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Star trek: Into darkness - why not just detonate the "cold fusion" device remotely?


At the start of Star Trek: Into Darkness, Spock is almost killed detonating a "cold fusion" device to stop a volcano blowing up a primitive tribe. However, for a civilisation that possesses such advanced technology it seems a bit odd that Spock had to go down there and do it manually.


Why couldn't they just set a timer on the device and lower it into the volcano?



Answer



Spoilers


The scene establishes several parameters:



Which prevent the placement of the "cold fusion" device.



including




(1) The planet's magnetic field was considered to be powerful enough to block an indirect lock-on and transport so the Enterprise would be required to be visible to the natives in order to make a clear drop. If they were visible to the natives this would have violated the Prime Directive.



and



(2) The smoky volcano prevented a clear line of sight and enough thermal updrafts to prevent using a line to drop the device. The device needed to be on an interior surface and not dropped into the lava. This could only be assured with a person (Spock) dropping with the device and hiding the shuttle in the ash cloud.



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