I remember reading that Gene Roddenberry was very displeased with the numerous plot holes in Star Trek II (one in particular he mentioned was the eel that just happened to wriggle out of Chekov’s ear before killing him, in unexplained contrast to how they acted with everyone else). He credited Ricardo Montalban’s performance as Khan with providing the presence needed to keep the audience from poking the story full of holes; he even went so far as to say, referring to the filmmakers, “[Montalban] saved their ass.”
There’s a relevant observation on the commentary track of the DVD of The Mummy, by director/writer Stephen Sommers and editor Bob Ducsay.
Sommers: When the director is also the writer, I get very anal about story points. I don’t want there to be a single story hole, so that’s why we keep such good track of that key and the two books and all the other really important props. And then in post-production, we realize “The audience doesn’t really care.”
Ducsay: Right, exactly, in post-production we blow huge holes in the movie, just to make it faster. So, um, all those things that you think are story holes, those are all taken care of in the script, and they’re all photographed but just unceremoniuously ripped out of the picture just to be faster.
I find myself not minding too much if it’s left unsaid why a possible solution isn’t feasible. I object when the premise is blatantly preposterous, as is the case of almost every other Trek movie, and action movies generally.
He was giving the ship one of those Vulcan pinch-a-ma-thingies!