What happened to the Klingon battlecruisers at the end of The Motion Picture?

[The Salt Umpire]

I was listening to a blog commenting on TMP and one of them said the Klingons (paraphrasing) were maybe reconstituted back into matter from their Vger data after Ilia/Decker went to their new dimension. Epsilon9 also. (what about the xx number of space faring races along the way who were also digitized?)

Comments? Conjectures? Canon?

 

[FredH]

I was listening to a blog commenting on TMP and one of them said the Klingons (paraphrasing) were reconstituted back into matter from their Vger data after Ilia/Decker went to their new dimension.

Comments? Conjectures? Canon?

There’s no sign of that in the film, no. I seem to recall an early suggestion for that to happen, the Klingon ships to attack and damage the Enterprise, and the saucer to separate as a result — but that makes little story sense, so it’s no wonder it didn’t happen.

 

[Brannigan]

I've always thought they rematerialized and realizing where they were (Earth) the Klingon Commander decides not to fight a large force of Starfleet ships. They are then escorted back to the Klingon Border.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Gone. Just like Epsilon IX. And the real, original Ilia for that matter.

 

[Firebird]

There’s no sign of that in the film, no. I seem to recall an early suggestion for that to happen, the Klingon ships to attack and damage the Enterprise, and the saucer to separate as a result — but that makes little story sense, so it’s no wonder it didn’t happen.

That was suggested by Andrew Probert as a potential ending during the mad rush to figure out how the hell they were gonna land the story. He drew storyboards for it (published in The Art of Star Trek) and and even drafted script pages (recently posted on Probert's Instagram account), but it was never seriously considered.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

So that means there's a little bit of Klingon in that new lifeform. And the crew of Epsilon Nine, and all the others encountered along the way.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So that means there's a little bit of Klingon in that new lifeform. And the crew of Epsilon Nine, and all the others encountered along the way.

Well, Ilia's memories, personality, and whatever were awakened by Decker's interactions with the probe. Nothing similar happened with the others, although perhaps the new elevated being can turn its attention to the problem of bringing everyone in there to life.

 

[Warped9]

I've always thought they rematerialized and realizing where they were (Earth) the Klingon Commander decides not to fight a large force of Starfleet ships. They are then escorted back to the Klingon Border.

Hmm… Recall they made a big deal of the Enterprise being the only ship in interception range of Vger. That seems to suggest there mightn’t have been a large force of Starfleet ships in the area.

Then again that reference never made much sense so I wouldn’t put too much stock into it.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Then again that reference never made much sense so I wouldn’t put too much stock into it.

Especially since the Enterprise lost time with the wormhole accident. After that, you'd think at least a few other ships might have been beaten the Enterprise to make contact, even if they're not top-of-the-line. As unsatisfactory as it might be, maybe we're supposed to read "The only starship in interception range is the Enterprise" as referring to starship-class/top-of-the-line ships.

 

[Parallaxis]

Especially since the Enterprise lost time with the wormhole accident.

I thought they gained time? Didn't they jump ahead and make it to V'Ger quicker?

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I thought they gained time? Didn't they jump ahead and make it to V'Ger quicker?

I don't know, really, it's sketchy.

With less than two days until V'ger reaches Earth they estimate they'll get there in 20.1 hours at warp 7. After the wormhole accident and Spock gets there and fixes things, they'll get there with still over a day to spare (at warp 7, all the way?) and with less than 3 hours (total?) repair time. Since 3 + 20.1 < 24, it could simply be that they were delayed by only three hours, give or take.

But you're right, I was and am making assumptions that could be wrong. I just don't believe that there's enough information given in the film to hang our hats on too much, one way or another, for example with respect to whether the wormhole accident actually benefited the mission by cutting off some travel time. I mean, maybe it did? But they don't say, it it all still works with only a three hour delay?

Of course, V'ger's still coming the whole time, though they never really say how fast it's going.

Is there anything I'm overlooking?

 

[Riley]

Those Klingon ships and everything else digitized by V'Ger became part of the hivemind when V'Ger traveled back in time thousands of years and became the Borg.