I don't see the ending of TWOK to be a deep and meaningful as you, so no, it would dilute nothing for me. What it would say is that there was a reason for Spock to sacrifice himself - he's the only one who could do the job. Otherwise he's just got a crazy suicidal hero complex.

He did know the problem, just like Spock did, just like the audience did. "I had to take the main's off the line. It's ra….diation." Clunk.

I don't think that would be a better ending. That's a false dilemma. I'm saying they shouldn't have had an ending that would have been more logically solved by a red shirt in a RAD suit. It's just a silly, contrived situation.

I'm not suggesting Kirk fix the core. I'm not even suggesting Spock shouldn't have fixed the core. I'm saying Kirk didn't leave his seat to make the hard decisions. He's not getting an answer on the comm and there's 4 minutes on the clock. He should have sent Spock down there to see what was up or gone down there…

I would assume you will always need to split regions up into smaller parts for ease of governing. Just like the EU didn't do away with individual countries, you shouldn't lose divisions by state just because of a United Earth.

Because that's not getting any results.

Buuuut, that doesn't mean he couldn't send a couple of guys in there one at a time. And also no one thinks to put a helmet on.

Except this is a special occasion because the whole ship's going to blow and no one is answering the phone downstairs.

No need, to get personal, buddy. How old are you? And how old do you think I am?

Don't you know? Kirk never faced death. I mean, he was only on a failed colony where 4000 people were massacred, and then his brother and sister-in-law were killed by flying brain cells, and then he dropped a rock on his best friend from the academy.

I believe the record shows you and Ms. Lincoln had a number of interesting adventures together.

Is it just me, or does Sito Jaxa sound a bit too much like Tito Jackson?

I like to rag on TWOK, but I can see the point of the test. It's a way for officers to evaluate how you deal with a situation that is impossible. Just because you know it's impossible doesn't mean you can't try and do your best at it.

That's fine, I guess. But being the leader makes you responsible to all the others to keep leading. You know, can't risk the captain and all that?

Whaaa! Why doesn't Commander Riker like me? Whaaa! Why doesn't Commander LaForge like me? Whaaa! Why doesn't Captain Picard like me? That was the majority of their conversations and it felt, to me, like whining. I just feel like - you're in space, you're dealing with all kinds of dangers and problems and sciencey…

Yeah, but command has its privileges.

How in the world did you get the TNG gig in the first place? IMDB shows you produced a single episode of "The Big Blue Marble" in 1981 and then nothing else until Trek.

Oh, and even the first officer is too dumb to realize that he's got 20 engineering cadets lined up to die in the reaction chamber, each one of their little bodies piling up as they collectively finally fix the issue in the magic glowy chamber. Apparently Vulcan's aren't good enough at math to figure out 20<400.

No, I want to care more about the characters you're throwing at me by not having them sprung on me suddenly but eased in. I know that's hard for a show that's not arch based, but there are more regular background people than just Ogawa that would have been a better choice, like, say, Grace Harrell. I also would have…

So here's the situation: Your ship is battle damaged to the point that all that's holding it together is duct tape and super glue. Your functionally alcoholic engineer has taken the main engines off line because of radiation fears and in order to not have to deal with it anymore he's sprawled himself out on the deck…