Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

The Trek film series continued its winning streak with probably the most lighthearted entry in the series.

The success of Star Trek III naturally led to a 4th entry getting the green light. Nimoy was once again signed on to direct and given more creative leeway this time around. He and producer Harve Bennett decided to make this entry more upbeat compared to the previous two films in the series. The film, which came out for Trek's 20th anniversary, was dedicated to the crew of the Challenger, who perished earlier that year.

It's been three months since the end of the previous film and our heroes decide to leave Vulcan and return to Earth to face the music for their crimes in the previous film. At the same time, Spock is attempting to basically reintegrate himself into society.

On Earth, the Klingon ambassador is demanding that the Federation President extradite Kirk for the killing of Kruge and his crew and stealing their vessel. Sarek arrives to vouch for Kirk and company and the President informs the Klingon ambassador that Kirk is facing charges. But the ambassador is unsatisfied and storms off.

Soon afterward, a giant probe, which has already neutralized the U.S.S. Saratoga, among other vessels, is approaching Earth. As Kirk and company bid Saavik farewell and take off in their new ship, the probe neutralizes all of Earth's systems. But, at Sarek's behest, the President is able to send a distress signal, which is intercepted by our heroes. Kirk asks Uhura to produce the probe's transmission. Spock analyzes it and eventually deduces that the signal is the song of humpback whales, a species extinct in 23rd Century.

With no other option available, Kirk gives orders to prep their ship for time travel in order to find humpbacks that they can bring to their own time and hopefully stop to probe's rampage, although Bones is skeptical (not surprising). He manages to partially get a transmission of his plans through to Starfleet before the probe knocks out communications.

Spock informs Kirk the ship is ready and they set course for the late 20th Century. The time traveling practically rips the bird of prey apart but the attempt is successful, although Scotty reports that the crystals in the Klingon engine core are now useless, meaning they must find some other way to time warp back to their own time. Spock suggests safely harnessing nuclear power, which was widely used in this time. After cloaking to ensure the orbiting satellites don't detect them, the ship lands in Golden Gate Park, scaring the crap out of two garbagemen.

Our heroes disembark and head toward downtown San Francisco, where Uhura has detected whale songs. Realizing they need money to get around, Kirk pawns off the glasses McCoy gave him two movies earlier and, after making sure everyone now has cash, he and Spock head off to find the source of the whale songs, while Uhura and Chekov attempt to obtain that needed nuclear power, and Scotty, McCoy, and Sulu attempt to build a tank large enough to accomodate the whales. As Spock attempts to narrow exact coordinates on a nearby map, Kirk sees a city bus with an ad at a nearby institute which has two humpback whales currently as their guests. He and Spock eventually get on board the bus after somehow getting the needed exact change for transport.

Scotty tells Sulu and McCoy that transparent aluminum would do the trick to make the needed tank. The only problem is that that substance doesn't exist in this time, so they keep looking. Uhura and Chekov find a location which houses nuclear power, but, when they ask for directions, they keep getting confused stares, thanks to Chekov's now-famous "nuclear wessels" line. After nerve-pinching an obnoxious punk rocker, Spock and Kirk arrive at the Institute. They soon meet the whales, George and Gracie, on the tour given by their caretake, Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks). But Spock ends up making things tough when he clandestinely dives into the tank in order to mind-meld with one of the whales. This leads to Taylor kicking him and Kirk out. Uhura and Chekov contact Kirk after locating the source of the nuclear power, the naval ship Enterprise. They plan to beam in that evening, collect the photons and leave. That's when Taylor catches up with Kirk and Spock, she offers them a ride back to San Francisco. Kirk does his best to dance around her questions about their hijinks at the institute, but Spock makes it even harder when he reveals Gracie is pregnant. Kirk soon manages to get Taylor to accept that they mean the whales no harm and even gets her to go to dinner with him.

At a nearby engineering facilty, Scotty and McCoy meet up with the plant's manager and basically sweet talk him into giving them the materials they need for the tank in exchange for the formula for transparent aluminum. At the same time, Sulu manages to obtain a chopper to transport the materials.

After a confused Taylor drops Spock off at the park (where is transports back to the ship without her seeing), she and Kirk are soon dining at a nearby restaurant. His attempts to sweet talk her are briefly interrupted when Scotty contacts him (remember cell phones weren't the norm yet). This prompts Kirk to tell her that he's from the future, although she's obviously not buying that. Taylor, however, still informs him that George and Gracie are set to leave the Institute and go to Alaska the very next day. Kirk quickly hussels them both out.

After arriving on the Enterprise, Uhura and Chekov sneak around the best they can before locating the area where the ship's nuclear reactor is located. As they begin to collect its energy, Taylor drops off Kirk back at the park. He once again tells her that he needs George and Gracie but time is short and that she can find him in the park if she needs him. Her confusion increases as she hears the transporter and no Kirk after turning around.

Uhura and Chekov's activities are soon picked up by the crew on the Enterprise bridge. They quickly send security to their location and capture Chekov after Uhura beams up with the collector (Scotty states that the power shortage only allows him to take one person at a time). The Enterprise crew interrogate Chekov but quickly get pissed by his answers. After his phaser fails to stun an officer, Chekov attempts to escape but, following a brief chase, is knocked out and taken to a nearby hospital.

The next morning, Taylor is shocked to find the whales gone ahead of schedule. She quickly goes to Golden Gate Park and shouts for Kirk. That's when she sees Sulu and Scotty transporting the tank materials into the still-cloaked bird of prey. They see her and Kirk quickly beams her aboard, which convinces her of his story. She also informs him that the whales are now gone, which adds a headache as Chekov is still unaccounted for. Uhura then informs Kirk that she's located the hospital Chekov was sent to. At McCoy's urging, he, Kirk and Taylor head there to heal Chekov's injuries and bring him back, although their activities catch the attention of the doctors and police who briefly chase them down the halls before Kirk beams everyone away to safety.

Taylor wants to go with them, but Kirk says no. After giving him the frequency to track the whales, Taylor surprises him by jumping on him as he's beamed up. Kirk simply shrugs his shoulders and the ship heads for Alaska. They soon locate George and Gracie, as well as a whaling ship that's closing in on them. Fortunately, they scare the whalers off by decloaking in front of them. Scotty then uses all available power to beam up the whales and enough water for them in the now completed tank.

After briefly checking on the whales, Kirk tells Taylor to stay with Scotty as the ship attempts to head back to the 23rd Century. The attempt is successful, but the probe quickly makes short work of the bird of prey, forcing our heroes to make an emergency landing into San Francisco Bay. As everyone abandons ship, Kirk heads to the whale tank and manually unlocks it, allowing George and Gracie to swim out. Kirk soon joins the others outside the sinking bird of prey and, after a moment, the whales start communicating with the probe. Soon, the probe departs and power is restored everywhere as a shuttle arrives to pick up our heroes.

Later, Kirk and company, including Spock, are standing before the President who reads the charges against them. But he adds that recent events have led to all but one of the charges being dismissed. The remaining charge, disobeying orders of a superior officer, leads to Kirk being demoted to Captain-and given command of a starship! As everyone, including Taylor, cheers this verdict, she and Kirk bid each other farewell as she heads to the science vessel she's now assigned to. Spock and Sarek have a nice moment where the latter admits he was wrong to initially question Spock's choice to join Starfleet.

The film ends with our seven heroes heading to their new ship: the Enterprise NCC-1701-A!

Unlike the next film in the series, The Voyage Home has nice laughs that never take away from the story itself. It wraps up things nicely, and kept ensuring Trek's longevity. Indeed, Star Trek: The Next Generation would premiere the following year.