I am in the process of watching my ST movies (in order) again and am confused about something in ST II.
When the Enterprise is trying to escape after Khan set the Genesis to explode, Spock goes down to engineering to help get the warp engines back online. He goes into an area already flooded with radiation to fix “something”. He lifts the lid off, reaches inside, waves his hand back and forth, puts the lid back on and warp power in restored.
For something as complex as a starship, I would have thought the “jiggling the handle” method wouldn’t work. Comments?
If it was that simple, why didn’t miracle worker Scottie think of it and complete the task wearing a radiation suit?
In other words, they needed to have Spock die sacrificing himself to save the ship. A shielded room full of radiation was just the ticket. Scotty was shown on the verge of collapse while talking to Kirk (“I’ve got to take the mains off-line. It’s raay… di…atio–ugggh!”) At which point point Spock tells Kirk about some sporadic energy readings, so it’s established that he knows what’s wrong with the ship.
So when it comes time to warp the heck outta there and Scotty doesn’t answer Kirk’s call to get the engines back online, Spock hustles himself to the engine room and fixes the problem.
Of course, SPOCK could have put on a radiation suit, or told someone else down in engineering “hey this is the problem, get in there and fix it” but he figured that logically, there was no time to waste discussing it or telling somebody else how to fix it, let alone put on some kind of protective suit. It turns out, he was right… They got away with seconds to spare.
That’s one way to look at it. I still think it was a way to provide a heroic end to a main character. I don’t have a problem with it, either, especially considering what passes for “drama” in most other forms of Trek.
Scotty can’t do it because the compartment is flooded with radation, my faulty memory seems to tell me he says it’s so much so that a radiation suit won’t even help. What Spock does is apparently more than “jiggling the handle” - although that cracks me up. Remember, Scotty’s wailing about “the mains” being offline - presumably, Spock is re-setting “the mains” while getting blasted in the face with radiation so harsh we can see it streaming out.
Of course, in that situation, any of the engineering crew would have volunteered to suit up and do the same, but I suppose a mere human in a radiation suit wouldn’t have lasted as long as a half-Vulcan with no protection other than gloves. And before anyone points out how silly the gloves would be as protection - obviously Spock needs to protect his hands as much as possible. One can’t save the ship if one’s fingers dissolve before the work is done…
“You put the ‘Reset the Mains’ button WHERE??! Woah. Let’s hope no one notices that. Oh, well, what are the odds they’re ever going to actually need it, huh?”
I understand the whole plot device but that’s not as much fun as nitpicking.
I still think it’s funny that Spock can fix the mains by sticking his arm into the thing-a-majig. After all, there is an endless supply of redshirts the could be trained for that specific task
I always thought he had to realign the crystals so enough power could flow to drive the warp engines - an operation which usually requires massive amounts of warp-physics calculations that even Scotty at his best couldn’t just best-fit estimate, especially apparently temporarily overcome by radiation. Spock was the man with the plan.
What I don’t understand is why they simply didn’t phaser the Reliant out of existance. I mean, if you blow it up before the Genesis device can get up to speed, then surely you won’t have to worry about it taking you out as well.
Geez, I can’t believe I’m actually going to jump in here and offer a tech-geek explanation for a Star Trek techno-thingy…
The reason the Enterprise couldn’t just phaser the Reliant was because the mains were offline…
…in ST:TMP it is mentioned that it was determined phaser power could be increased by diverting power from the mains to the phasers, rather than using the old charged-batteries method. Unless a design change took place between ST:TMP and ST2:TWOK, then if the mains were offline so were the phasers. Supposedly, this desing “flaw” was fixed in the later Constitution-class vessels, like Enterprise 1701-A.
I think AmbushBug’s explanation makes the most sense. For the engines, phasers, or whatever to work, you need the energy flow to go through the power cells and since (from what I remember) all Spock did was just twist a few things and then reset it, that fits in perfectly.
Kind of like making sure the positive and negative terminals on your batteries are touching the conductor in your remote or something.
I think that they fired the phasers after Scotty took the mains off-line, but even if they didn’t they could use photon torpedoes. (Which is what they did in ST:TMP when that problem came up.)
Tuckerfan,
On reflection, you are correct. After the initial attack from the Reliant, Kirk is told by Scotty that all that’s left are the batteries, and when queried, he tells Kirk that he can give him, “a few shots,” to which Spock replies, “Not enough against their shields.” So, phasers might have been available on reserve power - though main phaser power would have still been provided through the mains.
Of course, a couple of throw-away tech lines would’ve solved this problem:
Kirk: “Weapons status”
Spock: “Phaser banks are depleted (or damaged, etc) and photorps are off-line”
Presto, plot hole filled.
Shooting holes at Reliant was also kind of chancy… After all, starships don’t just explode in a ball of fire when hit, at least not in Trek II. Big chunks get shot off, which I might add is a really cool effect. For some reason, the crippled Reliant spiraling and skewing as it drifted, leaving a sparkling trail from its amputated warp nacelle is one of my favorite images in sci fi… But I digress. Since they couldn’t aim precisely, shooting Reliant full of holes might not take out the self-contained Genesis torpedo.
But then there’s another possibility: Kirk’s first reaction is to beam aboard and stop the detonation, to which David replies “you can’t.” I’ve always wondered if “stopping it” might not include heading over with a hand phaser and disintigrating it. But then, “you can’t” might include attempts to destroy it that result in a premature release of all that energy. End result, you’re fried, but by a marginally smaller explosion as your only comfort.
Armchair starship-captaining aside, trying to get the Trek outta there may have been the best bet. Best odds and all that… Of course, they had the chance to try this scenario again in “Star Trek Nemesis: The Wrath of Diet Caffeine Free Khan Part II” :rolleyes:
I just happened to see this episode last week for the first time in a decade.
I had a problem with the immediate aftermath of the final battle with Khan:
Kirk knew that Khan had possession of the Genesis device. Why did he not attempt to transport the device off of Khan’s ship as soon as possible? Even if he did not want to endanger the Enterprise with the device, he could have transported it into empty space.
If Kirk had taken this simple and blindingly obvious precaution, at best, he would have kept Khan from activating the device, with no apparent downside if Khan had already activated it.
So why did Kirk not take this action? For the same reason that he blundered into the uncommunicative Reliant with his shields down: Kirk is incompetent. :wally
The Genesys Device may not have differed enough from the other equipment aboard Relaint for the transporter to find it - after all, it’s a big hunk of Federation technology surrounded by a ship made of Federation technology. It wasn’t until the device was activated that the “energy signature” gave its location away, and I got the impression that the transporter couldn’t be used on it at that point. Could be wrong on that last part.
In theory, it could have, since Kirk says, “We’ll beam aboard and stop it.” Another possibility would have been for them to hold it in the pattern buffer until they got to a test planet, then beamed it down there so it could do it’s stuff. Or they simply could have deleted it from the pattern buffer, and then not had to worry about it going kablewie at all.
…I can quite proudly state that Star Trek 2 was the only movie in the theatres to send me into the state of an absolute blubbering mess… I mean the tears were just streaming down my face, my nose was running, and for a 12 year old like me (I think I was 12, so long ago… ), that was no mean feat…
I mean, for goodness sake,
SPOCK JUST DIED DAMMIT!
I think it was the bit where he walked, blind, straight into the see-through wall, then he straightened his uniform, to talk to his Captain…
:: SOBS INTO HIS HANDS LIKE A GIRLY, BLUBBERING MESS ::
Well, as some have pointed out, there are ways to fix these nitpicks with a few throwaway lines of dialogue:
Kirk: We’ll beam over and stop it.
Spock: We cannot use the transporters within the Nebula.
Kirk: Scotty, I need warp speed in three minutes or we’re all dead.
Spock: [leaves his post, enters turbolift]
Since it’s already established that shields and weapon locks don’t work in the Nebula (and as nebulae go, this nebula isn’t very nebulous), it’s no great stretch to presume transporters won’t either. In any case, it’s a minor enough flaw. Had the problem been solved with some out-of-nowhere discharge of MadeUp Particles from the deflector dish… well… that way lies Voyager.
By the way, Spock straightened his uniform as soon as he stood up, before turning around and walking forward to bump into the wall.
