the voyage home script

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Stardate: 8390.0

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Star Trek IV The Voyage Home 1986 Film

Fugitives of the Federation for their daring rescue of Spock from the doomed Genesis Planet, Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew begin their journey home to face justice for their actions. But as they near Earth, they find it at the mercy of a mysterious alien presence whose signals are slowly destroying the planet. In a desperate attempt to answer the call of the probe, Kirk and his crew race back to the late twentieth century. However they soon find the world they once knew to be more alien than anything they've encountered in the far reaches of the galaxy.

Steve Meerson , Peter Krikes , Harve Bennett , and Nicholas Meyer

• Science Fiction
• Paramount Pictures

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STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME: ORIGINAL MOVIE SCRIPT

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) - full transcript

The most acclaimed Star Trek adventure of all time with an important message. It is the 23rd century, and a mysterious alien probe is threatening Earth by evaporating the oceans and destroying the atmosphere. In their frantic attempt to save mankind, Admiral Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco where they find a world of punk, pizza and exact-change buses that are as alien to them as anything they have ever encountered in the far-off reaches of the galaxy. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy return as Kirk and Spock, along with the entire Star Trek crew.

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

What do you make of it? It appears to be a probe, Captain, from an intelligence unknown to us. Continue transmitting universal peace and hello in all known languages. Get me Starfleet command. Ready, captain. Starfleet command, this is U.S.S. Saratoga patrolling sector five, neutral zone. We're tracking a probe of unknown origin on apparent trajectory to the Terran solar system. Attempts to communicate with the probe have been negative on all known frequencies. Continue tracking. We will analyze transmissions and advise. Roger, Starfleet. Saratoga out. 6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... There. Hold the image. Hold! Behold the quintessential devil in these matters- James T. Kirk, renegade and terrorist. Not only is he responsible for the murder of a Klingon crew, see now the real plot and intentions. Even as this federation was negotiating a treaty with us, Kirk was developing the Genesis torpedo, conceived by Kirk's son and test detonated by the admiral himself. The result of this awesome energy was euphemistically called the Genesis planet, a secret base from which to launch the annihilation of the Klingon people! We demand the extradition of Kirk. We demand justice! Klingon justice is a unique point of view, Mr. President. Genesis was perfectly named- the creation of life, not death. The Klingons shed the first blood while attempting to possess its secrets. Vulcans are well-known as the intellectual puppets of this federation. Your vessel did destroy U.S.S. Grissom. Your men did kill Kirk's son. Do you deny these events? We deny nothing. We have the right to preserve our race. You have the right to commit murder? Silence. Silence! There will be no further outbursts from the floor. Mr. President, I have come to speak on behalf of the accused. Personal bias. His son was saved by Kirk. Mr. Ambassador, with all respect, the council's deliberations are over. Then Kirk goes unpunished? Admiral Kirk has been charged with nine violations of Starfleet regulations. Starfleet regulations? That's outrageous! Remember this well- There shall be no peace as long as Kirk lives. You pompous ass! Captain's log, star date 8390. We're in the third month of our Vulcan exile. Dr. McCoy, with his sense of historical irony, named our captured Klingon vessel. And like those mutineers of 500 years ago, we, too, have a hard choice to make. Dr. McCoy? Aye, sir. Mr. Scott? Aye, sir. Uhura? Aye, sir. Chekov? Aye, sir. Sulu? Aye, sir. Let the record show that the commander and the crew of the late Starship Enterprise have voted unanimously to return to earth to face the consequences of their actions in the rescue of their comrade, Captain Spock. Thank you all. Repair stations, please. Mr. Scott. Aye, sir? When can we leave? Give me one more day. Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon, that's hard. You'd think they could send a ship. It's bad enough to be court-martialed, but to have to go home in this Klingon flea trap... We can learn from it. It's got a cloaking device. I just wish we could cloak the stench. Computer, resume testing. Who said, "Logic is the cement "of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos"? T'plana-hath, matron of Vulcan philosophy. What is the molecular formula of sulfite crystals? White queen to section five, grid six. Queen takes knight. Rook takes queen. Checkmate. What contribution to bioengineering was made on Klendth? The universal atmospheric element compensator. Starship sensors indicate it is being pursued so closely, it occupies the pursuer's space. Identify object and its cultural significance. Klingon mummification glyph. What were the principal events on earth, 1987? What was Kiri-kin-tha's law? Nothing unreal exists. Adjust the sine wave of this magnetic envelope so that antineutrons can pass through. How do you feel? I do not understand the question. What is it, Spock? I do not understand the question, mother. But you're half human. The computer knows that. The question is irrelevant. Spock, the retraining of your mind has been in the Vulcan way, so you may not understand feelings, but as my son, you have them. They will surface. As you wish, since you value them, but I cannot wait here to find them. Why? Where must you go? I must go to earth to offer testimony. You do this for friendship. I do it because I was there. Spock...does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one? I would accept that as axiom. Then you stand here alive because of a mistake made by your flawed, feeling, human friends. They have sacrificed their futures because they believed that the good of the one-you- was more important to them. Humans make illogical decisions. They do, indeed. Here it comes now. What's causing that? Their call's being carried on a powerful amplification wave. Can we isolate it? Negative. It's impacting on all our systems. Yellow alert. Shields up. Helm, reduce closing speed. Thruster controls have been neutralized. Emergency thrusters. No response, Captain. Emergency lights. Damage report. All systems have failed. We're functioning on reserve power. Starfleet command, this is Saratoga. Can you hear me? Come in, please. Come in, please. Thank you, sir. Status report, Admiral. Rate this script: 0.0 / 0 votes

Steve Meerson

Steve Meerson is an American screenwriter who contributed to the screenplay for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).  more…

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Making Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Released in 1986, coinciding with the franchise’s twentieth anniversary, The Voyage Home remains the most successful of the Star Trek feature films.

It is also the most lighthearted of the series, despite its lofty themes. Director Leonard Nimoy was responsible for both attributes.

Back in time

Early in the planning stage with Producer Harve Bennett, Nimoy had decided, “no dying, no fist fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical ‘bad guy’.”

I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film, to really sit back, lose themselves and enjoy it. That was the main goal. And if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of bigger ideas at them, well, then that would be even better.

Nimoy told Cinefantastique in 1987 that the first idea was to return the Enterprise crew to the Stone Age. The next idea was traveling back in time to 1890s. But the team quickly decided that the then-present day (1986) provided the greatest opportunities for fun, as the twenty-third-century characters would collide with contemporary life on Earth.

The next question was why the crew should travel back in time in the first place?

“There were several possibilities,” Nimoy said.

One, it could be an accident because they’re driving a ship they don’t know well. We decided not to do that. Then we thought, maybe they’re chasing somebody. We had done that before in Star Trek . Then we thought, what if there’s a problem in the twenty-third century and the solution lies in the twentieth century?

An epidemic? “We didn’t want to make a movie about people dying of diseases all over the place.”

The answer came when Nimoy was talking with a friend about endangered species “and up came the subject of the humpback whales and the mysterious song they sing.”

We don’t know exactly what it is or what it means. I thought, that’s it! If we can pull that off, sending humpback whales 300 years through space, that would be exciting.

Nimoy gave the story to screenwriters Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes. They drafted a 140-page script, which went through two rewrites. But the result still wasn’t very convincing.

Nicholas Meyer — who had cobbled together the best parts of the various scripts for Star Trek II — was called in to once again put the story together.

Meyer to the rescue

In an interview with the official Star Trek website in 2014, Meyer recalled that Paramount told him not to read the scripts but talk to Bennett and Nimoy.

They told me the story. Harve said, “Can you write the parts on Earth and I’ll do the bookends? I’ll do the beginning and the end.” I said, “Okay. Do they have to go to San Francisco in a time travel movie, because I’ve already done that? Can’t we go to Paris?” They said, “No, we can’t go to Paris.” So, I wrote all the stuff on Earth, beginning from when someone says, “When are we?” And Spock says, “Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, we’ve reached the late twentieth century.” And from there until they go back into outer space, was all my stuff.

William Shatner was involved toward the end. Meyer told Cinefantastique in 1987 that Shatner came back “with a whole bunch of notes,” which they incorporated.

He credited Bennett with keeping the process on track through numerous rewrites:

At times, when I would have long before thrown my hands up and told somebody to start suing, Harve would always go the extra mile, one more meeting, one more conversation, patiently holding everybody’s hand, and in the meantime also writing.

Acting and directing

Meyer had no desire to direct. “I was directing another movie.” Nimoy, who had successfully directed Star Trek III , was the obvious choice.

Nimoy told Cinefantastique he was lucky to be surrounded by people whose tastes he could trust:

I established very good contact with my cinematographer, so that he was watching carefully and he knew what I wanted to see. I’m very meticulous about the camera. I look through the camera on every shot and help line up the shot. I like my own compositions. If the cameraman shows me a composition I like, I say, “Great, that’s it.” Once I knew I could trust him, I knew I was technically covered.

The real challenge was balancing acting and directing.

You’re in the scene playing with one or two other performers and you’re giving your own performance, but you’re making mental notes like, “On the next take, I want to tell her to do something different here.” That gets complicated. But we managed to get through it.

Sharing the spotlight

The setting made it possible to give the supporting cast — James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei — bigger parts.

Nimoy told Starlog in 1987 ( My Star Trek Scrapbook has the full interview ) that it is difficult to keep everybody happy all the time. “They know that, and I know that.”

We have tried from picture to picture to see that there was a balance from one film to the next. A person who perhaps had a little bit less to do in one would hopefully have a little bit more next time.

Filming in San Francisco

The twentieth-century also freed the production to shoot on location without the need to create an expensive illusion of the future in every frame. With half the movie set in the present, The Voyage Home contained the least amount of science-fiction design of any of the Star Trek films. Which, ironically, accounted for its wide general appeal.

Nimoy had fond memories of shooting on location in San Francisco. “I loved being there. I loved the whole idea of bringing Star Trek home to today.”

Visual effects

Bennett and Nimoy wisely retained the winning visual-effects team that had contributed to the success of the previous two movies. Industrial Light and Magic was excited about the opportunity.

“ Star Trek has been in space so long,” Ken Ralston, the film’s consulting effects supervisor, told Cinefantastique .

You’ve seen it all before, many times. But to see those ships that you’ve become accustomed to put into a more terrestial environment is refreshing. When I have a ship in front of a starfield, I have no opportunity to be creative. Sure, I could put another nebula out there, but we’re really locked into things. When we come down to a more interesting environment, boy, the possibilities are endless.

One of the most memorable images of the film was the Klingon Bird of Prey swooping under the Golden Gate Bridge. Ralston also remembered it as one of the most difficult shots to get right.

ILM built an almost 5 meter-long model of a section of the bridge. Because it had a forced perspective, the foreground roadway measured about 16 inches [40 centimeters] wide while at the very end, on the other side of the tower, it was 2 inches [5 centimeters] wide.

Originally, ILM model shop supervisor Jeff Mann had hoped that by photographing storms in San Francisco, they would be able to save themselves the trouble of creating one artificially. No such luck.

Even though it was storming, on film it looked pretty tame. We wanted the storm in the film to be wild.

So they built a tank, “and then we tried everything to create rain and wind and smoke levels and clouds, using wind machines and water sprayers.”

Mann remembered the end result as “quite a thing to see”.

We had the Golden Gate Bridge sitting in the water tank, wind machines, foggers and sprayers, and the wire rig with the Bird of Prey flying past as it crashed into the water. That was fun.

Another effect was so realistic that few viewers noticed it wasn’t real: the humpback whales themselves were either miniatures shot at ILM or life-sized robotic replicas filmed in the Paramount parking lot.

The studio had hoped to use stock footage of humpback whales, but there wasn’t much available and the movie needed them to behave in certain ways. That also meant miniatures weren’t always sufficient.

To make sure both the miniatures and the life-sized mechanical whales looked accurate, they were built under the watchful eye of Peter Falken of the Oceanic Society.

Critical response

For the first time, the critical response to a Star Trek film mirrored its fortunes at the box office.

Understanding its appeal, USA Today wrote that the film would “delight those who don’t know a tribble from a Romulan” and that the funny script “turns Kirk and his followers into the most uproarious out-of-towners to hit the Bay area since the Democrats in 1984.” Referring to the film’s reduced use of visual effects, the review went on to note that without the usual special-effects camouflage, “the performers prove themselves more capable actors than ever before.”

Janet Maslin of The New York Times summed up the film’s impact best when she noted that The Voyage Home “has done a great deal to ensure the series’ longevity.” That there would be a fifth film was a near certainty.

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Published Nov 25, 2016

The Voyage Home: 30 Facts for 30 Years

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home marks its 30th anniversary on November 26th. To celebrate, we are sharing 30 favorite facts from the production we learned while researching the film's co-writer Nicholas Meyer's library archives at the University of Iowa. Let's sling shot around the sun, pick up enough speed, and time warp back to the 1980s for a celebration of one of Trek 's most enduring and beloved adventures.

• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was originally named “The Adventure Continues” in its early drafts, a nod to the ending title card of the previous film The Search for Spock which promised “…AND THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES…”
• Contrary to the myth that no Star Trek sequels were planned until the previous film had been released, The Voyage Home actually began preliminary preproduction and story development during the spring of 1984, a few months before the premiere of The Search for Spock .
• Producer Harve Bennett and director Leonard Nimoy agreed that they wanted to use time travel and also avoid the use of villains and violence in the film very early in the story development process – in essence, to make what they called a “nice” movie.
• Bennett referred to The Voyage Home as a “local location” production (a TV term referring to shows that use near-by outdoor locations as a setting to save money on building sets). He referred to The Wrath of Khan as a “bottle show” because almost 65% of the movie was made on the same set (the Enterprise and Reliant were the same sets).
• When time travel was mentioned as a story possibility for The Voyage Home , Gene Roddenberry suggested the use of a story he had previously developed about the Enterprise crew going to the 1960s and interacting with the actual historical event of John F. Kennedy’s assassination.

• Leonard Nimoy was inspired by the book Biophilia by Edward  O. Wilson, which outlined the concept of a “keystone species” – that if a keystone species were to go extinct, it would threaten all other species.
• Bennett originally suggested that the species that the Enterprise crew needs bring back to the 23rd century could be the then-recently discovered species of the snail darter, a small species of fish about the size of two paper clips. Bennett joked that the reason for his suggestion was the cost saving, but really it was an inspired idea because the notion that something very small, the tiny of creatures, could have the greatest of impacts is very much a Trek -ian idea.
• Whales were chosen because of their epic and cinematic size in addition to their gentility and intelligence.
• It was Paramount executive Jeffrey Katzenberg who contacted Nimoy and Bennett with what he called either the best idea or worst idea: having Eddie Murphy, an avowed fan, appear as the film’s guest star. A script was written by Peter Krikes and Steve Meerson featuring Murphy’s character, an English professor who believed in UFOs.
• An interesting sequence of that script had the Klingon Bird of Prey decloaking above a football field during the Super Bowl. Everyone there, except Murphy’s character, would have believed it to be part of the halftime show. The idea of having Murphy star in the film was eventually abandoned. Eddie Murphy and William Shatner eventually would team up... in the 2002 film Showtime .

• With production looming and script concerns, Nimoy and Bennett asked Wrath of Khan director and writer Nicholas Meyer to help by joining Bennett in co-writing a new version of the script. Meyer accepted because his friends needed him, and because he liked the duo’s goal of making a “nice” Star Trek movie.
• Meyer’s portion of the script begins with the line “Judging by the pollution content of atmosphere…” and ends right before the D.H. Lawrence poem, which was co-writer Bennett’s contribution.
• Admiral Lance Cartwright’s character, played by the amazing Brock Peters, was originally not in the script. Instead, the character was supposed to be Admiral Harry Morrow, played by Robert Hooks, previously in The Search for Spock .
• Speaking of names, Gillian's character was at one time named Shelley.
• At one time, George and Gracie were called Adam and Evie.

• Filming began in February 1986. Cinematographer Donald Peterman was nominated for an Academy Award for his amazing work on Star Trek IV . At the time of his passing, Leonard Nimoy called him a "gentleman and a talent." Nimoy had wanted an unusual style for the film and one of Peterman’s contributions, along with production designer Jack Collins, was to use panels to light characters on the Klingon ship to be a contrast to how the characters were usually presented on the Enterprise.
• There was a sequence scripted, but not filmed, explaining the reason for Saavik staying behind on Vulcan - she was pregnant from her Ponn Farr experience with Spock.
• The Voyage Home used not only real world external locations, but also real world interiors. The antique store, U.S.S. Enterprise and Cetacean Institute were all real world exterior and interior locations. The Cetacean Institute was actually the famous Monterey Bay Aquarium. John Tenuto's parents happened to be there during filming at the aquarium during the April 1986 production and brought this footage back with them: www.youtube.com .
• Showing the contribution that special effects technicians, set builders and editors make to a film, the sequences where Spock jumps into the tank with George and Gracie and Kirk reacts while on the tour conducted by Gillian is a masterful example of behind-the-scenes artistry: no less than four locations were required to make that scene work (the real Monterey Bay Aquarium, an ILM created blue-screen environment, a swimming pool in El Segundo, and a set at Paramount). Through editing tricks and slight of hand, all appear to be the same location in the various sequences.
• The U.S.S. Enterprise CV-65 was actually unavailable for filming. The USS Ranger CV-61 stood in for the Enterprise and if you look very closely you could see the Ranger name on a few of the hats of the real military who served as extras.

• An unseen tag used by the antique dealer to catalog Kirk's glasses gives the date of the crew's visit to Earth as August 19, 1986. However, the newspaper that Kirk and crew look at a few minutes earlier in the film has the date December 18, 1986.
• The Plexicorp company that "Professor" Scott and his "assistant" Leonard McCoy visit was actually the Reynolds & Taylor Plastics factory in Santa Ana. Interestingly, the real company made custom plastic panels, including ones reportedly for the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
• The police officer at the hospital was played by Joe Lando, who would go on to fame as Byron Sully from Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
• This film includes the first contributions of one of Star Trek 's most important behind-the-scenes geniuses, Michael Okuda.
• The dream sequence used to symbolize time travel was originally envisioned by the immensely talented Ralph McQuarrie, the creator of the look of Star Wars. McQuarrie contributed also to the look of  Starfleet Headquarters in The Voyage Home. His unused designs for the refitted Enterprise of Star Trek: The Motion Picture are an inspiration for the look of the U.S.S. Discovery of the new Star Trek: Discovery . The final dream sequence, with ideas from Leonard Nimoy, was created using Cyberware's pioneering 3D scanning and morphing technologies.

• The effects of the film are so incredible that the production received letters of protest for getting that close to real whales during filming. In reality, there are only a few images of real whales in the film, mostly in the breaching sequences. What is usually seen are remote-controlled models created and manipulated under the supervision and design of Michael Lanteri, Walt Conti and their teams of artists.
• The probe was designed by Nilo Rodis Jamero and built by ILM's model shop. It was meant to be five miles long script-wise, but in reality were an approximately 8 foot and 20 foot model. The probe is meant to be whale-like, with barnacles and the light being reminiscent of a whale's blow-hole.
• Composer Leonard Rosenman earned an Academy Award nomination for the music of The Voyage Home .
• The "punk" rocker on the bus was played by Kirk Thatcher, who also created the music used in the famous nerve-pinch sequence. Thatcher was an associate producer on The Voyage Home and was the voice of the testing computer at the start of the film. In fact. Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics, which Spock identifies as "Nothing unreal exists," is named for Kirk Thatcher. Thatcher had worked on Star Wars: Return of the Jedi in the creature shop, and is now a talented director for The Jim Henson Company productions
• In 1987, Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett were invited to screen The Voyage Home in Russia at the Spaso House to celebrate Russia agreeing to join the world community in banning factory whaling. This afforded Nimoy a chance to visit the town his family was from in the Ukraine, his parents being from the same community and both having to escape to the United States from the terrible pogroms against Jews that were occurring at the time. This was the first time a Star Trek film screened in Russia. Bennett wondered if the humor would translate, and was happy that it did... another symbol of the universal connection between people that The Voyage Home celebrates.

Happy Birthday Voyage Home!

Special thanks to Dan Madsen for allowing us to digitize images from the pages of the Star Trek Communicator fan club magazine of the era and to share these special photographs from the set of the film.

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When they finished writing the script for "Star Trek IV," they must have had a lot of silly grins on their faces. This is easily the most absurd of the " Star Trek " stories - and yet, oddly enough, it is also the best, the funniest and the most enjoyable in simple human terms. I'm relieved that nothing like restraint or common sense stood in their way.

The movie opens with some leftover business from the previous movie, including the Klingon ambassador's protests before the Federation Council. These scenes have very little to do with the rest of the movie, and yet they provide a certain reassurance (like James Bond's ritual flirtation with Miss Moneypenny) that the series remembers it has a history.

The crew of the Starship Enterprise is still marooned on a faraway planet with the Klingon starship they commandeered in " Star Trek III: The Search for Spock ." They vote to return home aboard the alien vessel, but on the way they encounter a strange deep-space probe. It is sending out signals in an unknown language which, when deciphered, turns out to be the song of the humpback whale.

It's at about this point that the script conferences must have really taken off. See if you can follow this: The Enterprise crew determines that the probe is zeroing in on Earth, and that if no humpback songs are picked up in response, the planet may well be destroyed. Therefore, the crew's mission becomes clear: Because humpback whales are extinct in the 23rd century, they must journey back through time to the 20th century, obtain some humpback whales, and return with them to the future - thus saving Earth. After they thought up this notion, I hope the writers lit up cigars.

No matter how unlikely the story is, it supplies what is probably the best of the "Star Trek" movies so far, directed with calm professionalism by Leonard Nimoy . What happens is that the Enterprise crew land their Klingon starship in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, surround it with an invisibility shield, and fan out through the Bay area looking for humpback whales and a ready source of cheap nuclear power.

What makes their search entertaining is that we already know the crew members so well. The cast's easy interaction is unique among movies, because it hasn't been learned in a few weeks of rehearsal or shooting; this is the 20th anniversary of "Star Trek," and most of these actors have been working together for most of their professional lives. These characters know one another.

An example: Captain Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Mr. Spock (Nimoy) visit a Sea World-type operation, where two humpback whales are held in captivity. Catherine Hicks , as the marine biologist in charge, plans to release the whales, and the Enterprise crew need to learn her plans so they can recapture the whales and transport them into the future.

Naturally, this requires the two men to ask Hicks out to dinner.

She asks if they like Italian food, and Kirk and Spock do a delightful little verbal ballet based on the running gag that Spock, as a Vulcan, cannot tell a lie. Find another space opera in which verbal counterpoint creates humor.

The plots of the previous "Star Trek" movies have centered around dramatic villains, such as Khan, the dreaded genius played by Ricardo Montalban in " Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan ." This time, the villains are faceless: the international hunters who continue to pursue and massacre whales despite clear indications they will drive these noble mammals from the Earth. "To hunt a race to extinction is not logical," Spock calmly observes, but we see shocking footage of whalers doing just that.

Instead of providing a single human villain as counterpoint, "Star Trek IV" provides a heroine, in Hicks. She obviously is moved by the plight of the whales, and although at first she understandably doubts Kirk's story that he comes from the 23rd century, eventually she enlists in the cause and even insists on returning to the future with them, because of course, without humpback whales, the 23rd century also lacks humpback whale experts.

There are some major action sequences in the movie, but they aren't the high points; the "Star Trek" saga has always depended more on human interaction and thoughtful, cause-oriented plots. What happens in San Francisco is much more interesting than what happens in outer space, and this movie, which might seem to have an unlikely and ungainly plot, is actually the most elegant and satisfying "Star Trek" film so far.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

119 minutes

William Shatner as Adm. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

Deforest Kelley as McCoy

Brock Peters as Federation President Robt. Ellenstein Cartwright

Catherine Hicks as Gillian Taylor

John Schuck as Klingon Ambassador

Jane Wyatt as Spock's Mother

Screenplay by

• Peter Krikes
• Steve Meerson
• Nicholas Meyer

Photographed by

• Don Peterman

Produced by

• Harve Bennett
• Leonard Rosenman

Directed by

• Leonard Nimoy

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

1986, Sci-fi/Adventure, 1h 58m

What to know

Critics Consensus

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is perhaps the lightest and most purely enjoyable entry of the long-running series, emphasizing the eccentricities of the Enterprise's crew. Read critic reviews

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Living in exile on the planet Vulcan, the ragtag former crew of the USS Enterprise steal a starship after receiving a planetary distress call from Earth: a space probe has entered into orbit around Earth, disabled global power on the planet and evaporated the oceans. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of the officers travel back in time to retrieve now-extinct humpback whales, which Spock has deduced will communicate with the probe and send it away from Earth.

Genre: Sci-fi, Adventure

Original Language: English

Director: Leonard Nimoy

Producer: Harve Bennett

Writer: Leonard Nimoy , Harve Bennett , Steve Meerson , Peter Krikes , Harve Bennett , Nicholas Meyer

Release Date (Theaters): Nov 26, 1986  wide

Release Date (Streaming): Dec 16, 2009

Box Office (Gross USA): $104.7M

Runtime: 1h 58m

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Production Co: Paramount Pictures

Sound Mix: Dolby Stereo, Dolby A, Magnetic Stereo 6 Track, Surround, Stereo, Dolby Digital, Dolby SR

Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

View the collection: Star Trek

Cast & Crew

William Shatner

Admiral, Captain James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy

Captain Spock

Catherine Hicks

Dr. Gillian Taylor

DeForest Kelley

Commander Leonard H. McCoy, M.D.

James Doohan

Captain Montgomery Scott

George Takei

Commander Hikaru Sulu

Walter Koenig

Commander Pavel Andreievich Chekov

Nichelle Nichols

Commander Nyota Uhura

Amanda Grayson

Mark Lenard

Ambassador Sarek

Robin Curtis

Lieutenant Saavik

Robert Ellenstein

Federation Council President

John Schuck

Klingon Ambassador

Brock Peters

Admiral Cartwright

Harve Bennett

Steve Meerson

Peter Krikes

Nicholas Meyer

Brooke Breton

Associate Producer

Kirk R. Thatcher

Ralph Winter

Executive Producer

Leonard Rosenman

Original Music

Donald Peterman

Cinematographer

Peter Berger

Film Editing

Amanda Mackey

Jack T. Collis

Production Design

Peter Smith

Art Director

Nilo Rodis-Jamero

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Critic Reviews for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Audience reviews for star trek iv: the voyage home.

Star Trek's attempt at making a veiled political statement. Like other films at the time in the 80s that were writing scripts with familiar characters to take on world issues, Star Trek decided to jump on the "Save the Whales" campaign. An alien probe comes to earth and threatens the planet. Since all of the humpback whales had long been extinct in the future, the Enterprise has to go back in time to get a few whales to communicate with the probe. Some comic relief with crew members going from the future to the 80s and dealing with the time jump but other than that, it is a flat film that is too obvious in its reach as far as the point the script is trying to make.

The Voyage Home may very well be the goofiest, most incoherent, and outright strangest of the original series. But it's also funny, re-watchable, and probably the most entertaining. As weird as the film can get, thanks to a wonderful score, gorgeous cinematography, and a step back into the TV format, it's one of my favorites of any of the Trek films. The Voyage Home centers on the the Enterprise's hopes of finding something to communicate with a dangerous probe that wants to destroy the earth. The only possible way to communicate with the probe is to travel back in time to the late 20th century and bring Humpback Whales to the probe. Yes, that is the real premise. As a whole, it's a fun ride. Not only do we get to see the crew of the Enterprise go somewhere other than the seats of the ship, but it's the only Trek film that could be considered a comedy. Watching the crew attempt to fit in with 1980's San Francisco is good TV for sure. And that's what this film essentially is. It doesn't really fit into the film series at all, and it may have been better served as an extended episode. In fact, the only real link to Search For Spock is just the fact that Spock still hasn't fully adapted to being a member of the Enterprise as his memory is still weary. Ironically, it out-grossed all of the other Trek films leading up to it by far. It's domestic gross was the highest for the franchise up until 2009's Star Trek, so it's safe to say it was an crowd-pleaser. Perhaps it's success had to do with this film focusing less on overdone special effects and over the top villains and more so on a story people could get behind and humanized characters. As goofy as Catherine Hicks' Gillian character can get, I think she resonated with the audience. With all that said, the film is pretty nuts. The idea that the crew could just walk around San Francisco, in and out of hospitals and restaurants and not be captured by police at any time seemed a bit far fetched. Sometimes the reach for comedy was definitely felt and sadly there aren't any great "sci-fi moments" like the others have. But I think everybody can have some fun with this one. If nothing else, perhaps you can do something to help whales next time you come across one. +Has its funny moments +Goofy fun +Cinematography +Score -Stupid and incoherent moments -Why is a Trek film focusing on whales anyway? 7.2/10

Ambitious, exciting and memorable, The Voyage Home, being the fourth installment further the increasing quality in storytelling in the series, and is another good sequel that is directed yet again by actor Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy's direction is terrific and bring some much needed depth to the plot that makes it that much more enjoyable. There are hints of humor strewn throughout the film, and it complements the thrills and action perfectly. There are plenty of improvements in this entry, most notably the film's special effects and more layed back tone. I feel that the filmmakers were much more confident with this release, and it shows on-screen. The story is good, and the cast deliver some good performances. I really was surprised by this one, and like I said, it's an entertaining Science Fiction picture worth seeing, and it's a well crafted affair that is sure to delight fans. Nimoy does impressive behind the camera, and he helped make two outstanding films in the film adaptations of the classic TV show. It's rare for a fourth film in a series to be entertaining, but in the case of The Voyage Home, it's a highly engaging film going experience that manages to be amusing for a good two hours of entertainment. There are aspects that could have been improved upon, but overall, it's a solid sequel worth seeing and it's one that stands out among the franchise's very best films. This is a different type of Star Trek film, and it works well on many levels. With good performances, a well thought out story, and good direction, The Voyage Home continues the quality of good films in the series. This is one of the better movies I've seen, and though a bit different, is a refreshing idea that is thoroughly engaging.

Tiresome. Thank God the cast started to die off by this date.

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Star Trek: The Voyage Home - Original Movie Script Paperback – Import, November 1, 1996

• Language English
• Publisher Movie Script Library
• Publication date November 1, 1996
• ISBN-10 1566933110
• ISBN-13 978-1566933117
• See all details

Product details

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Movie Script Library (November 1, 1996)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1566933110
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1566933117
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
• #1,617 in Screenplays
• #484,912 in Science Fiction & Fantasy (Books)

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Adventure, Sci-Fi

Feature Film

Living in exile on the planet Vulcan, the ragtag former crew of the USS Enterprise steal a starship after receiving a planetary distress call from Earth: a space probe has entered into orbit around Earth, disabled global power on the planet and evaporated the oceans. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and the rest of the officers travel back in time to retrieve now-extinct humpback whales, which Spock has deduced will communicate with the probe and send it away from Earth.

Download Options

1 Script Available for Download

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Five Cut Lines Completely Changed The Ending Of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The "Star Trek" franchise was nearing a crossroads in 1986. 20 years after the premiere of The Original Series on NBC, moviegoers were showing up in significant numbers to follow the big-screen exploits of Captain Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise. But while 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and 1984's "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" were hits for Paramount (they both grossed in the $78 million range domestically), they were not blockbusters. So when stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy asked for salary bumps, the studio had some tough decisions to make.

Paramount almost received an unexpected windfall when their under-contract box office juggernaut, Eddie Murphy, asked to be in the fourth "Star Trek" movie . Murphy had just starred in "Beverly Hills Cop," the highest-grossing movie of 1984, and, as a hardcore Trekker, wanted to be a part of Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi universe. The studio was thrilled, and Nimoy, who was set to direct the film, understood the commercial potential of Murphy's involvement. This could massively expand the Trek fanbase, with Murphy being the rising tide that lifts all ships salary-wise.

So Paramount hired the screenwriting duo of Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes to write the first draft of what would become "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home." The film would bring Kirk and company from the 23rd century to the 21st, where their quest to bring two humpback whales back to the future would receive assistance from an uber-nerdy college professor played by Murphy. This obviously did not come to pass, but the writers, emboldened by Paramount's eagerness to take big narrative swings, almost complicated Spock's life in a fascinating way.

The De-Murphy-cation of Star Trek IV

Speaking to Edward Gross and Mark A. Altman for their book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," Krikes and Meerson revealed that Murphy's role was essentially turned into Catherine Hicks' marine biologist Dr. Gillian Taylor. Per Krikes:

"If you look at our script and the movie you saw, basically everything is still there, like Eddie Murphy going to meet the aliens in the park to bring them gifts, and he runs into the invisible ship ... which is what Catherine Hicks did when she ran into the park to find Kirk. The structure really is exactly the same."

The rewrites were handled by Nicholas Meyer (who arguably saved the franchise with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan") and Harve Bennett. Meyer claims he never read the Meerson-Krikes draft, which rankles Krikes, who is adamant that many of the film's fun elements — Taylor getting beamed aboard the Bird of Prey and Spock nerve-pinching the surly punk on the city bus — existed in their version of the script. As he told Gross and Altman, "You can't imagine the frustration of them trying to take all the credit for something that was completely blocked out for them. Plus, they removed a lot of the emotional qualities that we thought it would have."

One of those qualities would have altered the course of the Trek film franchise in a major way.

Saavik should've played a bigger role in the Trek universe

Beginning with "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," the Vulcan character Saavik emerged as an intriguing component of the franchise's ever-expanding universe . Played initially by Kirstie Alley, and then, in the next two films, by Robin Curtis, her path seemed destined to merge with Spock's. Leaving aside the Eddie Murphy of it all, the biggest departure from Meerson and Krikes' screenplay was the omission of an exchange between Kirk and Saavik. According to Krikes:

"There was a scene with Kirk on the bridge of the Bird of Prey. They cut out five lines where Kirk says to Saavik, 'Have you told him yet?' And she says, 'No. I'm taking a maternity leave.'"

That would've been a bombshell development in Trekland. "That's why she's standing with Amanda [Grayson, Spock's human mother] when the Bird of Prey leaves," said Meerson. "Because Amanda knows Saavik is carrying Spock's kid. All they did was cut out five lines of dialogue, and you lost that whole thing."

Had Nimoy, Meyer, and Bennett kept that moment, "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" would be a completely different (and possibly good) movie. I think we still get "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" because Kirk's blood feud with the Klingons had to get resolved, but Spock would've had more to do than hang out on the Enterprise while Kirk and McCoy are subjected to a show trial.

The biggest bummer here is how Saavik was unceremoniously written out of the Trek narrative. I'm not sure making her the mother of Spock's child was the most interesting direction in which to take the character, but I do wish we could've gotten more of her in the official canon. And I'm still waiting for Murphy to make his triumphant "Star Trek" debut as a member of the Jenkins clan from Vulcan .

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THE FIRST OMEN: A Battle With The Devil And An NC-17 Rating

The First Omen hits theaters April 5 with a solid R-rating. But that nearly wasn’t the case. Director Arkasha Stevenson makes her feature directorial debut with the prequel to the popular franchise and during an exclusive interview with FANGORIA, shares it was “a long battle” to land that R-rating. The content in question had nothing to do with gore, though. Rather, the culprit in the middle of this battle was: a vagina. 

For Stevenson, this story is really about women’s body horror , much of it rooted in the reality of forced birthing and women’s autonomy (or lack thereof). Because of this, showing a woman’s body in a non-sexual manner was key to driving the horror home: “The horror in that situation is how dehumanized that woman is. This has been my life for a year and a half, fighting for the shot. It’s the theme of our film. It’s the female body being violated from the inside outwards. If we were going to talk about female body horror, we were going to talk about forced reproduction, and we have to be able to show the female body in a non-sexualized light. I’m very proud of this shot.”

Producers David Goyer and Keith Levine ( Hellraiser , The Night House ) backed Stevenson through the whole process. Levine reveals that the long battle for the R-rating involved a lot of discussion, but they kept at it: “We had to go back and forth with the ratings board five times. Weirdly, avoiding the NC-17 made it more intense.”

Goyer points to a bit of a “double standard” when it came to fighting the NC-17 rating: “The movie, by its nature, deals with female body horror, and I do think there’s a double standard. That was really interesting when we were negotiating with the ratings board. I think there is more permissiveness when dealing with male protagonists, particularly in body horror. That birthing scene is super intense, I also have three kids and have been at their births. It’s intense!”

While Stevenson ultimately shaved the shot in question down from roughly thirteen seconds to its final form, it sticks the landing: “There was a preview where I was sitting with the audience. The guy in front of me was eating M&Ms the whole time. Then that shot came on, and his mouth opened, and M&Ms just fell out.”

Levine and Goyer knew Stevenson was the one to take the reins on the project after she and writing partner Tim Smith pitched a bold, specific vision for the movie. Levine recounts the initial pitch meeting when he and Goyer first heard Stevenson and Smith share their vision for a scene set in a birthing clinic: “She just walked in and had a big, bold, incredibly vivid vision of what the movie should be. The version she and Tim came in with just pushed it and obliterated all that for us. We knew it would do all the things we were hoping the movie would do.”

On the other end of that pitch, Stevenson was nervous about how it might be received: “I’m not going to lie, it is pretty nerve-racking pitching that scene, thinking these guys will never go for that. But the whole time, Keith and Goyer were so supportive. I really wanted to work with these guys who aren’t scared off by that word. I think it’s a huge litmus test if people can say the word ‘vagina.'”

The body horror element is a cathartic exploration for Stevenson: “Exploring body horror in film helps me reconnect with my body, in a way. To have the opportunity to do that on such a big scale and push the boundary of that imagery was unbelievable.” 

Co-writer Tim Smith adds, “I think there’s this preconceived notion of what people might expect from an Omen prequel. One of the big things we were excited to do was to kind of pull the rug out from under people’s expectations. To say, ‘Okay, I understand what this film’s going to be. It’s about a creepy kid.’ And then almost immediately subvert that expectation.”

Smith and Stevenson were both “raised by women who love” The Omen star Gregory Peck , adding another fun layer to taking on the legacy franchise. The script Goyer and Levine were working with immediately drew Stevenson in: “We were so excited about the script, it was already in such a cool place. I loved The Omen franchise, I grew up on it, but it is a story about men. When I opened the script and the main character was this young novitiate, I just thought, this is awesome. To be able to experience the paranoia of this conspiracy through a woman’s point of view, when I think we already are so forced to live in such a paranoid world, I was so ready.”

The incredibly realistic effects bringing the intense scene to life is the work of award-winning makeup artists Adrien Morot and Kathy Tse of Morot FX ( The Whale ). The prosthetic creations were so impressive that Stevenson says, “The effects started to make me question reality. They’re so beautiful.”

Making a feature directorial debut on a franchise film with a major studio is one hell of a way to do it. Stevenson shared her approach to dealing with the inevitable pressure accompanying the task: “I think getting down and dirty, getting lost in what you’re doing, is kind of the only antidote to the pressure and the fear. It was really nice because the studio made so much space for me to do that. They were just really open to all of our ideas.”

Having Goyer and Levine in her corner with the studio’s full support through the ultimately triumphant battle was inspiring for the first-time feature director: “It’s strange making a movie about forced reproduction and body autonomy right now. It’s really important to be talking about right now. It’s strange to be talking about it with Disney. It’s a surreal experience that feels extremely empowering. It feels like you’re traveling around with a really big hammer. It’s like Mickey Mouse is my bouncer. To have their support, I don’t even know how to put it in words. It’s beautifully surreal.”

The First Omen is in theaters April 5. Stay tuned for more with the filmmakers, and check out our list of all the new horror movies we’re excited to see this year.

Angel Melanson is the Digital Editor of FANGORIA.com. When she’s not running the website, you can find her being our resident online creep in various capacities. From hosting red carpet interviews and our Convo x Fango interview series, chatting with horror royalty and up-and-coming creators to watch, to moderating live Q&As, and occasionally writing for the magazine.

After sneaking peeks at FANGORIA while hidden in store aisles, she spent a few years running her own website and podcast under the HorrorGirl Problems banners before hosting interviews for Fango and eventually joining the Fango fam full-time. A true nightmare come true.

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Pirates of the Caribbean Producer Confirms Franchise Is Getting a 'Reboot' With Sixth Movie

Meaning they "don't have to wait for certain actors.".

Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer has confirmed that the franchise is getting a "reboot" with the long-in-development sixth movie.

ComicBook.com recently quizzed Bruckheimer about both Top Gun and Pirates of the Caribbean, to which the producer hinted that the latter might have a better chance of returning to the big screen first because they are planning on rebooting the franchise, which makes it logistically more straightforward to work out a schedule.

"You don't know, you really don't know," Bruckheimer initially said. "Because with Top Gun, you have an actor who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can't tell you. But we're gonna reboot Pirates, so that is easier to put together because you don't have to wait for certain actors."

Bruckheimer confirmed back in 2022 that Johnny Depp, who starred as Captain Jack Sparrow in all five previous Pirates of the Caribbean entries, wasn't on board for a sixth voyage . There were, however, rumblings of a female-led Pirates movie starring Margot Robbie , with two scripts in development - one with her and one without.

Pirates of the Caribbean Movies in Order

Last year, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey asserted after a period of uncertainty that the franchise still has wind in its sails. He insisted that rebooting Pirates of the Caribbean is a priority for the company on top of reworking many of its animated classics into live-action retellings .

"We think we have a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say," Bailey told The New York Times in June.

Deadpool screenwriters Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick were initially attached to write the script for the sixth installment of the swashbuckling series, but they walked the plank and exited the project in 2019 . The Last of Us creator Craig Mazin then took over scriptwriting duties alongside original screenwriter Ted Elliot.

Mazin told the LA Times that he thought their pitch was "too weird," but Disney seemed to like it. He said they wrote a "fantastic script" before having to down tools due to the writers' strike . However, there has been no word on whether any progress has happened since the writers returned to work at the end of September.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance entertainment writer for IGN. You can follow her on X/Twitter @AdeleAnkers.

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'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise to get a reboot, says producer Jerry Bruckheimer

Shiver me timbers! “Pirates of the Caribbean” is setting sail on a new voyage.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who previously worked on all five films in the nautical fantasy series, revealed plans to revive the franchise in an interview with ComicBook.com published Monday.

When asked about the status of his “Pirates” and “Top Gun” franchises, Bruckheimer said the former will receive the reboot treatment. The original films starred Johnny Depp , Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley .

“You don't know how they come together. You just don't know,” Bruckheimer said. “Because with ‘Top Gun,’ you have an actor (Tom Cruise) who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does ‘Top Gun,’ I can't tell you. But we're gonna reboot ‘Pirates,’ so that is easier to put together because you don't have to wait for certain actors.”

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Bruckheimer did not share a production timeline or release date for the film in the interview.

The “Pirates” franchise debuted with 2003’s “The Curse of the Black Pearl,” which received five Academy Award nominations and grossed $654.3 million at the global box office.

The franchise’s most recent film, 2017’s “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” grossed $794.9 million globally.

Review: Johnny Depp's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' rights ship with 'Dead Men'

Bruckheimer’s upcoming reboot isn’t the first time the “Pirates” franchise has been considered for an overhaul.

“The Last of Us” co-creator Craig Mazin was previously attached to a new installment along with “Pirates” writer Ted Elliot, but the film’s development was interrupted by the Hollywood writers’ strike in 2023.

“We pitched it and thought there’s no way they’re buying it, it’s too weird. And they did!” Mazin told the Los Angeles Times in August 2023. “And then he wrote a fantastic script, and the strike happened and everyone’s waiting around.”

“Barbie” star Margot Robbie was also in talks to helm a “female-led” revamp of the franchise, which she told Vanity Fair in November 2022 was scrapped. However, Bruckheimer later told Collider in December of that year that the script for Robbie’s version of “Pirates” would “come forward at a certain point.”

‘Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise’ Film Adaptation Coming From Killer Films, Walden Media (EXCLUSIVE)

Grade A Entertainment will also produce the film from "Yellowjackets" director Anya Adams

“Past Lives” producer Christine Vachon and her Killer Films have joined Walden Media and Grade A Entertainment to produce “The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise,” a feature adaptation of author Dan Gemeinhart’s award-winning novel of the same name.

The middle grade novel was published in 2019 by Henry Holt and Co. to critical acclaim and numerous awards, including the 2019 Parents’ Choice Award Gold Medal. “The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise” follows 12-year-old Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, who have lived for the past five years on the road in an old school bus, crisscrossing the nation following the death of Coyote’s mom and two sisters in a car crash.

Anya Adams (“Prom Pact,” “Yellowjackets,” “Ginny & Georgia”) is set to direct from a script written by Liz Maccie (“Nonnas”). Vachon and Grade A’s Andy Cohen will produce. Walden’s Frank Smith and Ben Tappan will executive produce the film, along with Jack Heller and Brendan Deneen. Julia Friley is overseeing the project for Walden.

“Christine Vachon is one of film’s premier producers, and we jumped at the opportunity to work with her to bring Dan Gemeinhart’s heartwarming story to life on screen,” said Walden Media’s president of production Tappan. “’Coyote Sunrise’ and the life-affirming journey she takes with her father is the kind of instant family classic that deserves to be brought to audiences.”

Cohen said, “Every once in a while, you come across a book so moving that it demands to be turned into a movie. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a brilliant screenwriter like Liz Maccie turn that novel it into a stunning screenplay. If you win the lottery, you find an incredible director like Anya Adams and a producing partner like Christine Vachon who share a similar vision for turning your labor of love into a beautiful film for all ages. I can’t wait to get started.”

Anya Adams is represented by Gersh and 3 Arts Entertainment. Liz Maccie is represented by Gersh and Kaplan/Perrone Entertainment.

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