Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 21-March-10
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

So far this month's Spotlight series has shown how movies use time travel to set the stage for an action hero or heighten the drama of romance. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home uses the idea to promote a cause while simultaneously generating laughs. Since Star Trek is already set in the future, transporting the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise back in time allows director/star Leonard Nimoy to poke fun at the foibles and failings of his own age.

The brisk script begins with Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his team preparing to return to Earth on a commandeered Klingon ship. For those viewers who don't possess an encyclopedic knowledge of the franchise's lore, it is quickly established that they have just saved Spock (Nimoy) from death and are facing censure by an intergalactic tribunal because of it. Upon reaching Earth they are warned off by Papa Smurf the President of the United Federation of Planets. A mysterious space probe is draining all power sources and causing the oceans to rise. In an astonishing display of intuition or luck meant to look like canny deduction, Spock determines that the probe is attempting to communicate with humpback whales. But D'Oh! This species was driven to extinction a couple centuries ago, so the probe will search in vain while its presence destroys the Earth.

The only solution is to ricochet off the sun, zoom back in time, pick up some humpback whales, and bring them back to the future. Putting this plan into action, the crew finds itself in San Francisco where the ship's dilithium crystals inevitably fail and everyone must navigate the "extremely primitive and paranoid culture" of the late 20th century. It's a classic fish-out-of-water situation even before they beam up Moby Dick. (I know, whales are mammals. Work with me here.) Fantasy takes a back seat to comedy as Kirk and Spock try to master the vernacular ("double dumb-ass on you!") and the Russian helmsman Chekov asks a street cop where he can hook up with some "nuclear wessels." Eternally hilarious, this would have been especially piquant in 1986 due to the Cold War, which might account for the "paranoid" designation.

Hidebound Hollywood rules, not to mention Kirk's legendary libido, require interference by a female from among the native population. She takes the form of a marine biologist who happens to know and love a pair of mating whales. Fortunately, actress Catherine Hicks gives her a wealth of individual charm so she feels like an integral part of the story instead of an appendage. Eventually let in on the mission, she helps Kirk and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) break Chekov out of the hospital and then locate the whales before they are slaughtered by a commercial harpoon. The movie directly attacks this practice and the threat of extinction it entails. I am happy to report that, if Web sources are correct, humpback whales have made a comeback since this movie was released.

One does not need to be a Trekkie, a Trekker, or even a fan of science fiction to enjoy Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. With its lighthearted spirit of adventurous activism, it should please anyone in favor of either splitting their sides or saving the whales.

Copyright © 2010 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.