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THE MOVIE
One can only imagine the story meeting in which this film was pitched. A group of executives sitting around talking about how much money they had made off the previous two films would inevitably turn to talk of the environment and the impact that corporate greed was having on it. So what other film would naturally follow the course of events after the death and rebirth of Spock? Why an environmental time-travel comedy, of course! Cue green lights going off around Paramount. It shouldn't have worked, but as history has shown us again and again, it is the crazy ideas that often do. In fact, it might even be fair to say that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is one of the best of the original Star Trek movies.
Forming a trilogy story-arc with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, the film is set three months after the previous film. With the Enterprise destroyed, and a court martial awaiting them back on Earth, the crew make their way back to their home planet in a stolen Klingon ship. However, when a mysterious alien probe threatens the Earth, the crew determines that it seeks conversation with an intelligent life form on Earth: humpback whales. The only problem is, whales have been extinct for 300 years. So the crew travel back in time to the present day (or more specifically, present day as it was in 1986 San Francisco) and attempt to acquire a pair of lively humpbacks.
Some of the best science-fiction stories have been time travel ones, and indeed some of the best classic Trek (City on the Edge of Forever, Tomorrow is Yesterday) has been about flinging the crew through the space-time continuum. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home does what the best sci-fi and time travel stories do, and comments on the conditions on the day from an outsiders point of view. Taking the growing human awareness of our activities destroying the environment and hunting a species to extinction, the film literally makes this a problem for the whole planet when an alien probe almost destroys Earth in an attempt to understand why the whales are not responding. From an audience point of view, the crew of the Enterprise asks the very questions we should be asking. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) perhaps sums it up best when he comments "To hunt a species to extinction is not logical".
What really makes the film work is the sense of humour and more importantly, a sense of fun. After the cycle of death (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) and rebirth/more death/destruction (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), Nimoy and his crew set out to have a picture that did not have a villain and restored the sense of caper-like adventure to the film. I challenge anyone not to get a chuckle out of the Russian Chekov (Walter Koenig) asking unsuspecting civilians where he can find the "nuclear wessles". What separates it and the thematically-similar Star Trek: The Motion Picture (in which another probey thing threatens to destroy the Earth) is that the series is willing to lampoon, but at the same time paying respect to the characters and world that made it popular in the first place. Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home completes what is perhaps an unintentional trilogy, and brings a sense of closure to one of Star Trek's - and cinema's - greatest adventures.
THE TRANSFER
Video:
Although this has not been restored like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it still provides a fairly decent transfer. What separates it from the look of the other films is the location shooting on this film. Unlike the previous Trek films, which had been shot largely on sound stages, this one was shot largely on location. As such, some of the more obvious faults in outdoor film are obvious here. This is not to say it looks poor, as this is probably the best the film has looked since the 2003 DVD release, but it is never going to look as good as Khan.
The screenshot is taken from publicity shots and not representative of the Blu-ray quality.
Audio:
As with the other discs, the 7.1 track really shines on this release. Although set on Earth, with no space battles or explosions to speak of, the whale song and frenetic pace ensures that there is something to listen to in all of the channels. Indeed, you'll be hard pressed not to stand up in your lounge room and scream at the top of your lungs "There be whales here!"
THE EXTRAS
It is amazing just how much original material there is for each of these discs. Sure, much of this is ported over from the original DVD releases but that doesn't mean that it isn't all still worthwhile. There are a few new HD supplements too, but there is something like three hours worth of material here not including the audio commentaries and the BD extras.
The two audio commentaries are quite good. The first is with director/actor Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and William Shatner (Kirk). The two are clearly great friends, and have an easy back-and-forth. The other is with screenwriters Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman, who wrote the new Star Trek film amongst other things.
In the familiar Production section, we get no less than five featurettes. Future's Past: A Look Back (27:32) is your more traditional retrospective making-of with cast and crew interviews. It's a well-produced piece, with some candid bits from the ever-wry Shatner. On Location (7:26) takes us...well, you get the idea, especially given that much of the film was shot on the streets of San Francisco. Dailies Deconstruction (4:13) breaks down the on location shooting in a split-screen format. Below the Line: Sound Design (11:45) looks at some of the unique sound work on Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, including whale song and when not to use a score for dramatic effect. Pavel Chekov's Screen Moments (6:09, HD) is one of the new HD supplements, although Walter 'Chekov' Koenig's confessions of pride over his few precious moments of screen-time are a tad cringe-worthy.
Over in the Star Trek Universe, kicks off with the excellent 'real science' featurette called Time Travel: The Art of the Impossible (11:15). The quantum physics discussions blew my mind, but at the same time didn't. Following the 'real science' theme, we move from physics to biology with The Language of Whales (5:46), before exploring the fictional history and biology of our pointy-eared friends in A Vulcan Primer (7:50). The winner of the most-amusing featurette has to go to Kirk's Women (8:19) and actually interviews several of the said women from the original series, as well as Catherine Hicks from this feature. Who knew Shatner had such magnetism? Following this are three HD featurettes: Star Trek - Three Picture Saga (10:12, HD), exploring the "accidental trilogy" that began with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Star Trek for a Cause (5:40, HD), on the real-life work of Greenpeace (yes, I donate!) and the latest installment of Starfleet Academy SCISEC Brief 004: The Whale Probe (3:42). This is a fake 'video file' in the archives presumably.
On any other disc, we might be content to leave it there but this just keeps going. The Visual Effects section opens with From Outer Space to the Ocean (14:43), which interestingly points out that the Earth-bound effects were far more difficult to pull off than the spacey ones. The vintage footage is priceless. The Bird of Prey (2:48) takes a closer look at the design of the Klingon vessel.
There are also some unedited Original Interviews from the time of production with William Shatner (14:33); Leonard Nimoy (15:40) and DeForest Kelley (13:02). We also get some Tributes including the Gene Roddenberry Scrapbook (8:17) in which the son of the creator of Star Trek discusses how he sees his dad, and how millions around the world have seen him. Featured Artist: Mark Lenard (12:44) sees the family of the actor who played Spock's dad, Sarek, discussing the interesting life and career of the late actor. We also get the Theatrical Trailer (2:19), which is always a welcome inclusion.
On to the Blu-ray exclusives, and these once again include the BD-Live feature, Star Trek I.Q and the Library Computer Access. The latter is actually quite a good interactive trivia track. While not quite picture-in-picture, it does provide a wealth of additional information at the click of a button on demand. All sorts of Trek trivia will be listed in an on-screen menu designed to look like the computers in the Trek universe.
SUMMARY
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home not only completed what is perhaps an unintentional trilogy, but did it with a sense of fun and genuine spirit as well. In doing so, it became one of the most popular of the original Star Trek movies, and this reviewer's personal favourite.
The Blu-ray is excellent, with more bonus features than you could stick inside a good sized whale tank and a solid audio/visual presentation.
Highly recommended. |
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