The Drill over Vulcan

[Naldo]

Ok, perhaps I'm dense. Perhaps I have too much going on in real life with family and my business. So please forgive me if this topic has been chewed to death and if so, Mod feel free to delete it quickly.

I saw the film the day it came out and just today I saw it for the second time this time in IMAX. I am NOT a canon freak, I loved this movie, enjoyed the ride the fun the gags everything...but now one thing is bothering me.

I've been thinking. (dangerous, I know)

Young Spock takes the future ship down to Earth and shoots the drill, severing it, saving Earth.

Yet, earlier in the film...

While being admonished by Starfleet muckity-mucks a distress call comes in that Vulcan is under attack.

This attack takes long enough to get cadetfleet all the way to Vulcan with enough time to mess about with a platform fight etc. before Vulcan implodes.

Are we to believe that between the distress call and the implanting of redmatter that there was not one single plane with a gun or shuttle with a phaser or hover bike with a monkey wrench or balloonist with a spear anywhere on Vulcan that could have severed the drill?

Sure they didn't know the singularity was being implanted but that drill was causing some major damage!

For that matter, why did they need Spock to sever the drill on earth?

oh well I still love the movie but boy in a script writing session someone should have said.."hey but wait a sec..." and resolved this.

Thank you, I feel better now.

 

[Silversmok3]

Its been discussed before.Basically Nero turned the High Command and Starfleets defense fleet into Vulcans last scrapyard. If the Enterprise represents cutting edge tech of the time-and it couldn't withstand two salvos,remember-the rest of the fleet had as much chance as a terrorist in Fort Knox.

With the drill cutting 'the cord' to Starfleet,and with armed resistance orbiting Vulcan in pieces,all anyone could do was watch.Maybe pray.

 

[Franklin]

Well, many movies have their versions of the ticking time bomb as a plot device. In ST09, it was the drill. The real fault is there was no reason at all why Nero simply couldn't have set off of the red matter anywhere on Vulcan and moved on. Then, off to Earth. Drop off red matter there, check Earth off the list, and go on to the next Federation planet. Repeat as necessary until every planet on the list is checked off.

After Spock destroyed the drill over Earth (thank God that thing didn't land in downtown SF -- and let's not think of the collateral damage his misses probably did on Earth), Nero should've just said, "Fuck it," and sent down red matter anyway. But I guess he was preoccupied or something.

I think the moral of the whole thing is: sometimes, it pays not to think too much.

 

[Anticitizen]

Yeah, considering the fact that the drill was disabled with hand phasers, it seems that it could've been taken down with today's technology. Couple of fighter jets and some missiles... ah well.

 

[rbnn]

Well, many movies have their versions of the ticking time bomb as a plot device. In ST09, it was the drill. The real fault is there was no reason at all why Nero simply couldn't have set off of the red matter anywhere on Vulcan and moved on. Then, off to Earth. Drop off red matter there, check Earth off the list, and go on to the next Federation planet. Repeat as necessary until every planet on the list is checked off.

The crew of the Narada waited until the red matter could be inserted into the core of the planet before igniting it. It follows, obviously, that there is some physical property of the red matter that makes it difficult or impossible to ignite on the surface of a planet.

The most natural supposition is that the red matter requires intense heat and very low gravity over a prolonged period in order to create a black hole: the core of a planet is very hot and has zero or low gravity. This would also explain why a major explosion in interstellar space could ignite the red matter.

Whatever the salient physical difference here, there are many physical differences between the surface of a planet and its core: gravity, gravitational geometry, pressure. I do not know why you presume none of these is relevant to igniting a system that interacts with each of these factors, as a substance creating a black hole does.

This is far more plausible than assuming Nero was randomly going to the trouble of drilling for no apparent reason.

 

[rbnn]

Yeah, considering the fact that the drill was disabled with hand phasers, it seems that it could've been taken down with today's technology. Couple of fighter jets and some missiles... ah well.

False. The drill's defense systems would have detected and prevented incursion by fighter jets and missiles. That's precisely why Pike had to send a small stealth force in fact.

 

[David cgc]

The Jellyfish came out from inside the Narada, when all its weapons would be aimed outward, to shoot down anything that came within its perimeter. It was fast enough to get close enough to destroy the drill before the Romulans could aim at it. Anything coming from outside would've been shot down before it got close.

 

[Silversmok3]

As I recall the book,Nero didn't make it to the 'ideal' depth at Vulcan to launch the red matter.Ayel says as much to him,saying that there was a risk the temperature was too low for ignition at the depth they were at.

 

[Omega_Glory]

One of the many holes in the story.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Vulcan didn't do anything because in Star Trek, all minor characters have a form of Stress Paralysis, where they become absolutely helpless in the face of danger. It's a common affliction in other places, too - Metropolis comes to mind.