A question about Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. [Spoilers] (startrek.website)

submitted 7 months ago by Stormygeddon@startrek.website to c/startrek@startrek.website

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The whales Gracie and George were stated to have wandered into San Francisco as calves. Outside of feeding events which can include the famous bubble nets, humpback whale pods usually consist of a lone mother and calf (or calves) pairing with a trailing "escort" male. Humpbacks are one of the few mammals that can be nursing and still get pregnant. So anyway, the implication seems to be that if they were both calves and coming in the same time as a pod, they must have been orphaned from their mother and part of the same family group. Therefore, when its later revealed that Gracie is pregnant this one question comes to mind:

"Was the pregnancy a product of incest?"

No wonder they were originally going to be called Adam and Evie.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] khaosworks@startrek.website 6 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

In beta canon it’s explained that, eventually, the humpback whale population of the 23rd Century is restored with the help of George and Gracie’s offspring together with cloned humpbacks from DNA stores, which establishes enough numbers for a breeding population.

(And to answer the inevitable follow-up question of "if they had whale DNA why did they have to go back in time?":

Cloning whales wouldn’t have helped because quite apart from not being able to grow clones in time, those whales would have no knowledge of whale songs - as Spock noted, they couldn’t just reproduce the sounds; they needed the meaning as well.

KIRK: Spock, could the humpback's answer to this call be simulated?

SPOCK: The sounds, but not the language. We would be responding in gibberish.

So the fact they didn’t clone whales doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t have the genetic material. It just wasn’t a viable solution. One assumes George and Gracie would teach the newly cloned humpbacks about whalesong.)

this post was submitted on 07 May 2024

27 points (100.0% liked)

Star Trek Social Club

10571 readers

39 users here now

r/startrek: The Next Generation

Star Trek news and discussion. No slash fic...

Maybe a little slash fic.

New to Star Trek and wondering where to start?

Rules

1 Be constructive

All posts/comments must be thoughtful and balanced.

2 Be welcoming

It is important that everyone from newbies to OG Trekkers feel welcome, no matter their gender, sexual orientation, religion or race.

3 Be truthful

All posts/comments must be factually accurate and verifiable. We are not a place for gossip, rumors, or manipulative or misleading content.

4 Be nice

If a polite way cannot be found to phrase what it is you want to say, don't say anything at all. Insulting or disparaging remarks about any human being are expressly not allowed.

5 Spoilers

Utilize the spoiler system for any and all spoilers relating to the most recently-aired episode. There is no formal spoiler protection for episodes/films after they have been available for approximately one week.

6 Keep on-topic

All busmittions must be directly about the Star Trek franchise (the shows, movies, books, etc.). Off-topic discussions are welcome at c/Quarks.

7 Meta

Questions and concerns about moderator actions should be brought forward via DM.

Upcoming Episodes