20 Things You Didn't Know About Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

There is an original ending to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home that sees Catherine Hick's Gillian Taylor remain on Earth in 1986. She vows to fight for the survival of the Humpback Whales as a species. Despite the fact that this does create a paradox - if the Humpbacks survive, there's no need for Kirk and crew to go back in time - writer Nicholas Meyer felt that this ending gave a stronger message.

Having Taylor remind on Earth gave, in his opinion, the impression that humanity was actively doing something about the ecological threat, rather than relying on the interference of their future selves to wrap everything up for them.

He describes the ending that was released as a fantasy version, one that caters to the idea that the future Utopia will wipe everything clean in terms of the sins of humanity. Having no choice but to accept it, he worked on all of the scenes set in the 20th century, while Harve Bennett wrote the end of the film.