Whoever the villain is - why now big 'threat' to Starfleet?

[The Wormhole]

After Nero was imprisoned, why didn't the Klingons dismantle his ship?

That's a whole can of works right there that has been debated constantly these past three years. A recent issue of IDW's ongoing series even made a joke about it. Although IDW also attempted to explain it with their Nero series back in 2009. The less said about that explanation, the better. It involves the Borg and V'Ger. Seriously.

 

[bullethead]

The synopsis spoke of a threat from within.
Nero destroyed several starships as if they were nothing, destroyed Vulcan and threatened Earth directly.
Maybe that caused some starfleet members (Weller and his buddies) to start asking for less exploration and peaceful missions and a move towards more aggressiveness and militarization.
Enter Cumberbatch, who is used by those factions to spread even more terror and force even those who still view starfleet as a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada to change their views.

Could be. Could also be an atmosphere where some hawks in Starfleet see a chance to marginalize the Klingons. After all, Nero destroyed 47 of their ships. They have to be substantially weakened.

Probably the most unrealistic part of Star Trek was the destruction of 47 Klingon ships. Not to change the subject but, that just didn't make sense. After Nero was imprisoned, why didn't the Klingons dismantle his ship?

That's why I just ignore that subplot and assume that Nero spent the 25 years between blowing up the Kelvin and capturing Spock fixing the Narada and building missiles.

 

[Enterprise is Great]

The synopsis spoke of a threat from within.
Nero destroyed several starships as if they were nothing, destroyed Vulcan and threatened Earth directly.
Maybe that caused some starfleet members (Weller and his buddies) to start asking for less exploration and peaceful missions and a move towards more aggressiveness and militarization.
Enter Cumberbatch, who is used by those factions to spread even more terror and force even those who still view starfleet as a peacekeeping and humanitarian armada to change their views.

Could be. Could also be an atmosphere where some hawks in Starfleet see a chance to marginalize the Klingons. After all, Nero destroyed 47 of their ships. They have to be substantially weakened.

Probably the most unrealistic part of Star Trek was the destruction of 47 Klingon ships. Not to change the subject but, that just didn't make sense. After Nero was imprisoned, why didn't the Klingons dismantle his ship?

Since the Nero in Klingon prison scenes were deleted there's no reason to hold them canon. So no problem. Nero was doing something else.

 

[Set Harth]

But still destroyed 47 Klingon ships.

 

[F. King Daniel]

If we re-call all the TOS enemies that Kirk & Crew encountered - they were all defeated within 1-2 episodes with almost no implication of complete doom for Earth/Starfleet otherwise.

A bit of team work, use of wits, blue phaser beams or even some kirk-fu subdued any threat, land or in space.

In this alternative timeline, what could possibly give the mysterious TOS era villain such chops to be a bigger threat than the future Romulan Nero posed?

And why wasn't such a villain, device, power not encountered and threatened Earth in the original TOS time line?

Just one year before this movie starts, the Federation lost one of their founding members (Vulcan), 7 starships, thousands of officers. They're vulnerable, and so any number of intergalactic oppertunists are going to be seeing now as their chance to strike. Also, the Klingons are no doubt pissed and reeling after they lost 47 ships.

In an interview to promote the Star Trek Ongoing comic, Mike Johnson likened the events of Star Trek to the temporal butterfly flapping its wings, and Into Darkness as the resulting tornado.

 

[anh165]

Just one year before this movie starts, the Federation lost one of their founding members (Vulcan), 7 starships, thousands of officers. They're vulnerable, and so any number of intergalactic oppertunists are going to be seeing now as their chance to strike. Also, the Klingons are no doubt pissed and reeling after they lost 47 ships.

In an interview to promote the Star Trek Ongoing comic, Mike Johnson likened the events of Star Trek to the temporal butterfly flapping its wings, and Into Darkness as the resulting tornado.

Well this would require some very intricate story writing to justify.

We already know the villain is motivated by 'vengence' and he is billed by the official synopsis as a one man weapon of mass destruction.

Somehow in this time line, you have someone who is determined to destroy Starfleet/Earth and has the means to do so.

That means is from technology or some super power which never came about in the original time line and even if such power was undiscovered in the original time line, over 100 years elapsed in the trek franchise - plenty of time for this threat to manifest itself there.

I can understand the events caused by Nero going back in time leading to a character suddently having a motive - it is just the acquistion of power that gives him such an edge that is puzzling.

 

[F. King Daniel]

He may have had the powers but no motive in Trek Prime. Or mayne he lacks powers at all, and Cumberbatch simply meant he was extremely gifted at manipulation and hand-to-hand combat, and simply lacked the oppertunity. He may be the background Harrison from The Original Series, who lived a content and unspectacular life in the original timeline. We don't know enough about the character or why he's doing what he's doing to judge just yet.

I'll say this - if he is an awesome force with a grudge against the Federation and a long lifespan and there's no good reason why he didn't act out against them in the prime timeline, I look forward to reading how the post-Nemesis Next Generation crew deal with him in the novels!