History Trivia / StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome

** Producers considered bringing R.C. Carmel back for a cameo as Harry Mudd, who would have served as a character witness for Kirk at his trial. This also would have been an ironic ContinuityNod to the TOS episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E6MuddsWomen "Mudd's Women"]], where Kirk had promised to be a character witness at ''Mudd's'' trial.

* TheOtherDarrin: The USS ''Enterprise'' that Chekhov and Uhura sneak into is actually USS ''Ranger'', a then-standard oil-fired (non-nuclear powered) carrier.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Vijay Amritraj is a starship captain - the pro tennis player is best known for his role in ''Film/{{Octopussy}}''.
** Admiral Cartwright later was [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine Joe Sisko]], and concerning voices, [[WesternAnimation/GaltarAndTheGoldenLance Tormack]], [[WesternAnimation/ThePiratesOfDarkWater Bloth]], and [[SwatKats Dark Kat]].

** Producers considered bringing R.C. Carmel back for a cameo as Harry Mudd, who would have served as a character witness for Kirk at his trial. This also would have been an ironic ContinuityNod to the TOS episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E6MuddsWomen "Mudd's Women"]], where Kirk had promised to be a character witness at ''Mudd's'' trial.

* DatedHistory: As of TheNewTens, humpback whales are no longer an endangered species due to the whale hunting moratorium.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Downplayed to an extent as it doesn't whack you over the head with TheEighties, but it has its moments. Gillian thinks Kirk's communicator is a "pocket pager", cutting edge in those days any time later she'd assume it was a mobile phone. The whole debacle with Chekhov being caught on board a US Navy ship is pure Cold War, and Scotty attempting to work a Macintosh Plus very much dates it. "Just use the keyboard" sounds like Dr. Nichols simply assumes that Scotty isn't used to computers with a mouse- cutting edge back then!

* {{Defictionalization}} / LifeImitatesArt: within 3 years of this film coming out, there was a formula for transparent aluminum.

* YouLookFamiliar: Brock Peters plays Admiral Cartwright and would go onto play Joseph Sisko on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
** And Madge Sinclair, who plays the captain of the Saratoga, would later go on to play Geordi [=LaForge=]'s mother.

** Saavik was supposed to be revealed to be pregnant with Spock's child from the scene in the previous film where she had to, ahem, help him through puberty, which was to explain why she didn't go back to Earth with the rest of the crew to serve as a witness on their behalf at the trial, but it was cut for unknown reasons.

* TheOtherDarrin: The USS ''Enterprise'' that Chekhov and Uhura sneak into is actually USS ''Ranger'', a then-standard oil-fired(non-nuclear powered) carrier.

* TheOtherDarrin: The USS ''Enterprise'' that Chekhov and Uhura sneak into is actually USS ''Ranger'', a then-standard oil-fired carrier.

** And Madge Sinclair, who plays the captain of the Saratoga, would later go on to play Geordi [=LaForge]='s mother.

** And Madge Sinclair, who plays the captain of the Saratoga, would later go on to play Geordi LaForge's mother.

** They actually had Nichols and Koenig asking real San Franciscans where the nuclear submarine in Alameda was. The police officers staring suspiciously at the pair was a real cop who didn't know what was going on. The woman who answers, "Ooh, I don't know. I think they're in Alameda", had to be chased down to sign a release form for providing such a hysterical line in response to their queries. See [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Layla_Sarakalo here]] for details.

*** The idea that the punk, while passing out, should turn off the stereo with his own head, came from the actor who played him, Kirk Thatcher, who was an associate producer on the film. The generic PunkRock that the punk is listening to (it's a song called "I Hate You") was composed and recorded by [[CastShowoff Thatcher himself]] and Mark Mangini, a member of the sound effects team.

* YouLookFamiliar: Brock Peters plays Admiral Cartwright and would go onto play Joseph Sisko on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.

** The scene where Spock nerve pinched the punk rocker originally ended with Spock turning the punk's radio off manually, but they went with the take where the radio shuts off from the punk's head falling on the button.

* ThrowItIn: "I think it's across the bay, in Alameda." Not written in, but Nichols and Koenig just stayed in character when an extra said it. See [[http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Layla_Sarakalo here]] for details.

* HeyItsThatGuy: Vijay Amritraj is a starship captain - the pro tennis player is best known for his role in ''{{Octopussy}}''.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: EddieMurphy was originally going to play a conspiracy nut radio personality that filled the story role of the marine biologist Kirk interacts with (minus the romance, obviously). He eventually backed out of the movie but it resulted in a massive change to the storyline. The producers were worried that if Murphy was in the movie it would turn into a guest star movie like ''Film/{{Superman}} III'' became Richard Pryor's movie. So they made sure the biologist character was clearly a secondary character to Kirk and Spock.
* YouLookFamiliar: Brock Peters plays Admiral Cartwright and would go onto play Joseph Sisko on ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.
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* {{Defictionalization}}: within 3 years of this film coming out, there was a formula for transparent aluminum.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: EddieMurphy was originally going to play the marine biologist Kirk interacts with. He eventually backed out of the movie but it resulted in a massive change to the storyline. The producers were worried that if Murphy was in the movie it would turn into a guest star movie like ''Film/{{Superman}} III'' became Richard Pryor's movie. So they made sure the biologist character was clearly a secondary character to Kirk and Spock.

* YouLookFamiliar: Brock Peters plays Admiral Cartwright and would go onto play Joseph Sisko on ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine''.