Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
When you ask most passive Trek fans (people who have seen the show or movies, but aren’t nessecarily fans) which of the movies is their favorite, they’ll almost invariably say The Voyage Home. The most accessible of the Trek movies for non-fans and undoubdedly one of the most entertaining, if not the most entertaining movies of the series. The final part of the so-called Spock Trilogy and the second film to be directed by Leonard Nimoy, TVH is a fun movie.
After the emotional, character driven one-two punch of TWOK and TSFS, TVH could’ve gone two ways. It could’ve been more like The Undiscovered Country and continued the serious tone, or it could’ve gone the other way and provided a light hearted counterpoint to the emotion and drama of those films. Obviously, it took the second route. But don’t be fooled by the one liners and sight gags, there’s a hell of a lot at stake in this film. A probe from the depths of space (or somewhere) arrives at Earth and proceeds to destroy it. The only thing that’ll stop the probe is some whales (run with it) so the crew of the Enterprise (sans Enterprise of course) have to go back in time to the 20th to bring some whales to the 23rd century. This they do and the day is once again saved. A decent little plot, I admit, but it’s little more than a nail upon which to hang the comedy coat that forms the bulk of this film.
After about a half hour of (frankly boring) 23rd century stuff with a guy wearing a robe he borrowed from Commander Adama and a cameo from the the tennis player guy from Octopussy, Kirk, Spock, Bones and the rest slingshot around the sun and end up in San Fransicso circa: 1986. From here to the end of the movie it’s all out comedy, with Chekov looking for “nooclear wessels” and Scotty talking to an Apple Mac. My personal favorite comedic moment comes when Kirk and Spock can’t decide wether or not they like Itallian food. It’s not a huge comedic setpeice, but it’s damn funny with Kirk trying to play it cool and Spock, well, just being Spock. At the end of the movie with the day well and truly saved, Kirk and company face a court martial where Kirk is “punished” by lowering him in rank to Captain and giving him a sexy new ship: the Enterprise-A. Great stuff.
After the awesome villainy of Messrs. Montalban and Lloyd, it’s a shame that there’s no real badguy to boo in this movie. It wouldn’t have taken a great deal to have had someone go back in time along with Kirk to stop him from finding the whales, and it might have provided some sorley needed dramatic tension – something that is sorely lacking from the middle part of the movie. For example, there is a sequence where Chekov is undergoing life threatening surgery and Bones, Kirk and Kirk’s latest sqeeze (well, not really) have to rescue him from “primitive” 20th century medicine. What could have been a great, nail biting “race against time” sequence instead becomes a Keystone Kops style chase through the hospital ending with – that old Star Trek deus ex machna favorite – our heroes beaming away.
Speaking of Kirk and his latest squeeze, the lady he puts the moves on in this movie is one Dr. Gillian Taylor, whaleologist (yeah, I made that word up), played by the lovely but ultimately uninteresting Catherine Hicks. More Carol Marcus than Lt. Saavik, Dr. Taylor ends up accompaning the Enterprise crew back to the 23rd century where she somehow blags her way onto a Federation science vessel and, somewhat hilariously, knocks Kirk back and brushes him off with a very perfunctory peck on the cheek. Can’t win ‘em all, Jim.
Overall, TVH is a fun film, nowhere near as good as TWOK and on par (or just below par) with TSFS. It’s the funniest of the series (though The Final Frontier has its moments) and a satisfactory, if not great, way to wrap up the Spock trilogy. In the first film Spock dies, in the second he is brought back and in the third he takes his place as part of the crew of a new Enterprise. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do for me.
Incidentally, this: http://www.amcomics.com/justalley/comics/2009-05-02-startrek4.png sums it all up better than I ever could.
Comments
Comment from Marty Michaels
Time March 8, 2010 at 12:22 am
No well meaning message in the second half of the film? The entire POINT of the film is to get over a well meaning message. The thing that drives the entire plot of the film is a well meaning message.
Comment from Glen Dunbar
Time March 7, 2010 at 2:14 am
Sue me, but the only thing that stops this film being at the bottom of my list is TMP. I don’t HATE it like The Motion Picture, but i have a serious aversion to its presence in the canon. The second half of the film is played purely for laughs, no well meaning message, no epic adventure, just one big long Benny Hill routine while they look for a fucking whale.