The Voyage Home

[Thallassa]

This is probably my second favorite among the TOS movies, but the incident you mention has me puzzled, too. If he were going to shoot his way out the situation, wouldn't it make more sense to do so when he was first caught by the security guards?

[Mr. Atoz]

Would Chekov really have tried to shoot it out anyway? That's the question. Surely being a full commander, he knows enough about the Prime Directive to know that's frowned upon.

[Thallassa]

I see what you mean. So if he wasn't intending to shoot it out with the interrogator, what was he trying to do?

[Mr. Atoz]

My theory is that Scotty had rigged the phaser to self-destruct, in case they were captured. Not a huge explosion you understand, just fusing the interior circuits so that they couldn't be reverse engineered. But to trigger it, you had to, say, press the arming trigger and the safety trigger at the same time. My idea is that Chekov hoped he could bluff his way out of the situation. When it became obvious he wasn't going to, he took his first chance to seize the phaser and trigger the self-destruct. From then on, it didn't much matter what happened to him, so he made a break for it.

[Thallassa]

That certainly puts his actions in a new light. In fact, I like it because it makes Chekov seem like a pretty smart guy.

[Mr. Atoz]

Well, he was a smart guy! He was Spock's protege, wasn't he? But in the movies, he tends to get pushed to the side, as if he's only good for a funny line every now and then. He don't get no respect!

[Thallassa]

That's probably why I like this movie so much. The movies tend to focus on Kirk, Spock and McCoy, leaving, Sulu, Chekov, Uhura and Scotty in the background. This movie at least gives them something to contribute to the success of the mission.

[Mr. Atoz]

Oh, yes without a doubt. Scotty and McCoy particularly got to hog the action for a bit! "I can't believe I've come millions of miles...."

[Thallassa]

Professor Scott from Edinborugh! I'm glad you mentioned that, though. Wasn't that a temporal violation, to introduce transparent aluminum before it was invented?

[Mr. Atoz]

I would expect someone like Scotty would know more or less when and where it first came into use. Any small temporal change he introduced would probably have smoothed out by the havok of the Eugenics Wars.

[Thallassa]

I suppose so. Wasn't this also the movie where Kirk sells the antique bifocal glasses that Mc
coy had given him for his birthday? "Weren't those a present from Dr. McCoy?" Spock asks. Kirk replies, "And they will be again. That's the beauty of it."

[Mr. Atoz]

Yes, another shocking example of utter disregard for the space/time continuum!

But do you ever wonder if the absence of Jillian Taylor changed anything in history?

[Thallassa]

I wouldn't think so. Between you and me, she struck me as a bit of an airhead!

[Mr. Atoz]

Well yeah, that scene where she was leaning over the railing, trying to "comfort" the whales after Spock had been in swimming with them... I was thinking, "this is a scientist?"

[Thallassa]

And picking up two strange guys and warning them, "I've got a tire iron right where I can get at it," was not exactly the brightest move in the world either.