In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, it made it clear that they know when a moon blows up, so why not a planet? Or for that matter, when Chekov's ship entered the system, did they not notice a PLANET WAS MISSING and asteroids/debris everywhere?
shareIt seems government entites can make mistakes in the future too.
Maybe the Federation is just stupid or the Reliant crew were so dumb and wanted to finish their job they never noticed a planet was missing in that solar system.
I blame Reliant crew !
Hanlon's Razor, yes!
shareEverything that happens is the fault of the reliant crew, so perhaps they noticed the problem but were like hey would be fun to starta movie by going down to a planet with unexplained lifesigns sowe can have a conttrived reason for movie, you'd think by now they would learn to take more precaution
shareIn Undiscovered Country, the moon that exploded was in the heart of the Klingon empire. The explosion was caused by the Klingons themselves (Weapons Stockpile) Also Sulu's ship was caught in the shock wave. It was noticed.
Alpha Ceti was picked for Khan's people, specifically for it's isolation. Who would have been there to notice? Although it seems to me there should have been some kind of warning to others in their computer's memory bank to say:
"HEY! DANGER! HOSTILE CIVILIZATION! STAY AWAY.
^^that^^
Presumably, the Federation had every possible sensor aimed at the heart of the Klingon Empire, detectors so sensitive they could tell if anyone in the Imperial HQ had eaten beans for dinner, and which would certainly pick up a massive moon-destroying disaster.
The Federation would have absolutely no reason to aim that kinds of sensor array into Khan's backwater! Stars do actually flare or blow up every now and then, and if they don't happen near population centers I doubt anyone would take much notice. And I ought to know this, but... did Kirk ever *tell* the Federation that he'd stranded a bunch of unfrozen genetic superpeople on that particular backwater? Or did he just strand them and not bother to enter anything in the official record? So the Federation might not even have a clue that a human colony might have been affected by that particular star going through its natural cycle?
"Or did he just strand them and not bother to enter anything in the official record? " My impression.
shareI haven't watched "Space Seed" in a while, but didn't Kirk make log entries (which are presumably sent to the Federation) referring to the discovery of the Botany Bay and its crew?
Wouldn't someone with access to his log entries wonder, "What happened to the people on that ship they discovered?"
Maybe one could argue that Kirk deleted/erased those log entries before transmission to cover up his actions, but wouldn't that mean a large chunk of time unaccounted for in the Enterprise's records?
I never liked that episode much, so I'm not going to watch it again to see if there's any indication whether Kirk made full disclosure to Starfleet. But if he had, I can't imagine that Khan and his pals were considered to be any kind of military priority or that anyone would think they needed watching, they may have been bastards but they didn't have spaceflight technology, and had no way to recreate even the 21st century technology they were familiar with.
Seriously, if Kirk told Starfleet all about it, and I don't think that's guaranteed, all Starfleet would do is post an advisory about that planet. "Prime Directive in effect, natives known to be hostile and dangerous", that sort of thing.
Yeah, this has always confused me. Especially since Chekov had been to the Ceti Alpha solar system before (yes, I know we never see him in Space Seed), so presumably, he knew how many planets there had been at one time. Each time I watch, I want to shake him for not commenting on the wrong number of planets.
Chekov could have forgotten. It had been a long time and he had been to many solar systems.
shareA planet blowing up would have created a curiosity that needed to be investigated. Khan also recognizes Chekov so that implies Chekov was present on the Enterprise when it first encountered Khan. We are asked to believe that in the universe of Star Trek that people on average have extreme capability in terms of memory and reasoning so it is inexcusable for Chekov to have a lapse in terms of the Alpha Ceti system. But the reality is that the coda associated with Star Trek was placed on hold to make the movie work even at the cost of one of the character's credibility. As to Space Seed I always considered it a fine episode even if Kirk makes a blunder in terms of letting an unknown glimpse what should be secured information. Nearly all television shows ask us to overlook major implausibilities in terms of character functions. Otherwise it would be the same six stories told over and over again.
shareGood question.
share
I assumed the Ceti Alpha system was known but not particularly well mapped. When 6 exploded, it changed the orbit of 5 so the Reliant must have assumed 5 was 6 given it's new orbit and different climate.
We also don't know the orbital period of the planets to their sun. If CA5 and CA6 were out near Neptune and Pluto distance wise, it would take 5 - 10 hours at warp 1 to travel from CA5 to CA6 if they were on opposite sides of the star at any given time, so the Reliant might not have noticed the debris or even that CA6 was missing, particularly if the system wasn't that well mapped.