History Fridge / StarTrekIntoDarkness

On the [[Headscratchers/StarTrekIntoDarkness Headscratchers]] tab.

* Why is Spock so suspicious of Carol when she first presented her credentials? Because as the ship's XO, Spock has to double check and confirm all the necessary paperwork and credentials for anyone who boards the Enterprise before Kirk can sign off on them. Transfers would have gone through him and since Carol presented a last minute transfer, this raised a red flag with him and led him to further investigate how this got past him and the scene where he asks Carol why she [[spoiler:falsified her credentials.]]

* The design of the ''Vengeance'' seems contrary to previous Federation warship designs like the ''Defiant'' and ''Intrepid'' classes; smaller, efficient designs compared to the larger explorer ships. Then I realized that the ''Vengeance'' is actually a Starfleet copy of the Narada. It's a giant, heavily armed black-hulled Uber-ship that can defeat an entire enemy fleet single handedly. This also makes Admiral Marcus' war plan against the Klingons a lot more practical. If he used the ''Vengeance'' to launch sneak attacks against Klingon targets, their first thought on hearing that a giant black ship was running rampant in their space wouldn't be "It's the Federation." It would more likely be "The Romulans are at it again, let's go blow up Romulus." Suddenly the Klingons are in a two-front war of their own doing. This also fits with Section 31's subversive tactics from Deep Space Nine and Enterprise canon.

** The ''Vengence'' was constructed for pretty much the same reason as the ''Defiant'' of [=DS=]9 fame. Both were constructed because the Federation now had new, far more powerful foes that diplomacy wouldn't work against, so purpose-built warships (instead of multi-purpose ones, like the various incarnations of the ''Enterprise'') were needed. And had this been a different universe where the chief designer wasn't an axe crazy GeneralRipper, the ''Vengence'' might have actually been a pretty cool ship and helped Starfleet quite a lot, just like the Defiant did.
** Furthermore, it also makes sense that the ''Vengence'' is so huge and obviously warlike compared to the ''Defiant'', which is classified as an "Escort Ship." ''Vengence'' was built in the aftermath of the destruction of Vulcan, with the history of the Federation being far shorter and more turbulent (the Xindi attacks, Temporal Cold War, the Romulan War, various conflicts with the Klingons, etc). Them having the will to build something like the ''Vengence'' makes more sense. But by the time of TNG, the Federation has been in a period of relative peace and stability. They claim to have moved "Beyond" such primitive things as "revenge" and they accept death. While they get shaken up by the destruction of the fleet at Wolf 359 by the Borg, the Defiant is still very small and almost cancelled, which makes a lot of sense if you consider cultural inertia. People wouldn't ''want'' a warship when all they've known is a peaceful starfleet, and it takes the Dominion to shake them out of their stupor and start building more straight-up warships. The younger Federation has no cultural inertia, so it is more capable of building these vessels with fewer moral hangups about it.

* Nero explains why there is no ship like the Vengence in the original timeline nor why we ever heard of Admiral Marcus. It's likely that in the original timeline Marcus either never made it Admiral or never had the clout to build something like the Vengence, but Nero showing up, the Narada obliterating the USS Kelvin and then doing the same to a fleet of ships, destroying Vulcan, and then nearly destroying Earth sent the Federation into overdrive inventing all sorts of fancy new technologies to help bridge the gap and permitting warmongers like Marcus to be able to advance their agenda. One comes to think The Borg will probably have a much harder time when they show up.

* If Spock hadn't made the suggestion to abide by Earthly rules, the ''Enterprise'' would have played the perfect patsy [[spoiler:as a pretext for war with the Klingons]]. Kirk dodged a bullet by listening to his First Commander.

* It seems Admiral Marcus was remarkably fast to decide to give Kirk back the Enterprise after he was supposed to be demoted. That said, [[spoiler: Kirk is the perfect prawn in Admiral Marcus's plans.]] Aside from Kirk's (albeit limited) experience as a Captain in hairy situations, and his desire for vengeance [[spoiler: for the death of his father figure Pike]], there is also his reputation for being a MilitaryMaverick. [[spoiler: If Marcus's plan worked perfectly, then the chance of it coming back to him would be next to zero. Starfleet would chalk it up to Kirk breaking the rules ''again'' and focus more on preparing for their war against the Klingons, rather than investigating the events leading up to it.]]

* It seems Admiral Marcus was remarkably fast to decide to give Kirk back the Enterprise after he was supposed to be demoted. That said, [[spoiler: Kirk is the perfect prawn in Admiral Marcus's plans.]] Aside from Kirk's (albeit limited) experience as a Captain in hairy situations, and his desire for vengeance [[spoiler: for the death of his father figure Pike]], there is also his reputation for being a MilitaryMaverick. [[spoiler: If Marcus's plan worked perfectly, then the chance of it coming back to him would be next to zero. Starfleet would chalk it up to Kirk breaking the rules 'again' and focus more on preparing for their war against the Klingons, rather than investigating the events leading up to it.]]

* It seems Admiral Marcus was remarkably fast to decide to give Kirk back the Enterprise after he was supposed to be demoted. That said, [[spoiler: Kirk is the perfect prawn in Admiral Marcus's plans.]] Aside from Kirk's (albeit limited) experience as a Captain in hairy situations, and his desire for vengeance [[spoiler: for the death of his father figure Pike]], there is also his reputation for being a MilitaryMaverick. [[spoiler: If Marcus's plan worked perfectly, then the chance of it coming back to him would be next to zero. Starfleet would chalk it up to Kirk breaking the rules *again* and focus more on preparing for their war against the Klingons, rather than investigating the events leading up to it.]]

* Mentioned above, the first ship of a class is usually named after said class. (Constitution Class = USS Constitution, Intrepid Class = USS Intrepid, ETC). There could literally be a dozen other Dreadnought Class ships out there and we and Starfleet have not idea where or how many. The most advance warship of the Federation, hundreds of governments and criminals angry at the Federation and it only takes one to pilot it. Furthermore, who knows how many other Dreadnoughts are out there under the custody of Section 31? Nobody in Starfleet has any legitimate accountability of these ships, and who knows what the men formerly under Admiral Marcus's command might choose to do with such a force, either against Starfleet, or even worse, on their behalf, against the Klingons or Romulans or Gorn or some other group. They could start a massive interstellar war, with the Federation and Starfleet left to answer for it.

* Why does not one, not two, but three Kilngon ships corner Kirk and co. on Kronos when they were positive they'd be fine in what is an uninhabited area? Because the Klingons are already searching for "Harrison." When Uhura explains what the crew is doing by saying they are hunting a "criminal," she doesn't identify his species, crime, or anything beyond the fact he has killed humans. It is the Klingon commander who identifies her target as human. The Klingons realized a human had teleported to their planet, but figured he was just a spy. It's why they want to capture the crew, and why there are so few of them.

* Spock's shout of [[spoiler: KHAAAAAAN!]]. Is it {{Narm}}? Sure. It's also an emotional reaction from someone who has spent all his life repressing emotion rather than learning normal ways to vent it. In [[Film/StarTrek the past]], this kind of emotional breakdown has led to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of the person who triggered it. That's impossible in this case, since [[spoiler: Khan]] is not physically present. His human colleagues might have cursed, yelled illogical insults about [[spoiler: Khan's]] parentage, made overblown threats, punched walls, etc.--coping techniques that Spock has never learned. No wonder his reaction is a little {{Narm}}-y--the poor guy has no better tools for dealing with this once his emotional control fails.

* In the [[Film/StarTrek previous film]], Spock said that the purpose of the ''Kobayashi Maru'' test is to find out how [[SecretTestOfCharacter a starship captain would act in the face of certain death]]. In this film, Kirk [[spoiler: finds this out for himself '''twice'''.]] ''Into Darkness'' was the true ''Kobayashi Maru'' test for Kirk. .

* It may seem confusing [[BrokenAesop that the main message is not to seek vengeance when most of the movie is all about vengeance]], particular with Kirk's (and later Spock's) fight with Harrison. But it makes perfect sense when you realized what would have happened if they hadn't stopped their NoHoldsBarredBeatdown. If Kirk had killed Harrison right there when Harrison surrendered, [[spoiler:he would not have learned of the fact that Admiral Marcus was conspiring to start a war with the Klingons by sacrificing the crew of the ''Enterprise'']]. Likewise, if Kirk had not followed Spock's advice and simply went along with Marcus' plan to launch stealth torpedo to kill Harrison as opposed to arresting him, then the Enterprise would have provoked an unintentional attack on the Klingon's home territory, causing an outbreak of war between the Federation and the Klingons [[spoiler:just as Admiral Marcus had planned]]. And if Spock had proceeded to kill Harrison to fulfill his vengeance [[spoiler:after Kirk's death]], then he would have lost the only chance of saving [[spoiler:Kirk's life]].

** Or, going by naming conventions, it is not a model of the U.S.S. Vengeance but of the U.S.S. Dreadnought which would be 'officially' still on the drawing board.

-->'''Harrison''': Darkness is coming.

* A good number of complaints about this movie stem from the fact that there are numerous technologies that shouldn't really exist yet, even with the help of a super-human brain: for instance, the ''Vengeance'''s extremely powerful weapon systems, its advanced warp, the streamlining of its command and control, teleporters that can bypass shields, as well as Harrison's teleporter that can reach other star systems. But a lot of these advances can actually be explained another way: the ''Narada.'' The ''Narada'' presumably left behind pieces of debris on multiple occasions, not least its planet-driller beam, that were not swallowed up by the black hole at the end of the last movie. Moreover, all said pieces would be within Federation territory. Section 31 merely had to swoop in, make off with the advanced tech, and reverse-engineer from there. This would neatly explain the revolutionary (and seemingly impossible) technological breakthroughs on board the ''Vengeance'': Harrison wasn't the brains behind the advances, he just helped them along.
** Not to mention the sensor logs of the ''Enterprise''. Section 31 would have been able to get the sensor logs, enough to reverse engineer parts of the ship, with the debris filling in the gaps.
** Harrison himself says that the main reason he was employed wasn't because of his knowledge, it was because of his savagery and being a warrior. Harrison wasn't necessarily coming up with new technology, he was coming up with ways to ''use'' new technology as weapons which someone less violent might not actually think of.

* Spock's shout of [[spoiler: KHAAAAAAN!]]. Is it {{Narm}}? Sure. It's also an emotional reaction from someone who has spent all his life repressing emotion rather than learning normal ways to vent it. In [[StarTrek2009 the past]], this kind of emotional breakdown has led to a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown of the person who triggered it. That's impossible in this case, since [[spoiler: Khan]] is not physically present. His human colleagues might have cursed, yelled illogical insults about [[spoiler: Khan's]] parentage, made overblown threats, punched walls, etc.--coping techniques that Spock has never learned. No wonder his reaction is a little {{Narm}}-y--the poor guy has no better tools for dealing with this once his emotional control fails.