MovieChat Forums > Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) Discussion > A Flaw in the Plot

A Flaw in the Plot

posted 11 years ago by bjlevine
15 replies | jump to latest

I think that there is actually a big flaw in the plot:

They seem to be in a hurry to get back and save their world, but don't they actually have all their lives to find whales and bring them back? Sure, they'd be older, but the world would still be saved.

They used the plot device of the dilithium crystals breaking down, but wouldn't it have been better had that been the time crunch, as in "if we don't leave within two days we won't have the power to return home."?

"Lovey-dovey. Bonk bonk on the head!"

[–] jxh13 11 years ago

Time travel. It's a smorgasbord of disturbing possibilities and frayed plot lines.

I suppose their hurry could be attributed to human nature; they may know intellectually that they can leave whenever they want and still arrive whenever they want, but after all those missions where they did have a time constraint, there is an internal chronometer that is going "Ding! Ding! Ding!"

The whales kind of drive the plot, too; when they decide to hijack George and Gracie specifically, there is a time element in locating them before they become really big pin chusions.

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

Yeah, aside from the George & Gracie deadline there's that whole "stay out of the way of history" niggling in the back of their heads. The less time they stay and the less interaction they have the less chance there is of screwing things up like McCoy did in "City on the Edge of Forever"

**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
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[–] bjlevine 10 years ago

They gave away the formula for transparent aluminum ahead of time. They cured an old lady of kidney failure when she seemed close to death. They removed a marine biologist from her time period. They left 23rd century technology in the hands of military intelligence. Heck, they may even have affected the price of whale meat on the Soviet market leading to the downfall of the Soviet Union!

So no impact on the future...

"Lovey-dovey. Bonk bonk on the head!"

[–] gabby_bm 10 years ago

And there may be an extra pair of spectacles floating around the collector's market, dropping the value of each of them.

Yeah, I guess changing history wasn;t that big of a deal this time around....

**WARNING: MY POSTS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS**
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[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

True, but it's a movie. You have to cut it some slack. And like I commented earlier, Nimoy's forte isn't plot driven films, but character driven. Which is why you don't get a tighter plot, but a film focusing on the characters' antics in San Francisco.

[–] bjlevine 10 years ago

Agreed. But Spock's comments that losing George and Gracy meant that in all probability their mission would fail couldn't have been more wrong. They had their whole lives to find two whales. Heck, they probably could have grown their own. Or once the ship was repaired, go back in time two days or a year and grab George and Gracie.

Of course, I still think that once they returned to their present, it would have been an alternate reality, one where Plexicorp controls a third of the galaxy.

I know...it's a movie.

"Lovey-dovey. Bonk bonk on the head!"

[–] Blueghost 10 years ago

Dude, my image of this film is already shattered enough as it is. How dare you introduce common sense time-travel logic to this movie 

[–] Marmadukebagelhole 10 years ago

Crystals were degenerating almost to the point of no return. No way of getting home. Ship would decloak and they would be discovered. Prime directive would have the arse kicked right out of it.

Glasgow's FOREMOST authority Italics = irony. Infer the opposite please.

[–] bjlevine 10 years ago

They were already regenerating the crystals when Spock comments that losing George and Gracie meant that they're mission would likely fail. Err...no it wouldn't. Once full power was restored, they had all the time they wanted to find a pair of whales.

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

[–] txchuckwagon 10 years ago

The possibility of changing the past and disrupting the timeline was too risky. Just imagine, if that "dumbass" cab driver had been half a second slower to hit the brakes, he would have knocked Kirk on his back where he would have hit his head and been knocked out. Then he would have been coincidentally taken to the house of his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandmother who would have ended up attracted to him instead of his great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, and I doubt the Doc would have helped Kirk after he kicked Doc's Klingon alter ego into a pit of lava.

[–] feenix219 9 years ago

This comment wins the thread.... :D

[–] Marmadukebagelhole 10 years ago

I think there WAS actually some urgency to restoring the crystals before they degenerated completely. They would be de-claoked and would not be able to leave.

Also. I think they recognise that they shouldn't be there and that these are drastic measures. Prime directive and all that.

Glasgow's FOREMOST authority Italics = irony. Infer the opposite please.

[–] mrbobbyh 10 years ago

This is true. And since they were still under the assumption that they'd be facing jail time at home, they could have just spent the rest of their lives in the past, or at least returned by the time that they would no longer have to live out long jail sentences.

[–] 10 years ago

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