How many days did Enterprise Crew spend in 1986 during Voyage Home
- Thread starter Bynar0110
- Start date
and shave, I mean you are facing life and death situations but you don't see them shave yet maintain perfectly smooth faces
Right before they land, Sulu mentions they "crossed the terminator into night." So, we can assume they land soon after dusk (or possibly they crossed into night a few times zones over), so 11 pm or so. Then, they spend the entire day and night in San Francisco, then find out the whales are gone shortly after the aquarium opens. Let's say, it opens 9ish? So they get the whales around 10, 11 am? That would put it right about 36 hours. Then, they need to go to the hospital, buy (or steal) some scrubs and search for and break out Chekov. I'd say that would be another hour or two. So maybe 38 hours?
^^this
The last time I watched it, it was on 4K and I watched it mostly because I wanted to confirm no disc defects.
Some jokes hold up, some are out of nostalgia, and most don't, but the 23rd century scenes have far more intrigue and interest. For what little is shown. Then they get to 1986, walk by a donut shop, and everything is so paint-by-numbers with the perfect conveniences it's asinine. Finding the whales felt fairly natural, but it all quickly spirals out of believability. Then they get back to the 23rd century and those 9 charges become 6, not because of the lead dude being nice but because the plot dropped that detail.
More on the 23rd century scenes, since these are the only aspects of the movie that hold up the best, by far: The courtroom setup is rather good. Indeed, who yelled "YOU POMPOUS A**!" and, more importantly, why was it yelled? This ties in beautifully with "The Undiscovered Country", assuming anyone in 1991 remembered that little tidbit from 1986, which - along with everything else - is scrambling to reestablish a multi-layered movie with depth after the misfire of The Final Frontier (largely due to more insistence on comedy-for-comedy's-sake but this time there's no "fish out of water" trope and the end result is turning our beloved crew into nincompoops. Even Kirk has a moment, and it'd ironically be worse if he didn't.)
Also, it's lovely to see Madge Sinclair as Captain of the Saratoga, who's a tad proto-Picard from what I recall. Sheesh, instead of the comedy clown cavalcade, they could have had a proper movie with intrigue and leave more room for more proper characters - instead of just a quick snippet and then on with the circus acts of "Gracie's preggers", McCoy and Scotty witness the secretary coming in and of course it's an obvious "nooner" joke uh-huh, Sulu gets the transparent aluminum way too fast and easy, the joke's meta regarding brain-damaged Chekov because of all his jokes from TOS, and "Whales all bandied together, rented an office room, discussed the issue, and decided all humans are terrible for hunting them down as random happenstance" nonsense, since - at best - they wouldn't be able to discern a human and use said label, certainly by a label humans labeled ourselves as. Unless that was a scripted joke too. Also, a jaywalker hit by a car doesn't blame every car driver ever existed too, let's question the intellect of both jaywalkers and drivers later, but I digressed again (and twice in one go, I think my record is something like three (?), but I need to brew some coffee and eat my morning carrots too while juggling four tins of cat food in front of the cats. There, I think I set a new record...) The movie makes it hard to tell at times, especially nigh on 40 years' removed from its original airing where original meanings, if any, are less likely to be accurately considered by someone wandering into a room, picking this movie at random, and playing it.
It's amazing how much they got done in those (roughly two days) in the 1986 timeline - without teleporters either, especially where to get the materials for the transparent aluminum - made in PlexiCorp, a (albeit fictional) PLASTICS FACTORY OF ALL THINGS. Not even a steel mill, or aluminum mill! Ugh!!! Give me Saratoga and Kirk's trial instead. Would have been
Not to mention, let's think the other thing through - 2 whales go forward in time, of which 1 is gestating a future generation to keep the species going. So first of all, how many babies is she carrying? To prevent digging too much into pedantry, let's say 4 - two males, two females - are all born and all survive. Even if they all survive, the gene pool is already artificially curtailed and limited due to being removed from time (even if the reduction in quantity was a thing, it's conclusive now). Incest isn't just for humans, you know, and documented history and science already shows it's not a peachy prospect for humans either. What if the probe returned in the 25th century and found a less-then-robust species due to all the inbreeding? Here's a fun article to read while drinking the morning coffee, and/or expelling it later on: What Is Inbreeding? Definition and Genetic Effects (thoughtco.com) Apart from reduced biodiversity, other results include:
- Reduced fertility
- Reduced birth rate
- Higher infant and child mortality
- Smaller adult size
- Reduced immune function (read: more susceptible to disease and deaths, thus being counterintuitive and defeating the purpos-- oops, I digressed...)
- Increased risk of cardiovascular disease
- Increased risk of genetic disorders
Oh well. At least they didn't do the "I'm my own grandpa" shtick, which was done in DS9's time travel episode, and promptly used by "Futurama" for its time travel story as partial homage of (or at least inspiration to) the DS9 story too.
Last edited:
Maybe the Starfleet sent a ship to bring more of them to the future later, or the genetical problems were solved by a 23-rd century doctors. It might have happened in Phase II
I thought McCoy/Scott used the formula for transparent aluminum as barter to buy several large sheets of thick plexiglass to build the whale aquarium in the ship.
I'd guess about two days. They arrive in San Francisco at night or in the very early morning, walk into the city, and start searching for what they need. Kirk and Spock go on tour at the Cetacean Institute and meet Gillian. It's night again when Chekov falls off the CVN-65 Enterprise and it's day again when Kirk, McCoy, and Gillian break him out. They return to the 24th Century on the same day.
That's correct, it's a common misconception. They traded the formula for the 6" plex they needed. Nichols says it would take years of analysis before they could make transparent aluminum.
