Star Trek IV Producer Reveals the Star Wars Easter Egg He Snuck Into the Film

Monday was Star Wars Day, and the franchise celebrated in grand style. A new Star Wars movie from Taika Waititi and a new Star Wars television series both were announced. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came to Disney+. Star Wars: The Clone Wars debuted its final episode. The Mandalorian got a behind-the-scenes documentary, and a brand new Star Wars series launched. It seems that even Star Trek got into the spirit. Kirk Thatcher was an associate producer on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as well as the “punk on the bus” in the film. He revealed on Twitter that he sneaked a Star Wars reference into the film that no one has ever picked up on.

Thatcher tweeted on Monday, “This May the 4th, I am revealing a Star Wars Easter Egg that I wrote into Star Trek IV, that no one has ever caught! The Matron of Vulcan Philosophy, that I created for this was named, T’ Plane Hoth….or…mildly unscrambled, Planet Hoth!! #UnitebothFandoms ! So, MTFBWY & LLAP!!”

The “Matron of Vulcan Philosophy’s Name” has typically been written as “T’Plana Hath,” suggesting it got some extra scrambling before being added to the film. This Star Wars reference became part of the core of the Star Trek universe years later. In Star Trek: First Contact, the Vulcan ship that makes the first contact with humans on Earth is named the T’Plana Hath. The character is also referenced in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode “The Forge,” and a Starfleet vessel bearing her name was also present at the Battle at the Binary Stars in Star Trek: Discovery.

This isn’t the only time that a Star Wars reference has made its way into Star Trek. The Millenium Falcon had a cameo appearance in the film Star Trek: First Contact. R2-D2 made cameo appearances in 2009’s Star Trek and its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness.

In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, “Living in exile on the planet Vulcan, the ragtag former crew of the USS Enterprise steal a starship after receiving a planetary distress call from Earth: a space probe has entered into orbit around Earth, disabled global power on the planet and evaporated the oceans. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of the officers travel back in time to retrieve now-extinct humpback whales, which Spock has deduced will communicate with the probe and send it away from Earth.”