Star Trek IV The Voyage Home Analysis isn’t just about whales and jokes—this beloved entry in the franchise offers a surprising blend of humor, heart, and high-stakes science fiction. In this post, we’ll dive deep into what makes this film a standout, from its environmental message to its unique character arcs and its place in the larger Star Trek saga.
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Star Trek IV The Voyage Home is a fan favourite. Almost everyone seems to agree that it’s one of the best. But in a lot of ways, on paper, it shouldn’t work. So why does it?
Today, we’re going to take a deep dive into Star Trek IV, look at the storytelling and themes, and maybe along the way, we’ll find the answer as to why it is so loved.
I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars, and this is episode 112 of Nerd Heaven.
The Filmmakers
The description for Star Trek IV on IMDB reads
To save Earth from an alien probe, Admiral James T. Kirk and his fugitive crew go back in time to San Francisco in 1986 to retrieve the only beings who can communicate with it: humpback whales.
The story was by Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennet.
The screenplay was written by Steve Meerson, Peter Krikes, Harve Bennett, and Nicholas Meyer.
It was directed by Leonard Nimoy
And it first released on the 21st of November 1986.
So, having tried his hand at directing in the previous movie, Nimoy was back, acting, directing, and writing. I think it’s fair to say that this one is very much Nimoy’s film.
Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes were a writing team. This was their first credit. They’d go on to write screenplays for Back to The Beach, Double Impact, and Anna and the King, in 1999.
And it’s cool to have Nicholas Meyer back, helping with the writing.
The film begins with a brief dedication to the men and women of the spaceship challenger, which had exploded a little under a year before this release.
The Music
First off, we need to talk about the music. James Horner is gone. He declined to return for this movie. The new composer is Leonard Rosenman. His original effort for the opening credits was an arrangement of Alexander Courage’s TOS theme. Nimoy wanted an original composition. What we got was … interesting.
I find this to be the least Star Trek feeling music that has ever been used in the franchise, and yes, I’m including Enterprise’s “Where my Heart will take me” in that (which I like a lot more than the average Trek fan seems to).
This theme sounds more like an 80s comedy movie than it does a science fiction adventure. And the comedy, in my opinion, is not what we want to be highlighting in the opening theme.
But you know what, I was all set to talk about what a terrible fit it was, how it was all so slapstick and full of Oompa ommpa stuff. But listening to it for this watch-through, it’s not nearly as bad as that. There is a sense of adventure to it, even though it’s got a very light-hearted feel to it. (The slapstick music will come later.)
I don’t hate this theme, and I never have. It’s in my Star Trek playlist, and I’ve listened to it many times. I’m wondering if I’ve softened to it over the years as I’ve gotten used to it. When I first heard it, it was very jarring.
So, I think I’ll say it’s hitting me better now than it used to, but for my completely subjective taste, it’s a step down from James’ Horner’s theme.
The Marketing
I always found the marketing for this movie weird. They significantly de-emphasised Star Trek in the title. Rather than being marketed as Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, it was marketed as The Voyage Home, with Star Trek IV written underneath in smaller text. It turns out this was a decision made for international markets only, since, apparently, Star Trek movies hadn’t performed well outside of America. Much of this movie was set on present day earth, so I think there was a hope to reach a wider audience that might not otherwise show up for a space movie. I’m pretty sure my VHS copy de-emphasised Star Trek in the credits when the title appears on screen, but the version on Paramount Plus doesn’t do this.
The Probe and The Saratoga
Our first shot is of a mysterious object moving through space, making very creepy noises. This immediately captures my imagination. This probe is being scanned by a Federation Starship, the USS Saratoga.
When I searched the name Saratoga, I found two things. The Southern Saratoga is a freshwater fish found here in Australia. It’s also the name of a suburb on the central coast of New South Wales. So here was I thinking they actually named a Starfleet ship after a little piece of Australia, which I thought was pretty awesome.
Upon further digging, I found there is also a place called Saratoga in New York. There is even a battle of Saratoga, which occurred during the American Revolutionary War. So, it’s much more likely this was the inspiration for the name, but y’know, I’d rather just think that this Starfleet vessel was named after an Aussie fish. That makes me smile.
The captain of the Saratoga isn’t given a name. She’s played by Madge Sinclair, who is uncredited. I wonder why. She seems to break the annoying trend that all captains except Kirk are stupid.
We also get to see our very first Efrosian. The helmsman of the Saratoga. We’ll see another of his species in Star Trek 6 serving as Federation president. You didn’t know this species had a name, did you? I always thought they looked cool and wanted to see more of them. Did you know that a female Efrosian actually appeared in the Discovery episode Labyrinths?
Legal Fallout from The Previous Movie
Back on Earth, there is a lot of political fallout from the events of Star Trek 3. The Klingons are not happy about the death of Kruge and his crew. We get to see footage of the destruction of the Enterprise again. I could have sworn we’d also see the Genesis animation one more time, but the video pauses on Kirk’s explanation.
The Klingon ambassador calls Kirk a terrorist. He’s twisted all of the facts. Now Kirk was secretly developing Genesis as a weapon, and the planet was a secret base from which to launch the annihilation of the Klingon people.
I wonder if they really believe this, or if they’re just spinning a story.
We get confirmation here that the Federation and the Klingons have been negotiating a peace treaty, but this peace effort has suffered a serious setback.
Ambassador Sarek arrives to set the record straight. The Klingon ambassador can’t refute Sarek’s words, so he resorts to racial insults. Sarek doesn’t take the bait, just continues to logically lay out his argument.
The Federation president isn’t having any of this. The Klingons have no legal claim for extradition, but Kirk is facing 9 counts of violating Star Trek regulations. In reality, he’s in some pretty serious trouble, but that’s not enough for the Klingons. The Ambassador declares there will be no peace as long as Kirk lives. Kirk has become the scapegoat of all their anger.
This movie is a comedy. But you’ll notice it doesn’t start out that way. It doesn’t really become a comedy until almost halfway through. The beginning of the movie is very serious, and honestly, kind of dark.
Vulcan
We now pick up on Vulcan where we last saw our heroes. It’s clear this is a three-part story. Star Trek IV doesn’t really work if you haven’t seen the previous two (which is why I was always a bit confused by the start, since I watched them in reverse order). Except that it kinda does work on its own. The movie does a decent job of getting new audiences up to speed. If you look at the box office numbers, Star Trek IV did substantially better than Star Trek II and Star Trek III, despite being the third movie in a trilogy.
They’ve named their captured Klingon ship the HMAS Bounty and have voted unanimously to return home to Earth and face the consequences of their actions in the previous movie. McCoy fully expects to spend the rest of his life mining Borite. There’s a little banter between the crew that could be described as humorous, but that’s nothing new for these characters. The movie does not yet qualify as a comedy.
So the last movie brought back Mark Leonard as Spock’s father, Sarek. This was a fantastic move, and honestly, I don’t think they could have done the story without this character. Star Trek IV goes a step further and brings back Jane Wyatt as his mother, Amanda. I love this. We didn’t see her present at the re-fusion ceremony (maybe she was off camera) but it’s important that she should be acknowledged in this story about the death and resurrection of her son. Her absence at such a monumental moment would feel very weird.
Spock is undergoing tests to see how the retraining of his mind is progressing. His memories were foggy and confused when his katra was first returned to his body. But as we can see, it’s all coming back to him. He certainly remembers all the scientific knowledge he’s acquired during his life. He’s still not quite himself, but he’s getting there.
I’ve talked about the character arc that Spock goes through in the TOS movies. The majority of this arc took place in Star Trek The Motion Picture. By the end of that movie, he had finally learned to embrace his human half. He had found a balance between logic and emotion. We’ll see this fully realised Spock in Star Trek IV, as well as in the TNG episode Unification, and even in Star Trek 2009. He pretty much saw that same Spock in Star Trek II, but his death has given him quite a setback. He’ll have another little arc here as he slowly regains what he has lost over this movie and the next.
When the computer asks “How do you feel?” Spock is clueless. He doesn’t know how to answer the question.
This is when Amanda appears to give him some motherly counsel. Nobody is better equipped to help him understand his human half than the one from whom he inherited it.
“You may not understand feelings, but as my son, you will have them. They will surface.”
The conflict of his youth is gone. He accepts her words at face value and simply response with “As you wish, since you deem them of value.”
Under other circumstances, he would be content to stay here and explore those feelings with her. But he can’t. Not because he despises his human half, but because he needs to go to Earth with his crewmates to offer testimony on their behalf.
He doesn’t understand that he is doing this for friendship. In his words – “I do it because I was there.” It’s simple logic. He has a perspective to offer so he will offer it.
And now, we take that theme we’ve been exploring since Star Trek II and give it that final twist.
“Spock, does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one?”
Spock accepts this as an axiom.
“Then you stand here alive because of a mistake made by your flawed, feeling human friends. They have sacrificed their futures because they believed that the good of the one, you, was more important to them.”
I love this so much. It’s a great scene. Amanda only has a few lines, but they are vital to Spock’s arc in this movie.
Life isn’t just about numbers. A single human life, any human life, is significant. Priceless.
Spock doesn’t yet understand the mathematics of friendship yet. All he can say is “Humans make illogical decisions,” to which Amanda replies with a smile. “They do indeed.”
This is absolutely brilliant.
Back on the Saratoga, the probe is getting closer. It’s sending some kind of signal of immense power. It’s interfering with the ship’s systems, draining them of all their energy. And all the while, it keeps making that wonderfully creepy and mysterious sound.
We finally get an exterior shot of the Saratoga and see that it’s Miranda class.
Back on Earth, the President is seeking information on the situation from Starfleet, and we meet Admiral Cartwright for the first time, played wonderfully by Brock Peters, who’ll also play Joseph Sisko someday. The probe is heading directly for Earth, damaging everything in its path.
I wonder how long it’s been transmitting. He it been doing it along its entire voyage, leaving a path of destruction wherever it goes, or has it only recently started, because it is nearing Earth?
The captain of the Yorktown gives us our first mention of solar sails in Star Trek. We’ll later learn that the ancient Bajorans used this technology back when Earth was going through the Renaissance in the 1500s.
So Scotty explains he’s replaced the Klingon food packs because they were giving him a sour stomach. Then Kirk casually says “Oh, so that’s what it was.”
I can’t help but be amused that Kirk just made a fart joke on the bridge. The film still hasn’t become a comedy, but that was a nice little moment of humour.
Kirk has a little heart-felt farewell with Saavik. She wasn’t involved in the theft of the Enterprise. She’s not been charged with anything. Although, I’m surprised she’s not going to offer testimony as well, to speak on Kirk’s behalf. He saved her. Instead, she’s remaining on Vulcan. Perhaps her next assignment is coming to pick her up.
Saavik shares with Kirk how bravely David died. He saved her and Spock. It’s delivered in a very Vulcan way, but there is a real compassion behind those words. Robin Curtis knows how to play a Vulcan.
I’m really glad that they took the time in this movie to acknowledge David.
There’s a real emotional connection from Saavik to Spock as she says goodbye to him. We know why from the previous movie.
Spock knows he and Kirk had more than a professional relationship, but he doesn’t feel it. That friendship is just academic to him at the moment. The old Spock would refer to Kirk as Jim during work hours if the occasion called for it. The new Spock isn’t there yet.
There’s a nice little scene between Kirk and McCoy. McCoy is concerned that Spock isn’t ready for this, being back at his post like nothing ever happens. Kirk expresses confidence in Kirk, but it’s obvious to McCoy that he’s not entirely sure.
And so, the Klingon Bird of Prey take off and leaves Vulcan behind.
The probe has reached orbit of Earth. It’s taken out the whole Spacedock.
You really get a sense of the massive scale of this probe as it flies past the spacedock. Now I’ve never noticed this before. Remember, I’ve spent most of my life watching this movie on VHS in a 4:3 aspect ratio, but watching this time in full cinematic widescreen I saw it. The Spacedock is truly massive. It dwarfs the Enterprise, and the probe dwarfs the tiny little spacedock.
I have no idea. I always thought it was small. Just a few metres long. I wonder why it needs to be so massive. We might talk about this more at the end.
It’s transmissions are doing something really weird to the Earth’s oceans and affecting the weather in a very deleterious way.
The first act of this movie really has quite a dark and creepy tone. This alien probe is almost lovecraftian in its unknowableness. We have no idea where it came from, and we never will. At this point in the movie, we don’t know what it’s doing or why. It’s absolutely delicious, and I love it so much.
Our heroes were expecting a Starfleet escort to meet them on their way home. But there’s no sign of one. There seems to be a lot of panicked chatter out there. Uhura is trying to figure it all out.
Bones is trying to have a friendly chat with Spock. Due to recent events, he feels closer than ever to his old frenemy. When Spock fails to understand his friendly banter like he used to, Bones tries for a more deep and meaningful conversation. There are a lot of philosophical implications to Spock’s return from the dead. He wants to understand Spock’s insights. But again, to Spock, it’s all academic. “I did not have time to review the philosophical disciplines while on Vulcan.”
Bones is really trying to connect with Spock, but Spock’s just not ready.
I find that the original Star Trek is often at its best when you get Spock and McCoy in a room together the talk. This is another fantastic scene between them.
This movie really does take its time in the first act for these character scenes. They probably wouldn’t work with today’s pacing, but I love them, and I don’t think the pace suffers for them at all.
I also love that the movie is letting Spock recover slowly. It’s not just an instant reset button. Spock is back, but he’s not the same, and it will take time for him to get there.
There’s a very cool looking alien talking to Cartwright and the president. The clouds caused by the probe are blocking out the sun. This will be catastrophic for life on Earth.
Sarek is trapped on Earth. The precedent says there seems to be no way to answer the probe. Sarek says “It is difficult to answer when one does not know the question.” And that’s the heart of their problem. They don’t understand the probe. They don’t know what it wants or how to satisfy it.
The President sends out a message warning people to stay away from Earth. It’s pretty grim. There seems very little hope.
But do you think Kirk is just going to turn around and leave his home to its fate? He’s James T. Kirk. He saved Earth once before, from V’ger. After a moment to absorb what is happening, he jumps into action.
Uhura plays the sound of the probe’s transmission for him. Spock is fascinated. He assumes the probe is likely unaware that its transmissions are harmful. This seems a bit of a leap to me.
When McCoy asks if he thinks this is it’s way of saying “Hi there” to the people of the Earth, Spock points out there are other forms of intelligence on Earth.
This movie assumes a certain level of intelligence, and even sentience, on the part of whales. In the real world, whales and dolphins are considered to be highly intelligent animals. Although there are difficulties in determining exactly how intelligent they are.
This movie takes it further than I think we have any reason to believe in the real world, but I think it works for the story.
Spock points out the transmissions are directed at Earth’s engines. Kirk has the smart idea to have Uhura adjust the sound to see what it would sound like underwater. I like Uhura’s role in this movie. She certainly has more to do that in the previous. This is also, I think, the first time that Star Trek has portrayed a communications officer as more than just the phone operator. Uhura is a specialist in her own scientific field.
It turns out, the sound of the probe is the song sung by humpback whales. This is a very cool twist, at least to those who don’t already know the story of this movie.
We learn that in Star Trek, humpback whales have been extinct since the 21st century. In the real world, their numbers have taken a good step toward recovery since the end of commercial whaling, which is pretty cool.
Kirk wants to respond, but Spock makes an excellent point. They can simulate the sounds, but they don’t know the language. They would be responding in gibberish. The only way to meaningfully communicate with the probe would be with an actual humpback whale.
And the only way to find one would be to travel back through time into the past. They’ve done it a couple of times in the past. Slingshot around the sun into time warp, but that was the Enterprise. Can they really do it with a Klingon Bird of Prey?
Also, nice little cameo from Majel Barret as Chapel.
Travelling into the Past
I like how Kirk sends a message to Earth, to explain to them what they’re attempting to do.
The visuals that play as the ship travels through time are weird and trippy. I think the idea is that you enter some kind of dream state as you experience time warp. It’s a little odd for me, but one think I really like is how you hear audio clips from later in the movie. These lack sufficient context to be spoilers but they give an ominous feel that is even cooler on a re-watch of the movie.
They engage the cloak so as not to be seen. Handy that.
We’ve arrived in the 20th century, but before we get to see it, there’s a problem. The dilithium crystals have been drained by the time travel. They have no power to get back home, even if they can find a whale.
But, of course, Spock has an idea. He’s just casually invented a way to re-crystalise dilithium using high energy photos from a nuclear reactor. Something that can’t even be done in the 23rd century. Nice one Spock.
We get our first glimpse of the present-day world. An areal shot of the city of San Francisco out the viewscreen. Ironic that the whales would be located in the same city that will one day be the home of Starfleet headquarters and Starfleet Academy.
Kirk knows that this world of 300 years ago will be quite alien to them. Customs will take them by surprise.
Spock comes up with a simple way to disguise his Vulcan ears and eyebrows. The head-band, combined with his Vulcan robes, make him look like a martial artist.
The point of view switches to Earth as we see some garbage people at work. I love how the move gives us some little moments like this where ordinary people see something weird. The time-travellers do not become widely known, but there are some people out there with some wild stories.
I love the shot of the hatch opening on the otherwise invisible ship.
At the 39 and a half minute mark, the movie makes a dramatic shift in tone.
Up until now, Star Trek IV has been pretty serious and even dark. But as Kirk says “Everybody remember where we parked”, we jump into a typical 1980s city street. The music now suddenly sounds like an 80s comedy and the tone of the writing and acting is much more comedic. The movie is a comedy from this moment on.
Such a dramatic change of tone a third of the way through the movie shouldn’t work. It just shouldn’t. It’s jarring. But that’s the point. Our crew are way out of their element. We feel the impact of that along with the characters.
Seeing cars driving down a city street is just as out of place for us, watching a Star Trek movie, as it is for the characters.
You’ll notice that pretty much all the humour in this film comes out of this fish-out-of-water aspect as the Enterprise crew struggle to fit in to a world that is alien to them, but familiar to us. It’s funny, but it doesn’t pull us out of the story and it doesn’t deflate the stakes, because it all comes naturally out of the situation and the characters. It’s believable.
I think this is one of the big reasons why this movie works.
For those of us who grew up in the 80s, the music in this scene bring with it great nostalgia. At the time, this movie was using a contemporary setting. Looking back on it now, it almost operates as a period piece. Can you actually say that about something set in the 80s? The 80s were only about 20 years ago, right? Mathematics tells us it’s more like 40 years, but that can’t possibly be true.
When Kirk tries to sell his glasses at a second-hand shop, Spock points out that they were a gift from Doctor McCoy. His implication being that it would be disrespectful to sell a gift. Kirk answers “they will be again, that’s the beauty of it.”
This is a somewhat problematic statement. Is Kirk saying here that he expects this to be a time loop? That these actual glasses will eventually go on to be acquired by McCoy in the 23rd century? If that’s what he means then I have to take issue. First of all, he has absolutely no evidence for thinking this to be the case, but secondly, this kind of time loop makes no sense, to say that Kirk got them from McCoy, and McCoy got them from Kirk. That means the glasses were never actually created (and never actually existed in the 19th century, which is when they’re supposed to have been created.)
There are three main theories of time travel commonly used in fiction, but this kind of loop doesn’t make sense in any of them.
A much more plausible explanation is that the glasses were in fact created in the 19th century, they continued to exist through the 20th, 21st, 22nd and 23rd century, where McCoy gave them to Kirk. And now, Kirk is selling them in the 20th century. So at this point in 1986, the glasses exist physically twice. There are two of them. Of course, it’s not really two, it’s the same pair of glasses at two different points of it’s timeline. The glasses Kirk sells here will go on to have a different future. We don’t know what will become of them after this.
Of course, it’s possible that Kirk is just talking poetically here. Let’s just assume that.
I do like how Kirk has absolutely no concept of how valuable $100 is.
Kirk locates two potential humpback whales on a bus sign. And then we get the amusing scene where they’re kicked off for not having exact change – whatever that means.
So, in order to build a whale tank, Scotty says that ordinarily, he’d use something called transparent aluminum. The first few times I watched this movie, that sounded like a really exotic and futuristic. I imagined it to be some kind of space-age plastic.
Imagine my surprise when my father mentioned to me one day that Americans refer to aluminium as aluminum. I nearly fell off my chair. I would have been in my late teens or early 20s at the time.
But there’s an even crazier thing about transparent aluminium, which we’ll get to shortly.
The Nuclear Wessels scene is iconic. I love how the cop just stands there staring at them, while they keep asking for help, not understanding why nobody wants to assist a Russian man in finding nuclear vessels in 1986. It’s pretty funny.
Then, of course, we get the famous punk on the bus scene. The song he’s listening to was written, by the actor himself, Kirk Thatcher, just for this movie. When they brought Thatcher back to play the same punk in Star Trek Picard season 3, he actually wrote some more of the song.
We learn from Spock and Kirk’s discussion about language that swearing is not common in the 23rd century as it is here. Kirk is using profanity in order to fit in. He’s not great at it, but at least he’s better than Spock, whose attempts to swear result in some real comedy gold.
Star Trek IV is the strongest “message story” in the TOS films. Star Trek often has some kind of message to it. It’s pretty much inherent in DNA of the franchise. But the movies very much focus more on adventure and story than message. Star Trek VI will also go into exploring some thematic ideas, but not as in-your-face as Star Trek IV.
And let’s be honest, the film gets kinda preachy during the scene at the cetacean institute. And yet, it still feels more natural than a lot of messaging in today’s entertainment. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just that with the passage of time, the message of this film doesn’t feel remotely controversial, though it probably was at the time.
Anyway, we learn a lot about the plight of whales in the world at the time this movie was made. It’s clearly something that Gillian Taylor, the tour guide, is very passionate about.
Her introduction is very understated. We don’t realise at first just what a significant role she’ll play in the movie.
The situation couldn’t be more perfect for Kirk and Spock’s needs. A male and female humpback in a confined space. All they need to do is beam them up and they’re good to go.
Spock sees a potential issue, however. What do George and Gracie think about it? Do they have the right to just take these creatures and deposit them in another century? And so, he decides to attempt communication via mind meld. He communicates what they plan to do and obtain the whale’s consent.
I mentioned before that this film supposes not only a high degree of intelligence on the part of whales, but actual sentience. The ability to understand and communicate, to comprehend complex situations.
If these whales are as sentient as Spock suggests in the movie, then that makes the plight of the whales a significantly greater tragedy. Not only are they hunting a species of animal to extinction, which as Spock puts it, is illogical, they are actually killing sentient beings, which makes it more akin to murder.
Personally, I don’t believe whales possess sentience like humans do. But for the purposes of the story, what Spock does here is clearly the right thing.
But try telling Gillian that. All she sees is a weirdo messing up her tank and messing up her whales.
Spock lays the first hints that he and Kirk are more than they seem with the use of Kirk’s rank – Admiral – and his reference to “those who caused – past tense – their extinction.”
I love the shot of Kirk and Spock walking with the Golden Gate Bridge behind them. This scene could have been done anywhere, but this bridge is such an iconic location for the Star Trek universe, it was fitting and looks awesome.
Kirk also urges Spock that he doesn’t have to be so open with the truth. He can exaggerate as he’s done in the past. Spock doesn’t remember doing this. The last time we saw him do it, of course, was in Star Trek II.
We cut to scene with Gillian and her colleague Bob. Switching to Gillian’s point of view signifies the importance of her character. They have to release the whales, for reasons related to their safety, but doing so will also be dangerous. We don’t get the full story yet.
Gillian has a meaningful line here where she says “My compassion for someone isn’t limited to an estimate of their intelligence.”
You’ll often hear me talk about how I believe a human life has significantly more value than an animal life, but that doesn’t mean I don’t value animal lives. I believe we have a responsibility to exercise care and compassion to animals.
Checkov and Uhura have found the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise, and she looks spectacular. There are some really nice visuals in this movie. Some great shooting locations for simple dialogue scenes.
Some of the best comedy in this movie, in my opinion, comes from Spock’s misunderstanding of human idioms, made even worse by his unfamiliarity with the 20th century. I like the playing cards line.
This makes complete sense for Spock’s character, given his state of mental re-training, and so it enhances, rather than detracts from, the story.
Gillian feels sorry for Kirk and Spock and offers them a lift into town. I think it’s a combination of sympathy for two rather pathetic looking people, but also, a desire to understand what on earth they were up to. While Spock’s actions in the tank seemed dodgy, his words seemed to indicate a genuine compassion and respect for her whales. That’s a contradiction that must fascinate Gillian.
Spock just blurts out “Gracie is pregnant.” They can’t explain how he knows this.
Kirk suggests they discuss it over dinner. Spock excuses himself, leaving Gillian and Kirk to essentially have a date. Not that either of them are seeing it that way.
Scotty and Bones bluff their way into a tour of a Plexiglass plant. It’s perhaps a little hard to believe, but not that much.
Scotty needs to plexiglass to create the whale tank. But he doesn’t have anywhere near the money to pay for it. So he decides to pay with knowledge. He offers to give Dr. Nichols the formula for transparent aluminium. This is a massive violation of the prime directive and could cause some severe problems with the timeline.
Scotty’s argument is “How do we know he didn’t invent the thing?”
Bones hesitantly accepts this. Personally, I think this is severely weak reasoning, and probably the hardest part of the movie for me to swallow. Scotty has absolutely no reason to assume Nichols invented it.
Of course, there’s another thing that’s hard to swallow here. Scotty’s ability to so quickly and easily pick up MacOS, or System Software 3 as it was known at the time, and create all those graphs and formulas using just the keyboard.
But I promised another transparent aluminium story. Turns out that it actually exists in the real world now. Aluminium oxynitride is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen, and nitrogen. The final patent for this technology was filed in 1993. It seems Dr. Nichols wasted no time in figuring out the dynamics of the matrix. I guess this proves that we are living in the timeline created by the Enterprise crew’s incursion into 1986. And I think that’s pretty darn cool.
Spock wants to return to the Bird of Prey while Kirk goes to dinner with Gillian. When she asks him if he’s sure he won’t change his mind, he replies with my favourite comedic line from the movie “Is there something wrong with the one I have?”
Gillian is very worried that George and Gracie will be at risk of hunting once released. They’ll be tagged with radio transmitters so at least they can keep tabs on them. They have to be released right now because no humpback born in captivity has ever survived. It’s for the sake of the baby.
Kirk has to word his offer very carefully so Gillian doesn’t think he’s insane. “I could take those whales to a place where they would never be hunted.”
He tried to dance around it, but in the end, the only way he can really explain things is to tell her the truth. He’s from the 23rd century. He doesn’t mention the whole thing with the alien probe. He just says they’ve come back in an attempt to re-populate the species in the future.
When Gillian tells him the whales are leaving at noon tomorrow, Kirk insists they leave. They don’t have much time.
Gillian doesn’t believe Kirk, obviously. She refuses to give him the radio transmitter frequency. It’s classified. If she believed his story, she’d do it, of course.
The first bit of real evidence that Kirk might be telling the truth occurs when Gillian sees a flash of the transporter beam in her rear-view mirror, and Kirk mysteriously gone. Kirk is hesitant to offer proof by showing her his spaceship. He’s still trying to walk the tightrope of the prime directive.
I believe this is the very first mention of money not being used in the future of Star Trek. In TOS it was clear they had a currency-based, though cashless, system. They used credits. By the 24th century, money is completely abolished. Which is, of course, ridiculous.
Uhura gets a lot more to do in Star Trek IV than she did in the previous movies, although it’s still not a lot. Chekov has a decent role, too, though not as significant as Star Trek II. In this movie, it’s Sulu that really gets short-changed.
Kirk and Spock discuss the likely failure of their mission unless they can convince Gillian. Spock says it all so matter-of-factly. Kirk gives him so grief over this. They’re talking about the end of all life on earth and he’s half human. Doesn’t he have any feelings about that? This gives Spock real pause. It comes back to those emotions that his mother deemed of value. He still can’t comprehend it, but he trusts his mother, and he trusts Kirk. They both seem to be telling him the same thing. I swear Spock gets all the good character arcs in these movies.
Chekov and Uhura have gathered the necessary radiation from the reactor but Scotty has to beam them out one at a time. Uhura goes first with the collector. Due to radiation interference and minimal power on the bird of prey, Chekov gets left behind and is captured by the US Navy.
Chekov’s interrogation gives us some more great comedic moments.
Chekov’s weapon is pretty weird. It must be a Klingon disruptor but of a shape I’ve never seen before. In his attempt to escape, he leaves behind the weapon and communicator. That could cause some problems for the timeline. But don’t worry. According to the Eugenics Wars novels, Gary Seven and his assistance took care of that problem. They’re always cleaning up the messes left behind by time-travelling Star Trek characters.
The music during Chekov’s attempted escape is very slapstick, but things turn deadly serious when he falls and is badly injured.
They just seemed to have this way in the 80s of blending serious story-telling with humour seamlessly, way better than today. The first time I noticed this was actually in Lethal Weapon 3 (which was actually 92, but close enough to the 80s).
Spock is still pondering emotions. His, Kirks, as he helps Scotty re-crystalise the dilithium.
Rescuing The Whales
Gillian arrives at the Cetacean Institute to find that, to her utter horror, the whales are already gone. The tank is not only emptied, but dismantled.
Bob tries to defend this choice. They took the whales last night because they didn’t want a mob scene with the press. That one seems reasonable. But he says “We thought it would be easier on you.”
This guy is an idiot. He knows how much those whales mean to her. Stealing them away in the night unexpectedly like that? How could that possibly be easier on her.
As she says “You sent them away without even letting me say goodbye.”
And she gives him the slap he deserves.
Bob thought the goodbye would be difficult for Gillian. And of course, it would be. IT would be a deeply emotional time, it would be difficult. But not having that closure? That’s even harder. Saying goodbye is an important part of loss, and when people don’t get it, it only causes even more distress.
So, yeah, Bob is a moron. We won’t be seeing any more of him in this movie.
What makes this even worse for Gillian is she’s now lost the opportunity to find another alternative, like letting Kirk take the whales. She’s still not sure she can trust him, but he is the only alternative to George and Gracie being at risk from poaching.
Is there anything that weird man in the park, who says he’s from the future, can do to help her? There was that strange flash of light. Could it be possible he’s telling the truth?
There’s only one way to find out.
Sulu is flying the plexiglass sheets to the park in a helicopter. I like the moment when he presses the wrong button and activates the windscreen wipers. The big-eyed look from George Takai is fantastic. This is nice little moment of subtle humour that feel completely realistic. He’s doing extremely well to have learned to fly a 300 year old aircraft so quickly.
Gillian arrives at the park calling Kirk’s name. Then she sees something amazing. Something impossible. She sees the sheets being loaded into the cloaked Klingon ship. A man floating in the sky directing it down. So…. it must be true.
I love the piece of depressed dirt where the ship rests, and how Gillian crashes into the invisible hull.
In stories like these, the truth needs to be kept from the locals as much as possible, but there needs to come a time when they discover the truth. That’s a very satisfying moment in the story, because we get to live that sense of wonder through their eyes. I’ve always enjoyed this part of the movie.
Kirk beams her aboard. Another awe-inspiring moment for her.
I love Kirk’s line “Hello, Alice. Welcome to Wonderland.”
When Kirk shows her the construction of the tank for her whales, it snaps her back to reality.
“Admiral, they’re gone. They’re in Alaska by now.” They can track them with the tags.
But their ship is currently grounded. They’re still missing Chekov.
Spock informs them that full power has been restored. They can go and get those whales.
But Uhura also calls. She’s located Chekov. He’s been taken in for emergency surgery. He’s not expected to live.
Nichelle Nichols nails this delivery. There is so much emotion in her voice. Sorrow for her friend, but also a tinge of guilt that she escaped but he didn’t.
Bones can help Chekov. “Don’t leave him in the hands of 20th century medicine.” Now, they could have gone for the whales and then come back for Chekov, but now, given the urgency of the situation, if they do that, Chekov will die.
So they save their friend, or they risk the whales being hunted.
Ordinarily, in a choice between a human life and an animal life, the choice is clear to me. But there’s so much more to it. First, we can consider that this movie is portraying whales are basically sentient. But even more than that, the fate of the entire planet Earth is hanging in the balance, back in the 23rd century. It’s the same old question. The needs of the many vs the needs of the few – or the one.
Spock approaches. “Admiral.”
Will this be another classic Spock vs McCoy debate? Will Spock preach the virtue of the clear logical choice – that the needs of the many must outweigh the need of their friend?
“May I suggest that Doctor McCoy is correct. We must help Chekov.”
“Is that the logical thing to do, Spock?”
“No. But it is the human thing to do.”
This is so brilliant.
Spock, initially so puzzled by the choice his friends made to save him, has had time to ponder it. But he’s also had a chance to live it. He’s been surrounded by these people who were his friends. His family.
Back on the Enterprise, he chose the needs of the many over himself. Here, he chooses, as Kirk did, to put the need of his friend first. He has learned the value of compassion, of loyalty, and the kinds of bonds that make a family.
This concludes Spock’s arc beautifully and essentially gets him back to where he was in Star Trek II.
Note that he hasn’t sacrificed the people of Earth. There is still a chance that they could save the whales as well, and rescue Earth, but it’s a risk. Logic says the risk is not worth taking. Spock disagrees.
Kirk, Bones, and Gillian sneak into the hospital disguised as doctors.
Bones marvels at the primitive medicine of these dark ages. I like how he cures a woman of kidney dialysis by giving her a pill to swallow. This isn’t his mission. It’s not why here’s here. But he’s able to take a second to exercise a little bit of compassion that will completely transform the life of a suffering person. So he takes it.
It actually reminds me a lot of some of the miracles of Jesus in the Bible, where he’d stop the important things he was doing to show compassion on the suffering.
We’ll see later how astonished the doctors are at this miracle.
McCoy gets them past the security guard by bamboozling him with some very impressive-sounding medical jargon – which turns out to mean “cramps”.
I like that joke.
Bones scans Chekov with a tricorder while debating medicine with the 20th century doctor. Kirk puts them in another room and melts the lock with his phaser.
I do like that they get to see Chekov wake up at McCoy’s ministrations. This validates McCoy and gives them a moment of wonder they’ll likely think about for the rest of their lives.
As they wheel Chekov out, the guard asks how the patient is doing.
“He’s going to make it.”
“He? You came in with a she.”
“One little mistake.”
That one got a laugh out of me.
But this launches the most slapstick part of the movie as they get chased around the hospital accompanied by some very slapstick music by Leonard Roseman.
I’m not a huge fan of this particular musical choice, but it does kinda work.
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy this moment.
Beaming out of the lift where nobody can see was smart. Those guards will forever wonder how the intruders managed to disappear.
Kirk needs the radio transmitter frequency to find the whales.
Gillian wants to come, even if that means going to the 23rd century. She’s got nobody here. Those whales on the other hand…
Taking her out of time is a risk. Who knows what effect her absence will have on the timeline. What contributions she might have made later in life. Children she might have had. Even the tiniest of interactions that might have snowballed into important historical events.
But she does make the point that nobody in the 23rd century knows anything about whales. They need her.
Kirk takes the risk.
Honestly, he probably shouldn’t. But I guess he could always return her home again if he ends up preventing the Federation from ever existing.
The ship is cloaked, so we can’t see if flying. Instead, we get a first-person point of view shot of moving through the clouds.
Spock is unable to properly calculate the variables needed to return them to their own time. McCoy urges him to take his best guess.
But guessing is not in his nature. And I get that. I get uncomfortable with the ideas of guesses, hunches and gut feelings, whatever they are.
But as McCoy will point out a bit later, Kirk feels more confident with Spock’s guess, than most other people’s facts.
This is yet another step in Spock accepting his human half after retraining. The Spock of The Motion Picture would never be able to make a guess. The Spock of Star Trek VI would have no trouble or shame in doing so.
McCoy’s and Kirk’s faith in him here is what makes the difference.
Spock sees his rigidity, his reliance on proven facts, to be a virtue. But McCoy’s line “Nobody’s perfect” gets him thinking. Could it actually be a weakness?
Uhura has located the whales, but there’s a whaling ship bearing down on them. Are they too late? Have they failed in their mission because they took time to rescue Chekov?
No. The whales are still alive, but not for long. Roseman’s music is definitely better, and more diverse than I’ve given it credit for in the past.
There is some nice tension in this scene, and the music sells it well.
The whalers prepare their harpoons and fire, but the harpoon bounces harmlessly off……something invisible.
And then, this amazing alien spaceship shimmers into existence, dwarfing the ships, as the evil poachers look on. I love this. Such a satisfying moment.
They had to drop the cloak so they could beam the whales aboard, so there is important story logic for this.
With the whales aboard, they head into space for their return trip through time.
They make it back. They don’t show the whole weird hallucination thing this time. It’s not needed.
Back in The 23rd Century
The probe is still there, making its creepy noises. It immediately drains the bird of prey of power, causing it to crash into San Franciso bay.
Sulu does a good job of landing them as smoothly as possible on the water. Now they have to evacuate human and whale alike before the ship sinks and they all drown.
It’s a tense action scene. Very well done.
I like that the movie takes a decent amount of time to just show the probe and the whales making noise at one another.
Unlike the seeming hours of grunting Wookies in the Star Wars Holiday Special, there is purpose to it.
We don’t know exactly what the probe and whales are saying to each other, and I think it’s better that way. But we can make a pretty educated guess as to the gist of it.
What matters is that the whales convince the probe to stop its harmful transmissions and leave.
Earth is saved.
There’s a real mystery about the probe. We don’t know who built it or where it came from. And that unsolved mystery really works for the movie. It keeps that sense of wonder alive.
But at the same time, I long to know more. There is actually a novel that delves into the answers to these questions. I’d love to read it if I could get my hands on it somehow. I really like how the movie keeps it mysterious, but you can find answers in the book. Feels like the best of both worlds.
The movie evokes such a triumphant feeling as all of humanity celebrates their salvation.
And it’s a nice moment of comraderies amongst the crew of the Enterprise, and the actors, as they splash around in the water. I suspect there’s very little acting going on in that scene.
But there’s still some unfinished business. Kirk and his crew still need to answer for their crimes.
The crew are brought in, all back in their Starfleet uniforms. Spock moves to stand with them.
“Captain Spock, you do not stand accused.”
“Mr. President, I stand with my shipmates.”
That’s a beautiful moment which cements Spock’s newfound understanding of friendship, and gratitude for all they did to save him.
As the president reads out the long list of charges, we pan across the faces of these characters we’ve come to love so much.
Kirk pleads guilty. He doesn’t regret what he did, but he’s prepared to face the consequences.
Because of mitigating circumstances, partly the resurrection of Spock, but probably, mostly, their heroic actions in saving Earth (for a second time) all charges but one are dropped.
The remaining charge is disobeying a direct order. It makes sense that this is the charge that must remain. In an organisation like Starfleet, the chain of command must be maintained. Kirk agrees. Wrongdoing can’t just be overlooked. There HAS to be a price, and Kirk alone will face the punishment on behalf of his crew in a way that feels almost biblical.
But, of course, it’s hardly a punishment. Kirk is demoted back to Captain and given the job he’s good at – the job he loves – command of a Starship.
I love all of this so much.
Gillian is off to a science vessel. She has 300 years of catch-up learning to do. Odd that they’d take her away from the whales so immediately. Yes, she definitely needs to be educated in the latest science, but she also knows these whales like nobody in this time does.
When she says goodbye to Kirk, it kinda feels like she’s trying to brush him off. She acts like she has feelings for him, but she won’t give him any contact details. “I’ll find you.” Of course, she never does. We’ll never hear from her again.
Now we get to one of the best scenes in this movie.
Spock goes to say farewell to his father.
Sarek tells Spock that he is “most impressed with his performance during this crisis.” That’s the Vulcan equivalent of I love you and I’m proud of you.”
Then he says some remarkable words. “As I recall, I opposed your enlistment into Starfleet. It is possible that judgement was incorrect.”
This is huge!
This scene here is the culmination of a relationship arc between Spock and his father, that began, believe it or not, in Star Trek Discovery. But chronologically, of course, it began in the TOS episode “Journey to Babel.”
In that episode, we learned that Sarak opposed Spock’s decision to join Starfleet, and he opposed it so strongly that they didn’t speak for decades.
In that episode, they found some measure of reconciliation. Spock risked his health to save his father’s life. They began speaking again. The relationship started to heal. But the root issue was never addressed.
Here, Sarak admits that he was wrong to oppose Spock’s choice. Starfleet has proven to be a beneficial and meaningful career for Spock, and his people are of good character. As Spock has learned to embrace – they are his friends.
This was already a wonderful arc that carried across decades of production.
But that arc was only enhanced by a first season episode of Discovery. An episode in which Spock did not even appear. The episode was called Lethe. In this episode, we learn why Sarak opposed Spock’s decision.
The Vulcan powers that be viewed Sarak as something of a radical. Marrying a human, adopting a human orphan. The Vulcan Expeditionary Group would accept one, and only one, of Sarak’s “experiments”. They would take Michael Burnham, or they would take his son, Spock. They would not take both. They put Sarak in the unfair position of having to choose.
Sarek chose his biological son. Burnham’s dreams were crushed so that Spock could have his place.
But after all that, Spock chose not to join. Instead, he chose Starfleet, an organisation that was much more human-centric.
In this, Spock made Sarek’s sacrifice meaningless. Michael missed out on her dream for nothing. Neither of his children ended up in the Vulcan Expeditionary Group.
You can see how heart-breaking this all would have been.
But rather than sharing what he was actually feeling, he ended up quietly resenting Spock.
Say what you will about Discovery, but this episode, in my opinion, only enhances the arc by giving Sarek an understandable motivation.
Anyway, I love all of it.
In the end, Spock has one message for his mother. “Tell her I feel fine.” He finally understands the question. It’s a nice little mirror to that moment early in the movie.
So, they’re on their way to get their new ship.
McCoy reckons they’ll get a freighter. Sulu is counting on Excelsior, much to Scotty’s deep offence.
And of course, there it is. The brand-new USS Enterprise NCC 1701-A.
“My friends, we’ve come home.”
It’s a great way to end the movie. The characters are now where they belong.
“Well, Mr. Sulu, let’s see what she’s got.”
I love this movie. I always have.
I think if it had just been purely a comedy, it wouldn’t have worked as a finale to this arc of three connect movies, at least, not for me.
But as I’ve talked about, the discordant tones shouldn’t have worked either.
I’ve already talked about why I think it does.
I don’t think it would have if it hadn’t been a time travel story. Taking our characters out of their familiar world and putting them like fish out of water into the present day gave opportunities for humour that came naturally out of the story situation and character.
I hope you’ve enjoyed the journey through this wonderful film as much as I have.
Next time, we’ll be talking about the infamous Star Trek V The Final Frontier.
And I have some thoughts.
It should be interesting.
Don’t forget, if you enjoy Star Trek then you’ll love my science fiction books – the Jewel of The Stars series<. You can grab the first one for less than a dollar at books2read.com/jewel.
And the number 2.
Until next time, live long and prosper.
Make it so.
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