The mysterious disappearing Dr Gillian Taylor

[I am not Spock]

Just rewatched TVH yesterday.

Was there ever a police investigation into the sudden disappearance of Gill Taylor, marine biologist, who was never heard from again, do you think?
I bet their prime suspect was that creep she worked with at the Cetacean Institute!

Also, has Gillian ever appeared again in the 23rd C, in any of the Trek literature?

 

[Therin of Andor]

has Gillian ever appeared again in the 23rd C, in any of the Trek literature?

Yes, she's on Kirk's yacht, celebrating the birth of Gracie's calf, in the DC Comics graphic novel, "Debt of Honor" by Chris Claremont.

 

[Christopher]

There was a story in the Strange New Worlds anthology series about a detective investigating Taylor's disappearance.

 

[zenophite]

she encountered Will Decker and traveled back in time to the 20th century to have a bunch of kids and a corny tv show.

 

[I am not Spock]

A couple of points I noted from the Okuda's text commentary to TVH.

1. Let us but hope the police in 1986 didn't put two and two together and discover Gillian took part in the rescue of Chekov from the Mercy Hospital. If they did, she may be remembered as a wanted fugitive, not an eminent marine biologist!

2. Not only did she disappear, but the US Navy have their hands on Chekov's discarded 23rd century Klingon phaser and communicator! Okuda notes that this means 20th century military obviously aren't as bright as the inhabitants of Sigma Iotia!

 

[SmoothieX]

1. Let us but hope the police in 1986 didn't put two and two together and discover Gillian took part in the rescue of Chekov from the Mercy Hospital. If they did, she may be remembered as a wanted fugitive, not an eminent marine biologist!

Even if she was still on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List by the time she got to the 23rd Century, she could always use the "I helped save your planet" get out of jail free card.

 

[Christopher]

2. Not only did she disappear, but the US Navy have their hands on Chekov's discarded 23rd century Klingon phaser and communicator! Okuda notes that this means 20th century military obviously aren't as bright as the inhabitants of Sigma Iotia!

I've always assumed that the Klingons design their equipment to self-destruct when tampered with. I just hope that the ones doing the tampering were taking full precautions and that no military personnel were killed or maimed as a result.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

2. Not only did she disappear, but the US Navy have their hands on Chekov's discarded 23rd century Klingon phaser and communicator! Okuda notes that this means 20th century military obviously aren't as bright as the inhabitants of Sigma Iotia!

I've always assumed that the Klingons design their equipment to self-destruct when tampered with. I just hope that the ones doing the tampering were taking full precautions and that no military personnel were killed or maimed as a result.

And those Klingon weapons didn't even work anyway. Either Chekov was right, and the radiation on the carrier was interfering with them, or the weapons had simply run out of power. At any rate, 20th century military would probably not be able to do anything with them.

And since the Enterprise crew returned to the same timeline they left, obviously that's exactly what happened.

 

[Christopher]

And those Klingon weapons didn't even work anyway. Either Chekov was right, and the radiation on the carrier was interfering with them, or the weapons had simply run out of power. At any rate, 20th century military would probably not be able to do anything with them.

What? Even without power, the circuitry would still be intact and could be studied and reverse-engineered. Even if they couldn't make exact duplicates of those devices, simply studying 23rd-century alien electronics would lead to countless technological breakthroughs. Send a car back in time to Benjamin Franklin, and even if it didn't have gas or a battery, he could figure out the basic principles of the internal combustion engine by taking the thing apart.

Actually, in Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars novels, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln retrieved the Klingon devices before the military could study them.

 

[Mistral]

2. Not only did she disappear, but the US Navy have their hands on Chekov's discarded 23rd century Klingon phaser and communicator! Okuda notes that this means 20th century military obviously aren't as bright as the inhabitants of Sigma Iotia!

I've always assumed that the Klingons design their equipment to self-destruct when tampered with. I just hope that the ones doing the tampering were taking full precautions and that no military personnel were killed or maimed as a result.

And those Klingon weapons didn't even work anyway. Either Chekov was right, and the radiation on the carrier was interfering with them, or the weapons had simply run out of power. At any rate, 20th century military would probably not be able to do anything with them.

And since the Enterprise crew returned to the same timeline they left, obviously that's exactly what happened.

Who said they returned to their correct timeline? All we saw was the Golden Gate Bridge-and that was there in Gillian's time.

 

[stupidname]

What? Even without power, the circuitry would still be intact and could be studied and reverse-engineered. Even if they couldn't make exact duplicates of those devices, simply studying 23rd-century alien electronics would lead to countless technological breakthroughs. Send a car back in time to Benjamin Franklin, and even if it didn't have gas or a battery, he could figure out the basic principles of the internal combustion engine by taking the thing apart.

Actually, in Greg Cox's Eugenics Wars novels, Gary Seven and Roberta Lincoln retrieved the Klingon devices before the military could study them.

Regardless of whether they could be reverse-engineered or not, they might not even reach somebody that's in a position to reverse engineer them. Somebody may look at them, fiddle a few knobs until satisfied that they don't actually do anything, and then throw them in the bin. Never even an issue.

I really like the idea of Gary Seven retrieving them though.

 

[Christopher]

As I recall, in the novelization of the film, Vonda McIntyre "fixed" the scene by having Chekov grab the devices when he fled and throw them into the ocean just before he suffered his near-fatal fall.

 

[Ronald Held]

I suspect if the device were successfully reverse engineered, the future Kirk and company returned to would be quite different.

 

[MarianLH]

Was there ever a police investigation into the sudden disappearance of Gill Taylor, marine biologist, who was never heard from again, do you think?
I bet their prime suspect was that creep she worked with at the Cetacean Institute!

That would make a great Law & Order episode.


Marian

 

[cultcross]

As I recall, in the novelization of the film, Vonda McIntyre "fixed" the scene by having Chekov grab the devices when he fled and throw them into the ocean just before he suffered his near-fatal fall.

It's at least possible that they could have been beamed out, especially if they were taken away from the source of the radiation. We've seen transporters lock onto a tricorder's signal before, at least.

 

[Nebusj]

What? Even without power, the circuitry would still be intact and could be studied and reverse-engineered. Even if they couldn't make exact duplicates of those devices, simply studying 23rd-century alien electronics would lead to countless technological breakthroughs. Send a car back in time to Benjamin Franklin, and even if it didn't have gas or a battery, he could figure out the basic principles of the internal combustion engine by taking the thing apart.

I'm skeptical of the ability of people to reverse-engineer and decipher technologies based on several centuries of advancements and major shifts in scientific understanding and engineering practices. To use the example of the car given to Benjamin Franklin, besides the electrical system there's a mountain of thermodynamics work that's important to understanding it that wouldn't exist for generations after his death --- and there's a requirement for machining tools that wouldn't exist for a century afterward (heck, in some places chemical elements that weren't imagined) even if you don't go looking at the most modern vehicles.

 

[Christopher]

^^No, I'm not saying they'd be able to reproduce the actual technology itself. But studying a device from centuries in the future would point the way to certain breakthroughs earlier than they would've otherwise occurred. Studying a phaser wouldn't let them build a phaser, but it might give them the means to invent the transtator a few generations sooner, or to develop a far more efficient and powerful form of battery, or to make a serious leap forward in the development of plasma rifles.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Well, regarding the military's ability to reverse engineer the communicator:
When exactly happened the mobile phone revolution? Didn't it start sometime in the eighties? ;-)

 

[SeerSGB]

Well it was the 80s, if the FBI and the CIA-- hey a Russian was captured while tampering with a US nuclear carrier's reactor, you think the CIA wasn't going to show up?-- thought the tech was new Russian weapons, it might set off a whole new arms race. Hell it could possibly spark a war at some point.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Unless...we have a Men in Black Division that recognizes alien tech...