Alright, so, here's another review that's mostly going to be me gushing. Why? Because, besides The Wrath Of Khan, this is my favorite Star Trek movie bar none.
So yeah, you're gonna sit here and see me mostly fanboy over it. Sorry.
I mean, seriously, I'll attempt to be objective here... but it's pretty much impossible. It also helps that this movie is really, really great. Like, really great.
So, last time, the Star Trek franchise was saved by its most marketable character being returned to life. I mean... Spock's friends risking everything, including their own ship, in order to bring him back to life after what happened in the Battle of the Mutara Nebula.
We begin... innnnnnn spaaaaaaaaaace. A massive space cigar travels through space, sending out signals in a language that can't be translated into any known one, draining power from ships and space stations along the way as it goes to Earth. As massive storms are generated all over the planet and even the sun gets blotted out by the probe, Starfleet Command realizes they're in a deep, deep trouble.
Meanwhile, on Vulcan, Kirk (William Shatner) and his crew are getting the Klingon Bird of Prey they got their hands on in the previous movie refitted and even have given it a name - the Bounty (read a book, people). Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is still recovering from that whole being dead thing under the watchful eye of his mother, Amanda (Jane Wyatt). The crew eventually votes to return to Earth and face the music regarding the fact that they stole a ship and defied orders to do what they did in the previous movie. When they receive the transmissions from Earth warning people to stay away, Spock works out what the signal the probe is sending out: the songs of the humpback whale, a creature that has been extinct on Earth for almost 400 years.
Kirk's response?
Oh, yeah. Crank up the TARDIS, we're gonna do some time travelin'!
Or, more accurately, Kirk is about to travel through time in a vehicle he stole from Doc Brown. As you do.
After a bizarre scene that feels like it fits more in a 1960's or 1970's movie (so, given this is TOS, might be more appropriate than we know), the crew ends up in 1986 over San Francisco, the future site of Starfleet Academy as well as the birthplace of Hikaru Sulu (George Takei). Their mission is to locate and bring back two humpback whales to communicate with the probe. Of course, you know what they say about the best laid plans...
We've had two movies that were very heavy and dark in tone, so The Voyage Home is a little bit of a pallet cleanser. Despite the world-ending stakes with the probe in the future, the tone is largely very light on Earth of 1986. Shatner said the film "verges on tongue-in-cheek but isn't", which I agree. The film doesn't really poke fun as Star Trek itself, but goes very far with the fish out of temporal water trope, which is always a favorite of mine. It's really just simple things like Kirk and Spock having no idea what "exact change" means, or "double dumbass on you" and the like.
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| "I will be invited back, Jim. You, will not." |
It really shows that you can make very good and memorable scenes without having to bend over backwards to make it work. A lot of the humor comes very organically given the disconnect between our characters from the 23rd century and the realities of the 20th. It's good stuff.
The best part about this film, in my opinion, is actually the lack of a central big bad figure. After the raw power and charisma of Ricardo Montalban and the cunning of Christopher Lloyd as Khan and Kruge, respectively, The Voyage Home doesn't actually have a central antagonist for the heroes to face down and defeat. Given that Leonard Nimoy wanted to push the environment message a bit more, it makes more sense that our major antagonist is a faceless, lifeless space cigar that just wanted to talk with some whales.
It has great humor, good set pieces, and some last minute drama that actually feels natural to the situation and not something incredibly forced in order to bloat the film.
Looking at you, Picard Season 2!
This is easily my second favorite of the films for the TOS crew. If it weren't for Wrath of Khan, it probably would be my favorite of the whole lot. Unfortunately, we're about to hit a nasty, nasty bump on the road for Trek not only in the movies, but as a whole. You see, despite the ending of The Search for Spock all but setting up this film with even the very last text outright stating "And the Adventure Continues...", William Shatner didn't agree to appear in this film until two conditions were met. The first was a pay raise, which was substantial. The second...
The second was a guaranteed spot in the director's chair for the fifth movie. After two movies of Leonard Nimoy bringing out some stellar work in the cast, I am so completely certain that Star Trek V is going to be an absolutely phenomenal thing that will definitely not give Alex Kurtzman bad ideas and exist largely to be mocked and for meme material.
... what does God need with a starship, anyway?
From saving the whales to trying to save the franchise, next time we will go from The Voyage Home... to The Final Frontier.
...I apologize in advance.
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| Brand new, fresh off the shipyards. Man, I hope it isn't a screaming metal death trap by the next movie! |
Star Trek IV: The Voyager Home was brought to us by Paramount Pictures.
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