Star Trek: TNG's Enterprise Had Dolphin & Whale Crewmembers

Authored by screenrant.com and submitted by AShellfishLover

Although only mentioned briefly in the show itself, Star Trek: The Next Generation's Enterprise had navigation crew members fresh from the ocean.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's Enterprise employed sea animals for their navigation department. The U.S.S. Enterprise has always been a progressive workplace environment. In Star Trek's original series, Spock spearheaded the path for Vulcans in Starfleet, making a controversial career decision that upset his own father. Under Jean-Luc Picard's captaincy, the Enterprise was even more diverse. The synthetic being known as Data was one of Picard's must trusted crew members and the captain fought to defend his rights as a sentient being, while Worf's employment in Starfleet followed historically unhappy relations between the Federation and the Klingon Empire.

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However, the employees aboard The Next Generation's Enterprise extend beyond humanoids altogether and deep into the ocean. In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Kirk's Enterprise crew travel back to 20th century Earth with the intention of capturing a pair of whales. Their plan is to bring the animals back to the future in order to answer the call of a very distressed probe causing havoc on Earth. Much later (or much earlier, depending on your perspective), Star Trek: Discovery's titular ship is powered by a spore drive, using tiny sentient fungi to navigate and move through space instantaneously. Evidently, there is a lengthy history of Starfleet using animals and other life forms in their space-faring endeavors.

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One example that often slips under the radar, however, is how The Next Generation's Enterprise used dolphins and whales in their navigation system. As pointed out by Aaron J. Waltke, producer of the upcoming animated Star Trek series on Nickelodeon, the 1991 Enterprise technical manual referenced a "Cetacean Navigation Lab," as well as an ops room, and lifeboats for the creatures in case of emergency. The manual specifies that 12 bottlenose dolphins were aboard the Enterprise along with a pair of Takaya's Whales who "supervised" the other animals. Presumably this involved warning them if they took too long for lunch.

Although The Next Generation understandably never showed the Enterprise's ocean navigation team on-screen, there are a few references including a door sign reading "Tursiops Crew Facility" in "We'll Always Have Paris" and Geordi La Forge asking the Fenergi Par Lenor if he'd "seen the dolphins" during "The Perfect Mate." Furthermore, season 3's "Yesterday's Enterprise" includes a scene where a crew member is told to report to "Cetacean Ops." This story largely takes place in an alternate timeline but given the allusions to dolphin crew members elsewhere, Cetacean Ops isn't necessarily something caused by the story's time traveling. Finally, season 7's "Genesis" includes mention of an aquatics lab on board the Enterprise.

Back in the real world, whales and dolphins are renowned for their navigational and communication abilities. Dolphin echo-location allows the creatures to "see" with an incredibly sophisticated long-distance sonar and various armed forces have attempted to harness these natural perks for their own ends. Although The Next Generation never delves into the mechanics of its sea-faring crew members, it's not beyond the realms of Star Trek's science fiction that Starfleet might've found a way to modify dolphin echo-location for use in space instead of the ocean. Theoretically, this would allow Starfleet's Galaxy-class ships to detect oncoming ships, asteroids, etc. that couldn't be picked up visually. Working purely with sound, the dolphins might've even been able to register cloaked enemy vessels.

Unfortunately, the difficulty in showing the Enterprise's Cetacean unit on-screen (as well as the sheer weirdness of the concept) meant these possibilities have gone largely unexplored in the world of Star Trek. But next time the Discovery's mushroom-fueled teleportation seems outlandish, it's worth remembering that Picard's Enterprise had dolphins and whales on the payroll.

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SteveJohnson2010 on March 13rd, 2021 at 05:32 UTC »

They should have had a dolphin in Voyager to help them navigate the vast unknown realms of the Delta Quadrant, except that by the end of the show Ensign Flipper would have been promoted to Lt Commander ahead of Harry Kim.

AbsentThatDay on March 13rd, 2021 at 04:01 UTC »

Riker would have fucked a dolphin.

AdSin15 on March 13rd, 2021 at 04:01 UTC »

Yes this was going to be a direct reference/plot continuation to Star Trek 4 where, 70ish years prior to Star Trek: TNG, an ancient alien race which apparently once maintained regular contact with Humpback whales (or their ancestors) on Earth, attempted to "reestablish contact" with the whales which were (in the ST Universe) driven extinct in the late 21st century.

The Probe was incredibly advanced and not only was able to disable starships that attempted to intercept it but also disrupted global weather patterns with its presence.

Cetacean Ops would have been an obvious attempt to follow up on that storyline by having Whales/Dolphin crewmembers who contribute via their language abilities and perhaps even on away missions to aquatic worlds...that sort of thing.

Super cool ideas and relevent to Star Trek at the time...but yea budgets exist and this would have killed any 1980's TV show's budget in 3 episodes.