After the official “Star Trek” website published this account of the letters that falsely alleged mistreatment of whales, the info served as the subject of a popular thread on the Today I Learned subreddit. Its top comment, by u/KeithCarter4897, reads, “They were fake? TIL…” Based on upvotes from more than 1,000 users, it seems apparent that plenty of others familiar with the film were also surprised by the fact that its whales were fabricated.
Meanwhile, in response to a comment linking to a now-deleted clip of some of the film’s fake whale footage, u/illBro wrote, “Those are some good looking animatronics.” This received 200 upvotes, indicating that many additional users appreciated the quality of the special effects. The contingent of the film’s original viewership unintentionally deceived by the whale models, then, is at least backed by plenty of present-day viewers who have found the artificial whales to hold up even to today’s higher VFX standards.
