An Alternative Reading of TMP

[YARN]

Enterprise did not survive the first V'Ger attack and everything that happens afterwards is Kirk living a digitized fantasy existence a la "ship in a bottle."

All the TMP-era films are Kirk's digitized dream.

At the beginning of TMP we see a squadron of Klingon Ships get digitized (Memory Alpha describes this process as "remembering things to death"). We see the Epsilon space station get the same treatment. We learn that the V'Ger cloud is bigger than Earth's solar system. When Enterprise encounter the ship proper the only thing they can do is marvel at how big the thing is and how the power levels are unbelievable.

TMP present Kirk as a bit of a jerk having a midlife crisis. McCoy is retired he wants nothing more to do with the service, but Kirks ropes him in anyhow. McCoy tells Kirk to get a life and let the next generation do their thing. He describes Kirk's need for command as an addiction. Spock is cold and remote.

After the V'Ger attack Kirk begins to shine. He puts the puzzle together. Decker conveniently chooses to leave Kirks reality (leaving him with no rival for command).

When we meet Kirk in TWoK he's in a funk, but now McCoy say, "Hey, bro take command, get your groove back. Break out your letter jacket and let's bring back the glory days." The retired McCoy is now unretired and happily accompanying Kirk. Spock gives up command easily, almost like a parent who let's a teary eyed child enjoy the last cookie on the plate.

 

[CoveTom]

It's an interesting idea, but I find it hard to believe that Kirk would work into his fantasy life the gut-wrenching death of Spock, the reunion with and subsequent senseless death of his son, the destruction of the Enterprise, the being framed for the murder of the Klingon chancellor, and numerous other things that we see post-TMP.

 

[xortex]

William Shatner then becomes the Borg King, I mean goes to Burger King.

 

[YARN]

It's an interesting idea, but I find it hard to believe that Kirk would work into his fantasy life the gut-wrenching death of Spock, the reunion with and subsequent senseless death of his son, the destruction of the Enterprise, the being framed for the murder of the Klingon chancellor, and numerous other things that we see post-TMP.

All these events still place Kirk in an invigorating "life drama" with him at the center. Kirk still gets to be the hero. And this life drama is not unkind to him. Spock is returned to him, body and soul! He gets a new Enterprise to command. He is accused of a crime, but he is vindicated and stops a war in clearing his name. Not much of a downside here.

What about David?

What about him? If this is a fantasy, David is not really a person, but a symbol. David represents the life he could've had, but didn't. If Kirk were really interested in his son, he would have looked him up before the events of TMP. In truth, he never really had an interest in that relationship, but he does feel some guilt.

But how does one get rid of guilt without having to fundamentally change as a person? Precisely the way Kirk does.

Kirk meets his son (his guilt) in TWoK. David comes to respect his father's career choice and express some affection for him. His imaginary son allows Kirk to make peace with his career choices - his son forgives him and expresses respect for him just before dying a convenient death which allows Kirk to get on with his Captain fantasy without having to continue to worry about mending the fence. He purges his guilt by reuniting with his son, but his son still represents the life he rejected, and since he has no wish to live that life (if he did, he would be already), David must die.

And so his son is killed by a convenient enemy and he projects his rage onto the Klingons. This rage, however, is another source of guilt. His avowed racial hatred is really self-hatred/guilt (he has, once again, killed any chance of a relationship with his son) and so he must purge this guilt by being imprisoned, going on trial, and by heroically preventing a war. Kirk's prejudice against the Klingons represents his a prejudice he has against himself -- the part that feels bad about choosing a life of adventure and self-ambition over family. When Kirk forgives the Klingons he is, in effect, forgiving himself. The TMP series ends, therefore, with Kirk in a place of balance.

 

[Captrek]

My theory is Kirk's still on Talos IV. He knew too much to be allowed to leave.

 

[YARN]

My theory is Kirk's still on Talos IV. He knew too much to be allowed to leave.

Kirk was never on Talos IV.

 

[gottacook]

Actually, Kirk has been insane since the last scene of "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

Although he isn't wearing a visor, Kirk is looking at the transporter platform as Miranda Jones and Kollos are beamed out by Spock (who does have a visor). The camera angle on Kirk just afterward, as he then turns and goes through the automatic doors into the corridor, certainly makes it appear as if he hadn't turned his head away a moment earlier during beamout.

Kirk must have been too full of good IDIC-inspired feelings (generated by the final-scene dialogue) to remember to be careful. (I like that dialogue a lot, particularly Spock's "the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.")

This is an episode I saw first-run, although I didn't pick up on the permanently-insane-Kirk angle until many viewings later.

 

[YARN]

Actually, Kirk has been insane since the last scene of "Is There in Truth No Beauty?"

Although he isn't wearing a visor, Kirk is looking at the transporter platform as Miranda Jones and Kollos are beamed out by Spock (who does have a visor). The camera angle on Kirk just afterward, as he then turns and goes through the automatic doors into the corridor, certainly makes it appear as if he hadn't turned his head away a moment earlier during beamout.

Kirk must have been too full of good IDIC-inspired feelings (generated by the final-scene dialogue) to remember to be careful. (I like that dialogue a lot, particularly Spock's "the ways our differences combine to create meaning and beauty.")

This is an episode I saw first-run, although I didn't pick up on the permanently-insane-Kirk angle until many viewings later.

Kirk, however, has been shown to have immunity/resistance to things that other humanoids cannot survive. He resists Nona's charms in Private Little War and shakes off the plant spores This Side of Paradise. I suspect that his extreme narcissism pulls him through.

NOTE 1: Kirk being insane is not incompatible with the Enterprise losing it's first encounter with V'Ger balls.

NOTE 2: Your hypothesis would require noting something different about Kirk before and after this episode. We don't get this evidence.

 

[SonicRanger]

Kirk is in the Nexus within V'Ger since going insane on Talos IV.

 

[SonicRanger]

Kirk is in the Nexus within V'Ger since going insane on Talos IV.

 

[YARN]

Kirk is in the Nexus within V'Ger since going insane on Talos IV.

He was never on Talos IV, but the Nexus event could easily square with my hypothesis.

 

[xortex]

The nexus and Q are connected to Vger and the Borg. Writing that makes it sound like an alternate reality 70's pornographic sitcom starring Abe Vigoda as Vger and Victor Borge as Q. Two beeps for yes and one beep for no.

 

[YARN]

The nexus and Q are connected to Vger and the Borg. Writing that makes it sound like an alternate reality 70's pornographic sitcom starring Abe Vigoda as Vger and Victor Borge as Q. Two beeps for yes and one beep for no.

beep beep

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Clearly, this is not the case. Spock's journey through the V'Ger orifice would make no sense if they were all already digitized.

However, frankly, the idea of the Enterprise getting digitized when attacked by V'Ger makes more sense than the shields holding. But for the idea to fully make sense, more would have to be changed in TMP. Spock should be able to figure it out when he mind-melds with V'Ger, for instance. The problem would then become not only how do they save Earth, but also how do they escape from V'Ger and get reintegrated?

I could accept that V'Ger frees the Enterprise when he, Decker, and Ilia ascend to that higher plane. But really quite a bit of extra, nonexistent footage would need to be inserted into the film for it to make sense.

There's also the question of why do all of the other digitized systems (Epsilon IX, Ilia, the Klingons, etc.) seem inert? What would motivate V'Ger to animate this one system it has digitized above all others? Perhaps V'Ger animates it because it came directly from the planet of the creator? Something's missing there.

And I can't accept them remaining digitized beyond the climax of TMP under any circumstances. There would be nothing at stake; everything would be pointless. So that part of the idea is a non-starter.

 

[xortex]

There's no escaping Vger. When it transcended it took them with it. It never left. They only think it disappeared but they're still in an alternate reality of Vger's memories. There's no escaping the Talosians either. They caused Pike's accident so he could be their Ambassador between worlds (alternate realities) dream world illusion and reality - the nexus that connects Q to the real world of the Borg.

 

[YARN]

First, let's note that this is just a whimsical conjecture. This is a nice way of saying it's kind of excessively dumb.

Second, on my conjecture, it's all in Kirk's head (consciousness, really) after the big E is digitized.

Clearly, this is not the case. Spock's journey through the V'Ger orifice would make no sense if they were all already digitized.

Why not? It would just be a "Matrix in a Matrix" or "Holodeck in a Holodeck" scenario.

However, frankly, the idea of the Enterprise getting digitized when attacked by V'Ger makes more sense than the shields holding. But for the idea to fully make sense, more would have to be changed in TMP. Spock should be able to figure it out when he mind-melds with V'Ger, for instance.

My proposal, is that the entire crew is frozen in their own digitized reality - they are not interacting with each other. What we are witnessing is one crew member's (Kirk's) fantasized future playing out. Whatever is happening in Spock's digitized domain of consciousness is his own, we don't know what is happening to him.

Indeed, the entire run of films could take place as Kirk himself is being digitized into V'Ger. Perhaps the probe want to understand what it collects, so it creates a brief fantasy of life to understand the functions, aims, and capacities of the things it collects.

The problem would then become not only how do they save Earth, but also how do they escape from V'Ger and get reintegrated?

That's just it. They don't. What we see is simply Kirk's fantasy projection of the future as it is projected into a digitized simulation.

Nothing that happens after the Enterprise is hit by the V'Ger ball is real. The Enterprise ceases to exist as a material object after this point. What we see is Kirk's holo-phantasmagoria.

There's also the question of why do all of the other digitized systems (Epsilon IX, Ilia, the Klingons, etc.) seem inert? What would motivate V'Ger to animate this one system it has digitized above all others? Perhaps V'Ger animates it because it came directly from the planet of the creator? Something's missing there.

Again, since nothing that happens AFTER the Enterprise is digitized is real, those planets have no standing.

Even the probe is NOT really V'Ger.

Ever notice how, after the Enterprise is probed, the story quickly reveals itself to be a recycled TOS plot (i.e., NOMAD in The Changeling?) -- the reason why isn't lazy writing, but that Kirk is drawing upon his memories to construct a mystery he can solve (he has already solved this mystery once).

And I can't accept them remaining digitized beyond the climax of TMP under any circumstances. There would be nothing at stake; everything would be pointless. So that part of the idea is a non-starter.

Did you think everything in The Usual Suspects was pointless?

The plot device I am describing has been used many times. It appears to have originated with a story called An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

^ Except, in those cases, not only does the narrative emerge from the alternate reality so that the viewer/reader can tell what's really going on, but in addition the characters suffer the consequences of that emergence. In the case of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, for instance, this has tragic consequences.

 

[YARN]

^ Except, in those cases, not only does the narrative emerge from the alternate reality so that the viewer/reader can tell what's really going on, but in addition the characters suffer the consequences of that emergence. In the case of An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, for instance, this has tragic consequences.

There are no tragic consequences in The Usual Suspects. One guy lies to another guy. Most of the film is, in relation to the "true" part of the story, a lie. At the end, the guy walks away, and that's it.

It's not always clear what's going on in this type of story. The viewer is not told flat out what is going on, or there would be no suspense. Instead, clues are given to the viewer that not everything is right. I have detailed such clues in the OP. In addition, Uhura's speech to Captain Adventure in TSFS is a big wink to the audience.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

It's an interesting idea, but I find it hard to believe that Kirk would work into his fantasy life the gut-wrenching death of Spock, the reunion with and subsequent senseless death of his son, the destruction of the Enterprise, the being framed for the murder of the Klingon chancellor, and numerous other things that we see post-TMP.

Why not? What he imagines, after all, is a series of adventures in which dramatic, exciting and sometimes awful things happen but without permanent consequence - in the end, everyone comes back to life and hangs out on the bridge. Kind of like a video game or an RPG or...a TV show. Not like life.

Remember, the only time in TNG when Picard tells the truth is when he hypothesizes that everything he and his crewmates do is just "a simulation running on a box on someone's table."

 

[xortex]

Next you'll be telling me that Kirk is some kind of pixilated projection. A lie that makes the truth possible.