic made it clear that Geordi wasn't in Starfleet, but was in private industry. So the Vulcans hired him to design a ship. He did. They built it. They paid for it. They launched it and own it and "commissioned" it.

I don't see the problem.

Yes, that part can be explained rather easily -- I don't see the film and comic as necessarily in conflict there.

A few things did seem a bit different though. As was mentioned, in the movie, Spock implies that he was on his way to stop the Hobus Star before Romulus was destroyed, but the comic shows him leaving in the Jellyfish after it happens. I suppose we can look at this as a minor detail, one that can be explained away, since Spock was still planning to stop the Hobus Star before it went supernova, IIRC.

Also, the movie doesn't make it clear that Spock and Nero have a personal history -- I thought a flashback scene between them (during the mind-meld, I guess) would have been a good idea.

I'm definitely glad we got the comic to help fill in some of the blanks though. I'd probably view Nero as a much more two-dimensional villain without the Countdown back story, as his brief conversation with Pike and Spock's mind-meld with Kirk present us with the only insights we really get into his character and motivations. I felt both of those scenes were a bit too rushed; a few more flashbacks might have gone a long way to fleshing out Nero and making things clearer (at least for those who haven't read Countdown, which is probably the vast majority of moviegoers).

 

[Eddie Roth]

Well, not perfectly tbh.

Firstly, I have to say, without the Countdown backstory, I can imagine Nero's motivations might seem a bit weak and not particularly well fleshed out.

as for the continuity?

well, the Jellyfish itself says it was commisioned by the Vulcan Science Academy - hmm - unless Geordi is a member of the VSA, not quite.

Spock Prime in the film says he was on his way to save Romulus when the star went nova. Was he? Don't think he was.

I'm aware this is just good nit-picking, and ultimately Countdown did a great job in providing some backstory. Calling Worf over to the Narada like he would do with Robau and Pike was a nice touch.

I thought the comic series added a great deal to the movie. It seemed thin on plot regarding Nero's reason to hate the Federation and why Spock camem out of the anomaly 25 years later. What was Nero doing all that time" Playing tiddly-winks? He could have taken over both the Federation and Romulus with his advanced technology.

So much for rage being a help for strategy.

Well, I for one thought the idea of him waiting for 25 years for Spock to show up to make him watch as he destroyed Vulcan was bone-chilling - and therefore great for a villain. And wasn't that the whole point? He blamed it all on Spock and he wanted to make him (and by extension the other Vulcans) go through everything he had to go through. That would include watching their homeworld die. I got the idea (from the film alone) that this was Nero's primary goal, and only as a secondary notion, as explained in his conversation with Pike, he also wanted to prevent Romulus from being destroyed again by eliminating the Federation.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Um... I've only seen the movie, I haven't read Countdown... But I thought his motivation was explained just fine in the movie alone... lol... I mean, he had to watch his wife, family, friends, everyone he knew, the place he grew up, his whole life outside of mining, completely destroyed. That's gotta be pretty traumatic. I could see it being enough to push the wrong guy off his rocker and into some nasty decisions. I thought that came across pretty clear in the movie.

Same here. I think he just went mad. He was an ordinary guy who watched his whole species burn, everyone, everything, every place he loved. That's enough to drive anybody insane.

Apocalyptic scenarios tend to do disturbing things to people's minds.

 

[Shim]

The only thing I couldn't get my head around after seeing the film (and having read Countdown) was why Nero just didn't take his ship to Hobus in the intervening 25 years and take it out with the red matter to stop Romulus from being destroyed in the first place...

But yes, I am aware that this is a film and that would destroy the drama.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Who says that he didn't? Maybe that's the first thing he did after recovering from the Kelvin incident. This would in no way change his motivations regarding Spock, the Vulcans and the Federation.

 

[flightmech73]

My short answer is I'm glad I read it first. I thought they went real good together. Ya there was a couple things that may have not been perfect but to see the progression of Nero was real cool. And hoe the end of the comic went right into the beginning of the movie was almost perfect. I may have a a slight wish to see the Ent. E looking in from the other side but i know it really wouldn't fit with the movie as they wanted to portray it. But Ya i was glad I got the book first. My mom read it too and was excited about it all too. I just thought it was neet having my 61 year old mom reading a comic book.

So much for a short answer

 

[Shim]

Who says that he didn't? Maybe that's the first thing he did after recovering from the Kelvin incident. This would in no way change his motivations regarding Spock, the Vulcans and the Federation.

Point taken.

Regardless, with 47 Klingon ships taken out, and Starfleet dealt a pretty severe blow, the Romulans are looking to be in a mighty fine position about now, eh?

Romulans - the new Klingons?

(I actually hope so - so much more intelligent and conniving than the boring old Klingons - it always puzzled me how that race ever managed to put their bat'leths down long enough to invent warp drive!)

 

[CommanderRaytas]

You're preaching to the converted, here. I have no love for the Klingons whatsoever. I hope we'll be seeing more of the Rommies, too. Without the bad hair cuts.

 

[Shim]

I think we have to resign ourselves to at least one Klingon movie - fans will eat them alive if they don't get them somewhere along the line in nuTrek.

 

[Corran Horn]

Who says that he didn't? Maybe that's the first thing he did after recovering from the Kelvin incident. This would in no way change his motivations regarding Spock, the Vulcans and the Federation.

Point taken.

Regardless, with 47 Klingon ships taken out, and Starfleet dealt a pretty severe blow, the Romulans are looking to be in a mighty fine position about now, eh?

I was thinking about that...the bulk of Starfleet is said to be in the Laurentian System. Those ships don't get touched. The only Starfleet ships that get destroyed are the half-dozen or so that leave Earth ahead of the Enterprise.

 

[Shim]

But remember, with those ships was a whole class of cadets.

 

[Bisz]

I haven't read Countdown (I should and I think I will) and I found the plot surrounding Nero and his motivation, Spock, the supernova and how it all fit together to be very weak. I didn't understand how a supernova could endanger the entire galaxy, or why Nero would think that Spock betrayed Romulus and why he would want to destroy the entire Federation, I didn't know why a mining ship would be such an uberShip. I think all of these things should have been either fleshed out a lot more in the movie, or changed to something that was more believable but didn't require an explanation, ie the Narada could have been a prototype warship.

 

[shapeshifter]

It wasn't a ubership to begin with, read Countdown. (;-)

 

[alicelouise]

Another explanation that wasn't explored in "Countdown" could be that the Romulans might have known the Big One(California Earthquake,Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina) was coming, but not when and chose to procrastinate. Sound familiar?

 

[Cyke101]

I wouldn't have minded if, when nuSpock asked for the origins of the Jellyfish, the computer added the line, "Designed and built (by Dr/Prof/Capt/Whatever) Geordi LaForge." But then that's another wink to the audience and not really important.

 

[Calhoun24]

I wouldn't have minded if, when nuSpock asked for the origins of the Jellyfish, the computer added the line, "Designed and built (by Dr/Prof/Capt/Whatever) Geordi LaForge." But then that's another wink to the audience and not really important.

Agreed to that.

Also, I thought Countdown explain Nero's motivation better. Him saying it in the film, and seeing it somewhat in the comic are two different things.