Yesterdays Movies on Tuesday: Star Trek The Voyage Home 1986
Last week I was a little behind considering a new member of the family came along so I wasn't able to give my quick thoughts on Star Trek: The Voyage Home, so today I'll just double up with this and the fifth film in the franchise. Anyhow, only less then three weeks left until the premiere of the new film directed by JJ Abrams!!
Star Trek: The Voyage Home is my personal favorite of the film franchise although I'll admit it's probably not as good as The Wrath of Khan. After the success of The Search for Spock, Leonard Nimoy was once again hired to direct the next film, Star Trek 4, with Harve Bennett as producer. This was the final film in the loose trilogy that started with The Wrath of Khan and concludes with The Voyage Home. Initially and now ironically, before the whale concept was conceived, Star Trek 4 may have been a story about the characters Starfleet Academy days considering William Shatner was unwilling, at the time, to return. This, however, didn't happen obviously and so we were given a fun time travel story.
When a mysterious probe arrives at earth, it drains all of the electrical power of starships, starbases and everything on Earth. It sends a signal directly to our oceans causing strange and dangerous weather patterns. The probe is destroying everything but when a returning James T. Kirk on board a captured Klingon Bird of Prey figures out what the probe is looking for, his crew travels back in time to the 1980s to find the only signal to save our planet. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek stars William Shatner as James T. Kirk, Leonard Nimoy as Spock, Deforest Kelly as McCoy, James Doohan as Scotty, George Takei as Sulu, Walter Koenig as Checkov and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura. Also returning is Mark Lenard as Sarek. Star Trek The Voyage Home introduces Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor and Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright. Peters eventually played the role of Bejamin Sisko's father in Deep Space Nine.
What's not to love about this film, except that the Enterprise isn't really in this. From the opening titles with Leonard Rosenman's fantastic feel good score to the end of the film with the introduction of the USS Enterprise A, Star Trek: The Voyage Home is exciting fun front to back. It's also a very well written and directed film by all those involved including Leonard Nimoy. This film came out in 1986 so I was too young to see it in theaters, infact I think the first Trek film I saw in theaters was The Undiscovered Country but that has nothing to do with this post. I don't remember when I first saw this movie but I can tell you I've seen it more times than I've seen any other film in the franchise. I love it! It's such a great character film that didn't rely on a typical villain to push the plot along. It's funny, lighthearted, and totally adventurous. It's also the closest thing in the Trek franchise that's open enough for non-fans to come in and enjoy although they wouldn't be aware of how the characters got into their current circumstances since The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock led up to this film. Star Trek 4 is really what Star Trek is all about - fun and adventurous in an effort to save our world.
For me personally, it's my favorite film with The Wrath of Khan being the only other film challenging that. Can the new Trek film take the title? We'll see. Even if your not a Trek fan, this is one of two films that I recommend you watch if your looking to get into the franchise - the other of course being The Wrath of Khan. Both films, I think, is the perfect combination with one being dark and gritty and the other being fun and adventurous. This is a must see for fans of science fiction and movie goers in general.
Now the next film in the franchise, The Final Frontier, is a different story.
-Phil
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