Star Trek (2009) There be Open Spoilers Here, Beware.

[eleanorigby]

What stays with me re the younger Kirk is his ridiculous swollen hands--that scene is an example of all that is wrong with this movie.

The story behind that is that Tyler Perry, a long-time fan of TOS and TNG, asked to be allowed to direct one scene, and do so for $1, much like Quentin Tarantino in Sin City. J.J. Abrams agreed, on the single condition that Perry accomplish it all in one day so as not to throw the shooting schedule off. Perry readily agreed, and packing his trademark fat suit - responsible for such laugh riots as Madea, Madea Goes To Jail, Madea II: Electric Boogaloo and The Last Temptation of Madea - headed off for Hollywood. Unfortunately, the entire fat suit was confiscated by Nashville airport security with the exception of the hands.

It all makes sense now.... I will say his swollen hands were the stupidest part of the movie.



Chimera--are you serious? Young Kirk, fresh out of the academy should be made First Officer for no concrete reason except the Captain had studied the decisions Kirk's dad made and Kirk's test scores? I wish I had him as a boss!

[Chimera]

Well yeah, that made NO sense at all.

Heck, he wasn't even "fresh out of the academy". He was still in the academy and had only been called to temporary duty due to an emergency and some strange lack of crew on a number of ships. Even then, HE wasn't called to duty, he was smuggled on board.

[maggenpye]

I think Kirk's response to the Romulan destruction of the fleet might have had something to do with his promotion, too.

He saved the ship, even though it meant exposing his position as a stowaway. Combine that with the test scores etc and Pike decided that Kirk would be better on the bridge than in the brig. As first office, Spock would have to take him seriously.

And ... the historic precedent of rapid field promotions during active duty and you can almost ignore the fact that it's space opera level lazy writing.

[yawndave]

The story behind that is that Tyler Perry, a long-time fan of TOS and TNG, asked to be allowed to direct one scene, and do so for $1, much like Quentin Tarantino in Sin City. J.J. Abrams agreed, on the single condition that Perry accomplish it all in one day so as not to throw the shooting schedule off. Perry readily agreed, and packing his trademark fat suit - responsible for such laugh riots as Madea, Madea Goes To Jail, Madea II: Electric Boogaloo and The Last Temptation of Madea - headed off for Hollywood. Unfortunately, the entire fat suit was confiscated by Nashville airport security with the exception of the hands.

That's funny, I heard that the story was that JJA wanted a way to symbolically show that Kirk had a big head, but the special effects were just too over the top. Instead, he chose to show Kirk with swollen appendages...thus inferring that Kirk could "hold the whole world in his hands".

[Laughing Lagomorph]

I think Kirk's response to the Romulan destruction of the fleet might have had something to do with his promotion, too.

He saved the ship, even though it meant exposing his position as a stowaway. Combine that with the test scores etc and Pike decided that Kirk would be better on the bridge than in the brig. As first office, Spock would have to take him seriously.

And ... the historic precedent of rapid field promotions during active duty and you can almost ignore the fact that it's space opera level lazy writing.

I'm late to the party, just saw the movie (twice in the last 10 days).

I think the fact that Pike knows 7 Starships just got destroyed might have played into the promotion too...he knows he's suddenly short good officers.

Also given the quasi-paternal relationship he has with Kirk it is quite reasonable to assume he has been following Kirk's performance in the academy and isn't just going by his test scores and his father's brief time as a starship captain.

I was wondering how the Kelvin could have 800 crew members...isn't that a huge complement, and this would have been before any Nero-initiated space/time disrupting?

[Laughing Lagomorph]

I also thought the engine room looked too big, and too obviously some type of existing industrial room. Also that there was no way in hell I could have held my breath as long as Scotty did.

[Chimera]

Well also...

This ship destroyed 47 Klingons and survived apparently little worse for wear.
Just took out six of ours without blinking.
We're alone.
What are the odds they'll even survive this?

So long term reasoning doesn't enter into it. If Pike had returned from negotiations, ENSIGN Kirk would have been moved to a more suitable position for his time in service.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Question: When Kirk, Sulu and [del:fr0lzic7]Redshirt Guy[/del:fr0lzic7] dive onto the drill, why did the Romulans even bother with trying to fight them hand-to-hand? Why didn't they just shoot them?

[maggenpye]

Because I tell you to!

Apparently this was his answer to why, when under attack from birds for the last screen hour or so, Tippi Hedren still had to open the door to find out what was making all those flapping, scratching noises.

Or, to fanwank a reasonable answer, because there's not much to do on the platform and they're both bored and arrogant enough to lay bets on how soft the Federation schmucks are.

[Laughing Lagomorph]

Because I tell you to!

Apparently this was his answer to why, when under attack from birds for the last screen hour or so, Tippi Hedren still had to open the door to find out what was making all those flapping, scratching noises.

Or, to fanwank a reasonable answer, because there's not much to do on the platform and they're both bored and arrogant enough to lay bets on how soft the Federation schmucks are.

My first fanwank answer was that they couldn't use phasers because they were afraid of damaging the drill. But they clearly HAD phasers, or whatever the Romulan equivalent was, and they since they emerged from near the center of the drill they could have shot the Starfleet guys off the edge without any part of the drill being in the line of fire.

[maggenpye]

I know, but I haven't been able to take this scenario seriously since Austin Powers did it ("Just shoot him!").

Bored and taking bets - has to be.

[The Logos]

Question: When Kirk, Sulu and [del:3o94jh5y]Redshirt Guy[/del:3o94jh5y] dive onto the drill, why did the Romulans even bother with trying to fight them hand-to-hand? Why didn't they just shoot them?

My fanwank answer relied on the seeming close-quarters, and the possible disadvantage a ranged weapon might be at compared to a hand-to-hand weapon such as a sword, helmet etc. This answer works for the first phase of the fight, when Kirk knee-jerk attacks the Romulans as they emerge from the platform. But then we see Sulu dramatically confront a Romulan. And, um, well... Maybe the boys just had to act our their testosterone rage.

At the end of the day, maggenpye has the right answer.