4. Performing Surgery On A Torpedo
One of Into Darkness' first twists was the discovery that a prototype photon torpedo wasn't a torpedo at all, but was in fact being used to smuggle a cryogenically frozen human being. Not to be outdone, the other 71 on board the Enterprise were also doing exactly the same thing. The first instance of Kirk being open to John Harrison's side of the story, it began the chain of discoveries that included Harrison's identity and Admiral Marcus' true intentions, all thanks to the surgical skills of Karl Urban's Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy. Continuing Urban's uncanny imitation of DeForest Kelley's original Chief Medical Officer (all the more impressive considering the two never met, Kelley died in 1999), performing surgery on a photon torpedo is also something borrowed from his precursor, taken from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Incidentally, it's also not the first time a torpedo has been used to transport people either. Space burials aside, see the Next Generation episode The Emissary for a previous instance of where this idea comes from. Although Kelley performed the surgery whilst still on board the Enterprise rather than an uninhabited planet, in the torpedo's launch tube no less, he was instead rigging the torpedo to find a cloaked Klingon vessel. Similarly a small act with large consequences, once again (or should that be before) his hands of a surgeon saved the day and prevented a war between Starfleet and the Klingon Empire. Which brings us to the next item on the list....