I'm sort of hoping against hope that it gives one that actually fits the earlier evidence.
What we see is a CGI sequence where the pan from a planet through rubble to star and back is quite explicit. This as such presents zero storytelling problems and also matches the idea that Spock's actions could contain the conflagration: if it's utterly local at this stage, then his locally dropping red matter onto the expanding wave of destruction is likely to get the job done.
What we have is a slight mismatch with what is told. But only in the chronological sense. An equally sensible reading of Spock's narration would be
* Spock learns of an impending disaster (he does use the future tense, although there are additional reasons to it)
* He promises to help Romulus, even though not all choose to believe in the disaster
* He proceeds, but has calculated wrong or runs out of time, and the disaster happens before he can act
* He still saves the galaxy even though he was too late in saving Romulus
* Nero either blames Spock on not keeping his promise, or assumes that this mysterious Vulcan he had not previously heard of is the guy who blew up the star
The idea of an impending disaster removes major problems:
1) Spock is excused for being late. If the wave of destruction emanates from a distant source, Spock will know exactly when it hits and pulverizes Romulus, so there is no point in launching on a mission too late, much less building a ship for the purpose too late (surely any rust bucket will get there faster than a ship that hasn't even been built yet!). If the wave is going to pop into existence at a poorly predictable moment and immediately kill Romulus, Spock can only hope, and is justified in at least trying.
2) Spock is the only one who is seen acting, and all of Romulus is lost. If the disaster were a done deal, at some distant star, everybody would act, and some would be saved. If there is no disaster yet, many would choose not to believe in it ever coming.
Of course, yet different takes are also allowed. Say,
* Spock learns of an impending disaster
* He promises to help Romulus
* He proceeds, and is not unduly worried about the trivially minor hiccup of Romulus being lost, because
* He then delivers his red matter which creates a black hole time machine, and
* With the time machine, he intends to undo the supernova before it even happened, so that Romulus can keep on enjoying the shine of its homestar
* But Nero intervenes and dooms his own planet and his wife with his misguided actions
This would cover the otherwise mysterious "I had little time" line, as well as allow for Spock to mess directly with the homestar of Romulus (without turning it into a black hole, hardly an improvement over a supernova!). Also, Spock getting to the right spot would be paramount, but being there at the right time would be less so. Heck, Nero later claims he "prevented genocide!" even though he acts in a different century altogether... But arguably at the same spot, with the same red matter, although offscreen.
Timo Saloniemi
