I do love how despite the fact that the computer doesn't have the capabilities of voice interfacing, it is nonetheless capable of accurately simulating the properties of a previously unknown substance based only on its input atomic structure.
Nah, Scotty just rewrote the software as he went along. Of course, nothing says he didn't also write in a self destruct to wipe out the program and the transparent aluminum, which is why history didn't wind up changed by his actions.
I think apart from the Q scenes at the beginning and end, this Easter egg scene (and the punk's post-Spock reaction to being asked to turn down the music again) might be the only salvageable thing from that train wreck of a season.
Although it poses the question of how bus punk could have remembered being nerve pinched - since the past was changed, Kirk and co. almost certainly wouldn't have gone back in time to 1986. My theory is that it was so impactful that he felt it across timelines.
At one point they're just trying to go home. There's another one where the bad guy wants to... Ummm... Well he hates Kirk personally and this somehow leads to a brand new planet being formed.