14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek The Motion Picture

3. V'ger's Hideous Hygiene

Enterprise wormhole Star Trek—The Motion Picture
Paramount Pictures
SPOCK: I saw V’ger’s home planet. Unbelievable technology. V’ger has knowledge which spans this universe.

Sounds awesome...until this happens:

KIRK: "V - G - E - R... V'ger!

...as he reads the letters visible on the space probe nameplate. He then rubs the grime off the nameplate and reads the rest.

KIRK: V -O - Y - A - G - E - R… Voyager! Voyager Six!

So, the movie is telling us that "V'ger has knowledge which spans this universe," yet isn’t smart enough to remove the grime and know its full name is Voyager and not V’ger?

…

[Facepalm.]

Contributor
Contributor

Maurice is one of the founders of FACT TREK (www.facttrek.com), a project dedicated to untangling 50+ years of mythology about the original Star Trek and its place in TV history. He's also a screenwriter, writer, and videogame industry vet with scars to show for it. In that latter capacity he game designer/writer on the Sega Genesis/SNES "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — Crossroads of Time" game, as well as Dreamcast "Ecco the Dolphin, Defender of the Future" where Tom Baker performed words he wrote.