History Headscratchers / StarTrek2009

** According to the official explaination, yes. When the Narada went back in time, its appearance caused the timeline to split in two at that point, meaning Shatner Kirk and co would still be in San Francisco if Pine Kirk went back.

* The Narada's incursion into the timestream obviously affected everything that happened after that event. So, what would happen if the Chris Pine Kirk and Co. went back in time to 1980s San Francisco and snooped around a bit? Would they run into Bill Shatner Kirk? And if not, then just who in the hell invented transparent aluminum in this timeline?

* The Narada's incursion into the timestream obviously affected everything that happened after
that event. So, what would happen if the Chris Pine Kirk and Co. went back in time to 1980s San Francisco and snooped around a bit? Would they run into Bill Shatner Kirk? And if not, then just who in the hell invented transparent aluminum in this timeline?

*** Exactly. I thought the entire thing was stupid. If the aim was to see how cadets react to the situation (similar to the tests in Robert Heinlein's ''Space Cadet''; some test trustworthiness, for example) and how they improvise, then it makes sense. If the aim is to teach cadets to feel fear, then it fails, because there's no way you can feel fear ''when you're completely safe''.

*** ThisTroper 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 EstrogenBrigadeBait, but there you go).

*** It makes more sense to assume that civilian space craft are common than that they aren't in a universe where space travel is so casual, especially within the home systems of two of the founder races of the Federation, and - even given how common habitable worlds are - there should be at least <i>some</i> space based industries. Besides when the whole planet's at stake there's no reason to stop throwing everything you've got at the problem, shouldn't there at least be waves of desperate surface to orbit shuttles making kamikaze runs at the drill while it attacks Earth?

*** There was at the very least that woman who yelled at McCoy in that shuttle, she was wearing pants.

******** From what I remember reading Gene intended for the women in TOS to wear pants just like the men and the leading female <i>actors</i> vetoed the idea. They didn't want to look like men and came up with the miniskirt uniforms.
********* Not what I heard. Zoe Saldana (Uhura) talked about the skirts, saying she personally would've liked them to be longer but that they added a youthful touch and brought back the whole 60's skimpy outfit thing and that it was a necessary addition. See it http://www.hulu.com/watch/71293/access-hollywood-zoe-saldana-and-karl-urban-talk-star-trek at about 3:40.

** Consider how much of the future we have to play with. Spock Prime comes from about twenty years after the end of Voyager. Scotty stumbled into the mid-24th century in his late 70s, in a time when humans living to 175 was common. Scotty had the time and the technology to solve the problem he may have tinkered with his whole life. As for why this may well [[ForgottenPhlebotinum never show up again]], have you ever read something that made perfect sense, then come back to it later with little understanding of why it made sense? He'll definitely remember the targeting breakthrough, but a few of the simpler details he hadn't worked out yet [[NoPlansNoBackupNoPrototype may be lost for years]]. Also, it's hardly the safest way to travel, due to not being able to pinpoint where you end up at your target. Scotty just half-drowned and nearly got turned into Aberdeen Soup. He could just as easily have been materialized half-in a wall.

* What bugs ThisTroper in the 2009 movie is that red matter. Spock created it to save the Romulans by destroying the star that was... whatever. The problem is that if he intended to destroy JUST ONE STAR and he only needed JUST ONE DROP of the stuff why did he have a giant ball of death on his ship, instead of a prepared ampule ready to be launched at a moments notice (somehow having a giant ball of death seems both impractical and ''illogical''). Another thing is that BigBad travels back through time and instead saving his homeworld he hides and broods for 25 years and decides to take revenge for something that has yet to happen (admittedly from his perspective it ''did'' happen), and even comments that he waited 25 years for his revenge and that he can't even lead a normal life when he spent the last 25 years brooding and planning his revenge. Another ItJustBugsMe moment is, after Kirk wakes up on the Vega Delta ice planet, he is hunted by some alien dog-thing, and just before it bites Kirk's head off, a thing (resembling a red FreudWasRight with fangs and claws) pops from the ground, kills the dog, ''throws it away'' and starts hunting a human about one quarter of the size of the dog (instead of just, you know, eating the ready one course dog-meal).

* Really. No one's mentioned the [[YouAreInCommandNow cadet to captain thing]] yet? I mean, sure, ThisTroper and his friends always made jokes about low-ranking ensigns making admiral in Star Wars given [[StarWars Darth Vader]]'s [[YouHaveFailedMe violent tendencies]]. But they never expected Abrams and company to play this '''''straight''''' in the new film. Kirk goes from an admittedly talented officer candidate to captain of the Federation's most prized warship? [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale In a few days]]. And no, being a [[BigDamnHeroes big damn hero]] isn't enough of a justification. Most people get a nice medal and a promotion for that - not a medal and ''six'' promotions. Also, Spock was just as important in the overall victory and outranked Kirk to begin with, already holding the rank directly ''below'' captain? So why didn't, by the same logic, he get promoted to Starfleet Command? Honestly, this troper really liked the film overall... but this bugs the crap out of him.

*** That doesn't matter. Heroics =/= command ability. In order to be an effective commanding officer it is ''essential'' ([[http://trekmovie.com/fan-reviews-star-trek-film/ as several fans serving in the military have said in their reviews of the film]]) to have extensive ground experience. Command is more than about luck and leadership ability. It's also about having experience. Kirk does ''not'' have experience. There may be no precedent ''against'' said situation (since said situation has never occured, thereby meaning it is neither evidence against, nor for) but there are ''similar'' incidents in history. Napoleon, for instance, is reputed for having an ''exceptionally'' quick rise in the chaos of the French Revolution, where officers were being killed off left and right, going from lieutenant to general in eight years. That's more ranks than Kirk jumps, to be sure (though not by much), but the ratio is overwhelming and vastly different. The only circumstance ThisTroper can come across that resembles the situation at all is Nathan Bedford Forrest, who did indeed rise to the rank of colonel (the equivalent rank within the army and air force) within a few years of his enlisting as a private. But I've still yet seen anyone who did it in a matter of days and whose multiple superiors were overlooked (Uhura, Scotty, [=McCoy=], Sulu, even Chekov, Spock, etc, etc.).

* The "new" phaser design just bugs [[VF1SValkyrie This Troper]]. To switch from stun to kill (or vice versa), the entire nozzle/emitter has to flip 180 degrees. Who in their right mind would design something like that?! If A. Something gets stuck, and it can't flip, then B. It crushes anything in order to successfully flip, thus C. Fingers (and anything else in the way) get crushed. Plus, what happens if the nozzle/emitter gets stuck partially turned around?

* This is so unbelievably trivial that I feel a sense of shame by even mentioning it here. The fact that Kirk and McCoy seem to have switched eye colors. I suppose the only reason it bugs me is that they very easily could have changed that to fit with the original actors' eyes, with either CGI or even two pairs of contacts from Sam's Club. There's nothing we can do to explain it, it doesn't matter in the slightest, but it just bugs me.

** I got the feeling it was more a protest than anything else; Kirk doesn't believe in a no-win scenario, and doesn't like the fact that the Academy a test specifically programmed to be unwinnable.

*** Is that canon, though? I didn't know the exact way Kirk fiddled the KM was established. My preference is for the version in the EU novel 'The Kobayashi Maru', which I think might be what you're referring to (though Kirk's storyline in that novel isn't as good as Sulu's - "Foul, Menak!"). Either case it doesn't really matter - it all gets butterflied away by the retcon, and for me personally the scene is done perfectly, a CMOA candidate even.

** Um, I'm sorry, but is "disable the Klingon's shields" really more arrogant than "make the Klingons worship the ground I walk on and run away in fear"?

* The KobayashiMaru. In the original timeline, Kirk reprograms it so the Klingons are awed by his reputation. He's cheating, but it shows he doesn't believe in unwinnable situations and intends to earn that sort of reputation, and turns him from a cheat to a potential hero. Here, he just turns off the Klingon shields. Again, it shows he doesn't believe in unwinnable situations, but he just expects the universe to go his way, showing him to be an entitled brat. I know the film's supposed to show him growing into a hero, but this level of arrogance just makes it seem like he shouldn't even have got that far in the academy, given that Starfleet's supposed to have numerous tests of character. There's "potential hero with bad qualities he can overcome" and there's "arrogant jerk".

** Also, just to throw this out there, there's nothing stopping him from warning them when the warning becomes relevant; there's no point in the movie in which Spock's knowledge of future perils would have helped in the Nero plot, so he hadn't mentioned anything at that point. Later, however, he can say what would logically need to be said.

** He was never speaking English to begin with, we've just been hearing it as such due to the Universal Translator; presumably, there is a translator on the camera for us viewers for the alien-only scenes. A translator technician must have gotten killed in the attack on Kirk's father's ship, and the translator who did maintenance on the camera's translator instead in this new timeline programmed it slightly differently, affecting accents.
** No timeline shift is necessary. The TranslationConvention uses a British accent, while the Universal Translator Sarek (a diplomat) carries in TOS and TNG was programmed by an American.

** You're forgetting that Spock Prime could make things ''worse'' by warning the Federation about future threats. Not to mention that many of those events could have been [[http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/timelines/butterfly_effect butterflied]] away. And in any case, it looks like the Federation is much more prepared than it would be, seeing as Starfleet is no longer a scientific and exploratory force, but a peacekeeping and defensive armada.

* What about all of the cosmic threats out there that wouldn't have been affected by the altered timeline? V'Ger, the humpback whale probe from Star Trek IV, the giant space amoeba, those Denevan neural parasites, Khan and his crew sleeping peacefully in the Botany Bay, the Borg, the Dominion, Armus (the tar monster that killed Tasha Yar), and so on and so on and so forth. Doesn't Spock Prime have a moral obligation to warn people to watch out for those? He can hardly claim to be trying to maintain the Temporal Prime Directive; the timeline is pretty well screwed as it is. If he doesn't warn people about those things, then he's effectively murdering all of those threats' victims through inaction. Not cool, Old Spock. Not cool.

* Why did the ''Jellyfish'' computer state its manufacturing origin was in stardate 2387 (the alternate reality stardate = actual year)? If it came from the original universe, shouldn't it use the old stardate system, not the new one?

* Why does the ''Jellyfish'' computer state its manufacturing origin was in stardate 2387? If it came from the original universe, shouldn't it use the old stardate system, not the new one?