Your ideas: Star Trek IV but no whales.

[somebuddyX]

So a while ago I posted this thread which was asking what if Leonard Nimoy didn't return for Star Trek III and wondering what everyone's ideas were. This is just a similar one wondering, if for Star Trek IV they never came up with the whale (and whale probe) plotline, what do you think would have been another good follow up to the actual released Star Trek III. The crew are renegades from Starfleet on Vulcan with the Bird of Prey. The Enterprise has been destroyed. David is dead. Again, kinda a bit of both "what you think would happen?" and "what you would like to have happened?"

 

[Set Harth]

same plot but instead of whales it's monkeys.

 

[Dukhat]

I think the way you wrote your thread topic sounds misleading and not what you really meant. It's like you're asking what animal they should have used instead of whales.

Anyway, what might have been an interesting take is if Starfleet is now trying to hunt Kirk and Co. down, and they have to take refuge in the Klingon Empire in an effort to return Kruge's BoP as a gesture of peace. Perhaps not killing Maltz could have been the start of better relations.

 

[vfxart]

They chose to head home, could've stayed on Vulcan as exiles or refugees or whatever, but that's not the course this crew would take. No mention of pressure to turn them over and likely the Feds knew better than to try Sarek and his connections. But they weren't going to stay. So they could take their time, tend to each other and all needs, then face the consequences. They assured the well-being of a comrade prior to doing so; they had no idea that Spock intended to join them or stand with them. Everyone's pretty sure they left Vulcan with clear consciences and positions. Maybe an opportunistic vendetta story, Klingons trying to flush them from Vulcan. The Klingon ambassador scene negates the apocryphal Kruge acting on his own, even though hinted at in III. Anyway... Whales or no, they still saved the Federation from Khan and Kruge, the latter in the face of Starfleet's idiocy in not protecting the Grissom and the system better. Same end result, a new ship; just get there faster. Colorful metaphors would've been used at Starfleet Command and in the Council chambers.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Maybe something that serves as a bridge, but of course I am speaking of after-the-fact. Some time on Earth, some expansion of Saavik which could later lead to better reasons for her betrayal in TUC. But what the main plot is, I don't know.

 

[Dukhat]

If James B. Sikking had been persuaded to return as Styles, I totally could see him being super pissed at Kirk for the Excelsior’s sabotage, and would have been gladly tasked with bringing Kirk back to stand trial. He basically would have been the baddie in STIV.