The 14 Dumbest Things In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

9. If You’re Going To San Francisco

Star Trek IV The Voyage Home San Francisco
Paramount
KIRK: ...There she is, from the Institute. If we play our cards right, we may be able to find out when those whales are leaving.
SPOCK: How will playing cards help?
GILLIAN: Well, if it isn't Robin Hood and Friar Tuck. Where're you fellas heading?
KIRK: Back to San Francisco.

Sure, Kirk is a fish out of water in 1986, but he seems a little lost here. Perhaps he needs to turn around take notice that the Golden Gate Bridge is behind Spock and himself, and they are walking away from it. They’re already in San Francisco when Gillian picks them up. In fact, they're on the Marina Green. And, no, they're not on the Sausalito side where Cetacean Institute is purportedly located. The view we have of the bridge is impossible to get from the other side.

Kirk may be from the 23rd century, but by all indications in this and previous films the Golden Gate Bridge is still in the same place. Kirk must know where he is, so, to paraphrase Gillian, “Why the coy geography?”

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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.