Star Trek History: Making The Voyage Home

After missteps with the first Star Trek feature, the second and third Star Trek films had been relative commercial and critical successes. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock's director (and cast member) Leonard Nimoy, aka Spock, was not only given the director's chair for the fourth installment, but given more creative control and leeway to develop his own ideas.

The Search for Spock dealt with life and death, rebirth and the very nature of the soul-heavy, Wagnerian content. It's no wonder Richard Schickel of Time called the film a "space opera [in the] grandest sense". Nimoy wanted a lighter tone for the next film-and more importantly, didn't want a big villain or "heavy" dominating the picture. This posed an interesting question: how to create a compelling picture without a villain creating the conflict? At first, William Shatner, who played James T. Kirk, was unwilling to return for another film, so Nimoy, and producers Harve Bennett and Ralph Winter considered doing a prequel concept with the characters attending Starfleet Academy. Soon enough, however, Shatner was back on board, and story ideas began in earnest.

Nimoy and Bennett came up with the idea of a time travel story; the crew of the Starship Enterprise (destroyed in the previous film) would have to return to the past in order to bring back something to save their present. Among the ideas floated about were violin makers, oil drillers, and extinct snail darters. In talking with a friend, however, Nimoy came up with the idea of humpback whales, extinct in the future but still present in the 20th century. The whales had size, drama, and mysterious whale song-compelling elements for the story.

Screenwriters Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes were given the job of developing the script, but Paramount was dissatisfied with their work. Paramount head Dawn Steele asked Nicholas Meyer to take a stab at the rewrite. Meyer had been the uncredited writer who saved Star Trek II's script and directed the feature; Meyer agreed to the job, never bothering to read Meerson and Krikes' work. Instead he and Bennett (the writer of Star Trek III's script) split up the screenplay; Bennett wrote the beginning and the end, which take place in the 23rd century, while Meyer concentrated on the fish-out-of-water concept of the Enterprise crew in 20th century San Francisco. With no villains, no big fight sequences, and little violence, Meyer focused on lampooning the modern way of life-everything from commonplace profanity to punk rock. After writing a few pages, Meyer would meet with Bennett and Nimoy for rewrites before showing it to Shatner for further input.

Principal photography began February 24, 1986. The first scene to be shot was also the opening scene of the movie, set aboard the starship USS Saratoga. The Saratoga's bridge set was a redress of the Enterprise bridge, one of many cost-saving techniques used during the production. These scenes were shot first in order to provide time for the art department to redesign the set yet again, this time for the new USS Enterprise-A, seen at the end of the film. Other frugal methods used included reusing stock footage and models from previous films; other sets aboard the Enterprise crew's captured Klingon vessel were modified versions of old Enterprise sets (all from the first motion picture in 1979.)

Since much of the film took place in contemporary San Francisco, much of the scenes were shot in and around the real city, where possible. The location of the needed future Earth-saving humpback whales was created using a blend of locations. Many of the exteriors and interiors were filmed at the Monterey Aquarium. Part of the aquarium's wall and railings were precisely measured and then replicated on a Paramount lot so that giant animatronic whales could swim in front of the characters. Other scenes of the underwater whales viewed from an observation room were filmed at a special effects lot. The extras in the tour group that Kirk and Spock were a part of (including schoolteachers and nuns) had to be bused to and from each location for continuity. Another scene was intended to be shot on the street with hidden cameras, but instead was populated with extras who weren't supposed to speak; one woman responded, and had to be inducted into the Actors Guild, but her lines remained in the film.

Effects company Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) was responsible for a variety of effects and models in the film. The Voyage Home's story required the creation of a massive and mysterious space probe that would cause damage to the Earth while trying to contact humpback whales. The final product's shape was remarkably simple-merely a long cylindrical object, covered with whale-like barnacles and a iridescent, pitted finish. A transmitter jutting out from the probe's bottom was created with irrigation piping and rigged to turn. The main, 8-foot model was also supplemented by a smaller design for wide shots and a very large, 20-foot section of the probe, built with a forced perspective to give the illusion that the probe was much larger than its model size.

ILM was also responsible for creating the whales that the film's heroes would find, transport, and release into the wild. Aside from stock footage, no real whales were used in filming. Instead a massive tank was created on the Paramount parking lot. Full-sized animatronic whales were then placed in the tank, while waves and weather were generated with canvas mattes and massive fans. Where possible, smaller, remote-controlled whales were filmed at ILM's studios. The creatures looked so lifelike that after the release of the film Paramount had to field angry letters from animal rights groups that said the producers had exploited the animals.

For the film's music, Nimoy turned to a personal friend, the composer Leonard Rosenman. His resulting music was light-hearted and a far cry from previous Trek composer James Horner's heavy score (for more information, see "Making Movie Music: The Original 'Star Trek' films".) The film's sound effects were created by Mark Mangini, who used a family connection to the famous whale scientist Roger Payne to mine a library of recorded whale song and assemble it into a language for the whales and the probe. One of Mangini's greatest difficulties was creating the mechanical drone of the probe as it moved through space; after nearly 20 attempts, Mangini told Nimoy to make the sound himself out of exasperation. Nimoy obliged, and after some minor distortion his voice was used as the final product.

The Voyage Home was released in November 26, 1986. The opening of the film included a dedication to the crew of the ill-fated Challenger space shuttle mission, whose deaths in an explosion occurred shortly before filming began. On release, the film was a critical and commercial success; it made $133 million worldwide against its $27 million budget. The film's accessibility to non-Trek fans and its humor were widely praised; Nimoy noted that even in Soviet Russia, the film (particularly its scathing mentions of the bureaucratic mentality) won loud laughs. The success of the film not only ensured the film series' continuation, but also provided momentum for Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry to create a second television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, which made its debut in 1987 in syndication. Once again, Star Trek was riding high.

Star Trek History: Making The Voyage Home References:
*Dillard, J.M. (1994). Star Trek: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" - A History in Pictures (ISBN 0671511491).
*Lee, Nora (December 1986). "The Fourth Trek: Leonard Nimoy Recollects" [American Cinematographer v67no12].
*Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Garfield (1995). The Art of Star Trek (ISBN 0671898043).
*Shay, Jody (February 1987). "Humpback to the Future" [Cinefex no29].
*Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Special Collectors Edition [Special Features and Commentary]

Previous Star Trek History:
More Star Trek info from David Fuchs:
"Making 'The Search for Spock'" / "Making 'The Wrath of Khan'" / "Making 'The Motion Picture'" / "Creating the Klingons"