Commentary Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is my favorite Star Trek film. This one is very funny. Most of the movie takes place in San Francisco in 1986, when it was made. The Enterprise crew does a very good acting job in this one, acting naive about life in the 20th century and struggling to communicate. There's also a hilarious scene involving Spock (Leonard Nimoy) mind-melding with a humpback whale in an aquarium. The special effects are also very good, as they are in all the Star Trek films as well as each of the TV series.
Plot Summary
Introduction: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home begins where its predecessor Star Trek III: The Search for Spock left off. Spock has been found, rescued, and returned to Vulcan, his home world, where his mind has been retrained in the Vulcan way, without emotion. The Enterprise crew has taken refuge on a desolate planet in a hijacked Klingon Bird of Prey and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) stands trial on Earth for destroying the Enterprise in order to save Spock.
The Alien Probe: Meanwhile, an alien probe reaches Earth, boiling the ocean and causing power drains as it threatens to destroy the Earth. Spock determines that the probe is attempting to communicate with humpback whales, which have been extinct since the 21st century, 200 years earlier. Admiral Kirk orders his crew to sling shot their bird of prey around the sun in order to travel back in time to the late 20th century so that they can retrieve two humpback whales, bring them back to the 23rd century and hope that the probe communicates with them.
The Whales: The Enterprise crew takes the journey and successfully arrives in the year 1986. They cloak the Bird of Prey and land it in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. Then they go to look for two humpback whales. They discover an aquarium in Sausalito where they're being kept on display. Kirk befriends Jillian (Catherine Hicks), a cetacian specialist who works as a guide at the aquarium and ultimately convinces her to turn over the whales to the crew. After a lot of effort, the crew manages to retrieve the whales and beam them aboard the ship. Jillian also ends up sneaking on board the ship and returning with the crew to the 23rd century.
Repairing the Ship: Meanwhile, the dilithium crystals in the warp drive engine become damaged, so the crew needs to find a source of nuclear power to repair them. Chekov and Uhura manage to find a nuclear submarine in Alameda and steal some of its power, but Chekov gets caught and while trying to escape becomes severely injured. The Enterprise crew must sneak into the hospital where he's being kept in order to treat him with 23rd century medicine and beam him out.
Return to the 23rd Century: The crew return successfully to when they left along with the humpback whales, which they release into the ocean. After a few minutes, the whales finally respond to the probe, which stops boiling the ocean and saves the Earth from being destroyed. All charges against the crew are dropped except for Kirk disobeying a superior officer, for which he becomes demoted to Captain. Because of Kirk's heroism, he is allowed to command the new USS Enterprise-A.
Cultural Significance
Few people would deny that Star Trek has become a significant cultural phenomenon. Although the original TV series was unsuccessful at first, shortly thereafter it gained a huge cult following, resulting in four TV spinoffs as well as ten films. Star TrekIV is the best of these films in my opinion because of its humor and its use of time travel to the present day. The theme of the movie is also very pro-environmental and has hopefully contributed to an awareness of the potential dangers of extinction of living species.
Movie Clips
Here's a movie trailer.
Here's a clip of Kirk and Spock riding a bus with an annoying punk rocker.
Here's a hilarious clip of Scotty trying to use the computer.
Home
Title: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 
