@socketwench - "We could have skipped so many scenes and landed right at the point Spock helps to repair the ship and relays his impressions of a distant, space-borne consciousness."

There ws a conscious effort on the part of the writers and the director to show that the Enterprise wasn't "happy" without Spock. The second example of this is the wormhole. Chillingly the first example is Sonak's killing. The idea being the Enterprise needs Spock there as much as Kirk.

Oddly, this scene exists in every draft of the movie with a slightly different take each time. Originally it was to showcase Lt. Xon (Spock's replacement) as not as "Seasoned" as Spock. He takes navigation off line to reprogram it, when suddenly an asteroid appears on a collision course.