Star Trek by the Minute 003

For the previous, see STbtM 002.

The Kelvin is under attack by the evil ship, and is being blown to bits. Shields are dropping when the Captain orders "All remaining power to forward shields". I'm not sure what the canon is on this, perhaps someone will give me an update, but seriously this "All remaining power" is really a terrible command - nothing for life support? What about communications? Sensors? Lights? Do the escape shuttles or other evacuation ops need anything? Apparently, the order is not carried out because of a transmission from the evil ship that magically comes up on the viewscreen. Apparently some disaster in the future will forever obscure the mysteries of answering machine technology for screening calls from future generations. Enemies can now just pop in on Starfleet flag crews, interrupt anything the bridge officers are doing and begin ominous monologues without opening a com channel. In this case, the monologue demands the Kelvin's captain take a shuttle over to the evil ship.

If I'd just blown the hell out of a ship, I might want to check on whether a particular person with whom I wanted to speak was still alive to speak with me, that their com system still worked, or better yet, perhaps I might have more luck in conversations if I didn't start them by gruesomely murdering a bunch of my new acquaintances' colleagues, friends, families and trashing their ship? I'm guessing these evil green aliens had a hard time picking up girls. You know, they never really mastered the technique of making friends, who like to do things with you because you share things in common, have trust, rapport and simply like each other. I suppose life on an evil ship just sort of has a way of doing that to an innocent, just-hatched alien.

Still, the Kelvin bridge looks absolutely gorgeous and the musical score is great. The bridge alien from the Star Wars bar scene is a silly ripoff / possible "homage" (as was pointed out to me), and the rest of this segment features the skipper ordering his helmsman: "Walk with me" and to "continue the evacuation" if 15 minutes pass without a report back from the captain, as the pair head to a lift. This makes no sense, the ship is already lost and they know it.  Every second of delay means more people being burned up, blown apart, and sucked out into space...so...shouldn't emergency evacuation continue regardless?  That seems kind of a no brainer, doesn't it?  

Loss of the ship could be caused by previous damage that puts it beyond saving, or if there is an intent to deliberately scuttle, such as with a ram/self-destruct tactic.

He next orders the helmsman to "Use autopilot, then get off the ship." Presumably, this is for a distraction, not ramming the evil ship, as would require a direct order, but this order is difficult to understand given any believable rules of engagement. We really have no idea what the other ship represents, nor why it attacked. What we do know is that it far outclasses any vessel we know or have seen reported, it is represented by a humanoid, it has attacked in some mistaken belief, and now they have offered talks.  Neither distraction nor ramming is plausible, given the inability of the helplessness of the Kelvin even when it was fully crewed and in one piece.

The 3rd order to get off the ship sounds good, especially if one knows how new captains might be tempted to "Go down with the ship." His final words to his crewman: "You're captain now, Mr. Kirk".  In a minor quibble, he really should have used "Mr. Kirk's" proper rank…

Next: STbtM 004