My Favorite Films: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

"They say the sea is cold, but the sea contains
the hottest blood of all, and the wildest, the most urgent."
-D.H. Lawrence, Whales Weep Not

     Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is not my favorite Star Trek film (that would be Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) but it is the closest in spirit to Gene Roddenberry's original vision for the series: a bright future where humanity has left behind its petty conflicts and joined a larger, intergalactic community. Fun, entertaining stories with big ideas are the very essence of Trek and Leonard Nimoy, who wrote and directed this film recollected, “No dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy. I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film [and] if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of big ideas at them, well, then that would be even better.”

     At the end of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock Spock remembers that Kirk's first name is Jim. This is but a first step in the character regaining his old sense of identity. In the opening scene of Star Trek IV, we see him testing his mental faculties using a computer program on Vulcan. He aces every question until the computer asks, "how do you feel" which perplexes him. Intellectually, he's back to normal, but emotionally, he still has much to regain. Throughout this film we see him learn to stretch the truth, to "guess" and we see him rekindle his friendships with Kirk and Bones. At the end of the film, when Spock chooses to stand along side his shipmates at the court martial we get the sense that he has finally found himself again. He tells his father "They are my friends" and when asked by Sarek what he should tell his mother he replies, "Tell her, I feel fine."

     Similarly, after the crushing events of the previous two films Kirk is also struggling to move forward in his life. In addition to the emotional scars left by the destruction of the Enterprise and the death of his son, he must also deal with the material consequences of defying Starfleet Command and returning to Genesis to find Spock. This film takes him on a classic hero's journey. He leaves his home when it becomes imperiled in order to save it and on returning he regains his honor and is able to reenter society. This nicely completes Kirk's arc from the previous two films, after being confronted by his past and having gone through hell, Kirk can now get back to doing what he loves.

     Star Trek IV is a great comedy. The script, by Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett, is filled with quotable lines. It's not as thematically complex as Star Trek II but, as far as dialogue goes, it may have the best script of any Trek film. There are so many witty exchanges. When a disgruntled cab driver calls Kirk a dumbass he replies, "Well, uh, double dumbass on you!" Discouraged in his attempts to discuss Spock's recent death and rebirth with the Vulcan McCoy says "You're joking!" to which Spock replies, "A joke ... is a story with a humorous climax." When trying to sneak into the hospital to rescue Chekov, McCoy says that Taylor "has immediate postprandial, upper-abdominal distention." When asked by Kirk what that is, he replies "cramps." All of this dialogue is hilarious but it also feels consistent with who these characters are and who they've become. In addition, many of the scenes were at least partly improvised. This lends a great sense of spontaneity to the film. It helps that all of these actors, especially Nimoy and Shatner, already have great chemistry, as does newcomer Catherine Hicks as Doctor Gillian Taylor, the scientist whose dead set on saving "her whales." The scene where she asks Kirk and Spock if they like Italian, which was completely improvised by Shatner and Nimoy, is one of the film's funniest moments.

     Even more then in Star Trek III Nimoy goes out of his way to give the supporting cast heavier involvement in the story and more memorable scenes. While Kirk and Spock are tracking down the whales, Sulu, Scotty and Bones are tasked with obtaining the materials to construct a water tank in the ship while Uhura and Chekov must obtain a nuclear reactor to restore power to the ship. DeForest Kelley and James Doohan get to preform this wonderful scene where their characters bribe the head of the Plexicorp plant to give them the plexiglass they need in exchange for the formula for transparent aluminium (a substance which has actually been invented since the films release). Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig, of course, are featured in the now iconic scene where Chekov asks passersby if they can tell him where to find "the nuclear wessels." Finally, although a subplot featuring Sulu meeting his distant ancestor was ultimately cut, George Takei gets his own, briefer subplot where Sulu piloting skills (and love of antiques) are both referenced. Nimoy clearly cared about the cast and valued their contributions to the film. His direction, in general is more assured this time around, featuring longer takes and, as I mentioned, improvisational comedy.

     Another great thing about The Voyage Home, which I alluded to earlier, is that it's one of the few Star Trek movies that doesn't feature a main villain. In many episodes of the original series, the crew had to deal with scientific problems that were not caused by some malevolent being but were rather caused by a misunderstanding or were simply natural disasters. In Star Trek IV, humanity itself (or at least humanity as it existed in 1986) is the central source of adversity for the crew of the Enterprise. By hunting the humpback whale into extinction, humanity has forever deprived itself of the secrets these creatures hold. This was very prescient in the 1980's, a time when there was growing concern over the hunting of humpback whales. In one scene, reminiscent of actions taken by members of Greenpeace, the crew pilots the Bounty (their repurposed Klingon ship) in front of the whales to protect them from a group of Russian whalers.

     The whales themselves are animatronic, and they look amazing. Many people, including myself, mistakenly thought they were real on a first viewing. The sound effects for the probe where taken from a baby's heartbeat, slowed down and digitized. Originally, the studio wanted subtitles to explain the probe's message to the audience, but Nimoy disagreed as he wanted a sense of mystery surrounding the probe and the whales. Indeed, there's a respect for nature and for mystery present in Star Trek IV that is contrasted with the films sense of joy and whimsy. The score, by Leonard Rosenman, has a really lighthearted, festive quality that really complements the film's tone. The film's unique premise allowed Rosenman to write in a variety of styles including a jazz fusion piece (preformed by Yellowjackets), a classical baroque piece, and even a fugue. It's a bit dissonant but it works. I would be remiss not to mention the punk song "I Hate You", which provides the impetus for one of the films most iconic scenes. Written by associate producer Kirk Thatcher(who also played the punk on the bus who annoys Kirk by blasting the song on his boom box) it's easily the best fake punk song ever produced.

     Star Trek IV remains the most optimistic film in the Trek canon. It's not concerned with deep philosophical questions or social allegory nor is it filled with mindless action. At the end of Star Trek II Kirk says that he feels young, a statement that was severely tested in the following film. At the end of this film McCoy says "The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We'll get a freighter." But this acerbic statement is immediately proven false as the Enterprise comes into view and we find that the crew is finally home again. Like the whales, and like humanity itself, the crew of the Enterprise have finally been granted a second chance.