10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek (2009)
2. Hitting A Bullet With A Smaller Bullet
Transporters have always been magic passed off as science so the concept of transwarp beaming is really no more preposterous than beaming at all. What’s dumb about the transwarp beaming in this movie is exactly what Scotty describes but Spock waves away: trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse.
Consider that they’re aiming at a moving target that they have zilch data about, other than where it’s heading (the Laurentian system), and the warp three velocity Spock ordered before throwing Kirk overboard. There’s zero indication they know exactly when the Enterprise went to warp, whether it has changed velocity, or if young Spock changed his mind about his destination. If the Delta Vega outpost sensors could detect the ship in warp then you might buy it, but Swiss Army Knife Spock Prime just pulls some numbers out of his Vulcan arse and it works.
Can this get any dumber? Of course it can! If you have transwarp beaming, why send Kirk and Scotty to the Enterprise instead of to another Federation member planet or right to Starfleet Command ahead of the Narada’s arrival? Or, hey, send Kirk to the Enterprise and Scotty to Starfleet Command, thus covering both bases!
The real-world reason is to contrive to get the OG crew all on the Enterprise, and that’d be all fine and good if the script did it in a way that was sensible … not stupid.