Whale Probe

[@justinquaylepate1358]

"It's difficult to answer when one does not understand the question" good point without a doubt

[@user-iy6rm6pm4j]

Cryptic because when the computer asked Spock "How do you feel?", Spock said "I don't understand the question." Yet here, Spock is the only person in the entire Federation who understood the probe's question to humpback whales -- "Are you there?"

[@davidpasyyl]

If... it's even a question

[@abundantYOUniverse]

A point or two?

[@spikeep6141]

Hadn’t noticed before - The whales go nose-down vertical when they are singing; and *so does The Probe* when it’s *replying.*

[@blastermasterguy]

And the song both sing to each other...a song of infinite love and loss...of grief and sadness...it's both haunting and beautiful.

[@patrickperalta59]

spikee6141 I noticed that when I first saw the movie I thought one of the whales did not make the trip back in time and had sadly died.

[@Josh_Fredman]

I never noticed that!! Good catch.

[@abundantYOUniverse]

@@blastermasterguy And they all love Barry Manilow

[@sarcasticstartrek7719]

@@blastermasterguy if you go by the original script, it was, paraphrased, "WE WILL KILL YOU ALL", "no, don't do that, we're back!" "ARE YOU UNDER DURESS?" "no, they came back to save us." "ARE YOU SURE YOU DONT WANT US TO EXTERMINATE THEM??" "ehhh, nah."

[@steveconn]

5:55 - Always liked Sarek's "while we still have time." That sense of alarm beneath the cold Vulcan exterior.

[@karlsmith2570]

Well, keep in mind: While they have them, Vulcans suppress their emotions in order embrace logic

[@bentonneil7416]

You prolly dont give a shit but if you are stoned like me atm you can watch pretty much all of the latest movies and series on InstaFlixxer. Have been watching with my gf for the last couple of days :)

[@rykerorion1185]

@Benton Neil yea, been using InstaFlixxer for months myself :D

[@jimhuffman9434]

Under the cold Vulcan logic "We're screwed!"

[@ericmorang3903]

Yeah, if a Vulcan is scared, you know you're in trouble!

[@malibustacy3606]

Sarek gets the nod for delivering the movie's best rational response @ 5:38.

[@duane356]

Good thing Oumuamua found our sea mammals intact.

[@crhu319]

Yup.

[@stevegonzo2091]

Came here looking for an Oumuamua comment and now I'm very happy to see others thought of our Solar system's strange visitor as well... 😉 😃

[@JustinLodes]

For now. When they come back in 20 years and find all the fishes dead they’re gonna be pissed

[@TroyDionWilliams]

Omg 😂

[@danielmccurdy862]

Very lovecraftian. The idea of an unknowable, incredibly powerful force that waltzes through the "powers" of the alpha quadrant like they weren't even there and does what it wants. Probably would have been too on the nose to have it want to talk to squids. The fact that the Probe has no discernible power source, and is so alien in design... simply brilliant.

[@k1productions87]

And it was never even treated as a villain. Even as it was risking countless lives and nearly tearing Terra apart, it was always treated as a mystery to be solved and answered, rather than an enemy to be fought. Voyage Home is hands-down the most "Trek" Trek film ever made, right down to its lighthearted adventure throughout.

[@stevo0124]

@@k1productions87 Well said, to you both!

[@Spino2Earth]

@@k1productions87 I do actually not like the movie because of that probe thing aswell as time travel, and the fact that Leningrad still seems to be a thing in the 23th century even though it was changed back to Saint Petersburg either at the end of the 20th or the start of the 21th century!

[@k1productions87]

@@Spino2Earth Checkov mentioned Leningrad in the TOS episode "I Mudd" as well. They had no way of knowing at the time that this change would occur, even in 1986. It was still another half decade before the change was made.

[@tommissouri4871]

@@Spino2Earth - it is quite possible that their trip back changed the timeline such that a seemingly small thing like scaring the heck out of a Russian whaling vessel would lead to the downfall of the USSR and so Kirk and crew would be unaware of Leningrad changing to St. Petersburg until they got back to their own time. Maybe the crew were related to someone important and had taken pictures of the Klingon Bird of Prey, making the Russians believe the US had weapons far beyond what they knew. The smallest thing can make huge ripples years later. Ray Bradbury's butterfly effect.

[@grizzfan08]

Even though this is my favorite of the films, that probe still gives me the willies.

[@TimeTravelinc]

grizzfan08 Probably the primal fear of dealing with a cosmic horror entity will do that. It doesn’t care, it doing what it wants, and admist it’s prime directive, it creates wanton destruction across Sol Three AKA Terra AKA Earth, along with other individuals in the path of this probe. It’s certain to give anyone who knows ultimate and unknown power would get chills when dealing with this.

[@Shadowkey392]

Really? THAT is what does. It for you?

[@The_Burrito]

@@Shadowkey392 The sound is unsettling as all hell.

[@jimhuffman9434]

@@The_Burrito It's just whale song

[@sandal_thong8631]

These clips make me think of an alternate version: GIllian stays in the past but Kirk inspires her to save the whales, so if they don't make it back human civilization will still survive.

[@karlsmith2570]

Fun Fact: The actress who played the Captain of The USS Saratoga is the same woman who played Eddie Murphy's mother in "Coming to America"

[@insovietrussia]

Ay-Alien! How apropos

[@develynseether4426]

She played another queen this time for Disney in animated Lion King as Simba mother which would be her last film role as she died of Leukaemia the following year. Back to Trek she also played Geordi's mother Captain Silva LaForge of the USS Hera in the TNG seventh season episode 'Interface'.

[@karlsmith2570]

@@develynseether4426 she played Geordi's mom?? I didn't realize that Or that she'd voiced Simba's mother in the animated version of "The Lion King"

[@timothyb3121]

Madge Sinclair is her name. R.I.P.

[@gynandroidhead]

The groundbreaking actress Madge Sinclair.

[@lucasbachmann]

3:47 i don't think i ever noticed the scale of the probe versus the space station.

[@Deltaflot1701]

I just realized that myself

[@stevegonzo2091]

It's crazy how it dwarfs the space station. The probe's sphere is almost as large as the station itself. Also begs the question, "If a probe from that civilization is that size, how large is an actual starship?!" 😱

[@Prander5x5]

HA! Me either. In all my years, in all the times I watched this, I never noticed the space station just hanging there. Doh! That was cool.

[@moonleafteaofthemonth]

6:00 I love how this whole scene is played straight with the back and forth between the whales and the probe, not only leaving it open to guess what was communicated between them, especially since whale song itself is a strange, almost alien thing in and of itself. That and the face that it's never further explored what the probe is or where it came from, suggesting not only whales possessing an intelligence that may or may not surpass humans', but that there are other forms of life akin to whales that ended up on a different evolutionary path. Or that whales are really beings from another planet, I don't know.

[@GRasputin91]

The novelization does explore the probe's origins a little, it did in fact come from a planet where cetaceans are the dominant intelligent life form.

[@umleroi]

I think it very nicely drives home the point that the message "isn't meant for us". Trek has always been about how humanity is small piece of a much larger whole - coming to terms that we are not the center of universe, but that we still have responsibilities and contributions to make to it - and I think that the choice to leave this vague really helps communicates that.

[@brianwesley28]

The whales complained to their whale overlords that the humans were giving them names like spermwhale and humpback whale, while also misgendering them.

[@j2kerrigan]

​@@brianwesley28lmao I know Im 3 months late but this cracked me up

[@OpenMawProductions]

@@j2kerrigan In his video review of Star Trek IV, Chuck "SHDEBRIS" Sonneberg did his own subtitles for that sequence, and it basically went like this: Whales: Knock it off already! You're f*cking up the whole planet! Probe: Sorry I was just checking in on ya, everything okay? Whales: Yes, not F*ck off!!! Probe: Alright! Fine!

[@christophercraig3749]

The helmsman always made me laugh. He looks like he's working on his day off and now it all goes to hell.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Was he the helmsman? He connects to Starfleet Command, so I thought he was communications. But he does double-duty at helm too.

[@sarcasticstartrek7719]

Geordi wasn't the first blind navigator of a starship :)

[@valuedhumanoid6574]

I always imagine that the probe was filled with water and millions of whales were living inside. They oxygenated the water so that they could breath. And they controlled it with their thoughts.

[@billmilano6246]

Not unlike the underwater species on the Xindi planet on ST: Enterprise.

[@davidbutler1857]

Same. A whole ocean like biosphere inside. It was clear that the probe was of immense size many miles long

[@sandal_thong8631]

Naturally for the sake of making a TV show, most life was bipedal humanoid. But until we find alien life, we won't know how common that is. But as Kirk and Spock said, whales were on Earth far longer than man existed as a species. People don't like the Halloween episode, "Catspaw" but the aliens (puppets) at the end were the best TOS had to offer for something "totally alien."

[@lamueldagon7618]

The novelization has other another take, but you idea is a good one.

[@asifkhan506]

Huh???

[@FedoraReshiramGaming]

i just love how, no matter what one may say about it, how destructive it acts, how impressively powerful it is, just everything, 'alien' about it... this thing is nothing more then a probe, its only purpose was to reach earth, and try to establish communications with 'whales', whoever/whatever sent that, rendered every ship/station/even an entire planet helpless and all its trying to do is say, without actually knowing... "what's going on, we haven't heard from you in years"

[@mathewgreen4099]

40 years later & these movies still hold up well. Thanks for posting.😀

[@PHANTOMZ0NE]

That has got to be the biggest volleyball in the galaxy!

[@SirCraigius]

3:15: That always annoyed me. They knew the probe was coming their way. They knew it hours in advance! And yet they wait until its literally on top of them to order space dock to launch all vessels? They could have had every ship full loaded with people, out of the dock and safely away at warp speed before the probe even got close if they'd acted immediately!

[@tubawritaguy]

It's too bad those of us in the know, meaning those of us who know how to look outside the box, wasn't even the chance to edit the script, seeing what was missing, what wasn't need, and improving on it.

[@tubawritaguy]

I meant 'given the chance'.

[@messengerguardiansparanorm8606]

Good point. Yet, they really wanted to keep the sense of danger. There were relatively few ships in orbit, and Earth has billions of people. It's an interesting trope to use the "all or none" as a plot device. I suspect that is why Harve Bennet and the others did not write that in. I suspect every script could use improvement. Yet, like books, one just has to stop the m--teenth editing process, and just put it into play. Again, though, good point.

[@Kiyosuki]

Maybe the only ships still left in Space Dock were just the Excelsior, which was still an experiment, and a few vessels in maintenance or (depending on what backstory on it you choose to believe) the developmental connie that would later be converted into the Enterprise-A, basically ships not technically in full service, and the announcement to launch all vessels was simply out of desperation to launch "anything that's left". And also, they had already launched "everything we have" so maybe that included some emergency evacuation ships. Even in the 23rd Century I must imagine a planet wide evacuation ain't no joke, it'd be difficult to transport the entire population of a planet as crowded as Earth with even every ship in Starfleet even in the time given.

[@kilroy987]

I got the sense that despite the threat that earth was still operating very much in a state of peace, and the arrival of the probe threw things into sudden and unexpected turmoil. We knew firsthand the damage the probe could cause, but even we the audience didn't know the damage it could cause on such a large scale, even disabling the entire space station. When I first saw the movie, I didn't have a problem with them not trying to do anything until it got close. Maybe there were already plenty of ships in orbit and the station was just ordering the immediate launch of the rest of them once the damage started to get caused - we just didn't see the probe break through any perimeter, if there was one. I didn't have a problem imagining Starfleet having everything in place, just not showing us all of it. I guess I think of it more like an alien presence arriving at modern day earth, and suddenly all traffic lights go out, affecting the common people.

[@scottgray6099]

I remember going to see this twice in the cinema. What made it for me was the scene where the Saratoga was being hit by the waves, the cinema dimmed the lights at exactly the same time as the Saratoga's and back again. Plus they dialled up the throbbing bass of the alien probe so you could really feel it. Gave me tingles 😎

[@nealwhaley63]

Now that’s what I call dedication to the theater experience.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@nealwhaley63 It is so good it should be normal feature.

[@algebra5766]

Just brilliant! This is no naive version of alien intruders ....

[@KuDastardly]

PETA or some sort of activist organization actually once tried to interfere with Paramount's filming of Star Trek IV because they were concerned with the treatment of the humpback whales. It turns out the whales depicted in the movies were actually animatronics. No RL whales were actually used in the production of the movie.

[@MM22966]

So you're saying they used a fake whale to save the Earth. Those sneaky f&cking Iowans....

[@babuzzard6470]

Typical, if only the dickheads knew how much this film did for the humpbacks cause, brought it to a lot of peoples attention.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I'd heard they didn't get nominated for their whale animatronics/SFX because people in Hollywood saw the movie and thought they were real whales!

[@Tardis6632]

Sounds like something PETA would do.

[@darkeraven8115]

I remember hearing about that. I think it was Greenpeace. They were bucking wrong of course. But it's been nearly 40 years since I saw this over 12 times in theaters.

[@convolutedconcepts]

i always love the shear scale of the probe.

[@brigidsingleton1596]

_sheer_ (not shear - that means something different - like the shearing of sheep) 😊❤️🖖

[@movagalbastomp]

Everybody gangsta until a empress uses the whale probe sound doe 😳

[@morbius109]

3:45 - Earth Spacedock isn’t small, but it’s positively tiny next to that probe. One of the creepiest, most alluring mysteries of all Star Trek. Who were they? Where did they come from? You have to wonder, considering how easily they disabled Federation and Klingon ships, what would happen if the Probe encountered the Borg or the Dominion.

[@jimhuffman9434]

Actually they did. In the book *Star Trek: Probe* published in 1992

[@axebomber2108]

One wonders why aliens would create something so large and apparently unintentionally destructive just for the purposes of communication. It seems like overkill.

[@mikegallant811]

Even Dominion vessels would be shut down easily. Polaron weapons or no.

[@Alusnovalotus]

@@axebomber2108l!!!!! “Have you heard of cars?!? Plastic?!? Smart phones?!?!?!? * said all other living creatures on earth* The irony. OH THE IRONY!!!!”

[@axebomber2108]

@@Alusnovalotus These are supposed to be super advanced aliens who think whales are more worth talking to than humans, yet they still created a super destructive probe.

[@damdumah2552]

That thing scares the hell out of me every time

[@CadetGriffin]

Protip: Make sure the species you're trying to talk to is not extinct, and don't put EMP generators in your transmitter.

[@Spino2Earth]

Earth agrees.

[@fidikvien7682]

fan lore suggests they were coming to destroy earth since they lost contact with the wales of earth, but George and Gracie told them not too since they not know the errors of their ways

[@williamstone1536]

Easily my favourite Star Trek movie, and that it told such a rich and compelling story without space battles makes it all the more special. I hope we can get a Trek film some day that's this smart, and aligned with Roddenbery's vision.

[@mkwanster07]

if the probe learned what happened to the rest of the whales, it would be pissed off and finish off Earth

[@deathstrike]

There is an alternate story where in the Terran Empire, the same probe appeared over Earth. A similar ploy was used as well to retrieve two humpback whales. However, instead of the probe leaving, it learned of what the Empire had done to the whales. So instead of leaving, it "transformed" the two humpbacks into two armored leviathans that wreaked untold havoc on the Earth's coastlines and destroying much of the Empire's manufacturing infrastructure. If you have ever played the game Darius CS (Chronicle Saviours) think of GT (Great Thing). A massively armored space faring and cybernetic whale of immense power and world destroying weapons.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

And the remaining two whales.

[@Zodroo_Tint]

@@deathstrike It seems like in that universe even the whales and the probe sending species are ev /l

[@damdumah2552]

Ty for uploading this The probe scares the hell out of me even now

[@Kiyosuki]

Some people (lovingly) poke fun at it cause it's well, the save-the-whales probe but this thing's always fascinated me personally. We still know nothing (official) about it, and just its very concept is so mind blowing the more you think about it. The idea that even 23rd century people as relatively enlightened (compared to us anyways) and advanced as the this may have had something far more advanced in a way traditional thinking of advancement as we know it might not understand swimming in our oceans the whole time, or were before they went back in time. And that it had a connection to something that isn't even phased by technology capable of teleporting people and warping space for interstellar travel. Or not. I dunno, it's very Eldritch as someone put it. It's like...V'ger represented a potential apex of where technology as we know it can advance to, but this thing and wherever it came from represents a completely different path, one that maybe can be understood one day, but never fully comprehended cause it's just so off our path. All in a movie where Kirk cracks a "he did drugs" joke at Spock's expense.

[@joshblanchard3719]

He did lds

[@AdrianFahrenheitTepes]

Too much LSD in the 60s

[@AdrianFahrenheitTepes]

@Italian69Boi Which is funny because I instinctively think LSD

[@AdrianFahrenheitTepes]

@Italian69Boi Or he just stated something made up on the spot, I mean he was making up something other than saying Spock was a Telepath, which would be the truth.

[@sandal_thong8631]

Someone said this movie may have given so much more attention to humans causing whale extinction that it might have helped save the whales. Of course Japan and Norway were still killing whales for "tradition" even though whale meat given to kids in the former is loaded with metals. There was a show _Whale Wars_ that aimed to stop the Japanese whaling fleet. That might have done it. Makes me think Gillian should have stayed behind and tried to save the whales in case their starship didn't make it back to the 23rd centuries with the whales in time to save civilization.

[@umleroi]

@4:59 "Leningrad has lost all electrical power" - should we expect a Soviet rebirth in the next 200 years?

[@jimhuffman9434]

Leningrad had not been renamed since the Cold War was still ongoing when this movie came out in '86

[@strits1945]

Maybe its leningrad districts? Lol

[@Deltaflot1701]

@@jimhuffman9434 this goes into, "That line didn't age well"

[@sandal_thong8631]

Heck, _2010: The Year We Make Contact_ still had the Cold War getting hot with a new crisis in Latin America. It was just inconceivable that the Warsaw Pack would disintegrate and the Soviet Union would break up. I read they had to change Scotty's joke in Russian about "Humpback, people?" because the translation would have been something like Gorbaty (like Gorbachev) and they didn't want to make that kind of joke.

[@crhu319]

Try 2.

[@eintopfmitschinken1596]

And nobody pursued this thing. Next time it comes back and wants to talk with dinosaurs. I wonder if this thing went to other planets as well.

[@BatteredWalrus]

Eintopf Mitschinken apparently the aliens that created the probe are rather like cetations (i.e. Whales) hence needing/wanting the whales, another note in the sequel novel its reveal that the probe was attacked by tiny men in metal cubes, ergo this thing travelled through the delta quadrant and encountered an earlier form of the borg

[@MilesEdgeworth129]

In the book "Probe," it is mentioned that Starfleet tried to get more information on the Probe, and Spock was able to successfully mind meld with it. Through this, they learned that the probe was created by a whale-like alien species that went extinct at the hands of the Borg, and the Probe itself had been damaged by the Borg, which it referred to as "mites". It was not supposed to be constantly transmitting its signal, nor was it supposed to disrupt the power of nearby ships with a strong frequency, but the assimilation caused by the Borg resulted in the Probe's malfunctioning.

[@michelmaxed]

Fucking Borg, eh.

[@TimeTravelinc]

EasyLee Wouldn’t be the first time that the Borg caused Cosmic Horror level of destruction. This time though it was more indirect than direct in this story.

[@crisismanagement]

That was before Jurassic Park. No Dino DNA in amber ideas yet.

[@musicalsteve82]

Such irony that this is one of the most dangerous and frightening pieces of technology in the franchise, and yet nobody dies in this movie.

[@Guiscardr]

Not on screen, but the implications of ships losing power including life support, as we see on the Yorktown having to jury-rig solutions, certainly suggests the possibility that people were killed through the power loss.

[@musicalsteve82]

@ Techinically, if you count offscreen, it has the highest body count, as everyone from 1986 died when they returned to the present.

[@JustSomeCanadianGuy]

The bleakest moment in Roddenberry’s perfect future. The notion that even though the future is bright, there’s things people did, that WE did, in the 20th century that cannot be undone……….. without a Time Machine. A very disturbing thought.

[@doomnova1946]

And even then with a time machine who knows if fixing that does not make other things worse down the road.

[@sandal_thong8631]

We may be in a runaway greenhouse effect that might take us back to the climate of the dinosaurs. Or at least losing two of the three ice caps (Greenland and West Antarctica). But it's _An Inconvenient Truth,_ no pun intended.

[@RFKFANTS67]

The demoted and disgraced "later" Admiral Cartright

[@maryhlad5277]

RFKFANTS67 Admiral Cartwright faced a Court Marshall for his participation in the conspiracy to derail the peace talks between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

[@1willubhave]

like most people he hated change, especially a peace treaty with the Klingons, that being said NCC-1701 C was destroyed by Romulans saving Klingons but changed when the Enterprise C met Enterprise D which would of been destroyed by the Klingons if Enterprise C did not go back into the rift..."Lets make sure history never forgets the name, Enterprise"

[@RFKFANTS67]

@@maryhlad5277 I know this Mary I have been following Star Trek all my life age? 55 Live long and prosper

[@maryhlad5277]

@@RFKFANTS67 Peace and Long Life

[@stephenhuntsucker3766]

He would have been remembered as one of the great admirals of Starfleet if he had retired before Praxis exploded.

[@peteranserin3708]

Can you imagine the free shrimp buffet these two and only whales have, in the ocean?

[@Sekhubara]

Holy crap, the probe is Ouamuamua!

[@atigerclaw]

Imagine, you're chillin, not knowing anything about this, and then suddenly you just hear this deep omnipresent sound: *_"WOMWOMWOMWOMWOMWOMWOMW-"_* This is your experience as a nobody on Earth. And then the weather just goes to hell.

[@rollerbladinggeek5507]

watching this in 2020 as a new watcher & it's already way more exciting than the new Star Trek Discovery. There's something compelling about a good storyline, decent actors who aren't all 20 years old or look like models, and a camera that doesn't wave about trying to create fake drama. Love this

[@sandal_thong8631]

I liked the four movies and had them on VHS to watch repeatedly in the 1980s. But "fake drama" really applies to _The Search for Spock_ as if they parked outside there wouldn't be such a tension for opening the space doors. Of course it's a repeat of Spock stealing the Enterprise in "The Menagerie, Part One." And sacrificing Spock and the Enterprise were essentially undone. They didn't come up with a new idea until _The Voyage Home._ What a wasted opportunity to do social commentary in the 1970s and '80s! _The Motion Picture_ was a repeat of "The Changeling," _The Wrath of Khan_ wasn't just a sequel to "Space Seed" but took elements from "The Deadly Years," "Balance of Terror" and "The Doomsday Machine," with the damage to the Enterprise being the same as that last episode: "Warp drive out, deflector shields down, transporter under repair; we are on emergency impulse power."

[@edwardmeade1765]

I want the sound of the probe as my ringtone.

[@mitchbarredo3990]

Sarek was awesome.

[@sandal_thong8631]

He represents Vulcan philosophy of emotional control and logical thinking, but he is also good at provoking an emotional reaction from "aliens." "This invites illegal mining operations." "Illegal?" "Some of your ships were seen in the Coridan system." "You call us thieves!" "We have the right to preserve our race!" "You have the right to commit murder?"

[@mbaxter22]

I wish we could have seen more of that alien species with the white hair. They showed this species only twice (the helmsman here, and the president in ST: Undiscovered Country). They looked interesting; it would have been nice to see more of them...

[@develynseether4426]

The president was called Ra-ghoratreii The Saratoga Helmsman was called Chitirih Ra-Dreii. Both names confirmed from movie novelisations. However despite the novel listing the species as Deltan the production material and one reference book list the species as Efrosian, a once conquered race by the Klingons and an offshoot.

[@Azraiel213]

Deltan is definitely a mistake, ​@@develynseether4426. Efrosian is the widely accepted name.

[@ShannonCarter55]

​@@develynseether4426nah, the science officer is Chirith Ra-dreii. The Efrosian helmsman remains Unnamed in beta canon. I have seen the fan name of Zi-Hargovtra being used for him.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I was more upset that the Federation Council didn't have the aliens featured in TOS episode "Journey to Babel." I thought it was a clever gag to see the President from the back, thinking he would be the same one from _The Voyage Home_ and then find out he's the same race as the navigator/helmsman/communications officer on the Saratoga.

[@dapfitz5]

Siscos dad was on a catering mission to starfleet

[@bobbyfeet2240]

Imma assume it was his grandpa . And the future president of the Federation was maybe on the Saratoga?

[@jimhuffman9434]

I always loved that "Here he comes now"

[@jjack232]

I just noticed the guy that plays Admiral Cartwright plays as Ben Sisko's father.

[@kilroy987]

Huh, that never registered.

[@richterman3962]

I saw that too, sounds like him too

[@TheRichardSpearman]

Brock Peters - also appeared in the TV series Mission Impossible.

[@demarcusfaulkner7411]

I never realize that.

[@jimhuffman9434]

The captain of the Saratoga also played Silvia La Forge in TNG

[@tojo4]

gotta love the Commodore 64 graphics on a 23rd century spaceship

[@axebomber2108]

That's the pitfall of trying to guess what the future will be like. You end up coming up with what present-day people think is futuristic, and then in a few years, even that ends up looking outdated. Even when we correctly guess future tech, it ends up only being 20 years into the future rather than 200(like touch screen tech and mobile phones).

[@johnpooky84]

​@@axebomber2108no...the Pitfall would've been if there were Atari graphics on the ship computers.

[@axebomber2108]

@@johnpooky84 Ok, I see what you did there. But I can see the crew of the Enterprise passing the time with a little Pitfall and Donkey Kong. They hadn't invented holodecks yet.

[@deathstrike]

That might be deliberate in a sense. See when you have something as obviously complex and advanced as a starship, the idea of "information overload" probably is thought of with teams of psychologists and researchers. They design these displays and controls with the idea of "less workload, less graphics, but preserving the informative nature of these displays and devices." Pretty graphics and super advanced displays would not work out in an environment where information is essential as fast, and as efficient as possible. So graphics are plain, almost basic, but informative to their operator. IMHO, this is where ST TOS despite no computer graphics, had the right idea. A lot of what you need, not a lot of what you don't. Keep it simple. Easier on the eyes, easier to maintain, and above all? Easier to read and comprehend for fast reporting.

[@sandal_thong8631]

They should have just used still pictures, or had the crew look into a viewfinder, like Spock and Sulu used to do in TOS.

[@vahidhosoda6614]

Imagine dory in this movie

[@danielbusbey1362]

I had a whale of a time watching this one!

[@oldrocker74]

LOL!!!!

[@AVBruggen]

This is what the news of Oumuamua in 2017 reminded me of.

[@geraldpatterson3903]

Never knew a Tootsie roll could destroy the Earth

[@markfox1545]

What's a Tootsie Roll, something only you free Americans eat? Basically sugar, is it? Yeah, the civilised world doesn't have those.

[@EdMcStinko]

This was the first movie I saw on the big screen. I was terrified of that fucked up alien ship.

[@damdumah2552]

EdMcStinko me too still am

[@k1productions87]

Oh I wish I had seen this in the theaters. Granted I would have only been 5 at the time. Still, it was the first Star Trek I had ever seen, and what effectively got me interested in the franchise. It is a shame my first ever theatrical Trek experience was Final Frontier, LOL

[@TimeTravelinc]

EdMcStinko According to canon, it was f**ked only b/c of the Borg. There’s a comment around here of what happened, claiming that the probe passed through the Delta quadrant, causing once again Cosmic Horror levels of terror by the Borg. This time, more indirect than direct.

[@sandal_thong8631]

@@k1productions87 They made fun of their ad campaign for _V:_ "Why are they putting seat belts in the theater this summer?" So you don't get up and walk out. Even the FX was second rate: they said ILM was too busy to do _Star Trek V_ so they had to find someone else who did a second rate job. They should have done what Lucas did and build their own FX studio.

[@matsch6777]

@@TimeTravelinc Sometimes, you do need a bock to back-up every story. I loved the secrecy of the communication between the whales and the probe. And all around it.

[@brianmorrison4330]

Planning on taking a swim? Off the deep end Mr Scott!

[@adamhuffman3354]

Yea when McCoy said that he looked like he really needed a stiff drink! Excellent writing and acting! Brilliant people.

[@JB_Hunkamunka]

It's funny cause it seems like nobody's kept Scotty abrest of the situation AT ALL.

[@Rockhound6165]

Michael Berryman in a rare role of not playing a mutant.

[@garyobrian3597]

Im convinced mark lenard is a real Vulcan 🖖

[@tubawritaguy]

What I liked most about this scene is showing the first black female captain, not from a tv series and a South Asian also, maybe, a Captain.

[@ProjecthuntanFish]

Why? Are you a racist?

[@tyranusfan]

Because later Paramount was bragging about Sisko being the first black captain, and Janeway the first female...apparently they didn't remember this movie! lol

[@messengerguardiansparanorm8606]

Very true. They didn't remember. Thank you for saying that (I am a black dude, by the way). I am glad someone pointed this out. I think what they were referring to was these human tropes/characteristics were part of the central make-up of the core figure in the story, not just some side-attraction that gets an honorable mention, like in ST IV. Yet, in all strictness, you are correct.

[@messengerguardiansparanorm8606]

Why "racist"? Of course not. A studio finally chose to step outside the normal models and expectations their audiences had created and expected, and portray starship captains as something other than what was expected, looking like the rest of humanity. It was a mega-first for trek (though not the Trek Universe)--Paramount, that is. One does not have to be "a racist" to take notice of certain film & acting molds being broken. Madge Sinclair went un-credited for her role in this. I think that was a brilliant decision she made. She went on to play Jorde LaForge's mother, the Captain of the U.S.S. Hera. All of this was just before the start of that retched "political correctness" that so plagues our society now. I applaud this being done before there was "pressure" to do so. I expect this of Trek, even today.

[@bazsohamster]

don't forget there was more then one black captain and one black admiral starting in order Capt. Tryla Scott played by Ursaline Bryant Capt. Donald Varley played by Thalmus Rasulala Admiral Shanthi played by Fran Bennett if i missed any other black characters played by black actors i am sorry and i mean no disrespect but these persons do come to mind

[@Codestud]

Has always reminded me of a giant liquorice allsort.

[@mitche5007]

They told it what to go do with itself😊

[@danielmarinucci7708]

Gene Roddenberry had said after the movie came out, the Enterprise - A was the Yorktown. Maybe that's why 1701-A had so many problems in St 5. general motors must have joined Starfleet 🤔

[@LoneBrowncoat]

That goes against on screen dialogue and reference material published that year. Maybe the old fart was getting senile then [he did let Nimoy alter the original draft of STIII].

[@ShannonCarter55]

​@@LoneBrowncoator mistaken previous Gene Roddenberry lore. He originally intended for Enterprise to be Yorktown.

[@sandal_thong8631]

I can see that fool of a captain losing his command and his ship after letting it get neutralized. Maybe he fired phasers and photon torpedoes and it responded? Or he just got too close after hearing what happened to the Saratoga. But yeah, Kirk saved the planet, your ship has to get towed home, so Kirk gets your ship. Time for you to take a ground assignment, Captain.

[@ronaldhudson169]

@@sandal_thong8631 In other headcanon, the entire crew of the Yorktown perished. Life support did not hold out long enough for help to arrive. This cleared the way for Kirk to get NCC1701A (ex Yorktown)

[@jeffreyjackson5229]

I mentioned this before: According to the movie time table, the humpback whale had been extinct for say 200 years. Of course, we don't know how long it was between loss of contact and when the alien probe was launched, but in theory, it took it around 200 years to get to our galaxy and solar system, so how far did it have to travel?! 200 years?!

[@JB_Hunkamunka]

For all its power it never seemed to be traveling very fast by interstellar standards

[@johngallagher8775]

It's interesting that the exponential difference between the speed of what one would consider a non-warp vessel and a warp driven vessel and the distances involved this probe, unless moving at warp itself, would take millennia at the very least to get from the contact with the Saratoga to Earth. Same with the Doomsday Machine. One of those things that's very hard to make sense of.

[@JB_Hunkamunka]

Some silly movie connections trivia: Madge Sinclair is the captain of the Saratoga here, and would later voice Sarabi, the wife of Mufasa in The Lion King (1994). Alfre Woodard would costar in Star Trek First Contact and then later would voice Sarabi in The Lion King (2019). I was kind of hoping the latest Lion King spinoff would cast Zoe Saldana or another Trek alum in the role and make it 3 for 3, but no dice it seems!

[@scarboroughjames7]

I am surprised they didn't bring the probe back in Star Trek the Next generation.

[@tjames9698]

In another novel, in an AU, you find out what would have happened had Spock never existed and the whales were never resurrected. Also, Earth is NOT the only planet this probe was checking up on.

[@hiccdewforever4300]

I don't know what to think if they rebooted the movie with elephants replacing the whales.

[@FLAME4564]

LOL XD then they would call it the Elephant probe instead of whale probe xD

[@danielbusbey1362]

Those damned Klingon crystals!

[@hhh123837]

8:17 - I always imagined it was the probes way of saying "I'll beeeeee backkk"

[@davidhenderson3400]

Between 5:59 and 6:00 there is about an hour gap. I suggest you watch the whole movie.

[@SackAttack81]

The Probe completely dwarfs Spacedock: 3:45 Then at 8:35 the Probe is much smaller.

[@andyman8630]

whales: sorry for the delayed response! our aquaphones required adjustment

[@babuzzard6470]

Admiral,I need thruster control! Steady, steady, NOW! Not that I’ve watched the movie much!🤔😂

[@JB_Hunkamunka]

One damn minute, Admiral...!

[@greyofpta5305]

Probe: "Hey imma gonna talk to the whales of Earth." *proceeds to vaporize the oceans those whales live in.*

[@Spino2Earth]

4:59 Leningrad? I thought this was in the 23th century?

[@rwboa22]

And ST6: TUC came out only 20 days before the USSR became history, hence the theme to that film. Although there are possibilities between now and the 23rd Century.

[@karlsmith2570]

Keep in mind: Star Trek IV:The Voyage Home was filmed in 1986

[@Spino2Earth]

@@karlsmith2570 I do know.

[@LoneBrowncoat]

@@Spino2Earth ......Different universes, TWO Voyager space probes here VS. at least SIX over there.

[@monk071]

2:21 So 😎 that Bond’s MI6 buddy, Vijay, was promoted all the way to Federation Capt. Vijay 🤘🏾

[@The_Goose2]

Ya know for being sector 001 and quite literally the core of the federation i would expect them to atleast try to defend earth

[@sandal_thong8631]

You think? They were still worried about the Klingons and the former Genesis planet.

[@rogelioVela1985]

man, imagine this prone vs The Borg

[@Spino2Earth]

Probe not prone

[@TimeTravelinc]

I think it’s previous encounter with the Borg is what caused it to do that. At least, that’s what “Word of Mouth” fans are saying. There are notes that might say that it was that was cannon at one point.

[@johnpooky84]

​@@TimeTravelincThere's a book called "Probe", that follows up on this.

[@LeahClerk]

Stupid aliens travelling through space only to speak with some fish with no legs

[@tjames9698]

BTW, I firmly believe that this movie and Leonard Nimoy saved this real-life species. In the US, we were killing just as many whales as any other country. This movie brought it to peoples' attention.

[@leonaquilla2547]

The United States was an initial party to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling set up in 1946, which imposed a ban on the hunting of Humpback Whales in 1966. If you're searching for someone to blame, blame Japan and the Scandinavian countries and get out of here with this "AMERIKKKA" bullshit. You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

[@luckyvet]

Nimoy is also charged with making & directing the best star trek movie ever made. There be Whales!

[@ProjecthuntanFish]

Wow stupid much?

[@redpillfreedom6692]

At the time of filming their population had fallen to less than 1,000. Now they're up to nearly 20,000

[@beepthemeep12]

This is pretty much fact as far as I'm aware. Somewhere I read that the trend of decline started reversing around this time. (This was many years ago)

[@trarroyo]

I always wondered how many licks it would take to get to the center of the probe.

[@Allosaurus87]

and that's why from 24th century, federation ships have dolphins or whales on board as cetacean ops

[@seannewhouse1943]

Looks just like oumamua!!! Unless that thing was sueved off of the original Galactic supernova I would sure think it's alien

[@jameshanlon5689]

The interstellar summer sausage with the dangling fuss-ball on a string.

[@LRB04]

Looking at actress MADGE SINCLAIR:Did Geordi LaForge have 2 female relatives who were both captains of Federation Starships?

[@Goomyee]

empress of light

[@sherbournesubwaymess]

There should have been subtitles between the whales and the probe!!! ZERO out of FOUR stars. BOMB!

[@ChristopherNealBUSHIDO49ERS]

The Wrath of Khan aside this is my favorite STAR TREK film.

[@jdoesmath2065]

Vijay Amritaj ... actor and tennis player!

[@seanwebb605]

It turned out that the call was just very aggressive telemarketing for duct cleaning.

[@JB_Hunkamunka]

The final whale call always did sound disgruntled to me. Checks out that it would be "you got us dragged into the future for THIS?"

[@BeckettSong]

Three mammals(one human, two whales) were transported to twenty-third century Earth.

[@johnnyfavorite1194]

Earth has the worst luck with Destructive Alien Probes showing up for reasons unknown.

[@DerekS8625]

Darn! Where's 'Q' when you need him???

[@starlight122012]

Wow the career of the Helmsman of USS Saratoga from piloting a starship to being President of the Federation in Star Trek 6.

[@kennethbrown5358]

Same species. Different person. Red Forman from the " 70s Show " was the President 😅

[@lewmills8560]

Does anyone notice that the probe looks a lot like "Omuamua" that passed through the solar system not long ago?

[@sandal_thong8631]

They need to do a movie about either of the Arthur C. Clarke books that have an alien probe come through the solar system. Rendezvous with Rama or The Fountains of Paradise.

[@davidjames666]

@8:18 all that destruction from a giant tootsie roll

[@russelltidman5376]

That would be interesting if it comes back to chat with another species ....that is extinct it will be up to doc and Marty mcfly to save the world

[@idonotexist2619]

It is a DAMN GOOD THING them aliens weren't too hostile. We'd be screwed. They can shut down everything without firing a single shot

[@stephenkissane4268]

Apparently saratoga is in dock at the end. Not sure if the crew survived

[@0prayus]

Unlike Jonah, this time you go in but you never come out again.

[@davidhall8874]

The probe on only knocked out power, it knocked the cameras off kilter so that they show everything at a slant.

[@richterman3962]

That vessel looks like Nimoy's cigarette

[@mikedski9698]

The Probe's Transmissions Are The Songs Sung By Whales. - Spock.

[@aemiliadelroba4022]

Space probe was huge , 73 Kilometers length 12 kilometers height 😊

[@MrRadiorobot]

Space going chocolate rolls are dangerous things.

[@silvereagle2061]

Who knew Admiral Cartwright would betray Star Fleet later on.