TWOK plot hole I just noticed

[Shazam!]

I watched this the other day. There is no 'plot hole' at all. There is a cut between post-Reliant fight and approaching Regula 1. Days may have passed in that time for all we know. If there had been dialogue in the same scene as post-Reliant fight saying they're approaching Regula 1 then that would've been a headscratcher but the cut covers it.

 

[Timo]

In general terms, our heroes and villains are out in the sticks here. The plot benefits from travel times being long, quite regardless of whether this is because distances are long, or because travel across certain stretches is slow for some reason.

And 12 hours is in the Goldilocks zone, sort of. Any longer, and Kirk might just as well turn back and ask for somebody else to deal with Khan, as the time would be too big a percentage of the total of two-three days from point-of-summons to Regula, and "they are the only ship in the quadrant close enough to do the job" would no longer apply.

Any shorter, and the sense of isolation would be diminished. Plus, Kirk is justified in thinking this may be a mere clerical error and technical fumble if he spends a day or two approaching and then does a final set of hails half a day before reaching the destination - but if he gets to within an hour or two and still hasn't made contact, he really ought to be declaring galactic emergency and preheating his phasers.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Scotchy]

Maybe they were scared of pushing the engines (understaffed ship?). After all, they were givin' 'em all they've got!

 

[FormerLurker]

The ship wasn't understaffed. They had a competent skeleton crew - of instructors, and a class of Academy seniors going on a pleasure cruise as a graduation party, all of whom now found themselves to be in it up to their necks. Scotty and his staff knew just how far they could push it before something important goes "POP!" and they went just below that. The question becomes, how long did it take from there?

 

[Maurice]

I watched this the other day. There is no 'plot hole' at all. There is a cut between post-Reliant fight and approaching Regula 1. Days may have passed in that time for all we know. If there had been dialogue in the same scene as post-Reliant fight saying they're approaching Regula 1 then that would've been a headscratcher but the cut covers it.

When they arrive at Regula One Bones reports of the bodies that "rigor hasn't set in" and when they find Terrell he indicates that Khan "slaughtered" the Regula One personnel PRIOR to leaving to "blow [Kirk] to bits." Ergo, the time from when the Enterprise first encounters Reliant to the time they find the bodies has to be less than 6 hours, as rigor typically sets in between 2 and 6 hours (average of 3).

So, in short, the timeline makes zip sense.

 

[publiusr]

A bigger mystery might be why we saw Kirk and not Dr. Marcus at the beginning of the Genesis pitch in ST III, unless he had a prior involvement--or that Genesis was unauthorized and he made it part of his report.

 

[Maurice]

A bigger mystery might be why we saw Kirk and not Dr. Marcus at the beginning of the Genesis pitch in ST III, unless he had a prior involvement--or that Genesis was unauthorized and he made it part of his report.

The real-world answer, of course, is that Carol's not in the film, so having her appear for a few seconds would cost money (gotta pay Bibi Besch for re-use of the clip plus residuals). Also, by having Kirk appear on the tape it avoids confusion for people who didn't see TWOK ("who's she?") and makes a tighter narrative line since the conflict in TWOK is Kirk v. Kruge, and this is how Kruge learns about Kirk's involvement.

In movie, Kirk, like Shatner, took Carol's lines.

 

[Timo]

Why would Klingons have access to that report? Because it was specifically created for the Council presentation, using clips from the original Marcus scientific report in connection with exposition by the man-on-the-spot.

It's not as if Kirk would have had anything better to do than dictate that thing, as part of his essay on "What I Did On My Birthday And Why So Many People Got Killed".

Timo Saloniemi