First off I'll start with this...
Now my take on what I think some possible answers are...
In the original TOS, Spock served with Pike for 11 years on the Enterprise. In Trek 09, Pike tells Spock, "Be careful with her, she's a new ship!"
This simply boils down to the "alternate timeline" aspect. This is a different Enterprise altogether.
Why would Pike make Kirk, a cadet, that he did not want on the ship, the First Officer? Are there not several 'officers' on the ship that would be in line?
Other than the obvious answer that the plot requires Kirk to eventually be in command (and this is one of the steps to get him there)---
Pike knows that Kirk has his father in him, and knows that he can be a leader. This is precisely why he encouraged Kirk to join Starfleet. However Kirk in this case is the "reluctant Hero" that needs a "push" to achieve that status. The need for a new First Officer is the opening Pike needs to give Kirk that "push." Think of Ben Kenobi egging on Luke to become a Jedi.
Checkov did not join the Enterprise until the second year of her five year mission, and he was 22, not 17?
Okay... all we know from the TOS is that Chekov joined the
bridge crew as navigator in the second season. For all we know he may have been on the Enterprise in the first season in the lower decks (this explanation has also been used for "How did Chekov know who Khan was?" in ST:II).
I'll give you the age discrepancy.
Uhura, a cadet fills in for a lieutenant who can't speak Romulan. Okay, I get that, but because he can't speak Romulan and she can, he get's reassigned permanantly?
To be honest I never really noticed this one. :lol
The transporter can get a lock on Kirk and Sulu free falling to the planet's surface and beam them up, but it can't get a lock on Spock's mom, who is standing? Once the transporter has a lock, it doesn't hold the pattern? Does that mean if you are beaming up a bad guy in custody, all he has to do is wait until the transporter takes effect, begins to beam him up, then jump out of the way, take off running saying "tee hee" as he gets away?
Total fail on the writer's part- major plot hole and I completely agree with you.
And again, Spock and Uhura clearly state that since Nero came back and changed events, their "TIMELINE" had been altered, not a parallel or alternate universe as so many people insist on believing.
This boils down to your personal belief on how time travel works-
Is time travel like rewinding or fast forwarding a video tape? ONE timeline that gets changed?
Or is it the "multi-verse" theory that travelling to the past creates a parallel universe in which a new series of events takes place?
The movie relies heavily on the "multi-verse" theory (I think).
Kevin
