Comments on: TrekInk: Early Review of Star Trek: Nero #4

By: TrekkieJan

TrekkieJan — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 03:35:05 +0000

There’s actually a rather elegant explanation for Spock’s “Vulcan has no moon,” quote from TOS, from, if I remember correctly, one of Diane Duane’s Vulcan novels? Literally, Vulcan, like Earth, has a twin planet in orbit around it, not a moon. I’ve heard that some scientists believe it’s hard for life to evolve on a planet without some kind of tidal system. (Anyone with better science can correct me.)

By: Elim37

Elim37 — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:53:04 +0000

7. I concluded that Red Matter’s only stable form is when it’s in such a large quantity. Therefore when Nero pulls out a silver dollar sized nugget, that nugget would soon grow unstable and blow. At least that’s how I swallowed that pill.

Also, i agree with Falcon regarding the Hobus Star. I’ve always just pretended in my head that Hobus WAS the star of the Romulus system, and maybe the “Galaxy destruction” they were talking about was merely the galaxy-wide repercussions of such a major event as is the death of Romulus. It’s the only sane way to accept that scientific plot hole.

As well, I hated the fact that the star explodes and kills Romulus, and THEN Spock says “There was very little time…” No Spock, time’s up. You missed it! It was like the star had a pre-explosion fart that blew up Romulus…

By: Marius

Marius — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:11:55 +0000

Illogical script and story..for all ages peoples. The dollars sra eimportant, dont you understand that yet?

By: falcon

falcon — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:43:24 +0000

@16 – Actually, Praxis was a moon of Q’onos (in ST VI, which is the shock wave to which I assume you are referring). So the shock wave would have been felt quite keenly. But you’re right, technobabble only serves to cover up the more glaring continuity errors.

And when it comes to the Hobus star threatening to destroy the entire galaxy, someone could probably come up with a plausible explanation for why one star could threaten everything, but it would have to be steeped in so much technobabble it would be unbelievable.

My simpler idea would be to change it from Hobus to the Romulan home star (maybe it was named Hobus, who knows?), and simply threatening to destroy Ch’Havran and Ch’Rihan (or Romulus and Remus, for those who haven’t read Diane Duane’s books). Make the danger more personal for both Nero (whose homeworld is in danger) and Spock (for whom the stakes are very high – failure is not an option). After all, Spock is the one pushing for the reunification of Vulcan and Romulus, and saving the Romulans’ homestar would go a long way toward that goal. But its destruction obviously renders the entire question moot, and lets Nero believably turn the tables on Spock in the past.

But write it so that Spock is too late to prevent the supernova with the red matter (who knows, maybe generating a small singularity at the heart of a soon-to-explode star would cool it down some), instead of allowing some galaxy-destroying star to explode and then inject the RM. Bad science from Bad Robot.

By: KingDaniel

KingDaniel — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 13:02:49 +0000

15: A shockwave damaged the Klingon homeworld in STVI from lightyears away. Technobabble never helps anything, ever. It’s meaningless babytalk, imo.

Spock’s line in Countdown that Hobus was one of the oldest stars in the galaxy made me wonder if it was due to die long ago, and some ancient super-race (like the Preservers) did something to it to extend it’s life (maybe it was their home star or something), that would have dire consequences millenia later.

I’m sure there would be a great story for the new ST crew, investigating the Hobus star and discovering it’s secrets…

By: Bman

Bman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:42:39 +0000

13. Yeah, the supernova threatening other star systems was a bitter pill to swallow. Just a sprinkle of technobabble could have made it more palatable. Like the star lay along a subspace rift, or conjunction of cosmic strings or something. Not just that the ejecta flew across interstellar space and wiped out another solar system, and put the entire galaxy at risk. :/

By: Bman

Bman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:40:36 +0000

Someone (Nimoy? Abrams? writers?… sorry, I’ve slept since then) in a recent interview explained Delta Vega, and seeing Vulcan in its sky. Spock didn’t literally see Vulcan go while standing on DV, he felt it. He visualized it during the mind-meld to give Jim a means of grasping what he felt.

By: davidfuchs

davidfuchs — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:57:06 +0000

Let’s face it… I would love the events of Countdown to be canonized via a screen adaptation, although the writers would be pressed to rationalize some of the more glaring cartoony and unrealistic aspects.

My gripe is how a supernova threatens another star system. If they had cooked up some explanation like an unforseen reaction with the decalithium or something, anything, or just done a better threat to begin with…

argh. what is and what should never be.

By: Adrick

Adrick — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:07:43 +0000

@7 yeah, I continued to be less and less impressed with Countdown’s storyline…

By: The Bear

The Bear — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 02:55:28 +0000

To #2 “The moons in the TMP make the “Vulcan has not moon” quote difficult to explain…”

No, Vulcan does not have moons. Those were large planets in Vulcan’s solar system.