Ok I'm probably going to be way off here because I'm not a trekkie.
During Spock's funeral. So what's her face the other vulcan is there right? Yet in the next movie the vulcans seem to know they can bring him back.
So uh, why doesn't she know and say something like, "Whoa whoa hold up, we know he KO'd the doctor in engineering, lets hang on to the body for a few days just to make sure McCoy doesn't start going crazy before we shoot him out of a torpedo bay?"
It's a long time since I've seen that (despite it being a "rule of even numbers" good one to watch, in that particular film series). The more meta-explanation is of course that during the filming of WoK they didn't know they were going to be doing that. (When they asked the appropriate cast-members how they might accomplish the intended actions for the sequel, IIRC someone said "remember that off-script improvisation...? ...well, I was thinking...", or similar.)
Less meta, it can't be a common thing that happens (something available for the brightest, best, or just plain luckiest of the society), so it either might not be common knowledge, or not at the front of anyone's mind. Even (especially?) a cold, hard, logical one. Also, it needed the end of WoK and SfS events to ensure the 'vessel' was lined up.
That and how the hell did the torpedo land on the planet safely? I would think safe planetary landing systems would be something saved for shuttles, not torpedoes that are meant to explode the moment they touch something 99 times out of 100.
Either "forces of creation" helped feather-bed it, or as it was planet-bound (a change from the usual sun-bound trajectory of such things in such futuristic rituals, or else to get totally lost in the vastness of inter-stellar space), perhaps they didn't want it to crash and smash, and send indignified vaguely identifiable bits and pieces all over the landscape. Nor 'bomb' the pristine landscape with any pyrotechnic element to the payload (or the remaining potential in the capsule's drive system). The drive might therefore be tasked to allow a more leisurely (less combat-related) path with enough left over to give a vaguely soft and dignified landing.
There are
other problems, I can think of. Bit, like I said, it's been a while since I've seen it so I'm not going to make myself look sillier than I already have done.
@Neonivek Probably because shutting down the transportation system would[...]
In light of the above context, first misread that as "...the Transporter system..."
Haven't seen the film, but I imagine someone is thinking "but is it
really smallpox (as opposed to many other poxes, or pox-like conditions)? And if I shut the system down, panic ensues financial repercussions, rioting, etc, and then it turns out not to be, then I'm kissing my [political?] ass good-bye..."