QWhat happened to Carol Marcus?
AActress Bibi Besch decided not to return to the franchise, which is why in subsequent films Kirk is the one narrating the Genesis video. However, the novelizations of the films continue her story. In The Search for Spock, after a wake held for those who died Kirk attempts to reconnect with Carol. She gets upset since one of the scientists killed was her lover, and did not like that Starfleet was silencing information on Genesis. She leaves when the ship returns to Earth. In The Voyage Home, she was visiting Delta IV to inform family about their dead loved ones when she finds out about David before the Whale Probe attacks Earth. In The Undiscovered Country, Kirk and Carol did reconnect shortly following the events of The Final Frontier. They stayed in contact over the ten years between films and he intended to stay with her after he retired. Unfortunately she was in a facility that was attacked by Chang's experimental Bird of Prey. Kirk visited her before he was called away for the peace talks. She eventually wakes when he is captured. In Generations in an epilogue to The Undiscovered Country, Kirk contacts Carol following the mission before leaving the Enterprise-A for good learning she is okay. He tells her he wants to marry her, but they both recognize that she would be too involved in her work and he would get restless. During the christening of Enterprise-B, Kirk comments that he met with Carol a few times since retiring but they had drifted apart. The character would not reappear until Star Trek Into Darkness, set in an alternate timeline chronologically set earlier, played by Alice Eve.
QDoesn't Genesis need an existing planet?
AThe movie focuses on the Genesis project mostly for terraforming, modifying an existing planet to suit the new matrix. But when Genesis is used it creates a planet from the cloud of the Mutara Nebula -- the cloud disappears almost instantly and and the planet appears as if from nowhere. In the proposal video, Carol Marcus does say that terraforming is only a fraction of what Genesis can accomplish implying that it can do much more. Characters talk about creation but never to what extent it can create. The novelization explains that given sufficient mass and proper programming Genesis could create an entire system. This means that it doesn't matter where exactly the matter comes from, just that enough is there in whatever form to create a planet (an existing planet simply makes this step easier). In essence, Genesis absorbed all the mass of the spread-out nebula and condensed it into a single planet. It is likely not the Regula planetoid, since the planet formed where Reliant exploded (deep within the nebula) while Regula was far beyond the edge.
QA Note Regarding Spoilers
AThe following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. Spoiler tags have been used sparingly in order to make the page more readable.
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