Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
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| Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home |
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 Theatrical release poster by Bob Peak |
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| Directed by | Leonard Nimoy |
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| Produced by | Harve Bennett |
| Written by | Screenplay: Steve Meerson Peter Krikes Nicholas Meyer Harve Bennett Story: Leonard Nimoy Harve Bennett Characters: Gene Roddenberry |
| Starring | See table |
| Music by | Leonard Rosenman |
| Cinematography | Donald Peterman |
| Editing by | Peter E. Berger |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 26, 1986 |
| Running time | 119 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $27,000,000 (estimated) |
| Gross revenue | $133,000,000 (worldwide) |
| Preceded by | Star Trek III: The Search for Spock |
| Followed by | Star Trek V: The Final Frontier |
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is the fourth feature film based on the Star Trek science fiction television series. It completes the loose story trilogy started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Leonard Nimoy directed as well as starred in The Voyage Home, which earned four Academy Award nominations, for Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Best Music and Best Sound. The original music score was composed by Leonard Rosenman, reusing some material from his earlier score to Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings.[citation needed]
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[edit] Plot
The film begins three months after the events of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock as a large cylindrical object moves through space heading towards Earth, sending out an indecipherable signal and disabling the power of any vessel or station that it passes. As it takes up orbit around Earth, it continues signaling and disrupting the global power system, and then starts causing extreme weather patterns to develop over the planet while evaporating the oceans. Starfleet Command, on the last of its power reserves, sends out a subspace signal warning of the danger.
On Vulcan, the former officers of the USS Enterprise living in exile decide to return to Earth to face the punishment for the theft and willful destruction of the ship; Spock, still recovering from being reborn on the Genesis planet, goes with them. The Enterprise officers use the seized Klingon Bird of Prey, renamed the HMS Bounty, to return to Earth. As they enter the solar system, they hear Starfleet's warning and the alien signal; Spock is able to determine that it matches the song of humpback whales, long since extinct on Earth, and that the object will continue to wreak havoc on the planet until it can be answered. The crew devise a plan to slingshot around the Sun to time travel back to the late 20th century and return with a whale.
The time travel process is completed successfully, placing them in the year 1986, although their dilithium crystals are nearly drained and cannot be used in their current state to return to the future. After cloaking the Bird of Prey and landing it in a San Francisco, California park and adjusting to the time period, the crew splits up; Kirk and Spock to locate a whale, Scotty, Dr. McCoy and Sulu to devise a holding tank for the whale, and Uhura and Chekov to search for a nuclear power source to repair the dilithium crystals. Kirk and Spock are able to quickly discover a pair of humpback whales, "George" and "Gracie," at the Cetacean Institute, and are told by the Institute's whale expert, Dr. Gillian Taylor, that the whales are shortly going to be released into the wild, making the pair ideal for their needs. To be able to track them, Kirk attempts to woo Dr. Taylor to reveal the tracking codes for the whales, but she rebuffs him.
Scotty, McCoy, and Sulu are able to procure the necessary materials to construct the holding tank in exchange for revealing the formula for "transparent aluminum" to a local manufacturer. Uhura and Chekov locate the USS Enterprise, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and draw some of its power to restore the dilithium, but as they do, Chekov is captured, and a resulting escape attempt severely injures him and he is taken to a hospital. McCoy worries for Chekov's safety in the hands of practitioners of barbaric 20th century treatments, and the crew put together an escape attempt. Before they leave, Dr. Taylor arrives with urgent news, and after overcoming her awe of the spacecraft, explains that the whales have been released a day earlier. Kirk enlists Dr. Taylor's help to successfully recover Chekov, but as they are ready to leave to get the whales, she tricks Kirk into bringing her along so she can help find them. The crew is able to locate the whales before they are killed by whalers, and transport the creatures aboard. With Dr. Taylor and the whales, the crew reverses the slingshot maneuver and returns to the future.
The Bounty approaches Earth, but immediately loses power due to the alien signal. The ship splashes down into San Francisco Bay, and they are able to release the whales from the hold. The whales respond to the signal, causing the object to restore Earth to its normal condition and to return to the depths of outer space.
Despite having just saved the world, the officers are put on trial at Starfleet on several charges, including the destruction of the Enterprise. However, in light of their heroic efforts, only the charge of disobeying a superior officer is not waived, with the punishment being the demotion of Kirk from Admiral to Captain, giving him command of a new starship. Despite her feelings for Kirk, Dr. Taylor takes a position aboard a civilian science vessel, being the only expert on whales in this century. The crew departs to their new vessel, the newly-christened USS Enterprise-NCC-1701-A, and depart on another mission.
[edit] Cast
- William Shatner as Admiral/Captain James T. Kirk – Shatner was initially unwilling to reprise the role of Kirk until his salary was increased to $2 million, and was promised he could direct the next film.[1] Shatner described The Voyage Home's comic qualities as one "that verges on tongue-in-cheek but isn't, it's as though the characters within the play have a great deal of joy about themselves, a joy of living [and] you play it with the reality you would in a kitchen-sink drama written for today's life."[2]
- Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock
- DeForest Kelley as Commander (Dr.) Leonard McCoy
- James Doohan as Captain Montgomery Scott
- George Takei as Commander Hikaru Sulu
- Walter Koenig as Commander Pavel Chekov – Koenig commented Chekov was a "delight" to play in this film because he worked best in comedic situations.[3]
- Nichelle Nichols as Commander Uhura
- Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor
- Majel Barrett as Commander (Dr.) Christine Chapel
- Grace Lee Whitney as Chief Petty Officer Janice Rand
- Mark Lenard as Ambassador Sarek
- Jane Wyatt as Amanda Grayson – Wyatt commented that although she disliked working with actors who were directing, she found Nimoy an exception because he could concentrate on working with being part of the cast as well as setting up the crew.[3]
- John Schuck as the Klingon ambassador
- Robert Ellenstein as the Federation President
- Brock Peters as Fleet Admiral Cartwright
- Robin Curtis as Lieutenant Saavik
- Madge Sinclair made an uncredited appearance as the Saratoga captain
[edit] Production
[edit] Writing
Following the success of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, director Leonard Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett signed on to return. As William Shatner was unwilling to return, Nimoy and Bennett spent eight months considering a prequel concept by Ralph Winter about the characters at Starfleet Academy, before Shatner received a pay increase and signed on to star. Nimoy and Bennett then selected a time travel story where the Enterprise encounter a problem which could only be fixed by something only available in the present day (the Star Trek characters' past). They considered numerous ideas including violin makers and oil drillers, as well as a disease which had its cure destroyed with the rainforests. "But the depiction of thousands of sick and dying people seemed rather gruesome for our light-hearted film, and the thought of our crew taking a 600 year round trip just to bring back a snail darter wasn't all that thrilling!", explained Nimoy. The director then read a book on extinct animals and conceived the used storyline.[1]
Nimoy approached Beverly Hills Cop writer Daniel Petrie, Jr. to write the script when a concept that executive producer Jeffrey Katzenberg described as "either the best or worst idea in the world" arose—Star Trek fan Eddie Murphy wanted a starring role. Both Nimoy and Murphy acknowledged his part would attract non-Star Trek fans to the franchise following the rising popularity of Murphy, but it could also mean the film would be panned. Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes (The Long Way Home) were hired to write a script with Murphy as a college professor who believes in aliens and who likes to play whale songs. Murphy disliked the part, explaining he wanted to play an alien or a Starfleet officer (although Nimoy was unaware of this)[4] and chose to make The Golden Child. Murphy's character was combined with a marine biologist and a female reporter to become Gillian Taylor.[5]
The Wrath of Khan director Nicholas Meyer rewrote the script with Bennett. In his version, Gillian Taylor stays in 1986 Earth and vows to ensure the survival of the humpback whale despite the paradox it would create. Meyer preferred this to the eventual ending, explaining "The end in the movie detracts from the importance of people in the present taking the responsibility for the ecology and preventing problems of the future by doing something today, rather than catering to the fantasy desires of being able to be transported in time to the near-utopian future." Meyer and Bennett also cut out Krikes and Meerson's idea of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey flying over the Super Bowl (where the crowd assume it is part of the halftime spectacle) and a hint that Saavik remained on Vulcan because she had become pregnant with Spock's child in the previous movie, when she "helped" the reborn and rapidly growing Spock as he experienced pon farr.[5]
Bennett said Meyer mostly worked on the film's middle act, and Nimoy said Meyer gave the script "the kind of humor and social comment, gadfly attitude I very much wanted".[3] Nimoy added his vision was for "no dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy. I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film [and] if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of big ideas at them, well, then that would be even better."[6]
[edit] Filming
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 non-nuclear powered carrier USS Ranger (CV-61) was used.[7] Oakland International Airport was used for the foreground element of Starfleet Headquarters. Scenes in the San Francisco Bay were shot at a tank at Paramount's backlot.[8]
The scene in which Uhura and Chekov question passersby on the location of nuclear vessels was filmed with a hidden camera. However, the people whom Koenig and Nichols speak to were extras hired off the street for that day's shooting, and, despite legends to the contrary, knew they were being filmed. In an interview with StarTrek.com, Layla Sarakalo, the extra who said, "I don't know if I know the answer to that... I think it's across the bay, in Alameda", stated that after her car was impounded because she refused to move it for the filming, she approached the assistant director about appearing with the other extras, hoping to be paid enough to get her car out of impoundment. She was hired and told not to answer Koenig's and Nichols' questions. However, she did answer them and the filmmakers kept her response in the film.[9]
When Sulu, Scotty and McCoy are standing in front of the Yellow Pages ad, they encounter an arguing Asian couple. This scene was supposed to end with Sulu encountering his young ancestor, Akira Sulu, but the child actor hired for the part began to cry and was unable to finish the scene.[10]
[edit] Effects
Industrial Light & Magic created the visual effects. Most shots of the humpback whales were scale models shot at their studio or life-size animatronics shot at Paramount.[6] The USS Enterprise was destroyed in the previous film partly because visual effects supervisor Ken Ralston wanted to build a "more state-of-the-art ship for the next film", but the filmmakers made the less costly decision have the crew return to serve on the duplicate USS Enterprise A, and six weeks was spent repairing the old model. A travel pod from Star Trek: The Motion Picture was also reused for the ending, although the twenty-feet long interior set had to be rebuilt. Michael Okuda joined the Star Trek franchise with The Voyage Home, designing smooth controls with backlit displays for the Federation which were eventually dubbed "Okudagrams". Okudagrams were also used for displays on the Klingon ship, though large buttons remained for that set.[11]
A scale model of the Golden Gate Bridge was used, which was two-foot tall at one end and sixteen-foot-tall at the other. The shorter end was filmed in front, creating a forced perspective which made it look longer. For the alien probe, Ralston had it painted black to make it look more mysterious after viewing the first few shots of it. Computer graphics were used for the crew's time travelling.[8]
[edit] Reception
The movie begins with a dedication from "the cast and crew of Star Trek" to the memory of the seven astronauts who were killed in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster on January 28, 1986 (ten months before the film's release).
The film was a critical and commercial success. It grossed $109,713,132 in the U.S. and $133,000,000 worldwide, against a $27,000,000 budget.[12] Of the first ten films, it sold the second-most tickets and was the second most profitable movie in the series adjusted for 2007 inflation (behind The Motion Picture). On the Special Edition DVD of the film, Leonard Nimoy says that this was the most well-received of all the Star Trek films made to date. Producer Ralph Winter also added that this film did very well as it was liked by both fans and non-fans of the Star Trek phenomenon.
USA Today gave a positive review, declaring "Kirk and company turn into the most uproarious out-of-towners to hit the Bay area since the Democrats in 1984," and felt the lack of special effects allowed the actors to "prove themselves more capable actors than ever before." Janet Maslin of The New York Times noted The Voyage Home "has done a great deal to ensure the series' longevity."[6]
When released in Europe and South America, the film was given the title The Voyage Home: Star Trek IV and had a prologue narrated by Shatner and scored by Leonard Rosenman reviewing the events of the previous two films. It was included on the European, Asian and South American VHS release.[13]
The Voyage Home was the first Star Trek film shown in the Soviet Union. It was screened by the World Wildlife Fund on June 26, 1987 in Moscow to celebrate a ban on whaling. Nimoy and Bennett attended the screening; Nimoy had completed filming Three Men and a Baby the day before and enjoyed visiting Russia, where his ancestors came from. Bennett was amazed the film got the same laughs as it did with an American audience. He said "the single most rewarding moment of my Star Trek life" was when the Moscow audience applauded at McCoy's line at the film's end, "The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We'll get a freighter," which was a clear "messenger of what was to come."[3]
[edit] Home video
The film was given a "bare bones" DVD release on November 9, 1999 with no extra features. Three and a half years later, a two disc "Collector's Edition" was released with supplemental material but with the same video transfer as the original DVD release. It featured a text commentary by Michael Okuda and an audio commentary from director Leonard Nimoy and star William Shatner.[14]
The film was released on Blu-ray Disc in May 2009 to coincide with the new Star Trek feature, along with the other five films featuring the original crew in Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection.[15] The Voyage Home was remastered in 1080p high-definition from the 1999 DVD transfer. All six films in the set have new 7.1 Dolby TrueHD audio. The disc features a new commentary track by Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, the writers of the 2009 Star Trek film.[15][16]
[edit] References
- Dillard, J.M. (1994). Star Trek: "Where No Man Has Gone Before" — A History in Pictures. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-51149-1.
- Hughes, David (2008). The Greatest Science Fiction Movies Never Made. Titan Books. ISBN 9781845767556.
- Reeves-Stevens, Judith and Garfield (1995). The Art of Star Trek. Pocket Books. ISBN 0-671-89804-3.
- ^ a b Hughes, 31.
- ^ Dillard, 83.
- ^ a b c d Dillard, 85-87.
- ^ Pascale, Anthony (2008-07-27). "Exclusive Interview: Leonard Nimoy - Part 2". TrekMovie. http://trekmovie.com/2008/07/27/exclusive-interview-leonard-nimoy-part-2/. Retrieved on 2009-01-05.
- ^ a b Hughes, 32-33.
- ^ a b c Reeves-Stevens, 233.
- ^ Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda. The Star Trek Encyclopedia Second Edition 1997 Pocket Books Page 137.
- ^ a b Reeves-Stevens, 240-241.
- ^ "Visions of Layla: Taking the Voyage Home" startrek.com October 27, 2005
- ^ William Shatner. Star Trek: Movie Memories
- ^ Reeves-Stevens, 236-237.
- ^ "Leonard Nimoy Says New Star Trek Movie Will Revitalize the Entire Franchise". TrekWeb.com. http://trekweb.com/articles/2008/01/13/Leonard-NimoynbspSays-New-Star-Trek-Movie-Will-Revitalize-the-Entire-Franchise.shtml. Retrieved on 2008-01-13.
- ^ Leao, Gustav (2001-01-19). "'Star Trek IV The Voyage Home' : The Prologue of The European Version". TrekWeb. http://www.trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=sU/n82DdXTxD6. Retrieved on 2009-01-09.
- ^ Collector's Edition Review @ IGN DVD
- ^ a b Pascale, Anthony (2009-02-16). "TrekMovie: CBS & Paramount Announce First Star Trek Blu-ray sets - TOS S1 & All TOS movies coming April/May". TrekMovie. http://trekmovie.com/2009/02/16/cbs-paramount-announce-first-star-trek-blu-ray-sets-tos-s1-all-tos-movies-coming-apmarily/. Retrieved on 2009-05-15.
- ^ Latchem, John (2009-02-20). "Boldly going onto Blu-Ray". The Gazette: p. D4.
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home |
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at Allmovie
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at Rotten Tomatoes
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at Box Office Mojo
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home at StarTrek.com
- Interview with Robin Curtis (Lt. Saavik) in which she describes working with Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and the rest of the cast of Star Trek III and IV
- Lost Prologue of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, seen only on European and South American release prints
| Preceded by Crocodile Dundee |
Box office number-one films of 1986 (USA) November 30, 1986 – December 7, 1986 |
Succeeded by The Golden Child |
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