14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek Nemesis

3. The Nuke On The Bridge

Star Trek Nemesis Enterprise E Poster Scimitar
Paramount Pictures

So, let’s see, this ginormous Scimitar badass ship is possessed of all sorts of overly complicated rotating and unfurling emitters and layered bat-wings for releasing this deadly Thaleron radiation, but the Tootsie Roll center of this space plutonium Tootsie Pop is in a compartment just off the bridge.

Not only is a critical doohickus of this turns-everyone-to-pumice Medusa Radiation within spitting distance of everyone in the main control room, but the most important dudes on the ship... like Praetor Shinzon. What possible sense does this make? Why is it anywhere near there, instead of buried at the core of the ship surrounded by shielding? Looking at the device, is there even a forcefield? As far as we can see, it’s unshielded by transparent aluminum, a see-through shower curtain, or even a peekaboo nightie. Shinzon's knife gets destroyed in it, but was that a shield or the energy itself?

An early draft of the script featured a different yet equally dumb premise: that multiple warp cores passed through the bridge. That's as logical as a nuclear reactor just off the bridge of a modern supercarrier.

 
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Contributor
Contributor

Maurice is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He's also a screenwriter, writer, and videogame industry vet with scars to show for it. In that latter capacity he game designer/writer on the Sega Genesis/SNES "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Crossroads of Time" game, as well as Dreamcast "Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future" where Tom Baker performed words he wrote.