Question about Vulcan's Defenses (Spoilers)

[Falcor5]

I finally saw the movie for the first time Saturday night and really enjoyed it overall! One thing bothers me though. Why would Vulcan, one of the most powerful and important Federation planets, apparently have no defenses? Why were there not tons of Vulcan ships attacking Nero's ship? Or even defense satellite networks firing at it? It was almost as if they had no defenses at all which does not make much sense. Surely they have bases on nearby moons to launch ships from if their homeworld is under attack? Heck that ice planet looked to be a stone's throw away from Vulcan and could have easily had some sort of Vulcan defense stations and even that seemed to have no defenses for Vulcan on it and only had a lone outpost with one starfleet officer.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Maybe they were destroyed? they were afterall going up against an advanced ship from the future. Just look how long the Federation ships lasted when they arrived at Vulcan, about 2 minutes.
Even the Enterprise took 1 direct assault and Sulu said they couldn't withstand a second strike.
In all that debris around Vulcan i'm sure much of it was from Vulcan defences.

 

[Tralah]

I assumed those defenses were already wiped away by the Narada, and thus a distress call was sent to the Federation.

 

[SGx]

I assumed those defenses were already wiped away by the Narada, and thus a distress call was sent to the Federation.

This. I doubt that Vulcan would have sent a distress signal unless they had exhausted all their other options.

 

[Middle Earther]

Good point. The Vulcans have their own fleet and have been involved with space travel longer than humans. They also have had a longer history of contact with other races, hostile and non-hostile. It doesn't make sense that they would leave their planet so open to attack. It also doesn't make any sense at all to me that a mining ship would end up being so bloody powerful when it is staffed by miners.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

It also doesn't make any sense at all to me that a mining ship would end up being so bloody powerful when it is staffed by miners.

It's a Romulan ship from the future and it was only armed with missiles/torpedoes anyway (we never see any other weapons except the drill) so it wasn't even heavily armed. It was responsible for mining the very rare and very precious isotope Decalithium which would no doubt be of interest to space pirates meaning the ship would need some kind of defences and with it being a Romulan vessel weapons would pretty much be as standard anyway.

An array of torpedoes from the future (24th century) is no doubt capable of taking out a ship from the 23rd century, the technology difference would be enormous.

 

[Falcor5]

Maybe they were destroyed? they were afterall going up against an advanced ship from the future. Just look how long the Federation ships lasted when they arrived at Vulcan, about 2 minutes.
Even the Enterprise took 1 direct assault and Sulu said they couldn't withstand a second strike.
In all that debris around Vulcan i'm sure much of it was from Vulcan defences.

Ya you could be right. I wish they would have showed a bit of the Vulcan fleet attacking the Narada though to show that the Vulcans where not going to let their planet be destroyed without a fight.

 

[Meredith]

It also doesn't make any sense at all to me that a mining ship would end up being so bloody powerful when it is staffed by miners.

It's a Romulan ship from the future and it was only armed with missiles/torpedoes anyway (we never see any other weapons except the drill) so it wasn't even heavily armed. It was responsible for mining the very rare and very precious isotope Decalithium which would no doubt be of interest to space pirates meaning the ship would need some kind of defences and with it being a Romulan vessel weapons would pretty much be as standard anyway.

An array of torpedoes from the future (24th century) is no doubt capable of taking out a ship from the 23rd century, the technology difference would be enormous.

Kinda like an M1A1 Abrams Tank at the battle for Gettysburg!

 

[miraclefan]

It also doesn't make any sense at all to me that a mining ship would end up being so bloody powerful when it is staffed by miners.

It's a Romulan ship from the future and it was only armed with missiles/torpedoes anyway (we never see any other weapons except the drill) so it wasn't even heavily armed. It was responsible for mining the very rare and very precious isotope Decalithium which would no doubt be of interest to space pirates meaning the ship would need some kind of defences and with it being a Romulan vessel weapons would pretty much be as standard anyway.

An array of torpedoes from the future (24th century) is no doubt capable of taking out a ship from the 23rd century, the technology difference would be enormous.

Kinda like an M1A1 Abrams Tank at the battle for Gettysburg!

Or a RPG & a cupple dozen Machine Guns at the ALAMO! the tech difference is amazing. And ''Tachyon'' It's explained in COUNTDOWN that the NARADA has enhanced BORG tech merged on to the ship.

 

[Messianni]

Nero very well could have taken a Vulcan captain hostage, his modus operandi apparently, to get Vulcan's defense protocols.

After all, in the scene where Spock pilots the Jellyfish out of the Narada to destroy the drill, a Vulcan scout vessel that looks just like the one in First Contact can be seen in the top left corner. Perhaps they captured it beforehand and got the information they needed?

 

[Joker]

Nero very well could have taken a Vulcan captain hostage, his modus operandi apparently, to get Vulcan's defense protocols.

After all, in the scene where Spock pilots the Jellyfish out of the Narada to destroy the drill, a Vulcan scout vessel that looks just like the one in First Contact can be seen in the top left corner. Perhaps they captured it beforehand and got the information they needed?

A Vulcan wouldn't have given it out.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Nero very well could have taken a Vulcan captain hostage, his modus operandi apparently, to get Vulcan's defense protocols.

After all, in the scene where Spock pilots the Jellyfish out of the Narada to destroy the drill, a Vulcan scout vessel that looks just like the one in First Contact can be seen in the top left corner. Perhaps they captured it beforehand and got the information they needed?

A Vulcan wouldn't have given it out.

They could have used one of those tiny fish things they used on Pike to extract info.

 

[Messianni]

Nero very well could have taken a Vulcan captain hostage, his modus operandi apparently, to get Vulcan's defense protocols.

After all, in the scene where Spock pilots the Jellyfish out of the Narada to destroy the drill, a Vulcan scout vessel that looks just like the one in First Contact can be seen in the top left corner. Perhaps they captured it beforehand and got the information they needed?

A Vulcan wouldn't have given it out.

They could have used one of those tiny fish things they used on Pike to extract info.

Indeed. A Vulcan would have enough control to never give such information out, but when a toxin is forcing you to do so, you don't have a choice. Obviously the human Pike wasn't about to give out the information. In fact, they took a cue from what those captured as POW's are trained to do when interrogated: give name, rank and serial number. I thought it was a nice touch.

 

[Joker]

Vulcans would no doubt be able to put themselves into a semi-coma, or some such plot nonsense, in order to resist any such chemical manipulation.

They're Vulcans. They're magic.

The name, rank and serial number thing has been done many times throughout TNG, VOY and DS9.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

It also doesn't make any sense at all to me that a mining ship would end up being so bloody powerful when it is staffed by miners.

It's a Romulan ship from the future and it was only armed with missiles/torpedoes anyway (we never see any other weapons except the drill) so it wasn't even heavily armed. It was responsible for mining the very rare and very precious isotope Decalithium which would no doubt be of interest to space pirates meaning the ship would need some kind of defences and with it being a Romulan vessel weapons would pretty much be as standard anyway.

An array of torpedoes from the future (24th century) is no doubt capable of taking out a ship from the 23rd century, the technology difference would be enormous.

I might bet those missiles might finally be the "merculite rockets" mentioned in "Heart of Glory." Apparently they're good enough to destroy an old Klingon battlecruiser, so they'd probably be more than a match for a mid 23rd century design.

 

[Messianni]

Vulcans would no doubt be able to put themselves into a semi-coma, or some such plot nonsense, in order to resist any such chemical manipulation.

They're Vulcans. They're magic.

Vulcans are pretty plot-adaptable. "Hey guys, I totally have these inner eyelids that I haven't mentioned before and will never mention again. Cool huh?"

The name, rank and serial number thing has been done many times throughout TNG, VOY and DS9.

Cool. Do you have some examples? I just honestly can't seem to recall where off the top of my head.

 

[Joker]

DS9, certainly, whenever a crewmember was captured by the Dominion, they tended to start shouting their rank and so on.

Picard in Chain of Command, I think, as well.

Voyager... I'm sure it happened, just can't remember when.

Been a while since I saw them all.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Vulcans would no doubt be able to put themselves into a semi-coma, or some such plot nonsense, in order to resist any such chemical manipulation.

They're Vulcans. They're magic.

The name, rank and serial number thing has been done many times throughout TNG, VOY and DS9.

Maybe they'd be logical enough not to give vital information related to planetary defenses to every starship commander.

 

[Kolrad]

It went by quickly (will need to watch the movie again ), but I seem to recall Sulu piloting the Enterprise around a gigantic saucer which was either from a ship way bigger than the Enterprise (unlikely, considering the E was portrayed as the flagship and the assignment everyone wanted) or maybe one of the domes from a Federation starbase like the one the Enterprise launched from. It would make sense that Vulcan would have one, and that Nero would destroy it.

 

[darkshadow0001]

I never thought about this. But it seemed to me that maybe Vulcan didn't have many defenses-- remember how Spock seemed surprised at the 24th century Vulcan vessel he used to attack Nero with? Maybe that was a hint there isn't much defenses in this universe.