Star Trek Into Darkness: 10 Things That Make No Sense

9. Prime Directive

The second thing that doesn€™t make much sense in the opening scene is Spock and the Prime Directive. Having got himself trapped in the middle of the volcano, Spock argues that he should be left to die because the natives might see the Enterprise and it would violate the Prime Directive. He is hell bent on the fact that he shouldn€™t be rescued, there is no way around the Prime Directive, it mustn€™t be violated.

Of course, Kirk ignores him and the Enterprise rises up from the ocean and goes to the rescue. Rather bizarrely, Mr Scott claims that if the volcano fully erupts, the Enterprise might not be able to stand the heat. Considering a volcano eruptions generates heat anywhere from 1000C to 1500C, it's considerably less heat than what would be generated by a ship entering a planet€™s atmosphere, and that is even before we bring the Enterprise shields into the equation. But back to the point€.

Once Spock is rescued, he still can€™t get over that Kirk violated the Prime Directive to save his life. Clearly Starfleet€™s rule No.1 is very important to the Vulcan who finds it difficult to bend the rules.

But Spock didn€™t seem too worry about the Prime Directive as he was cooling the volcano and changing the destiny of the planet. None interference does not mean keeping technology away from primitive species; it also means that you don€™t change the natural evolution of planet and its inhabitants, even if by not interfering it causes their death. Spock seems quite happy to pick and choose how he applies the Prime Directive. On one side he can€™t fathom breaking the Prime Directive, even if it means him roasting in a volcano; on the other side, he is quite happy to drop an ice cube into the volcano and in turn save a planet that would have otherwise perished.

Even has Captain Pike is giving Kirk and Spock a dressing down for breaking the Prime Directive, Spock is still unaware that he is flip-flopping on the idea of what none interference actually means.

Apart from being an exhilarating opening scene, this was written to build the friendship between Kirk and Spock. It€™s unfortunate that that it had so many logic-holes that distracted from the drama on screen.