What Happened to Vulcans defences and ships?

[Jeri]

The Vulcan High Command had pick up a anomaly near the neutral zone, that is causing seismic activity on Vulcan. The anomaly appears to be a lightning storm in space. This message was sent out before any drilling started.

As I mentioned above, a storm in the neutral zone would not cause seismic activity on Vulcan. It's nowhere near Vulcan.

 

[Squiggy]

I too was bugged by how unprotected Earth was when Nero showed up. Nobody even tries to stop him; all we see is groups of Starfleet cadets running out of the buildings to stare up google-eyed as Nero attempts to destroy their world.

What would you like for them do to? Fire their phasers wildly into the sky?

 

[Captain Fine]

In the ENT era, Earth's military was Starfleet, Andoria's was the Imperial Guard, and Vulcan and Tellar had their own militaries as well. When the Federation was founded, all those militaries were folded into the Federation Starfleet (not to be confused with the earlier Earth Starfleet).

Thus Vulcan does not have VULCAN ships protecting it, and Earth does not have EARTH ships protecting it. Vulcan and Earth would have detachments of Starfleet personnel and ships, but no Vulcan or Earth militaries. After all, US states and Canadian provinces don't have their own militaries (police, yes, but Starfleet aren't police).

 

[Anticitizen]

I too was bugged by how unprotected Earth was when Nero showed up. Nobody even tries to stop him; all we see is groups of Starfleet cadets running out of the buildings to stare up google-eyed as Nero attempts to destroy their world.

What would you like for them do to? Fire their phasers wildly into the sky?

Seeing as how Kirk and Sulu disabled the drill with hand weapons... hey, it'd be worth a shot!

 

[KingstonTrekker]

The Vulcan ships and defences were destroyed by the Narada. Just like the 47 Klingon ships.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Nero's ship was from 150 years in the future and upgraded with Borg technology. Any ships or defense at Vulcan didn't stand a chance against Nero.

 

[Richard Baker]

I still wonder about that huge saucer shaped wreckage the Enterprise dives under when it first arrives at Vulcan. The Enterprise is supposed to be about 700m long according to sources and this saucer is easily three times that in diameter. Was it some Vulcan orbital station?

 

[Jeri]

Somebody already pointed out that something like Earth's space dock platforms could have served for that.

 

[Omega_Glory]

11 times...13 times. You folks are hardcore Trekkies.

The idea of planetary defenses is just another one of those details that seemed to slip JJ's mind. And since the film is marketed towards kids more than anything else, it really didn't matter. Kinda like the Coyote vs Roadrunner cartoons...it only mattered that the coyote got smashed. The details weren't important.

 

[writergal]

I too was bugged by how unprotected Earth was when Nero showed up. Nobody even tries to stop him; all we see is groups of Starfleet cadets running out of the buildings to stare up google-eyed as Nero attempts to destroy their world.

What would you like for them do to? Fire their phasers wildly into the sky?

Well, no, but I'd like to have seen some kind of planetary defense system try to take Nero out so it doesn't look like Earth has no defenses at all. A few vessels flying around the Narada firing at it maybe - of course they'd get taken out pretty quick, but at least it would have looked like we HAD a defense system. Even having someone (Sulu or Chekov maybe) say that Earth's defenses have been disabled would have done the job. As it was, Earth looked like a sitting duck just waiting to be attacked. That's all.

 

[Captain Fine]

I too was bugged by how unprotected Earth was when Nero showed up. Nobody even tries to stop him; all we see is groups of Starfleet cadets running out of the buildings to stare up google-eyed as Nero attempts to destroy their world.

What would you like for them do to? Fire their phasers wildly into the sky?

Well, no, but I'd like to have seen some kind of planetary defense system try to take Nero out so it doesn't look like Earth has no defenses at all. A few vessels flying around the Narada firing at it maybe - of course they'd get taken out pretty quick, but at least it would have looked like we HAD a defense system. Even having someone (Sulu or Chekov maybe) say that Earth's defenses have been disabled would have done the job. As it was, Earth looked like a sitting duck just waiting to be attacked. That's all.

Sulu could have said "They've broken through the Mars Defense Perimeter!"

 

[Omega_Glory]

V'Ger disabled the planetary defenses in TMP as mentioned by Uhura, so it's been mentioned before. They just let it slip their mind in this movie. That of course means Federation worlds don't have ground based phaser cannons, defense satellites, or ships stationed there for defense in JJTrek. They'd better hope they don't get into any real wars.