Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is quite a departure for the franchise. Without question, it features a relatively lightweight story, plenty of action, and takes place almost entirely away from the Enterprise. The acting and dialogue can sometimes be a bit hokey. Plus, the film drags just a little too much through its middle scenes. The environmentalist message doesn’t wear particularly well. And yet the film remains one of the most entertaining in the entire franchise. Rightfully so. There’s a spirited aura to the film that is simply unquantifiable. The result is a flawed, but classic movie.

The movie is, ostensibly, a commentary about whaling and, by extension, human activity which causes the extinction of species across the planet. As Kirk will later say, while humanity was killing off the whales, it was destroying its own future. Not very subtle. But also true. As Kirk and crew prepare to head home to face the consequences of their actions in The Search For Spock, an alien probe approaches Earth. Its powerful and incomprehensible transmissions drain energy from ships, space stations, and the planet Earth itself. More critically, it vaporizes the Earth’s oceans, causing a global catastrophe.

As it turns out, the probe is sending whale song – from Humpback Whales, specifically. So Kirk and crew use their captured Klingon vessel (which they nickname the H.M.S. Bounty) to travel back in time to capture two whales to return to their own time and, hopefully, communicate with the probe. Not coincidentally, the crew travel to the 1980s so that audiences can enjoy the “fish out of water” angle as Kirk, Spock and company try to accomplish their respective tasks in order to collect the whales and return home.

And, truth be told, the scenes are, for the most part, very funny. Spock and Kirk trying to swear is particularly enjoyable – as is Chekov asking a police officer directions to find the nuclear wesells. Though, the latter scene, with Chekov, was much funnier in the 80s when tensions between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were at their highest.

But one of the strengths of the film is that each character gets his (or her) chance to shine. From Uhura to Scotty, from Sulu to McCoy, everyone gets in on the fun. Guest star Catherine Hicks, as Dr. Gillian Anderson, also provides a competent, if uneven turn as the whale biologist who eventually befriends Kirk and travels forward to the future.

But the fun only lasts so long. And the preaching can get to be a bit too much. These aren’t critical flaws, mind you, but they do keep the film from being any better than it is. And some of the dialogue, despite the occasionally snappy humor, often tilts into the downright cheesy (for example, “see you around the galaxy” *cringe*).

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is a lot of fun and enjoys a very high replay value. But no one will mistake it for a fantastic film, either. It’s this uneven tenor that holds it back just a bit. Trek fans may cringe at the often drastic changes to the tone of the franchise. This is a film that looks to reach a broad appeal and, for the most part, it succeeds. It certainly is both fun and funny.

Filed under: Feature Films, Original Series