How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Quote #4
GILLIAN: Since the dawn of time, men have harvested whales for a variety of purposes, most of which can be achieved synthetically at this point.
Mankind has done horrendous things to whalekind. Whale hunting symbolizes humans' innate tendencies toward greed and violence. Kirk and his compatriots may have moved past this shallow way of thinking, but it's very much alive in this world—our world.
Quote #5
SPOCK: To hunt a species to extinction is not logical.
It's a bird, it's a plane, no—it's a logic bomb. To hunt something until it goes extinct is like ordering a plate of bacon, throwing it away, and then complaining that you're hungry.
Quote #6
[Spock performs a Vulcan mind meld on Gracie the whale, which allows him to share thoughts with her.]
Spock can directly communicate with animals, a skill that places him in an elite pantheon of animal-whispering literary characters, along with Dr. Dolittle and the cast of Animorphs. (That's cooler than the real Pantheon, if you ask us.)