Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
	File:Star Trek IV.jpg
Directed by	Leonard Nimoy
Written by	Leonard Nimoy; Harve Bennett; Steve Meerson; Peter Krikes; Nicholas Meyer
Produced by	Harve Bennett
Starring	See table
Cinematography	Donald Peterman
Edited by	Peter E. Berger
Music by	Leonard Rosenman
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release dates	November 26, 1986
Running time	119 min.
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Paramount Pictures, 1986) is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series. It is often referred to as ST4:TVH, STTVH or TVH. It completes the trilogy started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The film is frequently referred to as "The One with the Whales" by Star Trek fans.^{[citation needed]}

Cast

Actor	Role
William Shatner	Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	Captain Spock
DeForest Kelley	Commander (Dr.) Leonard McCoy
James Doohan	Captain Montgomery Scott
George Takei	Commander Hikaru Sulu
Walter Koenig	Commander Pavel Chekov
Nichelle Nichols	Commander Uhura
Majel Barrett	Commander (Dr.) Christine Chapel
Grace Lee Whitney	Chief Petty Officer Janice Rand
Mark Lenard	Ambassador Sarek
Jane Wyatt	Amanda Grayson
Catherine Hicks	Dr. Gillian Taylor
John Schuck	Klingon Ambassador
Robert Ellenstein	Federation President
Brock Peters	Fleet Admiral Cartwright
Robin Curtis	Lieutenant Saavik
Madge Sinclair	Saratoga Captain (uncredited)

Plot summary

A huge alien probe approaches Earth and begins sending strange highly amplified signals which boil the oceans, drain the power from nearby ships and cause widespread mayhem. Admiral James T. Kirk and his crew return from their mission to revive Captain Spock on Vulcan, despite knowing that they will face court-martial for the theft and subsequent loss of the USS Enterprise, when they hear about the current crisis. Spock, who is still recovering mentally, discovers that the alien ship is trying to contact humpback whales, which unfortunately were hunted to extinction three centuries previously.

Kirk orders their hijacked Klingon Bird-of-Prey, renamed the Bounty, to slingshot around the sun in order to travel back in time to the late 20th century. Arriving in San Francisco, California in the year 1986, the crew hides their ship in Golden Gate Park. Thereafter, they attempt to find both the whales needed to communicate with the alien probe, as well as materials to contain the whales and to restore the Bird-of-Prey's power source, which was nearly drained in travel. Kirk and Spock eventually recruit the assistance of Dr. Gillian Taylor, a cetacean specialist, who is caring for two humpback whales in the cetacean institute in Sausalito.

After many difficulties - including trying to convince Taylor that they are actually from the future - the Enterprise Crew succeed in rescuing the two humpbacks and bringing them back, saving Earth in the process. Then the crew is brought before the Federation Council facing numerous charges. Spock, though not accused, stands with his crewmates. Because of their most recent heroic actions, all charges against the accused are dropped, except for those against Admiral Kirk. Pleading guilty of disobeying a superior officer, Kirk is demoted to Captain as a token reprimand, but as reward for his heroics is given command of the new USS Enterprise-A. Dr. Taylor, who came to the 23rd century with the Enterprise crew, decides to join Starfleet as a science officer.

A sub-plot, which is presented as a narrative frame, shows Spock gradually recovering his memories, the previously-earned acceptance of his human heritage, and acknowledgment of his own emotions. At first, he does not understand the relevance of being asked his feelings; by the end, he is aware enough of their importance to humans that he asks his father to tell his mother that he "feels fine".

Themes

File:Star trek iv ver1.jpg

Original promotional teaser poster.

The Voyage Home is played broadly for humor. Mr. Spock's memory and sense of self have not fully recovered from the events of the previous films, and his pilgrim-like appearance in Vulcan robes makes him the subject of a number of jokes, although he gives as good as he gets. Every member of the crew also gets an opportunity to star in a few scenes. Nicholas Meyer and Harve Bennett co-wrote the script, with Bennett writing the 23rd century scenes and Meyer writing the 20th century scenes. The film is essentially a lighthearted adventure. This was a conscious choice on the part of the producers, who felt that the prior three films were very serious affairs and that it was time to lighten up. However, the story still remains dedicated to the series' overall serious nature with constant reminders of the crew's mission to save the Earth in the future.

The loose threads from The Search for Spock involving the crew's disobedience of Starfleet orders are handled perfunctorily at the end of the film. In a way, this denied viewers the opportunity to see Kirk and company having to own up to their actions; however, Kirk was demoted to the rank of Captain in this film for his failure to obey orders. Since Kirk was dissatisfied with the responsibilities of being an Admiral anyway, it was not an onerous punishment for him.

At the end of the film, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), which was destroyed in the previous film, is replaced by the almost identical vessel USS Enterprise-A (which Gene Roddenberry suggested was the USS Yorktown renamed, not a new starship constructed for them). While it was a popular moment, some viewed it as marginalizing the destruction of the previous ship. ^{[citation needed]} The filmmakers initially intended for the crew to receive the USS Excelsior (NX-2000) (possibly renamed to Enterprise), but an unexpectedly large outcry caused this idea to be dropped. ^{[citation needed]} Sulu still mentions Excelsior before they find out which ship is theirs; he would later command that ship in Star Trek VI.

Production and locations

The "double dumb-ass on you" scene was filmed on Columbus Street at Kearney in San Francisco, facing the historic green copper-faced Sentinel Building owned by Francis Ford Coppola.

In the film, Uhura and Chekov visit the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. The real Enterprise, being at sea at the time, was unavailable for filming, so the carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) was used. Since part of the ship's scenes were filmed in the engineering spaces, which on the nuclear-powered Enterprise (as with all of the Navy's nuclear-powered carriers) were deeply classified at the time, it is unlikely that the production crew would have been allowed to use it for filming even if it had been in port.

The scenes at the fictional "Cetacean Institute of Biology" in Sausalito, California were actually filmed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, while the scenes set in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park were actually filmed at Will Rogers State Park in Los Angeles.

Amigas were used as special fx devices to create the Vulcan supercomputer used by Spock in the beginning of the movie. This is revealed by the Amiga's "Garnet" typeface, which was used to write messages on the screens that Spock was studying.

Notes

File:Challenger dedication.jpg

The dedication displayed at the beginning of the film.

The film was directed by Leonard Nimoy, who also reprised his role as Mr. Spock.

The infamous 'nuclear wessels' scene was unscripted. A hidden camera was used to film passersby's reactions to Uhura and Chekov. The only other dialogue in this scene (other than the Starfleet officers') came from the woman who said "...I think it's across the bay, in Alameda". Crew members had to catch up to her and ask her to sign a Screen Actors Guild waiver so that she could still appear in the film.

Saavik not returning to Earth with the rest of the crew was originally explained as being that she was pregnant with Spock's child from their previous encounter in The Search For Spock, but this was not included in the finished film.

The film is dedicated to the crew of the ill-fated STS-51-L space shuttle mission, who were killed when the Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrated 73 seconds after liftoff: The cast and crew of Star Trek wish to dedicate this film to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger whose courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond...

Trek fan Eddie Murphy was at one point going to star in the film. He would have played a college professor who sees the Klingon vessel decloak...during Super Bowl halftime. (His character would have been the only one who believed the ship was real; the rest of the spectators would have thought it was a halftime show special effect.) Murphy elected to film The Golden Child instead.

In the scene where Scotty and Sulu are looking for material with which to build a tank for the whales, for which they trade the formula for transparent aluminum, a door opens in the alleyway near them and an Asian couple emerge and begin arguing. Originally, the woman was to call for her young son, who would recognize Sulu and mistake him for his uncle, upon which Sulu realizes he is meeting one of his ancestors. Unfortunately, the young boy hired for the scene burst into tears from nervousness and they were unable to find time to reshoot the scene later, much to George Takei's dismay.

The scene with Sulu in the helicopter was originally intended to be preceded by a scene showing Sulu running across a landing pad, jumping into the helicopter and stealing it. However George Takei had just run a marathon and was extremely sore, and no suitable takes of the scene were achieved. As shown, it is unknown whether Sulu actually stole the helicopter or simply hired it.

The popularity of this film with the general public, the highest grossing Star Trek movie to date, prompted the decision to make a new spinoff series, which became Star Trek: The Next Generation. A teaser for Star Trek: The Next Generation was played before the film in some theaters.

Kirk Thatcher, an Associate Producer of the film, also played the punk on the bus and wrote the song ("I Hate You") the punk is listening to on his boombox. He also wrote the questions that the computer asked the re-educated Mr. Spock, ending with the question; "How do you feel?", as his mother, Amanda, entered the room.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1986, but lost to The Mission.

Overseas, the film was retitled as The Voyage Home: Star Trek IV and the fact that it was a Star Trek film was downplayed, largely due to the fact that Star Trek III had performed dismally outside of the US, barely breaking the $10m barrier. [1]

The whalers speak Finnish even though Finland is not a whaling nation.

The bridge of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey that the crew used in the film is different from the bridge shown in Star Trek III, though it is supposed to be the same vessel.

The film grossed $109,713,132 in the U.S. and $133,000,000 worldwide, against a $25,000,000 budget.[2] In terms of absolute gross, it was the most profitable "Star Trek" movie of the ten released (as of 2007), and it sold the second highest number of tickets, behind only "The Motion Picture."

Template:Star Trek Time travel stories

External links

Template:Star Trek Vulcan stories