Time-travel plots are always tricky since they are not always clockwork in terms of logic or coherence. So it gave me great pleasure to remember that "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" is not only one of the best entries in the "Star Trek" saga but also one of the most delightfully escapist and wittiest time travel movies ever.
A giant cigar-shaped alien probe is attempting to make contact with humpback whales on Earth. This is a big problem in the year 2286 because humpback whales are extinct. Why this probe is trying to make contact with the whales is a mystery wrapped inside a supernova where no man has gone before. That is one of the wondrous thrills of "Star Trek" - the very notion that new threats and cosmic complications are beyond our understanding since they take place in space and everything is light years ahead of us. It must be extra tricky to construct such a simple story and make us care and that is yet another positive from "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," thanks to the very capable hands of director Leonard Nimoy.
Time travel ensues that requires a Klingon ship from "Star Trek III" to travel at warp speed around the sun and back to San Francisco in 1986. The ship has a handy cloaking device so that allows our favorite members of the Enterprise crew to settle in Golden State Park. Smooth, debonair Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and his reliable companions that includes the logical Vulcan Spock (Nimoy), the witty Dr. Bones (DeForest Kelley), Sulu (George Takei), the often exasperated engineer Scotty (James Doohan), Commander Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura to catch the whales and bring them back. There's also a new member to the cast, the vigorous Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor - a marine mammal scientist who loves and cares for those whales at the aquarium and knows they will eventually be released back in the water.
"Star Trek IV" is the most wildly unusual "Star Trek" flick in that there are no actual villains, no Klingons, no actual threat other than saving the future. What helps build its elaborate, ecologically-themed plot is the lovable Enterprise crew and their culture shock in reacting to ancient technology of the past. Whether it is Scotty thinking he can just issue commands to a computer; Spock dressed as some 1960's hippie unable to sense the ironies in speech, or any appetite for Italian food; Sulu making inquiries on 1986 helicopters which he deems as ancient or Chekov asking for directions to the nuclear "wessels," "Star Trek IV" has so much humor and so much rich humanity that it is impossible to resist. This is one of those rare sequels that works as a standalone movie, meaning you need not know anything about Star Trek to enjoy it. Special mention must go to Catherine Hicks, a wonderful actress and deeply unappreciated in my book, who adds icing to the cake. This voyage is a special treat for Trekkies and movie fans.
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