Quote Originally Posted by Miriel View Post
Are you trying to say that in the future, with all this crazy ass technology, that earth does not have a defense mechanism for huge objects colliding into the earth???
They probably do, but stop and ask yourself what large objects they're going to be concerned about crashing into the Earth. Asteroids are the only likely scenario. Comets are a possibility but not nearly as probable since there aren't that many of them out there compared to asteroids. But what all of those have in common is that they're a lot easier to deal with the farther away from Earth they are. In fact, if you've waited until they fall from high Earth orbit to do something about them then it's already too late, even on Star Trek for the most part. I'll forgive you're not knowing since you say you aren't really a fan of Star Trek, but even in the 24th century in it's own continuity (over 100 years after this movie), things like shielding an entire planet or moving/destroying large asteroids are nearly impossible. Even shielding cities isn't really that reasonable.

So odds are any defensive ability to prevent things like asteroids colliding with the planet relies on using their sensors to track and deal with them when they're still millions of kilometers out. When you typically rely on a system like that, asking why they didn't do something about this is like asking why the military didn't shoot down a 747 over New York when some people in the streets just noticed it was a second or two away from hitting the World Trade Center.

And who cares if Star Fleet is not a military organization, I assume that a military does exist in some form. Shouldn't someone have noticed at some point that there was a big ol' battle being waged just above the earth?
There is no military. Starfleet serves as a defensive force in the event of attack or all out war, but their primary mission is exploration. You also need to realize that Earth itself is not very heavily defended, and is largely reliant on starships to protect it. Earth in Star Trek is nothing like Earth today. Yes, it is the center of Starfleet and the Federation government, but it's also quite deep in Federation space, and basically solved problems like poverty, war, most diseases, etc. at least a hundred years before the movie even takes place. Earth has been at peace a long time. They haven't been at war for quite some time, and terrorist attacks don't happen. So yes, their complacency seems quite reasonable to me.

This is a futuristic society with god damn teleportation and intergalactic capabilities. And they have no shield or response with which to protect earth?
Slight nitpick, but they have interstellar capabilities. They can't travel to other galaxies. Also, they can't teleport a starship, nor can they produce shields large enough to protect entire planets or cities.

I mean, what happens if a ship loses power or like the enterprise, it's been crippled and starts plummeting towards earth?
Why would they expect a ship to lose power that close to Earth or be crippled and plummet towards it? Like I said, attacks on Earth don't happen in this time period. You could argue that maybe they should be a little less complacent after what Nero did in the first movie, but that was an advanced ship from more than 100 years in the future that also happened to be destroyed, so they probably didn't anticipate something like that happening very often. There's literally no reason for a planet that hasn't been involved in a single war in over a century to believe that a ship will be crippled or lose power while in orbit. That really just doesn't happen.

And hell, even if a ship was in an actual orbit and lost power, it would simply continue in a decaying orbit until they could either get help or it burned up. There's no reason for them to think a ship will just show up, not take up a standard orbit, and suddenly be attacked or lose power.