Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Plot

A massive cylindrical probe, broadcasting an unidentifiable signal, disables every vessel it encounters as it travels through space in 2286. When it enters Earth's orbit, its transmission shuts down the global power grid and triggers violent storms, creating a thick cloud cover that blocks the sun. Starfleet issues a planetary distress call, ordering all ships to stay away from Earth.

On Vulcan, the former crew of the destroyed USS Enterprise NCC-1701, including the recently resurrected Spock, are living in exile. They take their captured Klingon Bird of Prey and head for Earth to face trial. After receiving Starfleet's warning, Spock realizes the probe's signal matches the song of humpback whales, a species now extinct. The probe will keep causing destruction until its call is answered. The crew decides to slingshot around the Sun to travel back in time and bring a whale back to answer the signal.

Arriving in 1986, the time travel maneuver drains their ship's power. They hide the vessel in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park using its cloaking device and split up. Admiral James T. Kirk and Spock search for humpback whales. Montgomery Scott, Leonard McCoy, and Hikaru Sulu build a tank to hold the whales for the return trip. Uhura and Pavel Chekov look for a nuclear reactor whose energy leakage can recharge their decaying dilithium crystals.

Kirk and Spock find two humpback whales at a Sausalito aquarium, cared for by Dr. Gillian Taylor. They learn the whales will soon be released. Kirk explains his mission and asks for the whales' tracking frequency, but Taylor refuses. Meanwhile, Scott and McCoy trade the formula for transparent aluminum in exchange for materials to build the whale tank. Sulu arranges the use of a Huey helicopter for transport. Uhura and Chekov locate a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise CVN-65. They collect the needed energy but are discovered. Uhura is beamed away, but Chekov is captured. Mistaken for a Soviet spy, he is interrogated and severely injured during an escape attempt.

Cast

William Shatner agreed to return as Admiral James T. Kirk, the former Enterprise captain, only after securing a $2 million salary and a guarantee that he would direct the next film. Shatner described the film's comic tone as one that nearly becomes tongue-in-cheek but stops short, adding that the characters radiate a joy of living and should be played with the same seriousness as a contemporary kitchen-sink drama. Leonard Nimoy appears as Spock, whose resurrection came from the Genesis planet, with his living spirit restored in the prior movie.

DeForest Kelley plays Doctor Leonard McCoy, who delivers many of the film's comedic lines. According to Kelley's biographer Terry Lee Rioux, Kelley seemed to be acting as his own straight man. On Earth, McCoy teams up with engineer Montgomery Scott, played by James Doohan, because producer Harve Bennett believed Kelley and Doohan had an effective old vaudeville comic dynamic. The rest of the Enterprise crew includes George Takei as helmsman Hikaru Sulu, Walter Koenig as Commander Pavel Chekov, and Nichelle Nichols as Uhura.

Koenig noted that Chekov was a delight to portray here because the character worked best in comedic scenarios. Catherine Hicks plays Dr. Gillian Taylor, a cetologist on 20th-century Earth. A rumor circulated that the role was created after Shatner demanded a love interest, a staple of the original series missing from the first three films. Writer Nicholas Meyer denied this, stating the character was inspired by a biologist from a National Geographic whale documentary.

Nimoy selected Hicks after inviting her to lunch with Shatner and observing chemistry between them. The part was originally intended for Eddie Murphy as a Berkeley astrophysicist.

Production

Even before Star Trek III: The Search for Spock hit theaters, Paramount Pictures had already asked its director, Leonard Nimoy, to helm the next film. For this sequel, the studio gave Nimoy much more creative leeway than he had on the previous movie, telling him they wanted his personal vision. Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett decided to make a lighter film without a clear villain, a sharp departure from the dramatic, operatic tone of the first three Star Trek movies.

William Shatner initially refused to return, so Nimoy and Bennett spent eight months developing a prequel idea from Ralph Winter that would have followed the characters at Starfleet Academy. Shatner eventually signed on after receiving a pay raise. Nimoy and Shatner each earned $2.5 million for the film, less than they originally asked for. The rising salaries of the entire cast, however, pushed Paramount to create a new television series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, using cheaper, unknown actors.

Despite Shatner’s doubts, Nimoy and Bennett chose a time travel plot where the Enterprise crew needs something from the present day to solve a future problem. They considered stories involving violin makers, oil drillers, or a disease whose cure was lost with the destruction of rainforests. Nimoy felt depicting thousands of sick and dying people was too grim for a lighthearted movie, and a 600-year round trip for a snail darter wasn’t exciting. After reading a book on extinct animals, Nimoy settled on the final storyline.

He got the idea for humpback whales from a friend; their mysterious song added intrigue, and their enormous size created the logistical obstacles the heroes would have to overcome.

Reception

The Voyage Home landed in North American theaters on November 26, 1986, over Thanksgiving weekend. Because the franchise had historically struggled overseas, the studio crafted a special international trailer that downplayed the Star Trek name and recapped the events of The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock. On June 26, 1987, the film became the first in the series to screen in the Soviet Union, shown in Moscow by the World Wildlife Fund to mark a whaling ban.

A novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre hit shelves alongside the movie; Pocket Books called it their biggest tie-in novel yet, and it spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, peaking at number three. The soundtrack, released by MCA Records, also came out on November 26, 1986. At the box office, the film knocked Crocodile Dundee off its eight-week top spot in its first week. Over its first five days, The Voyage Home earned $39.6 million, $14 million more than The Search for Spock’s opening.

Worldwide, it pulled in $133 million against a budget of $21 to $25 million. Within six weeks, it had sold $81.3 million in tickets—outpacing the franchise’s second and third films and nearly matching Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Paramount, which had five of the year’s top ten movies and captured 22 percent of all American box office revenue, credited much of its success to chairman Frank Mancuso Sr. He had shifted the release from Christmas to Thanksgiving after research suggested it might otherwise steal audiences from The Golden Child.