Star Trek is great for many reasons, chief among them is its ability to sprinkle classic literary references into its narratives. Oh, and it also has a flair for the dramatic, so it’s a lot of fun when these two things combine to form a little thing I like to call Star Trek’s Whales and Wails.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek Into Darkness

Khan himself rarely raises his voice, and he never personally wails. He has a singular purpose, though, in his pursuit of his own personal Moby Dick in the form of Admiral James T. Kirk.

Even though Khan maintains a quiet voice, he sure does inspire others to wail in fear, pain, and anger as he pursues his great white whale.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Dr. Gillian Taylor takes care of a couple of humpback whales like they were her own children.

So it’s quite natural that she would react emotionally and yell at her boss for sending them away prematurely and that she would also cry out for Kirk to help her find them.

And find them they do, leading to this great Scotty line.

Star Trek: First Contact

Not to be outdone by the original crew, Captain Jean-Luc Picard has a memorable brush with Moby-Dick and his own whale metaphor. He even lets out a giant wail after being called Captain Ahab.

Picard pursues the Borg Queen with Ahab-like zeal while she pursues Zefram Cochrane in the same manner. And these two white whales both wail in epic fashion one after the other at the climax of Star Trek: First Contact.

Star Trek: Insurrection

This last one is just for fun. It has no connection to whales but it’s just such a humorous wail from a villain who had shown a lot of self-control up to that point.

He certainly didn’t have a whale of a good time, but I hope you did.

This is the Deja Reviewer bidding you fare whale until we meet again.

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