Corrected entry: During the final battle with the Reliant, Spock points out that Khan's flaw is his "two dimensional thinking". Why then, does the Enterprise have to move "up" on the Z-axis, to come up behind Reliant and be on the same plane before she can fire? Surely starships can fire weapons in three dimensions? It has nothing to do with "seeing" Reliant on the viewscreen either, since the viewer is a composite of sensor readings, not a window.
wizard_of_gore
2nd Jul 2009
Correction: They're too far apart, so they can't see each other; the Mutara nebula restricts sensor range massively, so all they can do is search and hope that they get close enough to spot the other. Spock's observation is that Khan's inexperience is leading him to only search in two dimensions, when the ships are actually separated vertically. Kirk therefore orders the Enterprise to move along the z-axis to get back within sensor range of the Reliant, closing on the smaller ship from a direction that Khan would be unlikely to anticipate.
Tailkinker ★