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Abramsverse Inconsistencies

"Star Trek (2009)"

Star Trek (2009)

Preface "Star Trek (2009)" takes place in a new continuity for the most part. From the moment that the USS Kelvin runs into the Narada, galactic history, personal histories and technical developments may diverge from what we know of the TOS era. There is no problem with young Kirk knowing how to drive a stick shift car, which Spock had to show Captain Kirk in TOS: "A Piece of the Action". Several altered basic principles of the Star Trek Universe and real-world facts, as well as the plot holes of the movie constitute inconsistencies though. A few of them are explained either in the Countdown comic or in deleted scenes, but they do not make sense in the movie itself.

• The Kelvin's registry is NCC-0514. While we don't know for sure how ships were numbered thirty years before TOS, it is still an oddity. If anything, I would expect a leading "0" to be added after the introduction of 4-digit registries, rather than removed from older ships such as the USS Grissom NCC-638.
• Why is Captain Robau wearing a blue instead of a golden uniform? This implies that there must have been not just a uniform switch (to the "The Cage" uniforms) but also another so far unknown department color permutation some time later in the Prime Universe.
• There is a window on the Kelvin bridge instead of a solid wall with a viewscreen as on all other Starfleet vessels of the future or past that were ever shown. This is not a one-off phenomenon, considering that the alternate Enterprise has such a window too. So there is something different about the parallel universe designs, only that the Kelvin predates this universe.
• Robau orders red alert, which implies that the shields are raised. The Kelvin's shields, however, are totally useless. All missiles from the Narada impact without meeting any resistance. Later in the movie the shields (that Pike raises before entering the orbit of Vulcan at Kirk's request) won't be much protection for the Enterprise either. 130 years more advanced or not, Nero's mining ship has marvelous weapons that penetrate shields so easily.
• After the first missiles have impacted, engineering reports that the weapons are offline. Yet, only a few seconds later the Kelvin fires phasers.
• Captain Robau's turbolift is going down when it arrives in the shuttlebay, but the shuttlebay is located in the upper pod.
• The struts in the engineering section of the Kelvin are riveted, a construction technique that became obsolete in the late 20th century (and that can't be found anywhere on Enterprise NX-01, for instance).
• Why is the appearance of the Romulan Nero not a total surprise to the crew of the Kelvin? At this time, humans have never seen Romulans face to face (at least no one has survived to report of it), as clearly evidenced in TOS: "Balance of Terror". Why doesn't anyone surmise that he has to be a Vulcan because that is how he must have looked to them?
• Well, these Romulans do not look like any other Romulans of the 24th century though. They have lost the V-shaped forehead bones that all members of their race had since TNG. The real-world reason is that the flat variant looked best in make-up tests.
• Why is it that Nero and all of his crew are bald and tattooed? Is that a common fashion among miners or did they all quickly change their look after learning of the demise of their planet? And while they were at it, did they swear eternal loyalty till death to their leader, in any century? It is hard to believe that Nero had everyone that perfectly under control for 25 years. In Countdown, shaving and painting the head is a Romulan mourning ritual. Because of their insurmountable pain the crew of the Narada keep this look permanently.
• Nero? Did our Rom(ul)an baddie captain quickly make this name up to impress his human opponents with his knowledge of Earth's history? It is contrived. Or is it some more profound in-joke, as the full name of the Roman Emperor Tiberius was indeed Tiberius Claudius Nero?
• The stardate system has never been consistent, but for what it's worth in the new movie they gain a whole new meaning. Now the full decimals simply denote the (Earth) year! Jim Kirk is born in the year 2233 on Stardate 2233.04.
• Is the Kelvin always carrying families of officers, or why is Winona Kirk on the ship in the first place, in her ninth month? Well, the Kelvin reportedly has a crew of 800, which is twice as many as on a Constitution class 30 years later in the Prime Universe, but the Kelvin is only a survey ship. So why the families and/or the big crew?
• For a survey vessel the Kelvin's armament is formidable, at least she withstands the attack from the Narada much longer than the whole (albeit totally unprepared) fleet at Vulcan 25 years later.
• Why doesn't the Narada attempt to steer clear when George Kirk sets a collision course? The impact of the Kelvin obviously inflicts quite some damage.
• The movie plot is built on a chain of coincidences that was constructed to get the seven main characters of TOS and essentially only these characters together on the Enterprise in some fashion, to link their destinies as if it has to happen again in the parallel timeline, under totally different circumstances. The first link in the chain is when Nero arrives in the past. It is almost the exact place and time where Winona Kirk is heavily pregnant with her son, who would be the best friend of Nero's archnemesis (or so he believes), Spock.
• The region of the real Riverside, Iowa, is not as flat as in the movie, or largely bereft of vegetation. The crevice that becomes the grave of the classic Corvette is definitely man-made. But the topology of the wide plains does not look like it could have been flattened.
• Since when is the sky of Vulcan blue? While it used to vary between red and yellow shades from TOS to ENT, we never saw a blue sky so far. Orci and Kurtzman explain the blue sky as "seasonal" and T'Pol mentions an "occasional" blue sky to Archer in ENT: "Strange New World". Still it is an oddity that only in this movie we can see the blue sky even on two different occasions.
• We do not know when and how Kirk's Starfleet career started in the Prime Universe. But Pike makes a point that Kirk has been hanging around for years instead of doing something useful with his life, which he would have done under different circumstances. So in the Prime Universe, Kirk would not go to that bar as a twenty-something years old man and meet Uhura, who would later serve on his ship. He also wouldn't get acquainted with McCoy, who would later serve on his ship, on a shuttle.
• On a further note about the bar, what are several Academy cadets doing there, in the middle of nowhere in Iowa? The Academy is in San Francisco. Pike's presence, on the other hand, may make sense, considering that at this time he may already be meant to take command of the Enterprise that is being built in the Riverside shipyards. Well, perhaps the cadets are taking a tour of the shipyards.
• How old is Captain Pike? In TOS: "The Menagerie" Commodore Mendez states that Pike is about Kirk's age. But in "Star Trek (2009)" Pike is Kirk's fatherly friend, at least 25 years older! Well, the problem dates back to the time of TOS. Jeffrey Hunter, who played Captain Pike, was 38 at the time "The Cage" was produced (1964). William Shatner was 36 when he was in "Menagerie" (2267). Here Kirk meets the disabled Pike, now played by another actor whose age in his role is hard to estimate because of the make-up. But that is supposed to take place 15 years after "The Cage". So Pike is definitely older than Kirk. Not just because of the visible age, but also because he commanded a starship a decade prior to Kirk - unless he was promoted straight from Cadet to Captain. Anyway, Commodore Mendez still claims that the two are the same age. Perhaps because he himself is much older? Not really. Malachi Throne, who portrayed José Mendez, is barely three years older than Shatner. So the error was already with "The Menagerie", although "Star Trek (2009)" arguably worsened it.
• So starships are being built on the ground in this alternate timeline (assuming that the Enterprise is not a one-off exception). It contradicts the overwhelming evidence of starships that are assembled in drydocks, as previously seen around a dozen times, most notably in VOY: "Relativity" and in ENT: "The Expanse". It also makes very little sense, one reason being that starships are just not built for being operated in an atmosphere and gravity, and that the ship would have to be specially reinforced just for the ascent.
• In the Prime Universe the Enterprise is most likely built in space, and Kirk rises up the ranks until he can eventually take command of the ship. In the new timeline, the alternate version of the ship (at least one with the same name and purpose) is being built on the ground, conveniently only a few miles away from his home.
• In the alternate reality the Academy is located on the shore of the Presidio, not far away from the southern end of the Golden Gate Bridge. We can spot the present-day Transamerica Pyramid, perhaps 1 or 2 kilometers away from the Academy, amidst many much taller buildings. The direction of the building is roughly correct, but the real Transamerica Pyramid should be located some 4km away. Moreover, in order to be able to see the building from there the way it is possible in the movie, it would require to lower Russian Hill, one of the most prominent parts of San Francisco, almost to sea level!
• In the new universe, Spock, Kirk's closest friend in the Prime Universe is A) the one who programmed the Kobayashi Maru scenario that Kirk cheated, B) the second in command on the ship that Kirk's friend Bones gets assigned to, C) the boy-friend of his Orion love affair's roommate Uhura. Moreover, Spock's Prime Universe counterpart is D) the target of Nero's insane crusade in the course of which Kirk's father was killed in the first place. One coincidence would have sufficed to bring them together but for some reason it had to be four. Well, the fact that Spock programmed it would at least nicely explain why he never took the Kobayashi Maru scenario, as stated in "Star Trek II". This could be the same in the Prime Universe and the Abramsverse.
• The Klingon ships mentioned in this movie are called "warbirds". Even the often scorned Brannon Braga admitted that the "Klingon warbirds" in ENT: "Broken Bow" were an error, so why is it repeated here?
• On a general note, where do all the new aliens suddenly come from and when will they be extinguished (or leave the Federation for good)? Actually, as far as I could see, every single alien aside from the Vulcans, Romulans and the Orion has to be classified as a new species: Alnschloss K'Bentayr on the Kelvin bridge, the female doctor with the big eyes who helps Winona Kirk deliver her baby, the long-faced guy sitting in the bar between Uhura and Kirk, the dark-skinned alien with a big head on the Enterprise bridge and Scotty's little friend Keenser, to name only the most obvious ones. Well, we've had many otherwise unseen aliens in "Star Trek I" and in "Star Trek IV" as well, and at least the many alien cadets may be there as part of a cultural exchange program. Still, it is an oddity that almost all aliens we see at any time are new, and a missed opportunity to create stronger consistency with old Trek by showing familiar aliens (Andorians, Tellarites, Denobulans, Bolians, etc.).
• The distress call from Vulcan makes Starfleet think that the planet is struck by a natural disaster or a space anomaly. Doesn't have Vulcan any satellites, orbital stations etc. that could have quickly identified the trouble as man-made, as the attack that it was? Heck, Amanda could see the drilling beam from her home! But Starfleet is unaware of the attack until a whole fleet drops into orbit, with their shields down, and falls prey to the Narada. Well, just like it didn't allow the use of the transporter, the Narada has probably jammed all comm frequencies.
• Since when is the San Francisco composed of irregularly shaped gray mile-high buildings? Sure, the future city looked somewhat different in any series or movie so far, but always had skyscrapers of moderate size and shape.
• Much has been written on the new look of the Enterprise (and most of it as it seems by me). In the alternate universe setting it is okay for the ship to look different (and to be launched later). But why does the Enterprise have a saucer section much like in TMP? It would have been more plausible if Spock had brought some plans from the 24th century, which could readily explain why the ship and pretty much every technology is different. But Spock arrives in the past after the ship has already been built, so this is a missed opportunity of explaining why its saucer looks like on the TMP Enterprise, some 12 years ahead of time. It is not really inconsistent, but this tip of the hat could have made more sense, just as every other technology that works differently and may be more advanced than it should be. 
• When the shuttles from the Academy arrive at the Enterprise, we can see that about a dozen of them are stacked on two levels on either side of the shuttlebay. The shuttlebay has to be some 40m across to accommodate the 10m+ shuttles in the shown fashion. This would translate to a length of the Enterprise of over 700m meters! Such a monster ship would be considerably bigger than a Galaxy class, and its volume would be 16 times(!) that of the Prime Universe original Enterprise. Still, the visible deck structure indicates that a size of 366m as originally designed is more likely, no matter what the people in charge of the VFX keep saying. What remains is just a purposeful mis-scaling that has to be ignored for anything else about the ship design to make sense.
• In the Prime Universe, the familiar crew of the Enterprise was not complete until 2265/66 (depending on what we make of Chekov). The date of the new movie is 2258, however. Chekov is still a teenage prodigy, and for everyone else it must be earlier in their career as well, most obviously for Cadet Kirk. While Kirk is sneaked aboard by Bones, everyone else is already a part of the crew of exactly that vessel, however. How slim is that chance?
• Chekov Prime was born in 2245 (TOS: "Who Mourns for Adonais?"). The new Chekov, on the other hand, is 17 years old as of 2258, placing his birth in the year 2241. Is it possible that, for some reason, Chekov's parents decided to have children earlier? It is debatable whether under slightly different circumstances children could be genetically identical. But if we choose not to ignore the problem and if the new timeline serves as an explanation for this continuity issue, the "Star Trek (2009)" Chekov has to be a genetically different person, something like the non-existent older brother of Chekov Prime (Perhaps he should have been named Pyotr?). This would at least explain his curly hair, while the new Chekov at least has the accent in common with his almost-counterpart in the Prime Universe.
• How can a 17-year-old be a fully fledged Starfleet officer (unlike "Honorary Ensign" Wesley)? I doubt that the Academy would accept a 13-year-old boy, prodigy or not. And even if Chekov has needed only two years to pass his final exam, it is still a bit of a stretch, just because Starfleet may not consider him mature enough for the job.
• Since when is an access code necessary for someone to make a shipwide announcement? Sure, access must be restricted, but even if Chekov isn't generally authorized, wouldn't the 23rd century computer software be smart enough to recognize that he was ordered to do so by Captain Pike? Or couldn't the software compensate for his accent?
• When he is listening to Uhura under Gaila's bed, Kirk picks up something the destruction of 47 Klingon ships in the same night. The next day on the Enterprise, when Chekov briefs the crew about the situation on Vulcan, he says: "At 22:00 hours telemetry detected an anomaly in the Neutral Zone, what appeared to be a 'lightning storm in space'. Soon after Starfleet received a distress signal from the Vulcan High Command, that their planet was experiencing seismic activity". It may be the Romulan Neutral Zone but, considering the involvement of 47 Klingon ships, just as well the Klingon one that may have existed at this time in the 23rd century. The described "lightning storm" near the Neutral Zone is clearly meant to be Spock's arrival in the 23rd century. The problem with this sequence of events is the coincidental proximity of Vulcan to the Neutral Zone. Just before or after defeating a whole fleet of Klingons, Nero on the Narada must have captured Spock and the "Red Matter". He set a course to "Delta Vega" and then to Vulcan. And all of this happened in less than a day! The galaxy has to be quite small if Spock emerges from the Neutral Zone (whichever it is) at most a few light years from Vulcan (and from "Delta Vega" which, in this case, definitely has to be in the same star system). 
• We don't know how long exactly the "mild sedative" knocks Kirk out, but surely not more than 30 minutes. Everything else is shown in real time after the Enterprise has left for Vulcan, and when Chekov makes his announcement after Kirk is awake again, he explicitly says that it would still take three minutes until the arrival. So let us assume the journey takes 30 minutes. This would correspond to warp factor 65! If you don't believe me, the distance between Earth and Vulcan is 16 light years (ENT: "Home"), and the warp factor (TOS scale) is the third root of the ratio of ship speed vs. light speed.
• When Chekov speaks of a "lightning storm in space" Vulcan, Kirk remembers that the circumstances under which the Kelvin was destroyed were similar. He only needs the confirmation from Uhura that it was the Romulans. I find it hard to believe that Uhura would previously tell Gaila of the 47 destroyed Klingon ships but without mentioning that it was a huge Romulan vessel. The question whether or not Uhura reported the incident to her superiors remains unclear. Pike neither explicitly confirms nor denies his knowledge of the incident. He just says, "And you know of this Klingon attack how?". If he was informed, it may be through the report that Uhura compiled in the first place. But that still leaves two other equally probable possibilities, that Pike didn't know it because neither Uhura nor anyone else reported it, or that he did know it from someone else because Uhura just didn't mind reporting it.
• A huge amount of "Red Matter", a ball of more than a meter across, is stored aboard Spock's ship. To destroy Vulcan, only a tiny drop of less than 1cm in diameter is sufficient. We may surmise that much more Red Matter was needed to create the black hole to eliminate the Hobus supernova. On the other hand, it can't have been a lot more than what is still stored on Spock's ship, considering that the confinement cylinder is only a bit wider than the remaining Red Matter. Actually, we see the original amount of Red Matter in Spock's flashback at a later time. So what was all the excess Red Matter deemed useful for in the first place?
• The view down from Nero's drilling rig insinuates that it must be at least a hundred kilometers above the ground, comparing this with satellite photos of Earth. On the other hand, Kirk, Sulu and Olson use parachutes, and at least the first two have no major trouble breathing the air. So unless the Vulcan atmosphere is much thicker or for some reason the pressure is not exponentially decreasing with the height above the ground, there is something wrong.
• Moreover, in order to drill a hole in the first place, which takes at least as long as the flight from Earth to Vulcan, the Narada has to maintain the position above the drill hole. In stationary orbit? Hardly, because that would to be tens of thousands of kilometers above the surface if Vulcan is an Earth-like planet. So the Narada most likely uses the engines to maintain the position not far above the platform. But then why is there a drill platform and a tether at all? Why is the drill beam not generated on the Narada, where all the energy must come from anyway? Why bother to transfer it to the platform? 
• Why is only redshirt Olsen carrying the charges that are required to blow up the drilling platform? Wouldn't it have been a lot wiser to equip Kirk and Sulu with explosives too?
• All phasers of the alternate universe, beginning with the ship phasers of the Kelvin, seem to fire bolts instead of continuous beams, unlike any phasers of TOS or TNG or the phase pistols of Enterprise. The only comparable phaser beams could be seen in "Star Trek II". Yet, it seems as if the "Star Trek (2009)" universe has either switched back to pulse weapons, or they have pulse phasers such as on the Defiant everywhere.
• The warp drive, the phasers and even the transporters all make some sort of shooting noise when they are activated. There used to be a "bang" at times when the warp drive was activated (most memorably in TNG), but there is supposed to be no sound in space anyway. The traditionally sizzling transporter noise is in the new movie, but there is also the bang. And the previously just hissing (pulse?) phasers and the Romulan disruptors suddenly sound a bit like the machine ray guns of Battlestar Galactica (reboot).
• This timeline seems to have the slowest and overall least capable transporters of 200 years of Starfleet history. It was no wise idea that in Star Trek Enterprise transporters were almost as powerful as they would be in the 24th century. But making them more primitive in "Star Trek (2009)" doesn't exactly help (even though we may attribute the slow speed to additional features such as biofilters).
• Nero creates a black hole inside Vulcan using small doses of a mysterious "Red Matter". Uhm, well... But we need to wonder why it is necessary to drill a hole down to a planet's core to completely destroy it. As we can see in the end, it is absolutely sufficient to create a nearby singularity that sucks in everything in its vicinity. Maybe not so nicely symmetrically though.
• Only 10,000 Vulcans survive according to Spock's estimate. So virtually no one was evacuated in time, and there are apparently hardly any Vulcans in any colonies, or on vacation on other planets. I find that hard to believe. Roberto Orci told the fans in a Q&A session that this number may not include off-worlders.
• Nero attacks a major planet of the Federation without meeting any serious resistance. He destroys a whole fleet of Starfleet ships and heavily damages the Enterprise. He was so close to his goal of destroying Vulcan. Why does he still need Captain Pike's defense codes? Why would he waste time for that? On the other hand, he may have found someone in Pike whom he may blame for the destruction of Earth, just as he did with Spock and Vulcan.
• Why is there water on the floor on the Narada? Well, the ship is so big that rain might form inside it, still it is silly.
• Why does Spock have to jettison Kirk on an escape pod? Doesn't the Enterprise have a brig? Or is this just an overly emotional reaction that questions Spock's ability to lead a crew? One that would not even have required Kirk to provoke Spock once again, to take over command.
• The escape pod is launched from what looks like a normal docking port. The pod could have been internally transferred to this port like a turbolift car. But would that be practical in case of an emergency? All other starships used to have pods behind individual hatches or break-away plates, or escape shuttles. It is doubtful that all pods could be launched in a serial fashion when explosions are rocking the ship. Well, unless there are just one or two in this location. Rather than in the neck or engineering hull, we would expect escape pods in the saucer section. But no docking ports are visible there, so these must be behind some more or less invisible hatches. But why is this different in the neck? What is the pod doing behind the hatch?
• I doubt that Kirk would have survived a vertical impact in the escape pod that creates a hole that is several meters deep. 
• The Vulcan Science Academy sends Spock to aid the Romulans. His ship, the Jellyfish (name from Countdown), may be the fastest and/or most capable ship for this mission. And Spock is one of the most renowned scientists on Vulcan. But why would Spock, at the age of over 150, be all alone on such a mission? Without a backup crew or a backup plan?
• The star that goes supernova is called Hobus. It is obviously not the central star of the star system that Romulus is located in. So this supernova definitely wouldn't threaten a planet many light years away with total destruction (but only with a sizable radiation overdose). And even if it posed a danger to Romulus, there would have been years to plan the evacuation or countermeasures. There is nothing in a supernova such as a "subspace shock wave" as in "Star Trek VI" that would propagate at superluminal speeds. If the movie refers to real science in order to avoid technobabble, it should be consistent.
• How can Spock still stop the supernova after it has already destroyed Romulus and has expanded to a diameter of billions of kilometers? We would have to twist physics to an extent that supernovae expand at superluminal speeds and a black hole may just revert the effect. 
• Nero has no time to arm his vessel before he begins his crusade in 2387. He has intercepted Spock very soon after the destruction of Romulus, and immediately after Spock has created the black hole into which both ships are pulled. So why does a mining vessel have a large complement of torpedoes and all kinds of other weapons that can take down a whole armada of several Starfleet ships or 47 Klingon vessels? Sure, the vessel may be so equipped to blow up asteroids, but fighting against ships would be a whole new ballgame. Suppose the weapons really originally belonged to the Narada, Nero may have eventually run out of ammunition after the attack on the Kelvin and he would have had 25 years to rearm the Narada. On the other hand, he had to stay out of history's way all the time. In the Countdown comic, the Narada is upgraded with Borg technology and grows in size!
• A black hole crushes and swallows a supernova, the planet Vulcan and (presumably) the Narada in the end. But how do both the Narada and Spock's ship survive the black hole that Spock created to eliminate the supernova? And since when do black holes enable time travel? There is one precedence though. In TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday" the Enterprise is thrown back in time by a "black star" which, at that time, was meant to be a black hole.
• So Nero was able to await Spock at the exact place and time that he would emerge in the 23rd century. As Spock tells Kirk, this was possible because Spock ran into the anomaly a bit later and hence had to show up later in the 23rd century. Well, in some fashion minutes in the 24rth century may translate to years in the 23rd century. This is still plausible. But how could Nero possibly calculate the date and time? A crew of miners are not exactly experts in astrophysics. And even if they had kidnapped an expert and had let him made calculations for 25 years, it still wouldn't have been possible with the sensor data they had collected. The simple reason is that Spock entered after them, so his final trajectory must have been unknown.
• Nero's motivation is totally beyond comprehension. He has been waiting for 25 years in the past just to take revenge on the man who attempted in vain to save his planet. Couldn't he and his crew have done something much more useful, such as going back to the 24th century, a few years before the disaster would happen, and warn their people in time? He and his men could have had a good time, regardless which version of the 24th century they returned to, but instead of that they waste 25 years.
• Spock Prime can see the destruction of Vulcan in the day sky of "Delta Vega", a Class-M planet according to the dialogue where Nero has dropped him for this very purpose. Vulcan appears in the sky at daylight, and we can clearly see how the planet is being devoured. This is only possible if "Delta Vega" is a sister planet of Vulcan, perhaps the one that appeared in the original version of "Star Trek. The Motion Picture". But then "Delta Vega" would have to be either considerably larger than Vulcan itself, or the distance of the two planets would have to vary considerably as they are revolving around one another. In a Q&A session with fans, Orci said: "...we like to think of that sequence as impressionistic for a general audience. In other words, Nero could’ve beamed Spock prime down to Delta Vega with a telescope or some other type of measuring device to allow Spock to experience the pain of perceiving the destruction of his home world, but that simply isn’t very cinematic."
• In any case this "Delta Vega" shares only the name with the remote colony from TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", in a totally failed attempt at a homage. And even without the existence of the other Delta Vega the name would make no sense. Why? "Delta Vega" is a clearly human name which, in the Bayer naming system, would correspond to the fourth star in a constellation named Vega. Well, Vega itself is a star and not a constellation, and it would have to be "Delta Vegae" if anything. But it makes even less sense to use this name for a single planet in the Vulcan star system.
• On "Delta Vega", Kirk meets Ambassador Spock and later Scotty for the first time. All three have been exiled to this planet (Scotty allegedly because he misused Archer's beagle as a transporter test subject, old Spock by Nero to see the destruction of Vulcan, Kirk by young Spock who wanted to get rid of the troublemaker). They all meet within a range of a few kilometers on the surface!
• Montgomery Scott doesn't have the slightest idea of the destruction of Vulcan. Doesn't his outpost have any working sensors or communication? Even if "Delta Vega" is not in the immediate vicinity of Vulcan, he should have picked up that something terrible is going on.
• Transwarp transport? That sounds a lot like transwarp drive, although it is not related to a propulsion system faster than warp but means to beam on a ship that is at warp. Not really inconsistent, but not a wise choice either. I have read a couple of reviews where fans confused the two concepts.
• Even though it makes sense that it could be possible to extend the transporter range to beam from one planet to another, transwarp transport must be just as delicate as Scott explained it by comparing it with "trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet while wearing a blindfold, riding a horse." Spock Prime gives Scotty a formula for transwarp beaming. And after that Scotty needs no new hardware, no new software, only the formula to succeed. While the Enterprise is many hours away at warp. In a couple of minutes. Yeah right.
• So Scott develops that formula at some later time in his life. It is apparently not the very same procedure used in TNG: "Best of Both Worlds", where just the speed of two vessels at warp has to be matched ("Delta Vega" is obviously not at warp). So why does no one ever do transwarp beaming in the 24th century? Well, unless old Scotty develops that formula in the years between "Nemesis" (2379) and the year of Spock's disappearance (2387).
• The interior of the engineering hull of the Enterprise is nothing like anything we have seen on any Starfleet vessel so far. There is no centralized engine room, there is nothing identifiable as power transfer conduits. There is no visible deck structure. It looks like most of this section is comprised of a maze of water pipes. Pipes with rivets. This part of the movie was filmed in an actual brewery. This would explain the look, but definitely not excuse it. Overall, the set also seems too large for the secondary hull of the ship, which was designed to be overall just 366m long.
• Spock resigns his command due to his emotional imbalance after Kirk has provoked an irate reaction from him. By Kirk's logic, Kirk becomes the new captain, because Pike made his first officer. But didn't Spock previously relieve him of duty? Realistically someone should quote the regulations and challenge Kirk's claim.
• The Enterprise has taken a detour of many hours, considering that Kirk has been on "Delta Vega" some time, and it takes some more time to turn the ship round for a course to Earth. When they arrive, the Narada is just starting to drill. What has Nero been doing all the time, considering that it does not appear to take more than an hour from Vulcan to Earth? He may have run into a battle, but even this wouldn't have lasted long, seeing what has happened at Vulcan in a matter of minutes.
• We can see Nero's drilling in San Francisco Bay from the same Starfleet building that previously appeared in the movie, as the staircase and the railing is identical. Yet, it must be from a location a few hundred meters to the east, as indicated by the distance and the viewing angle of the bridge.
• Why is it that huge ships (such as the Narada here) and other installations in science fiction movies customarily have multi-leveled staggered bridges without railings? Just so someone, during a fight, can easily jump or fall down to the next lower level?
• Like Vulcan, Earth has no defenses. Only Spock's ship eventually destroys the platform.
• By the film's logic, wouldn't the remaining huge amount of Red Matter aboard Spock's ship generate a black hole that is a million times bigger than the one that destroyed Vulcan? One that could possibly suck in not just the ships but the whole Federation? And even if this is not the case, considering that it took two minutes to devour Vulcan, shouldn't the Narada be gone in a few seconds?
• In the end, Kirk (unlike Spock) is generous and offers Nero to assist him, which he declines. He then orders to fire on the ship. Why? The Narada was quite obviously being crushed. Wouldn't it have been the wiser (and logical) decision to warp away from the forming singularity like hell? After the totally pointless barrage the Enterprise can barely escape herself.
• Scotty explicitly ejects the (one) "warp core" in order to be able to escape from the forming singularity. But what we see is eight pods that are jettisoned, rather than a single warp core. So does the ship have multiple small warp cores, somewhere hidden in the maze of water pipes? It is actually possible that the multiple pods are not the warp cores, but the antimatter pods, as they supposedly exist on other ships such as the Galaxy class as well.
• Wouldn't the explosion of the (multiple?!) warp cores rather toast the Enterprise than push her away from the black hole?
• Cadet Kirk is promoted to Captain. Yeah right. If I were Commander Spock, I would be genuinely pissed to have to serve under the alternate Captain Kirk.
• The decision not to save Vulcan is fatalistic and highly unethical, considering that the science and technology to go back further than 2233 and stop the Narada would be readily available. At least Spock Prime should be familiar with half a dozen of time travel methods such as the slingshot effect, yet he chooses not to "cheat". The needs of the many, however, outweigh the needs of the few, and the few people whose lives may not be as great in the original history as after the incursion definitely don't justify the sacrifice of the lives of six billion Vulcans, a complete species that was never meant to die. Notwithstanding the possible existence of a timeline in which everything is still fine, anyone else from Archer to Janeway would have done anything in their power to save the Vulcans. 

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