Review of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) by David M — 08 Jun 2010

Directed by Spock himself and featuring the original Original Series crew, this is by far-and-away the film with the most eco-heavy theme, as Kirk and the rest of the crew travel back in time (again! I've lost track of the number of times that plot device has been used in Trek) to the then-current 1987 in the search of hump-back whales, as the earth of the future is in danger of being destroyed by an unknown alien probe that speaks only whale.

It's also about the only Trek film that doesn't really feature the Enterprise itself (which was destroyed in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock), with the crew actually on-board a Klingon Bird of Prey for most of the movie.

Has fun with it's fish-out-of-water themes, with the 23rd century crew struggling to understand and cope with life in the 80s (and in particular, with the (Russian) Chekov's search for "New-klee-er Wessels") while also relying more on its leads' chemistry than on space action.