Praxis...

[Kor]

One suspects the ring effect is a representation of a 720 degree bubble of energy expanding out from Praxis. Instead of expanding sphere, we get to see just a slice of it as a ring. (Rings of destruction look cool and don't block out the rest of the explosions and stars like a bubble would)

I thought the expanding sphere effect in "Generations" looked pretty good.

And wasn't there something similar in ST09?

But the energy ring in TUC did look pretty cool and menacing.

Kor

 

[Timo]

Spock's speech in VI about an "ozone layer" and "pollution" is very confusing. Do Klingons use much CFCs? What that has to do with their moon? Was not the problem the loss of theiy "energy production facility" as Sulu had stated?

That part makes sense at least. In two ways, even - take your pick.

Ozone is oxygen made poisonous by application of energy. There's always some ozone in the upper atmosphere of Earth and no doubt Qo'noS as well, what with oxygen getting bombarded by assorted cosmic radiation (and sunlight). But if something really energetic happens nearby, oxygen everywhere in the atmosphere will be turned into ozone, and people breathing it will burn out their lungs.

OTOH, the very process of oxygen turning into ozone is beneficial because it consumes energy - so there's less of that nasty cosmic radiation reaching the surface. "Deadly poisoning of their ozone" may mean a CFC-like effect that decreases rather than increases the available oxygen-to-ozone reactions and strips Qo'noS of its radiation protection, making the surface uninhabitable. This could be from excess energy splitting so much oxygen into ozone that there's none left to absorb cosmic radiation; or from chemical poisons from the remains of Praxis.

Loss of a "key energy production facility" shouldn't be crippling for an interstellar empire. It's probably just that Klingons in their militaristic paranoia want to centralize, and thus have neglected the creation of a more distributed energy production network that could in theory be vulnerable to attack or sabotage by outside agents. Then again, Praxis may have been sabotaged as well... But probably not by Cartwright's cohorts, or they would have been more prepared for what was to come. Maybe the Romulans did it?

Timo Saloniemi