Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" is the ultimate example of a 1980's science fiction film. Why? Because it does the complete opposite of what most science fiction films do, and especially the complete opposite of what most Star Trek films do, it takes us to the 80's! That's right, Captain Kirk, Spok, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov, Scotty, and Bones give Marty McFly a run for his money and go back in time.

It's almost like the people behind Star Trek (In this case, those people are the show's creator Gene Roddenberry, other various writers, and director, writer and star Leonard Nimoy.) just decided to make this installment of the Trek series a comedy. Is it silly? You bet. Is it dignified? No way. Because of that fact, it manages to appease people who hate Star Trek as well of die-hard Trekkies. For the people who aren't familiar with Trek, this particular film works almost as a stand-alone piece. You can plop down and watch it and just enjoy a movie about people from the future journeying to 1984. If you're a dyed-in-the-wool Trekkie (like myself), you get to watch your favorite characters exposed to people and situations that they've never seen or experienced before. See? Works for everyone.

The plot in this film is refreshingly simplistic compare to other Trek movies. It's easy to understand, and the short version is that an alien probe comes to Earth in the future where that Trek crew exists. The probe that is trying to communicate with Earth is actually damaging the atmosphere so much that there is a risk the planet won't survive. What's the catch? The probe only speaks the language of whales. In the future, whales have become extinct. So nobody can tell the probe to go away. Until the Trek crew does what they do best, break protocol and go AWOL to save the day. So they slingshot around the sun at warp 10 and end up back in 1984. Hilarity ensues.

People laugh at this sometimes, but this is honestly my favorite Trek movie of all time. It's not the most action packed, it's not the most intense, and it takes place entirely on Earth, so I can understand how that may seem very strange. But this film finds every character at their best, and includes so many scenes that seem to play almost like "what if" scenarios. What if Bones was let loose in a contemporary hospital? What if Scotty could show modern technology to engineers in the eighties? It's very satisfying as a time travel film, as well as easily making the grade as a Trek film. It's the Trek technology at it's best, because as viewers, we always wonder what it would be like if we encountered things in reality like transporter beams or spaceships. So it's really something of a vicarious thrill. It also works as a comedy, and I would honestly say that's the main thrust of the film, the jokes. I can't say enough about this movie, I think it deserves a spot as a cult classic, whether you're a Trekkie or not. If you are a Trekkie and you don't own this movie, you most definitely should!

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