Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Other mistake: After they take off from California, Kirk gives a heading to Alaska. He then tells Sulu "full impulse power", and Sulu says "aye, ETA 12 minutes." Full impulse is 1/4 the speed of light. No way they would use speeds like that to go a few thousand miles.

ckstaats

Continuity mistake: The Bird of Prey is the one captured by Kirk's crew in ST III. That ship's bridge showed Klingon Cmdr Kruge in his elevated command chair with his helmsmen arrayed circularly below him, and nothing else. ST IV has this same ship; however, the bridge now resembles The Enterprise layout with Kirk's command chair behind Sulu and Chekov at their rectangular helm, with Spock, Scotty, and Uhura at their usual positions.

tedloveslisa

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Suggested correction: According to the captain's log at the beginning, they have been on Vulcan for 3 months. As they prepare to depart, we see several Vulcan technicians moving equipment in and around the ship. It's quite conceivable that the bridge was reconfigured according to the crew's specifications to facilitate their use of the ship. This may seem a bit excessive, as the remodel includes the door onto the bridge, and the frame of the door, and possibly most of the rest of the ship. But it's not outside the realm of possibility. The real mistake, though, is why they would go to the effort of installing new workstations on the Klingon bridge and marking them with Klingon labels, instead of standard Federation text. Interestingly, though, the "Starfleet" style bridge layout of the Klingon ship is being used by the Klingons on the Bird of Prey in Star Trek V.

Vader47000

Factual error: The "whaling boat" is too small to function as such. It isn't large enough to hold a fin, let alone disassemble a humpback whale.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Sulu flies the helicopter and accidentally turns on the windshield wiper, look closely at the bottom of the wiper and you can see the crewman's finger manually moving the wiper. (01:18:55)

Other mistake: During the inquiry at the start of the movie, the Klingon Ambassador is going over the footage of the destruction of the Enterprise from all the exterior views. This is very nice, but how would they have access to all of these different viewpoints of the destruction? Bearing in mind no-one was there to film it. It couldn't have been the Klingon Bird of Prey that filmed it, because in most of the destruction scenes, the Bird of Prey would have been no-where near or in a position to film it, and was of course captured and still being commanded by Kirk during the course of the inquiry. (00:04:10)

GalahadFairlight

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Suggested correction: Most of the visuals we see on view screens in Star Trek are created from sensors rather than cameras, so what we see doesn't necessarily have to be from the visual perspective of the ship taking it. Though yes, it is quite an amusing coincidence that it all looks exactly like they're watching a copy of Star Trek III on home video.

TonyPH

Suggested correction: It's possible the Grissom and/or the Bird of Prey launched drones into orbit to aid in the scanning of the planet or for communications or sensor relays, and this is where the footage could have come from. This isn't unlike the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in which crewmembers of the space station mentioned such drones as the reason images of the aftermath of the V'ger destruction were able to be seen despite no ships being left.

Vader47000

Continuity mistake: Gillian's Chevrolet pick-up truck is obviously two different trucks, depending on its location. When near the aquarium, the grille is a series of large, rectangular openings. But when at the park, where the Bird of Prey landed, the grille is a much tighter series of more numerous, smaller rectangles, made up of much thinner bars. This difference is consistent through the entire film. (00:55:05)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Notice the candle on the table in the Italian restaurant scene during Capt. Kirk and Dr. Gillian dialog. It changes height depending who is talking. (01:03:50 - 01:08:30)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home mistake picture

Other mistake: When Kirk uses his hand phaser to melt the lock on the door in the hospital operating room, the phaser is not pointed directly at the lock. The beam leaves the phaser at an angle, which is probably not how the phaser would have been designed to operate. (01:25:20)

Continuity mistake: When the 'Bounty' materializes right above the whaling ship, it casts it into shadow. But the close-ups of the captain and navigator as they frantically turn the ship around reveal no trace of a deeper shadow on their faces and the surrounding waters; the lighting remains the same as in the scenes when they try to catch the whales. (01:33:45)

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the operating room, when Kirk uses a phaser to melt the lock, the hand he is holding the phaser in switches hands in the closeup shot. Additionally, the arm holding the weapon in the closeup is no longer in hospital scrubs, but a similarly colored sweatshirt. (01:25:20)

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Mr. Chekhov is being interrogated on the USS Enterprise (the aircraft carrier) after being caught on board, a studio microphone being used for the shot is visible hanging above him. (01:14:45)

Factual error: When Chekov and Uhura first see USS Enterprise and then later beam aboard, the carrier shown is not USS Enterprise (a nuclear aircraft carrier), but rather USS Ranger (a conventional or oil-fired carrier). The most obvious clue is the "island", the huge structure that sits on the deck of the carrier. USS Enterprise has the most distinctive and unique island of all the USN carriers, being totally cube-like in appearance. The carrier in Star Trek IV has a more conventional style island. [It is true that the USS Ranger was used in lieu of the USS Enterprise for the movie. This is because the Enterprise was on deployment at the time. Though by the time the movie was made the Enterprise had had its distinctive pagoda-like island rebuilt by Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in 1980, the aircraft carrier served until 2012 with a still-distinctive cube shaped island.] (00:53:30)

Other mistake: When Kirk sells his "18th Century" reading glasses, a close-up reaveals that the ends of the stems are made of clear plastic- not possible in the 1700s. (00:40:55)

Mark Bernhard

Factual error: At two points in the film, the Klingon vessel Bounty traverses the distance from the Earth to the Sun at maximum speed, in excess of Warp 9. The latter sequence requires about 111 seconds from the time Sulu says "Aye sir, warp speed" until they reach the Sun. While there is no real science behind Star Trek's "warp technology, " the Starfleet Technical Manual provides a formula for calculating warp speed, whereby Warp 9 translates to about 136 MILLION MILES PER SECOND. The Earth is only 93 million miles from the Sun. In the apparent time that it takes the Bounty to reach the Sun, a starship traveling at such ferocious velocity would already be outside of our known solar system and deep into interstellar space.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Scotty is listed in the credits as Captain Montgomery Scott. At the end when the camera pans the crew just before their pardon, Scotty wears the rank pin of a Commander (the same one worn by Commander Sulu, Commander Chekhov, and Commander Uhura). (01:48:55)

Grumpy Scot

Revealing mistake: When Chekhov falls on the aircraft carrier a cloud of dust flies up as if he's landed on a mat or soft cargo. When we see him on the floor it's concrete.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Kirk and Spock are walking down the street after Spock has been in the tank with the whales it is clear that it is a windy day. Both of them have their hair blowing in the wind and yet as they are offered a ride in the truck and the shot leaves them for a moment their hair is suddenly fixed again. (00:55:20)

Factual error: They are about to perform major brain surgery on Chekov, but he is not nearly prepped for such a procedure. His head is not shaved, the area is not marked or masked and it has not been swabbed with Betadine, even though they are about to cut into his skull with a bonesaw. The "they haven't had time to prepare yet" argument doesn't hold water, because the surgeon is already approaching Chekov's head with the saw. (01:24:30)

wizard_of_gore

Revealing mistake: When the whales first swim past the now submerged Klingon Bird of Prey, if you look to the right where the water is supposed to meet the distant horizon, you can see an exposed edge to the 'horizon' as the water moves up and down. This is the edge of the pool they are in, and the exposed edge is the bottom of the painting of the sky behind them. (01:46:30)

GalahadFairlight

Visible crew/equipment: During the scene on the bus, two members of the camera crew are visible in the window behind and to the right of Spock. The crewman of the left is sitting and operating the movie camera, and the crewman on the right is taking still camera shots. (00:43:50)

Spock: Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumb-ass on you" and so forth.
Kirk: Oh, you mean the profanity?
Spock: Yes.
Kirk: Well that's simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays any attention to you unless you swear every other word.

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home trivia picture

Trivia: Kirk Thatcher, an associate producer of the film, played the punk on the bus, and also wrote the song ("I Hate You") the punk is listening to on his boombox. (00:43:45)

wizard_of_gore

More trivia for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Question: In a few scenes in the film, the characters mention how people of the 20th century still use money. Key word: still. How is the process of currency different in the 23rd century compared to the present?

Answer: The United Federation of Planets uses the credit. Its a purely electronic form of money. Necessities and luxuries both are simple and cheap to produce with the Federation's advanced technology, and humanity has matured to the point that accumulating wealth is considered vulgar. Furthering the common good or the advancement of humanity is the real status symbol in the 23rd and 24th century. These conditions result in a society with very little need for money. Citizens are paid, but since the technology built into a place of business (or starship) or home supplies all basic needs for free, most people spend money only on exotic products that aren't commonly manufactured, like art or handmade foods.

Grumpy Scot

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