STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME

(November 1986, U.S.)

Casual STAR TREK fans, as opposed to die-hard "Trekkies", likely have different approaches to the films in the ever-popular franchise. Some like myself prefer a more hardcore science fiction approach that includes battles in space, special effects and thematic meanings behind its stories. Others perhaps, prefer a more lighthearted approach that would include extra humor and outrageous circumstances. Considering that STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME is the most well-received chapter in the original film series, the average moviegoing fan must opt for the lighter STAR TREK experience. Not to suggest that I don't appreciate the crew of the USS Enterprise getting themselves into funny and silly situations while they're hopping the galaxies. It can be fun. It's just not the same as the actual galaxy hopping itself.

Earth of the 23rd Century appears on the verge of total destruction from a mysterious probe that has just entered the planet's atmosphere. The probe's design, by the way, is one of the poorest examples of thought or originality I've ever seen on the sci-fi screen, looking very much like a combination of a greasy oil drum and a breakfast sausage link. The probe cannot be answered by Earth's inhabitants and it looks like nothing will save them. Ah, but wait! Enter James T. Kirk and his crew still in exile on the planet Vulcan immediately following Spock's miraculous resurrection at the end of THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK. Determined to return home to Earth to face the consequences of their actions in their rescue of Spock, the crew discovers Earth's pending doom through a planetary distress call. Thanks to Spock's returning intelligence and ingenuity, they learn that the only way to answer the probe's call is through the now-extinct humpback whales of the past. Since they're of the past, that presents a slight problem. Solution: travel back in time to the present day of 1986 to retrieve a couple of humpback whales to fix the situation.

Now let me just say right off the top that I always found the entire humpback whale portion of the film's plot just a little ridiculous. If the makers of this film were trying to get out the "save the whales" message to its audience, they should have just mailed out pamphlets or something. Still, it's the need for something that doesn't exist anymore in the 23rd Century that's required to set the stage for the crew to return to the past in order for them to get into all kinds of mischief, so I suppose whales is just as smart or as dumb as any other idea. This in mind, what really attracts me to THE VOYAGE HOME above all else is the clueless minds of our heroes as they try to deal with the 1980s culture and all of it's intolerable quirks, including exact change on the bus, punk rock music, profanity ("double dumb-ass on you!"), colorful metaphors, our so-called modern medicine and even the taste of Michelob beer. There is intrigue, however, in following Scotty and his engineering knowledge of the future and just how he's able to apply it to our own modern engineering in order to achieve the wall it will take to enclose the whales and the water inside the Klingon Bird-of-Prey spaceship they've currently got parked (and cloaked) inside Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

There's something about the character of Dr. Gillian Taylor (played by Catherine Hicks) that's always bugged me. Is it because despite her marine biology intelligence, she still manages to come off as just a naive, blonde ditz? Is it because she seems so gullible and easily suckered into the circumstances of Kirk and Spock, no matter how ridiculous or unaccountable they seem? Maybe I just don't like the actress herself. Still, I suppose any set of slapstick circumstances such as these requires even a mild love interest for our beloved Kirk. She, Kirk and McCoy might just as well have been ripped right out of I LOVE LUCY or THREE'S COMPANY during the entire hospital sequence when they forced to infiltrate the building to rescue Chekov after he was arrested and injured aboard the nuclear vessel Enterprise (actually, McCoy's frustration toward our entire healthcare system is pretty great!). And speaking of which, am I the only person who feels it was simply implausible that Chekov would end up in such critical medical condition after what looked like a harmless fall? I mean, really, the man didn't fall the far!

So in the end, Chekov is saved, the crew is saved, the whales are saved and Earth is saved from its own ignorance when they finally go forward in time again to complete their voyage home. The only one that's not saved is ME! Again, I'm not saying I don't like THE VOYAGE HOME. It's fun, funny and entertaining. Perhaps I just don't particularly want fun, funny and entertaining in a STAR TREK film. Perhaps I prefer the eye-popping effects and dark melodrama of THE WRATH OF KHAN and THE SEARCH FOR SPOCK instead (though I do appreciate the film's reflective dedication to the perished crew of the Space Shuttle Challenger following the disaster of January 1986). I will however, give proper credit to the one eye-popping image in this film, and that's the Klingon Bird of Prey hovering over the defenseless whaling ship like a giant, lethal insect...

One final observation - does it strike anyone else as odd that while it seems that very little time passed on Earth since the crew's Vulcan exile, that an entirely new USS Enterprise (now numbered NCC-1701-A) was fully constructed and ready for new missions in their absence? I mean, just how long were these people on Vulcan??

Favorite line or dialogue:

James Kirk: "Spock, where the hell's the power you promised?"
Spock: "One damn minute, Admiral!"