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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
I just called to say I love you
1986
Review: August 18, 2009
Director: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Catherine Hicks, Nichelle Nichols
If you like.
THE SETUP:
The crew of the Enterprise have to go back in time and pick up some whales so a giant soup can in space will leave Earth alone.
DISCUSSION:
As I continue to boldly go through all the Star Trek films again in the wake of my complete Star Trek obsession following the J.J. Abrams film and watching of the original series, of course I had to come to this one. This was the biggest hit of all the Star Trek films, gathering a lot of crossover fans and again reviving the series—goodwill all to be almost utterly cut off by the disaster to follow, the tragedy of Star Trek V. It was also the second movie in the series to be directed by Leonard Nimoy, after Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, which he wasn’t in all that much. Okay, so let’s go!
As you recall, we left the crew rather abruptly on Vulcan, where they had just brought Spock back to have his body and mind re-integrated. The crew is facing a court-marshall for stealing the Enterprise, which is now destroyed, and have only a stolen Klingon bird of prey to travel in.
So we open with this probe, which looks like a giant black greasy cylinder with a glowing ball sticking out one end. It comes by a Starfleet ship, the Saratoga, which is rendered powerless and drifting by the probe, which is heading—you guessed it—right for Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, a Starfleet council is reviewing footage from Star Trek III of the destruction of the Enterprise. You have to love how every Star Trek movie seems to recycle at least a bit of footage from the previous films. This Klingon representative says that Kirk just wants to kill Klingons, and that is so not fair. Sure Klingons killed his son and all, but everyone has some tragedy in their lives. This council features numerous extras in alien masks, who have been clearly instructed to “make hubbub” at various intervals. If you watch for it, it’s kind of funny, as they erupt in a wordless “wubub bwuwuh” every few seconds, as though scandalized by what they’re hearing. Meanwhile, on Vulcan, Kirk is polling his crew as to whether they agree to return to Earth and face whatever punishment awaits. Saavik, from the previous two movies, decides to stay on Vulcan and open a chain of Subway outlets. It’s not mentioned here, but in previous versions of the script and in novelizations, she is staying behind to have Spock’s baby, conceived when she gave him a little extra help getting through that accelerated puberty thing, Abridgetoo Farr. Anyway, the whole crew decides to just hang out on Vulcan and live the easy life. No, silly, what do you THINK?
While they’re packing, Spock is up in some Vulcan temple with a super-advanced Speak n’ Spell that is catching him up on his learning. It asks him a battery of questions, ending with “How do you feel?” which stumps him. He doesn’t understand the question! Because, it seems, his emotions have been reburied by the whole death/regeneration/reintegration process. Since Spock gets more emotional and human with each successive film, this works to have him retreat away from emotion so he can begin working toward it again. If not, by now he’d be just a big huggy bear sending Kirk “Just Because” cards every few days. He has a little chat with his mom, who—is that Debbie Reynolds? No, it’s actually Jane Wyatt, but she’s a little too warm and earthy for my taste, regardless.
Well, by now the probe has made it to Earth, where it saps the power of the big space station hovering above [would have been a good story thread if that started falling toward Earth], and starts beaming some signal at Earth’s oceans. This inadvertently vaporizes the oceans and causes huge storms that threaten the very existence of mankind. Unfortunately, however, the budget precludes any serious demonstration of this, so what we get is a lot sped-up footage of clouds forming, and a bad thunderstorm in San Francisco. This can leave viewers, like myself, the first few times I saw this movie, to wonder what the big deal was supposed to be. So they have some severe weather? Get an umbrella. Why the trauma? In here, though, you have to admire the audaciousness of designing this probe to defy expectations of what a space technology would look like, and be such a basic, unusual shape and texture.
So Earth sends out a message for everyone to stay the hell away. Well, it doesn’t take Kirk and Spock but a few minutes to deduce that whales must behind this whole thing. The probe is aiming its signal at the ocean, so they simply adjust the sound to how it would sound underwater [because the entire ocean has the same depth and density, you know] and whaddya know, sounds just like humpback whales. Too bad they threw out the Enterprise, because you KNOW Spock had a ‘Whale Songs’ CD in his cabin. Anyway, whales are extinct in the 23rd century? Why, you ask? Because of mankind’s evil, selfish, reckless ways, that has seen us—etc. I’ll bet those whalers sure would have stopped dead in their tracks if they knew that in a mere 300 years from then, we’d need a whale or two to save the Earth! So our heroes are going to slingshot around the sun and use the acceleration to… and… somehow it’s going to send them back in time. Just run with it. Don’t be a spoil-sport. By the way, apparently there were serious memos sent around Paramount that the probe's communication should be subtitled, saying things like “Where are you? We’re looking for you! You were supposed to be at Sam & Jo's anniversary party!” But thankfully, heads containing brains prevailed.
So they go around the sun and Nimoy indulges himself in a fairly arty little time-travel scene. They fly through giant white heads in fog that morph into other faces [scientists have speculated this may be very much what time travel is really like], and then we get some artsy nature shots of reeds and such. And then they just happen to be back in 1986—why, the very year of this film’s release! Spock judges the date by the pollution concentration in the atmosphere—obviously we’re in store for multiple environmental messages here. Uhura says “Admiral! I am receiving a whale song!” But, dang it all, the dilithium crystals are shot! They’ll have to get some more and—why, that could provide something for the rest of the crew to do! Then they cloak and land in Golden Gate park, and here, at roughly 45 minutes in, is where we see, for the first time in Star Trek, I believe: the present day.
The tone turns instantly comedic as Kirk exhorts the crew to “remember where we parked.” They don’t understand traffic, and nearly get run down. The music turns to 80s generic instrumental synth-pop. Chekov and Uhura ask this hot [HOT] motorcycle cop where they can find the “nuclear wessels,” so they can repair the ship. This cop is in this movie for maybe 15 seconds, and yet I remembered him as a key feature from this movie since the first time I saw it in 1986! Goes to show how shallow and obsessive I am—and how a thing as simple as a mustache can change the world. There he is, above. Anyway, Bones and Scotty have to get whale storage materials, while Spock and Kirk go to this aquarium that just HAPPENS to have a huge storage tank with two humpback whales! By the way, everybody has to get the whales and get the ship fixed up in 24 hours, for some reason.
So they go to the aquarium, where they meet Catherine Hicks as Gillian. She used to be on this show about her being a witch, called Tucker's Witch. On the way they encounter a punk playing loud music on his boom box, who Spock gives the pinch to. Apparently this was inspired in part by Nimoy encountering a similar situation in real life, and WISHING he could really give the pinch. But it’s apparent by now that one additional layer the time-travel device offers, aside from the fish-out-of-water comedy, is the opportunity for a surfeit of wry social commentary.
And IMPORTANT SOCIAL MESSAGES! They are no sooner at the aquarium when we’re watching video of whales being slaughtered and carved up, and hearing all sorts of exposition and fun facts about how intelligent they are, mankind’s short-sightedness, etc. It has the unintended effect of making you wonder why they didn’t just go back to when whales were more plentiful? Anyway, you can barely mention the whales’ fate without Gillian getting all emotional and her voice breaking, which I thought actually kind of worked. Then it turns out Spock is in the tank, mind-melding with the whale, which gets the both of them kicked out. On the way out, Spock reports that the whales “Are unhappy with the way their species has been treated by man.” Like what, they have little councils to discuss this? Whale sewing circles? Discussion boards? Newsletters? Bingo nights?
SPOILERS > > >
So Gillian ends up giving Spock and Kirk a ride. I’m sure you give people expelled from your workplace for severe security violations rides all the time. Turns out the whales are being sent away the next day, which causes Gillian to get all emotional again. Spock tells Gillian that the female whale is pregnant—an important plot point, as the whales will be expected to repopulate their species in the future. Anyway, all this necessitates Kirk taking Gillian to dinner, where he suddenly turns all flirty, and after a while spills that he’s from the future. She doesn’t take it well, but drops him off in Golden Gate park in the dead of night, which is kind of funny.
Earlier that day we had a little bit of comedy as Scotty and McCoy go to a guy who manufactures glass, so they can keep their whales inside. Scotty verbally addresses the computer, and expects it to respond, looking like a fool. When McCoy motions to the mouse, Scotty picks it up and talks into it. Regardless of how lame it might sound—it works! It’s funny! Then he performs some quick molecular engineering to create a formula for glass that would be quite thin but incredibly strong—and all on a circa-’86 Macintosh desktop! One of those ones that looks like a hunk of plastic with a B&W screen? Remember those? Who could have known they’re molecular engineering-ready?! Seriously, just a few keystrokes. Anyway—I won’t carp. While this is happening, Chekov and Uhura find the nuclear wessel—an Aircraft carrier called the Enterprise. There is an actual aircraft carrier called the Enterprise, named after the Star Trek Enterprise, but it was unavailable so the one seen in the movie is not the actual Enterprise. Anyway, they get the power for the ship, but wouldn’t you know, it’s one of those transporter malfunctions—perfect for providing nearly ANY plot complication—that can only take Uhura, and Chekov is arrested. He is taken to an interrogation room by these two goons, who deliver a funny little micro-performance, commenting to each other over Chekov’s story, saying “That doesn’t make any sense. It’s the stupidest thing I’ve heard in my life. He must be some kind of retard or something.” Chekov tries to escape—and is injured! Oh good, another plot complication! Wouldn’t want this to be too easy!
Well, Gillain has been betrayed and the whales are already left to their fates in the wild. She gets beamed onto the ship and, well, now she believes Kirk! They make a madcap dash to the hospital to get Chekov—cheesy in an 80s way, but it works—get back to the ship, and Gillain jumps on Kirk to be transported aboard. She’s coming to the 23rd century, dammit! Those whales are all she’s got! Talk about the kooky cat lady! II tha X-Treme! So they take off and make it to the open ocean, where the whales are ALREADY being targeted by whalers! Geez, what did they get, like 15 minutes of freedom? I guess whales in the wild really DON’T have a chance. It’s a massive, crowd-pleasing moment when the whalers shoot a harpoon and it clangs against the invisible ship, then the massive bird of prey decloaks right above them, prime directive be damned. They beam up the whales—REALLY would have loved to see an empty cube of air in the middle of the ocean after this, since they also beamed up the water [but then this got me thinking of if there WOULD be air there, since theoretically nothing is being REPLACED…]. Anyway, the whales are on board, Gillian is all happy-happy [someone get this girl a stuffed animal—oh wait, she probably already has thousands], and now it’s back to the future. By the way, there are no actual whales in this movie. ILM made two completely free-swimming whale models, and used puppets, but they were apparently so convincing that an animal rights group raised a fury about this film.
The trip back to the future is far less remarkable, in fact it’s downright dull. Star Trek has a penchant for setting things up as nearly impossible and then doing them with no problem. There’s some problem or other, however, and they are forced to crash-land in San Francisco bay, where Kirk makes a heroic swim to free the whales, who instantly start chatting with the probe. The probe texts back “Ok. Cool. Tlk 2 U ltr,” sucks up its little ball, and heads back into space. So what, it came all this way just to say “Whassup?” It just called to say I love you? Guess so. Anyway, Earth saved, the crew celebrate by dunking each other into the water—it’s cute, and they deserve it by now—and if you watch closely you’ll see Nimoy engaged in some entirely un-Spock-like laughter.
< < < SPOILERS END
It’s still a high point of the series. They hit upon a great idea to bring the crew back to the present day, with all the comedy and opportunities for social commentary it offers, and also simply to HAVE it be a comedy. This makes it enough of a deviation from the rest of the series to regenerate interest, and it also works exactly BECAUSE it is the only one like this. Apparently Paramount forced some injections of humor into Star Trek V because of the success of this movie, which wouldn’t have been so bad if the ones they chose weren’t so dumb, although that movie fails on its own entirely independently of the shoehorned-in humor.
Nimoy has said that for this film, he wanted to make a film with "no dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedos, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy," and he succeeded, although the lack is felt. Ultimately the big problem here is just a big misunderstanding, a failure to communicate, and at the end no one is defeated, but the attacking force—which isn’t even an ENEMY—simply GOES AWAY. But here it works because the lack of compelling action story sharpens focus on the comedy and human interactions, which I think is exactly what they wanted. Still, I’m glad this is the only one like this, and if I was banished to a desert island and could only take one Star Trek film... it would still be the battle-heavy Wrath of Khan. But you know, I’m an evil, aggression-prone white American male, so what do you expect?
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT?
Yes! It’s one of the better ones and the perfect one to show your family if they want to see a Star Trek film but think sci-fi is dumb.
