Shouldn't the crew be in freefall while the ship is descending to earth?
In Star Trek: Into Darkness, there is a scene in which Khan disables the Enterprise' power, forcing it to be caught in Earth's gravity (Ch. 12). During this scene the crew members are seen falling within the ship as it rotates. For example:
While Kirk and Scotty are running to Engineering, they begin to fall as the ship rotates sideways, losing their hold on the guardrail - only to be saved by Chekov. (Star Trek: Into Darkness, 2013, 1:42:30)
My question is: Since the Enterprise is falling toward Earth, shouldn't the ship and her crew be in freefall? And if so, from the ship's frame of reference shouldn't the crew appear to be unaffected by Earth's gravity?
I know that it's only a movie, but the Star Trek franchise has always taken significant care to adhere to scientific fact. They often can explain any seemingly infeasible phenomena with scientific theory assumed to be proven or applied by the 23rd century. I would be slightly disappointed to find that a simple law of physics was overlooked for dramatic effect.
Best Answer
You need to remember that the Enterprise has artificial gravity. Within the internal logic of the movie power might still be available to that even if it were disabled for some other ship systems.
If I remember rightly, not everything on the ship was discombobulated by Khan's actions. But many systems were disrupted. If you accept this then you don't have to assume that the laws of physics were being violated, though whether it is internally plausible that the gravity is one of the last systems to go of that it could be just a bit disrupted is still open to debate.
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Answer 2
Artificial gravity was out, however I believe the inertial dampers were still active. This can easily explain the effects we saw in the movie. I believe the TNG Technical Manual explains it as a system of forcefields that keep the crew more or less in place when the ship accelerates or decelerates, counteracting those forces and preventing the crew from getting squashed or thrown about more than dramatic requirements allow. Since the tech manual can be considered non-canon, it gives even more leeway to how they could behave. Point is, inertial dampers exist, we know their basic purpose, and there's nothing to say they couldn't explain the movement of the crew within the ship while it was in free fall.
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