Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

Finally I get to say Captain Kirk again – it always disappointed me that Kirk had been promoted to Admiral, so I was perhaps one of the happiest men in the audience as we found Admiral Kirk being demoted to Captain after stealing the Enterprise to search for Spock in the movie Search for Spock (bet you never guessed that eh!).

However, before facing the charges there just happens to be a strange and potentially dangerous alien probe that is orbiting the earth, seemingly threatening the very existence of the Federations home world. Luckily for the crew, they have the trustworthy Spock onboard and he assists the Admiral (captain or whatever!) in realizing that the probe is awaiting an answer from Earth – the only problem is that the species it’s trying to talk to is long extinct…Spock to the rescue again as the intrepid crew travel back in time to the 1980s to seek out the extinct species….of course, the minute they land on ‘old’ earth they are unable to leave due to lack of fuel, and thus not only do they have to find an additional fuel source, but they also have to find the mysterious species….

This is Star Trek at its best, and many will claim that it is perhaps the best of the lot (so far). Rodenberry’s influence is very prevalent in this movie (albeit from beyond the grave), as the tried and tested formula of making a great deal of social commentary, combined with some swashbuckling fun and a huge spattering of tongue-in-cheek humor returns in full force. For once the director doesn’t over complicate things; while there are a couple of distinct plots, there isn’t any real complexity to them and therefore the movie flows well, despite having to follow a couple of ‘forks’. Again we see a huge difference in the performances, with the obvious camaraderie returning, and the intrepid trio of Bones, Spock and Kirk coming to the fore again. (Some of the one liners Bones has, are very funny and capture the essence of his character that seemed sadly lacking in the last movie).

The crew seem more relaxed, and once again capture the magic of the series – for once though I do begin to see signs of age creeping in, and it is perhaps during this movie that I finally grasp that the ‘original’ Star trek didn’t have much time left (two or three movies at most!). The script and plot is also very good, albeit a little light hearted at times, and perhaps a little ‘obvious’ – both in the way that the plot is obvious, but also some of the pitfalls the crew face also seem ‘obvious’ and a little fake.

The pace of the movie is excellent – and for some reason this is what seems to be the key with ‘trekkie’ movies. The two that have failed have been too slow, and have tried to fill in too much information – trekkies don’t want that – give them a straight forward linear plot, some good action, some thrilling effects, a few romances and they’ll be happy. The special effects are impressive again, although not essential to the plot – this time, the plot is more character oriented and this enhances the whole, while still providing enough for the sci-fi fans to adore. The plot is a human story, rather than a good guy bad guy story (although there are some bad guys, but they are not too important to the plot). I particularly liked the way in which the movie highlighted differences between 24th century humans and 20th century humans.

As Bones strides through a hospital muttering about barbarism, I found myself chuckling realizing how Bones would look on our society like we looked on the dark ages. It was also interesting to see the characters, especially Spock interact with some of the ‘cultures’ of the 80s, particularly the rock and punk cultures. So what made this a good movie and the previous movie a poor movie? Quite simply – it has an even number! Ask any fan of the ‘Trek’ movies and they’ll tell you that only the even numbered movies were good!

Well aside from the numbering convention, there are many elements that make this a good movie. The most important is the pace. Second to that you have the acting – with a more ‘witty’ movie, it seems that the cast are more relaxed and convincing. Perhaps also because the plot is far more believable (aside perhaps from the time travel and potential paradoxes) so the audience has a lot more to relate to – Search for Spock delved into the realms of spiritualism – and not many people can relate to this. This movie took Star Trek out of the realm of ‘for fans’ only, and moved it into a more mass audience.

It is a very accomplished movie that appeals to more people – it is a sci-fi movie predominately, but is a far more rounded ‘human’ movie allowing an audience not familiar with the Star Trek world to get into it very quickly and easily. From a purely movie goers perspective, this is perhaps the best Star Trek movie – from a Trekkie’s perspective, this movie is up there, but movies like Undiscovered Country, and Insurrection will perhaps appeal more as they are far more intrenched in Star Trek than this movie. Overall I would recommend this movie to most audiences – it is a well scripted, well told movie that will please most.

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