[JR585]

What do you think?

[samwiseb]

Nah. Let them die.

Or better yet, torpedo them to death because you don't feel like waiting around. Sort of like stomping on a person's grasping fingers instead of just letting him fall (cowardly). However...

They're caught in a miniature black hole, so I'm not sure there's much you can do for them.

Nero made it clear he didn't want to be rescued, and wouldn't cooperate if he was.

They're dangerous war criminals already accountable for homicide on a planetary scale.

Having them tried would create more widespread political complications than is worth, since they do not even exist in this timestream legally speaking. If he were bin Laden you'd drop him in the ocean and claim to the world you shot him in self defense. If he were Mussolini you'd pull over in some village town and have him shot. The decision would never even get high enough up for anyone in authority to take public responsibility for him. Deny Nero and the others their voice and shoot them like dogs.

An acting captain who could not grasp these nuances and delivered them to Earth alive would probably never get promoted again.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

They were offered a chance to surrender, they refused.

[JR585]

Originally Posted by Captain Tom Coughlin

They were offered a chance to surrender, they refused.

Nero refused. His crew was running around looking for a way to escape.

[Captain Tom Coughlin]

Originally Posted by JR585

Nero refused. His crew was running around looking for a way to escape.

It doesn't matter, the offer was refused.

[samwiseb]

Originally Posted by JR585

Nero refused. His crew was running around looking for a way to escape.

The communications transmitter override is on the thirty-seventh floor down, folks. Across knee-deep pools of rusty water, separated by bottomless chasms leading into the quantum singularity that powers the ship. Better get there fast, your boss is already signaling his decline for a rescue.

[thestartrekker]

Nah, I had enough of Romulan footwear.

[horatio]

Obviously it was virtually impossible to save the crew due to the singularity. But they still should have tried or at least considered the implications of their actions for two reasons, a moral and a political one.
First, the interspecies equivalent of human rights. You do not shoot people "like dogs", neither today nor in a better future (obviously AbramsTrek is reactionary, its future is worse than our present), you do not kill an entire civilian crew just because their leader is a mass murderer. There might very well be people in it who are opposed to Nero's path.
Second, while Kirk knows some tidbits from Spock senior he doesn't really understand the situation and doesn't really know for sure that the ship is from the future so saving the crew is politically prudent. The relations with the Romulans are probably tense anyway.

Instead we got the very opposite, a pubescent Kirk who was basically happy that Nero declined his offer such that he could "pew-pew" him, a character devoid of decency and intelligence. Spock did not even pretend to care and his implicit "come on Jim, kill that sucker who killed my mummy" stands in stark contrast to the Spock from TOS who tells Kirk to kill Mitchell or let Keeler die when it is the only option.

[samwiseb]

Spock never gives a reason for his objection (presumed, and for that matter it didn't sound like a very strong objection to me). "What are you doing?" It could be anything. It could be practical (they're all about to get sucked into a black hole, and almost did because they wasted time firing torpedoes). It could be political. It could be personal. If it's personal it lacks conviction because of the way he delivers his next line. He never says what he's thinking. If there's nothing there there's nothing there. You fill in the cracks and make up your own reason.

The AbramsTrek future is actually worse than today? This is the first time I've heard that, so I'm just making note.

I agree though about not killing all of Nero's crew if you can help it (even though I sort of practically doubt any of them were innocent, given they all would have known the sheer magnitude of what they're leader was doing. It's not like covering your ears in a Bajoran labor camp). And firing the torpedoes seems a bit excessive every time I watch it.

[kevin]

In fairness I think Spock in my reading was kinda expressing disapproval at the offer of assistance, however it was never his decision to make. He's allowed his opinion on such a thing and to disagree but Kirk was in command and the offer was made.

It was clearly not even remotely safe enough to try to save them and I'm not of the view this is a 'what about the innocent contractors on the Death Star' type Clerks discussion. The crew of the ship were likely no more unaware of what was happening than Ayel although you could argue we never get told. We wouldn't anyway really. Were we told Shinzon or R'uafo's henchmen were unaware of their leaders plans? The crew of Kruge's ship? No we weren't.

I would not confuse who henchmen are and create artificial indignation at the lack of attempt to save them.

However, I don't at all subscribe to any notion Abrams future Earth is materially worse and I believe that really has more to do with certain views on the entire film than anything actually shown. Their really has never been much of Earth shown so the minutae and banality of daily living on that planet is heavily unknown in either Universe. I think it's a little more contemporarised and made recogniseable then Roddenberry would ever have shown had he been able to but I don't have a problem with that.