George was a humpback whale introduced in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
Born in the late 20th century, he and another humpback whale who would be named Gracie swam into San Francisco Bay as calves and became trapped. Unable to leave they were rescued and placed in the care of the Cetacean Institute, an aquatic facility dedicated to the study of whales.
Taking Gracie as his mate the pair conceived a calf that Gracie was pregnant with in 1986. As they were becoming adults the institute decided to release them into the ocean as it cost too much to continue feeding them and to give the calf the best chance at survival possible.
Shortly before they were released George and Gracie met a individual named Spock who initiated a mind meld with them. The two whales communicated their unhappiness about how humans were treating them. However, when Spock explained the situation and proposed to bring them into the 23rd century they both agreed to help Spock and the Enterprise crew save the planet from the whale probe.
A short time later George and Gracie were flown up to Alaska and released into the open ocean. The pair were tracked by Admiral James T. Kirk's captured Klingon bird of prey and beamed aboard before a group of whalers could kill them. Brought forward in time to the 23rd century the pair was released into the ocean where both George and Gracie were released into the ocean. Both of them began speaking to the whale probe, convincing it to depart Earth and cease transmitting the energy waves that were draining all the energy sources and causing extreme storms to blanket the planet.
The whales were later relocated to the New Cetacean Institute near the Great Barrier Reef of Australia. Gracie soon gave birth to their calf, which was named Harpo. Spock later traveled to the institute for further mind melds with George and Gracie to see if they had more information on the probe. Neither he nor Gracie had further information on the probe but were both under the impression that the captured Klingon ship had actually been sent by the whale probe to retrieve them.
Later both he and Gracie became ill Dr. Gillian Taylor and the Enterprise crew came to study the illness, and found that the two whales actually needed small amounts of the pollutants that had been present in 20th century ocean water but were missing in the environmentally restored 23rd century oceans. During this time Montgomery Scott played the bagpipes for them to help them feel better.
Earth planned to clone humpback whales that George and Gracie would help raise to adulthood, and provide the basis for repopulating the species.
Trivia[]
- Both George and Gracie were largely portrayed by small scale animatronic models that were so realistic looking that US government officials criticized movie producers for shooting footage around living humpback whales before being informed the whales were only models. Some footage of the whales jumping out of the water was of actual humpback whales near Maui.
