star trek 4 whale scene

Musings of a Middle-Aged Geek

… observations from a lifetime of geekiness.

“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” (1986); the ‘one with the whales’ is still seaworthy…

34 years ago this November, I went to see “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” with my Trekkie sister over Thanksgiving weekend. I was a month shy of my 20th birthday, and still filled with much of the optimism for the years ahead that is often reflected in the Star Trek universe. Star Trek III was terrific; a strong outing for first time feature director Leonard Nimoy, so I was hopeful. But all I knew in that pre-internet, spoiler-lite age was that the new story involved humpback whales and time travel. Since some of the better Trek episodes also involved time travel, this could be icing on the cake.

1986 was a good time to be a Star Trek fan. The original series was rerun almost nonstop in syndication, and the episodes were also being released to video (VHS, Beta and laserdisc), including the original pilot, “The Cage” (1965). There was also announcement of a new syndicated Star Trek series coming the following year (which, of course, became “Star Trek: The Next Generation”). There were also many terrific original Star Trek novels from writers such as the late Vonda McIntyre and Ann Crispin. While not quite the ‘golden age’ of Star Trek that was the mid-1990s, the 1980s weren’t half-bad either. Less content, yes, but a few real gems to be found.

Star Trek IV would be the end of an unofficial trilogy (tying off loose plot threads from Star Treks II & III) while also offering something new in the Star Trek franchise–bona fide mainstream success, which made other avenues of Star Trek possible. This would be the Trek movie that non -Trekkies enjoyed as well.

******CETACEAN PROBE-SIZED SPOILERS AHEAD!!******

For this retrospective, I decided to take yet another look at this old favorite of mine through my newly acquired digital projector (my COVID-quarantine sanity machine). Pulling the collapsible screen out to its full diagonal width (80”/203 cm), this would be the first time in 34 years that I’d watched this movie on a big(gish) screen, in the dark, with my undivided attention…

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

The movie opens with Alexander Courage’s original TOS theme before it segues into a new main title track by Leonard Rosenman. We see an incandescent nebula warming and then cooling, followed by what looks like a giant scanning electron micrograph of a hair follicle out in space…

On the soundtrack we hear unearthly sounds blasting over the comms that have an oddly familiar resonance. We then cut to the bridge of the Federation starship USS Saratoga under the command of Star Trek’s first onscreen unnamed female captain (Madge Sinclair), who asks her science officer to analyze these strange sounds, but to no avail.

The Saratoga captain calls Starfleet command to advise them that the large probe is on a trajectory into the Terran solar system (aka the Sol system… us ). At Starfleet Headquarters, the absentia trial of James T. Kirk and his officers is underway. The president of the Federation Council (Robert Ellenstein) is personally presiding. A visiting Klingon ambassador (John Schuck) shows footage of the last moments of the starship USS Enterprise right before its self-destruction over the Genesis planet, which killed several Klingons who commandeered the ship. The Klingon wants Kirk to answer not only for the deaths of that Klingon crew, but also the theft of their Bird of Prey as well as his part in creating the terraforming Genesis device; which the Klingon government sees as a threat to galactic peace.

Note: Could someone explain how a civilian Federation president can legally preside over a Starfleet court-martial? Shouldn’t it be a military court-martial? Isn’t the Federation civilian? So many potentially disturbing questions on that one…

Interrupting the Klingon’s rhetorical ranting about “Klingon justice” is the cool-headed Vulcan ambassador to Earth, Sarek (Mark Lenard), father of the resurrected Mr. Spock. Sarek reminds the Federation Council that Genesis was created as a terraforming device, not a weapon. Speaking on behalf of Kirk and his exiled officers, Sarek also reiterates that the Klingons shed first blood when they attempted to steal Genesis for themselves. The Klingon ambassador denies nothing, arguing it was an act of racial preservation. Angered that the Council isn’t adding his grievances to the official list of charges, the Klingon warns, “There will be NO peace as long as Kirk lives!” An anonymous voice in the observers’ gallery calls the Klingon a “pompous ass” as he leaves (‘colorful metaphors’ are indeed alive & well in the 23rd century…).

In the third month of their exile to the planet Vulcan, Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and his comrades, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Mr. Scott (James Doohan), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) make a unanimous decision to return to Earth in their stolen Klingon ship (renamed the HMS Bounty , of course) to face the charges for their mutinous actions in Star Trek III. They have spent the last three months repairing their recently acquired Klingon ‘rust bucket,’ and are ready to go home, whatever the cost…

The recently rejuvenated Spock is elsewhere, undergoing rigorous computerized testing to ensure that his vast scientific knowledge survived the “Fal Tor Pan” ritual, which restored his memory from McCoy’s mind back into his body. Essentially Dr. McCoy served as Spock’s backup hard drive, following the Vulcan’s ‘death’ in STII. Now, Spock is his old self (more or less), and his scientific knowledge is intact, but the emotional growth and wisdom he was beginning to show in the recent films appears to have wiped clean. Spock stumbles when the computer asks him a very simple question; “How do you feel?” Unable to answer, Spock’s mother Amanda (Jane Wyatt) enters, and tells her restored son that the computer is aware of his half-human lineage, and is testing his emotions. Spock dismisses the question of emotion as irrelevant, as Amanda then makes the case for their value. Making the decision to return to Earth with his colleagues, Amanda still seems confident that her son will eventually come to realize the importance of his human heritage…

In deep space, the USS Saratoga is now immobilized by the loud cries of the unknown alien probe, which wrecks havoc on electrical power systems as it passes. As the ship begins to drift and life-support systems fail, the Saratoga issues a distress call to Starfleet Command.

Back on Vulcan, Kirk and his officers prepare to liftoff for Earth. It’s here that we say goodbye to the character of Lt. Saavik (Robin Curtis), who is choosing to remain behind, under the apparent care of Amanda. Both watch as the Klingon vessel ascends into the sky and flies off into the sunset…

Note: In a (wisely) deleted scene, there was supposed to mention of Saavik being pregnant with Spock’s child, as she ‘eased his suffering’ during his bout with the Vulcan mating urge of ‘pon farr’ back on the Genesis planet. Last time I watched STIII, that ‘fingers’ scene became very difficult to watch, as it now feels (post-MeToo) like statutory rape when viewed out of context. Spock was supposed to be, physically at least, a teenaged boy in that scene, so her being pregnant with his child from that act just feels genuinely wrongheaded.

Aboard the Klingon ship, Uhura is getting multiple distress calls that are “almost a gibberish” as multiple ships are hit with massive power failures. Uhura attempts to sort them out. Speaking of sorting things out, a worried McCoy checks in on Spock. McCoy is worried that Spock isn’t exactly “firing on all thrusters” following the ritual which separated Spock’s essence from his own mind. The good doctor also prods the Vulcan for insight into the experience of death and rebirth, trying to understand for himself what it must’ve been like to have gone “where no man has gone before.” Spock offers no insights however, as his newly literal manner doesn’t seem to grasp what McCoy asks of him. He waves the doctor’s questioning off, telling him he’s receiving “a number of distress calls,” to which McCoy sarcastically adds, “I don’t doubt it.” Their exchanges together are some of my favorite moments in the movie, as they capture the essence of the loving but prickly Spock/McCoy relationship to a tee . So help me, DeForest Kelley gets the best lines in all of the original cast’s Star Trek movies (going all the way back to The Motion Picture) and he delivers them with his unique, wild-eyed charm.

The probe reaches Earth orbit, immediately immobilizing Earth’s massive orbiting spacedock complex. Once directing its shrieks towards the planet’s oceans, they immediately begin to vaporize, causing severe weather storms and electrical blackouts all over the planet. If allowed to continue, the probe’s call to Earth could lead to the planet’s destruction. The Federation president, on Sarek’s urging, issues a planetary distress call which effectively warns all space vessels to avoid the doomed planet and save themselves. The message is met by the stunned silence of Kirk and his officers, as their home planet faces imminent extinction . Kirk sullenly asks Uhura if she can replay the probe’s message for them.

The vaguely familiar wailing noises fill the Klingon ship’s bridge. Spock appears to recognize the sound, which he later confirms to be the songs sung by humpback whales, a species extinct on Earth since the 21st century ( though I certainly hope not ). Since the species doesn’t exist on any other planet in the galaxy, Kirk decides their is but one course of action left; time-travel into Earth’s past, retrieve some humpback whales, and take them into the 23rd century to communicate with the probe. McCoy raises an objection (“Now wait, just a damn minute!”), but Kirk and the crew are adamant; it’s the only solution left to save their home planet. He orders Spock to start calculations for ‘time warp’ using the same dangerously unpredictable time-travel technique seen in TOS’ “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” and “Assignment Earth”; slingshot around the sun at high warp speed, create a time warp, and hope to hell that they wind up in the right era…

Calculating the complex variables for time travel from Spock’s patchy memory, and flying toward the sun in their creaky Klingon craft, it’s a dangerous move. The ship nearly shakes apart as Sulu shouts their warp speeds (“Nine point three! Nine point five…”). It’s a moment that conveys the danger of time travel in a way the old TV show never really could. The crew, pressured by increasing heat and g-forces, lose consciousness as their time-travel drive program continues automatically.

Kirk’s dream sequence is, as an old review in CFQ magazine once put it, “like something out of Russian science fiction.” Early, crude computer graphics show rough forms of the crew’s faces, as well as an abstraction of a humpback whale. We hear spoken dialogue from both earlier and later in the film, giving the impression that the dream is precognitive. There is a weird image of a clay doll flying over the Earth which is more suitable for “The Twilight Zone” than Star Trek. Despite the hit-and-miss graphics, there’s a surreal oddness to the dream sequence that is daringly experimental. Nimoy’s directorial ambition clearly exceeded the available technology, but the result was intriguing. Kirk wakes up to discover that the braking rockets fired on time, and they are indeed over Earth. Spock scans the planet and with almost undetectable sarcasm, tells the crew, “Judging by the pollution content in the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the latter half of the 20th century.”

Note: According to the commentary on the DVD, that last line of Spock’s was Nicholas Meyer’s entry point in the screenplay. Writer/producer Harve Bennett wrote all the 23rd century stuff, and Meyer did all of the 20th. There were some legal issues regarding the creative input of credited co-writers Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes, but Nimoy had dismissed their ‘contributions’ as largely irrelevant. Ouch!

Spock advises Kirk to engage the cloaking device of their ship, noting that they may already be visible to radar and satellite tracking of the era. Once cloaked, Kirk arranges for Sulu to set their ship down in Golden Gate Park (really inconspicuous , guys). The admiral then divides his crew into teams. Uhura and Chekov will collect high energy photons from the nuclear reactor of a nearby naval vessel to reconstitute their ship’s drained dilithium crystals; McCoy, Scotty and Sulu will convert one of the ship’s storage bays into a massive aquarium, while the admiral and Spock track the humpback whale songs to their source–somewhere inside the city. Spock takes a moment to disguise his Vulcan ears and eyebrows with a strip of cloth torn from his robe (!). Landing at night, the crew’s eerie arrival from an invisible spaceship causes a bit of UFO trauma for a pair of early morning garbagemen cleaning up at the park (and into the trash goes Starfleet’s ‘non-interference directive’ apparently… ).

We then cut to a bright sunny day in 1986 San Francisco with a blast of ‘hip’ contemporary music to remind us we’re not in the mild-mannered 23rd century anymore. Noticing a newspaper dispenser with a coin box, Kirk remembers that “they’re still using money” in the 20th century. Kirk then decides to pawn his 18th century antique reading glasses (a birthday gift from McCoy in “The Wrath of Khan”) for $100, which he divides among the teams.

Note: Excellent use is made of Union Square, the cable cars, the Golden Gate, and other downtown Frisco locales. Product placements abound as well, with signs for Winchell’s Donuts, Junior Mints, Yellow Pages, etc. Hey, a movie’s gotta eat, right? Product placement, however vilified, is a ‘logical’ means to get extra financing bucks for one’s film.

This following scenes are some of the loosest and most comical in the entire movie, as we see Uhura and heavily Russian-accented Chekov asking locals if they can help them find “nuclear wessels ” (according to the commentary, this scene was largely improvised using real locals as extras). We also see Sulu, McCoy and Scotty roaming the back alleys, trying to find a 20th century equivalent for ’transparent aluminum’ (there was a never-completed scene where San Franciscan native Sulu was to have met his own great-great grandfather, but an uncooperative child actor dashed the scene before it could be finished). Meanwhile, Spock quietly disables an obnoxious punk rocker on a local bus with his famed Vulcan nerve pinch, much to Kirk’s satisfaction. The bus takes the two time travelers to the source of the whale songs, which are coming from the fictional “Cetacean Institute” (nee: Monterey Bay Aquarium). A pair of stray humpback whales named George and Gracie wandered into the bay as calves, and have since taken up residence in a massive outdoor aquarium at the facility. Once there, Spock and Kirk go on a guided tour led by Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks; don’t ask me why a whale biologist at the Institute would be conducting visitor tours; that’s usually an exhibit worker’s job, but oh well).

Note: If there’s one weak link in this otherwise crowd-pleasing Star Trek film, it would have to be Leonard Rosenman’s score. While generally competent, it’s a significant downgrade from the lush scores of Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner in the previous movies. The punk song “I Hate You” is very generic (though the lyrics are hilarious ), and the music used for the later hospital escape sequence sounds dangerously close to something one might use for a gaggle of clowns exiting a Volkswagen. Even the orchestral main title track sounds dangerously close to Rosenman’s own music for the 1978 animated version of “Lord of the Rings”; so much so that when I first heard the 1978 “Rings” theme years later, I thought it was the same track. While not a bad score per se, it calls attention to itself largely in contrast to the previous three films’ objectively superior music.

During the tour, Gillian wears her passion for her subjects on her sleeve, as she brings up disturbing videos and statistics regarding humanity’s cruel and heinous slaughter of whales over past centuries. Composing herself, she then takes the tour group over to an underwater observation window of George and Gracie’s giant tank. Kirk looks around to find that Spock has gone missing. As he looks for his errant Vulcan friend, a woman notices a man swimming in the tank with the whales… Spock . The Vulcan is mind-melding with Gracie in order to communicate their intention to save their species. Gillian, of course, is enraged, and she temporarily leaves the tour, rushing to the upper deck of the aquarium, where she ( and Kirk) confront a soaked Spock, who is putting on his robe after his little swim with the fishies.

Spock is dismayed to find Kirk seemingly taking Gillian’s side (the admiral is trying to keep his ‘cover’ as a native). As Gillian angrily shouts and hurls a few curses at Spock, the Vulcan calmly retorts that neither Gillian nor the rest of humanity ‘owns’ the whales, and that such arrogance is what will lead to the creatures’ extinction in the future. Kirk steps in as peacemaker, and assures Gillian he and Spock will leave peacefully if she promises not to escalate the situation. Gillian, a self-professed “sucker for hard-luck cases” agrees to let the two middle-aged pranksters go.

Meanwhile, at San Francisco Naval Bay, Uhura and Chekov discover a rich source of high-energy photons, ripe for collection–inside of the US aircraft carrier, USS Enterprise (CVA-65); an earlier namesake of their own lost starship. The two plan to beam aboard the carrier later that evening, collect their photons, and beam out. Easy-peasy. What could go wrong?

Note: The now decommissioned USS Enterprise’s near-identical twin, the USS Ranger, doubled for the USS Enterprise in the exterior and interior sequences. In the spring of 1985, my late father and I got to go aboard a tour of the USS Constellation, which is of the same Nimitz-class as Ranger and Enterprise. It was a huge ship; more like a small city on the inside. The view from the bridge, overlooking the flight deck, was amazing as well. I even took a seat at the navigation table. I’ll never forget that tour. The carrier’s appearance in the movie was the only way I could get my father, who hated Star Trek, to watch this movie (after we bought it on laserdisc a year later). He grudgingly admitted to enjoying “the one with the whales.”

Leaving the Cetacean Institute on foot, Kirk and Spock run into Gillian once again, who is heading home herself in her old blue Chevy pickup truck. Feeling sorry for the two sad sacks, she graciously offers them a lift, but warns that if they try anything, she’s got a tire iron right where she can get at it. During their ride out of the parking lot, Kirk tries to pass Spock off as some wild ex-professor hippie from Berkeley who did “a little too much LDS.” She’s also very curious about Spock’s past-tense usage when referring to the whales. Not wanting to blow their cover completely, Kirk nevertheless assures Gillian that he and Spock intend no harm or other “dipshit” for the whales, and in fact, they’re all equally motivated to help the creatures. Their cover is nearly blown for good when Spock blurts out, “Gracie is pregnant.” This fact is known only to Gillian…and, of course, to Gracie . Kirk offers to smooth things out over dinner. Asking if the two guys “like Italian”, Spock immediately answers Gillian with a brutally honest and repeated “no” until Kirk tells him that they both like Italian food. Dropping Spock off at Golden Gate Park instead (actually Will Rogers Park in L.A), Gillian and Kirk drive away…. just as Spock is beamed aboard the ship , barely out of sight.

Note: Gillian’s beat-up old pickup truck, which is more function over form, says a lot about a woman whose life is more clearly about her work rather than personal luxuries or indulgences.

We then catch up with McCoy and Scotty, who manage to locate a business called PlexiCorp, which specializes in large, thick, clear plexiglass panels–perfect for use in a giant aquarium. Mr. Scott pretends to be an indignant professor who has come “millions–er, thousands of miles” from Edinburgh Scotland for a tour of the facility, along with his ‘assistant’ (McCoy). After a tour to sooth the ‘professor’s’ feigned indignity, plant manager Dr. Nichols (Alex Henteloff) takes the pair of tourists back to his office, where Scott piques Nichols’ curiosity by asking what thickness of material would be required to construct a large ( theoretical ) aquarium. Nichols mentions the six inch-thick material they carry in stock. “Burying himself in the part”, Scotty proposes a material that could do the same job–but with one inch thickness. After Nichols laughs him off, Scotty offers to show him by using his vintage 1980s Mac computer. Unsuccessfully trying to voice-activate the device (hehe), Scotty then uses the ‘quaint’ keyboard to create the formula for “transparent aluminum.” He offers to give Nichols the formula in exchange for several sheets of six-inch plexiglass. McCoy whispers to Scotty that giving Nichols the formula for transparent aluminum in 1986 might ‘alter the future’ until Scotty reminds him that for all they know, Nichols himself might be the future ‘inventor’ of the stuff. Outside of the plant, helmsman Sulu makes casual conversation with a Plexicorp helicopter pilot, asking the young pilot “a few questions” about flying such a “old” vehicle.

Note: According to a 2009 article from Science Daily, ‘transparent aluminum’ is, in fact, possible, and can be made by bombarding aluminum with powerful soft x-ray lasers. Google it!

Over dinner at a high-end pizzeria, Kirk and Gillian chill over Michelob beers while they wait for their food. Gillian is deeply and insatiably curious as to who Kirk really is (much as Edith Keeler was in TOS’ “City on the Edge of Forever”). Their conversation is interrupted by a chirp from Kirk’s communicator. He grabs the device, chiding Scotty for the needless interruption. Gillian’s curiosity is fully aflame now; she begins to wonder if Kirk is some kind of secret agent or if he’s working for the military somehow. Coming clean, Kirk tells Gillian he is from the late 23rd century and has come backward in time to retrieve two humpback whales in an attempt to “repopulate the species.” Kirk tries to get information out of Gillian as well–specifically, the radio transmitter frequency the Cetacean Institute will use to track the humpback whales after their return to the open sea. Gillian refuses to answer that (classified) question until the evasive Kirk gives her a reason to trust him. After paying for their pizza (Kirk has no money), Gillian assumes the admiral’s story is a crock and disappointedly drives him back to Golden Gate Park. With a rapidly running clock until the humpbacks are released into the open sea ( noon , the following day), Kirk tells Gillian he will go out into the open sea to get those humpback whales if necessary, but that both of their interests could be better served by cooperation. Kirk reminds her that if she changes her mind, he’ll be “right here” in the park.

Note: The scene when Kirk tries to answer his communicator discreetly may get chuckles today, but one has to remember that tiny mobile/cell/smartphones weren’t yet a thing in 1986. The closest we had to such devices in those days were “pocket pagers” as Gillian assumed Kirk had. Mobile phones were available, but they were the size of bricks. Pocket pagers were much smaller, but they only let you know if someone called; they were incapable of making or receiving calls themselves (let alone send/receive texts). These devices were the preferred emergency contact means of doctors, lawyers and even drug dealers of that time.

Chekov and Uhura’s mission of high-energy photon collection aboard the nuclear reactor room of the USS Enterprise doesn’t quite go as planned. Radiation around the reactor room makes communications and transporters dodgy, so only Uhura is able to be safely beamed back with the photon collector, while Chekov has to wait for a second transport window…which never comes. Chekov is then captured as a suspected Russian agent, interrogated by the FBI, and later chased by armed marines until he falls from the carrier’s flight deck and suffers a head injury after hitting the asphalt below. The suspected saboteur is then taken to Mercy Hospital in San Francisco’s Mission District, where he is listed in critical condition. It’s a really bad day to be Pavel Chekov…

As Sulu gets the hang of flying a 20th century Bell-Huey helicopter to facilitate transport of the heavy plexiglass panels to Scotty aboard the waiting cloaked Klingon ship at Golden Gate Park, Gillian arrives at the Cetacean Institute to find George and Gracie gone! Their giant outdoor tank has been drained. Gillian’s supervisor Bob Briggs (Scott DeVenney) released the whales into the ocean ahead of schedule to spare Gillian the pain of their separation. Understandably, Gillian is super -pissed that Bob denied her a chance to say goodbye, and she delivers a thunderous slap across his chops. With nothing left to lose, the angry, heartbroken Gillian goes back to her truck and makes a spontaneous decision to trust that weird “admiral” and that “ditzy guy” he hangs around with at the park…

Note: The smarmy character of Bob Briggs is the closest thing this atypical movie has to a villain; a welcome relief after the various revenge-seeking Khan-imitators that would plague the rest of the Star Trek movies (including a rebooted Khan in the Kelvinverse movies).

Arriving at the park, Gillian begins shouting for Admiral Kirk. Running into one of the park’s open spaces, she slams right into the invisible Bird of Prey starship, which is given away only by the crushed grass beneath its landing struts (and the sight of Sulu’s helicopter delivering plexiglass panels into open sky ). Just as Gillian begins to realize she might be in over her head, she feels the tingle of a transporter beam and begins to scream… only to finish her scream aboard the Klingon ship. Kirk meets her in the transporter bay, and shows her the progress they’re making in building the tanks for the whales. Jolted out of her awe by mention of her beloved whales, Gillian tells Kirk that the whales were taken out to sea ahead of schedule. She figures the whales might be out near the Bering Sea by now, where they are at risk from whale hunters in that region. Kirk tells her that they can’t leave yet, because their comrade Chekov has been captured. Monitoring phone calls, Uhura tells Kirk and Gillian that Chekov is being prepared for emergency brain surgery at Mercy Hospital. Gillian offers to help them get their man back.

Stealing hospital scrubs, Kirk, McCoy and Gillian disguise themselves as doctors and infiltrate the hospital. Gillian lies on a gurney, pretending to be in agony (“cramps”) in order to get into the operating room where Chekov is being readied. Locking Chekov’s would-be surgeons into a supply room, McCoy uses his advanced, non-invasive 23rd century medical tools to heal Chekov’s brain hemorrhage without drills or other ‘medieval’ 20th century medical tools. With a recovered Chekov, the four of them make for a broadly comical escape from the hospital (as mentioned earlier, Rosenman’s music bludgeons the humor instead of punctuating it). Along the way, McCoy casually slips an elderly dialysis patient a pill, which allows her to grow a new kidney within minutes (forget that whole ‘non-inference directive’ thing, right?). Once inside a hospital elevator, the four are beamed back to Golden Gate Park, where Kirk offers Gillian his thanks in exchange for the whales’ radio frequency. She tells him it’s 401 megahertz, and just as the admiral calls to be beamed up, she grabs him in a bearhug (“Surprise!”), allowing herself to be beamed aboard as well (good thing the Klingon transporter didn’t splice their DNA together.. . just saying ).

Lifting off from the park, the still-cloaked Bird of Prey makes course for the Bering Sea, between Alaska and Russia. Kirk confronts Gillian for tricking him, but she irrefutably reminds him that he will need her whale expertise in the 23rd century. Point taken. As they close in on the whales’ transmitters, they see a Scandinavian whaling vessel in hot pursuit! Closing the distance between them, Sulu hovers over the whaling ship—and turns off the cloaking device! The shock of the massive UFO causes the whalers to abort their hunt and get the hell out of there. With the whalers no longer a threat, Scotty beams George and Gracie (and the water that surrounds them) aboard their “little aquarium.”

Taking Gillian down to have a look at the whales, Gillian is delighted to see her whales again, safe and sound…for the moment. Scotty then reports a power drop, and Kirk rushes to the bridge, where he learns Sulu is unable to achieve the necessary escape velocity from the sun’s powerful gravity well. Spock takes control of the craft’s acceleration thrusters, giving the ship the necessary oomph to make ‘breakaway speed’ in order to achieve time warp. They enter time warp, and again, lose consciousness…

Note: There are major continuity issues with warp speeds in the film. At warp 9 point whatever it was, the journey around the sun should’ve happened in the blink of an eye, not several minutes. Furthermore, Sulu takes the ship to warp speed within Earth’s atmosphere after they rescue George and Gracie… really? Warp drive within a planetary atmosphere ? In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Kirk was reluctant to engage warp drive while still “within the Solar system.” Oh, and did I mention their cloaking shields were off, meaning that anyone on the ground or in the air could’ve seen that little trick? Moving on…

Safely ‘back to the future’, the Klingon ship is rendered powerless by the orbiting cetacean probe, which causes it to splash down into San Francisco Bay. As their spaceship begins to sink, Kirk orders the crew to abandon ship. Gillian tells Kirk they have to free the air-breathing whales from the cargo hold before they drown; humpback whales can only hold their breath for about a half hour before they need to surface. Holding his own breath, Kirk swims below and opens a manual release to the bay doors, which frees the whales into the Bay. As rain pours outside, Kirk, Gillian and the crew gather along the still-buoyant uppermost hull of their sinking vessel. Curiously the freed whales remain silent, not yet answering the thunderous calls from the orbiting probe…

The whales hear the call of the probe, and angle their bodies into a downward bearing. A conversation between the whales and the probe ensues (much like the musical ‘conversation’ in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”). Suddenly, the conversation ceases, and the probe moves away from Earth orbit.

Note: I love that the writers/filmmakers refused to subtitle the conversation between the whales and the probe. Like the monolith in “2001: A Space Odyssey”, their conversation should remain enigmatic; it’s between them , not us . It’s also never explained exactly why the probe wreaked havoc with Earth’s weather systems when it failed to contact the whales. Was this a natural side-effect of its signal, or was it deliberately vaporizing the oceans in response to a lack of response? And if only seeking out humpback whales, why was its devastating signal activated so far away from the Sol system? I wonder if Spock could mind-meld with the whales and learn exactly what they said to each other, and if it will ever return again? Perhaps that’s a potential subject for a future Star Trek novel (unless someone’s tackled it already).

As the probe exits our solar system, the weather, as well as Earth’s artificial power systems, both begin to function normally again. Storm clouds break and sunlight hits the Bay. The crew are overjoyed, and they begin playing in the water like kids in a swimming pool. Kirk even yanks Spock off of the Bird of Prey’s exterior ladder right into the drink, forcing the Vulcan to break out with an uncharacteristic grimace of indignation (you can hear Nimoy make an audible “Aaaagh!” ). The aquatic frivolities soon come to an end, as we see a rescue shuttle from Starfleet Command close in on the sinking Bird of Prey…

The action then returns to the business of Kirk and his crew’s court-martials over the charges stemming from their actions in Star Trek III. Spock, back in Starfleet uniform, leaves the gallery to stand with his shipmates. Due to the “certain mitigating circumstances” (saving the world and such), the Federation president informs them that all the charges have been dropped, save one; the charge of disobeying a senior officer, which is directed solely at Admiral Kirk. For his ‘punishment’, Kirk is reduced in rank to captain, and as a consequence of his new rank, he’s being given what he’s best suited for–command of a starship. The court martial is dismissed as the gallery breaks into applause, hugs, handshakes and smiles (we even see a pair of smiling Vulcan delegates… oops!). Gillian meets up with Kirk to tell him she’s been assigned to a science vessel (300 years of catch-up learning). Before she leaves a near-speechless Kirk, she gives him a kiss on the cheek, promising to “see ya around the galaxy” (that line still sounds positively Buck Rogers ). This is one of the rare times Kirk didn’t get the girl, though she did pay for their dinner date.

There is also a nice, understated reconciliation of sorts between ambassador Sarek and his resurrected son Spock. After years of disapproving of his son’s military career, Sarek tells his son that his associates are people of good character. “They are my friends,” replies Spock. Asked if he has a message for his human mother back on Vulcan, Spock says with the slightest of smiles, “Yes, tell her… I feel fine .” Father and son then give their customary “live long and prosper” farewells to each other, as Spock joins his captain.

Aboard a travel pod within the massive orbital spacedock complex, the former mutineers-turned-heroes are off to their next assignment, which remains a subject of mystery and speculation. Cynic McCoy assumes they’ll get a freighter. Sulu pines for the USS Excelsior (his future command in Star Trek VI), but Kirk doesn’t really care, simply saying, “a ship is a ship.” Their tiny pod travels towards the giant saucer section of the USS Excelsior…

… only to glide over it, to the ship beyond– another refit-Constitution class starship. This new ship bears the name the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A (in the movie’s novelization, it was a rechristened USS Yorktown). Overjoyed at a second chance, Kirk speaks for his shipmates, and perhaps the audience, when he says, “My friends? We’ve come home .”

On a gleaming white bridge, Kirk tells helmsman Sulu, “Let’s see what she’s got!” The ship then streaks off at warp speeds into ‘the final frontier’ (both figuratively and literally, as that would be the title of the William Shatner-directed next feature film, released three years later in 1989).

Note: The graphics on the new bridge, as well as the Klingon bird of prey, were inexpensive backlit transparencies called “Okudagrams,” named after graphic artists (and future Star Trek historians) Michael and Denise Okuda, who would also work together on The Next Generation, and every subsequent Star Trek movie and TV series through 2005.

Spock in Command.

Star Trek IV was director Leonard Nimoy’s second feature film, and when contrasted with his work in Star Trek III, it’s clear that, as Nimoy put it, “the training wheels came off.” Star Trek III was a fine entry in the canon, but it’s often maligned for its shortcomings (lack of scope, predictable story, a television- look ) rather than its strengths (emphasis on character, humor). With Star Trek IV, Nimoy’s style had matured dramatically.

Even the cinematography (under new director of photography Don Peterman) was much more natural, and less harshly lit. Actual locations around San Francisco (as well as Monterey and Los Angeles) gave the film tremendous scope that the somewhat claustrophobic, all-indoor sets of STIII lacked. Even the widescreen images are better composed this time, as Nimoy’s confidence clearly grew.

Even the humorous interplay between the actors, who were already a longtime troupe of 20 years at this point, feels more natural as well. Nimoy had already directed theater and television (“T.J. Hooker”, “The Night Gallery”), but he was clearly coming into his own as a feature film director as well. He would find even greater mainstream success a year later with the hit comedy “Three Men and a Baby” (1987).

Personal Log.

I was privileged to have met Leonard Nimoy in the summer of 2009, at San Diego Comic Con, when he was enjoying mainstream success with JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” movie. When I met him, we spoke only briefly, but he was very kind and was very forgiving of starstruck fans like myself. In fact, meeting Nimoy was one of only a handful of times I recall being genuinely starstruck, and I freely admit this. This was a man whose talents I’ve idolized since I was a little kid– not to mention that my kid sister had a huge crush on him as well (hehe).

My sister and I were also big fans of Nimoy’s admittedly cheesy but fun syndicated investigative series “In Search Of” (the name of which was jokingly referenced for “The Search For Spock”). I also enjoyed his role in 1978’s “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (where he played an ‘emotionless’ pod person who’s snatched the body of a renowned pop psychologist). The actor-director was also known for his somewhat controversial nude photography of plus-sized women, which was quite innovative and arguably ahead of its time, now that acceptance of different body images has permeated the mainstream, including the covers of Sports Illustrated and various glamour magazines. Nimoy also shot fascinating photos of abstract Jewish iconography as well, which were his way of recognizing and honoring his lifetime faith. Nimoy’s passing was the lost of an innovative artist in so many fields. Despite the actors who’ve played the Spock character since (Zachary Quinto, Ethan Peck), there was only one Leonard Nimoy. Others can certainly assume the Spock role, but Nimoy’s interpretation was both iconic and unique. Sadly, Leonard Nimoy, actor, director and photographer, passed away in 2015 at age 83.

I also had a chance to meet the delightful Catherine Hicks at a convention in Burbank back in 2013. Sweet lady with a beaming smile. We talked a bit about her playing Marilyn Monroe in theTV movie “Marilyn: The Untold Story” (1980). In the film, Hicks captured both the innocence and sadness of the late movie star, and she seemed to really enjoy talking about the role. She told me she didn’t do many conventions and wasn’t even sure how largely to sign her autograph. It was all very new to her, and she was somewhat taken aback by the enduring popularity of her role as Dr. Gillian Taylor ( still can’t imagine Eddie Murphy in that role, however differently written …). I really enjoyed talking with her.

I’ve met other stars of Star Trek, including Nichelle Nichols, whom I’ve met several times, in San Diego, Las Vegas and in Los Angeles. Such a grand lady. While I’m saddened that she’s retired from doing conventions (due to various health issues), I’m just grateful that I’ve had opportunities to meet this lovely woman, and that I can share those encounters here on this site. A friend of mine recently met her last summer at the annual Star Trek Vegas convention, and I loved seeing him geek out over meeting her as well.

Achieving balance.

STIV would be the first Star Trek movie that managed to break out into the mainstream (a feat not repeated until 2009’s “Star Trek”). Suddenly even non-Trekkies talked around water coolers about “the one with the whales.” In a decade full of popular movies about various fish-out-of-water (“Beverly Hills Cop,” “Crocodile Dundee,” “Red Heat,” “Twins,” “Moscow on the Hudson”), “Star Trek IV” fit right in. Despite its mainstream popularity, the film was no less Star Trek, either. STIV managed to steer away from the heavier, black-hat sagas of the previous two (and subsequent ) Star Trek movies and told a genuine science fiction story.

Screenwriters Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer (both of whom were longtime good luck charms for the Trek franchise) crafted a deft screenplay about contemporary species extinction and its possible effect on future ecological balance, which was precisely the kind of story Star Trek might’ve done back in the 1960s (time & money permitting, of course). Key to the movie’s success was that it also brought back much of the humor we saw in the original series as well. The humor sold the heavier ecological message, and the result was a popular sci-fi crowd pleaser that works just as well as a mainstream comedy, but without compromising its integrity. “The Voyage Home” was, and is Star Trek “firing on all thrusters.”

COVID-Friendly Viewing.

“Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” is available for streaming on CBS All Access & Tubi TV in the United States, and for rental on Prime Video, YouTube ($2.99 US). It can, of course, also be purchased on Blu Ray/DVD via contact-free shipping through Amazon.com, among other retailers.

To my readers, I once again wish you and all of your loved ones good health and strength during the current coronavirus pandemic as well. The current number of COVID-19 related deaths in the United States is nearing 182, 000 as of this writing (that number is increasing daily ). So, for the time being, please continue to practice social safe-distancing wherever possible, wear masks in public, and avoid crowded outings as much as possible.

Live long and prosper!

In 1986, Star Trek pushed a Greenpeace agenda as a blockbuster movie. It worked.

The legacy of 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage' is more than just a goofy movie time travel movie. Here's how it changed our world for the better.

After James T. Kirk stole Doc Brown’s ride, he decided to go back in time and save the whales.

You might think I’m describing some quirky fanfiction or a deleted scene from Ready Player One . But, the truth is, the Klingon ship Kirk and company commandeered in Star Trek IV to travel back in time to 1986, was owned by Klingon Commander Kruge, who, in 1984’s Star Trek III , was played by Christopher Lloyd (who went on to become much more famous as Doc Brown in 1985’s Back to the Future ).

By stealing that specific craft, the crew of the late Starship Enterprise was destined to go on a time-travel adventure. But unlike any other time-travel romp dating to the 1980s, this journey is a creative piece of commentary on a nascent environmentalism movement that put endangered species at its heart. In the fall of 1986, one year after Back to the Future , Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home not only became a transtemporal box-office hit, it also propelled climate change and concern for endangered species into the mainstream.

In short, Star Trek tried to literally save the whales in 1986, and it basically worked.

Welcome to FUTURE EARTH , where Inverse forecasts 100 years of possibilities, challenges, and who will lead the way.

Prior to J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot in 2009, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home held the record for the Star Trek feature film with the most successful box office, ever . The movie opened over Thanksgiving weekend in 1986 and went on to gross $109,713,132. To put this in perspective, Top Gun , which was the number one movie of 1986, made $176,781,728. Yes, Top Gun was the top gun, but The Voyage Home was right up there. Until J.J. Abrams, it was Star Trek’s most popular crossover film, which is saying something considering the film lacks both violence and sex. In 1986, the Trek franchise went toe-to-toe with the horror of Aliens and the sexy action of Top Gun and, while it didn’t quite win, it came out as a serious contender.

A view on Earth in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" movie

The mysterious probe in The Voyage Home . All it wants to do is to talk to some whales...

Co-written by Wrath of Khan maestro Nicholas Meyer , and directed by Leonard Nimoy, The Voyage Home was a political film imbued with environmental activism masquerading as a fish-out-of-water comedy. So, it turns out, humpback whales are just as intelligent as humans, and, at some point in the past, communicated only in whale song to this particular alien probe that looks like a smoother version of ʻOumuamua.

The movie sets out a humbling idea: If aliens were to make contact with Earth, they might not necessarily want to talk to humans. As Spock (Leonard Nimoy, directing himself) puts it “Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man.” When this alien probe rolls up on Earth, hoping to talk to some whales, the probe’s transmission sounds one way from the air, but totally different underwater. These signals are also destructive and require an answer that can’t be given because, in the Star Trek universe, humpback whales are extinct.

Once Spock and Uhura realize that the probe’s signals sound different underwater, there’s only one option; get some whales and hope those whales, as Bones says, “tell this probe what the hell to go do with itself.” Kirk decides time-travel to 1986 is the only possible solution. So, not only is their mission to find humpback whales in the past but also to bring them forward in time to the future. No one has ever called this movie Star Trek Some Whales Back to the Future , but that’s what happens.

The Voyage Home starts with this tough talk, and then, less than 15-minutes later, dumps the famous Starfleet crew into a comedy of errors on the streets of San Francisco in 1986. During the trip back in time, the stolen Klingon ship is broken (of course) and the crew has to figure out how to build a whale tank that can fit inside of their (broken) spaceship.

William Shatner as Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Spock in Star Trek

Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) in a pawn shop, selling some antique glasses to have enough cash to get around in the 20th Century.

This means Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Bones, Uhura, Scotty, and Chekov are super busy. Sulu flies a helicopter expertly but forgets how to use windshield wipers. Chekov gets mistaken for a quirky Russian spy. And, best of all, Spock tries out profanity for the first time, referring to swear words as “colorful metaphors.” There’s never been a science-fiction time-travel romp quite like The Voyage Home , probably best exemplified by the moment Spock uses a Vulcan nerve pinch to silence a rowdy punk’s boom box on a city bus.

But The Voyage Home’s overarching message comes to the fore in an over-the-top scene in which Spock literally connects his mind with that of a whale. The idea is elegant: If human beings possessed Spock’s telepathic powers, we too might connect with other creatures and, in turn, have a greater understanding and compassion for the other, defenseless denizens of our world. The heart of the movie is when Spock jumps into a giant whale tank and mind-melds with a humpback whale named Gracie. Later, when cetacean biologist Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks) accuses Spock of “messing with my whales,” Spock fires back “They like you very much, but they are not the hell your whales.” The whales own themselves and Spock respects that.

The Star Trek characters come from a more enlightened future, and they’re ashamed of the actions of humankind in the “past” — the present for moviegoers of the ‘80s. In 1986, humpback whales really were on the endangered species list. In the movie’s final scenes, Kirk puts his stolen Klingon spaceship directly between a whaler’s harpoon and Spock’s new whale friends, saving them from humanity. For an audience unaware of environmental activism, it was a wake-up call.

“Greenpeace used to go out in rubber rafts in front of the Russian ships to try to prevent them from firing their harpoons, and that’s where that idea came from.”

“There’s a homage to Greenpeace in the movie because the idea of putting the spaceship between the whaling ship and the whales and being hit by the harpoon has Greenpeace roots,” Leonard Nimoy said in a 1986 interview. “Greenpeace used to go out in rubber rafts in front of the Russian ships to try to prevent them from firing their harpoons, and that’s where that idea came from.”

In 1986, Greenpeace representatives noted that while The Voyage Home played fast and loose with the truth, “the message is right on the money.″ After the movie’s release, there was an uptick in donations to Greenpeace, according to the organization. In fact, Greenpeace went so far as to say that the film “subtly reinforces why Greenpeace exists.”

Appropriately, Star Trek IV did not employ real whales in filming. Other than some stock footage toward the end of the film, the vast majority of the whales in the film were animatronic; a special effect so good that nobody noticed.

Star Trek IV’s influence on real conservation efforts in the 1980s is hard to quantify today. In 2016, the humpback whale was removed from a federal endangered species list, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration called the humpback whale comeback “an ecological success story.” When that happened, several publications pointed out a link between Star Trek IV and the resurgence of humpback whales. Quite literally, Star Trek’s cautionary tale seemed to usher in a better future in which whales didn’t go extinct in the 21st century.

It is impossible to prove a direct link between The Voyage Home and the de-escalation of whale hunting in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Correlation and causation are two different things, after all. In truth, years of dedicated environmental activism, political action, and education did the hard work. But it’s also true that Star Trek IV opened up a lot of people’s eyes to humanity’s cruelty toward whales and the perilous state of their survival.

At one point in the film, Bones quips that the 20th century is like “the Dark Ages” to his future, enlightened eyes. But, perhaps because of a quirky and bold Star Trek movie, some of us started to see the light.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is streaming for free on Pluto TV . It’s also streaming on Paramount+.

This article was originally published on April 20, 2021

Environment
Science Fiction

Star Trek IV Was Originally About Saving Something Much Smaller Than Whales

After the release of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" in 1991, a consensus began to form among Trekkies as to which Trek movie was the best. Most fans agreed that the even-numbered films — "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and "Country" — were the good ones, while the odd-numbered film — "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," and "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" — were the bad ones. This is arguably an unfair assessment, although "Final Frontier" is still often considered the worst in the series, and "Voyage Home" remains one of the most popular.

Indeed, "Voyage Home," even when not adjusted for inflation, remains the most financially successful "Star Trek" movie released before 2009 . This might seem unusual to a 21st-century eye, as "Voyage Home" was a fish-out-of-water time travel comedy and not a revenge-motivated action flick.

In the film, Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), the recently resurrected Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed), and the rest of the crew of the now-destroyed U.S.S. Enterprise return to Earth to face the consequences of their actions committed in "Star Trek III." They find the Earth's oceans are being drained by an unknown alien probe looking for humpback whales, a species hunted to extinction a century ago. Using a broken-down Klingon ship, Kirk and co. travel back in time to retrieve whales from the year 1986.

In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, the makers of "Star Trek IV" revealed that they initially thought of a different endangered species to rescue, namely: the snail darter, a recently discovered fish that was about three inches long.

There be whales here

Nimoy noted that he and producer Harve Bennett initially thought up a time-travel story for "Star Trek IV" and that "we should lighten up. The picture should be fun in comparison to the previous three." Nimoy also wanted the film to be centered on ecology and visited several universities to talk to environmental scientists and futurists to get their immediate concerns about the future. Ultimately, Nimoy said, those conversations spun off into philosophy and theory , leading to some deep consideration about how human contact with extraterrestrials might potentially change notions of religion and sociology. Fun conversations, to be sure, but not quite what Nimoy needed to form a story for a "Star Trek" script.

It wasn't until he met with a particular author that notions of biodiversity — as a direct story element — began to enter Nimoy's mind in earnest. The director said:

"In [Edward O. Wilson's] book Biophilia, he tells us we could be losing as many as ten thousand species off this planet per year—many of them having gone unrecorded. We won't even have known what they were and they will be gone. He touches on the concept of a keystone species. If you set up a house of cards you may be able to pull away one card successfully and another card successfully. But at some point you are going to get a card that is a keystone card. When that one is pulled away, the whole thing will collapse."

Wilson's book is easy enough to find online .

The "keystone," Nimoy pointed out, could be any species on Earth, and that it was wise to protect them. Throughout the 1980s, the slogan "Save the Whales" was largely touted on bumper stickers and by environmental activists.

Lo, there was Nimoy's "hook."

The snail darter

Nimoy liked the idea of saving the whales, but there was a bit of a creative difference. Harve Bennett had the idea, according to StarTrek.com , to make the small snail darter the object of the time traveler's hunt. Bennett felt that it would be more poetic if the fate of the Earth rested in the hands (fins?) of an overlooked, seemingly insignificant species. In "The Fifty-Year Mission," executive producer Ralph Winter recalls hearing Nimoy talking about the snail darter, and how it was kind of a terrible idea. Winter said:

"It was Leonard's idea about saving the whales as opposed to, as he famously said, 'trying to save the snail darter.' Saving whales made it a bigger movie."

Indeed, saving whales made for a more dramatic story, as gathering them up and transporting them onto a starship required far more elaborate logistics. A small fry could merely be carried in a glass bowl.

Importantly, though, Leonard Nimoy wanted a lighter tone than the previous movies. He found an efficient ecology story, but he wanted to eschew the headiness of the first film, the action of the second, and the tragedy of the third. Nimoy said:

"I just felt it was time to lighten up and have some fun. That meant that if we were going to do time travel, the best thing we could do was come back to contemporary Earth, where we could have some fun with our people. They would more or less be a fish out of water on the streets."

Nimoy's instincts were correct. Audiences loved "The Voyage Home."

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home's Whales Left Fans Furious - But Shouldn't Have

In the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," the now-former crew of the Starship Enterprise travels back in time to 1986 — the year of the film's release — in hopes of capturing a humpback whale and transporting it to their present. According to Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a probe causing havoc on Earth is doing so via a signal that resembles a humpback whale's cry. Since the species is extinct as of the film's present day, they require the use of time travel to obtain a whale that can counteract the signal.

Meanwhile, in the past, Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew helps defend some of the humpback whales they encounter from whalers. As detailed in a retrospective about "Star Trek IV" on the official "Star Trek website" based on primary documents archived by its writer Nicholas Meyer, several of the film's viewers sent in angry letters protesting its whale scenes. These people, it turns out, thought that the production must have disrupted its whale subjects' natural habitats, contrary to its pro-environmental message.

Those whales, however, were not real. They were models designed and supervised by Michael Lanteri, who won an Oscar for "Jurassic Park" and even helped create the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disneyland. While the film does feature some limited footage of real-life whales, those shots are all from afar. The close-ups that inspired angry letters, notably, are all artificial.

Fans are impressed by the artificial whales to this day

After the official "Star Trek" website published this account of the letters that falsely alleged mistreatment of whales, the info served as the subject of a popular thread on the Today I Learned subreddit . Its top comment, by u/KeithCarter4897 , reads, "They were fake? TIL..." Based on upvotes from more than 1,000 users, it seems apparent that plenty of others familiar with the film were also surprised by the fact that its whales were fabricated.

Meanwhile, in response to a comment linking to a now-deleted clip of some of the film's fake whale footage, u/illBro wrote, "Those are some good looking animatronics." This received 200 upvotes, indicating that many additional users appreciated the quality of the special effects. The contingent of the film's original viewership unintentionally deceived by the whale models, then, is at least backed by plenty of present-day viewers who have found the artificial whales to hold up even to today's higher VFX standards.

What’s The Viewscreen?
Donation Success!
Star Trek: The Animated Series Re-Watch Index
Star Trek Movies I-VI Re-Watch Index
Related Posts Index
The Re-Watches
Ten Forward
Star Trek: The Next Generation Re-Watch Index
Privacy Policy
Star Trek Re-Watch Index
Laugh Treks

Re-Watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star trek iv: the voyage home.

Release date: November 26, 1986 Stardate: 8390.0 (aka 1986)

Mission Summary

The crew of the Enterprise has been court-martialed by Klingon request for the ship stolen and the lives lost in Star Trek III . Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, a mysterious probe that disables just about everything is headed straight for Earth. The probe sends a signal no one can understand, and when it doesn’t get a response it begins to vaporize the Earth’s oceans and ionize its atmosphere: a recipe for disaster. Spock, newly born again, discovers that the signal is the song of the humpback whale: extinct since the 21st century. In classic Star Trek fashion, the crew go back in time to 1986 San Francisco to nab themselves some humpback whales. Once there, Kirk and Spock seek out whales; Scotty, Sulu, and McCoy look for materials to build a whale tank; and Chekov and Uhura look for replacement energy for their spent dilithium crystals. Scotty, Sulu, and McCoy trade a formula for transparent aluminum to get the tank materials, while Uhura and Chekov find a nuclear wessel for fuel. Kirk and Spock meet a Dr. Taylor, a whale biologist whose two whales are set to be released into the wild, endangering them both. Though she initially refuses to let Kirk and Spock have their tracking codes. when the whales are released early without her knowledge she agrees, hopping aboard the starship and ultimately deciding to return with her whales and the crew to the future.

Safely home, the whales shake off the probe, all charges against Kirk’s crew are dropped, and Kirk accepts a demotion to captain.

The Voyage Home is the first Star Trek I can remember, and though it’s not my absolute favorite of the films (or the series) it remains the closest to my heart. The “Cetacean Institute” (the Monterey Bay Aquarium) was about half hour from where I grew up and a frequent destination for my younger self. There were no whales, but there was plenty of giant kelp and many playful sea otters, a lovely touch pool, and more information about the salty deep than you could shake a phaser at. At the time I desperately wanted to be a marine biologist, so you can imagine my fondness for Dr. Gillian Taylor, the environmental message, and the bittersweet ending of George and Gracie getting a whole ocean to themselves. It wasn’t until much later that I came to appreciate the Star Trek aspect and since then I’ve seen it many, many times.

It’s easy to point out what makes this movie so different from all other Star Trek movies: comedy. I can’t help but admire the brilliance of applying the usual fish-out-of-water* shtick that our heroes usually go through any time they visit a planet and have it be our planet in our time. Some fans believed the tone shift decision to be a crass (if savvy) attempt to attract a larger audience, but I think it remains as true to Star Trek as any other film. The Motion Picture , Wrath of Khan , and The Search for Spock are dark, dark films. Death is everywhere. The first has a doomsday machine, a transporter accident, and the deaths of two bridge officers. The second kills Spock, and the third kills Kirk’s son. Good comedy can highlight all the same tensions and fears as drama, and yet be a release from them. They say laughter heals all wounds; the moment for something life-affirming had definitely come.

A great example of this happens very early on in the film. When McCoy approaches Spock on their way back to Earth, and they have this exchange:

McCOY: Umm. Well, I just wanted to say it sure is nice to have your katra back in your head, not mine. What I mean is I may have carried your soul, but I sure couldn’t fill your shoes. SPOCK: My shoes. McCOY: Forget it! Perhaps we could cover a little philosophical ground? Life, death, life. Things of that nature? SPOCK: I did not have time on Vulcan to review the philosophical disciplines. McCOY: Come on Spock, it’s me, McCoy! You really have gone where no man has gone before. Can’t you tell me what it felt like? SPOCK: It would be impossible to discuss the subject without a common frame of reference. McCOY: You’re joking! SPOCK: A joke is a story with a humorous climax. McCOY: You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death? SPOCK: Forgive me, doctor, I am receiving a number of distress calls. McCOY: I don’t doubt it!

This is one of my all-time favorite little character moments. It’s funny, yes, but it reveals so much about where these characters have come from and how much they’ve changed. McCoy feels closer to Spock having not just carried his soul but fully appreciated his absence. He missed the guy. His line about never filling his shoes is such a sweet thing to say, and yet there’s a hint of tragedy in that Spock can’t (yet) appreciate the emotion or sincerity of it.

Spock is back from the edge of the abyss, in many ways like a child learning how to walk and talk and think all over again. Uncertain steps mark his curiosity toward humans, and yet by the end, Spock is laughing it up and having a great time as they all splash around in the water. The strength of the film is evident by how natural that scene seems, and how well the movie gets us from Point A to Point B without the transition feeling forced or insincere. I’ve always really liked the frame story of Amanda encouraging him to be in touch with his human side because it makes his efforts to fit in on Earth that much more endearing. He really means every ill-fated attempt to be one of the guys, and I especially respect and admire that Spock’s absolute commitment to the truth is never really the butt of the joke. Rather, Kirk’s attempts to “cover” for Spock, to reframe, rephrase, and reinterpret his speech and behavior, are where the humor finds fertile ground. Shatner soaks up the attention, playing the smooth, canny, and yet utterly overwhelmed funny man to Nimoy’s pitch-perfect straight man. The two make a golden comedy duo, and bless Catherine Hicks for holding her own in all those scenes.

They’re not the only ones, of course. I’ve seen this movie at least a dozen times, but the jokes never seem to get old and I laughed just as loudly this time around as I did the first time. Finally everyone gets to have a little fun with their characters. The banter here is perfectly on point and you get such a fantastic sense of the actors bringing to the surface a lot of what had always been alluded to, yet never shown, in the original series. Chekov finally get to take the clash of cultures jokes to the next level; Scotty relishes the chance to play an active role. Sulu is completely in love with his city no matter the time period, and McCoy, for once, gets to play the straight man (with a dash of crankiness). The one who gets short shrift is Uhura, who just seems along for the ride. (A waste of talent, if you ask me. She makes a great comedienne in Star Trek VI , trying to learn Klingon.)

For a time travel story, The Voyage Home makes the most sense of any similar stories I’ve seen. (The exception is how they actually get there. I still laugh every time Kirk suggests going back in time as the obvious solution, as if it were as simple as reversing the polarity, but what can you do.) The way that information unfolds and the characters make discoveries is eminently plausible and intuitive. Kirk makes money the first order of business. The aquarium would advertise on a bus. The yellow pages ad is a stroke of genius. Most of the characters walk to get where they’re going, and they do their best based on a hodgepodge of historical trivia to fit in. Sure they conflate a few centuries, but they’re actually pretty good at it. I love the sense that these characters have done this all before, and even with all their gaffes they’re pretty systematic and professional about it. All those “just like Earth!” planets have come in handy.

It should be obvious that I adore this film. I use it as a gateway drug to get others into the franchise because of its accessibility. It’s a great introduction to each of the characters, unabashedly silly and entertaining, and yet quintessentially Star Trek . The now-dated world of 1986 just adds to the charm.

One note, though: even on my billionth re-watch there’s something I don’t quite get. Is the implication that the whales have been actively communicating with aliens (or their probes, whatever) for millions of years? Or just that the aliens/their probes pick up the phone once or twice every geologic age and check in?

*How could I resist?

Torie’s Rating: Warp 6

Eugene Myers: This movie is kind of awesome.

I’m tempted to leave it at that. I wrote that comment in my notes (I do take notes while re-watching these, the better to analyze the material) pretty early in the film, sometime during the first scene at Starfleet headquarters—incidentally, the first scene ever at Starfleet headquarters, as we know it, which may have accounted for some of my enthusiasm.

It wasn’t a surprise that Star Trek IV is good—it’s always been one of my favorites—but I was surprised at how much fun it is, and excited at all the rest of the film to come. “Awesome” was, in fact, the running commentary at the back of my mind through the entire film. Either I’ve seen this movie many more times than I thought, or it’s simply incredibly memorable, because I remembered most of the dialogue just before it was spoken and reveled in hearing it again. I commented to Torie later that this film is like two hours of “best lines,” but that isn’t only a testament to the script, but to the actors. Their relationships and dialogue completely fit the characters we’ve known and loved, spring-boarding from what came before in the television show.

Before beginning this re-watch, I couldn’t recall the theme music at all. But as soon as the opening titles began, it all came back to me. (This is my favorite opening, by the way, simply because the title of the film beams in. Sometimes it doesn’t take much to please me.) The music may not be as sophisticated as Goldsmith’s and Horner’s symphonic scores–which were integrated as motifs through TMP, TWoK, and TSFS–but the score from (to me, unknown) Leonard Rosenman is very good. And it’s entirely appropriate to the more lighthearted tone and adventurous spirit of this film. The music seems more classical to my untrained ears than those that came before, and oddly evokes more of the high-seas capers than the Hornblower-inspired TWoK—though even this seems fitting for a film that features a ship named the H.M.S. Bounty , which actually visits the open sea. This is the most nautical Star Trek gets, until Star Trek Generations brings us aboard a 19 th century Enterprise on the holodeck, or Data sings from H.M.S. Pinafore ( Insurrection ).

Awesome and fun as this movie is, I struggled to find something deeper to say about it. It isn’t as weighty as those that preceded it, by design, but it does serve an important function to the characters and films. I talked earlier about how TMP is a return to the status quo, getting the principals back where they belong so they could continue the voyages we remember them for. In some sense, TVH does the same thing, but I look at it more as the antithesis of TMP.

Both TMP and TVH concern an alien probe that approaches Earth, wreaking havoc in its wake and posing a seemingly impossible problem for humans to solve. In fact, both films feature rather similar dialogue assessing the situation.

DECKER: Jim, V’Ger expects an answer. KIRK: An answer? I don’t know the question.

And in TVH:

FEDERATION PRESIDENT: There seems to be no way we can answer this Probe. SAREK: It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.

Now, Sarek could have lifted that from Kirk’s mind during their mind-meld in the previous film, but it does set up an interesting contrast between the two films, which is broadened by the difference in the ultimate solution.

Spock says, “There are other forms of intelligence on Earth, Doctor. Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man.” Not only is this an incredibly insightful and time-saving leap of logic from the only resident non-human onboard, but it could be a criticism of TMP, in which the message was meant for man. Sometimes it’s better not to know everything, and I’ve always loved that the Probe is never really explained (at least, not in canon). It just is.

I was especially struck at the difference in Kirk’s responses to the threats to Earth. In TMP, Kirk acts as though he is the only person who can save the planet, and uses the threat as an opportunity to get back his command. (He’s also indecisive and incompetent.) In TVH, Kirk is only concerned with finding a way to save lives; he leaps into action, trying to solve the problem and try anything to make contact with the probe. When he decides to attempt to destroy it, it is reluctantly, only after it seems there is no other way. He is completely assured and back at the top of his game, and he basically wins everything based on his cleverness and charm. This is the Kirk we want to see.

Nearly all of TMP is devoted to answering the question, but in TVH they know the answer at the beginning and have to find a way of delivering it. Star Trek IV is about communication, learning how to connect with the probe—and especially with each other. Like his father, Spock faces a question he does not understand: “How do you feel?”

When TMP begins, Spock has devoted his studies to purging his mind of all emotion and abandoning his human heritage. Spock is in a similar place at the start of TVH: he has lost his connection to his human half, nor does he particularly want it back, except because his mother wishes it. (And mother knows best.) Spock essentially resets to the person he was in the original series, struggling with his human half and trying to understand his alien crewmates, which leads to some of the same kind of humor that was so successful on Star Trek , particularly between him and Dr. McCoy. He has lost the comfortable balance and maturity that he had achieved when we see him in TWoK, and regaining it forms his character arc.

At first I didn’t entirely understand why this film is considered part of a “trilogy” with II and III, other than the fact that it picks up where the events of the previous films left off, since it has such a distinct storyline. But as with the Probe, the plot is merely incidental since this film continues Spock’s story and brings him full circle back to where he was.

At the beginning of TVH, Spock tells his mother that he has decided to accompany Kirk and the others back to Earth not out of friendship but because, as he says, “I was there.” By the end of the film, Spock finally understands the question and has discovered the answer. He tells the President: “I stand with my shipmates.”

I initially criticized the shots of Spock laughing and smiling in the water at the end of the film, before deciding that this is the only moment he truly demonstrates and acknowledges his human half, without the influence of spores or alien intervention. His human friends provide a “safe space” in which Spock can show emotion—and this is such a joyful moment, one of the purest in the entire franchise. How often are they allowed to celebrate the fact that they’ve just beaten incredible odds and saved the world?

The plot on the whole succeeds, largely because a) the goals are clearly established and b) it all moves too quickly for us to think about it much. But objectively speaking, it’s kind of silly. It also works because it draws, once again, on a standard plot element from the original series, time travel, even using the same “slingshot” technique that was employed in “The Naked Time,” “Assignment: Earth,” and “Tomorrow is Yesterday.”

In fact, it’s rather remarkable that there isn’t any attempt to catch up viewers at all. It’s as if they have decided only to cater to those who have already seen the original series and the previous films (aside from another montage of video clips from TSFS)—“look, we can travel in time by flying around the sun, just deal with it.” It’s a kind of “damn the consequences” approach that the characters seem to share in the film, and somehow it works.

I think this film has more in common with road trip/buddy movies than with a traditional Star Trek story, with an emphasis on Kirk’s and Spock’s wacky antics together. If the events of this film hadn’t happened, and the crew had been able to proceed to Earth without interruption, Spock would not end where he does, with the understanding that he needs in order to embrace his human half and strengthen the bonds with his friends. Time travel gives them a few more days to get to know each other that they wouldn’t have otherwise had.

Despite my love for TVH, it is not perfect. It may not hold under too much scrutiny, and I am not partial to the bizarre animation that runs during the trip back in time, though it’s better than a shot of the chronometer running backwards. (And it’s interesting in itself, as it foreshadows later events in the film.) The movie contains not one, but two wild chase scenes involving Chekov, which is at least one too many. And it also evokes Moby Dick , more literally in this case than usual.

How is it that in three months on Vulcan, Saavik hasn’t yet told Kirk how his son died? (If you really want to be nitpicky, she did tell him… in the previous movie.) And what is up with the Vulcan Smurf hats?

But there were also several nuances that I had never noticed before. I was delighted when I realized that the Probe was mimicking the position of the whales as they communicated. I also had forgotten this was the first time we saw a woman captain commanding a starship.

Most startling of all was the early plot point about the Klingon-Starfleet peace negotiations, which are briefly referenced in Star Trek III and lay the groundwork for Star Trek VI. I noticed a script credit to Nicholas Meyer in TVH, which I didn’t remember, and I wondered if this was some of his influence, since he picks the Klingon thread up again in his script for the last movie. These tiny nuggets in the background enhance and enrich the overall Star Trek universe, implying an ongoing story beyond the events of the films that improve upon the loose continuity and more standalone nature of the original series.

As at the end of television episodes, this film resets everything to the beginning: Spock is back to being comic relief; Kirk is a Captain again, in rank and practice; and there’s even the Enterprise -A (whose bridge oddly reminded me of the bridge from the Abrams movie—it’s brighter than the refit 1701 anyway). But unlike in the series, the characters have learned something. Because of the events of II, III, and IV, they have grown up and grown closer.

Eugene’s Rating: Warp 6

Background Information

Even before the release of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , Paramount asked Leonard Nimoy to direct this installment. He and producer Harve Bennett wanted to take a break from the moody, dark themes of the three previous films and do a comedy with no villain and a clear environmental message. However, Shatner held out for more money (and a directing gig) so Nimoy and Bennett began pre-planning with the assumption Shatner would not be appearing in the film. For at least eight months Bennett and Nimoy contemplated a Starflett Academy prequel. Eventually Shatner got his ransom and signed on for the film. (He and Nimoy each earned over $2 million, which was part of the reason that TNG was cast with unknowns.) Many ideas were tossed around: oil drilling, a disease whose cure was only available pre-rainforest depletion, etc. but all that material seemed too depressing for a comedy. Eventually humpback whales were chosen because of their unique songs and their enormous (and as such, hijinks-inducing) size.

The script went through many iterations. At first, the Dr. Taylor character was a man–a kooky UFO-obsessed nutty professor type, with Eddie Murphy in mind for the role. Though an enormous fan of Star Trek , he turned it down and chose to make The Golden Child instead. (Conflicting stories say either that he wanted to play a Starfleet officer or an alien, or that the studio nixed the idea, not wanting to mix their two biggest franchises, the other being Beverly Hills Cop .) Paramount hated this script and hired Nicholas Meyer to fix it.

Meyer and Bennett wrote a new one (not even reading the first one) in 12 days, with Bennett writing the beginning and end, and Meyer writing the San Francisco portions. Meyer got the idea for Taylor’s character from a profile in National Geographic about another whale biologist. The studio loved it, though some scenes ended up nixed. One such scene involved Takei running into a distant ancestor of his, a young boy. They went so far as to hire an actor and try to film it, but the boy was not a professional actor and they had to scrap the scene (though it survives in the novelization). Chapel had many scenes (some of which were significant), and all were cut aside from a single line of dialogue and a reaction shot, a sad showing for her final appearance ever as Christine Chapel. Saavik had originally remained on Vulcan, pregnant with Spock’s child (thank you, pon farr), and Dr. Taylor remained on earth to renew her commitment to humpback whale preservation, or something.

With a final script in hand, filming began in February 1986. Unlike any other Star Trek film before or since, it was filmed mostly on location in San Francisco. The aircraft carrier scenes were filmed about the USS Ranger , not, alas, the USS Enterprise , which was out to sea and filled to the gills with classified, unfilmable things. Most notably to my own history, Dr. Taylor’s “Cetacean Institute” is actually the Monterey Bay Aquarium , which had opened just two years earlier in my neck of the woods. (Fun fact! It was funded largely by David Packard, of Hewlett-Packard. More interestingly, his daughter Julie Packard, a real life marine biologist, is the current executive director ). Monterey is nowhere near San Francisco, so they digitally added a skyline in the background.

The film was released on November 26, 1986. Until AbramsTrek, it was the highest grossing Trek film ever made, earning $109.1 million dollars in the U.S. alone. Its astounding success prompted the studio to greenlight The Next Generation . Internationally, the movie’s association with the Star Trek brand was de-emphasized because ST III had fared so poorly overseas. It didn’t really work, though: the film only made $24 million abroad.

Best Line: KIRK: Well a double dumbass on you!

Other Favorite Quotes: MCCOY (on Spock): I don’t know if you’ve got the whole picture, but he isn’t exactly working on all thrusters.

McCOY (to Spock): Well, I just wanted to say it sure is nice to have your katra back in your head, not mine. What I mean is I may have carried your soul, but I sure couldn’t fill your shoes.

McCOY: Come on Spock, it’s me, McCoy! You really have gone where no man has gone before!

McCOY: You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death? SPOCK: Forgive me, Doctor, I am receiving a number of distress calls. McCOY: I don’t doubt it!

KIRK: The rest of you, break up! You look like a cadet review.

SPOCK: What does it mean, “exact change”?

SPOCK: Are you sure it isn’t time for a colorful metaphor?

SCOTTY: Hello, computer?

SPOCK: They like you very much, but they are not the hell your whales. TAYLOR: I … I suppose they told you that, huh? SPOCK: The hell they did.

KIRK: Pavel, talk to me! Name! Rank! CHEKOV: Chekov, Pavel. Rank, admiral.

SAREK: Do you have a message for your mother? SPOCK: Yes. Tell her I feel fine.

Trivia: On January 28, 1986, Challenger broke apart shortly after liftoff killing everyone aboard. The film is dedicated “to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger whose courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond. . . .”

The Voyage Home marks the first involvement of Michael Okuda, who went on to two more decades of design work in the franchise. Here, he created the touchscreen panels (that became de rigeur for all Trek that followed) and the various computer displays.

The punk rocker on the bus who gets nerve-pinched is actually an associate producer, and he wrote the “I Hate You” song playing on the radio himself. The scene was inspired by an an actual experience Nimoy had in New York City. As a New Yorker, I can’t say I’m surprised.

The woman who answers Chekov and Uhura’s question about where to find the nuclear vessels has an interesting story. She had refused to move her car for filming, and so her car was impounded. Angry and somewhat desperate, she approached the producers about being an extra to earn back enough money to get her car out of impound. They agreed but instructed her not to answer any of the actors’ questions–an instruction she obviously ignored. In the end they thought her line was funny enough to include in the final cut, but they wound up having to get her a Screen Actors Guild card in order for her to have a speaking role.

The movie earned four Academy Award nominations, mostly in technical categories: Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing, and Best Original Score.

The whale scenes were filmed with four-foot-long animatronic puppets. The puppets were so lifelike that U.S. fishing authorities reportedly criticized the film for getting too close to whales in the wild.

Madge Sinclair cameos here as the captain of the Saratoga .

The whale hunters are speaking Finnish–which is a little odd since Finland, unlike its sisters Norway and Sweden, has had no real whale industry basically ever.

This is where the reference of Kirk being “from” Iowa originates.

Previous post: Re-watching Star Trek III: The Search for Spock .

Next post: Re-watching Star Trek V: The Final Frontier . God help us all.

About Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

36 comments.

In some ways, I’m rather conflicted about this film. For a long time it was my favorite, but over time I’ve soured on a little. I would still rank it second of the original crew movies, maybe even overall. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more it starts to feel almost like a self-parody. I can sort of live with the McGuffin making absolutely no sense, but with the unrelenting humor it’s like the series jumped the shark (whale, whatever) here.

That said, it is an awful lot of fun. Thank God, they didn’t go with Eddie Murphy, though! Even though he was at his peak, he just wouldn’t have fit. Not to mention, they definitely wouldn’t have been able to afford Shatner then.

(Also, in the trivia section, that should read Cetacean Institute, not Crustacean.)

No, sorry, you have to change the best line, because it is this:

Dr. Gillian Taylor: Don’t tell me, you’re from outer space. Kirk: No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.

This is, quite possibly, the single most memorable quote from any of the films. It’s right up there with:

Lt Col Fellini: What is that you’re wearing, some kind of uniform? Kirk: This little thing? Just something I threw on.

Kirk: All right, Colonel. The truth is, I’m a little green man from Alpha Centauri, a beautiful place. You ought to see it. Lt Col Fellini: I am going to lock you up for 200 years. Kirk: That ought to be just about right.

which are utterly brilliant.

Of course, I’m not sure how he can be from both Alpha Centauri and Iowa, but I won’t split hairs.

So … yes, a bit of fun, really, on par with ‘I, Mudd’ or ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’. Nothing deep, good humour throughout, but plot holes one could drive a stolen starship through. The acting is fine, the characters well drawn, and, really, almost anything is better than STTMP (though with the next entry in the series this proposition becomes debatable).

Is there any point in hashing through the silliness of Scotty, the mouse, and the transparent aluminium; or the need to find a nuclear wessel; or the handy-dandy-time-travel-trick; or the whale probe (just how do alien intelligences communicate over interstellar distances with creatures who have no technology?); or the fact that Kirk knows Shakespeare, Milton, and D H Lawrence, but thinks Jacqueline Susan and Harold Robbins are neglected giants?

No, there’s not much point. Just let it all wash over you, and enjoy it for what it is, which isn’t much, but it’s fun.

Unless I’m seriously misreading what you wrote near the end, Madge Sinclair was most definitely NOT Janice Lester. That would be Sandra Smith in the Lester role. Sinclair appeared later on as Geordi LaForge’s mother in TNG.

This film was a lot of fun to watch. Sure, there were a few holes but it was a hell of a ride nonetheless, so you don’t really care about them. For the most part the comedy served the characters rather than the other way around (again, a few nits here and there but no big deal), so it generally felt genuine.

I was in my early 20s when this one came out, so I have to admit that I genuinely enjoyed the fact that Catherine Hicks was not wearing a bra for most of the film. So, two more creatures of hers that were in danger of being released into the wild.

ccradio@3: I had forgotten about those additional creatures, but now that you mention them — yes, indeed.

@ 1 DemetriosX and @ 3 ccradio I’ve clearly lost my mind on both counts. Fixed.

@ 1 DemetriosX Yeah, I love me some Eddie Murphy, but that would’ve been a disaster.

Maybe it’s self-parody, but I don’t mind because none of them behave stupidly . They may not fit in, but they aren’t idiots, and I appreciate that.

@ 2 NomadUK and @ 3 ccradio I think it has worth and that it’s more than a bit of fun. It completes the story of Spock, first of all, and while the environmental message may seem cheesy, it’s as relevant as ever. But mostly I like that the characters got to get out and play around a bit. Makes them feel more human.

Every scathing rebuttal I was going to make against this film was disarmed by a single line of the review: “The Journey Home is the first Star Trek I can remember.”

Now I just feel old. Thanks loads.

Torie @5: You totally could have blamed autocorrect, you know. Crustacean, cetacean, flub a couple letters and there you are.

It’s true that nobody acts stupid or really goes out of character for a joke, but there’s a few things that just don’t work right and occasionally push it over the line. Kirk’s little rundown of late 20th century great authors is one. There must have been others they could have gone for that would have achieved a similar effect with more probability. Stephen King would have been a decent choice. I can really see him still being read in 200 years. Far more so than Jacqueline Suzanne or Harold Robbins certainly.

The other, even though it’s a great line, is Chekov’s “nuclear wessels”. Umm, Pavel? You have a starship there with sensors and stuff. Ya think it might be easier to just run a scan? That’s probably the closest anybody comes to doing something really stupid just for a joke.

Also, the guy in the shot of Scotty trying to communicate with a Mac? He’s a total “that guy” and I can’t find his name, but he’s like John Hodgman’s dad or something.

This is a loved Trek film for me. I don;t take it too seriously, always considering it more of a big screen Tribbles episode more than a serious SF film. In the bonus materials on the blu-ray Nimoy says that he had to fight to keep subtitles off the screen for the communication between the probe and whales. Good thing he did. Nothing that appeared int e subtitles would have made that work. Especially with aliens not knowing works much better than knowing. (I always maintained that if JMS ever explained the Vorlans in Babylon 5 he’d wreck them and he did. Same for Hannibal Lector, there is power in mystery and the unknown.) Of course this is the second time Nicholas Meyer has done the fish-out-water time traveler story in modern San Francisco, the first being his film ‘Time After Time” which if you have not seen you really should, like right now.

A breakaway film that really opened the franchise up to a broader viewership.

This film had the power and confidence to laugh at its tropes without diminishing its tropes, and in doing so enriched those tropes. Compare the intimacy between characters in this film to almost any cringeworthy fawning “comedy” out of ST V, for instance.

I actually like the fact that the alien presence was inscrutable and incomprehensible throughout, its motives and purpose undetermined. Probably the first (and nearly last) truly alien presence in the entire ST franchise.

@7 DemetriosX

I considered Kirk’s rundown of “great 20th Century authors” to be a mockery that, in order to broadly succeed, had to include only widely recognized, household-name types of schlocky writers, known hacks, essentially a list of subgenius non-Shakespeares.

Including Stephen King on a list of crap writers would probably have broken theaters into a quarrel.

I love this movie, despite some of it’s plot holes and goofs. It feels much more like a theatrical film than it’s predeccesor ( and it’s follower…urrgh ), and it has a much more polished script.

The few plot holes that do kind of bother me:

– Scotty’s cavalier attitude about changing the future. In the novelization, there is some explanation that they did research and found out that the Dr. Nichols they meet at the plant is the same one that did invent transparent aluminum, but of course, this would have deflated the humor of the scene, had it been included in the film. Still, considering that it was Scotty, in “Tomorrow Is Yesterday” who noted that once the ship’s engines were reparied, they would have nowhere to go in that time, his willingness to change history seems a bit out of character ( although he is older and probably a bit less patient ).

– Gillian being taken to the future. Again, violating all the warnings against contaminating the timeline given in episodes like “City On The Edge Of Forever, and “Tomorrow Is Yesterday”.

– Watch the ending in the Starfleet gallery, where our heroes are absolved of all their transgressions, and note the smiling and laughing Vulcans. A gaffe that would be repeated during the similar scene at the end of “Star Trek VI”.

Er… It’s “The Voyage Home” right? At least, it’s always been called that in the UK. Your title says ‘Journey Home’ (and so does Torie’s review).

Whatever it’s called though, it’s a good, fun watch, with the McCoy/Scott double-act producing my favourite scenes – and I also love the back-and-forth that follows Spock’s “Gracie is pregnant”.

@ 6 S. Hutson Blount If it makes you feel better, my little sister saw the SW prequels before the originals, and only knew about Highlander through Wikipedia. Talk about feeling old.

@ 7 DemetriosX Nah, I believe in owning mistakes. My fault. As you can see, I wrote the outline stuff mostly from memory back in August to get ahead on reviews since I knew September and October would be nuts for me.

Also, it looks like “that guy” Is Alex Henteloff . I don’t recognize him from anything, though…

@ 9 bobsandiego Subtitles??? For the whales?? Geez.

@ 10 Lemnoc Agreed, agreed, agreed.

@ 12 Dep1701 The original script did leave her behind to raise the whales or something, but I guess they thought movie audiences wouldn’t like that. Kind of weird seeing as Kirk doesn’t really get the girl, strictly speaking.

@ 13 EngineersMate I’m going to try and make myself feel better about that by noting it took 13 comments before any of you noticed.

Man, I am just not up to my usual standard this week.

bobsandiego@9: Of course this is the second time Nicholas Meyer has done the fish-out-water time traveler story in modern San Francisco, the first being his film ‘Time After Time” which if you have not seen you really should, like right now.

And I enthusiastically second this recommendation. So, yes, right now.

Like I said, it’s two hours of best lines. Every line is my favorite in the moment that it’s spoken.

@6 S. Hutson Blount

Technically Star Trek VI is the first Star Trek I can remember, even though I’m older than Torie. I just never really watched anything Star Trek until then, though I probably caught a few minutes of an episode–I remember it so clearly, they were beaming down to a planet. Remember that one?

That joke worked for me because I was like, “Who?” Their relative obscurity somehow made it seem even funnier. Lots of authors become popular long after their deaths, right?

@9 bobsandiego

I would love to know if there’s a script somewhere that has that dialogue between the probe and the whales.

Probe: “Hey, how’s it going? Where were you? I thought I was going to have to kill all humans.” George: “You wouldn’t believe us if we told you.” Gracie: “Also, who are you again?”

Time After Time has been on my to-watch list for at least a decade. It takes me a while to get around to some movies, but all this Nick Meyer love has reminded me to check it out ASAP, though I used to have it on VHS. Bumping it up in my Netflix queue right now, so I’ll get it as soon as I watch and return Bringing Up Baby , which I’ve only had for a few weeks…

I think the Borg were pretty alien, until they messed them up through overexposure and silliness.

@12 Dep1701

Good point about the time travel paradoxes. I explained away Scotty’s indiscretion this time because Sulu says they’re “a few years too early” for transparent aluminum. If you take him at his word rather than massive, comedic understatement, it isn’t inconceivable that they would be right on time, or not mess with history too badly. I always wished they’d checked into Gillian’s future, but I suppose they couldn’t have. It’s kind of depressing that she could be completely removed from the timeline with no long-term impact.

I refuse to look for laughing Vulcans, and I hope I won’t see them when I re-watch STVI.

I sort of noticed something was off with the title, but it didn’t quite register. And no one on Twitter or Facebook picked up on it either, which is also sort of depressing. I prefer to think of this as a temporary hiccup with a parallel universe that had a different title, where STII was also “The Vengeance of Khan.”

For me, this is the exception that proves the rule, about even-numbered Trek films being the good ones. The humour fell flat, save for a couple of moments (like, since I’d had a green Mohawk myself a few years earlier, I loved the bus scene), and I was mostly taken with noticing how much the actors had aged, and how unflattering the higher-definition lenses made them look.

Chekov as a combovered middle-aged man, Uhura as a portly matron (and, as ever and like Sulu, criminally underused), craggy Spock looking really weird in what looked like a bathrobe from a “high-class” hotel, and balding Jim. They were so huge on the screen, it felt like I could have fit my head in one of Spock’s facial crevasses. I couldn’t bring myself to suspend the disbelief that these would be the people chosen to save Earth. Surely Starfleet had some experienced-but-still-not-dining-cheap-at-4-pm-and-using-their-Zimmer-frame-on-the-ship people who could take the job on?

In fact, I was so disappointed in this one, that I’ve never watched the later TOS films, V and VI (and only half-watched the TNG-era films). I wanted to keep the memory of their earlier work clear in my head: Jim in his confident full power, somewhat younger than I am now myself, Spock, older and wiser, McCoy, the old man, Scotty a vigourous 50 or so, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, Rand, Chapel – all at the height of their time, as characters and as actors.

Sorry to harsh the buzz. What can you expect from a freak who still thinks Way to Eden was a laugh and a half? :D

@10 Lemnoc, I seem to have had the general thrust of the line wrong in my memory. After I looked up the exact quote, I agree that these were probably better choices, although I don’t know if they used a lot of profanity in their work or not. Spock’s line could be taken as sarcasm or as him still being a bit befuddled and not wanting to admit to a gap in his knowledge.

@16 Eugene: I suppose I’m going to have to order you off my lawn or something. Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins were anything but obscure in the mid-80s. They’d both been around for quite a while and were regular NYT bestsellers (and that back when the publishing industry hadn’t turned that little bit of recognition into something totally meaningless – they sold and they sold well). Both even had several of their novels turned into movies. Susann wrote Valley of the Dolls ! The fact that they slipped into obscurity so fast is interesting. I’m on the cusp between Boomers and Xers, and I freely admit I’ve never read any of their stuff, though I’d at least heard of them.

@18 DemetriosX

Correct about the popularity of these authors. No one ever got rich by producing quality, as the bromide goes. “Dallas” was one of the most watched things on TV in this era, essentially unendurable today. Disco… need I say more?

So, yeah, I think the joke revolved around indisputably, inarguably bad, but exceedingly well known authors, elevated into the lofty ranks of Shakespeare centuries on. Perhaps the only cultural icons that survived the rubbish piles of Earth’s (much commented on in ST) WWIII?

@17 CaitieCait

I can understand you not wanting to ruin your Star Trek memories, but I hope you’ll reconsider and try Star Trek VI this time around. It’s really a wonderful film. Torie and I are trying to work out a screening party for next weekend, if you’d like to try to join us. I promise you, everything will be all right.

I’ve heard of Valley of the Dolls of course, but didn’t know the name of the author :(

Good thing they’re remaking Dallas then, eh?

@20 Eugene Myers

Dallas. Yeah, I assume like the recent Star Trek reboot, they’ll get it right this time 8-/

Iowa was established long ago, in all of the written material when the show was being drawn up and maybe the Guide. I am not going to search to find it stated during the series or the animated series- maybe the BLish novelizations- but if I come across it… I mean, I’ve been aware of his birthplace since before the movies.

Kirk’s exchanges with Fellini always reminded me of LCDR “Curly” Cue in D. V. Gallery’s “Stand By-y-y-y to Start Engines”- after ejecting from his fighter, he ends up with the Napa police. When asked to identify himself, he is concise and truthful. When the truth is met with disbelief (based on his pajama clothing and leaving his flight gear in the woods, plus an escaped patient at large that night), he concocts a colorful lie based on their expectations.

The movie is good enough, but I think it was closer to the “stupid” edge than has been acknowledged. It also inspired too many to try forcing bad humor into their Trek scripts.

@ 15 NomadUK Okay, okay, I added it to the Netflix queue.

@ 17 CatieCat Fair enough, but to me that’s the strength of the movies–they allowed the characters to age (and I think, age with dignity). Look at Indiana Jones for an example of what happens when you don’t…

Star Trek VI is my favorite of the films and I think most everyone should see it, but I expect you won’t like it. It’s all about feeling old and obsolete.

Don’t watch V.

@ 18 DemetriosX I can’t really think of modern equivalents to Susann and Robbins. Maybe Sue Grafton or Patricia Cornwell? It’s that category of book hugely popular to people outside of SF/F, i.e. “stuff my mom reads.” I think Robbins in particular is one of the world’s bestselling authors in the modern age, period.

@ Generally I’m really amused at how much this movie is split, more than the others. Humor’s weird that way. There are lots of movies people tell me are hysterical and I find, well, not. It’s a genre I find difficult to recommend.

Oh, Torie, you’re probably right about VI, then. I’m feeling too old and decrepit myself right now, to want to watch other people dealing with it! :)

Ironically, of course, Netflix in Canada has now got most of the TOS movies available streaming (we don’t have mailout service yet), just a few weeks’ late for me, and now we’re up to the ones I’m dubious about wanting to see.

But hey, if I weren’t disagreeing with everyone at once, I wouldn’t be me on this site, now would I? :D

@ 24 CatieCat It occurs to me that I’m pretty obsessed with movies about getting old. Hmm.

In any case, I don’t find VI depressing at all. It’s actually really inspiring in the sense that it deals with letting old biases and racism die the death they deserve. But your mileage may vary…

And we don’t usually disagree! That’s why I find this so interesting. :)

I like VI, but Khan trumps it. (VI would have been better had Alley cam back and reprise Saavik as they wanted her to.)

I agree with your take on the Kirk / Fellini exchanges. On top of that, Kirk might have known that family already lived there and didn’t want to draw any attention that way.

Also. It’s been years since I read Stand By-y-y-y To Start Engines. I wasn’t sure if anyone else remembered it. I still get a laugh out of what Curly and the rest of the Blue Angels did when they saw that transport between the cloud layers. (Or was that the other book? As I said, it’s been years.)

I had to think about this movie for a bit before commenting.

On this movie in general. I think this one, more than any of the other original cast movies, is very much a product of its time. While Star Trek did have that famous “Let’s get the hell out of here.” line, the franchise had been seen as generally a safe zone. While it did have sci-fi violence and dealt with a few hard edge issues from time to time, parents didn’t have to worry about inappropriate language or scenes for their kids. I do remember some parents being upset with the language in this one.

In the theater the laughter was genuine but I do remember hearing some say on the way out things like “I hope they don’t start using that language all the time now.” In a discussion with friends after seeing this one, we likened the experience to the reaction of a character within the movie S.O.B. “Sally Miles says shit!” (If you’ve seen this movie you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, it might be worth taking a look at.)

At the time I took The Voyage Home as part satire of our times. Eddie Murphy’s colorful dialogue was showing up everywhere at the time and while Lenny Bruce had been an earlier major force in bringing profanity into stand-up and comedy, Eddie Murphy and others of that time did more to really bring it into the mainstream. Kirk and Spock didn’t go to the extremes practiced by Murphy and others but what they did say was shocking. Mr. Spock Says…! Funny but still shocking.

The last time I watched this one it didn’t hold up for me. There are moments that I still love such as the Bird of Prey de-cloaking and the scene between Spock and his father at the end but overall I’d have to say that too much has happened – in the real world and within the franchise – for me to be able to get into this one as fully as I did back then.

I’m a little excited to find out that I’m not the only Trekkie who dislikes this movie. Oh, it’s not horrible, I guess. But Trek in general has always been really bad at humor (“Trouble with Tribbles” excepted) and even the first time I saw this in my teens I remember thinking how belabored the jokes were. See, it’s funny because he doesn’t know how to say “LSD”! It’s funny because he says “wessels”! It’s funny because Spock doesn’t know how to use vulgarity! Very, very thin beer.

Of course it would get worse, once the makers of Trek decided to make Data into comic relief.

@28 etomlins

Having re-watched “Encounter at Farpoint” last night, I would argue that Data has always been comic relief. I was more annoyed that they decided to make him one of the most important characters ever; Picard and Data dominated the Trek films, and I feel like they gave the other characters short shrift. TNG was always an ensemble show, and the movies became less so, while the original films went in the other direction. They still focused on Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, but the supporting cast was given more to do.

“Having re-watched ‘Encounter at Farpoint’ last night, I would argue that Data has always been comic relief.”

You’ve got a point there. It’s a depressing one, but it’s there.

I must be fair. As you work your way through TNG you’ll remind me that there were actually episodes where Data was used to good effect. Too often, though, TNG resorted to the, “Data says something stupid!” ploy. To make it worse, Brent Spiner actually seemed to think he was good at comedy when he really was no bloody good at it. (He sucked at playing villains, too, but that didn’t stop him either.) But this will all have to wait.

Even in high school I preferred Star Trek III to Star Trek IV and it’s never really changed. There’s a lot that’s silly about III , starting with the casting of Christopher Lloyd and the conclusion of the supposedly climactic fight scene, but at least it’s sort of trying to make us care. And it succeeds; if nothing else, the destruction of Enterprise will remain in my memory as one of the most poignant moments of Star Trek ever. Star Trek IV never tries at all. The only thing I can remember about it are some lame jokes.

The Jacqueline Susann/Harold Robbins line is, I think, a gag specifically meant to twit Harlan Ellison, whose love-hate relationship with the Trek franchise is well known. Several times in his Glass Teat and Harlan Ellison’s Watching essays, he described Susann and Robbins as hacks who were not really writers but what he calls creative typists. He talked about their appeal to the lowest common denominator of “slack-jawed strap-hangers”. He indicates that because their books were insanely popular, some people may assume that what Susann and Robbins wrote was literature.

Interestingly enough, Ellison was asked to write a treatment for the screenplay for Susann’s Valley of the Dolls , and he agreed thinking he could improve it. He says he was removed from the project when 20th Century realized they’d made a mistake giving Susann a contract with an ever-increasing amount of $ depending on how long the book stayed on the NY Times best-seller list; it was there for over a year, seven months at #1. Ellison was replaced with soap-opera writers who could be paid less.

@DemetriosX: That would be Alex Henteloff as Mr. “I Quit Smoking” Nichols. Henteloff was best known for his recurring role as sleazy lawyer Arnold Ripner on Barney Miller .

God, Harlan Ellison. He almost exceeds Andy Warhol in his talent for being famous just for being himself. I had to love how Ellison kept talking up his Hollywood writing career even though his greatest hit was a co-writing credit on the gawdawful film The Oscar. If I ever met the guy I’d ask him about that. I’m sure–if he said anything other than “fuck off”–he’d claim that his original script had been altered, but I tend to doubt that because there’s a bizarre quality to The Oscar ‘s awfulness that you don’t find in other bad movies of the time. People in that movie talk like their dialogue was translated into Martian and back. It must be the Ellison touch. What else could it be?

@31 Bluejay Young

The Jacqueline Susann/Harold Robbins line is, I think, a gag specifically meant to twit Harlan Ellison

Ah, that makes sense! And I really hope you’re right :)

It recently occurred to me, when McCoy asks Spock about “going where no man has gone before”: McCoy’s been dead before, too (in “Shore Leave”). Scotty died and came back to life in “The Changeling.” I’m probably forgetting a few other regular cast members who died and were resurrected in the original series. So maybe McCoy is welcoming Spock into the club after 15 years!

Chekov in “Spectre of the Gun.” I’m trying to think if it ever happened to Uhura.

I don’t think City on the Edge of Forever is a great example. Edith was a critical figure in history that changed everything. No everyone is that important to the course of events.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Notify me when new comments are added.

Recent Discussions in Ten Forward

Re: A data journalism approach to solving "best ST" debates? by: Kevin July 3, 2017, 19:02
ST Rewatch: The EMotion Picture (long) by: Guest October 18, 2015, 15:13
Re: Chaos on the Bridge by: Kevin September 3, 2015, 13:13
Re: Leonard Nimoy by: Kevin February 28, 2015, 15:13
"Shaka, When the Walls Fell" by: ecmyers June 19, 2014, 08:20

Favorite Posts

Uhura takes the first steps to becoming a crazy tribble lady.

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who on the ship is meanest of all?

If you hit Forever, you went too far.

Wrath, like a seed, needs time to grow... in a Petri dish, best kept cold.

This week on Masterpiece Theater... Shakespeare’s Hamlet! In space.

June 2014 (1)
May 2014 (1)
January 2014 (2)
November 2013 (1)
October 2013 (1)
August 2013 (5)
July 2013 (2)
June 2013 (4)
April 2013 (3)
March 2013 (4)
February 2013 (4)
January 2013 (4)
December 2012 (2)
November 2012 (4)
October 2012 (3)
September 2012 (4)
August 2012 (4)
July 2012 (3)
June 2012 (5)
May 2012 (4)
April 2012 (4)
March 2012 (5)
February 2012 (4)
January 2012 (4)
December 2011 (5)
November 2011 (5)
October 2011 (6)
September 2011 (1)
August 2011 (7)
July 2011 (8)
June 2011 (8)
May 2011 (5)
April 2011 (6)
March 2011 (4)
February 2011 (5)
January 2011 (6)
December 2010 (5)
November 2010 (6)
October 2010 (6)
August 2010 (1)
July 2010 (3)
June 2010 (3)
May 2010 (6)
April 2010 (8)
March 2010 (4)
February 2010 (3)
October 2009 (2)
September 2009 (6)
August 2009 (1)
July 2009 (5)
June 2009 (8)
May 2009 (8)
April 2009 (9)

About Arras WordPress Theme

The Viewscreen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License

Search Please fill out this field.
Newsletters
Sweepstakes

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is pure, joyful cinema

Entertainment Geekly's 'Star Trek' series looks at the best whale movie ever made

Darren is a TV Critic. Follow him on Twitter @DarrenFranich for opinions and recommendations.

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise – and the release of Star Trek Beyond , the 13th feature film in the series. To celebrate this big year, and ponder the deeper meanings of Trek ’s first half-century, the Entertainment Geekly column will look at a different Star Trek film each week from now till Beyond . This week: The only Trek film that feels like a Howard Hawks comedy. Last week: The Trek film about the clashing egos of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy . Next week: Shatner unleashed .

In 1965, Leonard Nimoy said the first words ever uttered in the Star Trek universe. “Check the circuit!” says Spock at the start of “The Cage,” the original pilot for Star Trek and the first time Star Trek was boring. To modern eyes, Spock doesn’t look like Spock: Eyebrows too big, hair too mussed, a noose-collar atop a too-baggy uniform, flanking an un-Kirk Captain who looks too much like Jay Leno’s chin chest-bursting out of Ray Liotta’s face.

NBC didn’t like Star Trek , didn’t like Spock. A year later, Gene Roddenberry filmed a new pilot. He fired everybody — he fired his mistress! — but he kept Nimoy.

Twenty years later, Roddenberry was gone — to Next Generation , not for long — and Nimoy was in control. Tricky thing, applying words like “control” or “authorship” to anything Star Trek . Nimoy directed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home , and received a “Story By” credit. So did Harve Bennett, the producer of Movie Two through Movie Five, making him another Man Who Saved Star Trek and another Man Who Almost Destroyed Star Trek . Bennett shares screenplay credit alongside three other men. One of those writers later wrote Double Impact , the movie where Jean-Claude Van Damme headbutts Jean-Claude Van Damme.

And one of those writers was Nicholas Meyer, the man who made Wrath of Khan . Meyer’s generally credited with writing the film’s 20th Century-set Act 2. Perhaps not coincidentally, The Voyage Home has one of the greatest and daffiest Act 2’s of any film ever. Here is a movie that begins as A Race Against Time To Save The Earth and then takes a sharp detour into aquarium etiquette and Bay Area geography; a movie where the stakes are global, and there’s plenty of time for Kirk to take a marine biologist out for an Italian dinner; a movie where Kirk is a noble romantic protagonist who makes his date foot the bill. There’s a wonderful lack of seriousness powering The Voyage Home , recalling Howard Hawks’ loopy genre exercises To Have and Have Not or The Big Sleep . It is the kind of movie where characters spend the whole movie taking a break from the movie.

So it was a team effort, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. But it was a team effort with a leader. And the leader wanted to make a different kind of film. Nimoy later explained the core concept: “No dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy.” His previous Star Trek film had all those things, and outer space, and aliens, and sets. Nimoy wanted to make a movie about Earth, right now, shot on location, with human people.

Nimoy was an actor, a director, a photographer, a memoirist, a musician, a cameo cartoon voice, a face in advertisements that baited your nostalgia and dared you not to smile. In all things he was Spock. Sometimes that bothered him: He wrote I Am Spock , but also I Am Not Spock . Nimoy was never a dilettante, a preening highbrow — never the Alan Rickman character from Galaxy Quest, that self-loathing Shakespearean slumming for fanboy dollars and residual fame. Nimoy liked Spock, truthfully. He liked the work, occasionally. He liked the money, naturally: $2.5 million for Trek IV . (That’s more than Hemsworth made on Avengers — and that’s mid-’80s dollars, unadjusted.) Nimoy was frustrated with Spock, but it wasn’t merely the frustration of typecasting or of repetition. It was the internal struggle, the human condition: Nimoy struggled with Spock the way Hamlet struggles with Hamlet.

And Nimoy loved people. That sounds like a simple thing to say, until you watch The Voyage Home , one of the loveliest and strangest and lightest comedies ever made, and you realize that “loving people” can be something tangible, like an added filter on the camera. Nimoy loved the supporting players, and his film bestows each of them with a Hall of Fame moment. Scotty: “A keyboard. How quaint .” Chekov: “Nuclear wessels .” Uhura: “But where is Alameda ?” McCoy, undercover as a surgeon, asks an old lady in a hospital what’s wrong with her. Kidney dialysis, she says. “Dialysis!” McCoy sputters — an actual honest-to-god sputter, DeForest Kelley’s voice like an old engine cackling. “What is this, the Dark Ages ?”

Sulu was supposed to get a showcase scene meeting his own great-great-great-grand-something. It didn’t work out — the kid got scared — and Nimoy was still bummed about it a decade later when he wrote I Am Spock . But oh, how I treasure Takei, in his baritone voice, narrating the Enterprise’s warpspeed run into the center of our solar system: “Nine point five! Nine point six! Nine point seven! NINE POINT EIGHT! ” (And The Voyage Home continues one of the great embedded subplots in Trek history: The love story between Sulu and the Excelsior .)

Did I mention that they’re warping straight into the sun so they can travel through time? There’s an energy-sapping probe destroying Earth, apparently because no one can respond to the probe’s message. Is the probe saying “hello” to humanity? “Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man,” Spock chastises.

It’s been said there are no villains in Star Trek IV. In the future, the probe hails from some unknown intelligence that almost destroys Earth by accident. In the past, every hint of antagonism is quickly undercut. At one point, Chekov is captured by the FBI, and there’s a much simpler, more on-the-nose version of this movie where the FBI becomes the bad guys. Maybe that wouldn’t be terrible; maybe it would be sharp, playing the utopian sensibility of the Federation against Cold War paranoia. But in The Voyage Home , it’s an opportunity for a “Who’s On First” routine:

FBI AGENT: Let’s take it from the top.

CHEKOV: The top of what?

FBI AGENT: Name?

CHEKOV: My name?

FBI AGENT: No, my name.

CHEKOV: I do not know your name!

FBI AGENT: You play games with me, mister, and you’re through.

CHEKOV: I am? Can I go now?

At this point, the FBI agent — who looks like the uncanny valley between Paul Rudd and Armie Hammer — whispers to his partner, “What do you think?” His partner says, “He’s a Russkie.” The FBI agent, completely deadpan, missing a beat: “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my life.” Every one-scene character in The Voyage Home is smarter than they should be, wittier than they have to be. Chekov grabs his phaser and tries to fire it, but it’s run low on batteries. He tosses it to the FBI agent, and watch closely here.

The actor is Jeff Lester — who naturally played both “Lane Brody” and “Lance Jarvis” on Baywatch — and he catches the phaser with a look of weary amusement. Here’s a film where the shady FBI guys feel tired, and a bit embarrassed, about being shady FBI guys.

The Voyage Home reminds me of something Dan Harmon told Vulture regarding Cheers : “The characters were so distinct. As with Peanuts , you could put them in outer space and still know which one was Charlie Brown.” The Voyage Home is the inverse of that theorem: It takes its characters from outer space and sets them down on the streets of San Francisco, in the halls of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, in the front seat of a truck. And here’s something strange. You’ve seen Kirk and Spock on alien planets production designed like pop art comic strips, in cosmic mountain ranges battling aliens beyond our ken; you’ve seen them battle gods and monsters.

Yet I don’t think there is any single moment in Star Trek history where Kirk and Spock look better — at once grander and more approachable, like statues of the Founding Fathers buying rounds at sports bar — than the moment when they walk along Marina Boulevard. Behind them: The bay, the Bridge, the fog.

Kirk’s still wearing his magenta-maroon disco suit, looking like the communist dictator of Studio 54; Spock’s wearing a karate bathrobe. You can giggle at the buried joke of the movie — they fit right into pre-digital San Francisco — but you can also appreciate how the movie makes them seem so much bigger by bringing them down to Earth.

No other Star Trek film has done location shooting like this; maybe The Voyage Home is Trek as neo-realism. Legend holds that the “nuclear wessels” scene was shot in secret, with Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols talking to random passers-by. That’s maybe not true — counter-legend holds that those are all paid extras — but in the most memorable part of the scene, Russian Chekov asks a nearby policeman for directions to the closest nuclear reactor. The cop says nothing, doesn’t even move; he was an actual San Francisco, working with the production crew in an official capacity. So, actually, hang the neo-realism: The Voyage Home is as close as Trek ever gets to the start of “Duck Amuck,” when Daffy walks off his own film strip.

The humor of The Voyage Home is playful without ever becoming sarcastic, self-aware without ever feeling like self-loathing. The characters feel engaged — watch how Takei is constantly looking around San Francisco, a great grin on his face. Think of how this movie shifts from Act One to Act Two: Spock says they need to save the whales; Kirk says “Let’s time travel!”; and then they aim their ship right into the sun. Think, too, of Catherine Hicks, in a tricky role. She plays Gillian, the whale-loving marine biologist. She thinks Kirk and Spock are crazy, but intriguing; she doesn’t really believe they’re from the future, but she intuitively understands that they’re people she should hang out with.

A lesser film might try to architect this interaction somehow. (Maybe Gillian is an FBI agent; maybe the wrong thing for America circa 1986 is the right thing for the world .) Hell, one of the greatest hours of television ever is a Star Trek time travel episode where Kirk goes to the past and falls in love with the most important woman in history. The Voyage Home has no time for such pretensions. Gillian’s an obvious love interest, but they never really have a “romantic” scene. Gillian thinks Kirk is interesting; Kirk likes how much she cares. And Gillian is allowed to come to the future — where she promptly says goodbye to Kirk, because there’s just so much more to see.

Their final scene together is one of the most graceful light-comedic romance moments in any movie I can think of. “How will I find you?” he asks her — kidding but not quite, Shatner’s laugh a bit too forced. “Don’t worry,” she says. “I’ll find you.” Nimoy holds his camera for two long moments, first of Gillian saying farewell:

Then of Kirk, astonished. What do you think is going through his mind?

Is he amazed that, for once, he’s the one left behind? Is he bemused at the grand divine comedy of existence? Maybe I’m a shameless romantic, but I can’t help but imagine his thought bubble in Shatnerian overspeak: “My god, Bones! I think I’m in love!”

Shatner! My god, Shatner! Another one of the graceful jokes powering The Voyage Home is that, here in the past, Captain Kirk remains the most confident man in the galaxy, despite all indications that he doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing. Needing money, he pawns McCoy’s birthday glasses at an antique shop. The owner will pay a hundred dollars for them. “Is that a lot?” Kirk asks, smiling wide like a con man.

Later, at the aquarium, Kirk spots Spock swimming with the whales, and his wild overreactions belong in a silent movie museum:

Of course, Kirk is a con man in The Voyage Home . To his crew, he pretends to know everything about the past. (“Double dumb ass on you!”) To people in the past, he offers one BS line after another. (“I think he had a little too much LDS.”) The joke of his brimming confidence paired against Spock’s Holy Fool confusion reaches Chico-and-Harpo levels:

But the film isn’t some shallow self-parody of Kirk, or Star Trek . It has heart, and passion — Save the Whales! — and a tremendous sense of fun. When the crew crash-lands into the Bay, they need to climb out of their sinking ship. The whales start singing; the probe is vanquished. Another film might cut away, but Nimoy’s camera lingers, and we watch the crew of the Enterprise cheerfully jump into the water. The line between character and actor falls away, phasered into nonexistence. James Doohan does a bellyflopping dive into the water; Nichelle Nichols splashes water toward DeForest Kelley. At one point, Kirk pulls Spock into the water — or maybe that’s Shatner and Nimoy, fooling around.

And yet, there is a seriousness to the wonderful, exuberant silliness of The Voyage Home . At the film’s beginning, the resurrected Spock is asked a question: “How do you feel?” At the end of the film, Spock has traveled across space and time, has rescued a dead great species from the dustbin of existence, has saved the Earth one more time. And none of that plot stuff matters half so much as Spock saying, nonchalant: “I feel fine.” To feel “fine” is not to feel “perfect” or even “happy,” does not imply tremendous success nor some massive personal change.

To feel “fine” in The Voyage Home is to be aware of your place in the great scheme of existence, content in your place among your fellow creatures. There is such optimism in this movie, and perhaps that optimism is residual from Roddenberry — but Roddenberry preferred grand statements, not whimsy. The Voyage Home needed Nimoy, a thoughtful man with a sense of humor, a leader who loved his people, and loved people in general, and damn it, who loved the whales, and Earth, and the Golden Gate Bridge, and the nightmare intersection where Columbus and Kearny and Jackson hit each other right in front of the Zoetrope Building.

Nimoy died last year, age 82: A long life, and prosperous. Spock will live forever, of course — and The Voyage Home is his magnum opus. Quickly, listen to the theme music for Voyage Home by Leonard Rosenman.

Can you hear the festive melody? Aren’t those bells ringing vaguely yuletidal? There’s no obvious comparison in movie history for Star Trek: the Voyage Home , not many time travel message movies about family and friends and the fear that we’re all doomed because of sins in the past, and how that fear will always crash like waves against the shore of the eternal human hope that it’s not too late, that we can change.

But there is that famous story about heavenly visitors and time travel, a myth about how any person can change a dark-sad future into a happy-better one, a parable that argues that the great heroic act of existence is being an engaged part of a community. So maybe The Voyage Home is our new A Christmas Carol . Maybe Ebenezer Scrooge can save Tiny Tim; maybe the Earth isn’t doomed; maybe, in 2286, whales will still be swimming through oceans unrisen; maybe our descendants will be here, too, in this world someone saved for them. Probe bless us, every one.

THE WHOLE MOVIE IN ONE SHOT:

Humpback whale

View history

George and Gracie , a male and female humpback whale

A humpback whale

The humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) was a sentient aquatic cetaceous mammal species indigenous to Earth .

Evolutionary history [ ]

The humpback whales evolved approximately ten million years before modern humans . Adults usually ranged between forty-five to fifty feet in length , and weighed about forty tons . This species was well known for its complex song , which was proven in 2286 to be a full-fledged language. This species became extinct during the 21st century due to overhunting .

At some point in the past, humpback whales were contacted by an advanced alien race. The race maintained some level of contact until the 21st century when the humpbacks became extinct. Some time after that point, an alien probe was sent to Earth to determine why contact had been lost with the humpback whale. The probe arrived in 2286 and, finding no sign of the humpbacks, began to ionize Earth's oceans with a very powerful communication signal. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

Re-population [ ]

In 2286, Admiral James T. Kirk traveled back in time to San Francisco in 1986 and retrieved two humpback whales to answer the alien probe which now threatened Earth. The whales were captive, kept in a large tank at the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito, California. Their care and study were overseen by Dr. Gillian Taylor , a whale expert specializing in the species and whom led a tour including Kirk and Spock. The two whales were a mated couple, named George and Gracie, after the famous comedy acting duo George and Gracie Burns. Dr. Taylor had developed an affectionate bond with the whales, taking a strong interest in their comfort and safety. During the tour, she informed the group that the whales were to be released into the Pacific Ocean; the Institute simply could not afford to care for and feed them any longer. Later, in an embarrassing moment during the tour, Spock, having entered the whales' tank, mind-melded with George and communicated the intentions of the Bounty 's crew. Kirk and Spock were then told to leave the institution. During his melding with George, Spock discovered that Gracie was pregnant.

In a later dinner conversation with Taylor, she confirmed to Kirk that Gracie was indeed pregnant but also that the whales would be subject to hunting after their release and that a captive humpback's life expectancy in the wild was typically very low. Taylor also revealed that the whales' release was set for noon the following day, forcing Kirk to push up his mission's timetable and hurry the preparations.

Kirk and his crew's mission was a success and the two whales were released into 23rd century San Francisco Bay . George quickly broke into his song, communicating with the probe, and informing the probe his species had returned to Earth. The probe ceased its powerful and damaging signal and departed Earth. The whales, after breaching a few times, made for the open ocean, possibly repopulating the species on Earth.

Information on, a model of, and a global map showing the range of this species was included in a display of other baleen whales that was seen in the Cetacean Institute in 1986. ( Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home )

In 2380 , Beckett Mariner included a photograph of a humpback whale on her conspiracy board . ( LD : " Cupid's Errant Arrow ")

External link [ ]

Humpback whale at Wikipedia
1 Rachel Garrett
3 USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-G)

More to Explore
Series & Movies

Published Jan 4, 2019

Star Trek IV: Did You Know That...

We're sharing some of our favorite fun facts about the making of the film

startrek.com

During April of 1986, I (John) was getting ready for final exams and couldn’t accompany my parents on a vacation they were taking to California. Little did I know my voluntary absence from that year’s family vacation meant I missed an opportunity to watch the filming of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . By luck, my parents—Vincent and Josephine—happened to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium on April 29, 1986. With a 1980s behemoth video camera in tow, my parents forwent their planned tour, and stayed all day to film William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Catherine Hicks as they rehearsed and filmed the important exposition scene where the plight of whales is explained. In the era before the ubiquity of camera phones and social media, there were no restrictions on the audience filming the action. When my parents returned from their vacation, they surprised me with almost an hour's worth of footage of the filming of the next Trek adventure. I couldn’t understand why Kirk and Spock were walking around a modern-day aquarium, but that footage – watched again and again – gave me a lifelong appreciation for the hard work that the actors and behind-the-scenes crew undertake to shoot a Star Trek movie.

That footage also inspired a desire to learn all there was about the making of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home . Here are some of the favorite fun facts about the making of the film that we have learned while researching the behind-the-scenes memos, scripts, and production information available at the University of Iowa Library’s “Papers of Nicholas Meyer Collection.” What’s in a Name?

Admiral Lance Cartwright (played by Brock Peters) was originally the character of Admiral Harry Morrow (played by Robert Hooks) in the first several versions of the script. Morrow was the Admiral who fans were familiar with from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock , who ordered the decommissioning of the U.S.S. Enterprise and forbade Admiral Kirk from going to the Genesis Planet.
Gillian Taylor’s character was for a time named Shelley Clarke.
George and Gracie were originally named the more Biblically inspired monikers of Adam and Evie.

The real name of the whale museum, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, could not be used because the script required the action to take place in Sausalito, closer to San Francisco.
The October 18, 1985, Revised First Act draft of the script by Harve Bennett listed the name of the film as Star Trek IV: The Adventure Continues

Could Have Beens:

In a scene that has not yet appeared as a bonus feature on home video, the October 18, 1985, version of the script has a scene where Commander Christine Chapel greets Ambassador Sarek as he arrived uninvited to the Federation Council’s meeting about the fate of Admiral Kirk and crew. A Federation Guard will not allow Sarek into the meeting because he does not have the proper entry medallion credentials. Chapel puts the guard in his place, telling him that “This man is Ambassador Sarek of Vulcan, as any school child would know.” The scene is interesting because it implies that Sarek may have been called to Earth by Chapel to testify and not at the request of the Council, and it is also appropriate that Chapel—whose love for Spock is documented in the original show—would stand up for Sarek in his attempt to help his son and Chapel’s former crew mates. The Official Star Trek Communicator Magazine (the publication of the Official Star Trek Fan Club by Dan Madsen) included a picture from the scene at the time.

Saavik was indeed pregnant with Spock’s child in the early versions of the script. During Spock and his mother Amanda’s conversation, the script has Amanda trying to tell her son the news, but she hesitates and does not. Kirk and Saavik discuss the situation, with Saavik eventually not telling Spock. Had this scene been included as written, it would have meant that Saavik and Spock’s situation very likely would have had to have been dealt with in a future film. As is, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was Saavik’s last on-screen appearance (although the character of Valeris was originally written as Saavik in drafts of the Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country script).

What date does the crew arrive in 1986 San Francisco? This is a difficult question to answer. One of the scripts (again the October 18, 1985, Revised First Act version) lists the date as December 19, 1985 for the crew’s arrival back in time. However, a careful look at the newspaper the crew reads upon first landing appears to reveal the date to be Thursday, December 18, 1986. If that is the date, then the audiences on opening night in the United States was doing a bit of time traveling themselves, watching events unfolding several weeks after the actual date of the premiere of the film! Complicating December 18th being the official date of the crew’s arrival in San Francisco is a prop that was on display at Star Trek: The Experience . The prop was the pawn store ticket given to Admiral Kirk when he sold his glasses for cash. The date on the ticket is August 19, 1986, four months before the newspaper date the crew looks at a few moments earlier (however, the ticket is not visible on screen directly). By the way, the name of the pawn store according to the prop ticket is Feinberg’s Loan & Pawn. It appears that Kirk gave the pawn store owner the alias name of Sydney Carton and the fake telephone number of... wait for it... 555-1701!

I never did get a chance to see the filming of a Star Trek film. But, by missing my chance in 1986, I learned two important lessons. First, I got to experience another great example of why my Dad and Mom were such great parents, sacrificing a good portion of their day to film something only because their son was a fan. Second, I learned that there are many talented people required to make a Star Trek film. When the credits roll, we continue to marvel at the contributions of the men, women, and whales, that helped make The Voyage Home so incredibly special.Special thanks to: The University of Iowa Libraries, Memory Alpha, Nicholas Meyer, Dan Madsen, and Vincent and Josephine Tenuto. Maria Jose and John Tenuto are both sociology professors at the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois, specializing in popular culture and subculture studies. The Tenutos have conducted extensive research on the history of Star Trek , and have presented at venues such as Creation Conventions and the St. Louis Science Center. They have written for the official Star Trek Magazine and their extensive collection of Star Trek items has been featured in SFX Magazine . Their theory about the “20-Year Nostalgia Cycle” and research on Star Trek fans has been featured on WGN News, BBC Radio, and in the documentary The Force Among Us . They recently researched all known paperwork from the making of the classic episode "Space Seed" and are excited to be sharing some previously unreported information about Khan's first adventure with fellow fans. Contact the Tenutos at [email protected] or [email protected].

Get Updates By Email

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home movie cover

Where was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home filmed?

City locations.

San Francisco (USA), Los Angeles (USA)

Location Types

Retro, Nature, Film Studio

Location Styles

Cabin, High-tech/Futuristic, Building Dated/Retro

About Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Ready for a sci-fi adventure like no other? Then join the crew of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home on an intergalactic journey full of surprises and wonders! Directed by Leonard Nimoy, this 1986 American science fiction feature film is based on the classic TV series, offering a unique experience through space and time.

So buckle up your seatbelts; it's sure to go an epic voyage! It serves as the fourth feature-length installment of the franchise and is a follow-up to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). The movie marks the conclusion of the story arc which began with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued with The Search for Spock.

After being held accountable for their actions from the previous installment, the former crew of the USS Enterprise finds Earth facing a crisis due to an alien probe looking to contact extinct humpback whales. With no other options, they journey back into Earth's past to secure some whales that can respond to this probe's signal.

Leonard Nimoy was asked to direct Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and he also came up with a story idea lacking a primary antagonist. However, the first screenplay by Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes failed to gain approval, prompting Paramount Pictures to enlist Nicholas Meyer (writer/director of The Wrath of Khan) for assistance. Together with producer Harve Bennett, they co-wrote the script which had to be approved by Nimoy, William Shatner, and Paramount execs.

Filming commenced on February 24th, 1986. The Voyage Home was distinct in its extensive use of real-world locations for the film, with many of San Francisco's settings and buildings incorporated as part of the scenes. Industrial Light & Magic provided post-production and special effects for the movie. To create an authentic, lifelike experience for humpback whales, ILM used both full-size animatronics and small mechanized models.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Locations

Prior to the release of The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy was invited by Paramount to return and direct the subsequent movie. Allowing him more control and freedom compared to his previous experience, they referred to his vision when expressing their desire to have him on board once again - as Nimoy recollects.

After a few adventures that were mainly set in a studio, the Star Trek movie series took advantage of actual California locations for this environmentally-aware adventure. The crew of the Enterprise returns to 1986 San Francisco to save a whale.

Upon arriving in San Francisco, the crew splits up at the corner of Columbus, Kearny, and Pacific Avenues. The Klingon ship that they pilfered then travels below the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. Although the crew of the Enterprise lands at 'Golden Gate Park' with their stolen Klingon ship, it is actually Will Rogers State Park, located in Pacific Palisades.

Originally the home of humorist Will Rogers, this stunning park in the Santa Monica mountains was used as a filming location for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Here is a rundown of where other memorable scenes were filmed.

Kirk and Spock first meet Gillian scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

886 Cannery Row, Monterey, CA 93940, United States

Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) meet Gillian (Catherine Hicks) at the Cetacean Institute in Sausalito, where they also encounter George and Gracie, two humpback whales. In the movie, these majestic creatures are contained in a large tank outdoors near the Pacific Ocean.

However, the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home scene was actually filmed at Monterey Bay Aquarium - located some distance away from San Francisco - which has a deck overlooking the Pacific. The whales seen on-screen were created with animatronics for closeups, with special effects taking over for shots taken from further away.

Just 120 miles down the coast from San Francisco, you'll find the Monterey Bay Aquarium located at 886 Cannery Row in Monterey. Although it doesn't have any whales on its premises, many other exciting creatures and exhibits await exploration.

To get there from the north, take the Pacific Grove Highway 68 toward Monterey and exit at Del Monte Avenue. Continue straight on this road for 1.7 miles until you reach Cannery Row. If you're arriving from the south, take the 101 Freeway to Munras Avenue and head west for 2 miles until you reach Cannery Row. Public transportation is also an option, and bus number 22 services both Del Monte Avenue and Cannery Row south of Prescott Avenue and is available throughout most days.

The Bird of Prey Water scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

14253 Sunset Blvd, Pacific Palisades, CA 90272, USA

Towards the movie's finale, viewers witness the Klingon Bird of Prey dramatically plunging into San Francisco Bay. However, due to safety concerns, these scenes could not be filmed in the real bay - they were instead shot in a large water tank at Paramount Studios in Hollywood. This tank can actually be filled with water for filming purposes and is also equipped with a large background that can be repainted or used as a blue screen.

The crew parks the 'Bird of Prey' at a place known as "Golden Gate Park," but this is actually Will Rogers State Park in Pacific Palisades, located at 14253 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. This park was once the estate of famous humorist and actor Will Rogers in the Santa Monica mountains.

If you are traveling by car, head west on Chautauqua Boulevard and make a right onto Sunset Blvd. After 7 Miles you will see the address to your left. If you prefer to use public transportation, bus #652 will drop you off at the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home filming location.

Chekov and Uhura Look For The "Nuclear Wessels" scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The intersection of Columbus & Mason, North Beach, San Francisco, CA 94133, USA

Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) set off to locate the Nuclear Vessels ("wessels" as Chekov says). The scenes for this mission were shot at the intersection of Columbus, Mason, and Greenwich Streets.

The actors had to actually approach unsuspecting local passers-by to film their reactions, who had no idea they were being filmed. To retrace their steps, start by making your way to the North Beach area itself, once there use each street name as your point of reference for navigation.

Find either Columbus or Mason and you'll have no difficulty in finding their intersection. For those planning a visit to this central hub of activity in San Francisco, the best transit route is the 30-Stockton or 45-Union line - they both stop two blocks away from Columbus and Mason’s intersection.

The crew of the Enterprise arrives on Earth scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

900 Kearny St, San Francisco, California 94133, United States

After arriving on Earth in 1986, the crew discovers that their mission had taken a toll on the ship's power reserves. Thus, they cloak the Bounty and hide it in Golden Gate Park.

The crew then divides up tasks to be accomplished: Admiral James T. Kirk and Spock search for humpback whales, while Montgomery Scott (James Doohan), Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and Hikaru Sulu (George Takei) create a tank that can contain the whales necessary for their journey back to the 23rd century.

The Columbus Tower, commonly referred to as the Sentinel Building, is a multipurpose structure located in San Francisco, California. Construction had already commenced before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake caused serious damage to the building site and other parts of the city; it was eventually concluded in 1907.

Nowadays, much of the tower is occupied by Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope studio. It's just a few blocks away from BART and MUNI stations, so you can easily take public transportation there or even walk if you're feeling adventurous.

You can also get there by car or bike; simply enter your starting address into a navigation application and it will provide you with step-by-step directions. Once you arrive, off-street parking is available as well as several nearby parking garages.

Vulcan scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area and Nature Center, 10700 Escondido Canyon Rd, Agua Dulce, CA 91390, United States

The crew began shooting the opening scenes of Star Trek IV on the planet Vulcan at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area situated near Santa Clarita. This area is a popular filming location thanks to the aesthetics provided by its distinctive rock formations and it's relatively close to Los Angeles.

To give the scenes an even greater sense of realism, matte paintings were utilized. The Vulcan site was named after Tiburcio Vasquez, a 19th-century outlaw who had once sought refuge there.

Characterized by spurs of rock that were thrust out of the earth as a result of the San Andreas Fault, this remarkable place has been used to shoot many Westerns, sci-fi movies, and pop videos since Werewolf of London in 1935. Additionally, various episodes of the Star Trek TV series have been filmed at the location and it makes another appearance in JJ Abrams' 2009 reboot.

You can get there by car, bike, or on foot by following a few easy steps. Locate the nearest highway that has access to Agua Dulce, such as Interstate 14 or Highway 126. Once you reach the correct highway, continue driving until you find Sierra Highway/14th Street West, then turn onto Sierra Highway and take it straight until you reach Escondido Canyon Road. Keep following this road until you reach your destination at 10700 Escondido Canyon Road.

Kirk and Spock discuss their plan scene in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, CA, United States

As Kirk and Spock reflect on their current situation while walking along Marine Drive, situated between the San Francisco Presidio's Fort Point National Historic Site and Torpedo Wharf, they come to a decision regarding their next move after their initial plan fails.

Spanning the one-mile (1.6 km)-wide Golden Gate strait and connecting San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean, the iconic Golden Gate Bridge was constructed at a cost of over $35 million beginning on January 5, 1933. Several designers were involved in crafting this remarkable engineering feat.

Visiting the iconic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, CA is on the must-do list for many people. Starting from downtown San Francisco, you can take a ride-sharing service or public bus like Muni bus 28; both drop off close to the bridge. For those coming from outside of San Francisco, it's only a short drive away and easy to access from Highway 101 or Interstate 280.

This classic movie is affectionately referred to as "The One with the Whales" - and the nuclear "wessels". The tremendous success of this movie (it was the most lucrative Trek movie until the 2009 reboot) convinced Paramount that Star Trek could succeed in a larger franchise.

This led to another film being approved, as well as Gene Roddenberry getting the chance to develop a brand new show, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the ensuing 18 years of continual Star Trek productions. The movie is ingeniously simple in its concept. The renowned Star Trek gang, who are normally engaged in space battles against otherworldly creatures to protect the utopian and quasi-Marxist United Federation of Planets, are forced to visit our world - more specifically, mid-1980s San Francisco.

They may have mastered outwitting Romulans but now they must tackle the challenge of confrontational punks on public transport. Star Trek IV is just as entertaining as Back to the Future and does not require any knowledge of the wider Star Trek universe for an enjoyable viewing experience.

Screen Rant

14 biggest star trek updates: section 31, starfleet academy, strange new worlds & more.

Alex Kurtzman outlines his plans for the future of Star Trek to Variety, providing exciting updates on Section 31, Picard, Starfleet Academy and more!

Star Trek franchise teases exciting future with reveals on Section 31, Strange New Worlds, and more in recent interview.
Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 movie promises action-packed spy thrills in space, akin to Mission: Impossible.
Starfleet Academy set in 32nd century, with new sets and episodes for fan favorite series like Strange New Worlds.

The Star Trek franchise has just revealed a treasure trove of new information about Star Trek: Section 31 , season 3 of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and much more. With Star Trek: Discovery ending in 2024, and concerns over the implications of a potential Paramount merger, it's reassuring to discover that the future of the Star Trek franchise looks very bright indeed. Key figures like Alex Kurtzman and Eugene Roddenberry Jr. have revealed new details about the upcoming Star Trek movies , Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 , and a possible sequel to Star Trek: Picard in a brand-new interview.

In a Variety feature entitled The Future of ‘Star Trek’: From ‘Starfleet Academy’ to New Movies and Michelle Yeoh, How the 58-Year-Old Franchise Is Planning for the Next Generation of Fans , Adam B. Vary talks to a number of key figures involved with the current Star Trek TV shows and movies about the exciting future for the franchise. Talking to stars Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Michelle Yeoh, Adam B. Vary unearths some exclusive information about what to expect from Star Trek 's next few years on TV and in theaters.

Every Upcoming Star Trek Movie & TV Show

14 the first image of star trek: section 31 is released, michelle yeoh's georgiou meets a mystery figure.

The Variety feature gives Star Trek fans their first glimpse of Emperor Philippa Georgiou (Michelle Yeoh) back in action. Star Trek: Section 31 wrapped filming recently, so attention now turns to post-production ahead of a future release on Paramount+. The image shows Georgiou whispering something into the ear of a mysterious, but memorable looking character . Whether this is a Section 31 asset or one of the movie's antagonists is not yet clear.

Who this metal mohawked character with the tattoos and cybernetic augmentations will likely remain a mystery until such time as Star Trek: Section 31 releases a trailer. However, it's good to see Michelle Yeoh back in her trademark black leathers playing Georgiou again after such a long delay. The first image is an intriguing tease of things to come for Michelle Yeoh's appropriately top secret Section 31 movie.

13 Star Trek: Section 31 Features A Young Rachel Garrett

Played by hannibal's kacey rohl.

One of the biggest surprises from Variety 's Star Trek: Section 31 set report is the revelation that Georgiou will team up with a young Rachel Garrett (Kacey Rohl). Until now, the roles played by Section 31 's cast have been kept under wraps. Now it's been confirmed that Kacey Rohl will be playing the future captain of the USS Enterprise-C in Section 31 . All that's known about Garrett is how she dies, meaning that there's a lot of unexplored backstory for Section 31 to reveal.

Kacey Rohl starred as Abigail Hobbs in Hannibal , created by Star Trek: Discovery co-creator, Bryan Fuller.

Rachel Garrett's involvement in Star Trek: Section 31 could also narrow down when in the Star Trek timeline the movie is set. Rachel Garrett was a Starfleet officer in the early to mid 24th century, and died in 2344. This suggests that the Guardian of Forever didn't send Georgiou back to her own time in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 , but instead sent her to some point a few decades later.

Rachel Garrett: Star Trek’s Most Tragic Enterprise Captain Explained

12 michelle yeoh calls section 31 "mission: impossible in space", star trek's spy movie is more tom cruise than john le carré..

Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh discussed her love for the character of Georgiou in the Variety piece, and gave an enticing tease of what to expect. Yeoh describes Star Trek: Section 31 as "" Mission: Impossible" in space " which is a neat elevator pitch that gives audiences a good idea of what to expect. Under the creative direction of Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, the Mission: Impossible movies have become thrilling globetrotting adventures, filled with incredible stunts.

The idea of transposing that Mission: Impossible style to the Star Trek universe suggests that Michelle Yeoh's movie will be full of action and adventure. Star Trek: Section 31 writer Craig Sweeny backs this up, by explaining what Star Trek 's spy movie isn ' t . Read Craig Sweeny's quote below:

“I didn’t want to make the John le Carré version, where you’re in the headquarters and it’s backbiting and shades of gray. I wanted to do the people who were at the edges, out in the field.

11 Section 31 Visit An Alien Nightclub

Georgiou visits a club full of classic star trek aliens..

When Adam B. Vary visits Michelle Yeoh on the set of Star Trek: Section 31 , she's preparing to shoot a scene inside an alien nightclub. From Quark's Bar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine to the pleasure planet of Risa, there are many ways to unwind in the Star Trek universe. However, given that this is Section 31 , it's likely that the nightclub visited by Georgiou and Garrett will be a seedier location, perhaps where the mysterious mohawked figure is holding court.

Intriguingly, the Variety feature also reveals that the nightclub will be populated by some classic Star Trek aliens. This location is clearly some sort of hub where the movers and shakers of the galaxy are meeting up, making it a prime location for Section 31's best operatives to be seen. Adam B. Vary gives an enticing description of the action on set while filming this scene from Star Trek: Section 31 in a quote below:

A few minutes later, dozens of extras in all manner of outlandish evening wear file into the club, several of them made up as classic “Star Trek” aliens that fans might be surprised to see in this kind of swanky establishment.

10 Jonathan Frakes' Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 Episode Is A Hollywood Murder Mystery

Frakes says that it's “the best episode of television" he's ever done..

Jonathan Frakes is returning to direct an episode of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 that he says is "the best" he's ever done. That's quite a claim, given the director's prolific output between Star Trek: The Next Generation and SNW season 3. Frakes' episode is reportedly a "Hollywood murder mystery", which invokes images of hard-boiled detectives and glamorous settings. It sounds like one more thing to be excited about as production on Strange New Worlds season 3 continues.

9 Starfleet Academy Confirmed To Take Place In Star Trek's 32nd Century

The show will build on star trek: discovery's established canon..

Alex Kurtzman confirms to Variety that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will be set in the 32nd century, presumably following on from Star Trek: Discovery 's final season . The Variety feature astutely points out that, by setting Starfleet Academy in the largely unexplored 32nd century, it will reduce the amount of revision that its young adult audience will have to do. Interestingly, the feature also highlights that Star Trek has an aging fanbase, which makes a show like Starfleet Academy vital in building fandom's next generation .

Alex Kurtzman doesn't confirm if any of Star Trek: Discovery 's cast will be making the transition to Star Trek: Starfleet Academy . However, the confirmation of the 32nd century setting does make it more likely that Mary Wiseman's Tilly could appear in the show as an instructor . While casting is still being kept under wraps, Kurtzman and the team did reveal some more information about Starfleet Academy 's setting.

Starfleet Academy Show Is "Trying To Tell A Star Trek Story In A New Way", Says Tawny Newsome

8 starfleet academy will be set in san francisco, star trek's ya show is making the voyage home..

Set designs shared with Variety by Alex Kurtzman and production designer Matthew Davies reveal that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will return to San Francisco . When Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and the crew arrived in the 32nd century in Star Trek: Discovery season 3, Earth was no longer a member of the Federation. This meant that Starfleet Headquarters, and a fledgling Starfleet Academy had moved off-world.

The designs reveal that the 32nd century Starfleet Academy will have " a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge ", cementing its location. San Francisco has always been Starfleet's home , so it's fitting that Star Trek: Starfleet Academy will have its roots there. Rooting the show in San Francisco also gives Starfleet Academy a chance to explore what life on Earth looks like in Star Trek 's 32nd century.

7 Starfleet Academy Will Be Star Trek's Biggest-Ever Set

Every inch of pinewood toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage will be used..

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy appears to be literally building the titular educational establishment for use in the show, making it the biggest set ever constructed for Star Trek . Looking over the designs with Alex Kurtzman and Matthew Davies, Adam B. Vary gives a sense of the scale of the 32nd century's Starfleet Academy. Read his quote below:

a sprawling, two-story structure that will include a mess hall, amphitheater, trees, catwalks, multiple classrooms and a striking view of the Golden Gate Bridge in a single, contiguous space. To fit it all, they plan to use every inch of Pinewood Toronto’s 45,900 square foot soundstage, the largest in Canada

6 The Enterprise Gets A New Science Lab In Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3

And there's a glimpse of ethan peck's spock at work..

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 will debut a new science lab set , and it looks very impressive. Intriguingly, the new lab is described as having "a four-foot pool of water that swirls underneath the central workbench". Whether this means that Strange New Worlds will introduce its own cetacean ops, or continue Starfleet's love of whales , remains to be seen. Either way, the new set is an impressive addition that suggests Lt. Spock (Ethan Peck) will need to upgraded facilities to solve some scientific conundrum in SNW season 3.

5 There's No Genre That Strange New Worlds Can't Do

"could it do muppets sure. could it do black and white, silent, slapstick maybe”.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds showrunner Akiva Goldsman reaffirms that the Star Trek: The Original Series prequel can attempt any genre. Responding to Vary's question of whether there's a genre that Strange New Worlds couldn't do, Goldsman had an " impish " response. Read Goldsman's quote about a potential Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Muppet episode below:

“As long as we’re in storytelling that is cogent and sure handed, I’m not sure there is,” [...] “Could it do Muppets? Sure. Could it do black and white, silent, slapstick? Maybe!”

4 Strange New Worlds AR Wall Can Be Disorienting For The Cast

But not for everyone....

Elsewhere in the Variety feature, Anson Mount discusses Star Trek: Strange New Worlds ' use of the AR wall to create alien backdrops. Where previous Star Trek shows had used a greenscreen, the LCD screens that make up SNW 's AR wall allow the actors to actually see the environments that they're acting against . While it's a benefit, it doesn't always create a great experience for the actors, as Anson Mount points out.

“The images on the walls start to move in a way that makes no sense,” [...] “You end up having to focus on something that’s right in front of you so you don’t fall down.”

However, Ethan Peck says that he doesn't get disoriented by the AR wall, wryly joking that Spock wouldn't be fazed by it, so he's simply method acting. Hilariously, Anson Mount also reveals that they refer to the AR wall as the Holodeck. The route that actors take to the AR wall on the set of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is even decorated with posters of the holodeck, and a sign that reads "Weclome to the Holodeck" in the classic Star Trek font.

Enterprise’s Holodeck Is Star Trek’s “Most Imaginative” Invention, Says TNG Producer

3 alex kurtzman is considering a "follow up" to star trek: picard, could patrick stewart get his wish for a final picard movie.

While news of Star Trek: Legacy is absent from Variety 's sprawling feature about the future of the franchise, Alex Kurtzman does drop a small hint about continuing the story of Star Trek: Picard . It's long been suspected that Star Trek: Section 31 will pave the way for more Paramount+ exclusive movies . This is confirmed by Kurtzman, who is already considering potential follow-ups should Section 31 be a success. A follow-up Star Trek: Picard movie is one of the projects that Kurtzman is considering, but there's no further information as to what this would be.

2 Toby Haynes' Star Trek Movie Is An Origin Story For The Entire Franchise

Is star trek's origin movie set for 2026's 60th anniversary.

Variety has confirmed that Seth Grahame-Smith's Star Trek movie, to be directed by Andor 's Toby Haynes, will be an origin story for the entire franchise . More interesting still is that the movie is rumored to be "on track" for pre-production to begin by the end of this year. This suggests that the theatrical release Toby Haynes' Star Trek origin movie could form part of the 60th anniversary celebrations in 2026. Star Trek: First Contact did something very similar for the 30th anniversary celebrations in 1996, so it will be interesting to see how a new movie continues that story 30 years later.

1 The Flight Attendant's Steve Yockey Is Working On Star Trek 4

Yockey is the latest writer to work on the kelvin timeline's finale..

While Toby Haynes' Star Trek origin movie currently appears to be on track, Star Trek 4 remains in development hell. The Variety feature states that Paramount still intends to give Chris Pine's Star Trek movies a final chapter, but not much has changed since the last disappointing update. However, it has been confirmed that The Flight Attendant creator Steve Yockey is now working on a new draft of Star Trek 4 , but there's no further information than this. While the Kelvin Timeline movies still being stuck at the scripting stage may be disappointing, it's hard to deny that the future of the wider Star Trek franchise looks very bright indeed.

Every Star Trek Show And The Kelvin Timeline Movies Are Now Streaming On Paramount+.

Source: Variety

VIDEO

sfdebris: star trek 4
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). All's Whale That Ends Whale
SCENE AT THE ACADEMY: The Whale
STAR TREK IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek Next Generation
(The Whale) Thomas Scenes (1080p+Logoless)

COMMENTS

Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (4/10) Movie CLIP
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home movie clips: http://j.mp/1J9zolDBUY THE MOVIE: http://amzn.to/t2YsYoDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prC...
Star Trek -- Humpback Whales
Star Trek IV: The Voyage HomeAn alien probe of great power has entered Earth orbit, focusing its unintelligible transmissions not to the people of Earth, but...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Official translation from the official novel of the movie:[Probe] Why did you remain silent for so long?They [The whales] tried to explain, but it reacted in...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a 1986 American science fiction film, the fourth installment in the Star Trek film franchise based on the television series Star Trek.The second film directed by Leonard Nimoy, it completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984). Intent on returning home to Earth to face trial ...
The One About the Whales
Star Trek IV is a delightful exploration of that kind of forward-thinking hopefulness. It revels in both its un-Star Trek-ness and its own canon, with a message that is universal and still relevant today.Like a Star Trek movie with a Klingon ship crash-landing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge and a trippy 3D exploration of time travel, this year's Earth Day won't look like what anybody would ...
"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" (1986); the 'one with the whales' is
Star Trek III was a fine entry in the canon, but it's often maligned for its shortcomings (lack of scope, predictable story, a television-look) rather than its strengths (emphasis on character, humor). With Star Trek IV, Nimoy's style had matured dramatically. Director Leonard Nimoy makes maximum use of the story's San Francisco location.
You need to watch the sci-fi movie that saved the whales for free
Prior to J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot in 2009, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home held the record for the Star Trek feature film with the most successful box office, ever.The movie opened over ...
Star Trek IV Was Originally About Saving Something Much Smaller Than Whales
In the book "The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years," edited by Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, the makers of "Star Trek IV ...
There Be Whales Here: 'The Voyage Home' at 30
The light moments sprouted organically from our intrepid 23rd century crew's desperate attempts to fit into 1986 San Francisco while fighting a ticking clock in their attempt to bring two ...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home's Whales Left Fans Furious
By Sam Skopp / Dec. 11, 2023 8:30 am EST. In the movie "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," the now-former crew of the Starship Enterprise travels back in time to 1986 — the year of the film's ...
Temp Score (?) for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
A clip from 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' (1986) using an alternate score tracked in from 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' (1984) by James Horner: the...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
The scenes involving these whales were shot in a swimming pool in a Los Angeles area high school. A large animatronic tail was also created, for the scene on the sinking Bird-of-Prey, filmed on the Paramount car park, which was flooded for the shoot. ... Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home's network television premiere occurred on the March 4, ...
Re-Watching Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Screenplay by: Steve Meerson & Peter Krikes and ... The whale scenes were filmed with four-foot-long animatronic puppets. The puppets were so lifelike that U.S. fishing authorities reportedly criticized the film for getting too close to whales in the wild. ... and note the smiling and laughing Vulcans. A gaffe ...
Origin of the Whale Probe Sent to Earth in Star Trek IV
On this day in Star Trek history, filming for Star Trek IV: The Journey Home began.The first scenes of the film were shot on February 24th, 1986 in California. Filming wrapped just three months ...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is pure, joyful cinema
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is pure, joyful cinema. Entertainment Geekly's 'Star Trek' series looks at the best whale movie ever made. 2016 marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise ...
Humpback whale
The two whales seen in Star Trek IV were mechanically created by Industrial Light & Magic under project supervisor Walt Conti with help of advisor and marine mammal expert Pieter Folkens.Several scenes, such as the last scene in which the two whales responded to the alien probe and swam out to sea, were footage from a whale documentary.
Star Trek IV: Did You Know That...
Saavik was indeed pregnant with Spock's child in the early versions of the script. During Spock and his mother Amanda's conversation, the script has Amanda trying to tell her son the news, but she hesitates and does not. Kirk and Saavik discuss the situation, with Saavik eventually not telling Spock. Had this scene been included as written ...
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). All's Whale That Ends Whale
#startrek #startrektheoriginalseries Stam Fine Reviews looks at Star Trek IV: The One With The Whales. Director Leonard Nimoy and Executive Producer Harve Be...
star trek
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the survival of Earth depends on a mysterious probe having a conversation with humpback whales. McCOY: Well, dammit? You think this is its way of saying 'Hi there' to the people of the Earth? SPOCK: There are other forms on intelligence on Earth, Doctor. Only human arrogance would assume the message must be ...
What Spock and Sarek's STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME Moment ...
It is a bit underwhelming that Spock goes through everything he does over the course of the movie and ends up feeling "fine.". He's time traveled, had to hide his identity, mind-melded with ...
star trek
219 CARGO BAY - FAVORING THE TANK - ILM ELEMENTS As Scotty watches in awe, the whales, and half a tank of sea water, BEAM IN. On Scotty, open-mouthed. This neatly deals with two elements; the existing air in the tank would have merely doubled in pressure (something that a simple bleed-valve could deal with in seconds) and this also explains ...
Star Trek IV (Movie)
This is a scene from STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME. The Whales Communicates with The Probe
Where was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home filmed?
However, the Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home scene was actually filmed at Monterey Bay Aquarium - located some distance away from San Francisco - which has a deck overlooking the Pacific. The whales seen on-screen were created with animatronics for closeups, with special effects taking over for shots taken from further away.
The Whales of Star Trek IV Translate An Important Scene
The TRUE STARS of Star Trek IV - George and Gracie the Humpback Whale - provide a translation on just what the heck they were saying to that giant probe thin...
14 Biggest Star Trek Updates: Section 31, Starfleet Academy, Strange
Star Trek franchise teases exciting future with reveals on Section 31, Strange New Worlds, and more in recent interview. Michelle Yeoh's Section 31 movie promises action-packed spy thrills in space, akin to Mission: Impossible. Starfleet Academy set in 32nd century, with new sets and episodes for fan favorite series like Strange New Worlds.