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Below is Madness, but is it all that Wrong?
Hypothesis: Captain Kirk was absorbed by V'Ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and the subsequent films are an ongoing simulation of his preferred life a la Vanilla Sky. Everything we see after ST: TMP is Kirk in a simulated fantasy.
For this to be established we need,
1. Incongruity (a wink that signals we're not in the same reality and which signals a problem it we're not)
2. Mechanism (an explanation for how and why Kirk is in a simulation)
3. Benefit (an improvement in the coherence of the text via the new interpretation)
Not a necessary condition, but "sauce for the goose" is
4. Precedent (the presence of this narrative element in other Trek stories making this a "fitting" interpretation in this 'verse).
1. Incongruity
In Star Trek the Motion Picture Kirk is a dick, a bureaucrat suffering a midlife crisis who decides to finagle his way back into command of the Enterprise. He doesn't belong there. He doesn't know the ship anymore. A more qualified younger captain is ready to go. He doesn't stop there. He forces a friend out of retirement and back into military service to put the band back together. McCoy confronts Kirk and tells him to grow up. He tells Kirk that his thirst for command is a kind of addiction. Kirk almost destroys the ship just getting it out of the solar system.
This is like the scene in Vanilla Sky where David Ames is approached by his doctor and informed that his face cannot be reconstructed. The tone in both scenes is downbeat. Our heroes must confront a reality they don't want to face (Kirk wants to recapture his glory days; Ames wants his boyish good looks back, and the counsel of both doctors is "No").
Fast forward to Star Trek II. McCoy is no longer telling Kirk to grow up, but that he should get back his command before he gets old. In Star Trek III Uhura defiantly tells "Captain Adventure" that "This is not reality. This is fantasy!" using a phaser to shove him in a closet. Kirk goes on to save the Earth from being destroyed by a whale probe, free climbs El Capitan, meets God, breaks out of prison, and stops an intergalactic war. Fantasy indeed.
2. Mechanism
When Spock enters the V'Ger probe he discovers that it holographically stores everything it consumes (V'Ger shoots out lighting balls that basically eat things).
In one area of the vessel, there was a three-dimensional data storage facility. This stored representations of all data collected by V'ger. The plasma energy weapon which the vessel used to defend itself not only had extreme destructive force, but also functioned as an unusual data-gathering system; as V'ger destroyed a vessel, it gathered an enormous amount of information, and created what appeared to be a holographic record of it, later referred to by the Ilia probe as a "data pattern". In essence, V'ger didn't so much destroy a target as "remember" it to death.
V'Ger is beyond massive. The cloud is much bigger than our solar system.
the V'ger energy cloud is given a size measuring eighty-two au in diameter, in dialogue from the Epsilon IX commander, Branch. That measurement is equivalent to over 1.2271 ×10 10 kilometers or 0.001 light years.
The physical structure V'Ger is about one hundred kilometers long.
V'Ger is basically a giant vaccum of information, creating holographic simulations of everything it absorbs. V'Ger, at one point, assimilates a crew member and the reconstructs her to interact with Kirk and the crew, showing that it can absorb and simulate a conscious intelligence.
3. Benefit
The Vanilla Sky reading of the Trek movies explains the sudden about face of Dr. McCoy on the question of whether Kirk should continue to captain starships. McCoy is basically one step of a full on intervention/official objection to him taking command. Then, in the next film, he is pleading with him to take command again. This is not unlike the doctor in Vanilla Sky who at first tells Ames that nothing can be done and is then happy-go-lucky in terms of an experimental surgery that can suddenly cure all that ails him. Obviously, a "splice" takes place in ST: TMP. At some point, the mission failed and Kirk was assimilated by V'Ger.
In Star Trek: Generations we see Kirk realizing that he is living in a simulation, so he dream accommodates him with a dream to explain the dream (i.e., The Nexus). Picard is basically tech support, summoned by Kirk's subconscious wanting to finally wake from the dream. Ames must jump off a building to end his simulation. Kirk must have one last adventure and "die" to bring his simulation to a close.
4. Precedent
Exhibit A
Star Trek: The Original Series
Episode: The Cage/Menagerie 1&2
Star Trek is filled with examples of simulated realities, machine intelligences, and global deceptions (Cartesian Demons). Below are just a few examples which are apt.
Exhibit A
Star Trek: The Original Series
Episode: The Cage/Menagerie 1&2
The crew of the Enterprise encounters a powerful alien race which can simulate realities with the power of the their minds. The question of whether it is better to live free and suffer or enjoy the comforts of an invisible cage is explored. The Menagerie offers a revisionist answer to the original outright rejection of The Cage (the pilot episode of the series which was revised into a two-part episode).
Exhibit B
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: Ship In a Bottle
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Episode: Ship In a Bottle
A computer simulation becomes conscious, raising questions about what is really "real" and whether the entire TV show might exist in a simulation. In the episode "splices" occur between reality and simulation.
Exhibit C
Star Trek: The Original Series
Episode: Shore Leave
Star Trek: The Original Series
Episode: Shore Leave
The crew of the Enterprise encounter a planet that manufactures reality for guests, a sort of amusement park that makes your thoughts manifest.
Exhibit D
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Generations
Captain Kirk discovers that he has been living in a simulation created by a ribbon of energy (who writes this s**t?). Like Tom Cruise, he decides to leave the simulation to have one last adventure helping some bald guy.
