Question: I always feel like I'm missing something with the scene where Kirk orders the Enterprise to reverse at the beginning of the battle. It confuses the Klingons and leads to a short respite in taking fire, which I would assume was exactly Kirk's intention, but then Kirk himself expresses confusion that the Klingons had stopped firing. What else could Kirk have been trying to do with that action?
Answer: Kirk wants to buy time to find a way to detect Chang's ship. Reversing is an unorthodox tactic so Chang is also thinking.
Question: This might be subjective, but why does the Enterprise take so much damage, especially interior damage, long before the shields actually collapse?
Chosen answer: There's a limit as to how much the shields can protect the ship. Depending on the force of the explosions, the ship still suffers some damage from any weapon blasts. Also, the shield only holds for so long and gradually loses it protectiveness with successive attacks, causing increasing damage to the ship.
Answer: The depiction of the shields in this movie is actually interesting because it seems they deliberately tried to show how the ship could plausibly take damage while the shields are up. Here the shields seem to be "on" the hull (or perhaps emanate from the hull itself) and their function seems specific to preventing hull breaches. In TNG and onwards the shields appear as a kind of energy bubble wrapped around the ship, and accordingly they seem to absorb much more impact.
Question: As the Klingons are beamed aboard the Enterprise for dinner, one of the crewmen blows into something before they fully materialize. What device is that and what's its function?
Answer: It was an electronic boatswain's, or bosun's, whistle. It's used on ships to get the crew's attention, when honored guests boarded, or at a crewman's funeral.
Question: Is it my imagination, or does the opening theme sound similar to the classical piece "The Planets - Mars" by Holst?
Chosen answer: There are certain similarities, yes. Whether any specific aspects of the piece were deliberately incorporated into the film's opening theme is an open question, but the overall feel is undoubtedly very similar.
Answer: At one point Nicholas Meyer did indeed have the idea to incorporate "The Planets" into the score, but apparently the rights proved too expensive. I have no doubt Meyer asked composer Cliff Eidelmann to give the score a similar sound.
Question: I have always wondered why the entire senior bridge crew beam down to Khitomer at the end of the movie - (1) this crew is already senior - you would expect some junior crew members to come as support even in the series episodes, they always brought the "red shirts" to do at least some of the dirty work or act as security escorts; and (2) Who's left flying the ship?
Answer: The logical reason is that this is the final movie with the original cast. The plot is written so that they all have a heroic climatic moment, are shown to still share a strong united bond, and are all together before bidding Star Trek fans farewell. It was a fitting and satisfying ending to their long participation in the ST franchise. There would certainly be plenty of crew aboard the Enterprise to fly it.
They've uncovered an assassination conspiracy with one of their own senior officers is involved, and she enlisted the help of two jr. Crewman. The plan would be classified to bridge crew only in case there were more crew involved. As for the ship, if they're in standard orbit, the computers can maintain that with very few crew on the bridge.
Answer: To answer question #2: nobody! When we see the senior officers return to the bridge, it is completely deserted.
That doesn't mean there was no-one on the bridge while the senior crew were on the planet. They may just have exited the bridge prior to Kirk and the others stepping back on. Also, bridge control can be transferred to engineering and the ship flown from there while in orbit. I would emphasize again that the scene was written without other crew being seen solely to focus on the original cast members one final time. It's their moment, so a bit of artistic license was appropriate.
Question: After the first photon torpedo hit from Chang, when the bridge is shaken and everyone flies from their seats - so do the bridge seats, like office chairs with wheels. Shouldn't bridge equipment be bolted down to the floor? (01:33:22)
Answer: Sure, but it's a lot more fun to see them sliding around.
Question: I don't understand why Spock insists that the magnetic boots must be on the Enterprise and not on the cloaked bird of prey. Spock points out that someone involved in the assassination conspiracy must be on the Enterprise, because this person must have altered the data banks. I agree with him. But why does that prove that the assassins who boarded the Klingon ship must have beamed from and returned to the Enterprise? How can he assume that the assassins and the computer hacker are the same person/people? Maybe there are assassins on the cloaked bird of prey and only a hacker on the Enterprise. Or, maybe the assassins might have beamed from the Enterprise but then carried on to the bird of prey, once their work was done, instead of returning to the Enterprise. And finally, if Spock does think the assassins beamed to and from the Enterprise, why is no one looking at transporter logs/records for evidence of unauthorized beaming to Kronos 1?
Answer: It's fairly simple - somebody good enough to hack the weaponry databanks on the ship would undoubtedly be able to alter the transporter logs, so, while they were undoubtedly checked (we do see Chekov investigating the transporters - he would certainly have looked at the logs), they'd be unlikely to glean anything from them. They'd also be good enough to cover their tracks, so they're not going to get very far investigating the computer breach. As such, the only specific thing that they can look for are the gravity boots - this does make the assumption that the assassins came from the Enterprise and returned to it, but, at that point, all they have to work with are theories. However, while the only specific items that they can look for are the gravity boots, the search might also turn up other items that could indicate complicity in the events on Kronos 1 - the hacker probably used some specific computer tools which could be found.
Answer: Also, as mentioned in the movie, gravity had not yet been restored to Kronos 1 when the assassins beamed back over. If they had not been wearing the boots, they would've floated off the pad. Spock even says something to the effect of that if they were from enterprise, they couldn't dispose of the evidence. If not, whoever altered the data banks is on board. So what they are looking for is there. (I don't remember the exact wording).
Answer: They found the Klingon Blood on the Enterprise transporter pad. That alone proved that the attackers were from Enterprise.
Question: Why does it take the Federation two months to do anything about the explosion on Praxis?
Chosen answer: Because (as we see in the first ten minutes of the film) the prideful Klingons didn't want anyone entering their space.
Question: I remember seeing an extra scene where they discovered that the Klingon sniper was in fact a human, since he didn't have Klingon blood. Was this only for TV release, because that's the only place that I saw it?
Answer: In the original theatrical release, the character Colonel West, played by Rene Auberjonois (who played Odo in DS9), never appeared as his scenes were cut. The home release special edition version included these scenes, including where he is disguised as a Klingon in the assassination attempt.
Answer: That scene was included in all the VHS and DVD releases of the film up until 2009 when the Blu-ray (and possibly subsequent DVD reissues) stuck to the theatrical cut. It also might have been edited out of some TV airings due to the big pool of blood.
Chosen answer: Kirk is highly skilled and experienced in combat. He knows the bird of prey must be between the Enterprise and the planet, so he instinctively orders a reverse after they are hit, fearing that they are at point-blank range. Chang is worried that Kirk may have somehow detected him, so he holds fire and repositions, but Kirk is merely being cautious.
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