In STIV, shortly after arriving in orbit over 20th Century Earth, Uhura claims to be "receiving whalesongs". How is she hearing those from space? Did the whales have communicators? 
How did they hear the whales from space?
- Thread starter Start Wreck
- Start date
Um...well, the Probe probably did.Did the whales have communicators?
You didn't read the question properly.Um...well, the Probe probably did.Did the whales have communicators?
I imagine there's a...whale frequency of something that they tuned in to. Or something.
Universal Whalenator.
The novelization explained that they were picking up radio transmissions of whalesong being broadcast by the Cetacean Institute for some reason, some kind of promotional thing or something.
Alternatively, it's possible that they could've used something analogous to a laser mike, which optically registers the vibrations in a surface caused by sound and thus could work through a vacuum. I don't know if just shining a laser on the ocean surface would do any good, but maybe they had some kind of analogous subspace beam thingy. Maybe something akin to the "motion sensors" from "Balance of Terror" which let them detect the moving mass of the cloaked Romulan ship. With sufficient sensitivity, such a device could register sonic vibrations in matter.
Alternatively, it's possible that they could've used something analogous to a laser mike, which optically registers the vibrations in a surface caused by sound and thus could work through a vacuum. I don't know if just shining a laser on the ocean surface would do any good, but maybe they had some kind of analogous subspace beam thingy. Maybe something akin to the "motion sensors" from "Balance of Terror" which let them detect the moving mass of the cloaked Romulan ship. With sufficient sensitivity, such a device could register sonic vibrations in matter.
You're right. I'm thinking of the wrong thing. There was no probe in 1985...You didn't read the question properly.Um...well, the Probe probably did.Did the whales have communicators?
I imagine there's a...whale frequency of something that they tuned in to. Or something.
Um...well...maybe the Probe aliens left some kind of subspace whalesong transmitter in the ocean. And when the whales died, it stopped transmitting.
...or something.
Yeah, that was the big WTF moment for me, too.
Even if the probe was transmitting, what was the RECEIVER in the ocean to pick it up and make it sounds? And how did it "hear" the whales?
Trek fails at science SO many times, and those moments ruin the movies for me.
Even if the probe was transmitting, what was the RECEIVER in the ocean to pick it up and make it sounds? And how did it "hear" the whales?
Trek fails at science SO many times, and those moments ruin the movies for me.
On a related note, I wonder how much sensors could actually tell you about a planet's surface from orbit. There must be a bunch of stuff that is entirely impossible, starting with "I'm picking up lifesigns, 100 Romulans, 2 Klingons." How are they supposed to do that?
Um...their sensors are awesome, that's how!
Well, yes, that's the idea. To set the trajectory for where whales would be found, he had to know their probable location. It's not like the thing had unlimited power; the time travel probably took a lot out of it. Best to be efficient and set the most direct trajectory possible.
Ummm.... we have spy satellites today that can read license plates from orbit. As long as those Romulans and Klingons are outdoors, all a starship would need is a good enough telescope and it could see them with sufficient resolution to tell them apart. (Although the one time Trek ever actually depicted this principle was in ENT: "Civilization," where they used optical imaging from orbit to find out what the natives looked like before going undercover.) Or maybe it could use infrared to distinguish them by body temperature, though the atmosphere is much less transparent to infrared than to visible light.
Really, being able to listen to underwater sounds from orbit has always sounded like a real-world thing to me. Hell, we currently and routinely listen to sounds being made within the Sun... Having a bit of vacuum and distance in between is no obstacle even to today's science. And the "helioseismography" is done passively, just by looking at the surface of the Sun, without the need for a probing beam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helioseismology
Timo Saloniemi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helioseismology
Timo Saloniemi
I started laughing at "20th Century Earth". Sorry what was the question?
Ok, after reading Timo's post, I've come up with a theory. The whales weren't communication with the whale probe, or the whale probe's makers. The whale probe's makers were just listening to the whales. It's sort of how scientists today listen to whales. Are these scientists talking with these whales? No. But if suddenly there were no whales (and thus no whale song), perhaps the scientists would send submarines, or maybe aquatic probes, to find out what happened. Ditto with the whale probe makers.
The scene at the end of the movie indicates that whales and whale probe are communicating with each other, (in the script and novelization you can even read what they say to each other) and in the beginning it is made clear that the whale probe is sending signals into the ocean, not passively listening to it. The whole point of the movie is that the whales are highly intelligent, which is why Spock is mind melding with them to explain to them that they are taken into the 23rd century and to ask them for permission!
Whale-way tracks.
Because this wasn't the Abramsverse, where space is silent, at least sometimes.
This, and I've always assumed that the movie was saying that there is some sort of subspace (or similar) component to whale song, which is why they could receive it on the Klingon ship and how they could communicate with the probe. And that WE, here in the late 20th/early 21st century, are too primitive to have the tech to detect it.
There are a few things that have been implied to be like that, along and along. Earth is rich with dilithium, too - but we lack the tech to tell the difference between it and regular quartz at present. According to some of the (well-written) novels, anyway.
Similar threads
