Humerous plot holes
- Thread starter Adagio
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Maybe he meant the Excelsior should have activated it's transporter, the Enterprise was running without shield apparently and the Excelsior could have simply beamed Kirk and his small party off.
Which would have left the Enterprise adrift inside the spacedock, so you would have required a tractor beam to.
Which would have left the Enterprise adrift inside the spacedock, so you would have required a tractor beam to.
Scotty sabotaged Excelsior's engines, and he may have also sabotaged her transporters and/or tractor beam BUT it seems that the space dock itself would be equipped with some pretty impressive tractor beams (and transporters) that could also have foiled Kirk's plans. I guess that we wouldn't have had Enterprise's "theft" if all these
measures had been available to the space dock crew....
measures had been available to the space dock crew....
Especially since the Spacedock crew were the ones who flew the Enterprise into dock meaning they have a tractor beam and considering the prefix codes they may have some kind override as well.
Getting the doors to open and turning off the tractor beams would no doubt be equal parts of the plan; Scotty might plausibly pull off something like that for a few crucial minutes. Starfleet would probably quickly figure that out, too, in which case it would make sense to send a starship to chase the Enterprise; such a chase would extend beyond the initial minutes, so Scotty's interference would eventually stop being effective and the heroes would be caught.
And since the Enterprise was an acknowledged speed record holder, it makes dramatic sense that no other ship would reach her after the Excelsior dropped out of the race. But what does not make much sense is that none of the other ships undoubtedly sent after her would catch up during the several hours of adventure at Genesis planet...
Even if the other chase ships missed the big Genesis bang by a hair's breadth, we still have to wonder why they didn't catch Kirk and pals when they were puttering along in the small Klingon ship. Unless Kirk cloaked the Bird of Prey for the trip to Vulcan? He'd have hell of a time explaining away his subsequent decloaking close to a Federation planet, tho. How far would Sarek's professional muscle carry? "Please ignore the hails from Starfleet Command and the higher offices of the Federation, and put the President on hold. Oh, and pay no attention to a Klingon ship that's about to decloak. In fact, I'd appreciate if you cleared a flight path for that ship right down to the sacred grounds at Mount Seleya."
Timo Saloniemi
And since the Enterprise was an acknowledged speed record holder, it makes dramatic sense that no other ship would reach her after the Excelsior dropped out of the race. But what does not make much sense is that none of the other ships undoubtedly sent after her would catch up during the several hours of adventure at Genesis planet...
Even if the other chase ships missed the big Genesis bang by a hair's breadth, we still have to wonder why they didn't catch Kirk and pals when they were puttering along in the small Klingon ship. Unless Kirk cloaked the Bird of Prey for the trip to Vulcan? He'd have hell of a time explaining away his subsequent decloaking close to a Federation planet, tho. How far would Sarek's professional muscle carry? "Please ignore the hails from Starfleet Command and the higher offices of the Federation, and put the President on hold. Oh, and pay no attention to a Klingon ship that's about to decloak. In fact, I'd appreciate if you cleared a flight path for that ship right down to the sacred grounds at Mount Seleya."
Timo Saloniemi
Sarek or Sarek via T'Pau could have told the Federation to stuff it like in "Amok Time"? It wouldn't be the first time
As to the other potential pursuit ships, a line or two about Uhura misdirecting them would have been nice.
I think we have to go on assumption, Scotty would have sabotaged everything that could have haulted the Enterprise, as for the Transporters, well i'm sure since they didn't have shields they could have simply found a way to hide their lifesigns so no one could look on, it makes sense for that to be the case, because later on Kruge had no idea of how many were aboard, he would have likely taken scans and we know he was under the impression the ship was fully crewed
I would venture to guess that there were no other ships giving chase. Genesis was off limits and the Ent crew was even prohibited to so much as talk about it. All it would have taken was a quick scene for everything to work a little better. Example:
Space dock control
Comm officer: "Admiral, Enterprise has gone to warp and Excelsior is adrift."
Morrow: (under breath): "Damn it Jim. Never could take no for an answer."
Comm officer: "Shall we divert other ships to intercept?"
Morrow: "No. Let him go. We've already lost contact with Grissom, hopefully Kirk can figure out what's going on out there."
I find it humorous that despite The Genesis Planet's importance, both scientifically and strategically, that only a lowly Oberth Class science vessel was dispatched to it, and not even one combat capable escort was provided. Did they not think the Klingons or Romulans would want to have a look?
It is funny, considering they declared it off limits - how would they have enforced this exactly? The UFP is made up of 150 planets yet none offer their own ships to help?
The first thing Styles says when the Excelsior exits spacedock:
In fact the whole scene plays out like Styles was keen for Kirk to make a run for it, just so he could chase him down with the Transwarp Drive.
Yes, I was referring to Excelsior's tractor beam. I really have to start looking at my posts better before posting. I was wondering why the Excelsior didn't try using the tractor beam while both ships were still inside the spacedock.
Anyway, Styles says "Stand by tractor beam" only after the Enterprise leaves spacedock and the big E is preparing to go to warp.
Another thought: did Scotty also disable the starbase's tractor beams too? Or was everyone napping?
Anyway, Styles says "Stand by tractor beam" only after the Enterprise leaves spacedock and the big E is preparing to go to warp.
Another thought: did Scotty also disable the starbase's tractor beams too? Or was everyone napping?
I'd always assumed (influenced, I suspect, by the novelisation) that Scotty didn't sabotage the engines, he sabotaged the computer, and Excelsior was reliant on its computer and didn't have the 'emergency bypass options' that Scotty would normally put in place on his ships.
If we assume the spacedock's tractor beams were offline or sabotaged and it fell to the Excelsior to tractor the Enterprise then the safest thing to do is tractor outside the spacedock. Let's say the Excelsior tractors the Enterprise and the Enterprise tries to power away while inside... any mistake could lead to the Enterprise exploding inside the spacedock (think engine overload or Enterprise breaking free but slamming into the wall at .2c. The best place to grab the Enterprise is open space, IMHO. Styles chasing Kirk down was just the icing on the cake for demonstrating the Excelsior 
I've wondered about the "off-limits" Genesis planet and the lack of obvious ships protecting it. It could be the Feds assigned all their ships to the neutral zones and were overconfident that no one would be able to sneak past them to go take a look.
Of course Kruge snuck past them
One thing that I thought was silly was Kruge blasting the freighter that Valkris was on. Why not just beam her off first and then blast it?
I've wondered about the "off-limits" Genesis planet and the lack of obvious ships protecting it. It could be the Feds assigned all their ships to the neutral zones and were overconfident that no one would be able to sneak past them to go take a look.
Of course Kruge snuck past them
One thing that I thought was silly was Kruge blasting the freighter that Valkris was on. Why not just beam her off first and then blast it?
One thing that I thought was silly was Kruge blasting the freighter that Valkris was on. Why not just beam her off first and then blast it?
I think that was the original plan, but Valkris told him that she'd read the secret info, so he had to kill her in case she passed it on to anyone other than him.
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