Rewatching the Star Trek movies! After the life and death seriousness of the previous movie, it’s time for the franchise to let its hair down and have some fun in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Here’s what happens: Kirk and company return to Earth to face trial for stealing and then blowing up the Enterprise in the previous movie. Except a giant alien probe has made it to Earth first, threatening the entire planet if it doesn’t get an answer. Spock and Uhura are quick to deduce that humpback whales are the key to answering the probe’s call and saving the Earth. But all the humpbacks are extinct, so prepare for time warp…

Captains Courageous: In the previous movie, Kirk risked everything on a leap of faith to bring back Spock. This time, it’s another leap of faith. McCoy goes on quite a rant about how much of a longshot Kirk’s time travel plan is, but Kirk insists it’s the only way.  

Ol’ pointy ears: We spent two movies with Spock having accepted his human half, which felt like genuine character development for him. But now he’s rebooted (so to speak) back to hard logic mode. It makes for some fun humor, but what is the character arc here? Spock is so single-minded at first that he can’t answer “How do you feel?” Later, when the mission is in trouble, Kirk calls Spock out his non-emotions, reminding Spock that he’s half-human and asking if he feels anything about that. This comes to a head during the trip back to the present (future?) where Spock must do the illogical thing and make a guess on how to get home. His humanity and imperfections are what save the day.

Welcome aboard: Catherine Hicks, as whale expert Gillian, is fun and flirty with Kirk. But I’m more interested in all the ancillary Starfleet characters seen at the opening of the movie. The great John Shuck hams it up as a blustery Klingon, Brock Peters is a commanding presence in his recurring role as Admiral Cartwright, plus we’ve got an unnamed Federation President, and an unnamed female starship captain years before Rachel Garrett and good ol’ Janeway. (What’s with all these unnamed characters in Trek’s supposedly rock-solid continuity?)  

Continuity café: The movie doesn’t tell us what the probe is, where it came from. To get all that background, you had to read the follow-up novel, Star Trek: Probe (1992) by Margaret Wander Bonanno. I would go ahead and spoil it, but… I find the book unreadable. I’ve tried to get through it several times, but I never made it to the end. God Emperor of Dune was less obtuse.

What you leave behind: I like that the movie is light and funny (even if the circus music-style score is trying too hard to be wacky). But, like The Motion Picture, it makes you work to find the character arcs. This movie is beloved and considered a Trek classic, but I wonder if there could’ve been an even better version, that more successfully married its humorous side with its dramatic side.

Next: The laughing Vulcan!

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