In one of the movies there is an alien spaceship that wants to communicate with the whales except they’re all extinct, for some reason the lack of the whales is causing all of the ships to shut, so the crew have to travel back in time to the 20th century to get a whale for the alien ship to communicate with.
Yeah that was the plot, the original Star Trek movies were kind of bad really.
Nah, it wasn’t bad at all. The whale extinction plot was to raise awareness of the discovery of whale intelligence and to spark resistance against the immorality of whale hunting. Perhaps it was a little hamfisted, but Star Trek was always woke as hell.
Star Trek has never shied away from telepathy, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to have the whales in contact with a powerful alien intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy. It wasn’t the lack of whales that caused ships to shut down and Earth’s weather to whip up hurricanes, but rather the overwhelming energy field of the probe the aliens sent to investigate the silence.
All that and it somehow managed to showcase an absolute banger punk song raging against nuclear holocaust.
I just watched it the other day. It still holds up. The parts in San Francisco is particularly ironic since that is the base of Starfleet in the future. I as a child watching it when it was released was made aware of extinction because of this movie. Sure it’s cheesy at times, that is not the goal. The goal was to make people aware while being entertained. It works.
That’s just a normal Star Trek plot. Hell, that’s toned down for normies compared to half the stuff they get up to in any given series. At least it’s an alien looking probe and not a giant green hand or space Lincoln.
Yeah, it’s one of those “it’s weird that it happened twice” situations. Not to mention TMP was just a mash up of The Changeling and One of Our Planets is Missing. At a certain point it feels like the characters should be asking each other why they keep experiencing the same situations over and over…
Oh right. This was the one where Scotty tries talking into a Mac mouse. And then after opening and closing a lot of windows, transparent aluminium!
*Edit : spelling
And the computer was like oh I totally know what this arbitrary molecular structure you just programmed in is, and totally know its name, so I’ll just flash that up on the screen. Because that’s definitely how material science works.
How dare you! Wrath of Kahn was/is really good. Or fun. Or both.
The first movie, oh god that was bad. But I would rather watch any of them (including the TNG ones which weren’t great) over the new ones. Now those are bad.
The plot was originally written as a plague that could only be cured with a plant that’s extinct, but they went with the whale plot because it’s more visual.
In one of the movies there is an alien spaceship that wants to communicate with the whales except they’re all extinct, for some reason the lack of the whales is causing all of the ships to shut, so the crew have to travel back in time to the 20th century to get a whale for the alien ship to communicate with.
Yeah that was the plot, the original Star Trek movies were kind of bad really.
Nah, it wasn’t bad at all. The whale extinction plot was to raise awareness of the discovery of whale intelligence and to spark resistance against the immorality of whale hunting. Perhaps it was a little hamfisted, but Star Trek was always woke as hell.
Star Trek has never shied away from telepathy, so it wasn’t much of a stretch to have the whales in contact with a powerful alien intelligence elsewhere in the galaxy. It wasn’t the lack of whales that caused ships to shut down and Earth’s weather to whip up hurricanes, but rather the overwhelming energy field of the probe the aliens sent to investigate the silence.
All that and it somehow managed to showcase an absolute banger punk song raging against nuclear holocaust.
And they made it a comedy.
I love Star Trek IV.
Scotty picking up the mouse thinking it was a microphone was hilarious. Silly of course, and the fact he could type, well…
But the whole movie was just fun.
‘Oh! How quaint!’
I just watched it the other day. It still holds up. The parts in San Francisco is particularly ironic since that is the base of Starfleet in the future. I as a child watching it when it was released was made aware of extinction because of this movie. Sure it’s cheesy at times, that is not the goal. The goal was to make people aware while being entertained. It works.
It’s the movie I showed my fiance to get them into Star Trek and it worked like a charm
That’s just a normal Star Trek plot. Hell, that’s toned down for normies compared to half the stuff they get up to in any given series. At least it’s an alien looking probe and not a giant green hand or space Lincoln.
It was one of the Voyager probes, upgraded by aliens to continue its journey of discovery, returned to earth wasn’t it?
No. That was in TMP. To be fair, that’s two TOS movies where mysterious probe threatens the Federation.
Yeah, it’s one of those “it’s weird that it happened twice” situations. Not to mention TMP was just a mash up of The Changeling and One of Our Planets is Missing. At a certain point it feels like the characters should be asking each other why they keep experiencing the same situations over and over…
Oh right. This was the one where Scotty tries talking into a Mac mouse. And then after opening and closing a lot of windows, transparent aluminium! *Edit : spelling
And the computer was like oh I totally know what this arbitrary molecular structure you just programmed in is, and totally know its name, so I’ll just flash that up on the screen. Because that’s definitely how material science works.
How dare you! Wrath of Kahn was/is really good. Or fun. Or both.
The first movie, oh god that was bad. But I would rather watch any of them (including the TNG ones which weren’t great) over the new ones. Now those are bad.
Have you seen the director’s cut of The Motion Picture? I think it’s pretty good. They were clearly influenced by 2001 Space Odyssey.
I have not but now that you mention it, and I knew the first release was rushed, I am intrigued.
When I get a chance to watch a big screen TV I will give it a try!
Thanks for posting.
What made Khan so great was…KKKKKHHHHHHAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!
Seriously, Khan was the perfect archenemy for Kirk. An over-acting bad guy vs. an over-acting good guy. Lots of hammy goodness.
I love that your esteem for the old movies has improved based on how bad the new ones are.
The plot was originally written as a plague that could only be cured with a plant that’s extinct, but they went with the whale plot because it’s more visual.