Review of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) by Harry W — 03 Jul 2013

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home isn't the rich science fiction adventure I was hoping for, but it's unserious fun through a clever Back to the Future style plot provides sufficient entertainment.

You can tell that Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is capitalising on the success of the last year's blockbuster Back to the Future, because it features a similar plot with a comedic take on science fiction and directly, the theme of time travel. This proves positive because it helps Star Trek to appeal to a wider audience through its comedic tone and clever plotting, as well as its science fiction story and iconic characters, although it deviates from the usual concepts of Star Trek and doesn't follow an actual Trek through the Stars, therefore falling under a genre that doesn't chronicle the science fiction journey that the films usually do, and therefore doesn't serve as the entertainment I was expecting.

Although, it does provide a sense of good, unserious fun to the viewer which makes it an easy film to sit through, and although the dynamics are dated and have been used in many comedy films to this day, I occasionally found myself laughing in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, although not as much as you could have hoped. And I did enjoy the way it took a similar direction to Back to the Future, even though it was quintessentially a thin plot relying on comedy to fill in the gaps. Plus, the ending was utterly confusing because I was unsure as to what happened or what was happening or just really what the hell was doing these things to earth, how it was doing it or anything else. It was all just utterly senseless science fiction jargon turned into a comedic story, and it was a simplistic one that was complicated by dynamics.

Although Leonard Nimoy's direction on the story was good because he managed to create a widely appealing story based on the franchise that holds his legacy, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home features a great production design, fine visual effects, a decent musical score and convincing sound effects.

One thing viewers will be surprised by in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is the performance by William Shatner. Known for being an obsessively over-the-top actor in all his Star Trek work, he finally decides to tone it down in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and his performance is actually decent because he's more focused on articulating his lines properly than obsessively throwing his hands around in a quintessentially satirical Shakespearian style. His performance in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is actually decent because his character is sophisticated and in control, just like James T. Kirk should be as a captain.

Leonard Nimoy also gave a good routine performance as his iconic character Spock in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as well as serving as director well.

And newcomer Catherine Hicks played her role as a determined biologist very strongly, and she captures the passion for her character's work very finely.

James Doohan and Nichelle Nichols also gave performances rich with finesse and charm, and there are dedicated performances from Walter Koenig who provided a fine level of charisma to his character and George Takei who gave a routine good performance.

Essentially, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home doesn't take itself too seriously like the other Star Trek films have, and it is entertaining, but it deviates from the Trek theme from its title and so isn't the science fiction adventure I was hoping for.