[blacksamster]

Semi-spoiler response:

I figured Nero had been hanging around for 25 years, at some point you get bored and tune in to local news (and Kirk's daddy apparently became quite famous in the interval).

And yeah, Kirk's encounter on the ice planet is hard to justify.

BUT, even having grown up on films 2 through 6, I had soooo much fun watching this. Bones was the best. And yes, there were "beep beeps" in my audience too!