Kirk: Can... you... helpus?
Animatronic whaler: We're whalers on the moon!
A "Special Editon" of ST IV is coming out on March 4, 2003. Here's what you'll get:
Commentary by Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner
Theatrical trailer(s)
Text commentary by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda (co-authors of The Star Trek Encyclopedia)
The Star Trek Universe: Time Travel--Art of the Possible, The Language of Whales, A Vulcan Primer, Kirk's Women
Production featurettes: From Outer Space to the Ocean, The Bird of Prey
Tributes: Roddenberry Scrapbook, Featured Artist Mark Lenard
Original interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley
Storyboards
Production gallery
Widescreen anamorphic format
Number of discs: 2
Maybe they should have gone to the moon instead?
Kirk: Can... you... helpus?
Animatronic whaler: We're whalers on the moon!
From "Star Trek: First Contact" (and edited for content 
):
Worf: Lt. Cmdr. Worf reporting in my suit. I'm on the f****** hull.
Picard: Roger, Worf, I copy you. The others cannot believe we are walking on the f****** hull - repeat: cannot... f******... believe it. Over.
Worf: It was a smooth transition from airlock to space, and the hull. The hull, for Kahless's sake. The hull.
Picard: We've now cleared our airlock and suits are ready. To go over the saucer and walk... f****** WALK... on the under-side of the hull.
Worf: Eighty metres. Can see the Earth. The entire Planet Earth, for the love of Kahless!
Picard: You're clear, Worf. Proceed. Over.
Worf: Fifty metres from here, can see the edge of the saucer section. The f****** edge of the saucer hull! ... Holy Scpipt.
Picard: Roger, Worf, I read you. Over.
Worf: Ten metres now. Magnetic boots secure and.... f***... I'm hyperventilating...
Picard: Steady..... Over.
Worf: I'm walking to the edge of the saucer, now. One more step and I'll be on the other.... [big pause]
Picard: Worf?
Worf: Holy.... Living.... F***!
Picard: Worf? Do you copy?
Worf: Are you f****** believing this?
Picard: I read you. Over.
Worf: I'm standing on the f****** under-side of the saucer. I abso-f******-loutely am standing on the f****** under-side of the hull. I am talking to you from the under-side of the god-damned f****** hull. I cannot believe it... cannot f****** believe it..... Jesus H Kahless in a gagh-basket.
Picard: Err... holy scpipt, Worf.
Worf: Holy mother of f***.... The F****** Hull.
Whoops - wrong board. Please delete me.
Looks like someone's a Onion fan...
unleashes Onion breath on last poster
(giving Sven a reassuring hug)
Don't woahwy, I won't wet dat wascawy wabbit twouble you ... huhuhuhuhuhuh!
I touwt it was a good stoahwy anyway.
Back on December 30, 2003 Luigi Novi wondered why the bus driver didn't tell the punk to shut off his boombox, because there's probably a sign forbidding the paying of such records.
I don't consider this a nit because;
1. The guy was a punk, meaning he rejected society's rules. He had a 'screw you' attitutde, as his taste in music and clothing showed, and didn't give krap about others feelings. No sign is going to keep such a creep from doing what he damm well wants.
2. The driver hoped he'd leave on the next stop, anyway.
3. The driver hoped someone else would do his dirty work for him, which happened after all, thanks to Spock.
4. Having come across people in real life that looked like this *I* would be intimidated enough to not bother the punk. If he didn't have a switchblade on him he could have poked out someone's eye with his hair!
There's also been some debate about history changing now that Dr.Nichols has the transparent aluminum formula. Actually, what we see is a guy with a computer program for at least a day. Who's to say his computer didn't crash a week later, erasing the file, so the true inventor of transal, Dr.Chuck Raymomd, or whoever, rediscovers the formula in 2061? Nichols also said it would take years to understand the formula. Fine. Maybe Nichols wasn't smart enough to grasp it, and gave up? Maybe Nichols even had a heart attack a year later after a romp with Madeleine and passed away? If history can'tbe changed, as Spock once ascertained, maybe time will somehow correct the paradox of transal being created before it's time.
Earth knew about the imminent arrival of V'ger several days in advance, but the Probe practically shows up on Earth's doorstep in a short time. Was it travelling that much faster than V'Ger? If so, why bother to slow down to zap the Yorktown, when all it had to do was leave the slow starship eating it's space dust?
That Probe is something else. It comes to Earth, and searches for whales to communicate with, but it's methods nearly destroy the planet in doing so. What kind of speciesis aboard that Probe that doesn't notice all those big buildings and highways and power stations denoting an intelligent land-based species present? The Probe can't blame humans for the whales's extinction, because there's no proof. Humanity isn't responsible for the extinction of every single species in history, just a large number of them. What about other sea life? Doesn't the Probe care about dolphins, sharks, turtles, and the million other kinds of species in the sea AND on land that's it's killing? And if by some chance it is punishing humans for the death of the whales, then that isn't fair; 23rd century humans didn't wipe them out, 21st century humans did (or will). Not fair to blame descendants, separated by generations, for such a crime.
When the Probe finally leaves Earth, it's last sounds remind me of a tug boat tooting it's horn.
The novel (I know, non-canonical) indicates that the probe believes that the whales are the only intelligent lifeforms worth dealing with on Earth. Its destructive effects are intentional as well. The probe decides to re-terraform Earth in order to seed the planet with whales again.
Will: Back on December 30, 2003 Luigi Novi wondered…
Luigi Novi: You mean four months from now? How do you know I’m going to be wondering this?
Will: What kind of speciesis aboard that Probe that doesn't notice all those big buildings and highways and power stations denoting an intelligent land-based species present?
Luigi Novi: It wasn’t established that there was anyone on the Probe. The assumption—and yes, it is just an assumption, is that like most “probes,” it was unmanned. Spock speculated (although he worded it as if he had concluded it) that the Probe did not realize that its transmissions were harmful to other life forms.
Would you believe I time travelled into the future and saw your post, Luigi?
Would you believe I had a dream that you'd post on December 30, 2003?
How about some guy on the street said...
Aw, heck.
I meant December 30, **2002**.
This is just the reverse of the New Year Syndrome where you keep writing the previous year for the first couple weeks of January; we're so far into 2003 that my fingers keyed in 2003 instead of 2002.
NANJAO: Admiral Cartwright's role in this film was originally written for Admiral Morrow from ST3.
The novel "Probe" goes a long way towards explaining why they don't consider the people on Earth important. And I'll say it again, they should have kept the novel as Star Trek V.
At the restaurant when Kirk takes his first sip of Michelob he makes a face.
What I'd like to ask of all of you out there is if any of you have ever had that brand of beer?
I'd be interested in finally figuring out if Kirk's reaction was, "This krappy stuff is supposed to be beer?!" or "Hey, this is great beer!"
Just curious, really. Thanks for the input.
He probably was surprised at the taste. I mean, after drinking Romulan Ale, everything you drink after that will seem pretty bland. (P.S. I don't drink beer, this is just a wild guess)
I guess we'll assume you don't drink Romulan Ale either.
You can buy it at The Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas. Apparently it has a heck of a kick.
is it for 21 years or older?
or can a teen buy it?
If it has a bit of a kick then I doubt it is non-acoholic. And as for someone who has tried beer and found it all to be rather nasty tasting I couldnt tell you one brand over any other. I am more of a wine drinker myself.
It is alcoholic. I couldn't buy it at the time.
Catherine Hicks also plays the leading lady on another time travel film, the 1990 made-for-TV USA feature "Running Against Time", in which a college professor attempts to prevent the assassination of Kennedy.
Will asked:"What I'd like to ask of all of you out there is if any of you have ever had that brand of beer?" (Michelob).
When this film came out, I couldn't stand Michelob, and I assumed Kirk felt the same way. Over the years, though, I've grown to like it.
Just out of curiosity, anyone know if a recording of "I Hate You," the punks song on the bus, was ever released? I've looked...
I was hoping it would be a Star trek IV DVD easter egg, but oh well...
In case anyone cares (which you probably don't) the lyrics are:
Just where is our future, the things we've done and said?
Let's just push the button, we'd be better off dead,
'Cause I hate you, and I berate you, and I can't stand the stench of you!
The sins of all our father, have bombed on us- the sons,
The only choice we're given, is 'how many megatons?'
'Cause I ethschew you, and I say Screw You! And I hope you're blue too!
We're all bloody worthless- (Vulcan neck pinch, thundering applause, etc.)
"I Hate You" was also heard in the 1987 beach party spoof Back To The Beach. According to IMDB, there isn't a soundtrack CD for the film available. So, unfortunately, Zarm, you're out of luck.
Just gotta grab a tape recorder and make a copy that way, I guess. That's how I used to tape alot of tv series music before soundtracks became really popular. I even used up 2 cassettes just taping the soundtrack (voices & music & sound effects) of The Motion Picture waaay back when. Did I ever listen to the movie that way? Nope. You think watching it is long? Just being able to listento it would be impossible!
we need the Wayback machine from Mr.Peabody, I had a Beta that taped one whole hour (not enough for a 3-4 hour movie like Ten Commandments, etc
I saw St 4 a few times myself to see the Ceitation Institute of Pacific grove Ca....
Here's a couple:
If going home in a Klingon BOP is such a big deal, why is it Sarek didn't loan a Vulcan ship to Kirk & Co. for the voyage home?
Also...
Why is it the BOP shakes so violently when it goes into high warp speeds? Aren't the inertial dampeners supposed to handle this sort of problem?
Gee, it only had a couple of torpedos hit it...
though I think its because the vulcan engineers didn't bolt down the new bridge controls that were changed from ST3.
Oh, Will, I should have said this about Michelob: It's brewed by Anheuser-Busch, as a sister beer to the Budweiser family. (There are actually several Michelobs, including Light and Ultra.) A/B also brews Busch and Natural Light beers. They also make O'Doul's non-alcoholic beer.
I'm surprised you've never heard of Michelob. It's heavily promoted.
If going home in a Klingon BOP is such a big deal, why is it Sarek didn't loan a Vulcan ship to Kirk & Co. for the voyage home? - John A. Lang
I think the idea is that the crew of the late starship Enterprise, having captured an enemy vessel - the Bird of Prey - were most likely duty bound to hand it over to their superior officers. The best way to do this would be to pilot the ship themselves. I mean, they had to go back to Earth anyway.
Live long and prosper.
What good is an enemy wessel if the Vulcans replace key components of it.
also,
IIRC
Kirk said that they were in the 3rd? month of their Vulcan exile, and that they had chosen to return home and face what ever consequences they had earned.
This to me, makes it appear that they were not ordered to bring the flea trap home.
We don't know how much of Bounty was replaced by the Vulcans. It may still have components that may provide valuable secrets for the Corps of Engineers.
If going home in a Klingon BOP is such a big deal, why is it Sarek didn't loan a Vulcan ship to Kirk & Co. for the voyage home? - Benn
Maybe there were political considerations in why Sarek couldn't loan Kirk a ship.
Maybe Sarek, as a representative of the Federation government couldn't just give a ship to a bunch of renegades... there may have been sensitive issues involved (the Klingon ambassador even accused Sarek of having a personal bias)... so the crew had to fly home of their own volition, rather than escorted or otherwise assisted by a member world.
If going home in a Klingon BOP is such a big deal, why is it Sarek didn't loan a Vulcan ship to Kirk & Co. for the voyage home? - Benn
I didn't say that. John A. Lang did. I did quote him in my previous post.
Live long and prosper.
So what is being suggested is that instead of being taken home in a ship provided by the Vulcans or starfleet our heroes (who are on trial for skipping town) are trusted to fly home in a ship with a cloaking device so that they can be on time for thier own trial??? Huh?
Now heres what I call "the B plan." Put them in irons, toss them in the brig of a nearby ship going to Earth.
Have some Intel-type guys that can read Klingon pick up the BOP and fly it, cloaked, to some out of the way place where it can be reverse engineered.
Woops! My bad, Benn. I copied it from your post and was just sloppy in fcat-checking.
Sorry!
It just makes sense that Kirk and Company were allowed to take their BoP home. I imagine it went a lot like this:
Vulcan Senator 1: These men are wanted by Starfleet and every Terran civil authority there is. We need to arrest them now, hold them in one of our orbiting holographic prisons so they won't escape, and turn them over to the next cruiser that enters the system. Besides, the Klingon ship is an intelligence coup.
Vulcan Senator 2: These men saved Spock, Ambassador Sarek's son. Sarek, as you may recall, Senator, was appointed to his position because he was the most level-headed and connected man in government to be trusted with handling disputes between us and the emotionally-unstable water-planet redbloods. A lot of my colleagues share Sarek's satisfaction at what has accomplished, and will cause much outcry if Kirk and his crew are arrested...by us.
Vulcan Senator 3: The most viable plan, gentlemen, is to keep our hands free of the whole situation. They have sworn to return home, let us allow them to dig their own graves. Vulcan would not be allowed to possess the Bird of Prey exclusively anyway. Our men at the Daystrom Institute will ferry all the intelligence they discover from it back to us.
Back to who? The Vulcan Senate? Any engineering secrets yielded by the Bounty would likely be under the jurisdiction of Starfleet, not the civilian governement of a Federation member world.
Darth Sarcasm: Woops! My bad, Benn. I copied it from your post and was just sloppy in fcat-checking.
Luigi Novi: That'll be forty jabs with a Klingon painstik for you.
Luigi, as we've discovered from Enterprise, the Vulcans are substantially sneakier than previously thought. Every member nation in the UN Security Council doesn't trust the UN to cover every military and intelligence problem for them, does it? The Federation may be a much tighter alliance, but I'm betting every member race likes to get their own fingers in the pies that they think concern them.
Maybe, but the Vulcans on Enterprise seem to undergo a radical change by the time of TOS.
Cosmetic, I'd say, but this is all pure speculation. :-)
I went to a Star Trek Convention today & Leonard Nimoy shows us (the audience) the BLOOPERS from STIV.
One of the bloopers that stands out is Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) blowing her line: "Admiral, I am receiving whale songs". 2 times she goofed by saying, "Admiral, I am receiving HAIL songs" or "Hailing Songs" She cussed after blowing it the 2nd time. It was pretty funny.
Another blooper was during the court room scene...Kirk (Shatner) said, "I am authorized to plead 'Not guilty'" to the Federation President....then added, "On the other hand, I am authorized to plead 'Guilty'". Spock (Nimoy) then chimed in: "That's great, Bill! Keep the cameras rolling!"
Another blooper is when McCoy (De Kelley) said, "Nobody's perfect". Spock (Nimoy) then said, "Oh, really?!" LOL!
With the way people dress in California nowadays, why is Kirk so worried about how they are dressed?
I resent that, John... we dress quite normally here, thank you very much.
Besides, I don't recall Kirk saying anything about the way they were dressed (except removing their command insignias).
No offense intended, Darth. What I should have said, "With the way SOME people dress in California." (Yes, I saw the smiley) My point was, there are SOME people who dress "Trek-like" everyday.
Although, in SF, given that they *seemed* to be near Haight-Ashbury, probably nobody would have noticed.
Aah, Haight-Ashbury in '87 was becoming a lot more yuppie than hippie.
When I was at the Trek Convention in Rosemont, Nimoy was asked "How come he didn't make a 'Director's Cut' of STIII & STIV?" His reply was "There was no deleted footage to add. I released those movies as they were originally intended." Then he quipped: "What's the matter? Didn't you like them?" LOL!
Good one, John. Great quip.
When Sulu accidentally turns on the helicopter's windshield wipers, they squeak against the windshield. Wipers on a dry windshield usually don't squeak, the noise they make is closer to scraping. Try it sometime on your own car. Better yet, don't try it, as the wipers may drag loose dirt with them and scratch the windshield.
(Paraphrased)
(In the antique shop)
Spock: (referring to the reading glasses) Excuse me, weren't those a present from Doctor McCoy?
Kirk: And they will be again, that's the beauty of it.
The dialogue goes on to explain that the glasses would be worth more if the lenses were intact ...
My slight nitpick is ...
We are left to assume that in 300 years the lenses will be repaired and that McCoy will find them and aquire them for Kirk to use when he battles with Khan where they will be broken again.
It seems to be much more likely that the broken glasses will be eventually trashed due to a non-availablity to make a profit off them, unless the frames themselves are the main reason for the glasses' repair of the lenses ... (and that of a specific prescription to correct the eyesight problem Kirk has that his allergy to Retinax 5 cannot fix)
Why is this scenario more likely? Certainly not by anything stated in the film.
I mean, the antique dealer purchased the glasses, despite the broken lens. So he must have thought there'd be some market to sell them (dealers don't typically purchase items that they don't believe will sell).
Do I know for certain that he'd be able to sell them? No. However, his confidence in his purchase (and perhaps he repairs them and sells them as a "restored" antique) leads me to believe that selling them is more likely than his trashing them.
Either that or I have seen a few things in antique shoppes that are scratched/dented or otherwise a bit rough and are still sold.
Well ... I said it was a slight nitpick, however, listening to your above arguments, I realize that if I keep picking it - it will NEVER heal ...
I collect coins, so I know a little bit about antiques. The "damage" to the glasses was minor, and easily repaired. The dealer was just trying to get a better price. (like Quark might do in similar circumstaces.) I prsonally prefer coins/antiques wit a little damage to show it age. (After all, which one would you prefer- A "brand new" Roman coin or one that looks 2000 years old?)
Bottom line-he had a price tag on it by lunch time and had it sold in a week.
Wouldn't Kirk's sale lead to sort of a temporal loop of decay? I mean, McCoy buys them and gives them to kirk. He goes through TWOK, TSFS, and part of Voyage Home. The glasses probably get a bit beat-up through all of this. Then Kirk sells them. Several hundred years later, McCoy finds the glasses, a bit beat up but still alright and buys them for Kirk. They go through the wear and tear of 2 and a half movies again. In their doubly degraded condition, they're sold. Several hundred years later, mcCoy finds a beat up pair of antiques, but decides to buy them anyway. They go through the wear and tear of 2 and a half movies, and then Kirk sells them...
Wouldn't they theoretically keep wearing down throughout the time loop untill they become so beat up that mcCoy wouldn't buy them/they're unusable? After all, they accumulate more wear through every time loop, since the glasses don't reset, they just keep on going. So by the time that McCoy buys them the 1,000th time, they could be several hundred thousand years old... but from his perspective, he's buying them for the first time.
is this making any sense?
Yes.
Unless they're restored each time. Who knows how good antique restoration by the 23rd century... maybe the glasses get repaired so well that the antique dealer can't tell the difference.
Molecular reintegration and repair services. Dont fall to pieces with out us.
The question then becomes, where did they originally come from?
Actually, isn't the loop only singular, static one that only occurs once? The loop only occurs once. Doesn't recurrence of the loop only occur in people's minds as they attempt to trace the loop's beginning and end points?
I was thinking, even given Kirk's line, "And they will be [my gift] again; that's the beauty of it", why must we assume that McCoy came into possession of the glasses from a chain of owners originating with the antique dealer in this movie?
As I see it, McCoy acquired the glasses from a source which did not originate with this dealer, and once with this dealer they will not be coming back into McCoy's hands. Think of it as being the same as the case of Data's head sitting in a cave for 500 years in "Time's Arrow". Did Data's head only exist in a weird time loop with no original source or destination? Obviously not, so why should that be the case for the glasses?
I always figured that Kirk meant that it's a gift that keeps on giving. He got them as glasses, now they're getting him 20th century currency.
Actually, isn't the loop only singular, static one that only occurs once? The loop only occurs once. Doesn't recurrence of the loop only occur in people's minds as they attempt to trace the loop's beginning and end points? - Luigi Novi
Not if you buy into the loop theory...
McCoy comes into possession of some 18th century glasses... so they're already 500 years old. Kirk trades them for cash at an antique shop in the 20th century. According to the loop scenario, McCoy will eventually buy this pair and give them to Kirk 300 years in the future (so now the glasses are 800 years old)... and so on and so on...
So the glasses would be an indeterminate number of years old (because we don't know how many loops the glasses have gone through during the events of ST4).
Of course, this presents the paradox of how the glasses could get into the loop in the first place... i.e. If the glasses McCoy obtains are always the ones Kirk trades in, then where did the glasses come from? Kinda like trying to figure out where the energy that sparked the formation of the universe came from.
I suppose it's possible that:
A. In the uncontaminated timeline (before Kirk and co. travelled to the past), a pair of glasses are designed and constructed in the 18th century, which McCoy obtains 500 years later.
B. The glasses are traded in by Kirk in the 20th century.
C. Now, in the altered timeline, there are two pairs of the same glasses (though one is 500 years old, the other 800). McCoy obtains either the original pair or (according to Kirk) the 800 year old pair.
D. The glasses are traded in by Kirk in the 20th century.
E. If McCoy obtained the original pair again. Then there are (again) two pairs of glasses, a 500-year-old pair and an 800-year-old pair. However, if McCoy (as Kirk suggests) obtains the second pair, then there is a 500-year-old pair and an 1100-year-old pair... and yet another parallel timeline has been created.
It's also possible that whichever pair McCoy obtains varies from timeline to timeline, depending on the condition of the glasses when he purchases them, generating an indefinite number of parallel timelines. But we've seen numerous times in Trek history that the timeline is malleable enough to conform to minor variations (for instance, when Sisko poses as Gabriel Bell in Past Tense). So then it really doesn't matter which pair McCoy obtains in the 23rd century.
Unless, of course, Kivos Fajo's obsession with collecting Data began when he completed his set of antique American eyepieces by obtaining the duplicate pair in the 24th century.
Darth Sarcasm: C. Now, in the altered timeline, there are two pairs of the same glasses (though one is 500 years old, the other 800). McCoy obtains either the original pair or (according to Kirk) the 800 year old pair.
Luigi Novi: Huh?
Where do you get two from?
Man, my head hurts.
Glasses created >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>McCoy buys.
That's glasses A.
Glasses created >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> McCoy Buys
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<Kirk Takes Back.
That's glasses B. Both B and A exist at the same time, in 1986. They're the EXACT SAME PAIR, but Glasses B is simply an older version of Glasses A, having already been to the future as A and brought back to occupy the same space as itself earlier.
Luigi, I'm guessing you never saw Back to the Future. :-)
Huh?
Where do you get two from? - Luigi Novi
I will attempt to clarify...
In the altered timeline, step A still occurs... a pair of glasses are still designed and constructed in the 18th century. Kirk's tampering wouldn't change that. So now in the 23rd century, there would be two pairs of glasses... the original pair, and the pair Kirk traded to the antique dealer.
Luigi, I'm guessing you never saw Back to the Future. - Snick
Good example.
Another good example would be Time's Arrow, where there were two of Data's heads in existence.
Ohhhh. You mean the pair exists in the past at the same time as its past counterpart. Okay, sorry. Yeah, that's a good point.
Thanks for getting all Annie Sullivan on me, guys. It is much appreciated.
Of course Kirk's line about how the will be again was just an offhand remark by Kirk. He had no way of knowing that those glasses would end up with McCoy once again as the pair he was given. They could have ended up anywhere he was just cracking a joke about how they will be again.
I think he did it just to set Spock's brain spinning for a bit. I'm guessing Vulcan's never got over their dislike for temporal physics.
Also maybe to get Spock to chill out about Kirk selling a gift from McCoy.
The glasses: If McCoy actually obtained the exact same spectacles pawned in this movie, then he had them repaired with the proper lenses to correct Kirk's vision.
Another topic entirely: Shouldn't some Klingon emmissary have demanded that Starfleet return the stolen Bird of Prey with all due haste? Perhaps the Federation President did order Starfleet Command to extend the Klingons every courtesy in allowing them to recover their property from the bottom of San Francisco Bay.
No one else seems to have asked why they needed to land their BoP in Golden Gate Park instead of leaving it in orbit. There's still no good reason to do so.
This is Star Trek. You can't stay in orbit without propulsion.
Weren't the Dilithium crystals 'decrystallizing'? You wouldn't want to leave the ship in orbit if you expect you might not have the power to beam back up to it. Also, once the crystals failed, the ship would be detectable to the 'backwards' people of Earth.
No one else seems to have asked why they needed to land their BoP in Golden Gate Park instead of leaving it in orbit. There's still no good reason to do so. - Peter Stoller
Um... Scotty says the time travel drained the crystals, leaving them only with power for another 24 hours if they remained cloaked. The power drain was so significant at one point that he could only beam Uhura and Chekov one at a time. Leaving the ship claoked in orbit would have significantly drained the crystals even further.
So yes, an explanation was given. However, an explanation was never given for why (with their power drain being so great) they beamed Spock and Kirk back aboard the ship when extending the ramp would have been more energy efficient (and it would have saved Chekov a trip to the hospital).
I thought of that one too, the power issue. Scotty reports that after a given time, "They'll be no way of breaking out of Earth's gravity." Using the transporter throughout their visit instead of the gangway, that may be their idea of keeping the ship incognito. Transporters seem to have an effective range of a few thousand miles or kilometers, in this case it was used for ranges of less than 50 miles maximum and often less than 100 yards. That could be the best reason to land, to conserve what transporter power they do use.
Not to mention allowing them to power down most other systems as well, including life support.
Darth Sarcasm: Leaving the ship claoked in orbit would have significantly drained the crystals even further.
Luigi Novi: But why would leaving it cloaked in Golden Gate Park not? (Just trying to make sure I understand this.)
They would be able to deactivate and otherwise turn down enough systems to let the cloak stay active while on earth. I have had to do something similar to that when a car of mine's alternator went out. What you do is try and balance the needed electrical systems (such as cloak or headlights if in a car) with the systems you dont really need (such as life support. or the radio) Which does help explain why they might have landed. No one has ever said if short range transporter hops use less energy than longe range ones but that is also another reason for landing.And before anyone says anythign about the communicators they were probably using regular old radio waves only on higher or lower frequencies than what we totally pick up or they still broadcast on somethign that was picked up and was written off by the MIB as spurious radio signals. BUt to clarify and summarize. Landing let them shut off unused, unnecessary, or otherwise unrequired systems that staying in orbit would not allow them to do. They would have had to at the very least keep life support on, sensors, navigational systems, and manouevering thrusters. Landing they could open a window, turn all manouvering and navigation systems off and leave the bare minimum on.
Not to mention, the plot required it.
Leaving the ship claoked in orbit would have significantly drained the crystals even further. - Darth Sarcasm
But why would leaving it cloaked in Golden Gate Park not? (Just trying to make sure I understand this.) - Luigi Novi
For the same reason a plane parked at the jetway uses less energy than a plane in the air.
You're focusing on the cloak... when the key part of my sentence isn't the reference about the cloak, it's the part about being in orbit.
I mean the cloak is a necessity, so it's going to drain that energy regardless. But a ship on the ground uses up less energy than one in orbit.
See my point about Trek orbital physics, Luigi.
Not to mention, the plot required it. -Zarm Rkeeg
My point was that the plot didn't require landing on Earth, only visiting Earth in the past. They could have carried out their mission exactly the same without landing. The transporter could have handled all the pieces neccessary to construct the whale tank aboard the ship as well.
ScottN's point about Trek's orbital physics means that for Star Trek, a ship's systems must be up and running to hold and maintain orbit rather than allowing Kepler's laws of orbital physics to do the job naturally. (Remember Ben Finney's sabotage in "Court Martial" gave the Enterprise a very short time before its orbital decay would destroy it?)
Actually they probably wouldnt have bene able to compleate their mission by staying in orbit as the crystals would have deenergized and boom they crash and end of game. But even if the crystals hadnt deenergized they would have had to find the tank parts, figure out wher ethe whales where and then figure out how to get all the parts together and beamed into the right alignments, etc... etc... Actually staying in orbit just complicated things because they would have had to do all their searching and prep work from a hands off long distance approach not knowing anything about the time period and where things where much less how society and thigns worked.
Not to mention that putting in the whale tank involved dropping the plexiglas into the ship from above.
Re:Romulan Ale
As far as I know, Romulan Ale is generally Lager with the addition of the Licquer Blue Curocao to turn it blue...
(If you add Cider as well, to the mix, it turns florescent "snot" green....)
If the dilithium power economy subplot didn't dictate their landing then they would have beamed down like they always do with the ship parked in orbit and went about the mission unchanged as we see it, not from a hands off long distance approach. Bringing the whales aboard involved the largest transport of mass at once that I can think of; beaming in the tank panels and placing them properly would have been no big deal. That sure is a conveniently large opening above the holding area, dropping them in from above just gave Sulu an reason to participate in the earthbound part of the plot, befriend a Huey pilot and borrow his ride. The panels could have fit in through the large hatch Kirk later releases the whales through.
My point was that the plot didn't require landing on Earth, only visiting Earth in the past. They could have carried out their mission exactly the same without landing. The transporter could have handled all the pieces neccessary to construct the whale tank aboard the ship as well. - Peter Stoller
But the plot did require it, because of the subplot involving the drained Klingon crystals. They couldn't have conducted the same operation from orbit because they didn't have sufficient power to do so until after the crystals have been recharged.