I had to wait until the BD came out before I could see the movie, listen to this podcast, and read through the forum. Now I’ve finally done all three.
I liked the movie a lot and I, for one, am very glad that they were liberated from “canon”. I have always found the arguments about ‘canon’ to be tiresome. (So has Leonard Nimoy apparently since he said this a few months ago,"Canon is only important to certain people because they have to cling to their knowledge of the minutiae. Open your mind!” I love that quote.)
Except for the issue of black holes vs. worm holes and the status of Delta Vega, I found the rest of the “science” to not be completely unbelievable. After all, they are more than 200 years into the future. All you have to do is look back 200 years to see how far we’ve come. How much of our technology would look like magic to people in the early 1800s? Besides if a culture has warp drive, artificial gravity, transporters, and inertial dampers, (all like magic to us) then building a starship in Iowa wouldn’t be a big deal and getting it to space would be a triffle.
My guess is that the culture would have advanced quite a bit as well in 200 years. Once again, look back to the early 1800s for comparison. So trying to compare our military structure, or any part of our cultures to theirs is an exercise in futility, but an amusing exercise nonetheless, I suppose.
This movie was fun and I think delving too much into futuristic sci-fi is basically a waste of time and mental energy. As Leaonard Nimoy said, “Open your mind!” And besides, it’s just a movie.
I DID like 'the motion picture,wrath of khan( of course),first contact,and parts of nemesis though.