Star Trek by the Minute 066: Sewer Interrogation Begins


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Uhura continues to look at Spock, and nearly breaking into tears says "OK." She then plants a kiss right on Spock's mouth to which he responds, and they separate as the lift comes to halt. The door opens and Uhura watches Spock exit and walk down the corridor. Speaking of which: where is he going? It must be someplace important for the acting captain to leave his post in the middle of an emergency, failing to hand off command to anyone or give anyone on the bridge a clue as to what was going on, where he was going, what he was doing, when he'd be back, etc. It seems reasonable that simply a normal viewer might want to know who was in charge of Starfleet's most advanced vessel and best weaponry, to say nothing of the crew aboard the ship. Apparently we will never find out, because the film cuts immediately to a scene of the Narada zooming through some sort of energy conduit or hyperspace with a blue-white light reminiscent of the signature "lightning storm" which betrays the ship's imminent arrival (and attack).

On board the Narada, in a long shot that pans out from behind a dark corner we see Nero standing over Captain Pike, who is strapped down to a table. Nero guesses aloud: "You must have a lot of questions for me…" as an entree to: "I only have one for you. I need the sub-space frequencies of Starfleet's border protection grids, specifically those surrounding Earth." Once again, we have dialogue that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever relative to the story(?) being told.

Actually, that statement does not seem quite correct because this film seems more a jumbled collection of video shots that don't really follow the normally conceived rules for narratives, making descriptions that this film is "telling" of "a story" somewhat misleading. So having said that, and based on what we've seen and heard in earlier shots, Nero definitely does not have any need for information regarding his helpless victims' useless attempts to protect themselves. All of Starfleet's defenses, all of defenses of a huge fleet of Klingon battlecruisers, and all of the planetary defenses of Vulcan have been repeatedly shown to have ZERO effectiveness in hindering the Narada for even one second, with the exception of the Kelvin miracle collision. Like Spock leaving the bridge, and 100 other scenes, actions, and lines of dialog in this film, this interrogation makes no sense based on what we must suppose is the film's substitutes for plot.

Another nonsensical element is the entire set where this interrogation takes place: a high tech vampire cave, complete with evil, pointy-eared Romulan Nosferatus, skulking around their dripping lair. Nero is actually wading through 30 centimeters of what looks like black water and sewage when he demands: "Christopher, answer my question." Pike growls back at him: "No, you answer for the genocide you just committed against a peaceful planet." As this segment closes, Nero continues his unbelievable, random ramblings with: "No, I prevented genocide. In my time, where I come from, this is a simple mining vessel. I chose a life of honest labor."

No women speak in this segment.

The clichés seem never to end in our next segment of Star Trek by the Minute 067: Nero's Plan

Comments

muser said…
A point of clarification: why was there a "lightning storm" at all? The first time was when the Narada emerges from its time travel, and the second when Spock emerges in the "Jellyfish". The lightning storm effect is not characteristic of the Narada, it is characteristic of an object traveling back in time via a red matter black hole. True, this betrays the Narada's attack, because Nero won't attack Vulcan until he has Spock Prime so that he can make him watch. Why this needs to be done on Delta Vega, instead of on the Narada where Nero can watch his anguish, is a mystery. Oh wait, no it's not. This is so Spock Prime can meet new Kirk. I almost forgot: The needs of the writers outweigh the needs of the fans.
Nemo said…
Pike couldn't have known about the destruction of Vulcan (and I see no real reason for Nero to ever tell him) so what's this talk about answering for genocide in his opening line? Magical StarFleet subspace news channel at work here?

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