Trey: From what I understand the boy he drives and waves at on the road is his brother. And supposedly, according to Abrams, the guy on the phone is his uncle.

And as far as knowing, we don't, at all for either of them.

That's the impression I got too, Trey.  That he was taking stepboyfriend's car because stepboyfriend is the type of douchebag who bought an iPad.

Oh, but wait. On the four-year, three-year thing I just remembered: McCoy is a raw recruit too, just like Kirk. But he's in the same class as Kirk and Uhura and the rest by the time three years elapse. Which means McCoy also "did it in three."

In my best Hermes voice I exclaim, "Dat just raises furder questions!"

Can't we also assume that McCoy gets extra credit for having, you know, already done medical school? Kirk's in some sort of AP program for getting high scores on his LSATs, and McCoy's in the 3-year medical program.

Or perhaps my explanation from earlier was correct, and Starfleet isn't based solely off the American military style. Go figure eh? Sci-fi taking inspiration from something outside of the States...weird.

I had the same overall feeling about Star Trek that I had with Casino Royale. I like these actors in the roles and the style (more or less) but I want to see them in another story/film.

Because this one really didn't do for me. The plot is so contrived and makes so little sense that on repeat viewings the film is really diminished. The main problem is the villain, the details of which have already been discussed.

There's just too much fridge logic to everything that goes on and way, way too much bloody winking at the audience. The Prequels did this and likely think it's cute to put these easter egg references for the fans. Stop it, it's offensive, equivalent to slapping my mother across the face but saying, 'but look, my hand has a tattoo of Iron Man's hand on it, isn't that awesome!!'

I agreed with Brian on most things, and whilst I like and have seen most Trek I'm not in any way a purist. Which I guess makes this next complaint a bit out of character for me.

The biggest problem for me? Destroying Vulcan. This to me reeked of a lack of respect for the franchise. I did not see this as 'ooh no one is safe in this timeline', which would have been far better served by killing one of the main crew and being genuine about this approach, but a sign of disrespectful fan fiction. JJ Abrams was invited to play in Roddenberry's universe and then proceeded to destroy the home planet of one of its key species for shits and giggles.

As for the Lord of the Rings' ending. In addition to the other rationalisations, in Tolkien's world the great eagles aren't mere mounts for humans and others to use at will but proud and isolationist creatures. The one that rescues Gandalf from Orthanc is sent by his fellow wizard, Radagast, who is known as a special friend to animals.

I read the Alan Dean Foster novelization of the film a few months back, there were one or two scenes that made it clear that Kirk's stepfather was a pain in the ass, and that Sam decided to leave the house.

Kirk decides, eff this I'm leaving too, takes the stepfather's car and passes his brother on the road.

I assumed McCoy, having already completed medical school, had less to do at the academy.  Maybe Starfleet 101, learning how to treat non-humans,  and some specifics about how to serve as a medical officer on a ship or starbase, as opposed to a downtown clinic in Jackson, MS.

Picard gave Wesley a job with few important duties where he would literally be sitting behind him the entire time watching over him, but here, a captain who's marching into certain death sees a cadet who was specifically forbidden to come on this mission and makes him the first officer, because his dad was dead. Maybe it's my fault for assuming all these years that Starfleet ran on some kind of military protocol, but these two seem to have found a pretty big loophole.

The precident here was actually set by Kirk's dad, who had actually earned the rank of first officer. He took over a ship whose captain walked into the exact same suicidal capture, gave the order to evacuate, then blew up the ship, killing himself. Twenty years later, apparently starship captains are required to commit suicide on a regular basis, which explains why nobody wants the job anymore. It does make me wonder, if the chain of command is that fluid and not based on experience or expertise, why would anybody follow orders anymore?