How many times did Kirk falsify his log?

[Maurice]

Interestingly, Decker said "what they used to call a black hole". Did people stop using that terminology for the phenomenon later on?

IIRC, black holes had only recently been discovered when TMP was being written and filmed. Back then, people thought a black hole was something that a ship could fall into, pass through, and emerge on the other side....

Not exactly. What we would call a black hole was theorized long before the original Star Trek, and the actual term "black hole" took hold in astrophysicists in the 1960s. Sure, Einstein Rosen bridges got popularized in science fiction, but by the time of TMP there was no lack of understanding about what black holes were and that they were most likely a one-way trip.

 

[BK613]

^^ In fairness, the theory that stuff falling into a black hole and emerging from a "linked" white hole had been put forth in the early 70s as an possible explanation for quasars.

 

[Timo]

And STXI sorta shows that when you do create a singularity in Trek, you get a tunnel, not a mere meat grinder.

Of course, the Trek universe, and even Sol, is explicitly full of other tunnel-type effects that have nothing to do with black holes. But it's also explicit that black holes do visit Sol every now and then, such as in DS9 "Past Tense".

But they were heading in Sol's general direction. It like driving from Los Angeles to San Diego, if you overshoot San Diego you end up in Tijuana.

The black star was the area of San Diego.

It's just that Kirk didn't just end up in Tijuana, he ended up in his uncle's property, parked right in front of his hacienda, between the RV and the Wrangler, and even managed to pull the handbrake before bumping into the sign that indicated that this particular spot was reserved for parking Kirk's own car. And he did that all while unconscious since that nasty bump in San Diego!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[FormerLurker]

Except he parked last week, when he intended to visit tomorrow.