This movie is ridiculous

Thanks for the post. Food for thought.

the 'time travel' thing got me. Just ridiculous.

Perhaps you are taking the absurdity too seriously, for the sake of an adventure film. Interesting points, however in the context of the films story and the message it was giving, they are incongruous:

1/ It was an ancient probe that needed a response from the whales. It didn't need to be intelligent enough to know about the havoc it was creating on Earth. That was incidental. Since humans had made them extinct, it was in a sense creating a consequence of catastrophic proportions and all due to humans. Yes, it was a sledgehammer message; but so what.

2/The noise and sound waves were sensed, due to Hollywood manipulating science for the sake of entertainment. Did you want to watch 2001 A Space Odyssey with classical music and heavy breathing instead?

3/Perhaps humans in the 23rd Century weren't as logical Spock and once returned to future Earth, he could then teach them how to regenerate Dilithium Crystals. They can still mine for them, only now they would know how to regenerate them and preserve the crystal resource.

4/The escaping radiation may have been escaping at higher level than normally detected. And of course for the sake of the plot point to add some suspense to the proceedings, so Chekov could be captured.

5/Wasn't the transmission damaged or something and wasn't a beaming device needed. We also had to have some fun as an audience. Must pay more attention next time I view this scene.

6/You'd be surprised at what a pocket sized Heal-O-Matic can do in the 23rd century. Because of your traumatic experience, doesn't mean you have to expect Chekov to go through the same experience as you if not necessary.

7/The probe was directing an immense energy surge towards earth looking for a response. Whatever it was capable of doing, it's energy was picking up the whale sound and signal from earth itself and transmitting it back to the probe. It knew what it was doing and could even perhaps be more intelligent than you claim to be. 😏

8/They live in the moment and communicate telepathically, in a manner far more advanced and superior than humans. Humans aren't intelligent enough to see what they are doing to earth, in spite of all their own intelligence. The whales and dolphins are communicating within their own environment and too whom and what for? Having manmade traps in their path, is not something that is supposed to happen or hinder their evolvement. Whales even beach themselves. Why? Self-sacrifice. Is if for us to understand? What man does need to understand, is respect, care and concern for the planet, with it's variety of assorted life forms and vast astonishing environments.


Exorcist: Christ's power compels you. Cast out, unclean spirit.
Destinata:💩

You make some good points, although in regard to point 3:

3. According to Scotty, regenerating dilithium crystals can't be done in the 23rd century, even though it is as easy as collecting some nuclear fission radiation, and the device to do so can be cobbled together from whatever happens to be aboard the average Klingon ship. No one in the 23rd century ever thought of that, even though it took Spock all of 10 seconds to think of it. I guess this "discovery" puts a damper on the value of dilithium crystals and associated mining operations in the future.

You forgot Scotty being able to use a very early Macintosh to cobble up the formula for Transparent Aluminum.

Movie. Comedy. Fun. It is not logical, but it is often true.

👷👳
Bob the Builder and Hadji walk into a bar...

You make some good points Maxim, but you forgot a big one:

9. Kirk saying they don't use money in the 23rd Century

This movie was the first time the concept of "no money" was introduced into the Star Trek universe and it was a direct contradiction to the "credits" used in TOS and in Trek III when McCoy tells the lispy alien in the bar he "has money" to charter a spaceship to Genesis. There was also a contradiction afterwards in Trek VI when Scotty says "he just bought a boat" right before they are getting briefed about the Klingons.

The whole concept of no money is a farce and was written by writers who don't understand what it is and how it works. Money is just an agreed upon medium of exchange, it makes it easier to acquire goods and services, otherwise you would have to barter and trade things for everything that you want. It would take buyers and sellers forever to do that and money facilitates this exchange much quicker and easier.

TNG tried to carry the concept of no money forward but it also had its own contradictions which I won't get into here. There's currently a thread about this topic on the TNG board and is where I copied, pasted and edited one of my responses into this post, but the writers continually flip flop because they have no idea what they're talking about and they should've never introduced the concept in this film to begin with.

3. According to Scotty, regenerating dilithium crystals can't be done in the 23rd century, even though it is as easy as collecting some nuclear fission radiation, and the device to do so can be cobbled together from whatever happens to be aboard the average Klingon ship. No one in the 23rd century ever thought of that, even though it took Spock all of 10 seconds to think of it. I guess this "discovery" puts a damper on the value of dilithium crystals and associated mining operations in the future.

Though I have always liked it for the humor.