So, rewatched STB this week; Mission into the nebula...

[F. King Daniel]

I'm reminded of Spock's line to Bones in ST'09: "if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will gladly defer to your medical expertise."

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

It's the stuff fanfics and novelizations are made of - internal monologues, moments of philosophizing without interrupting the action overmuch.

 

[TRON JA307020]

That they don't show a Board of Inquiry doesn't mean one didn't occur. Do you think people going to see the movie really wanted to see that?

When in the movie would you have liked to see Kirk bemoan the loss of life? When he had his hands full saving whom he could, or would a token one-liner at the end of the film have sufficed?

Maybe when they were having their party at the end. Maybe a few words for the dead.

 

[Ovation]

They toasted "to absent friends".

 

[Timo]

I do wonder about the rescue mission. Apparently, the Federation originally thought the rubble nebula was a strict no-go zone (presumably much for the same reasons given in ST5:TFF: it ate all their probes), but now they are willing to risk a full starship in there. When Kirk fails to come back, does Yorktown think that he is on (unpredictable) schedule and in no trouble, that he is delayed and in slight trouble, or that he is dead from a collision with the rubble?

Apparently, just as in ST5:TFF, the Federation is being way too cautious. Plenty of ships have navigated the rubble field just fine, only to fall prey to Krall. But if the UFP is cautious, why do they build Yorktown right next to this no-go zone? The "neutral space" argument is pretty weak, as there'd be plenty of neutral space available without no-go rubble fields next to it. One could rather argue that Yorktown exists in order to study the nebula, but has not yet gotten to it due to delays in fielding the required tech (they're still building the ship that will become E-A) or policy changes. But why would such a research base be an exceptionally complex floating city?

The story gets going smoothly enough, but in retrospect it could and should have gone more smoothly.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[JasonJ]

Agreed, Timo.

I think a few lines of exposition would have helped a bit too. Something along the lines of "Things went well with the review board I see, Captain." Or "My God Bones, all the lives we lost in that damned nebula..."

Or even our heroes lamenting why they built Yorktown, with all of its civilians so darn closed to a strange and unknown nebula, "Spock, why in the hell did they decide to build Yorktown here of all places?!" "To provide ample opportunity to study the nebula's unique characteristics, Doctor. It seemed logical at the time."

 

[Timo]

The location is scary. We see the rubble field begin just a few kilometers off the bubble of the station, in the scenes of the Swarm attacking the station. The rocks move, at moderate speed but unpredictably, in the scenes where the hero ship pushes towards Altamid. Putting these together ought to put some asteroids together with Yorktown every day, too! (Perhaps that's what those phaser turrets do most of the time, play goalie to 'em space rocks?)

It's not a contradiction or a problem. But it's a mystery, in a plot that did not require extra mysteries. I mean, it's good and well that the Whale Probe or the Nexus remain mysteries, or that the state of Khan's mind or the nature of the ancient culture Krall found is open to interpretation. But Yorktown is a sideshow that should facilitate rather than complicate the universe of the movie.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DonIago]

Perhaps the rocks exist in a phased state such that they generate sensor interference but are actually mostly harmless.