Error Error Mistakes- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Hello and Welcome to Truth Or Myth, in Today’s episode we take a fun and fast look at the mistakes made in “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”.

Please note, the version of this movie I’m picking apart is the version most recently released on BluRay. Also, this series looks at only in-universe CANON explanations for its answers, so novels, comics or games aren’t valid sources to explain away the mistakes. So with that, let us begin…

At the beginning of the movie, we’re treated to the Klingon Ambassadors version of events surrounding “Star Trek III The Search For Spock”. This scene though not really a mistake is odd, to say the least. We know that in Star Trek III, Kruge illegally obtained Starfleet’s Classified data on the Genesis device… This makes sense, as intelligence agencies often obtain information in this sort of way. But what’s odd is in this movie we see a video on the big screen of the Destruction of the Enterprise. We know the only ship that saw it being destroyed was the Klingon Bird of Prey, but where exactly did the Ambassador get this video? What’s weird about that is that if the Klingon Empire DID also end up stealing this, it would be very strange for them to blatantly display it, in a sense confirming their shady intelligence practices, so much for Klingon honour…

(Paramount) Ambassador Kamarag demands the extradition of Kirk. – “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

Shortly thereafter we see the Spock re-education scene. In it, we see Spock competently answering the computer’s questions posed to him, but in this scene, there are 2 problems. First, why, when the audience is looking through the transparent computer screens do we see the questions right way around, shouldn’t they be backwards to us since they are forwards to Spock when we get shots of them over his shoulder?

And second, Spock’s mother comments that Spock’s training has been in the Vulcan way, so then why is the computer giving him questions in English?

During one scene Admiral Cartwright says to the Federation President that Starfleet is launching everything it has. Then, later on, where we get a view inside Spacedock as the Probe shuts down all of its power systems yet Spacedock seems full of Starships and shuttlecrafts…

And speaking of those shuttles, when the probe interferes with their power systems, those shuttles come to a stop… Why? In space, their momentum should keep them travelling until the hit the Spacedock’s outer wall…

The Crew of late Starship Enterprise have been very busy during their 3 months on Vulcan. In that time, not only have they reworked the entire bridge of their captured Bird of Prey, they even installed new non-federation style doors. Yet with all these changes, why didn’t they update the displays to read in English?

When the crew are getting ready to leave Vulcan on the Bounty, Saavik claims she hadn’t had a chance to tell Kirk about David’s death. That seems illogical. The crew were there for 3 months, and even if she had ended up on some other part of Vulcan, why didn’t she pick the phone up and give Kirk a call?

Later in the movie, the Bounty lands on Earth and it sure kicks up a lot of dust when it does… But when it takes off from Vulcan, a desert planet, there seems to very little dust kicked up into the air.

(Paramount) ‘The Whale Probe’ – “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

During one of the Starfleet Command scenes, a comm officer dutifully gives the status on many of Earth’s cities during the Probe attack. One of the cities he mentioned is Leningrad, however, according to my Historical Atlas, Leningrad no longer exists, having been changed to St. Petersburg after the fall of communism…

Another oddity in this movie is the fact that the universal translators can’t seem to translate the whale song. Why can’t it? We’ve seen in episodes like Metamorphosis that the UT is quite a capable device translating the emanations of rainbow cloud…

During the scene where Kirk and Crew are deciding whether to go back to Earth and face the music of their decisions in the previous movie, we see that the ship is Spray Painted with its new name, the HMS Bounty. yet in all subsequent space scenes, the Spray painted name is gone.

Spock makes a leap in deductions in order to get the Story moving in this film. He says the Probe is directing the message at Earths Oceans. Where did he get that idea? After all, the Federation president made 4 points about what the Probe has done and yet Spock focuses on its effect on the oceans and that and that alone…

It’s also quite unbelievable that Spock is the only one that can tell the Probes signal is whale song…

I’m confused, why does sling shotting one way around a star send you back in time, while the slingshotting the other way send you forward in time?

Why did Kirk order the ship to land in Golden Gate Park? Isn’t that taking a huge risk that someone might, I don’t know, stumble into a huge invisible wall?

Why is Gillian Taylor giving tours at the Cetacean Institute? She has a doctorate and is in charge of George and Gracie, shouldn’t she be studying them? After all, they’re leaving soon, aren’t they?

The Scotty/ McCoy factory scene is one of my favourites. But it presents us with 2 problems, First, the Computer Mr Scott uses to show off the Transparent Aluminum formula, a Mac Plus, is incapable of running the calculations as fast as they appear in this movie. Don’t believe me? Get a Mac Plus and see for yourself…

And Second, Scotty and McCoy give the formula away in the first place. This could make a huge alteration to the timeline. What happened to all that stuff we heard over and over again in the TOS episode Tomorrow is Yesterday?

(Paramount) Kirk and Dr Gillian Taylor – “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

In fact, that isn’t the only possible contamination of the timeline… McCoy heals a woman in the hospital scenes and Chekov leaves a Klingon Phaser behind in a Military facility…

During the Dinner scene, Kirk tells Taylor they don’t use money in the 23rd Century, so then was McCoy lying in the Star Trek III scene where he’s trying to rent a vessel?

Watch the candle in that same dinner scene, it’s height bobs up and down throughout.

Knowing that Chekov and Uhura have to sneak aboard a Nuclear Wessel and steal particles to recrystallize the Klingon Dilithium Crystals Spock creates a device and makes a steady beeping noise… Not very logical Spock…

When the crate is being flown in my Sulu, we see it being lowered slowly in position. A Shot inside the ship then shows the clear pane also slowly being put in to place. The problem here is where’s the crate? Shouldn’t it be the crate we see sliding into place?

When Rescuing Chekov from the hospital Kirks Phaser changes hands when he melts the lock on the door to the room he’s trapped the doctors behind.

Also, why doesn’t Kirk and Crew simply beam out of the hospital room itself? A simple well placed sheet on the window where the doctors are peering through would have ensured no interference to the timeline at all…

(Paramount) ‘One Small Mistake’ – “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home”

In fact, why does Scotty beam the rescue party back outside of the Bird of Prey? This forces a weakened Chekov to struggle up the ramp of the ship…

Again another temporal violation occurs. Kirk lets Taylor remain on board and head to the future with them. No one even questions this slightly… Again see TOS’s Tomorrow is Yesterday.

In this movie, the Klingon Bird Of Prey engages Warp not only while still inside the solar system as seemed to be an issue in “The Motion Picture”, but engages warp while in Earths atmosphere. Shouldn’t this be extremely dangerous?

At the beginning of the movie, the federation president tells us that Kirk and Company have been charged with 9 Violations of Starfleet Regulations. yet at the end of the movie, when the charges are being read out, there are only 6.

At the end of the movie watch McCoy while he’s on the bridge of the new Enterprise-A. he leans his right hand on the rail, then suddenly in the next shot he’s leaning on this elbow…

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s episode of Truth or Myth. And if you did don’t forget to like the video and subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss a single video. Thanks again for watching, live long and prosper…

 

Watch episode 25

 


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