Most Gratuitous Trek MacGuffin!

[austen_pierce]

After collecting ideas on MacGuffins in Trek, it's time to vote on which ones we feel to be the most representative of the term by definition.

From UrbanDictionary.com:
MacGuffin:
In film, a plot device that has no specific meaning or purpose other than to advance the story; any situation that motivates the action of a film either artificially or substantively.

So which is the most meaningless outside of the story and motivational factors?

 

[Elias Vaughn]

I'm pretty sure the incredible revelation in the climax of The Chase was never even mentioned again.

 

[JJohnson]

The red matter looked like something from a lava lamp. It was such a cop-out.

 

[Melakon]

I tend to interpret a MacGuffin based on the explanation Hitchcock gave in his interviews with Truffaut, and quadrotriticale fits better for me than some of the other options.

 

[Harvey]

I tend to interpret a MacGuffin based on the explanation Hitchcock gave in his interviews with Truffaut, and quadrotriticale fits better for me than some of the other options.

This. At first glance, the other things on this list (including red matter), aren't MacGuffins.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkyUxfSOKbI[/yt]

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'd definitely consider Red Matter as a macguffin. Absolutely no attempt is made to explain exactly what this stuff IS, how it works, or, hell, why it's red. Only that it makes black holes.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I went with quadrotriticale.

From a "literary" standpoint, quadrotriticale absolutely is a MacGuffin. While some of the other choices absolutely are MacGuffins too (some aren't!), "Tribbles" is certainly the most famous episode represented by the choices that absolutely are MacGuffins, which is how I'm choosing which radio button to select.

 

[urbandefault]

MacGuffin?

I thought you said McMuffin, and I was halfway out the door headed to McDonald's before it hit me.

I chose "radio button."

 

[Armored Saint]

You can't consider Spock's brain and katra as MacGuffin, on all Spock's appearance, there's only two where's his body and his mind aren't together: Spock's Brain and STIII. So, Spock's mind's is a primordial element in all TOS episodes and movies, plus Unification and nuTrek.

If I understand well the definition, the ion pod in Court Martial's a MacGuffin (as the job of Record Officer).

 

[scotpens]

Zenite in "The Cloud Minders" and ryetalin (sp?) in "Requiem for Methuselah" are definitely MacGuffins. They're valuable, urgently needed substances invented specifically for their respective episodes. You could swap them for Unobtainium and Baloneyium and it would make no difference in the stories.

 

[Melakon]

The MacGuffin in Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lily? is the recipe for delicious egg salad.

 

[scotpens]

The MacGuffin in Woody Allen's What's Up Tiger Lily? is the recipe for delicious egg salad.

A salad so delicious you could plotz!

Of course, in that case, it's more a parody of a MacGuffin.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Zenite in "The Cloud Minders" and ryetalin (sp?) in "Requiem for Methuselah" are definitely MacGuffins. They're valuable, urgently needed substances invented specifically for their respective episodes. You could swap them for Unobtainium and Baloneyium and it would make no difference in the stories.

Yep. Ryetalyn should have been on the list, too.

 

[Captain Rob]

I would vote for nuKhan's blood and the magic tribble.

 

[Maurice]

What some are missing is that the MacGuffin has to be important to the characters and not the audience. The ion pod was not important to the characters, they didn't care about the pod; they cared what Kirk did, hence the pod's not a MacGuffin. Spock's katra would be a MacGuffin if it were only the characters who were concerned about it, but the audience is invested in Spock, ergo not a MacGuffin. Rytalin, Zenite, the Genesis Torpedo, all MacGuffins, because they motivate the characters but we could give a rat's arse.

 

[TheSubCommander]

I would vote for nuKhan's blood and the magic tribble.

Agreed! Maybe Khan bleeds Red Matter, though.

 

[Commishsleer]

I don't think the 'Genesis Device' was a macguffin because it wasn't ever Kirk's real motivation. he went off to rescue Carol Marcus and their son and didn't even know that the 'device' existed.

Later in TWOK he was chasing Khan to stop him, to get revenge (not just to get the device).

ST09 was all about red matter from the death of Vulcan to the end of the movie so I don't think it was a macguffin there.

I don't think Q was ever a macguffin, he dominated every episode he was in.

All those 'urgent medical supplies' in 'Obsession', 'Galileo 7', the minerals in 'Mudds Women' and 'The Devil in the Dark' were macguffins then. The stolen shuttlecrafts in 'Let that Be Your Last Battlefield' and 'Way to Eden' would be macguffins too.

 

[Cyke101]

GNDN relays. Especially since the ship can't seem to operate without them

 

[Armored Saint]

What some are missing is that the MacGuffin has to be important to the characters and not the audience. The ion pod was not important to the characters, they didn't care about the pod; rhey cared what Kirk did, hence the pod's not a MacGuffin.

Thanks for the clarifation. Now, I see why quadrotriticale is indeed a MacGuffin.

 

[Vandervecken]

I've always understood a MacGuffin as also having virtually no impact on any of the details of the plot. The Maltese Falcon is a MacGuffin because if you changed it for something else of approximately the same size, value, and upkeep needs (in the Falcon's case, none), the characters would be doing exactly the same things they're already doing.

But I suppose that's too limited. The whales of TVH sure seem like a MacGuffin to me, just an excuse to get the crew into the past, but there's no denying their nature does impact the plot--McCoy and Scotty need special tanks to get them home. But that's pretty much it, unless you think an SF Bay rescue is a strong impact on plot (I don't).

And the quadrotriticale doesn't feel like a MacGuffin to me, because the wheat figures strongly as wheat in the plot: if the Tribbles hadn't eaten the stuff, the Klingons wouldn't have been caught. You couldn't just replace the grain with some other important stuff; it has to be edible, and it has to be accessible to the tribbles. If it's a MacGuffin, it's hardly egregious or gratuitous.