History Headscratchers / StarTrek2009

** There are two big defferences between the destruction of the ''Intrepid'' and the destruction of Vulcan: 1) Spock was witnessing the destruction of Vulcan, so he could prepare himself for it, and 2) he was in command and had to maintain his facade in front of the crew. Odds are that it was part of why he snapped so brutally at Kirk: he was already on the breaking point from being hit with the psychic onslaught of billions of Vulcans dying.

*** Wat? It was 2387 when the movie started. 400 years earlier would mean mean that Star Trek 2009 happened in 1987. I know Nero fought Kirk, but I'm pretty sure it was Young Kirk, not [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome I'm Going To Save The Whales Kirk.]]

**** I have the compiled Star Trek Nero comic series by IDW sitting in front of me and the above poster is correct, when he/she talks about the Rura Penthe, the sentient machine entity, ect. In fact, "kindred spirit" was the exact term Nero used to describe the sentient ship/machine that started calling to the Narada.

** Not really cannon, but I just decided that in addition to traveling backwards in time they also shifted over to a parallel dimension that, aside from slightly different technology, would have been almost identical had Nero not done his thing.

**** It could be a reasonable handwave that a neighboring star would catch Romulas as off-guard as it did. They did ''detect'' it, after all, and Spock Prime's mission was to stop the supernova before it reached Romulas, but he failed. The fact that the Romulans of that time weren't killing everything in sight (Spock Prime seemed to be ambassador in an official capacity) suggests that the movie is subtly acknowledging "Nemesis," which means the Romulans are trying to get over their recent losses in the Dominion War, Shinzon's coup, and the military's coup against Shinzon. Remus probably didn't just slink back into its former slave role, which is why suddenly there are giant Romulan mining [[strike: eldrict abominations with NaughtyTentacles]] ships, so there's also a massive change in the economy, ''plus'' there's possible political ramifications over the fact that Shinzon managed to build the Scimitar and its WMD ''right under their noses'' and then tried to use it while acting as the leader of the government. The Romulas Nero comes from couldn't possibly have been well enough on its feet to just "deal" with a crisis, even/especially one of apocalyptic proportions. What were they going to do, use all the new mining ships like the Narada to evacuate the planet to somewhere safe before the supernova hit? There were probably more of them than Warbirds at the time. Seeking outside help doesn't necessarily solve the problem, either; aside from the aforementioned possible political problems (which would be more akin to red tape; nobody would ''ultimately'' consider Shinzon an excuse to just let the planet be disintegrated, but the subject would inevitably come up), ''The Undiscovered Country'' dealt with evacuating a homeworld and the ''best'' they could do was be certain that the evacuation would be complete ''sometime'' within the fifty years they have. If the supernova was a neighboring star, Romulas wouldn't have had enough time.

** No, Spock's initial reaction after the crisis was to have a member of Starfleet subdued and jettisoned on an icy world on the edge of Vulcan's star system for the crime of disagreeing with him. A planet that, by the way, is inhabited by a 2-being Starfleet team (with a Tribble), a marooned time-displaced Vulcan, and an odd assortment of EldritchAbominations that view bipeds as food. Even if Jim didn't press charges, Spock was undoubtedly denied promotion based on that, if nothing else.

** In addition to that, the whole two setting only is bad too. If you're encoutering all new alien species, what happens if you run into a species that the stun setting kills, or conversely the kill setting just makes them
madder?

**** On the TOS Type 1 and on the TNG "dustbuster" types the intensity control
was right next to the trigger, so you could easiy increase the setting.

[[folder: The Bucket List]]

[[folder: Defying Gravity]]

[[folder: 2387]]

[[folder: Immunity Syndrome Spock]]

[[folder: Two-Timing Vulcan]]

[[folder: Emotionally Compromised]]

[[folder: This mean I caught is bigger and already dead, but that tiny tooth pick looks tastier.]]

[[folder: "Russian whizz-kid."

[[folder: "Yes, I believe you are."

** Due to the "butterfly effect" (which was also shown in many ST alternate universe and time travel episodes) the actions of a few can lead to drastic changes in what happens to a planet or in the culture of the sector.
- So, Chekov's parents in the alternate reality did not conceive him at the same time as Chekov in TOS. He is genetically similar but not identical. So, his hair is different.

* Once it's possible to teleport people onto moving ships that are light years away from you... why do you still need the ships?
** It's a lot harder to boldly go where no one has gone before when you're essentially guessing where to send them with a teleporter (did you forget that it's first ever usage nearly resulted in one of the subjects drowning due to being teleported into a pipeline?), and as we've been shown on multiple occasions teleporters can and often do fail (The Motion Picture having one of the more gruesome examples), not to mention being easily blocked by practically everyone and their dog. Beyond that, ships have other uses, their function as a military force being among them.

* Is it just me, or does Sarek look more than a little like Count Chocula?

* In the 2009 film, Young Kirk is displayed stealing a car and driving it off a cliff as a means of establishing what a reckless character this boy is. Firstly, this is several hundred years in the future, this is like stealing a horse and cart, it wouldn't be percieved as cool, it would be percieved as bizarre. Secondly, what is that car running on? It has been stated that in Star Trek, fossil based fuels are no longer used or produced, and gas goes bad if left in the tank for too long.

* How does one go from an out-of-control cadet to starship captain in the course of one mission? Granted, Kirk's performance in the Nero Incursion was exceptional (if erratic) but he's still got a lot to learn before he can sit center seat on a starship. It's not all about firing phasers. I doubt the US Navy would take an Annapolis midshipman and give him command of the USS Nimitz no matter how well he did on his summer cruise.
** Scroll up a bit, would you?

* For that matter, Spock Prime would have had to have gone into the wormhole first, not second, to arrive later in time.

** That's assuming the time you entered has an effect on the time you exit. It could be something else, such as the mass of the vessel and/or the speed at which it entered, the Narada exceeding the Jellyfish in both of those variables.

* The '09 [[Film/StarTrek Trek movie]]. I've patiently scrolled through the entire page to see if this was addressed. Forgive me if it already was, but here's goes......'''''Is Starfleet the biggest bunch of retards in the Alpha Quadrant or what?!?!''''' I mean the fact that a bunch of college kids had to save the day while a Space force of the best and brightest minds on several worlds couldn't is just baffling. Consider...

*** He was the one they thought most capable of destroying the drill. If the explosives failed somehow, he'd presumably find another way. Thankfully that wasn't necessary.

*** Maybe they were talking about that childcare guy?

*** This Troper actually read an interview with J.J talking about that. Apparently, he was considering why Chekov was the youngest guy in TOS. So he decided the logical reason was that he was some sort of prodigy (of course, the real reason he was so young was that Walter Koeing was MrFanservice, but there you go).

* 2009 movie: Aside from the aesthetic differences, Earth in the 23rd century doesn't seem very different from Earth in the 20th century. Bars look and function in the same way, San Francisco Bay hasn't changed at all (take THAT, global warming!), the flag of the state of California is still in use, and people apparently still listen to the Beastie Boys.

* Dear 2009 Star Trek Film: BLACK HOLES DO NOT WORK THAT WAY!!! ...Yeah, that's all I got. Frikkin' loved that movie.

****** While real world theories suggest that if a real transporter were invented, it would work by creating a replica of the original person, that isn't how it works on Trek. In Trek, the person/thing being transported is broken down into subatomic particles, physically moved from one site to another, and reassembled into the same person/thing. There are two things that support that fact. The first is that if they were merely creating a clone, then beaming someone onto a ship through shields wouldn't be a problem. They could simply scan the person, destroy them, and the transporter pad would create the replica. But, since they are physically moving the subatomic particles of the person from one place to another, they can't (usually) move those particles through the shields. The second thing that shows this is the episode of TNG where Barclay was seeing lifeforms in the transporter beam while transporting. The effects of the transporter beam didn't represent one person being destroyed and a clone being created. The effects were consistent with the physical matter of a person being moved through space.\\
\\
Also, as far as how Sulu/Kirk weren't turned into a smear on the pad, that's easy. The transporter operator compensates for motion, and when the person is beamed, they appear stationary on the pad. If the situation with Sulu/Kirk had been optimal, then Chekhov could have had them appear laying on the pad, instead of a foot above it. However, conditions weren't optimal. While it is probably relatively easy by then to compensate for the ship's motion, it's probably uncommon to have to add in compensation for a person (much less two) in free fall, and would likely take a little longer. However, the free fall wasn't eve the major issue, and under even slightly better circumstances, Chekhov probably could have managed the transport in his sleep. The issue Chekhov had was that the gravitational field of the planet was in flux, and rapidly changing. That was what he had to compensate for. As far as the lack of pad smear, once Chekhov got the lock, the transporter worked normally... it disassembled Sulu/Kirk, moved their subatomic particles to the pad, compensated for motion and the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and reassembled them, relatively motionless. The only reason they hit the pad was because they were reassembled a foot above it, thereby falling, and possibly a little because Chekhov may not have had time to completely compensate for their free fall, so they may have still had SOME downward motion, however their velocity wasn't nearly as much as it had been during the free fall.

* More new film stuff: [[spoiler: exactly how does the destruction of Vulcan reduce the Vulcan population of the galaxy to -- what was it? 11,000? "Endangered species" my *** . Does this technologically advanced space-faring civilization not have, like, colonies? And what about Romulus in the 24th Century? No colonies there, either? Does this "alternate continuity" really expect me to believe that vast political entities called the Romulan Star Empire and the United Federation of Planets never got around colonizing any of the systems under their control?]]

** If a droplet of Red Matter is enough to destroy the supernova, why did Spock bring a few tons of it along with him?

** Why was the Chief Engineer being sent on an away team right after a battle? Shouldn't he be supervising the repairs? Couldn't someone else handle the explosives to destroy the drill?

** Young Kirk is seen stealing his father's car, all to the sound of the Beastie Boy's classic, "Sabotage". How does this mesh with the fact that the first single on their next album was "Intergalactic", a song which mentions Mr. Spock ''by name''?

** ''Chekov'' is a technical genius?

* If ever there was a ST story where a technology was needed to stop a supernova it would be in ST Genesis. But there is no Federation technology shown which can prevent a supernova in the film. In fact in one timeline in the movie the Enterprise and all of her crew are destroyed by a supernova.

- Therefore in ST Genesis the most advanced Federation ship has no way to stop a supernova. And this story is after TOS, the original cast films, after TNG series and a couple of seasons of ''Deep Space Nine''.

* Until the red matter idea was introduced in ST 09 I cannot recall any technology in the ST franchise which could stop a supernova. If my recollection of the facts are wrong, please correct them.

* So, your conclusion that since "most Alpha Quadrant factions have spent years scrambling to find a way to stop said novas", they must have been successful doesn't fit the facts of the franchise imo.
** But in the movie it's established that black holes can do just that, and creating black holes is something that the Romulan shipyards seem capable of doing given that their warships are powered by such.

* Bottom line; ST O9 having the Romulans not being able to stop the supernova does not contradict ST Canon.

** In addition to that, the whole two setting only is bad too. If you're encoutering all new alien species, what happens if you run into a species
that the stun setting kills, or conversely the kill setting just makes them

****** The new phaser (compared with Starfleet phasers in the original ST franchise) is less flexible and has a more complicated mechanical design.

It's a change which can happen in an alternate reality/universe. Why the change? It could be for many reasons considering the process of military equipment design and approval in our own world.

From within the lore of the franchise; Maybe the new design is more powerful, or it was promoted by important figures in the Federation.

We don't know for certain. All we do know is that alternate reality/universe episodes in the ST franchise did show equipment differences between universes. And because ST 09 takes place in an alternate reality/universe, the equipment, ships, and people don't have to look exactly like their counterparts in the original ST franchise.

BB ;-)

******** The Original Series seemed to have at least four different phaser settings: "stun," "heat," "kill" and "vaporize completely." It could kill without leaving a mark, or it could heat rocks, or it could make the target go "POOF!"

The "stun" setting didn't even always act the same. Robert Crater in "The Man Trap" wasn't knocked out. "Stun" just made him woozy and his speech got draggy. It had to wear off. After that, it usually seemed to knock people cold for a few minutes, after which they'd recover quickly and bounce to their feet.


Don't get arrested - even Seth knew that and he used to point at planes.

On the other hand it may be because Walter Koenig's real hair has probably never been seen on screen anyway and asking Anton Yelchin to wear a Beatles wig is a step too far.

Due to the "butterfly effect" (which was also shown in many ST alternate universe and time travel episodes) the actions of a few can lead to drastic changes in what happens to a planet or in the culture of the sector.