10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek (2009)

It’s not unbelievable that the Narada’s future tech makes it nearly invincible to the weapons of a century earlier. I mean, imagine the cannons of an early 19th-century warship trying to punch through the steel hulls of a 20th-century seagoing ship.

But the truly dumb thing is its firepower. The Narada reportedly destroyed 47 Klingon warbirds in a single go. Note that we witness at least six fragmenting torpedoes hit the Kelvin and it doesn’t completely come apart. One assumes decades-newer ships like the task force with the Enterprise must be at least as tough. So how many such torpedo hits does it require to take down 47 warbirds and five starships? 300? 400?

The point: Nero says "In my time, where I come from, this is a simple mining vessel." So why the hell does it possess such incredible firepower (tie-ins aside) and the tactical systems to use it? Is space piracy so bad in 24th-century Romulan space that miners require such weapons?

Perhaps this would have been believable if the fragmenting torpedoes were identified as asteroid-shredding mining tools that Nero employs as weapons against his comparatively antiquated foes … except that these torpedoes go through starship shields as if they weren’t there, which suggests they’re weapon-weapons.

Why is a simple mining vessel armed to the teeth?

Because it’s a summer blockbuster.

Pew pew! Dumb dumb!