Target Audience / UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The Sex Scoreboard TOS No scores I almost say Kirk was close to getting a -1. Did he led around and then dropped with the classic "I'll call YOU " line? YES but not enough to lose a score just sort of look unKirk-a-licious

Prof Moff

2025-01-01 01:49:02 +0000 UTC

As for the "trilogy" aspect, I agree that event wise 2,3&4 makes sense for most people. But thematically 1,2&3 make the most sense for Spock's arc. In 1 Spock weeps for V'ger "as for a brother" because like him, V'ger was looking for a purpose beyond pure logic and reason, which Spock rejected at the beginning of the movie. He arrives at the conclusion there needs to be something more, something metaphysical and muses, but himself never finds what that might be for himself In 2 Spock famously speaks the line "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and sacrifices himself. But in 3, Kirk turns that quote on it's head by noting that for his friends "the needs of the one (Spock) outweighed the needs of the few. It comes full circle in the Kirk/Spock Human/Vulcan Emotion/Logic dynamic that's been played off since the beginning and provides Spock the path to the answer he was in search of. The reasoning is not logical, yet it was correct from the perspective of the crew, and perhaps in their shoes it would have been the correct decision for him as well. Spock has put the needs of individuals at the front before, such as Captain Pike. And between that, the end of 4 where Spock famously says "I stand with my shipmates" and what's to come in 6, it does the theme true justice. Of course, at that point it's hardly a trilogy anymore, but to circle back to the topic of the trilogy -- events wise, it's 2-4, but thematically the better trilogy is 1-3. But just throw the whole trilogy out the window because too many threads cross too many movies in continuity.

#MaxwellDidNothingWrong

2024-06-26 05:21:10 +0000 UTC

There's not a lot to say that hasn't already been said, this movie is just a really fun time. Coming on the heels or 2 fairly serious and depressing films, and especially releasing just before Christmas, this was exactly the palate cleanser Trek needed. As to how 2 whales can repopulate a whole species, I can only assume some form or genetic modification/randomization to overcome the obvious issues of inbreeding would be involved. Probably child's play by the 23rd century. I do find it a tad odd that Gillian was so insistent to come to the 23rd century to take care of "her whales", and then proceeds to take a posting in deep space. You'd figure she'd be spearheading the effort to reintroduce humpbacks into the 23rd century oceans. Nimoy and the writers did a great job making use of the whole cast in this one. It's a shame it took till this late to do it. Still they clearly all had a lot of fun on this one. The fish out of water encounters make for great humor. Scotty talking to the mouse was comedy gold. One thing that didn't make a ton of sense, but obviously they wanted the Enterprise name drop, was going for a nuclear reactor on a naval ship. A civilian reactor would almost certainly be easier to infiltrate. Great that they reunited Spock's whole family from Journey to Babel again, and Spock and Sarek have some of their best moments here. They've reached a point where the only thing between them is mutual love and respect, insofar as it's permissible for a vulcan to show, and perhaps a bit more. The end of the movie kind of resets everything back to pre-TWOK, and it's just a real feel good experience for the fans. This isn't super high on my list of Trek films, as the story is kind of out there, but the execution is great. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about where the whale probe came from or how this story fits into the rest of Trek's continuity, so as a Trek movie, it's a bit of an odd one. But beyond that, it's always a fun time to watch. Some people don't like the music, but I think it successfully sets the tone for the movie. Time to catch up on TNG S1 & 2

Timothy Nikiforovs

2024-06-11 10:22:48 +0000 UTC

Reposted from YouTube: “‘Tu hai l’udir mortal sì come il viso,’ rispuose a me; ‘onde qui non si canta per quel che Bëatrice non ha riso.’” Possible working title (unconfirmed): Star Trek IV: The Adventure Continues. Both Star Trek fans and the public have universally nicknamed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, in the style of a Friends episode title, The One With the Whales. Years from now, you will discover that this nickname for the film’s events exists even in-universe. Voyage Home was, by a considerable margin, my late mother’s favorite Star Trek movie, and she saw it often over the years; it was, in fact, the final film she ever saw on DVD. During a shopping trip to Woolworths in downtown Boston when I was about 12 years old, we came upon a television playing a VHS tape of Voyage Home; we both stood there and watched the movie through to the end. If only time travel were truly possible… I have long thought of the Genesis Trilogy as Star Trek’s version of the Divine Comedy. If Wrath of Khan was the Hell from the heart of which Khan stabbed at Kirk (and, indeed, there is a copy of Dante’s Inferno as well as Moby-Dick on Khan’s bookshelf), and Search for Spock was the Purgatory where people climbed a mountain to heal their spirits, then Voyage Home is the Paradise where beings free of hatred and evil sing and dance in joy. In European markets, where Star Trek II and III had not been successful, Voyage Home had an added prologue, the equivalent of a “Previously on Star Trek” montage, recapping the events of the previous two movies. The YouTuber TrekkieChannel has posted this prologue. I believe viewers who first saw Voyage Home with the prologue miss it on modern-day releases, whereas I find it irritating. It is especially problematic because it makes the dedication to the Space Shuttle Challenger crew feel like yet another obstacle to get through before the movie starts. In the revised shooting script of Voyage Home (available on the Star Trek Minutiae website), the opening dedication refers to “the starship Challenger.” This would have been both factually inaccurate and unbearably mawkish; the finished film’s dedication instead refers to “the spaceship Challenger.” Over 37 years later, the memory of the Challenger disaster is still too painful for me to do my usual clever-clogs schtick of explaining everything about it. People who are too young to remember it can look it up online. (In particular, see science fiction scholar Gary Westfahl’s disturbing speculations about a link between Star Trek and the Challenger disaster on pp. 138-139 of his book The Spacesuit Film. The relevant pages are sometimes visible in the book’s Google Books preview.) Like most Star Trek films of this era, Voyage Home had a complicated production history. Before Nicholas Meyer joined the project, credited co-writers Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes wrote a draft script which was a guest-starring vehicle for Eddie Murphy, Paramount’s biggest star at that time. Murphy would have played a Berkeley astrophysicist fascinated by UFOs who saw the Bounty when it briefly appeared over the field at the Super Bowl. Everyone else in the crowd assumed that the ship was some kind of hologram as part of the halftime show; only Murphy’s character would have realized it was truly an alien spacecraft, and he would have become involved in Kirk and his crew’s search for the whales, filling Gillian Taylor’s eventual role in the story and ultimately accompanying Kirk’s crew back to the 23rd century. Although Murphy’s potential involvement was an exciting opportunity, there were pitfalls as well. Paramount was concerned that combining Murphy and Star Trek, their two biggest money-makers at the time, might cancel out the appeal of each and result in a flop. There was the danger that Murphy would overshadow the Star Trek cast, just as Richard Pryor had taken too much focus away from Superman in 1983’s Superman III. Murphy himself was uncertain about the part: although he very much wanted to appear in Star Trek, his preference was to play an alien or a Starfleet officer, not a 20th-century human. Murphy passed up Star Trek IV in favor of The Golden Child (1986); he later recognized that this was a mistake, since The Golden Child was a flop, but his withdrawal may have been for the best for Star Trek IV. (Eddie Murphy has still never appeared in Star Trek. It’s not too late, Paramount!) Nicholas Meyer agreed to write part of the Star Trek IV script as work-for-hire, although he still objected to the changes made to Wrath of Khan to set up Spock’s return. Meyer wrote the portions of the film set in 1986 San Francisco (beginning with Spock’s line, “Judging by the pollution content of the atmosphere, I believe we have arrived at the late 20th Century”), while Harve Bennett wrote the 23rd-century sections. Meyer, who had already written and directed a time-travel film set in San Francisco (1979’s Time After Time), asked if he could move the 20th-century scenes to Paris, but the San Francisco setting was necessary due to Starfleet Headquarters being located there. Leonard Nimoy, as the co-writer of the film’s story with Harve Bennett, was the first member of Star Trek’s regular cast to receive a writing credit on the franchise since Walter Koenig’s script for “The Infinite Vulcan.” (Stanley Adams, who guest-starred in “The Trouble with Tribbles” and “More Tribbles, More Troubles” as Cyrano Jones, also co-wrote “The Mark of Gideon.”) Besides Time After Time and Back to the Future, other time travel films from the decade leading up to Voyage Home’s release included Unidentified Flying Oddball (an extremely loose Disney adaptation of Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, released in 1979), The Final Countdown (a 1980 science fiction war film which I believe has been suggested as a potential future reaction for you), Somewhere in Time (a 1980 romantic fantasy starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour), Time Bandits (Terry Gilliam’s edgy 1981 family fantasy adventure), Timerider: The Adventure of Lyle Swann (a 1982 science fiction Western starring Fred Ward), The Philadelphia Experiment (a 1984 science fiction film inspired by a well-known but factually unfounded urban legend), the original Terminator (1984) with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Trancers (a 1984 science fiction action film), My Science Project (a 1985 teen science fiction comedy), Disney’s Flight of the Navigator (a 1986 science fiction adventure film), and Peggy Sue Got Married (a 1986 fantasy comedy-drama). Leonard Rosenman, the composer of Voyage Home’s score, was a friend of Leonard Nimoy, who had considered hiring him for Search for Spock but used James Horner to ensure musical continuity with Wrath of Khan. (Rosenman was also a close friend of the late Robert Brown, the actor cast at the last minute as Lazarus in “The Alternative Factor,” who spoke at Rosenman’s memorial service in 2008.) Rosenman’s film music included two Oscar-winning scores. His score for Voyage Home received a nomination for the 1986 Best Original Score Oscar – along with Jerry Goldsmith’s TMP score, one of only two Star Trek scores nominated for that award. Three Star Trek film composers – Rosenman for Voyage Home, Horner for Aliens, and Goldsmith for Hoosiers – were in the running for the Oscar that year but were all defeated by Herbie Hancock’s score for Round Midnight. Appropriately, given that Voyage Home is unlike any other Star Trek film, Rosenman’s work is unlike any other Trek film score in its unbridled joy, sometimes even sounding like Christmas music. Parts of it are extremely reminiscent of what may be Rosenman’s most familiar score to sci-fi/fantasy fans other than Voyage Home: his music for the poorly regarded 1978 animated film of The Lord of the Rings, directed by Ralph Bakshi. Commentators claim that Rosenman recycled the “Frodo March” from that film in Voyage Home. The captain of the USS Saratoga, played by Madge Sinclair in an uncredited cameo role, is the first female Starfleet starship commander to appear in Star Trek, placing the implications of “Turnabout Intruder” firmly in the franchise’s trash bin of rejected ideas. Among her other roles, Sinclair twice played a queen married to a king played by James Earl Jones, in Coming to America (Queen Aoleon) and The Lion King (Sarabi, Simba’s mother). She would also play a major guest role in Star Trek two years prior to her death from leukemia in 1995. In the revised shooting script, the first of Star Trek’s regular characters to speak is, surprisingly, Christine Chapel, in a brief omitted exchange with Sarek as he arrives at the Federation Council hearing. (I believe Chapel may still be visible in the distant background of the Council scene.) Also, in the revised shooting script, the film’s opening credits run all the way through the first Federation Council scene, concluding just before the transition to Vulcan. This style of opening titles, running into the beginning of the narrative, is atypical of the Star Trek movies and does not appear in the final cut. John Schuck (Klingon Ambassador Kamarag) and Leonard Nimoy were both born in Boston, and both married the same woman, actor/director Susan Bay, who is now Nimoy’s widow. The production of Voyage Home fell between the two marriages. Voyage Home is the first Star Trek episode or movie to feature the President of the United Federation of Planets, demonstrating that the Enterprise crew’s familiarity with the protocol for rendering “Presidential honors” to Abraham Lincoln in “The Savage Curtain” was not as absurd as it may have seemed at the time. Multiple Star Trek novels call the unnamed President in this film, played by actor Robert Ellenstein, “Hiram Roth,” but the 1980s Star Trek tabletop roleplaying game calls him “Alistair Fergus.” If Saavik’s departure from the narrative early in Voyage Home seems abrupt, one of the alternatives was much worse. In one of the wisest decisions of his professional life, director Nimoy nixed the originally planned reason for Saavik’s remaining on Vulcan: she was pregnant with Spock’s child after helping his mindless younger self through pon farr in the previous movie. Given that Saavik had sex with Spock out of necessity, to save his life, and that neither of them truly consented to the act, this plot twist would have been deeply disturbing and inappropriate, no matter what story possibilities it might have created. As late as the revised shooting script, the intent was to hint heavily at Saavik’s pregnancy without revealing it explicitly. Saavik offers to return to Earth to testify if her recorded deposition is insufficient, but Kirk reassures her, “Your leave has been granted for good and proper cause,” then asks, “How are you feeling?” Saavik replies, “I am well,” to which Kirk responds, “You will be in good hands here.” The absence of these lines from the finished film is grounds for eternal rejoicing. An earlier draft had dialogue between Saavik and Amanda after the Bounty’s departure which more clearly confirmed the pregnancy to the audience. In a draft earlier than the one available online, Spock’s memory test included a question asking him to identify the inventor of transparent aluminum; he correctly replied that Dr. Nichols invented it on Earth in 1986. This would have confirmed that Scotty giving Nichols the formula was a bootstrap paradox rather than an instance of changing history, as Scotty in fact speculates in the film. Jane Wyatt makes her second and last appearance as Amanda Grayson, Spock’s mother, in Voyage Home. She made such an impact in the role that it often surprises me to remember that she only played it twice. (Majel Barrett filled in for her in “Yesteryear” for budgetary reasons.) Among his other roles, Brock Peters (Admiral Cartwright) played Tom Robinson, the man falsely accused of rape in To Kill a Mockingbird. He also played Darth Vader in the National Public Radio adaptation of the original Star Wars trilogy. The Internet will excommunicate me for saying it, but Peters’ portrayal of Vader was far superior to that by James Earl Jones. Jones always tried too hard to make Vader sound wise and noble, whereas Peters played him as an out-and-out genocidal monster, paradoxically making his redemption at the end of Return of the Jedi far more powerful. Cartwright was originally Admiral Morrow from Search for Spock; I presume the actor, Robert Hooks, was unavailable. In the revised shooting script, Cartwright is still Morrow, but with a notice of the change at the beginning of the script. The shooting script does not include Kirk’s response to Scotty saying the Klingon food packs were giving him a sour stomach: “Is that what that was?” I fear that this line may have been an ad-lib by William Shatner; by this point, Shatner and James Doohan were not getting along at all. Fans have traditionally considered Voyage Home to be the only Star Trek movie in which no one dies. The revised shooting script contradicts this by including the complete distress calls Starfleet Command receives from the disabled starships Yorktown and Shepard. According to Shepard’s message, the loss of power caused by the Probe resulted in the failure of bio-sterilization capsules containing Vegan D virus, which killed fifteen crewmembers and infected everyone else aboard. However, since this information does not appear in the final edited film, it remains unofficial. In the 1980s, viewers criticized McCoy’s line, “You really have gone where no man has gone before,” saying that a Star Trek character should not utter the franchise’s tag line within the narrative. I seem to recall one writer comparing it to someone in an Alien film saying, “In space, no one can hear you scream.” In later decades, however, the Star Trek franchise would repeatedly establish that the text of Star Trek’s iconic opening voiceover exists as a famous quotation in-universe in one form or another. Although Christine Chapel and Janice Rand get only extremely brief close-ups in the scene at Starfleet Command when they are helping direct emergency response, by the nature of filmmaking it was necessary for Majel Barrett and Grace Lee Whitney to deliver entire speeches during the filming of the scene, with the desired fragments selected in editing. Majel Barrett once brought the house down at a Star Trek convention with an impassioned performance of her entire speech from this scene. It was at about this point in Star Trek’s history that fans began realizing that Barrett was an excellent actor, not just a nepotism hire, a process that would continue in the following years. In the 1986 "Mad" magazine parody of Voyage Home, when the Spock character asks the ship’s computer for information on whales, an image appears on-screen of Prince Charles and Princess Diana! In a film I otherwise consider almost perfect, the one scene I strongly dislike is especially grating: the morphing heads during the Bird of Prey’s journey to the past. The scene is a stupid idea; it looks awful; viewers are unlikely to understand its intended meaning the first five times they watch the film; its visual effects were extremely sophisticated for 1986, and were therefore probably very expensive; and the scene is totally unnecessary – there are much simpler and more effective ways to visualize a journey through time, as anyone can tell you who has seen the first episode of Doctor Who from 1963, made on a budget of tuppence ha’penny. As much as I love Voyage Home, I feel obliged to quote a serious criticism of it by the legendary American film critic Pauline Kael, which I feel has a great deal of validity. In her review of Voyage Home, Kael wrote, “The crewmates are supposed to be technical wizards of the 23rd century, but they deliver their lines as if they were ancient tortoises who had to get their heads out and up before they could say anything. It's a relief to hear two San Francisco garbagemen talk, because there's some energy in their voices, and when Madge Sinclair turns up for a minute, as the captain of the S. S. Saratoga, her crisp, urgent tone is like a handclap.” This issue has sometimes bothered me. The garbagemen’s first lines feel like a significant departure from what we have heard so far; although this makes sense, since the characters come from a different time, Kael’s objection to the regular cast’s performances has weight. Bizarrely – to my mind, inexplicably – the revised shooting script gives the 1st Garbage Man the line “What the fuck was that?” when the Bounty lands. Although the Motion Picture Association of America introduced the PG-13 rating in 1984, all Star Trek films through 1994 (and one other thereafter) received PG ratings, except for TMP, which the MPAA originally rated G. (The TMP Director’s Edition received a PG rating, with the stated reason being the intensity of the sound mix; the real reason is probably that G-rated films for audiences other than young children are no longer commercially viable.) It was possible in those days for a film with a single fuck-word to get a PG rating; 1983’s The Right Stuff received a PG rating with multiple fuck-words, although that may have been partly due to the film’s status as a historical drama. However, including “fuck” in Voyage Home would have entailed extra work in terms of redubbing the line for foreign releases and television showings, and might have generated negative publicity. In the event, no character in Star Trek would use the fuck-word on screen until 2017, shortly after Star Trek entered the streaming era. Upon arriving in 1986, Kirk and his crew find themselves in my favorite location in all of space and time: the United States in the 1980s, the four-dimensional coordinates of my childhood. There is an extra layer of meaning to the title The Voyage Home which is no longer obvious to younger viewers such as Alex and Josh: Not only is the movie about Kirk’s crew returning to Earth and then returning to their home on the Enterprise, but it is also about them traveling to the audience’s home, Earth in what was then the present day. As with Shatner, Takei and Koenig being the only surviving main cast members from Wrath of Khan, IMDb offers a real downer item in its “Trivia” section on Voyage Home, pointing out that McCoy’s line, “It’s a miracle these people ever got out of the 20th century,” is ironic because DeForest Kelley died on June 11, 1999, the only regular cast member of TOS not to live into the 21st century. With its scenes set in 1986, Voyage Home presented Star Trek with its first opportunity to incorporate product placement. The San Francisco sequences include plugs for Michelob beer, Chevy pickup trucks, Macintosh (Apple Computers), Pacific Bell, Bell Helicopters, and U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recruitment, all of which feel natural and integral to the story. I find it delightful to see Star Trek raking in that advertising money on the one occasion when it is completely appropriate. Unfortunately, one of the later Star Trek films would include far less appropriate product placement, which even the film’s director has come to regret. A major spotlight moment for Sulu in the script, which Sulu sets up by mentioning that he was born in San Francisco and which Vonda McIntyre retained in her novelization, is absent from the film due to circumstances beyond anyone’s control. As Kirk’s crew awaited his return with the money from the antique shop, a young Japanese American boy approached Sulu, mistaking him for his Uncle Akira. During an exchange in subtitled Japanese, Sulu realized that the child was his great-great-grandfather. Unfortunately, the presence on location of the child actor’s mother caused him to freeze up with nervousness, preventing him from performing the scene. Fascinatingly, the child gives his name in the script as “Sulu [SPOILER REDACTED],” using Asian name order with the family name first. Up to this point, the Star Trek franchise had not revealed Sulu’s first name in canon, but the non-canon novels had already established it as [SPOILER REDACTED]. Nicholas Meyer’s intention clearly was that Sulu shared his great-great-grandfather’s name, so this would have been one of the first prominent instances of Star Trek canon drawing on information from the novels. A later film would belatedly confirm that [SPOILER REDACTED] is indeed Sulu’s first name. Kirk’s statement in the antique shop that the glasses Dr. McCoy gave him in Wrath of Khan will again be a birthday present suggests the most spectacular and amusing bootstrap paradox in the Star Trek franchise. The implication is that these are the very same glasses that McCoy will someday buy for Kirk and therefore that no one ever made the glasses in the first place. Of course, this applies only to the frames; the lenses were intact when McCoy gave them to Kirk, were broken in the final battle with Khan, and are still broken when Kirk sells them, so someone must have replaced the lenses during the intervening three centuries (which is when the lenses were made in the first place). The scene with Uhura and Chekov asking for directions to the “nuclear wessels” in Alameda is very minimal in the script; the actors ad-libbed much of it on location. Twenty other commenters will tell you the same anecdote about the female passerby who says the ships are “across the bay in Alameda,” so I do not need to repeat it. I will mention, however, that Uhura and Chekov not knowing the location of Alameda puzzled Star Trek novelist Brad Ferguson, since they both attended Starfleet Academy in San Francisco. The original manuscript of Ferguson’s novel A Flag Full of Stars established that a major earthquake destroyed Alameda prior to the 23rd century, explaining Uhura and Chekov’s unfamiliarity with it, but Pocket Books removed this element as part of a rewrite of the book. Forty commenters will tell you about Kirk Thatcher’s cameo as the Punk on the Bus and the iconic status that character has attained despite the brevity of his appearance, so I will not duplicate that information, either. I will point out, however, that the lyrics of the song the Punk is playing (“I Hate You”), with their references to nuclear holocaust, resonate well with the film’s environmental themes. As the two of you mentioned, Catherine Hicks (Dr. Gillian Taylor) later starred in Child’s Play and co-starred on the TV series 7th Heaven with the child molester who played Will Decker in TMP. To appreciate the quality of Hicks’ performance, and the importance of her contribution to Voyage Home, try reading her first scene as it appears in the script. The exposition about humpback whales is word for word as Hicks delivers it in the film, but on the page it is a soporific info-dump. Hicks’ on-screen charisma and the inclusion of the gruesome documentary footage (disturbing enough to make a pro wrestler cover his eyes!) render the sequence mesmerizing. This scene is the clearest possible refutation of the thesis, so often propounded nowadays by “anti-woke” viewers of Star Trek, that the franchise should always cloak its contemporary commentary in futuristic allegory. In this scene Star Trek drops all pretenses, directly and explicitly lecturing its audience about a vital modern-day issue, and it is glorious. This may be a suitable time to mention that as of 2018 there were around 135,000 humpback whales in Earth’s oceans, including around 84,000 mature adults, with populations increasing, and with the species now listed as being of least-concern. (The isolated humpback population in the Arabian Sea is still endangered, as is the blue whale, with the Antarctic blue whale critically endangered.) Gee, I wonder how the situation could have improved so much since 1986. Any ideas, anyone? It is impossible to keep humpbacks in captivity in real life; this is a necessary contrivance for the sake of the movie’s plot (and Gillian specifies that the Cetacean Institute pair are the only ones in captivity in the world). Younger viewers are unlikely to understand why the whales’ names are George and Gracie; however, this scarcely matters, since there is no indication that Kirk and his crew get the reference either. A deleted exchange between Gillian’s boss, Bob Briggs, and an assistant foreshadowed the release of the whales without Gillian’s knowledge. This was an excellent cut; George and Gracie’s departure is far more effective as a total gut-punch to the audience as well as Gillian. The USS Ranger (CV-61) plays the role of the Enterprise in Voyage Home; the actual USS Enterprise (CVN-65) was at sea at the time. The U.S. Navy decommissioned Enterprise in 2017; she is currently at Hampton Roads, Virginia, awaiting disposal. The next USS Enterprise (CVN-80) is currently under construction, scheduled to be in operation by 2028. She will be the first U.S. Navy supercarrier not named after a person since 1966, an indication of the iconic and enduring nature of the name Enterprise. Spock would not like Italian food because all Vulcans are vegans. I presume that even in the 23rd century meat will be an essential component of Italian dishes. Kirk’s mentioning to Gillian that he comes from Iowa was a long time coming; that fact appeared in the TOS writers’ guide, and Edith Keeler guessed it based on the subtleties of Kirk’s accent in the Harlan Ellison version of “City on the Edge of Forever,” but canon had not confirmed it until now. Nicholas Meyer has an eidetic memory, and thus Gillian’s line, “I have a photographic memory. I see words,” was autobiographical on his part. Gillian commenting on Spock calling Kirk Admiral is a haunting moment, like a fleeting memory of Edith Keeler, and Kirk’s facial expression in response is consistent with the possibility that he is thinking of Edith. (I have no idea if this was intentional.) Gillian’s belief that Kirk has a “pocket pager” serves as a reminder that 1986 was the last moment in human history when it was uncommon for a person to carry a pocket-sized voice communication device. Although I shudder to think of it, it occurs to me that Gracie’s pregnancy may have originally served as a dramatic parallel to Saavik’s, and that Spock’s awareness of Gracie’s pregnancy might have led the audience to wonder whether he was also aware of Saavik’s. Once again, I am eternally grateful to Leonard Nimoy for rejecting that terrible, terrible idea. A beautiful touch in Voyage Home which is easy to overlook, especially when watching the film on a smaller monitor, has become terribly poignant in retrospect. Dr. Nichols, the man to whom Scotty gives the secret of transparent aluminum, is wearing an “I QUIT SMOKING” button. Leonard Nimoy, the director of this film, would die of COPD in 2015 due to being a longtime smoker. Chekov is the fifth and last of TOS’ regular characters to have his Starfleet serial number (656-5827D) established on screen. The others were Kirk (SC937-0176CEC – “Court Martial,” and repeated verbatim in the classic Saturday Night Live sketch “The Last Voyage of the Starship Enterprise”), Spock (S 179-276 SP – “Court Martial”), Scotty (SE 19754 T – “Wolf in the Fold”), and Chapel (NI-596 MT21Z – “Mudd’s Passion”). The late [SPOILER REDACTED] mentioned Chekov’s behavior under FBI interrogation as an example of what a bizarre and therefore fascinating character Chekov is. (He also mentioned Chekov’s single-minded focus on his romance with Yeoman Landon in “The Apple” despite the bizarre dangers of the situation in which they find themselves.) The FBI agent aboard Enterprise uses a word which modern viewers are likely to find far more offensive than “fuck” would have been – not the word “Russkie,” but another word starting with “r” in the same sentence. American culture in 1986 did not properly recognize the hurtfulness of this word. I would not be surprised if Paramount eventually tags Voyage Home with a content warning due to the presence of this word, or even censors it. (The TV Tropes page on “Values Dissonance” mentions a 2000 episode of Malcolm in the Middle hinging on the non-existence of an offensive “R-word.” Large numbers of Americans now recognize that there are two such words, the one in Voyage Home and the former team name of the Washington Commanders.) Gillian slapping Bob when she realizes he released the whales without telling her is my single favorite moment in the entire Star Trek franchise, despite not involving any of the regular characters. My late mother seemed pleased and impressed by this moment being my favorite, presumably because of what it implied about me, i.e., that I am a feminist. Vonda McIntyre’s novelization includes an equally powerful feminist moment which would only have worked in prose: When Kirk, McCoy and Gillian are preparing to rescue Chekov from the hospital, Gillian objects to the suggestion that she play the patient on the stretcher rather than a physician. Kirk asks her, “But, Gillian, what difference can it possibly make?” Gillian looks into Kirk’s eyes and realizes that he is being completely sincere, and thus that he comes from a future in which women are truly equal to men. This gives Gillian additional motivation to return to the 23rd century with Kirk’s crew, besides her concern for the whales. As much as my mother loved this entire movie, the moments when she seemed happiest watching it were McCoy’s interactions with 20th-century medicine in the hospital sequence, such as his giving the old lady the pill that regrows her kidney. Once again, there were similar but much darker jokes in “City on the Edge of Forever;” Voyage Home is the joyful counterpart of that classic tragedy. In the script and novelization, Gillian responds to Chekov giving his rank as “Admiral” by asking, “Don’t you guys have any enlisted types…?” (Note that Mercy Hospital in San Francisco is a fictional institution.) Just before Gillian jumps Kirk and beams aboard the Bounty, the revised shooting script has Kirk say, “Beam me up, Scotty.” I presume that someone on the production realized that line was already a famous quotation that no one had ever actually said, and that Kirk saying it would diminish Star Trek’s mystique in a small but regrettable way. (Kirk had said “Beam us up, Scotty” twice during TAS.) The line as Shatner delivers it in the film is, of course, “Scotty, beam me up” – those four words, in that order. “Beam Me Up, Scotty” is now the trope namer for this sort of misremembered quotation – such as “Elementary, my dear Watson” or “Play it again, Sam” – on the TV Tropes website. Nicholas Meyer disagreed with his fellow writers about the conclusion of Gillian’s arc. Meyer wanted Gillian to remain in the 20th century to continue working for the survival of the humpback whale species even though she understood that, if she succeeded, she would create a temporal paradox. Meyer felt strongly that this was a morally preferable resolution, but his colleagues decided against it. There has been online discussion of the nationality of the whale hunters and whether it corresponds properly to the real-world nature of whale hunting in 1986. The revised shooting script’s vague statement on the subject is that “they are Northern Europeans, maybe Swedes, Icelanders or Russians, all famous as Humpback hunters.” When the Bounty decloaks over the whaling ship, the script describes the Bird of Prey as “big as a football field.” I wonder whether this comparison is a fossilized relic of the Eddie Murphy version of the script. “Admiral! There be whales here!” is, of course, the culmination of James Doohan’s portrayal of Scotty over the previous 20 years, as well as the crowning moment of Scotty’s career in-universe, although actor and character have victory laps still to run. Kirk’s quotation from D. H. Lawrence, and Gillian’s recognition of it, are not in the revised shooting script. The script repeats a larger portion of the scene at Starfleet Command leading up to the window breaking, including Starfleet’s reception of Kirk’s message saying he is about to attempt time travel. I suspect the shortening of the scene may have been to avoid the implication that Kirk and the Bounty are in two places at once (as they may well be, given that time travel is involved, but the cut avoids unnecessary viewer confusion). In any case, the repetition of the window breaking emphasizes that Kirk and his crew have returned to the precise moment they left, in the same timeline they left, and that their shenanigans in 1986 have not altered history. (Indeed, if the window is transparent aluminum, Scotty giving the formula to Nichols has not enhanced its ability to hold back the storm.) As viewers can see because his face is visible much of the time, Shatner performed the underwater stunt sequence freeing the whales from the Bounty’s cargo bay himself. A fun but dangerous way for viewers to evaluate their lung capacity is to attempt to hold their breath for as long as Kirk does in this scene. (I’ve never succeeded.) When Khan placed the Ceti eels in Chekov and Terrell’s ears, when a Klingon stabbed Kirk’s son to death, who would have guessed that the climax of the whole story would be Kirk wondering desperately why a pair of humpback whales were not singing? Yet the improvised Genesis Trilogy holds together magnificently, one of the great enduring achievements of the Star Trek franchise and of science fiction cinema. Elements tying it together that struck me only on this most recent rewatch include Kirk saying his crew looks like a “cadet review” on arrival in 1986 San Francisco, a poignant reminder of his inspection of the Enterprise in Wrath of Khan. More significantly, Khan repeatedly quoted from Moby-Dick and identified himself with Ahab; in this film, not only does a Cetacean Institute visitor ask Gillian about Moby-Dick, but it is a group of actual whalers who unknowingly stand on the brink of dooming Earth at the film’s climax. When Spock joins his comrades standing before the Federation Council, Chapel and Rand are visible in the gallery behind them. This is the only occasion in the entire Star Trek franchise when the Big Nine TOS characters all appear in the same shot: Janice Rand, Christine Chapel, Uhura, Pavel Andreievich Chekov, Sulu, Montgomery Scott, Leonard H. McCoy, Spock, and James Tiberius Kirk. Fans have ridiculed the idea that Gillian gets a job on a science vessel so soon after arriving in the 23rd century, assuming that she will be working on a Starfleet vessel. This interpretation bemuses me: surely Gillian must be about to embark on a seagoing vessel to monitor George and Gracie and the rest of Earth’s marine life? We know Kirk well enough by now to understand his bemusement at Gillian’s departure: Gillian walks out of Kirk’s life without his making love with her. In a sense, Gillian has won a game she did not realize she was playing, a wonderful capper to her arc. In his final scene with Sarek, Spock receives his heart’s desire, something he would never have admitted he wanted even to himself. Imagine living your life according to your principles, doing the best you can day by day – and one day, unexpectedly, someone walks up to you and gives you the one thing you wanted most in the universe, something you had never imagined even for one moment was possible. Imagine that Kirk walked around a corner one day and saw Edith and David walking toward him – and David was a small child. That is what Sarek gives his son at the end of this film. No wonder he feels fine. Voyage Home was the first Star Trek film ever screened in the Soviet Union. At its first showing there, the audience cheered and applauded McCoy’s line, “The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe. We’ll get a freighter.” There are multiple theories about how the new Enterprise comes into existence so quickly, seeming to materialize from vacuum. The YouTube channel We Travel by Night has a video on this subject. My preferred theory is that the Enterprise-A’s origin is the same as that of NASA’s Space Shuttle Enterprise, which came into being with similar abruptness in 1976 in response to a letter-writing campaign by Star Trek fans: the shuttle originally had a different name (Constitution), which President Ford ordered changed at the last minute. In the novelization, Kirk knows the identity of his crew’s new ship before they do but lets it be a surprise. The revised shooting script ends with Kirk delivering the “Space, the final frontier” voiceover, as Spock did at the end of Wrath of Khan and the beginning of Search for Spock; the completed film omits this. The use of clips from earlier in the film under the end credits is extremely atypical of a Star Trek film and feels more like the ending of a 1980s comedy such as Ghostbusters II. Then again, a 1980s comedy is exactly what Voyage Home is. Josh suggested that Star Trek V must be different from its predecessors for fans to consider it separate from “the trilogy” when they include Voyage Home. I realize this is a spoiler, but it is one people have mentioned about a hundred times already: Star Trek V is different from the first four films because it is bad. Unbelievably bad. So bad that it won the Razzie Award for Worst Picture. Another factor, which you will experience watching Star Trek V in release order, is that the first 43 episodes of TNG separated it from Voyage Home (counting “Farpoint” as a single episode). Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home received a Hugo nomination for Best Dramatic Presentation but lost to Aliens. Voyage Home is my favorite TOS movie, my favorite Star Trek movie, and among my twenty favorite movies of all time; if James Horner had written the music, it might have cracked the top ten. My late mother loved it so much that, along with La bohème, The Lord of the Rings (book and movie), Island of the Blue Dolphins and a handful of TNG episodes, it is one of the works of art that make me feel closest to her when I experience it again. “A l’alta fantasia qui mancò possa; ma già volgeva il mio disio e ’l velle, sì come rota ch’igualmente è mossa, l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.” [Edit: I was much too harsh about Star Trek V in this comment.]

Anthony Bernacchi

2024-04-13 15:02:05 +0000 UTC

Bit late to the party, but I love the fact that the crew’s “Time Machine” was stolen from “Doc Brown”… 🤣

Brian Dunleavy

2024-04-10 15:17:15 +0000 UTC

Yea but the Klingon “Phaser” doesn’t work hopefully they think it’s just part of a radio or something.

Philbot

2023-10-22 09:03:03 +0000 UTC

It was befitting that the power consumption problem in the film was remedied by the inclusion of the USS Enterprise CVN-65, the US navy's first nuclear powered and largest aircraft carrier commissioned in 1961. However, the Enterprise was not available for filming when production took place in San Francisco in Feb. 1986. It was deployed elsewhere, and it's sister ship the USS Ranger had to take it's place. The ship itself played against type as it was 'conventionally' powered.

saint sammy

2023-10-15 01:06:37 +0000 UTC

The humor and lighter tone of the film, a true departure from the previous three films, was director Leonard Nimoy's intention all along. He felt enough death and destruction had been done, and it's was time for a tale where there was no true villain, with room for a bit of wisdom to be bestowed upon audiences. With more power granted to him by the studio, several attempts to create a story with humor, wit, and high adventure went through many attempts, including a possible casting of Eddie Murphy (a fan of the TV series) who was under contract with Paramount at the time. When the story had been finalized for shooting, Nimoy called a press conference to inform the media of the film's main theme and story ideas. One reporter raised his hand and told Nimoy point blank that the movie would 'never work'. How wrong he was. Released during the Christmas season of 1986, the film connected with science fiction and mainstream audiences alike. And to date is still the most successful Star Trek film of the franchise.

saint sammy

2023-10-15 00:48:29 +0000 UTC

The time travel aspect of the film was most likely inspired , not by 'Back to the Future' (1985), but by screenwriter Nicolas Meyer's 1979 screenplay for the fantasy adventure 'Time After' Time', wherein a fictional version of author HG Wells creates an actual time machine based on his writings, and must follow Jack the Ripper into the 20th century to thwart his reign of crime. (it's much better than it sounds). Although the very popular 'Back to the Future' may have played a part as catalyst in some fashion. Both movies share scenes featuring bewildered time-travelers encountering annoying punk rockers.

saint sammy

2023-10-15 00:33:24 +0000 UTC

Although it's never been confirmed as canon, the replacement Enterprise was most likely the sister ship USS Yorktown; another constitution class starship that also went through a major refit. The ship was mentioned earlier in the film when it's East-Indian captain Joel Randolph sent a distress message mentioning they were about to try a makeshift solar-sail to generate power. Whether or not the ship was successful in that attempt is not known. It's possible that a good portion of the crew, including members of the senior staff, may have perished, leaving the ship in need of a refurbishment of personnel including the need of a new captain. It may have also been simply enroute back to spacedock for a major overhaul of ship and crew. Nevertheless, it would explain why a newly commissioned ship could have been produced in such a short span of time.

saint sammy

2023-10-15 00:07:42 +0000 UTC

Remember the earth of treks time is a utopia

Scarpad’s Domain

2023-10-09 19:24:47 +0000 UTC

I’m no always at awe that saving a species has to be political. The probe looked like a whale.

Scarpad’s Domain

2023-10-09 19:24:02 +0000 UTC

Although I’m a fan of V and I think it’s the most trek of the movies, unfortunately it made the studio want more humor in V which didn’t work as much

Scarpad’s Domain

2023-10-09 19:22:43 +0000 UTC

I disagree. Kirk kind of looks like he's wearing an old lady's blouse.

Joe Concepts

2023-10-05 16:30:09 +0000 UTC

For what it's worth, the actor in question is Vijay Amritraj, an Indian professional tennis player who was branching out into acting.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:56:40 +0000 UTC

Rosenman's "Voyage Home" score and Jerry Goldsmith's TMP score are still the only Star Trek film scores nominated for Oscars (neither won).

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:50:23 +0000 UTC

Bonnano's name as the author of "Probe" should come with an asterisk. That book was the "City on the Edge of Forever" of the Star Trek novels, totally rewritten amid a great deal of behind-the-scenes drama, but with the original author retaining credit. Unlike Harlan Ellison with "City," however, Bonnano actually liked the published version of "Probe" -- it just wasn't her novel (which she had actually entitled "Music of the Spheres"). IIRC, the scene at the Praetor's funeral, and nothing else in the published book, is by Bonnano.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:47:34 +0000 UTC

Not as bad as McCoy's.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:43:34 +0000 UTC

I don't know if the pregnancy is in the novel. It's strongly hinted, without being confirmed, in the revised shooting script for the movie, available on the Star Trek Minutiae website.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:42:17 +0000 UTC

I believe the original intention was to fly the Shuttle Enterprise in space at a later date, but they never did it. NASA even considered reactivating Enterprise as the replacement for Challenger, but figured out it would actually be cheaper to build a brand-new shuttle (Endeavour) from existing spare parts than to retrofit Enterprise.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:41:03 +0000 UTC

"The Practical Joker," probably.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:38:04 +0000 UTC

It was an improvised trilogy, like the first three "Toy Story" films, not an intentional trilogy like "The Lord of the Rings" or all the "Star Wars" trilogies. ("The Lord of the Rings" isn't even really a trilogy so much as one extremely long movie released over three years.)

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:36:46 +0000 UTC

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, however, was in fact renamed at the last minute. The contractor was about to stencil the name "Constitution" on the fuselage when word came down to name her "Enterprise" instead.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:34:13 +0000 UTC

It was a rotten, disgusting idea, and I'm eternally grateful that Nimoy dropped it. (Saavik and Spock made love out of necessity, with neither truly consenting to the act, so Saavik being pregnant would have been traumatic and degrading to both characters.)

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:32:34 +0000 UTC

Gene wanted Spock to end up being the shooter on the grassy knoll!

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:30:41 +0000 UTC

There are lots of officially licensed but non-canon stories in that era, both in the novels and in the comic books.

Anthony Bernacchi

2023-10-05 02:28:42 +0000 UTC

One of my favorite bits of trivia for this movie (and there are a lot, so I'm sure you'll see quite a few in the comments and I'll limit myself to just one) involves the "Nuclear Wessels" scene. That was filmed in San Francisco with regular pedestrians and extras both involved, and the cop was the traffic cop assigned to the shoot! He was Directed not to say anything to Koenig or Nichols, as were the other extras (the regular pedestrians simply ignored them because...who knows?). The one lady who DID respond was completely unplanned - she was either an extra who wasn't supposed to say anything or was a pedestrian, I can't remember, but she did, and it ended up working so well with the scene that they kept it in, and she had no idea she was even in a movie until she saw it at the theater!

Joshua Hartman

2023-10-02 22:48:34 +0000 UTC

In the movie it’s called the CVN-65 USS Enterprise but in reality the carrier used was the CV-61 USS Ranger.

Robert Joseph

2023-09-29 05:44:24 +0000 UTC

Firstly, congrats on finishing off the original Star Trek! (Yeah, there are others movies but they came out after there were other Trek shows, so lack that "purity", so to speak. When you see them, you'll know what I mean). Good reaction. I enjoyed your reaction to Search for Spock the best. It seemed as if you guys were a bit distracted when you watched this one, less engaged from the get-go, and so missed a few things, like several shots of Commanders Rand and Chapel, at Starfleet during the probe crisis, and at the end at the trial. Anyway, glad you liked the movie. This was the most liked Trek movie at the time, and made the most money as it had an appeal that extended beyond "the fan", partly because of the humor and partly because of the environmental message. On that note, several times you refer to the movie as "political". Movies today are political, and have political agendas, but back then this was considered environmentally themed. Today, environmental issues are usually addressed in the form of an extra tax that benefits a political party, so they back it. Back then, environmentalists fought against the government in trying to make them do the right thing. Huge difference. Anyway, just a few other points: Warp drive in the Star Trek universe is the technology of faster-than-light travel. If the Klingons didn't have it, they wouldn't be a threat as they wouldn't have been able to build a vast interstellar empire in the first place. It's like saying Australia doesn't have automobiles and still uses horse-drawn buggies. Uhura and Chekov were told where the "nuclear wessels" were by that one woman (who actually was a non-actor who happened to walk by but she did so well they signed her up in the actors union!), they just had to find their way to Alameda. Later, when Kirk gets a call on his "date", he tells Scotty to beam Uhura and Chekov aboard the USS Enterprise. The device they are holding absorbed and stored all the dirty fission radiation coming out of the reactor (fusion is cleaner and this was one of the last vessels to use fission. Fission is splitting the atom to make energy; fusion is smashing two atoms together to make a whole lot more energy). On the subject of this being a time travel movie. Yes, Back to the Future was the number one movie of 1985, but Star Trek fans have always liked the time travel episodes of TOS best (City on the Edge of Forever, Tomorrow is Yesterday, All Our Yesterdays, Yesteryear), and even episodes that felt like time travel (like Piece of the Action), as there's always been a greater level of humor associated with them, but seriousness as well. So fans had been clamoring for a time travel film since the first one. Back to the Future may have shown the producers they time travel films can be profitable, that's all. And Voyage Home made the most money of the films. (Obviously, the 2009 reboot made ten times more but that's not Star Trek). As to why they are being so casual with time travel. Sure all life on 23rd century Earth is about to end but that's not why they are so cavalier about changing the time line. It's not mentioned in the film because it would be both confusing to casual movie-goers and a huge downer, but in less than ten years Khan, during the Eugenics Wars, would bomb "entire populations out of existence." A major city like San Francisco, would definitely have been one of those targeted areas. Gillian, the Plexicorp engineer, almost everyone living, would be dead anyway. Like I said, a real downer, when the purpose of the film, and of Star Trek, was to be optimistic and this movie certainly delivers that. I think that's why James Horner didn't do the score because his music tends to be tense and dramatic, not fun. This film completes the Trilogy (and all of Star Trek) for me perfectly. It's one story told in three parts and draws inspiration primarily from two episodes of TOS: Space Seed and Amok Time. When Kirk saved Khan from dying in his cryo-chamber, little did he guess he'd set off a chain of events that would ironically result in the former dictator, a superhuman who almost destroyed the Earth in the 1990s, being the reason why the crew of the Enterprise could be in a position to save the Earth in the 23rd century. I think that alone makes this Trilogy an amazing feat of writing, and an amazing conclusion to the original Star Trek series.

Rocket Robin Hood

2023-09-29 02:53:10 +0000 UTC

In fact, George was still doing movies and TV specials in those days. He kept working until he was nearly 100.

James H

2023-09-28 21:14:53 +0000 UTC

@Derek Orr - They're talking about the third film in the trilogy, not Star Trek III.

ScarlettMi

2023-09-28 18:26:01 +0000 UTC

How about an oldie? "iT wAs SlOw PaCeD oN pUrPoSe CaUsE tHeY wErE oLd...!"

Steven Johnson

2023-09-27 13:15:55 +0000 UTC

“He was obviously dying of radiation, cmon guys!”

whacky deli

2023-09-23 20:47:11 +0000 UTC

“Was that guy supposed to be wooden?” — he was struggling to breathe, but it’s a bit subtle…I think the actor was trying to convey maintaining duty/professionalism, but yeah, the performance always seemed a little off.

Erik Grebner

2023-09-23 17:18:04 +0000 UTC

It's understandable you would miss this, but the people's laughing at the names "George and Gracie" comes from the married couple George Burns and Gracie Allen who had a popular sitcom in the '50s. Even to us younger folks in the '80s, they were known enough in pop culture that we'd still get the reference.

Joe Concepts

2023-09-23 16:27:45 +0000 UTC

I'm happy you guys noted the significance of the scene with Chekov in that era, having a Russian sneaking on board the carrier and creeping around the nuclear reactor. Granted, that wouldn't go over well today either, but it's important in that scene that he's Russian.

Joe Concepts

2023-09-23 16:22:38 +0000 UTC

I was at work on my first job. I happened to say to the woman next to me that I was wondering if the space shuttle was able to launch that morning because I had heard they had a weather delay. Not five minutes later the news came over the radio that was on in the workroom.

KatWithAttitude

2023-09-23 13:23:40 +0000 UTC

I don't remember anything abt the book Probe except that I liked it. I'll have to revisit it, thanks

JM63

2023-09-23 13:19:16 +0000 UTC

Guys, before you do your discussion video on ST IV, please read the development section of the Wikipedia article to get a sense of why they went in this direction. Judged by the creative team's intention, IV has to be considered a massive success. (And I applaud them for having the guts to take such a creative gamble.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek_IV:_The_Voyage_Home#Development Also, will we ever get a reaction to Leonard Nimoy's Ballad of Bilbo Baggins? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC35cQKHwzg

JM63

2023-09-23 13:08:06 +0000 UTC

As you said it's your opinion, but personally I love the score as a change of pace; it really gives IV its own identity. I even love the chase music in the hospital b/c it flows so smoothly into the transporter escape. Taste is subjective, what can I say 🤷‍♂️ I can't imagine the franchise w/o IV, and the huge box office take must've helped in launching and maintaining TNG through the initial rockiness

JM63

2023-09-23 12:59:17 +0000 UTC

One scene in the script that they ended up cutting was Sulu meeting his great great great great grandfather as a little boy. I believe it was supposed to be part of the scene where they find the giant Yellow Pages ad on the side of the building. In George Takei’s autobiography, he explained that the young child actor they’d cast was a complete newcomer to acting and suddenly came down with acute shyness and just started crying and asking for his mom. They didn’t have anymore time to try and recast the role and do it on another day. Takei was really disappointed that they couldn’t get this key scene for Sulu, but it couldn’t be helped. Also, in the novelization, there’s a bit of a change to the restaurant scene with Kirk and Gillian. They actually get to eat their pizzas, and Kirk is so unfamiliar with 20th century pizza that he eats his slice crust-first. Which is a big clue to Gillian that he’s somewhat off. I dunno, I guess apparently pizza has also gone extinct by the 23rd century.

whacky deli

2023-09-23 05:09:38 +0000 UTC

The worst thing about the movie IMO is the score by Leonard Rosenman. He inexplicably decided to go and make the most un-Star Trek sounding music ever for this movie. Jerry Goldsmith and James Horner did the music for the first 3 films and while they didn’t try to copy each other, the scores all felt appropriately nautical and Star Trek. The soundtrack for 4 feels as distant to those 3 as humanly possible. I don’t understand what Rosenman was thinking but it always felt bizarre as hell whenever I watched the movie as a kid.

whacky deli

2023-09-23 04:53:38 +0000 UTC

ST4 is good as a fish-out-of-water 80s comedy, in the vein of Crocodile Dundee. But it’s an outlier in the franchise. I consider 2, 3, and 6 to be the standard for what a good Star Trek space adventure movie should be. Which, sadly, the TNG movies never reached. Rewatching the movie now with you guys, I think the thing that most stood out to me and has aged the best is Catherine Hicks’ performance as Gillian. Her chemistry and relationship with Kirk and her own comedic acting chops really impressed me in a way that I somehow didn’t notice in my previous viewings. I’ve memorized all the comedic jokes after countless rewatches, so this time I really got to appreciate Hicks.

whacky deli

2023-09-23 02:35:57 +0000 UTC

I had a snow day from school the day the Challenger exploded. I remember the news cut in during my mom's soaps, and we were all so sad. It was a horrible day.

danzthename

2023-09-23 01:37:56 +0000 UTC

Hi guys. I have to tell you that people absolutely went gaga over this movie. And I was one of them. The producers wanted to give the fans something lighter after 2 and 3. Just a few things… I as a Canadian had heard of the USS Enterprise naval vessel. This was shot, however on the USS Ranger. The water scenes with the crashed Klingon ship were shot in a deep water tank that doubles as a parking lot at Paramount . I happened to be at Paramount when they were shooting the film because my film school class from Canada had a private tour of the studio. We also got on the bridge of the Excelsior. I knew they were shooting the movie at that time and I HAD to ask about it being a Trekkie since ‘66. our guide said Yep they are using stage 32 which was right behind us. And then she said let me see if I can get you in there. And she came back and said Yep we can go in. It was everything we could do not to scream and jump up and down. They took us onto the bridge of the Excelsior, and told us not to touch anything but I can tell you there are 12 Canadian fingerprints on that bridge. Mine was on the navigation console. Also… The scenes with Chekov on the street looking for the nuclear vessels? That was improvised, and it was shot secretly through parked vehicles. Nichelle Nichols, and Walter Koenig were literally accosting people on the street. The cop is a real cop lol. As far as Chekov not understanding slang like take it from the top, completely understandable in my opinion. language is so fluid he wouldn’t know what the hell they were talking about. Also, he’s Russian and I have a Russian friend that had a lot of trouble with English slang. Like when somebody said something was driving them up the wall lol. From what I understand this movie was being planned before back to the future came out, which was also one of the best summer movies ever. I love this movie, it was such a boost after the darkness of Kahn. Now comes number five. Uh oh lol. Oh, I forgot to say to we were also on a Klingon bridge but I can’t say what movie that came from. Suffice to say you haven’t seen the last of the Klingons. That bridge was so nice and grungy lol. thanks for your reactions! I can’t wait for you to get into TNG. It’s been a joy going through this process with you.

Diane Lynn

2023-09-22 23:26:52 +0000 UTC

Regarding the whole “trilogy” thing. It’s only a trilogy in retrospect. Up until Wrath of Khan, the series was highly episodic with little continuity from one episode to the next. So Search for Spock picking up right where Wrath of Khan left off was a BIG DEAL. Even the Star Wars movies at the narrative time had time pass between Episodes. So it’s fun to batch 2, 3, and 4 together as 3 adventures that lead directly into each other. I won’t spoil how this does/doesn’t apply to 5 & 6, but 4’s conclusion (new Enterprise, “let’s see what she’s got”) works as a nice ending to all the various arcs started in 2.

Stuart Arbury

2023-09-22 11:54:38 +0000 UTC

Well as a director, Nimoy had a feel for light comedy (i.e. Three Men and a Baby). And Nimoy had at least had some education and experience directing. Shatner, directing V, had none of those qualities.

StealthMomo

2023-09-22 06:19:41 +0000 UTC

I don't recall, it's been over 20 years since I read it.

Michael Ducharme

2023-09-22 00:23:39 +0000 UTC

They didn't expand on the politics of whaling b/c even by 1986 "save the whales" was already a cliche. The audience was thoroughly familiar with the issue, and the few seconds of whale butchering was plenty to add weight to the story. It was good economy in storytelling to avoid belaboring the issue. It's a trilogy b/c of the growth of the characters. At the start of WoK, Kirk feels old and useless, Spock is a babysitter, and the crew is as out-of-date as the soon to be de-commissioned Enterprise. But the crew come together (risking the brig) to save Spock in III and save the planet in IV (which wouldn't have been possible w/o Spock). The whales are a thoroughly enjoyable McGuffin which serves as an opportunity for the crew to demonstrate their heroic qualities, and their rejuvenation is symbolized by the reconstructed Enterprise. The Voyage Home is a joyous and triumphant conclusion to this arc. (How many blockbusters can be this good in a film where there is no villain and no on-screen deaths?)

JM63

2023-09-21 22:39:57 +0000 UTC

Additionally try "Unspoken Truth," also by Margaret Wander Bonanno, and "The Pandora Principle," by Carolyn Clowes for more time with Saavik.

Avaria

2023-09-21 21:04:03 +0000 UTC

Another thing to keep in mind, just as part of film history in general: Why are there so many more spinoffs and connected storylines across films (sequels, trilogies, franchises) starting in the 1980's? That's when home media really became a thing. It was suddenly much more likely that your audience had seen part 1, even if it hadn't been a box office smash.

Avaria

2023-09-21 20:42:19 +0000 UTC

I believe y’all watched the remastered version of Tomorrow is Yesterday with the CGI effects. Whelp, they redid the time travel sequence in the CGI shots so it would retroactively match the Sun Time Warp sequence in Voyage Home. Similar updates to Planet Vulcan in Amok Time- wide CGI shots revised to match the Vulcan we see in Search For Spock/Voyage Home.

Stuart Arbury

2023-09-21 20:34:38 +0000 UTC

Since it was asked, even if possibly rhetorically, movies 2-4 are an incidental trilogy, not necessarily an intentional one. They weren't planned to slot together from the outset, nor was there really a lot of attention paid to internal cohesion during their development. At least not in the same franchise construction model that seems so common post LotR and HP. For the most part, each film was it's own thing, giving a brief nod to what came before -- hence the genre diversity you've remarked on (sci-fi, action, comedy, etc). It's more that, in hindsight, looking back at the 6 TOS films as a block, there appears to be a "story of the movies". At the risk of spoilers, I'll just suggest that 4 out of 6 films fit that "story of the movies" neatly, while 2 out of 6, despite being enjoyable in their own way, fit in... less well. ST 2-4 have come to be viewed as a "trilogy" (or maybe more precisely a "triptych"?) due to their direct proximity and overlapping story elements, not because they were ever necessarily designed or promoted as such at the time.

Avaria

2023-09-21 20:28:08 +0000 UTC

Definitely better than I remembered and really a lighter weight break some the heavier tone of the previous movies. Whaling was a big issue at the time making it very topical and good to see them using their influence for good. It breaks my heart that we still hunt these amazing and intelligent creatures. 😢

AzoriusMage

2023-09-21 20:16:44 +0000 UTC

Star Trek book club recommendation, for those interested in exploring further. Where did the probe come from? What did it say to the whales? What, in fact, was its general deal? "Probe," by Margaret Wander Bonanno, was the novels' effort to really dig into the whole extrasolar cetacean communication thing.

Avaria

2023-09-21 20:08:22 +0000 UTC

On a more superficial level, isn't Kirk's civilian outfit just awful?

Joe Concepts

2023-09-21 19:00:30 +0000 UTC

This one, because of the humor and a more accessible story to casual fans or non-fans are what I think made this such a hit. If you knew Trek mostly through pop culture it was easy to follow it even without the back story. I think the humor in this, though, kind of led to some of the problems in Star Trek V. Again, it still does have it's fans, but without spoilers I think they lean a little harder into the comedy in V maybe because of IV being so successful. And the humor is fine, but a lot of it falls flat in the sequel.

Joe Concepts

2023-09-21 17:09:13 +0000 UTC

Gentleman, a technical question about these uncut videos. Some other reactions like this will include the running time stamp to help keep track between your viewing and our own personal copies. No idea how it's done, or how difficult that is, but something like that for future movies would be helpful. I for one am not always able to sit and watch the entire 2 hrs+ in one sitting. Being able to go back and restart is a nice option.

Joe Concepts

2023-09-21 17:02:10 +0000 UTC

I think the biggest takeaway is it's just another Connie Class. The name of said ship is up for debate and in reality doesn't matter much.

Ca$hWednesday

2023-09-21 15:29:42 +0000 UTC

Awesome job fellas! Overall, this is rated as one of the best. But, again, its opinion. Some lean closer to action, some to humor etcZ ots all good. Nimoy felt that after 3 pretty serious and darker films, it was time to lighten things up with a more lighthearted tale, with a message. To me, my favorites in order happen to be 2, 4, and 6. But we’ll see what you guys think. Ready for TNG!

Chris S.

2023-09-21 12:15:50 +0000 UTC

It’s always bothered me we never really get to see this new back to full time Captain Kirk era in any detail. Like 5 was mostly meh at best and 6 and was the swan song and generations the retirement phase. Never really got to see “modern, post TOS Kirk” in action after the motion picture on the refit ship and then it’s this trilogy where he is an admiral and not on a regular 5 year mission.

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 12:13:03 +0000 UTC

I always remember the VHS copy of this movie came with a trailer for TNG:)

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 12:09:21 +0000 UTC

Renaming a ship before it’s launched is not particularly common. Naming of ships in us navy is particularly political and is determined years in advance and I can’t think of an example where the planned name was changed near the end of construction to a name of a recently retired or destroyed ship.

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 12:08:33 +0000 UTC

It’s interesting how Roddenberry was indeed made to sit in the corner for the movies after the first one and how he grumbled about them not being true to his vision (despite the huge success, culminating in this one the voyage home) But with TNG they made him god…his rule over everything is seen in all aspects of TNG (you can even see how a Riker and Troi are actually Decker and Ilea form the first movie) but as he gets sick his influence slips away and by the 3rd season of TNG things feel radically different under new leadership and that’s when TNG got really really successful mainstream success and when most people start to fall in love with that era of Star Trek.

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 12:04:52 +0000 UTC

And she was supposed to be the valaris character in st6 as well but they recast and slightly rewrote the character

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 11:59:49 +0000 UTC

Honestly I’ve never found the style of 4 to be even remotely similar to 2 and 3…the setting is obviously radically different and when it’s in the future we see completely new sets like the federation chambers. The tone of comedy is jarring different than 2 and 3 and it feels like a whole other universe then the first movies more cerebral sci fi. I agree that 5 and 6 (mostly 5) feel very different yet again….it feels at times in 5 and 6 like the acting quality starts to become more like the actors just being themselves rather than acting like the characters…especially the supporting characters of Scotty and checkov and sulu. I get the same kinda vibe in the Picard series where it really feels like the actors real life personalities have become the character traits, it feels more like a convention appearance by some of them unfortunately

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 11:58:42 +0000 UTC

I still enjoy V a lot. It has some of the best character moments between the big three and some amazing backstory for them. And VI is definitely worth the wait :)

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 11:56:44 +0000 UTC

Well shitting on present day was kind of Roddenberry's thing, so this movie just follows his example :D

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 11:54:53 +0000 UTC

Did the novelization mention Saavik's pregnancy by any chance?

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 11:53:23 +0000 UTC

Oh yeah I know about the letter campaign hehe. I think Shatner talks in one of his books about his visit to NASA. The actors got invited there a lot :) Nichelle Nichols helped with the campaign for hiring the Space Shuttle era astronauts, since they wanted women and people of color in the program. NASA really liked Star Trek hehe. Oh and I know about the WW2 Enterprise. WW2 history is a bit of a hobby of mine. I think most of the famous ship names that are now used all over Science Fiction all originale in either WW2 ships or WW2 naval battles. :) Also huh... I thought Koenig once talked about that women not being an extra.. or was it the director's commentary... it's been so long, maybe I missremembered what they said. I'll have to listen to it again once I unpack my DVDs again :)

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 11:52:23 +0000 UTC

The third film doesn’t really have Spock in it until the last minute or so

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 11:48:35 +0000 UTC

The nuclear powered aircraft carriers Enterprise (the ford class one under construction now and the Enterprise class one depicted in the film…played by the USS ranger as the big E was not in port) are actually both named in honour of a THIRD Enterprise aircraft carrier that was made very famous in WW2 The women who wandered into the scene with checkov and Uhura absolutely was an extra and not a random person , she however was not surprised to speak…she ad libbed the speaking part and was credited for it (unlike a non speaking extra) The space shuttle enterprise was never supposed to go into orbit, it was a test craft for the shuttles in atmosphere flying and attachment to a 747 for transporting around between landing and launch spots. The fact that it was named after the fictional Star Trek enterprise was a HUGE deal and was the result of a massive letter writing campaign by fans of the original series…like actual hand-written letters :)

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 11:47:13 +0000 UTC

Yes, I think so. It was not just the water, it was the wind making them so cold. I think by that point, Shatner had had enough.

Collin Freeman

2023-09-21 11:31:34 +0000 UTC

Agreed, Andreas. I actually think it's a shame that they've started making that a habit of Starfleet. It takes the punch and uniqueness out of what went on with the Enterprise and her legendary crew now that a whole bunch of other ships also get "-A" prefixes.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 11:04:09 +0000 UTC

It was a coin toss between Yorktown and Enteprise. In the Trek Bible it was S.S. Yorktown. Either way her lineage as the queen of the American fleet was definitely tied in. Enterprise was so distinguished in WW2 that History Channel made "Enterprise 360" detailing her campaign in the pacific. Truly, the stuff of legend.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 10:59:38 +0000 UTC

Agreed, also Kirk's arc comes to an end. Bones in Trek II: "This is not about age, and you know it... This is about you flying a goddamn computer console when you want to be hopping galaxies. ... Jim, I'm your doctor, and I'm your friend. Get back your command. Get it back before you turn into part of this collection. Before you really do grow old." Kirk doesn't actually get there until right at the end of TVH. Returned to being a full time captain.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 10:56:16 +0000 UTC

There's actually nothing that indicates transwarp was a failure. Quite the opposite, given that TNG uses a new warp scale. FASA's interpretation was that "transwarp" became "Super" warp on the TNG ships. On the subject of building new connies, there is nowhere in any of the films an indication that the entire Constitution fleet was old. Just that the Enterprise, being the project of a major refit and overhaul, was out of date. Also, there's a lot indicating there are no other Excelsior ships until sometime after TUC. Why? We see absolutely no registries that indicate other Excelsiors exist. Operation Retrieve, and all the fleet maps we see in the backgrounds have Miranda's, Constitutions, even a Constellation class in the case of TUC, but only Excelsior.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 10:53:23 +0000 UTC

The top ov whut? Name. My name? No MY NAME! I not know your name!

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 10:47:05 +0000 UTC

Excuse me? Can you direct me to the naval base in AL-AH-MEE-DA? It's where they keep the NEW-CLEE-AR WESSELS.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 10:45:10 +0000 UTC

A little sad the journey has ended It will probably be two years before you get to 6, and 5 just does not exist in my universe. It's been incredibly enjoyable having this excuse to watch everything again. Glad I found you on YT, and I don't remember how I did.

Ken R

2023-09-21 08:26:38 +0000 UTC

Oh man, the comments on the Youtube edit are gonna be fun, there were a couple of things you guys missed during the reaction. I think this is where it was firmly established that the 23rd Century (Itself a fact established in TWoK) doesn't use money. It also established that cursing is largely unfamiliar by that time too. Not totally gone, but the idea that excessive cursing is a sign of maturity had FINALLY been debunked. I always found that weirdly comforting, and a nice solid example of what Trek means by Humanity growing up. And as you said, a lot of this movie was shitting on the present day. Trek basically does that a lot. I don't think Star Trek is Star Trek if it isn't just a little bit ashamed of the way we do things. And we finally get to see the Federation Council mentioned in the last film. As a room, it's not as impressive as Star Wars' Senate building, but we got an impressive array of alien species as well. All in all, a lighter film, with no true villain. A nice change from the grimness of the previous couple of films.

Nolan

2023-09-21 06:56:17 +0000 UTC

This is my favorite of the TOS movies, its the most comedic, lighthearted, and imo has the best character moments and material for the supporting cast.

Tristan Rose

2023-09-21 06:22:42 +0000 UTC

It's totally possible that the entire Constitution class refit program was done to bridge a gap because the Excelsior class took longer to develop than expected because of the transwarp. So when that failed they really didn't have time to design yet another new class so they simply used the excelsior class with regular warp drive.

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 06:05:48 +0000 UTC

Saavik having Spocks child is something I wish they had picked up again at some point

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 06:00:30 +0000 UTC

I was always sure they simply renamed a newly finished ship. That's happened in reality and as we know happens sometime later in the star trek lore again. It's not that uncommon in real navies to change a ship registry and name in the honor of something. And I agree thst it's unlikely they'd have a new enterprise ready shortly after learning of thr destruction of the old one. Not to mention that adding a letter to the registry seems something they had specifically invented to honor the enterprise crew and hadn't been done before.

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:58:38 +0000 UTC

If I recall correctly, the novelization of the movie explained that this was another constitution-class refit ship that was almost finished construction (I forget what name) and they just changed the name.

Michael Ducharme

2023-09-21 05:58:33 +0000 UTC

The movies are all completely different. V and VI will again be completely different movies. That's one thing making these movies great. They don't try to do the same stuff over and over.

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:54:52 +0000 UTC

Apparently they're building a new USS Enterprise at the moment :)

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:52:29 +0000 UTC

I think they even wrote a scene for that but cut it? I think they talked about that in the director commentary track.

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:51:12 +0000 UTC

I liked how the probe was done. It felt super alienlike. both Starfleet and the audience really has no idea what it is or where it came from. It's a probe of unknown origin that is beyond our comprehension. It comes and then it leaves. Not everything gets answers or wrapped up in a nice bow - space is large and mysterious.

Ca$hWednesday

2023-09-21 05:33:48 +0000 UTC

Didn't they say they all ended up with a cold from shooting that scene because it wasn't just the rain but also wind machines, making them cold and wet the entire time?

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:33:09 +0000 UTC

I was a bit surprised you guys didn't know the US Navy had an aircraft carrier called Enterprise :) But yes indeed that ship exists (out of service by now I believe since the 2010s). And yes big naval ships as well as big submarines use nuclear reactors as their power source. The type of reactor is a bit different from the type used in most commercial power plants though. But it is a nuclear reactor. For ships that size diesel engines or anything similar would just not be efficient. (Oh and I just found out there will be a new USS Enterprise carrier. It's already being built and will launch in 2027 :) ) Also the first prototype for the Spaceshuttle was called Enterprise and I think NASA named it in honor of the Star Trek show and invited the cast. That spaceshuttle unfortunately never went to space, only the other 4 that were built. There was also an HMS Enterprise in the past, a sailing ship. Those former Enterprises will get referenced again in the Star Trek lore as "previous ships called Enterprise" as a line of tradition :) Save the Whales was a pretty big environmental movement in the 1980s, just like Save the Rainforest. So Star Trek wasn't really sending "the message" here, but simply picking up on an already very big issue that was in people's awareness at the time. Since Leonard Nimoy especially was invested in those kinds of issues I think this was a natural choice for a movie for them. (Unfortunately both of these are still issues today but less in public awareness. But to be fair it's gotten better and the humpback whale population has recovered somewhat) The two authors of the movie split their duties. One write all stuff in the future, and the other wrote all scenes in 1986. The "nuclear wessels" scene with Checkov is favous now. I think the young woman that tells them where to find them wasn't actually an extra. She was a real woman wandering into the scene and honestly trying to answer the question. They just kept that scene in :D Nimoy and the authors thought that the movie series really needed a positive and uplifting one after the darker second and third movies. A movie with more humor and without anybody dying. That's why they made this one a comedy. And it ended up to be the most favorite Star Trek movie to quite a number of people. As mentioned previously, it's likely the Enterprise A was built under a diffreent name and registry number and was renamed 1701-A Enterprise in honor of this crew and its efforts to save Earth in this movie. That's why it was already built and ready. Adding a letter to the 1701 registry number became a tradition, hence the 1701-D Enterprise you'll see in TNG :) Oh yeah, and a final thing: The studio absolutely wanted them to add subtitles for the final conversation between the whales and the probe. Leonard Nimoy fought to the teeth to keep that out of the movie. He absolutely wanted the conversation to remain a mystery. The message not being meant for humans was the entire point after all.

Andreas Schmitt

2023-09-21 05:24:45 +0000 UTC

ok so the first of the trilogy movie was about feeling old and ineffective, the second about loss and grief, and the third about responsibility to community, friends, and the world. the third film has Spock moving from action from logic to action for his community. just as the film asks us to be part of maintaining ecology for the future.

Castanea

2023-09-21 04:49:42 +0000 UTC

I was close to right about this reaction having the most LOL moments...I think maybe a TAS Episode or 2 may have more. 😊🖖

Duane Chancey

2023-09-21 04:39:40 +0000 UTC

this is one of my favorite of the movies. Also: the way you set up the video this time was PERFECT it was easy to sync up.

Castanea

2023-09-21 04:36:51 +0000 UTC

This is because she alone was fitted with transwarp drive, which was indeed a failed experiment and removed. The Excelsiors became the backbone of Starfleet for decades and it's certain that at least some were deep into construction if not already completed by the time of IV.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-21 04:28:44 +0000 UTC

Thanks guys! Great reaction, I'm interested in hearing your full discussion but it sounds like you feel about the same as me about this one...a lot of stuff to like but overall, not my favorite of the films. As you said, all the character stuff is great, I was glad they all got something to do.

Gary Leyh

2023-09-21 04:21:07 +0000 UTC

Humpback whales hold their breath usually only as long as ten mins. there are example of humpbacks holding for almost an hour but it's very uncommon. Dolphins are unable to hold their breath that long and hold their breath about the same as human free divers

Castanea

2023-09-21 04:19:42 +0000 UTC

The probe was originally going to be helmed by Harry Mudd.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-21 03:51:57 +0000 UTC

Yes, that's been my take on it for 40 years. :)

Tom Occhipinti

2023-09-21 03:31:24 +0000 UTC

Glad you enjoyed the end of the trilogy.....lol TNG here we come !

MrDeadstu

2023-09-21 02:37:22 +0000 UTC

Both Rand and Chapel were in the Star Fleet command scenes.

Mike Rogers

2023-09-21 02:17:26 +0000 UTC

George and Gracie clearly were named after the comedy married duo of George Burns and Gracie Allen. As for this movie’s inspiration, Leonard Nimoy mentioned in one of the info segments during Sci Fi Channel’s premiere of this movie, he was inspired by the brave people who were trying to stop whaling. Also, it hadn’t really been planned to be a trilogy. They simply decided to make another film and continued from where they left off. They filmed this where the water scenes for The Ten Commandments was filmed.

Geoffrey Linehan

2023-09-21 02:01:20 +0000 UTC

Star Trek the series was always about tackling social issues of its time, like racial unrest and the Vietnam war, among other things. This film continued that tradition, but also gave us a more humorous change of pace from the previous 3 serious films, just as "I, Mudd", "The Trouble with Tribbles", or "A Piece of the Action" gave viewers a break from such serious topics from week to week. As previously mentioned, Grace Lee Whitney appears as a curly blonde-headed Star Fleet officer in a few short scenes. Majel Barrett also has a cameo but if you blink you'll miss her. Most of what these 2 had in the original shooting schedule got scrapped in the editing room. The final scene in San Francisco bay was done by filling the Paramount parking lot with water and having part of the Klingon ship showing along with a mechanical whale flipper go by. The scene also involves improvisation, as Shatner was the unscripted instigator of starting to pull his cast-mates into the water. He literally grabbed and pulled Leonard Nimoy off the hull and into the water. You can see his reaction on film - he did not want to go into the water. They had to shoot that scene several times in "the rain", for which the cast were not too happy. A little payback for the director from his co-star.

Collin Freeman

2023-09-21 01:44:11 +0000 UTC

If not a technical trilogy, the films certainly have a continuity and share a certain style that the preceding film and the following film don’t share. It’s really more of a streak. The fans made it a trilogy. I don’t think it was ever intended as one.

Rich Wagener

2023-09-21 01:33:54 +0000 UTC

I have read that the original intent for Saavik to stay behind on Vulcan was that she was pregnant with the child of Spock.

Geoffrey Linehan

2023-09-21 01:26:11 +0000 UTC

Now that you guys have watched IV you can watch the “Restaurant Enterprise” skit that SNL did when Shatner hosted! Its on youtube!

Terminaldogma01

2023-09-21 01:22:38 +0000 UTC

Soviet spies everywhere! lol

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 01:20:49 +0000 UTC

After the first movie, Roddenberry was really wanting a movie where the crew had to go back in time to prevent another time traveller from stopping the JFK assassination. He was obsessed about it...so a time travel movie for Trek was sort of always being thought of. But after the first movie, Roddenberry was sort of shown the door, given a executive producer credit and told to sit in the corner and shut up. Couple things. For how fast the whales got to Alaska. It was said earlier in the movie that they were to be transported to Alaska on special 747 cargo planes. In a deleted scene, Sulu was supposed to have run into a small child in San Francisco that was his great great great (or some amount of greats) grandfather, but it was cut. The Naval 'wessel', that was used was actually the USS Ranger, as the REAL US Navy Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was at sea. It was a wonderful way though to bring in the Enterprise and have it's presence be felt in the movie.

Terrafan

2023-09-21 01:10:27 +0000 UTC

They're not "American ships", Derek - they're "American wessels"

Gaius Frakking Baltar

2023-09-21 01:07:15 +0000 UTC

Considering it probably takes at least several months and possibly a couple years to build a ship from scratch and it doesn't look like that much time has passed I think we can assume it. But who really knows unless those in charge tell us so.

KatWithAttitude

2023-09-21 00:51:38 +0000 UTC

I’m surprised you guys didn’t know the US navy uses nuclear power in some of their ships and that the Enterprise is one of the most famous names for American ships.

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 00:35:30 +0000 UTC

It’s not clear that it’s not a new ship. It could very well be

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 00:34:25 +0000 UTC

Except it was the USS Ranger standing in for the Big E

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 00:33:46 +0000 UTC

The excelsiors were most certainly not in production…they were literally called the great experiment 3 months ago. Constitution class where the most powerful ships still for a little bit

Derek Orr

2023-09-21 00:32:19 +0000 UTC

You’re right, just were surprised with such a different tone

Josh (Target Audience)

2023-09-21 00:16:40 +0000 UTC

It's absolutely a trilogy? Spock is still recovering as he searches for his human side while Kirk gets his Captain chair back which was an issue explored throughout ST2.

Chris Herbert

2023-09-21 00:13:06 +0000 UTC

I think it's unlikely it was a brand-new Constitution-class heavy cruiser since by that point the much more advanced and robust Excelsior-class was well in production, surpassing the older class in every aspect, and would continue to be used in active service for a century or more.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-21 00:10:11 +0000 UTC

One of my favorite lines in this one is "Everybody remember where we parked." There have been many ships names Enterprise. And yes, including the nuclear wessel. And also the first space shuttle, although it never went into space. The new NCC 1701-A is not really a new ship. It is a renamed already existing starship, allegedly the Yorktown. And the Enterprise in TNG is NCC 1701-D, usually called the Enterprise D.

KatWithAttitude

2023-09-21 00:07:42 +0000 UTC

1986 was such a great year in Trek fandom. It was the 20th anniversary of Star Trek in September, in October Paramount Domestic Television announced they were producing a new Star Trek series due to premiere the following year and then in November Star Trek IV was released. “My friends, we’ve come home…” what a gift this film was to the fans.

Rich Loga

2023-09-21 00:07:15 +0000 UTC

I think it was the tone of it. It's still heavily implied. We know what Pon Farr means, and since Spock didn't fight someone with a Lerpa I think its safe to say Saavik took one, or more, for the team. Especially given Nimoy's direction to her at the end of Star Trek. With that look of embarrassment where she drops her gaze.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-20 23:46:36 +0000 UTC

Chapel was next to her in the final courtroom scene, with black hair like TMP

Badger

2023-09-20 23:41:03 +0000 UTC

Damn!

Josh (Target Audience)

2023-09-20 23:39:51 +0000 UTC

Never been a fan of the Yorktown theory. It raises some really messed up questions. Either the crew of the Yorktown survived and had their ship taken away from them... Or they all died, and the crew of the Enterprise were showing up to a ship where the custodial staff were hurridly offloading bodies and repainting the hull with the new name and registry. I've always preferred the idea that there was a Connie under construction during the probe attack and they changed the registry designation once she was christened.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-20 23:33:00 +0000 UTC

A deleted scene from the movie was supposed to say that Saavik was staying behind on Vulcan because she was pregnant after having sex with Spock in the the last movie. For whatever reason they decided not to go sown the route & it was all cut from the movie

Retro Tom

2023-09-20 23:20:37 +0000 UTC

2:01:22 I assume you guys are referring to the interrogation scene? I always took that as Chekov playing stupid. Not actually being out of touch.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-20 23:18:13 +0000 UTC

The Enterprise carrier got a lot of use by Paramount that year. It is also used in Top Gun. Gene Rodenberry had been pitching a time travel movie for years but it was a change the timeline to prevent the JFK assassination. He was not allowed any input into the movies after TMP which is why he jumped at the chance to do TNG and bring back the TOS writers and producers to work alongside more modern tv folks. I’m glad you are already in movie mode for the TNG pilot movie next.

Jonathan

2023-09-20 23:10:35 +0000 UTC

I love that they were able to get both Sarek and Amanda back for this film, though it is a shame that they didn't appear onscreen together. Though they have some great scenes with Sarek absolutely destroying the Klingon ambassador and Amanda's talk with Spock. They wanted to get the actual USS Enterprise for the movie, but it wasn't available so they used another ship instead and called it the Enterprise in the film. Eddie Murphy was originally going to be in this movie as some kind of UFO expert. However that didn't work out so they re-wrote the character and thus Gillian was created (which probably worked out for the best because as you point out she does not overshadow the main cast). I'm not from SF but I'm sure most people from there would notice that Kirk and Spock go to the Cetacean institute on the northern side of the bridge but are then shown being picked up by Gillian on the southern side of the bridge. This film is very different tonally from II and III, part of that is probably the music as well as the humor. However it does wrap up several things from the other two movies so serves as an epilogue of sorts. The time travel method used is basically the one they accidentally discover in "The Naked Time", then use to return home in "Tomorrow is Yesterday" and presumably also use (but never shown) to visit 1968 in "Assignment Earth" Both Rand and Chapel have cameos at Starfleet HQ. Chapel was originally supposed to have a slightly bigger part (in particular a scene with Sarek before his entry into the council) but most of it was cut. Sulu's line about being born in SF was supposed to set up an encounter with Sulu's ancestor - a child at this time. Unfortunately the child actor didn't work out so that was dropped. The date on the newspaper is December 18, 1986.

Dion James Pitman

2023-09-20 22:58:44 +0000 UTC

You're probably recognizing Admiral Cartwright from Battlestar Galactica. Brock Peters played Chief Opposer Solon in "Murder on the Rising Star." The whales were named George and Gracie after the classic husband-wife comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

James H

2023-09-20 22:54:38 +0000 UTC

The original, non-nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was also extremely distinguished for its service in World War II, and undoubtedly what inspired Gene Roddenberry to name his future starship.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-20 22:41:38 +0000 UTC

The two things I think that are the strongest reasons for it being labelled a trilogy are the time frame and Spock's personal storyline, since II through IV take place all over the space of no more than four months and the full consequences of what happened in II were settled at the end of IV. Story-wise it's the Spock Saga, in three movies Spock is Alive, Dead and Alive again, and IV does have a very strong plot thread of Spock still recovering and coming back to his normal self. It's not a strict trilogy as we generally understand it but it's very much a spiritual trilogy.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-20 22:39:07 +0000 UTC

The Enterprise-A being another Constitution class starship that was given the honor of carrying on the Enterprise name I don't think it ever outright stated, but it's pretty much canon at this point. IIRC it was the U.S.S. Yorktown or something. By the way I'm saving my watch for later tonight and I'm excited to see your reaction to it. This was myself and my father's favourite of the movies and I have great memories of watching it along with him when I was a kid.

Ca$hWednesday

2023-09-20 22:27:50 +0000 UTC

They never establish in a film but I believe the Enterprise-A was an already-existing cruiser of comparable age to the original that was being refitted during the Probe Crisis and was quickly renamed in order to give to the crew. I don't think anyone's mentioned yet but all shots of the whales in close or medium focus are practical effects, they built truly excellent animatronics that could be submerged, to the point where humane and marine societies got alarmed because they thought they used real whales for filming.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-20 22:18:50 +0000 UTC

The Star Trek next Generation Technical Manual says two whales served as consultants on the design for the new Enterprise.

Geoffrey Linehan

2023-09-20 22:13:43 +0000 UTC

Man, you guys like posting this RIGHT when I have to leave for work. Stupid closing shift. Oh well, at least I have something to look forward too.

Nolan

2023-09-20 21:53:50 +0000 UTC

fuckin A! I've been waiting for this!

Captain Proton

2023-09-20 21:46:21 +0000 UTC

14:41 If you listen closely he's actually gasping for air, because he's dying. Ship has no life support. Incidentally the admiral says "Get me the Yorktown." Yorktown is the first name that was chosen for the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek Bible. "S.S. Yorktown." Both the Yorktown and the Enterprise were the top dog aircraft carriers in World War 2. In typical Star Trek fashion, this movie raised awareness on the hunting of humpbacks. They're doing just fine. We won't get attacked by assholes whaliens.. Behind the scenes on TNG, it, there were unused plans to have "Cetacean Ops." An entire deck of the new Enterprise was supposed to have whales. Also, Christopher Lloyd, The Bounty time travels... "Kirk, when this baby hits warp 8.8 you're going to see some serious shit!" The audience in 1986 upon seeing the refit Enterprise in drydock rose and cheered. Incidentally, 1986 is the ten year anniversary of the unveiling of the first space shuttle. The orbiter ENTERPRISE, which via petition was renamed from Constitution. The cast of Star Trek was present at her unveiling. If you don't think Star Trek changed the world.... Yeah. It did. 1701-A, setting up the very real possibility for future starships... The Next Generation begins. That ending still puts a lump in my throat. Their teamwork, friendship, saw them through hardship, loss, grief. Their good deeds and noble efforts were rewarded. Star Trek IV was a huge success. Still the most successful film relative to budget at a 135 million dollars.

Steven Johnson

2023-09-20 21:30:31 +0000 UTC

For reference with Chekhov and Uhura, the aircraft carrier they found is named Enterprise. It was the US Navy's first nuclear powered carrier.

Seirsan

2023-09-20 21:15:18 +0000 UTC

The joke about colorful metaphors in the bus is the authors Kirk cited were famous for writing trashy literature and it's implied those are the only 20th century novels that Kirk knows.

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-20 21:05:53 +0000 UTC

I remember the summer that this opened, I was in London and feeling homesick. I saw it was playing in a cinema in Picadilly Circus and I took myself to it because I was homesick and wanted to see some old friends. It was pretty cool watching Star Trek so far from home.

Rich Cirivilleri

2023-09-20 21:04:01 +0000 UTC

Drat you missed Rand’s short cameos.. She had curly hair..

Badger

2023-09-20 20:56:48 +0000 UTC

It always reminded me of a Jimmy Dean pork breakfast sausage

Rich Cirivilleri

2023-09-20 20:55:28 +0000 UTC

Woohoo!! This is the one I grew up with and the first one I saw in the theaters. A lot of it was filmed locally, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium was used for the Ocean institute. This film got me interested in whales, and every time something potentially weird is happening, I asked two questions. 1) Are the dolphins saying 'So long and thanks for all the fish?' 2) Are the Humpback whales okay and are they singing?

Firekrys FWO

2023-09-20 20:46:28 +0000 UTC

This is my second favorite of the Star Trek films with the original cast. It is like 1 of those palette cleanser episodes of TOS.

Collin Freeman

2023-09-20 20:22:09 +0000 UTC

A wonderful midweek surprise! I'm ready!

Bret Kay

2023-09-20 20:21:27 +0000 UTC

No way! I'm going to be out of town on Sunday and thought I'd miss it, this is sweet!

JD Nevesytrof

2023-09-20 20:16:53 +0000 UTC

Hooray!

Dion James Pitman

2023-09-20 20:16:36 +0000 UTC

Mouse

AzoriusMage

2023-09-20 20:16:34 +0000 UTC

Oh man..so much for work today! THANK YOU! Attack of the giant Tootsie Roll!!

Badger

2023-09-20 20:16:23 +0000 UTC

I know what I'm doing tonight! Thanks guys!

Gary Leyh

2023-09-20 20:16:14 +0000 UTC

UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Comments

The Sex Scoreboard TOS No scores I almost say Kirk was close to getting a -1. Did he led around and then dropped with the classic "I'll call YOU " line? YES but not enough to lose a score just sort of look unKirk-a-licious

Bit late to the party, but I love the fact that the crew’s “Time Machine” was stolen from “Doc Brown”… 🤣

Yea but the Klingon “Phaser” doesn’t work hopefully they think it’s just part of a radio or something.

Remember the earth of treks time is a utopia

I’m no always at awe that saving a species has to be political. The probe looked like a whale.

Although I’m a fan of V and I think it’s the most trek of the movies, unfortunately it made the studio want more humor in V which didn’t work as much

I disagree. Kirk kind of looks like he's wearing an old lady's blouse.

For what it's worth, the actor in question is Vijay Amritraj, an Indian professional tennis player who was branching out into acting.

Rosenman's "Voyage Home" score and Jerry Goldsmith's TMP score are still the only Star Trek film scores nominated for Oscars (neither won).

Not as bad as McCoy's.

I don't know if the pregnancy is in the novel. It's strongly hinted, without being confirmed, in the revised shooting script for the movie, available on the Star Trek Minutiae website.

"The Practical Joker," probably.

It was an improvised trilogy, like the first three "Toy Story" films, not an intentional trilogy like "The Lord of the Rings" or all the "Star Wars" trilogies. ("The Lord of the Rings" isn't even really a trilogy so much as one extremely long movie released over three years.)

The Space Shuttle Enterprise, however, was in fact renamed at the last minute. The contractor was about to stencil the name "Constitution" on the fuselage when word came down to name her "Enterprise" instead.

It was a rotten, disgusting idea, and I'm eternally grateful that Nimoy dropped it. (Saavik and Spock made love out of necessity, with neither truly consenting to the act, so Saavik being pregnant would have been traumatic and degrading to both characters.)

Gene wanted Spock to end up being the shooter on the grassy knoll!

There are lots of officially licensed but non-canon stories in that era, both in the novels and in the comic books.

In the movie it’s called the CVN-65 USS Enterprise but in reality the carrier used was the CV-61 USS Ranger.

In fact, George was still doing movies and TV specials in those days. He kept working until he was nearly 100.

@Derek Orr - They're talking about the third film in the trilogy, not Star Trek III.

How about an oldie? "iT wAs SlOw PaCeD oN pUrPoSe CaUsE tHeY wErE oLd...!"

“He was obviously dying of radiation, cmon guys!”

“Was that guy supposed to be wooden?” — he was struggling to breathe, but it’s a bit subtle…I think the actor was trying to convey maintaining duty/professionalism, but yeah, the performance always seemed a little off.

I'm happy you guys noted the significance of the scene with Chekov in that era, having a Russian sneaking on board the carrier and creeping around the nuclear reactor. Granted, that wouldn't go over well today either, but it's important in that scene that he's Russian.

I was at work on my first job. I happened to say to the woman next to me that I was wondering if the space shuttle was able to launch that morning because I had heard they had a weather delay. Not five minutes later the news came over the radio that was on in the workroom.

I don't remember anything abt the book Probe except that I liked it. I'll have to revisit it, thanks

I had a snow day from school the day the Challenger exploded. I remember the news cut in during my mom's soaps, and we were all so sad. It was a horrible day.

Well as a director, Nimoy had a feel for light comedy (i.e. Three Men and a Baby). And Nimoy had at least had some education and experience directing. Shatner, directing V, had none of those qualities.

I don't recall, it's been over 20 years since I read it.

Additionally try "Unspoken Truth," also by Margaret Wander Bonanno, and "The Pandora Principle," by Carolyn Clowes for more time with Saavik.

On a more superficial level, isn't Kirk's civilian outfit just awful?

I think the biggest takeaway is it's just another Connie Class. The name of said ship is up for debate and in reality doesn't matter much.

I always remember the VHS copy of this movie came with a trailer for TNG:)

And she was supposed to be the valaris character in st6 as well but they recast and slightly rewrote the character

I still enjoy V a lot. It has some of the best character moments between the big three and some amazing backstory for them. And VI is definitely worth the wait :)

Well shitting on present day was kind of Roddenberry's thing, so this movie just follows his example :D

Did the novelization mention Saavik's pregnancy by any chance?

The third film doesn’t really have Spock in it until the last minute or so

Yes, I think so. It was not just the water, it was the wind making them so cold. I think by that point, Shatner had had enough.

Agreed, Andreas. I actually think it's a shame that they've started making that a habit of Starfleet. It takes the punch and uniqueness out of what went on with the Enterprise and her legendary crew now that a whole bunch of other ships also get "-A" prefixes.

The top ov whut? Name. My name? No MY NAME! I not know your name!

Excuse me? Can you direct me to the naval base in AL-AH-MEE-DA? It's where they keep the NEW-CLEE-AR WESSELS.

A little sad the journey has ended It will probably be two years before you get to 6, and 5 just does not exist in my universe. It's been incredibly enjoyable having this excuse to watch everything again. Glad I found you on YT, and I don't remember how I did.

This is my favorite of the TOS movies, its the most comedic, lighthearted, and imo has the best character moments and material for the supporting cast.

Saavik having Spocks child is something I wish they had picked up again at some point

If I recall correctly, the novelization of the movie explained that this was another constitution-class refit ship that was almost finished construction (I forget what name) and they just changed the name.

The movies are all completely different. V and VI will again be completely different movies. That's one thing making these movies great. They don't try to do the same stuff over and over.

Apparently they're building a new USS Enterprise at the moment :)

I think they even wrote a scene for that but cut it? I think they talked about that in the director commentary track.

Didn't they say they all ended up with a cold from shooting that scene because it wasn't just the rain but also wind machines, making them cold and wet the entire time?

I was close to right about this reaction having the most LOL moments...I think maybe a TAS Episode or 2 may have more. 😊🖖

this is one of my favorite of the movies. Also: the way you set up the video this time was PERFECT it was easy to sync up.

This is because she alone was fitted with transwarp drive, which was indeed a failed experiment and removed. The Excelsiors became the backbone of Starfleet for decades and it's certain that at least some were deep into construction if not already completed by the time of IV.

Thanks guys! Great reaction, I'm interested in hearing your full discussion but it sounds like you feel about the same as me about this one...a lot of stuff to like but overall, not my favorite of the films. As you said, all the character stuff is great, I was glad they all got something to do.

Humpback whales hold their breath usually only as long as ten mins. there are example of humpbacks holding for almost an hour but it's very uncommon. Dolphins are unable to hold their breath that long and hold their breath about the same as human free divers

The probe was originally going to be helmed by Harry Mudd.

Yes, that's been my take on it for 40 years. :)

Glad you enjoyed the end of the trilogy.....lol TNG here we come !

Both Rand and Chapel were in the Star Fleet command scenes.

If not a technical trilogy, the films certainly have a continuity and share a certain style that the preceding film and the following film don’t share. It’s really more of a streak. The fans made it a trilogy. I don’t think it was ever intended as one.

I have read that the original intent for Saavik to stay behind on Vulcan was that she was pregnant with the child of Spock.

Now that you guys have watched IV you can watch the “Restaurant Enterprise” skit that SNL did when Shatner hosted! Its on youtube!

Soviet spies everywhere! lol

They're not "American ships", Derek - they're "American wessels"

Considering it probably takes at least several months and possibly a couple years to build a ship from scratch and it doesn't look like that much time has passed I think we can assume it. But who really knows unless those in charge tell us so.

I’m surprised you guys didn’t know the US navy uses nuclear power in some of their ships and that the Enterprise is one of the most famous names for American ships.

It’s not clear that it’s not a new ship. It could very well be

Except it was the USS Ranger standing in for the Big E

The excelsiors were most certainly not in production…they were literally called the great experiment 3 months ago. Constitution class where the most powerful ships still for a little bit

You’re right, just were surprised with such a different tone

It's absolutely a trilogy? Spock is still recovering as he searches for his human side while Kirk gets his Captain chair back which was an issue explored throughout ST2.

I think it's unlikely it was a brand-new Constitution-class heavy cruiser since by that point the much more advanced and robust Excelsior-class was well in production, surpassing the older class in every aspect, and would continue to be used in active service for a century or more.

Chapel was next to her in the final courtroom scene, with black hair like TMP

Damn!

A deleted scene from the movie was supposed to say that Saavik was staying behind on Vulcan because she was pregnant after having sex with Spock in the the last movie. For whatever reason they decided not to go sown the route & it was all cut from the movie

2:01:22 I assume you guys are referring to the interrogation scene? I always took that as Chekov *playing* stupid. Not actually being out of touch.

You're probably recognizing Admiral Cartwright from Battlestar Galactica. Brock Peters played Chief Opposer Solon in "Murder on the Rising Star." The whales were named George and Gracie after the classic husband-wife comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen.

The original, non-nuclear aircraft carrier USS Enterprise was also extremely distinguished for its service in World War II, and undoubtedly what inspired Gene Roddenberry to name his future starship.

2:01:22 I assume you guys are referring to the interrogation scene? I always took that as Chekov playing stupid. Not actually being out of touch.