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Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986)
Released By: Paramount Home Video   Rating: PG   In Theaters: N/A
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Studio: Paramount Home Video
Genre: Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG
Director: Leonard Nimoy
Language: English
Official Website: N/A
Theatrical Release: N/A
Home Video Release: N/A
Cast: DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, William Shatner
Published ID: 3866
UPC: 097360179774, 097360677140, 097360677126, 097360719048, 097360719147,
Plot: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) concludes the story arc begun with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), but on a wholly new, different, and upbeat note. As the movie opens, months have elapsed since the events in Star Trek III; Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Scott (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) are marooned in self-imposed exile on Vulcan, along with the resurrected and regenerated Spock (Leonard Nimoy, who also directed). While Spock tries to sort out the Vulcan and human halves of his resurrected psyche, the others prepare to return to Earth to face a brace of charges by the Klingon Empire and Star Fleet over events on Genesis. Taking off in their commandeered, jerry-rigged Klingon ship, they head to Earth, not knowing that a new crisis could destroy their home world -- a huge, immensely powerful alien probe has entered the galaxy and established a position near Earth, disabling every vehicle and installation in its path with its energy and communication output, and has ionized the entire atmosphere and started vaporizing the oceans, leaving the planet only hours to survive. Spock determines that the probe is sending out signals to another intelligent terrestrial life form, humpbacked whales, which no longer exist. Using the gravity slingshot time-warp effect (established early in the original series) to travel back into Earth's 20th century, Kirk and company land in 1980s San Francisco to try and bring humpbacked whales to the 23rd century, to respond to the probe. Thus starts a surprisingly breezy, light-hearted, yet serious odyssey through the past (comparable to the best work of the original series), as the crew learns to deal with exact-change buses, angry drivers, punk-rock enthusiasts and other elements of '80s life, and Kirk tries to persuade a scientist (Catherine Hicks) of his good intentions for two whales in captivity. The screenplay, co-authored by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Nicholas Meyer, and Harve Bennett (from a story by Nimoy and Bennett), is the cleverest and most sophisticated of all the Star Trek movie screenplays, recalling some of the elements of Meyer's earlier time-travel movie Time After Time and also anticipating the feel and tone of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation (which would be on the air not quite a year later). Nimoy's direction offers a combination of brisk pacing and a deep love of the characters and the actors, as well as a serious appreciation of the humorous aspects of the script, and Shatner gives his best performance of any of the movies. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
IDDateTimeTitleReviewHelpfulVotesTotalVotes
Heartwarming, funny film. Possibly the best ST film entry of all
Added 10/1/2009

I even prefer this one over Star Trek 2:The Wrath of Kahn. Ths story starts off on Vulcan (Spocks' home planet) but you'll forget that setting soon as then--via- a little time traveling-- most of the action takes place in 1986 San Francisco). Shatner and Nimoy (Kirk and Spock) have good often deliberately humourous chemistry and I love all of Kirk's scenes with that Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks) who works at an aquarium where the Enterprise needs to acquire a few whales.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
FAVORITE MOVIE IN THE TRILOGY!
Added 9/7/2009

I absolutely love this film! It takes place in my hometown, first of all (and Sulu's! Of course he's be from San Francisco...) and it's absolutely hilarious. The comedy in this film is TOO much, I was cracking up every five seconds. Spock's character is just incredible, I loved it. The first two films, Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock are nothing compared to Voyage Home. It's a good laugh, and I could watch this film over and over again!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
There Be Whales Here!
Added 8/29/2009

Star Trek IV takes a bit of the last film and a bit from the first one. We have alien invasion, an environmental message about the destruction of whales as a species and Man as well. We learn a lot more about Spock (as he becomes re-educated after his ordeal on the Genesis planet, last film) and time travel!

Lots of fun lines in this one. Only whales can communicate with a probe that sucks energy from anything in its vicinity and proceeds to evaporate the Earth's oceans. The problem is that there are no more whales. The Enterprise zips into the past (in a dubious fling around the sun -- as an aside, whenever some sci-fi films deal with time travel, they will go into the past by going the opposite direction of a rotating star or planet, ala Superman, but I digress), in an attempt to get whales from the past and bring them into their present.

Trouble is, the Enterprise crew is on the lam, having stolen a Klingon ship (from an earlier film). What to do?

So they sail into 1986 San Francisco where the area is as alien as any galactic planet they've ever been to. We hear Kirk with his double-damn on you in crossing a street, Spock giving a nerve pinch to a boom box Goth kid (the theater audience I watched the film with cheered at that) and trying to figure out what exact change means.

San Francisco treats like landing in Golden Gate Park ("don't forget where we parked"), the fictional whale institute in Sausalito (and our enjoyable one and only visit with the biological scientist Catherine Hicks) and Chekov's discovery of the "nuclear wessels."

Directed by Leonard Nimoy, and story by Nimoy and Bennett.

Has the charm and humor of the old TV series. Highly recommended.

1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
A must for Trek fans, but it's literally stuck in the '80s
Added 8/12/2009

The Enterprise crew travels back in time to... 1980s San Francisco. Not exactly the high point in American culture. The acting falls flat and the humor loses its novelty. I really liked this movie as a kid, but now it just seems silly and stuck with that 1980s vibe. It hasn't stood the test of time, in my opinion.

What do I mean by stuck in the 80s? Case in point: Kirk and Dr. Taylor go to a fancy Italian restaurant in San Francisco, at which their table is set with breadsticks, and Kirk orders a Michelob beer (as opposed to there being french bread, olive oil, and a fine wine). Is that an example of how tasteless "fancy" restaurants were in the '80s, or a case of bad '80s moviemaking? Or a joke? I don't know. Either way, I didn't appreciate the flourishes.

As a Trek fan though, you can't miss this one, and you'll just have to look over the movie's foibles. It certainly stands out from the other Trek movies with its attempted humor, especially after the darker and more cerebral Star Trek II and III movies.

0 out of 1 people found this helpful.
Star Trek
Added 7/17/2009

Not as good as Star Trek 2 (but then nothing is), this one has a scene with beer, a hot marine biologist and a grumpy McCoy growling about the primitive state of "modern" medicine. I really liked it.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
Heartwarming, funny film. Possibly the best ST film entry of all
Added 10/1/2009

I even prefer this one over Star Trek 2:The Wrath of Kahn. Ths story starts off on Vulcan (Spocks' home planet) but you'll forget that setting soon as then--via- a little time traveling-- most of the action takes place in 1986 San Francisco). Shatner and Nimoy (Kirk and Spock) have good often deliberately humourous chemistry and I love all of Kirk's scenes with that Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks) who works at an aquarium where the Enterprise needs to acquire a few whales.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
FAVORITE MOVIE IN THE TRILOGY!
Added 9/7/2009

I absolutely love this film! It takes place in my hometown, first of all (and Sulu's! Of course he's be from San Francisco...) and it's absolutely hilarious. The comedy in this film is TOO much, I was cracking up every five seconds. Spock's character is just incredible, I loved it. The first two films, Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock are nothing compared to Voyage Home. It's a good laugh, and I could watch this film over and over again!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
There Be Whales Here!
Added 8/29/2009

Star Trek IV takes a bit of the last film and a bit from the first one. We have alien invasion, an environmental message about the destruction of whales as a species and Man as well. We learn a lot more about Spock (as he becomes re-educated after his ordeal on the Genesis planet, last film) and time travel!

Lots of fun lines in this one. Only whales can communicate with a probe that sucks energy from anything in its vicinity and proceeds to evaporate the Earth's oceans. The problem is that there are no more whales. The Enterprise zips into the past (in a dubious fling around the sun -- as an aside, whenever some sci-fi films deal with time travel, they will go into the past by going the opposite direction of a rotating star or planet, ala Superman, but I digress), in an attempt to get whales from the past and bring them into their present.

Trouble is, the Enterprise crew is on the lam, having stolen a Klingon ship (from an earlier film). What to do?

So they sail into 1986 San Francisco where the area is as alien as any galactic planet they've ever been to. We hear Kirk with his double-damn on you in crossing a street, Spock giving a nerve pinch to a boom box Goth kid (the theater audience I watched the film with cheered at that) and trying to figure out what exact change means.

San Francisco treats like landing in Golden Gate Park ("don't forget where we parked"), the fictional whale institute in Sausalito (and our enjoyable one and only visit with the biological scientist Catherine Hicks) and Chekov's discovery of the "nuclear wessels."

Directed by Leonard Nimoy, and story by Nimoy and Bennett.

Has the charm and humor of the old TV series. Highly recommended.

1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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