Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to 20th century Earth to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it, humpback whales.

Director:

Leonard Nimoy

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (television series Star Trek), Leonard Nimoy (story),

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Shatner	...	Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	McCoy
James Doohan	...	Scotty
George Takei	...	Sulu
Walter Koenig	...	Chekov
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Jane Wyatt	...	Amanda
Catherine Hicks	...	Gillian
Mark Lenard	...	Sarek
Robin Curtis	...	Lt. Saavik
Robert Ellenstein	...	Federation Council President
John Schuck	...	Klingon Ambassador
Brock Peters	...	Admiral Cartwright
Michael Snyder	...	Starfleet Communications Officer

Storyline

James Kirk who after rescuing Mr. Spock and bringing him to Vulcan where he is fully restored, is now the most hated man in the universe, because he disobeyed his superiors and killed a Klingon crew and took their ship. After three months on Vulcan, Kirk decides to return to Earth to face the consequences of his actions along with his crew who aided him. Also accompanying them is Mr. Spock, who is still trying to understand his human side. What they don't know is that an alien probe approaches Earth and is emitting a signal that nullifies all power systems. And it is now vaporizing the planet's oceans covering the planet in a cloud that covers the earth cutting them off from the sun - the planet's main source of energy. The President of the Federation sends a transmission telling everyone about what is happening and to stay away from earth. Kirk upon hearing it, checks out the probe's transmission and Spock postulates that the alien is not hostile merely unaware that it's ...

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Plot Keywords:

probe | whale | 23rd century | time travel | star trek | 

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Taglines:

Beaming down to Earth December 12 1986

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Genres:

Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Startrek.com

Country:

USA

Language:

English Finnish

Release Date:

26 November 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

Star trek IV - Retour sur Terre

Filming Locations:

Santa Clarita, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$25,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$109,713,132 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paramount Pictures, Industrial Light & Magic (ILM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) Dolby SR (35 mm prints)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First movie appearance by Spock's Mother Amanda, and only Star Trek movie in which she was played by Jane Wyatt, who originated the role. While Spock's father Sarek also appears in the movie, he and Amanda share no scenes together.

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Goofs

When Spock nerve pinches the punk on the bus, his music appears to stop even though no one actually turns it off. However, it can be presumed that the punk's head hits the 'off' switch.

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Quotes

[Gillian has just beamed aboard the Klingon ship for the first time]
Kirk: Hello, Alice. Welcome to "Wonderland".

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Crazy Credits

The end credits play on top of photos and clips from the film.

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Connections

Followed by Star Trek: Enterprise (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Theme from Star Trek"
Written by Alexander Courage

User Reviews

Hugely enjoyable!

First off, I'm not a big BIG 'Star Trek' fan. I've seen the first six films, and catch an episode of the TV series every now and then (I saw the whole first season recently, which made me re-visit the Shatner/Nimoy films). I did however, find this film extremely entertaining! In fact, it was about as much fun as I think you can have at home with a (tasteful) video! I found 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' a tad dull, although I still enjoyed it. And II and III work well together, and are both enjoyable sci-fi action flicks ('Wrath of Khan' is another classic, but I feel IV pips it to the post). However, when 'The Voyage Home' was over, I had no idea that a film with a plot which involved two humpback whales and mid-1980s San Fransico could be so damn fun.

Shatner is on great form as the rogue Capt. Kirk, and Nimoy is brilliant in conveying Spocks absolute confusion at being stuck on a planet he partly understands, in a time he cannot comprehend. When Kirk explains Spocks oddness to the brilliant and frankly underused actress Catherine Hicks, Kirk says that Spock did a lot of "LDS" back in college.

Kelley, Takei and company are all on fine form, and the score, direction and script all work brilliantly. The fact that the 1980s now seems so long ago (it after all, did not age as well as some decades) only adds to the films premise.

I would thoroughly recommend this film to anyone - 'Star Trek' fan or not - as it is a wonderfully entertaining film for all ages. I'm sure wherever Gene Roddenberry is, he looks back on this film venture with a wry smile and a bag of popcorn.