The fearsome probe in The Voyage Home isn't your typical alien invader. This isn't Independence Day, or even Close Encounters of the Third Kind. What we get here is a different kind of beast altogether.

Visually, the probe is strikingly simple. The main craft consists of a large dark-gray cylinder. Below, suspended by a bright beam of energy, is a small orb, which seems to be the ship's source of energy. Beautifully minimalist? Sure. Intimidating? Not quite.

But maybe that's the point. In the same way that human arrogance leads us to assume that we're the smartest species on the planet, we see the simplicity of this craft as evidence of the simplicity of its creators. The Voyage Home subverts this idea.

In fact, the film suggests that simplicity is exactly what makes the probe—and the whales—so advanced. When we look at it this way, the probe's use of simple, fundamental shapes suggests that it has somehow transcended the complexity that makes human life so messy.

Or maybe we've just watched too many episodes of Star Trek. Wouldn't be the first time we've been accused of that.