[Alex]

I mentioned on LJ an idea that I think would have rocked if Abrams truly wanted to establish he was going a different way and that what has come before will not be a constraint:

Spoiler:

And I think Abrams, whether he knew it or not, set up the perfect opportunity. When Kirk, Sulu, and the Third Guy were preparing to dive down to the drill over Vulcan the Red Shirt joke was obvious (Lani and I looked at each other knowingly).

If Abrams had the balls for it, what he should have done is have Sulu (remember, at this point none of them are integrated parts of any crew) be the one to misjudge the drop and be instantly incinerated. Since they didn't really know each other yet, Kirk would have been upset by this no more than he was at the death of the Red Shirt as happened (actually, this is also the same amount of upset as he apparently felt in witnessing the simultaneous murder of 6 billion people -- notice how everybody expected Spock to be upset but apparently it wasn't that big of a deal to anybody else?).