[Macon ACE]

Yah, JJ, or the writers, or both have said Nero was caught and imprisoned by the Klingons before Spock showed up. And there was a scene of Nero fighting presumed Klingon guards in one of the trailers. All that was cut because it didn't add to the story. A shame IMO.

I enjoyed the Countdown comics and recommend them also. A fascinating thing to me is that JJ and company have alternated between "the Countdown comics are not canon" and "that was covered in the Countdown comics" to explain or dismiss points raised by fans as it suits them. I guess they like to eat their cake and have it too!

[A-CollinsTWC]

What was Nero up to for 25 years (The comedic approach):

Once the Narada arrived, the crew wanted to party like it was 2233 and rocked out to crazy Romulan heavy metal. These mosh-parties tend to last a long time, since Romulans have been known to live 200-300 years... Once the romulan ale, weed and munchies were consumed, the crew fel into a sugar crash and became all moody. Finally, they got into a goth-like fit(Romulan style) and wanted to shake things up by sucking planets up through a straw...

...Thus was Spock Prime saught out for his black hole device.

[JSnyder4]

Originally Posted by Sheepish Conundrum

How about this, after the Kelvin hit the Narada, it was obvious the Narada was pretty heavily damaged. It was a starship collision after all. So seeing as they were on the Klingon border, perhaps a raiding party captured Nero, and it took a considerable time to repair the Narada and be able to free Nero.

All perfectly fine, until you use these "calculations" based on movie dialogue. I would even allow a hand wave that the Romulans repulsed the Klingons (who had boarded and captured Nero) and escaped with the Narada to solve any further problems of the jailbreak and additional requirement of liberation of the Narada.

If nothing else the Narada is one big assed pink elephant in the room taking a dump everywhere for this lame *** intermediary 25 years beat done only to include Klingons who's scenes were cut theatrically and editorially as superflous.

In the end I have to hand wave it away as Spock being a fraking retard.

If Spock enters first (and Nero follows after chasing him) then Nero not only has some basis for a timing scheme between incidents (of entry at least) to figure something out but also motivation for asking about the current location of Spock when he questions Robau - but only if Spock went first.

The dialogue from Spock is one of the main problems.
Guess I have to hand wave away retardation on his part to the emotionalism of Vulcan destroyed.

[chator]

Originally Posted by Macon ACE

Yah, JJ, or the writers, or both have said Nero was caught and imprisoned by the Klingons before Spock showed up. And there was a scene of Nero fighting presumed Klingon guards in one of the trailers. All that was cut because it didn't add to the story. A shame IMO.

What were they thinking not putting Kligons in this? Or the TNG cast, if they could afford it, this movie could have been epic. I hope they don't have in mind to do a prequel to the prequel.

[NCC-73515]

Too confusing for the new people. Good vs. Evil vs. another Evil, which also hates the 1st Evil...

[Samuel]

Originally Posted by NCC-73515

Too confusing for the new people. Good vs. Evil vs. another Evil, which also hates the 1st Evil...

Hmmm a three way? Those can be quite fun.

[Buckman]

Originally Posted by Enterprise NCC-1701-A

you mean the Enterprise-E?

yeah

[Big D]

Originally Posted by JSnyder4

and that Nero is able to do these wondrous calculations in his head based on no other evidence of arrival other than his own (will Spock arrive in 25 years? 25 months? 25 weeks? whatever) without having even a secondary incident to base any of these calculations on is truly magical.

Who said he calculated it all 'in his head'? He was on a high-tech ship full of computers, after all.

It's like trying to predict a lightning strike based solely on a single previous strike while presuming there is a pattern and that the strike will hit in exactly the same spot.

Not at all. From his own ship's trip through the anomaly, he has records of its internal geometry, rate of expansion or collapse, and anything else that might affect its time-disrupting properties. He would also have known how fast Spock's ship was being pulled toward the singularity - since it would've been the last thing the Narada saw before being dragged in - and from that, he could conceivably extrapolate how the anomaly would be behaving by the time Spock entered it. Black holes presumably aren't in a state of constant, random fluctuation. And since the Romulans make and use synthetic, albeit microscopic singularities, it's even more conceivable that they could analyse their time-bending properties, especially when they've got a first-hand frame of reference.

[JSnyder4]

Originally Posted by Big D

Who said he calculated it all 'in his head'? He was on a high-tech ship full of computers, after all.

I'm done debating this totally dumbass beat to include Klingons and the passage of 25 years. As I said; it's a big ol' pink elephant with a case of the squirts.

The director obviously recognized the prison beat as lame and removed it. The fact it isn't in the novel means it was removed from the script before it was handed off to Mr. Foster. That itself is telling.

The best answer to this whole thing is to whistle and look innocent when someone looks at it too closely and asks questions.

Just another hand-wavey moment for me.
Doesn't mean I like the movie any less.
Every Trek movie has these type of moments of WTF?
This one just particularly grated me.

[Big D]

But the point is, it makes perfect sense in the film - even though they don't explain it away with technobabble and pseudeoscience. Nero worked out that Spock would show up a quarter of a century down the line, and a lot of waiting and angsting and psychological issues ensued in the intervening years.