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Romulan drill in San Francisco Bay

What sort of Borg tech was mentioned as being installed on the Narada? Self repair? Weapon adaptation? Other than the big mining drill, that seemed to be original equipment, all we saw were fairly standard looking weapons.

Narada's octopus tentacles were apparentally the result of the Borg upgrade. No I don't know how or why Borg tech turns a mining ship into a fucking space octopus instead of a cube or a sphere.
 
Probably a side effect of the self-regeneration capability not being adapted quite right by the Romulans.
 
Narada wouldn't have become a cube or sphere because it wasn't assimilated, it was upgraded with Romulan technology based on reverse-engineered Borg stuff.

The upgrades gave Narada self-repair ability, advanced shielding and a smart computer. According to Countdown, Narada's offensive weapons are all repurposed mining tools.

Yeah, it sounds like fanwank, but Narada really does look Borg inspired, both inside and out. But I guess after decades of being told by Richard Arnold and Rick Berman that the tie-ins are worthless, everyone's been brainwashed:lol:.
 
I guess there's some reversed causality at work here: the Borg look like something that's grown out of an oil derrick, so it's no wonder a futuristic oil derrick would look like the Borg...

Really, what's a Trek mining vessel going to look like? Probably quite unlike a starship... Those tentacles would be very nice for hugging asteroids, for one thing.

Do we see any evidence of "self-repair" in the movie? After George Kirk broke the mining ship, it may well have stayed broken till the bitter end, two decades of repair time or not.

The movie doesn't really give Nero any time to get any Borg enhancements. In Countdown, he spends quite a few days avenging the loss of Romulus, blowing up UFP disaster relief ships and slaughtering surviving Romulan politicians, before gaining access to the Borg tech. In the movie, Spock flies to stop the supernova, does the deed (a few minutes too late), and then heads back to Vulcan, at which point Nero intercepts him. Ships in STXI are very fast, and the Jellyfish is supposed to be faster still - so Nero simply cannot afford to take the time to refit his ship in the 24th century. Given Spock's description of the events (and why would he actively lie there, even if he glosses over some details such as which star exactly did blow up?), it's a miracle Nero even has enough time to come to sufficient grips with what just happened, so that he can have his "conversation" with Robau.

Timo Saloniemi
 
But I guess after decades of being told by Richard Arnold and Rick Berman that the tie-ins are worthless, everyone's been brainwashed:lol:.

Ships in STXI are very fast, and the Jellyfish is supposed to be faster still - so Nero simply cannot afford to take the time to refit his ship in the 24th century. Given Spock's description of the events (and why would he actively lie there, even if he glosses over some details such as which star exactly did blow up?), it's a miracle Nero even has enough time to come to sufficient grips with what just happened, so that he can have his "conversation" with Robau.

Timo Saloniemi

And this is exactly my point. I have no problem whatsoever accepting a book, comic, or whatever, that's supposed to be a tie-in to a movie or show. However, when the events of said tie-in do not mesh with what it's supposed to be tied in to, then the idea of a tie-in becomes pointless. Really, other than Countdown being a "valentine" for TNG (and not a very good one at that), it's just fanwank. There's no reason why the Narada couldn't have looked the way it did in the movie without enhancements. Just because it doesn't look like a warbird (and it was never supposed to, since it's a mining ship), doesn't mean that it's not a RSE ship. I mean, look at the Scimitar. That ship looked nothing like a warbird but it was a RSE ship.
 
I also thought about the drill. But it seems unlikely that it would give them advanced weapons. What they could do, however, is recover thos missiles Nero fired at Spock which missed and then make more of them.
 
I find it hard to believe that this drill from a simple mining ship is capable of:

• Disrupting long range sensors
• Jamming communications
• Rendering transporters useless

Just think about that for a moment. They have this simple tool that is the capable of rendering a lot of key space traveling components useless. Why would Nero ever turn the darn thing off? Is he afraid he might hit someone with the beam while traveling through space? The film NEVER establishes that the drill consumes enough power to hinder standard operations, so why doesn't he just keep the drill on?

And need I point out that this device is less of a drill and more like a glorified phaser array? Those things that shoot constant beams of energy that cuts into solid objects and has even been used on planet environments like land? Calling this thing a drill is like me calling a gatling gun a lawnmower even though all I do is shoot at the grass.

And why cut in the middle of the water? The moment you turn that drill off, all that water is going to flood down into the hole and refill it with dirt.

Freaking context sensitive plot devices. And to think everyone praised this film for not using technobabble to pull things out of their @($ in order to save the day.
 
I find it hard to believe that this drill from a simple mining ship is capable of:

• Disrupting long range sensors
• Jamming communications
• Rendering transporters useless

Just think about that for a moment. They have this simple tool that is the capable of rendering a lot of key space traveling components useless. Why would Nero ever turn the darn thing off? Is he afraid he might hit someone with the beam while traveling through space? The film NEVER establishes that the drill consumes enough power to hinder standard operations, so why doesn't he just keep the drill on?

And need I point out that this device is less of a drill and more like a glorified phaser array? Those things that shoot constant beams of energy that cuts into solid objects and has even been used on planet environments like land? Calling this thing a drill is like me calling a gatling gun a lawnmower even though all I do is shoot at the grass.

And why cut in the middle of the water? The moment you turn that drill off, all that water is going to flood down into the hole and refill it with dirt.

Freaking context sensitive plot devices. And to think everyone praised this film for not using technobabble to pull things out of their @($ in order to save the day.

Deep breaths, deep breaths...

Really, just calm down and don't take shit like this so seriously. I guarantee you'll enjoy the film a lot better.

Well, maybe not you...:lol:
 
Really, just calm down and don't take shit like this so seriously. I guarantee you'll enjoy the film a lot better.

Believe me, if the characters were a bit more likable and didn't always resort to being a#$&oles to do things, I would have looked passed a lot of those details about the drill and a lot of other crap. If I don't care about the characters, I'm going to try and find other things that interest me.
 
I don't see any reason the drill shouldn't be as powerful as it's depicted as being. That's a fairly intuitive balance between military and civilian tech: the military likes to create small, portable or otherwise easily deliverable bangs, while the civilian sector has all the time in the world to set up really big bangs that get the job done at once.

Still, it would seem that the drill is a fairly central piece of the Narada, and quite possibly very energy-hungry - much more so than all the firepower of a standard starship, judging by the output. Even though the Narada herself is a big mother, there are bound to be limitations on how long the drill can be kept active and under what conditions. Hell, if its "jamming" properties really are that potent, it may be impossible to activate it unless it's dangling at the very end of its tether, or else the mothership gets jammed as well...

Why not shoot at water? It's just water - easier to get through than rock, unless the drill beam is bothered by ionized gases (like a real world drilling laser or particle beam might be). The geologically active California is supposedly full of especially vulnerable spots; one of them might be exactly where the drill hit, allowing Nero a quick way to complete his planeticide while simultaneously jamming Starfleet Headquarters (and possibly also holding that facility hostage against any massive nuclear or antimatter counterstrike Earth might wish to attempt).

Water flowing into the hole isn't a problem if rock flowing into it wasn't in the Vulcan case...

Timo Saloniemi
 
after decades of being told by Richard Arnold and Rick Berman that the tie-ins are worthless, everyone's been brainwashed:lol:.

Neither RA nor RB ever said that ST tie-ins were worthless. RA, speaking for Gene Roddenberry, said many times that we shouldn't expect the creators and screenwriters of filmed ST to attempt to acknowledge the diverse range of licensed tie-in material.

It's certainly not "worthless", but it is bought, read and enjoyed by less than 2% of the actual audience.
 
I wonder why he didn't bother to target Starfleet with the drill anyway? Take out the control center for the defense forces even if you don't manage to destroy the planet. He's just offshore anyway, why not go for maximum damage?
 
I think that Nero wanted everyone at Starfleet to see what was coming.
My only real problem with the drill is that you're going to hit molten rock pretty fast and never really reach the core. As soon as you turn off the drill, the hole will fill up with lava. Giving you one really big volcano. Not the nice neat hole we saw on Vulcan. Unless there's some unseen forcefield tech at work acting as casing to keep the hole open.
 
Then why not target the city itself? If you're planning on taking out the whole planet why not plan for partial results, particularly since you know they're onto you. First thing, decapitate the Federation/Starfleet and destroy the HQ.
 
It's just a drill. Is there any indication that its technology was so advanced that Starfleet would want it?
 
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