More spoilers from the Star Trek movie. Seriously, just go watch the darn movie already.

I know I’m not the first to complain about the physics of star trek, but a few things bugged me, especially J.J. Abram’s use of black holes.

1. If you want to make a black hole that can destroy a planet, there is no need to create it at the center of the planet. It will still destroy the planet if you create it on the surface of the planet, or even near the planet but not actually on it.
2. Black holes do not grow spontaneously. They grow from absorption of matter and energy. At the end of the movie, the black hole seems to just grow for no apparent reason.
3. Nothing can escape from a black hole, not even Nero’s “never surrender” transmission. (Although as an interesting side note, the energy transmitted from the surface of a star the instant before it becomes a black hole will be received over an infinite period of time).
4. A black hole shouldn’t be able to stop a supernova as Spock tries to do. In fact, supernovae often have black holes at the center, and that doesn’t stop the outer layers from being thrown off in a violent explosion.
5. The black hole inside Nero’s ship at the end should have almost instantly destroyed the ship (without even needing to grow). Because parts of the ship were so much closer to the black hole than others, the whole thing would have suffered from very unequal gravitational forces acting on it, and would have been pulverized in a process called spaghettification. (Stephen Hawking made up the word, I swear).
6. Vulcan has a red sky. (Stop messing with continuity Abrams!)
7. Old Spock is on Delta Vega so he can see Vulcan’s destruction. Think about how we see other planets in the sky (Venus, Mars, Jupiter, etc.). They’re all dots in the sky. If Delta Vega is close enough to Vulcan to see it that clearly in the sky, then it must be so close that it’s hard to imagine they both have independent orbits around the same sun(s). Also Delta Vega has been seen before, and is nowhere near Vulcan. (Stop messing with continuity Abrams! Pick an original name!)