Nero's Ship over Vulcan

[Omega_Glory]

Seems strange the the Vulcans couldn't figure out that the "sisemic disturbances" they were experiencing were emanating from a 5 mile long ship parked over their planet. No sensors or ships in the vicinity of Vulcan? And no planet based defenses? Seems a bit of stretch.

And the same thing on Earth a little later? No planetary defenses of any kind?

 

[NCC74894A]

And the same thing on Earth a little later? No planetary defenses of any kind?

Keep in mind that

Spoiler: Star Trek

Nero used that Centaurian slug on Pike to get him to give up the command codes for Earth's defenses.

 

[SonicRanger]

Didn't the drill, when operating, block communications?

Maybe the Vulcans did figure it out but after their communications were blocked.

And who knows? Nero had 25 years to find a Vulcan to interrogate like Pike.

 

[-Brett-]

Weren't the planet's communications being jammed?

And Nero could have destroyed the planets defenses before the Enterprise got there.

 

[Cyke101]

Gosh, some of you sound like you actually watched the movie

 

[Jeri]

Yeah, there's nothing left to do here.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Weren't the planet's communications being jammed?

Yep.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Weren't the planet's communications being jammed?

Yep.

The problem with that being that they sent a message regarding seismic disturbances after the drill which causes the communications blackout along with the seismic disturbances had already started up.

 

[Phily B]

One thing I never got - why couldn't the Enterprise contact Earth or the fleet in the Laurentian system? Communications were not blocked right? I mean, the idea that every starfleet captain has the defense codes is a bit silly too. Why would they need them?

 

[USS KG5]

One thing I never got - why couldn't the Enterprise contact Earth or the fleet in the Laurentian system? Communications were not blocked right? I mean, the idea that every starfleet captain has the defense codes is a bit silly too. Why would they need them?

How do you know they didn't?

"Hi its the Enterprise, a nutter with a megaship just blew up Vulcan and is on his way to you, we are running the other way as our Captain's mother just died, the viewer of course already knows this so putting it in the film is a complete waste of time..."

Remember you are watching a FILM a piece of fiction where events only occur as incidents to a story. Therefore dotting every I and crossing every T isa contrary to good storytelling.

Why be so literal as to assume a conversation telling Earth things the viewer already knows not being in the film means in the fictional universe it never "happened".

 

[Phily B]

Because they talked about re-establishing contact with Starfleet once.

 

[USS KG5]

Because they talked about re-establishing contact with Starfleet once.

Eh?

 

[Falconfire]

Because they talked about re-establishing contact with Starfleet once.

I am pretty sure that was right after the attack when Spock was headed to meet the fleet, thus right after the drill stopped.

 

[Omega_Glory]

I think the contact they meant was joining with the fleet. Theres no reason they couldn't have sent a message to Earth or the fleet after Nero went into warp.

 

[fresh]

Communication was knocked out when Nero began his assault.
Without them, who would know?
There could be a 50 mile long alien warship above our heads in high orbit right now, but we'd never notice it if all our satellites and communications were knocked out.
There simply aren't enough 'regular' optical telescopes (immune to effects of drill) pointed at the sky to cover much of it.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Just how big is the Narada really? is it big enough to cause a significant tidal force through it's presence alone in its orbit which led to seismic activities?

That might be the moment someone sent a general help signal to earth just before Nero activated his drill/blocking out communications.

Otherwise the message might have gone like this:

" Vulcan High Command to Starfleet HQ. We experience significant seismic activities in our southern hemisphere. We might need relieve ships to assist in evacuation procedures...(this is the point the message brakes of but in this scenario continues)... VHC to Starfleet! About those relieve ships. Send them in with their damn shields up. We're being attacked by a frakkin insane Romulan Capain in a frakkin huge warship! (The Vulcan who send this message was slightly emotionally compromised.)

 

[Omega_Glory]

The ship wasn't more than a few miles long....doubtful that it would pull on the oceans (if Vulcan had any); much less cause earthquakes.

It seems highly unlikely that a mining drill would knock out all communication around the globe. The fact that Vulcan sent a message to Starfleet would indicate communications were operational. The Enterprise experienced problems probably because they were so close to the ship, not because the ship blacked out the solar system. Given Vulcan was a founding member of the Federation, it would make sense that there would be defenses both in near orbit or on the ground. Also, there should be defenses (ships, emplacements, ect) in other parts of the solar system. If the emplacements were out of range(with transporters having ranges in the millions of miles, surely phasers have firing ranges that dwarf TOS), then surely a ship within the system should be able to see whats going on and report to the Vulcan high command. In a system like Vulcan, there should be hundreds, if not thousands of ships (civillian and military) flying around.