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Created Dec 06, 2013 11:27PM PST • Edited Feb 07, 2015 05:25PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   Like fine wine, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home has gotten better with age. It was too cheesy when it came out, even for Star Trek, the ultimate in SciFi fondue. That was then, this is now.

   It’s set in the 23rd Century and now, when Now was 1986. I remember that ‘86 Now just as I remember not liking The Voyage Home as much as expected. That was then. Now I love it. 1986 is one hell of a flashback from 2013, time traveling 27 years you might say. As a nostalgic treat, it’s better than when it came out.

   How’s this for a setting? Exiled on the planet Vulcan in a captured Klingon Bird-of-Prey starship. Roll call: Admiral Kirk, Captain Spock, Uhura, Chekov & Sulu, Bones and Scotty, all middle-aged.

   The second of two Leonard Nimoy directed Star Trek movies, Star Trek IV continues a coherent arc from II thru III, this one partly written by Nicholas Meyer in his II, IV, VI triumphal trio. Gene Roddenberry himself gets top script credit, as he should, no matter that another half dozen guys share the writing credit.

   It is a most pleasant adventure movie, one that makes you want to smile damn near the entire way thru.

   Consider

   • Spock testing the computer. Checkmate.
   • The doomed USS Saratoga, giving us a peak into another Federation Starship.
   • Spock: “I’m receiving a number of distress calls.” McCoy: “I don’t doubt it.” Very Funny
   • Scotty talks to an early Mac. Commmputer!
   • Spock hugs a humpback whale.

   Star Trek Saves the Whales is one perfectly reasonable way to remember Star Trek IV. That and the fact that it employs the conceit of time travel makes for more than a little movie fun. More deeply, it imagines the ultimate in soft power, thus allowing the Federation to fulfill its destiny.

   View Star Trek IV after either Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II or Leonard Nimoy’s Star Trek III. Obligatory stops on major movie series viewlists are rarely so pleasant. San Francisco Star Trek, thy number is IV.

4. Acting

   Really Great 4.5

   William Shatner never looked better as James Tiberius Kirk, Iowa farm-boy grown into Starship Admiral. Talk about going places.

   Even a pink pleated shirt doesn’t throw him off his game. That’s being confident in your masculinity.

   Leonard Nimoy directs himself in a quintessential Spock adventure: berobed, bemused and befuddling. Mark Lenard’s Sarek makes several appearances, a treat for any true Trekkie. I’m gonna guess this is one of Sarek’s most extensive appearances, especially in a movie. Spock also reunites with his human Mother, played by Jane Wyatt. The first Mrs. Ronald Reagan is a moviestar of the first order.

   Crew

   • DeForest Kelley’s McCoy is spry and peppery as ever.
   • James Doohan’s Scotty is the most rotund, yet still on his game. He makes several improvements to the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, only one of his many exploits before, during and after their visit to San Francisco.
   • George Takei has a less enjoyable time in Babylon by the Bay than he might have hoped. Has there ever been a better tactical officer?
   • Checkov is in the house, swapping Vs for Ws in considerable wolume, as Chekov would say. Walter Koenig’s Russian creation is arguably the most beloved of the crew members.
   • Nichelle Nichols is in fine form as Uhura

   Guests

   • Catherine Hicks plays the Cetacean Biologist or Whale Doctor. Her name’s Gillian. Of course it is. She and Kirk have several entertaining encounters.
   • Lt. Saavik is a name every red-blooded Trekkie has burned into their lizard brains. Originated by Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II, she’s played here by a very fetching Robin Curtis.
   • Robert Ellenstein – the Federation Council President – rocks an impressively white beard.
   • John Schuck’s Klingon Ambassador wants Kirk’s head.
   • Brock Peters’s feckless Admiral: stuck at Starfleet HQ in San Francisco when all hell breaks loose.

5. Male Stars Really Great 4.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

7. Female Costars Really Great 4.5

8. Male Costars Really Great 4.5

10. Film

    Great 4.0

    “Dedicated to Space Shuttle Challenger” we’re informed at the outset, fitting in the wake of the Challenger Disaster.

    Crash landing the Klingon starship in San Francisco Bay after bringing her in under the Golden Gate Bridge is so cheesy, it’s like scene out of Thunderbirds.

    Spending the middle reels in 1986 San Francisco is a hoot from a remove of more than a quarter century.

    Notable Credits

    • Frank Capra III – Second assistant Director
    • Nancy Nimoy – Creature Crew

11. Direction Great 4.0

12. Play Very Good 3.5

    Plays out with the flaccid dramatic tension of a TV show.

    OTOH, quoting Hamlet is mighty cool. “Angels and ministers of grace defend us!”

    Wikipedia has it that Harve Bennet wrote the first and last acts, which take place in the 23rd Century, while Nicholas Meyer wrote the middle two acts, which take place in 1986 San Francisco.

13. Music Great 4.0

    Lots of use of the terrific Star Trek music, which is apparently too good for J.J. Abrams in his remakes.

14. Visuals Great 4.0

    Shows San Francisco – circa ’86 – with the Embarcadero Freeway still whizzing traffic along the waterfront.

    Winchell’s Donut House shows the City before it became completely artisan.

    The Monterey Bay Aquarium stands in as the Sausalito Cetacean Institute.

15. Content

16. Edge

    Risqué 1.9

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Fierce 2.1

19. Rudeness Salty 2.0

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.6

    Nevermind all the rest of the hoo-ha, neither Marina Green or Golden Gate Park were anywhere near as accessible as fancifully shown in the movie, even in ’86.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Supernatural 3.5

24. Physical Fantasy 4.3