OK, I'm going to launch into this
one...Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Now, part of my review – I'm
going to be honest – is affected by the movie I think we should
have had. The movie that people would have been expecting when they
turned up to watch the fourth Star Trek movie on opening night. Not
to be controversial, but I have a sneaky suspicion that the answer
wasn't an 80s fish-out-of-water comedy. Now this movie had a pretty
rough pedigree, with the initial casting for Kirk's love interest
being Eddie Murphy. Yeah. There were an awful lot of threads left
dangling – hell, the Enterprise crew were outlaws! Their ship was
destroyed, and they were stuck with only a cloaked enemy ship on
Vulcan. They could have gone anywhere with that one...
But, instead, they set course for home,
only to find that a super-galactic space probe with amazing
terraforming powers...has turned up and thrown Earth's circuit
breaker, turning electricity off. The only thing that can save them
is the power of whale song! Mankind having exterminated the whales
centuries ago, all that can save them is Kirk and his crew returning
in a Klingon Bird-of-Prey going back in time, hijacking a pair of
whales, dumping them in the oceans and hoping that they tell the
probe something other than, “Help, save us from these evil bastards
who just tried to kill us!”
As an 80s comedy, it works reasonably
well. Kirk and Spock do a nice double-act and get some one-liners,
McCoy and Scotty get the same, Sulu's big scene gets axed (so,
nothing out of the ordinary there – George Takei really drew a
short straw time and again in these films), Chekov gets to scare
everyone with his Russian accent. The problem is that it all seems
very obvious, and a series that is supposed to be science-fiction
thinking action-adventure is relying on comedy to make it work, and
it doesn't hold together the plot. They're treating Earth as if it
was another 'planet of the week', but act less credibly in blending
in than they ever did before. They even managed better on Planet of
The Space Nazis...and a lot better in Planet of the Space Gangsters.
Sigh. I think it really comes down for
me to disappointment in what we should have had. This should have
tied up the Genesis Trilogy, working out the return of Spock and the
aftermath of that in a really meaningful way, instead of an excuse
for some more jokes, the redemption of Kirk and his crew (demotion to
Captain is actually a reasonable get-out here), and Kirk's recovery
from the death of his son. (Which really goes unmentioned.) Crazy
idea – do the plot of Star Trek VI for this movie.
Peace with the Klingons, perhaps based on some sort of Genesis SALT
disarmament treaty, and it is being sabotaged – with Kirk and co
the only ones who can stop it, because they are now rogue agents –
the only ones that can be trusted not to be a part of the conspiracy.
That would have worked very well at this point in the franchise.
Heck,
do something. If you must use time travel – which is a bit of a
cop-out...why isn't Kirk travelling back in time to save
his son? Why time travel back to
the 20th
century at all, why not go back to the 20th
century BC? Lots more whales then, and no natives to interfere. With
Search For Spock, I forgave the chained-together plot because the
performances were good. It felt believable and true to character.
This doesn't; and with the best will in the world...it just doesn't
work for me. Having said that, it is a believed part of the
franchise, so what do I know?
And
there are worse ones to come.
So...
1:
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
2:
Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan
3:
Star Trek I: The Motion Picture
4:
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
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