Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home directed by: Leonard Nimoy

 

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home stars William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and Catherine Hicks.  It is directed by: Leonard Nimoy, written by: Steve Meerson, Peter Kirkes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett, from a story by: Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy, and is produced by: Harve Bennett.  It was released theatrically on November 26, 1986.

 

It's genuinely quite surprising that Leonard Nimoy would be asked to return to direct another Star Trek film, mainly because any follow up to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock would bring the challenge to Nimoy of directing a film where he is a main character.  There are obviously challenges having to direct yourself, but Nimoy was attached to the fourth Star Trek film before there was even a script developed.  Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home had a particularly odd development, starting life as a potential prequel due to the potential of William Shatner dropping out though he would be signed on after negotiation.  Like Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home would be afforded a budget increase from the previous film and uniquely much of the film would be shot on location, largely in California though not entirely San Francisco where the majority of the film is actually set.  This above everything else is what gives the film its unique atmosphere and tone, it’s very different to see our characters interacting with real locations and not the science fiction sets.  Robert Fletcher returned from the previous three films to provide the costumes and his work on the film is integral in making the futuristic costumes work in the modern setting.  Yes, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a time travel film where Kirk and company in their stolen Klingon vessel (rechristened the Bounty after Mutiny on the Bounty) have to go back to the 1980s to steal some humpback whales because an alien probe is causing havoc on Earth by emitting the call of humpback whales.

 

The actual premise to get our characters to travel back in time when you think about it is utterly ridiculous, there is no explanation as to why an alien signal would even be Earth humpback whales.  This, of course, doesn’t matter.  The film needs to have a plot to end the trilogy of reflection on ideas of humanity’s needs and the sacrifices that are made to meet them.  The first act of the film, before the time travel slingshot maneuver gets these themes right out in the open.  Jane Wyatt and Mark Lenard as Amanda Grayson and Sarek are integral to this, the former giving her son advice while the latter advocates for clemency towards the Enterprise crew for the actions in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.  In terms of roles, they’re quite small, Wyatt doesn’t even get to appear in the film’s denouement, but they both provide the film the harmony that Star Trek so often represents thus making the film work.  There’s a knock on effect of making Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home feel like an ending for the Star Trek films, despite two more being produced with the original cast (though it’s possible they would have stopped here with the production of Star Trek: The Next Generation beginning after this film was released).  There’s a finality in the production even down to the score, Leonard Rosenman being brought in and basing everything on variations both obvious and subtle of Alexander Courage’s original television theme.  Rosenman’s theme work for the film is potentially among the franchise’s best and most interesting so far, even above the stellar work of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner (legendary composers in their own right).

 

So much of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home can be described as an incredibly fun time.  While the premise is ridiculous, it’s a vehicle to allow the cast to have some of the best interactions and for the supporting cast the deepest characterization.  The film is one that is carried by a script full of some of the best one liners and character interactions that the franchise has done.  Nimoy’s portrayal as Spock is characterized as the stiffest and most logical he has ever been, rationalized as an effect of his resurrection in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock for better and for worse.  By the end he is back to the character familiar to viewers and there are especially good interactions with the fish out of water setting of 1980s San Francisco, but Nimoy is perhaps given the weakest material, likely reflecting Nimoy pulling double duty of acting and directing.  Everyone else on the other hand is clearly relishing the chance to play against the typical supporting material.  Each character has a mission in San Francisco to capture the two humpback whales, a pair set to be released into the wild.  This is where some of the film’s best lines and ideas come about: from Walter Koenig just blatantly asking people where he can find nuclear vessels, to DeForest Kelley being intensely angry about 20^th century medical practices, to James Doohan causing a bootstrap paradox to get materials in a smug way only James Doohan could.  Nichelle Nichols is also clearly relishing the chance to be the authoritative figure in her own plotline, being largely paired with Koenig and getting some of the best pieces of face acting she’s had to pull.

 

William Shatner is still the leading man of the film as Kirk, for the first time in these films being given a love interest in Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor, a marine biologist who has fallen in love with the whales.  This is where the script’s dialogue equally sparkles, the roundabout way Kirk gets to the point is a particular masterstroke before culminating in the line “I’m from Iowa, I only work in outer space.”  There is this pop cultural depiction of Kirk as incredibly sexually active, but Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home avoids that.  The relationship between Kirk and Taylor is one that grows over the film, but never actually spills out into proper, explicit romance.  Despite Taylor ending the film in the 23^rd century with her precious whales, the ending is explicit that their romance really wasn’t a romance at all.  The film makes the decision to not frame this as disappointing for either party, handling it with an adult sensibility that really works.  It helps that Hicks is perfect at playing the straight man to a lot of the film’s future comedy, especially as it goes on and she is embroiled in the science fiction plot.  It’s another aspect that really builds the film and helps end things in a satisfying way that the series probably should have ended here.

Overall, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home can be described as an incredibly fun film.  Somehow, each installment of the Star Trek films has had a radically different tone and plot, yet each feel like an aspect of Star Trek.  This review couldn’t possibly encompass everything that makes the film work, especially with how strong the script is in terms of comedy while not ever letting the viewer or characters lose the tension.  The premise is just a tad too ridiculous and in terms of drama it obviously doesn’t become as emotionally satisfying of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but it is certainly a satisfying film just to let watch over you.  It’s a funny adventure with huge stakes and the cast giving it their all under a director they already love working with and the quality reflects what makes that work.  8/10.