The fourth big screen installment in the Star Trek saga may be the most commercially popular of the series, but, like the previous film, can't break away from the time period in which it was made. The result? A light-hearted, "save the whales" message just tangentially taking place in the Trek universe.
En route back to Earth from Vulcan, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the former U. S. S. Enterprise are warned away from the planet. An alien probe is evaporating the ocean and blocking out the sun while draining power from anything it meets. In their captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey, the crew journeys back in time to procure two humpback whales-the only creature which can answer the proBe-and return to the 23rd century.
In Star Trek III, the production outfitted the new U. S. S. Excelsior in pink chairs, Chekov (Walter Koenig) in a pink jumpsuit and a snarky sense of humor, at least in some scenes. Here, instead of being confined to one or two scenes, the very plot of the movie is ripped from environmental organizations. In essence, The Voyage Home is a two hour advertisement on why the whaling industry is wrong. Now, certainly, it can be argued this is the most Trek movie of the first four, combining character moments, action and a positive social message. Yet, at the same time, it's impossible not to feel like we're being lectured, chastised and reprimanded by a group of our friends.
There's another issue with the film, aside from the overly preachy tone of the plot. Well, it may not be an outright problem, just a deviation from where the series had been before. I'm referring to the humor quotient. From beginning to end, there's a cutesy feeling to the movie, as if everyone involved knew they were making a light flick. This isn't to say every story needs to be dark and heavy, but the tone simply feels like a throwback to science fiction films of old, with everyone cracking jokes and coming up with witty one liners. Let's remember their home planet is under attack and can be destroyed at any time. This isn't the time to be snappy. (The argument that humor is bourne out of desperate times may hold water after the threat is realized, but not before.)
To simulate the time travel effect, the film uses an ethereal, nebulous vision with clay heads of the main crew, a body diving into the water and an undetailed clay-ish reproduction of a whale. Why? There's no good reason, other than the film had the budget to put it on screen. None of the time travel episodes of the series had the money to do this kind of effect or sequence. It just seems out of place in the context of the story and the series.
That being said, some of the interactions can't help but elicit a chuckle simply because the script treats the crew as longtime friends capable of jabbing at one another goodnaturedly. Much like the television series, it's DeForest Kelley's Dr. McCoy who receives the lion share of these lines. His reparte with Spock (Leonard Nimoy)-especially en route to Earth-is among the best the script has to offer. Even if Kirk shouting "everyone remember where we parked" is the most quotable portion of the film, McCoy and Spock trying to discuss life and death without the good doctor having a "proper frame of reference" is more organic to the characters.
Everything else about Trek IV is more or less above board. For the first time in the entire run of the series, each of the seven main characters gets something substantial and positive to do. While Kirk and Spock are off procuring the whales (the A-story), McCoy and Scotty (James Doohan) are tasked with creating an enclosure for the animals. Sulu (George Takei) commandeers a helicopter and Chekov and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) find a way to repower the vessel. No one is stuck purely behind a console or left spouting technobabble. Rather, they all get something wholly unique and active to do.
In the grand tradition of Trek, the film has a half-hearted "romance" between Kirk and Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks). It may be a bit of a misnomer to call it a romance, per se. They kiss only once, never actually have sex or express a romantic interest in each other. Instead, they're more like friends. She's fine in the role, confident and believable as a whale biologist, just wide-eyed enough about the 23rd century to be our proxy in this universe.
(This is, obviously, a fish out of water story, no pun intended, for both the crew and Taylor. Each has to learn and adapt to their new environments. Naturally, most of the humor comes from the characters not knowing what to do-money is a foreign concept to Kirk and Spock, for instance. As mentioned before, this is the most Trek of the movies because of the subject matter but also because the crew is exploring a "strange new world.")
So does Trek IV deserve all the praise it gets? Not really. It is a step up, production value wise, from the previous flick but also a step down in tone and seriousness when, in reality, it should have been just as dire as either Trek II or III. The film and script does get major points for utilizing the entire crew as well as anything before it, though.