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Lightning storm in space?

I sometimes get the feeling people WANT technobabble explanations.

Well, personally, when talking about black holes and such a spatial rift does sound better than a lightning storm in space. Not all technobabble has to be bad.
 
I sometimes get the feeling people WANT technobabble explanations.

Some people do. They are the hardcore Trek fans. They are also small in number.

My thought on writing technobabble is this: the writer should try to keep it to the absolute minimum they think is necessary to tell the story. Then, cut that in half.

We can't trust ourselves on this stuff, we're too close to it.
 
Well, the lightning thing makes me think of the Terminator arriving through time travel, but regardless of the description and the nomenclature, the notion of what it's supposed to represent is still perplexing.
 
Well, the lightning thing makes me think of the Terminator arriving through time travel, but regardless of the description and the nomenclature, the notion of what it's supposed to represent is still perplexing.


Not really. Only ring singularities can be used as wormholes as we see in the film. If it's a spinning ring singularity (forgive me if you've heard this one before), it would have a big electrical charge.
 
Sorry, I should have been more careful in wording. I was referring to what was causing it rather than what it is -- if I understand correctly, the confusion discussed initially is that the two time-traveling ships were already accounted for when this third lightning storm appeared. I do think the lightning thing was to evoke the Terminator time travel effects.
 
People have explained that it's a result of Spock's arrival. There's no explanation on-screen, though. And one would wonder how he would just happen to arrive at Vulcan of all places. :rolleyes:

Same reason he would just happen to be stuck on Delta Vega a few dozen meters from Kirk's crash landing point, I assume...


Spock didn't arrive at Vulcan. The sequence of events is this:

- First anomoly opens at a point near the Klingon border (I'll have to go see it again to tell you exactly when/where this is stated, bt I'm 90% sure the general location is mentioned.) Narada comes through, battles the Kelvin.
- 25 years pass (not going to include the deleted scenes stuff here, the point is the Narada is somewhere, waiting, calculating point and time of Spock's arrival.)
- Spock shows up out of the second anomoly, Narada is waiting, captures Spock.
- Klingons show up at the site of the anomoly, battle Narada, 47 ships lost.
- Narada departs for Vulcan with Spock on board.
- Uhura translates Klingon intercepts post-battle, stating number of ships lost to a Romulan vessel, and a "lightning storm."
- Narada arrives at Delta Vega (or whatever that planet should have been called) and maroons Spock there.
- Narada attacks Vulcan.
I have seen the movie twice, and that sounds right to me based on what I remember.

The thing that confuses me though is this: During Chekov's announcement, he makes it sound like the lightning storm is related to the seismic activity on Vulcan. But what reason would they have to think that a lightning storm near the neutral zone is causing an earthquake (vulcanquake? ;))?
 
People have explained that it's a result of Spock's arrival. There's no explanation on-screen, though. And one would wonder how he would just happen to arrive at Vulcan of all places. :rolleyes:

Same reason he would just happen to be stuck on Delta Vega a few dozen meters from Kirk's crash landing point, I assume...


Spock didn't arrive at Vulcan. The sequence of events is this:

- First anomoly opens at a point near the Klingon border (I'll have to go see it again to tell you exactly when/where this is stated, bt I'm 90% sure the general location is mentioned.) Narada comes through, battles the Kelvin.
- 25 years pass (not going to include the deleted scenes stuff here, the point is the Narada is somewhere, waiting, calculating point and time of Spock's arrival.)
- Klingons show up, battle Narada, 47 ships lost.
- Spock shows up out of the second anomoly, Narada is waiting, captures Spock.
- Narada departs for Vulcan with Spock on board.
- Uhura translates Klingon intercepts post-battle, stating number of ships lost to a Romulan vessel, and a "lightning storm."
- Narada arrives at Delta Vega (or whatever that planet should have been called) and maroons Spock there.
- Narada attacks Vulcan.
I have seen the movie twice, and that sounds right to me based on what I remember.

The thing that confuses me though is this: During Chekov's announcement, he makes it sound like the lightning storm is related to the seismic activity on Vulcan. But what reason would they have to think that a lightning storm near the neutral zone is causing an earthquake (vulcanquake? ;))?

I actually got the order wrong originally, as Jeri pointed out. I've corrected it above. But yeah, I'm not sure of the exact wording of Chekov's announcement. I'll have to check that when I see it again.
 
People have explained that it's a result of Spock's arrival. There's no explanation on-screen, though. And one would wonder how he would just happen to arrive at Vulcan of all places. :rolleyes:

Same reason he would just happen to be stuck on Delta Vega a few dozen meters from Kirk's crash landing point, I assume...


Spock didn't arrive at Vulcan. The sequence of events is this:

- First anomoly opens at a point near the Klingon border (I'll have to go see it again to tell you exactly when/where this is stated, bt I'm 90% sure the general location is mentioned.) Narada comes through, battles the Kelvin.
- 25 years pass (not going to include the deleted scenes stuff here, the point is the Narada is somewhere, waiting, calculating point and time of Spock's arrival.)
- Spock shows up out of the second anomoly, Narada is waiting, captures Spock.
- Klingons show up at the site of the anomoly, battle Narada, 47 ships lost.
- Narada departs for Vulcan with Spock on board.
- Uhura translates Klingon intercepts post-battle, stating number of ships lost to a Romulan vessel, and a "lightning storm."
- Narada arrives at Delta Vega (or whatever that planet should have been called) and maroons Spock there.
- Narada attacks Vulcan.
I have seen the movie twice, and that sounds right to me based on what I remember.

The thing that confuses me though is this: During Chekov's announcement, he makes it sound like the lightning storm is related to the seismic activity on Vulcan. But what reason would they have to think that a lightning storm near the neutral zone is causing an earthquake (vulcanquake? ;))?
One possibility is that another starship came through singular traveling at warp. Which in turn cause a shock way that headed in the direction of Vulcan.
 
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