"She'll launch on time, sir - and she'll be ready."
- Thread starter gottacook
- Start date
Because a passenger train timetable is contingent on the carrier railroad getting their trains out of the way. Sometimes it's not always possible. Amtrak runs through my region of eastern and central Nebraska, though not on my railroad, but I'm told by guys who work for the BNSF that their locals are often held in the hole (on a siding, off the main line, or in a yard) for a few hours before Amtrak is scheduled to run through, lest they get in Amtrak's way and delay them. I would imagine whoever's railroad the Coast Starlight runs on doesn't put their locals in the hole for Amtrak and lets them work until right before Amtrak is scheduled through. There's often not a lot of accountability there, and without accountability, no one gives a fuck.
The (evident) centrality of the offscreen Battle With Nogura is, I think, the real basis of the script weakness here. Why should we, the audience, give a crap just because Scotty is impressed with Kirk's besting of the unseen, never mentioned again, but supposedly formidable Nogura?
Yes, but playing it sincere is also wrong here. My earlier argument still stands: Scotty may have said "And she'll be ready" sincerely, but he must have had his own doubts nonetheless. And that is what's un-Scottylike.
Yes, but playing it sincere is also wrong here. My earlier argument still stands: Scotty may have said "And she'll be ready" sincerely, but he must have had his own doubts nonetheless. And that is what's un-Scottylike.
I really like questions like this, they make you look at something so familiar from a different angle. 
It is weird when Scotty goes on about 'how 'she needs more work, sir'...then once learning that Kirk will command, suddenly it's "Thunderbirds are go!".
It would be no different than an old car, which Scotty wouuln't trust riding more than twenty miles in, but once he finds out that Kirk is driving, Scotty's the first one getting in for the ride!
Does this mean that Scotty wouldn't try his best for any commanding officer other than Kirk? Suppose if Decker had commanded the V.....O....Y.A...G.E.R mission: if he failed, would Scotty have been part of the reason?
Actually, it's worse. A bit later, Decker says "Don't worry. She'll launch. On Schedule, even if we have to tow her out with our bare hands, right, Scotty?" Scotty's "Aye, uh...(glances at Kirk)...that we will, Sir!" seems more worrisome somehow in light of the shuttle pod conversation! What's going on?
I sort of get the point above, about how Spock helping Scotty makes him look bad. But at the same time, if Spock helps McCoy out, it seems to have the effect of "legitimizing" McCoy. Weird.
Besides, all of this is ultimately a building block in the plot to lead to the removal of Decker. Why not kill two birds with one stone and have Decker killed in the transporter accident? That way, you have Kirk in a position to be forced back into command by circumstance. Then you avoid all the Noguras and Sonaks, who basically ended up being wet firecrackers of characters (to some extent this is true of Decker and Ilia, too).
What if Kirk had been in the Nogura roll at first, recommending Decker, then having to do the job himself? At least that way, Kirk can re-discover his love of command, and the ship and with all the changes between old and new, the audience will be right along with Kirk in adapting and re-discovering. I think it would have strengthened Kirk's role in the movie. Kirk could try his Corn Flakes again for the first time, and Scotty wouldn't have had to B.S. somebody about the ship's condition.
It is weird when Scotty goes on about 'how 'she needs more work, sir'...then once learning that Kirk will command, suddenly it's "Thunderbirds are go!".
It would be no different than an old car, which Scotty wouuln't trust riding more than twenty miles in, but once he finds out that Kirk is driving, Scotty's the first one getting in for the ride!
Does this mean that Scotty wouldn't try his best for any commanding officer other than Kirk? Suppose if Decker had commanded the V.....O....Y.A...G.E.R mission: if he failed, would Scotty have been part of the reason?
Actually, it's worse. A bit later, Decker says "Don't worry. She'll launch. On Schedule, even if we have to tow her out with our bare hands, right, Scotty?" Scotty's "Aye, uh...(glances at Kirk)...that we will, Sir!" seems more worrisome somehow in light of the shuttle pod conversation! What's going on?
I sort of get the point above, about how Spock helping Scotty makes him look bad. But at the same time, if Spock helps McCoy out, it seems to have the effect of "legitimizing" McCoy. Weird.
Besides, all of this is ultimately a building block in the plot to lead to the removal of Decker. Why not kill two birds with one stone and have Decker killed in the transporter accident? That way, you have Kirk in a position to be forced back into command by circumstance. Then you avoid all the Noguras and Sonaks, who basically ended up being wet firecrackers of characters (to some extent this is true of Decker and Ilia, too).
What if Kirk had been in the Nogura roll at first, recommending Decker, then having to do the job himself? At least that way, Kirk can re-discover his love of command, and the ship and with all the changes between old and new, the audience will be right along with Kirk in adapting and re-discovering. I think it would have strengthened Kirk's role in the movie. Kirk could try his Corn Flakes again for the first time, and Scotty wouldn't have had to B.S. somebody about the ship's condition.
Scotty was uncomfortable because he was already of something Decker wasn't: the change in command from Decker to Kirk for the duration of the V'Ger mission, perhaps longer if Kirk's quest to get the Enterprise back was successful. Until Kirk told him he was being replaced, Decker had no idea why Kirk was there in the first place. As Sulu stated during Kirk's brief visit to the bridge, Decker had no idea that anything regarding his command of the mission had changed. He was absent when Starfleet forwarded Kirk's transfer of command order and apparently wasn't told by anyone--including Scotty--that Kirk was aboard and wanted to speak with him.
--Sran
Scotty is complaining tht the ship and crew isn't ready to the Admiral. Sort of normal. But once Kirk spills it that he's taking command, Scott doesn't change his tune, just feels that it be worth the extra effort because Kirk is there. Scott will get it done, somehow. Because he's done it before for Kirk, barely get the ship running just in time. You don't try to disappoint someone like Captain Kirk. Captain Decker? You don't aim to disappoint, but you can afford to be realistic and he'll understand. Kirk? Kirk is use to miracles from engineering.
I rationalise the dilithium recrystallisation matter as being something science officer Spock read as a theory in a scientific journal and thought, logically, should work in practice. Scotty is more concerned with proven practicalities than academic conjectures. He'd keep up with engineering literature, but obscure theoretical physics would be a waste of his time.
And it was made even more touching knowing the close and special friendship William Shatner and James Doohan had in real life.
I just rewatched the whole "launch on time" scene (DC version) and I found Scotty to be totally within character.
There were two exchanges with Kirk and Scotty about the Enterprise's problems ... The first was when Kirk stepped off the station transporter and Scotty, who is wrapping up the refit after 18 months of work and had a projected completion date, immediately complains of Starfleet's orders to launch earlier than he had planned. He and Kirk then enter the shuttle and Scott complains a bit more. Then, and only then, does Kirk inform him of the reason (" ... alien object of unbelievable destructive power ..." and the inevitable "... only starship in interception range ..." comment). Scotty lists a few more issues with the ship, and then gives the "She'll launch ..." line after Kirk tells him of the command change.
Seems pretty clear to me that Scotty thought he had until Stardate X to have the work done, Starfleet calls him and orders him to have the ship ready in 12 hours, without clearly explaining why. He doesn't learn the real nature of the threat to Earth until Kirk tells him, in the shuttle. Once he realizes the seriousness of the situation, he assures Kirk "She'll launch on time."
There were two exchanges with Kirk and Scotty about the Enterprise's problems ... The first was when Kirk stepped off the station transporter and Scotty, who is wrapping up the refit after 18 months of work and had a projected completion date, immediately complains of Starfleet's orders to launch earlier than he had planned. He and Kirk then enter the shuttle and Scott complains a bit more. Then, and only then, does Kirk inform him of the reason (" ... alien object of unbelievable destructive power ..." and the inevitable "... only starship in interception range ..." comment). Scotty lists a few more issues with the ship, and then gives the "She'll launch ..." line after Kirk tells him of the command change.
Seems pretty clear to me that Scotty thought he had until Stardate X to have the work done, Starfleet calls him and orders him to have the ship ready in 12 hours, without clearly explaining why. He doesn't learn the real nature of the threat to Earth until Kirk tells him, in the shuttle. Once he realizes the seriousness of the situation, he assures Kirk "She'll launch on time."
^Nailed it.
Personally I think they should just have let Shatner and Doohan be their real life selves during that shuttle scene which I'm sure would have ended in a full out fist fight where I believe Doohan would have kicked Shatner's ass and Kirk would have boarded the refit Enterprise for the first time with a black eye, a broken nose and multiple bruises.
I searched the script online and couldn't find that bit (which includes Scotty talking about Kirk's meeting with Admiral Nogura)- someone correct me if I'm wrong - so I'm guessing it was improvised.
That's the only part of the movie that really makes me cringe. Really it's the only thing Shatner ever did in his entire Trek career that makes me cringe.
Considering the body of work, I can live with it.
But TOS establishes that there's no need for the Enterprise transporters there. Starfleet transporters can beam Kirk to any point of the orbiting ship - her transporter room, her bridge, her galley, halfway inside her port bulkhead if something goes wrong. In "Doomsday Machine", our heroes beam to the corridor of the derelict Constellation; in "Tholian Web", to the bridge of the equally unresponsive Defiant. And so forth.
Sure, beaming to a transporter platform is always the best bet: no cleaning ladies or misplaced furniture there to ruin your arrival. But the receiving platform need not be working.
Kirk doesn't beam to the office satellite because the transporters of the starship aren't working. Well, he sort of does. He beams there to complain about those transporters not working.
Timo Saloniemi
TMP seemed to have alternate explanations for how certain bits of TOS tech worked. It seems to imply that transportation requires both a sending and a receiving station, for instance.