StructuredDream

Sulu confirms: "Yes sir." Kirk continues: "Otherwise we'll contact the Enterprise when we're ready to beam back."  This seems a relatively sensible, reasonable set of instructions from Kirk, suspiciously unlike what we've seen during the past hour and a half of the film. "Good luck." Sulu adds from the Bridge.   Kirk walks up to the transporter pad as Spock makes out with Uhura, followed with an extended shot of Kirk gawking at Spock and Uhura kissing. Spock: "I will be back."  That's a fairly stupid comment given the uncertainty of the situation, but is a boilerplate cliche in films where the hero is about to leave his loved one for a dangerous mission. "You better be... I'll be monitoring your frequency."  It is possible she may be doing this, but by no means certain, unless there is no Captain aboard to give orders that she take care of possibly more urgent communications needs for the ship, its entire crew...

The Enterprise jumps out of warp in a beautifully rich fog of dense brown clouds. Sulu: "Give me one-quarter impulse burst for 5 seconds, I'll do the rest with thrusters.  On my mark..." Chekov confirms "Aye." "Fire." The ship rises from the clouds with what we can only guess are the thrusters Sulu mentioned.  What follows is almost certainly one of the signature scenes from the film, with the Enterprise rising majestically from the clouds with Saturn and its rings in the background.  As we have come to expect, the shot was designed to look cool rather than be scientifically accurate in any way, and its a shame they couldn't have simply set the adventure somewhere else so the script's blatant ignorance was less jarring for viewers who simply wanted to enjoy a good story told well. Despite how beautiful the CGI is, does this giant flashing Christmas Tree of a starship look anything like it's trying to be "undetectable"?  Wouldn...

"Also, my mother was human, which makes Earth the only home I have left," continues Spock.   Kirk steps up and says for no apparent reason, "I'm coming with you," expressing his intent to abandon HIS responsibilities as Captain, just as has almost every skipper we've seen in this film has done previously, like Robau, Pike, and Spock. Spock says, "I would cite regulations, but I know that you would simply ignore it." This is a somewhat silly line and phrased awkwardly, ("ignore them" would be better) but compared to the rest of the script, it actually seems 'nice' in that it represents at least a likable interaction. "See? We are getting to know each other."    In a cut to the Narada, (now with Google Earth access), Nero orders "Prepare the drill," which we see being lowered in yet another flawlessly beautiful exterior shot.    Meanwhile, the Enterprise is racing to the Sol system, and Sulu begins ...

Apropos of nothing, Sulu says: "I'm telling you the math doesn't add up," as Chekov approaches Kirk, McCoy, Sulu and Uhura clustered around a workstation. "Captain Kirk! Captain Kirk!" calls Chekov.   "Yes Chekov, what is it?" "Based on the Narada's course from Vulcan, I have projected that Nero will travel past Saturn.  Like you said, we will need to stay invisible to Nero or he'll destroy us.  If Mr. Scott can get us to warp factor 4 and if we drop out of warp behind one of Saturn's moons...say...Titan, the magnetic distortion from the planet's rings will make us invisible to Nero's sensors.  From there, as long as the drill is not actuated, we can beam aboard the enemy ship."    There are so many defects with this nonsense from Chekov it hard to choose a starting point in addressing them.  Let's take them in the order raised, first: how does Chekov know the name of Nero's ship, is he telepathic ...

"You will always be a child of 2 worlds.  I am grateful for this, and for you," says Sarek. Spock reveals the obvious: "I feel anger for the one who took Mother's life - an anger I cannot control."   "I believe that she would say 'Do not try to.'  You asked me once why I married your mother.  I married here because I loved her." The obvious question at this point would be: "Then why then did you lie to your son for so many years about the foundational nature of the family, are you abusively insane and or so insecure that admitting love for your family is beyond you?"  Sarek, supposedly one of the great leaders of Vulcan, in this scene of belated honesty now rises briefly to the level of a cold, unsupportive absentee parent and a major jerk, fitting in with most of the main characters' best momentary lapses into behavior almost near virtue. In a cut to the Enterprise Bridge, we see Checkov beavering away on a transparent screen...

  "Thanks for the support" is Kirk's sarcastic response to McCoy's fallacious but overall appropriate incredulity at Kirk seizing captaincy. Uhura then approaches Kirk to declare, "I sure hope you know what you're doing..." and almost an afterthought adding "... Captain ," delightfully dripping with malice. Glancing briefly up from his acting com officer's chest, (the glance passed too quickly for screen capture), Kirk replies "So do I..." in what could almost be considered a character development moment.  Here, our protagonist is given a total of 3 words expressing normal human emotions appropriate for having some awareness of his situation, the risks he is taking with many billions of lives, perhaps the survival of Earth and the Federation, and the fact that he has no plan and no practical knowledge of the enemy.  Sun Tzu describes this as ideal situation for losing a thousand battles, even if the commander has the ability ...