How did they hear the whales from space?

[Start Wreck]

(in the script and novelization you can even read what they say to each other)

Care to share?

Whale-way tracks.

Thread delivers.

 

[Christopher]

Whale-way tracks.

I just now figured out that was a pun on "railway tracks." Here in America we say "railroad tracks" instead, so I didn't get your reference at first.

 

[Therin of Andor]

I just now figured out that was a pun on "railway tracks." Here in America we say "railroad tracks" instead, so I didn't get your reference at first.

Drat.

I originally typed "whale-weigh tracks", because the original joke had to do with whales on diets at the whale-weigh station, but that probably wouldn't have worked either.

During my first trip to the USA in 1983, I think it took me the first four weeks of a six week trip to get my punning groove working to acceptable groaning levels.

 

[Therin of Andor]

(in the script and novelization you can even read what they say to each other)

Not the script:

Then he [George] begins: WHALESONG.

The PROBE... its antennae turns to the new SOUND. Then, it transmits a NEW GIBBERISH, somehow more conversational.

As this new dialogue mounts, the probe will always transmit GIBBERISH from above, the whale will always answer with WHALESONG from underwater. But even the dullest of us will sense the relaxing of concern and tension, the almost conversational climax between the two communicators.

The novelization, leaving out descriptive text:

Why did you remain silent so long?

Where were you?

We were not here. We have now returned. We cannot explain, traveler, because we do not yet understand all that has happened to us.

Who are you? Where are the others? Where are the elders?

They are gone. They have passed into the deep, they have vanished upon white shores. We alone survive.

Your song is simple. Where are the tales you have invented all this time, and where are the stories of your families?

They are lost. All lost. We must begin again. We must evolve our civilization again. We have no other answer.

Very well. I shall anticipate young stories. Fare thee well.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Where were you?

[/I]We were not here. We have now returned. We cannot explain, traveler, because we do not yet understand all that has happened to us.

Who are you? Where are the others? Where are the elders?

Because I can't resist.

He has ceased to be! 'E's expired and gone to meet 'is maker! 'E's a stiff! Bereft of life, 'e rests in peace! 'Is metabolic processes are now 'istory! 'E's off the twig! 'E's kicked the bucket, 'e's shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisibile!!

 

[JarodRussell]

(in the script and novelization you can even read what they say to each other)

Not the script:

My bad. I thought the dialogue was also in there. But at least it states a dialogue happens.

 

[Timo]

Doesn't mean the whales would be particularly intelligent, though. A master making soothing noises to his dog would probably sound more or less like that, too...

If the Probe were farming whales on assorted waterworlds and making rounds every few centuries to see how the livestock was doing, it would probably know "conversational whale" the same way livestock farmers speak fluent "conversational cow" nowadays.

Really, the Probe comes off as a rather dimwitted automaton. It does damage when there are no whales, then stops doing damage when there are two-and-a-half whales. Why? Because it has just learned that mankind has driven whales to extinction and has now reintroduced a nonviable population of 2½ for its own selfish purposes? This shouldn't pacify the Probe one iota regardless of whether it was farming livestock or keeping in touch with beloved pets or making second contact with an intelligent species.

However, if the Probe is a stupid machine that goes to check whether planet X has whalesong, then starts aquaforming the planet if the answer is negative, but stops aquaforming if the answer is positive, then everything that transpires in the movie makes good sense...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Therin of Andor]

Really, the Probe comes off as a rather dimwitted automaton.

Precisely why Nimoy resisted Paramount's insistence to add captions to the conversation in the movie: so we can add our own interpretations and preserve the mystery.

But Vonda McIntyre had to come up with something to fill her novelization wiith, as she was working with no actual visuals. "Where are the elders?" is a great line, though; perhaps very old whales develop a deeper sentience?

But a probe is a probe. Probes are sent when the senders can't go themselves.