Reply #116: Exactly. [View All]

Compare the destruction of Vulcan with the destruction of the twelve colonies in the first few episodes of the new Battlestar Galactica. Vulcan barely even registers because it barely even registers with the characters (except for the Spocks and then not much). It's treated as a blip on the way to giant lizards chasing Kirk on the ice planet. In BSG you care about the twelve colonies because you have well-rounded characters who care.

The central problem in Star Trek is that the villain has almost no screen time, isn't developed at all and is completely one dimensional. That puts the whole destruction of Vulcan/threat to Earth thing into the extreme background while the audience is ticking off a mental checklist of cast member introductions and catchphrases.

I wasn't thinking "damn, Vulcan genocide"- I was thinking "eighty minutes in... where is Simon Pegg?"