johnnygoging: completely disagree on the fight choreography. I'm happy for michelle yeoh to elevate Star Trek hand to hand fighting scenes from double-axehandle territory. that was even worse when you consider it was Klingons getting beaten by double-axehandles from Starfleet. you got Michelle Yeoh all up in the business then you're gonna get Kung Fu and if you don't like I will personally Single Whip some sense into you.
Flash grenade!!!
Damn that was stupid. If they were trying to defeat the emperor and kill everyone, why not use a real grenade and it would all be over and done with. I guess flash grenade and kungfu are both equally out of place in Star Trek.
Although my all-time favorite is actually from an old TOS comic book, where Spock knocks someone out by hitting him in the head with a phaser. Not even trying to nerve-pinch, or fire that phaser to stun or anything, so out of character and out of Star Trek, that it's almost brilliant because of that.
johnnygoging: Keep in mind, they're all military. Starfleet, the Klingons, the Romulans. Practically every race we see is military with the exception of the ferengi.
Starfleet is not a race. There are many pacifist races that belong to UFP, but don't take part in Starfleet. Originally even Vulcans were such a race, even though post-TOS series ruined that idea.
Even so, MOST races in Star Trek are actually not military! It's easy to get confused, as we mostly remember Klingon battlecruisers or whatever, but just about every other random weekly race in the series is non-military. To stay on the mirror topic, the Halkans from Mirror, Mirror were one such race among many others.
http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Halkan