Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Way Back Wednesday - Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

With the newest installment in the long running Star Trek series scheduled to be released this spring, I thought I would lament on my favorite of the Star Trek movies. I have alway been a Next Generation fan over the original Trek, but I have enjoyed a couple of the original movies. My favorite being The Voyage Home - and yes, this is the one with the hump-backed whale.

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was released in 1986 and is the fourth feature film based on the original Star Trek science fiction television series. It completes the loose story trilogy started in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and continued in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. You don't necessarily have to see these two movies to understand Voyage, but it helps to know the crew is traveling in a Klingon Bird of Prey instead of the Enterprise.

Leonard Nimoy (Spock) directed as well as starred in The Voyage Home, which earned four Academy Award nominations, for Best Cinematography, Best Effects, Best Music and Best Sound. The original music score was composed by Leonard Rosenman, reusing some material from his earlier score to Ralph Bakshi's animated The Lord of the Rings (Bakshi's animated Wizards is one of my top ten movies of all time).

Basically in this film, the Earth is in danger of being destroyed by an alien spaceship which is trying to contact the hump-backed whales. Unfortunately, the hump-backs have been extinct for many thousands of years, so the Star Trek crew must time travel back to 20th century Earth and bring back a whale to answer the spaceship. Corny, I know, and very campy, but hey, I love corny and campy.

This movie tackled the absurd and made it funny. Watching our 26th century heroes trying to survive in the 20th century is hilarious. For some reason, I never get tired of this movie!

Starring:
William Shatner as Admiral-Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Captain Spock
DeForest Kelley as Commander (Dr.) Leonard McCoy
James Doohan as Captain Montgomery Scott
George Takei as Commander Hikaru Sulu
Walter Koenig as Commander Pavel Chekov
Nichelle Nichols as Commander Uhura
Catherine Hicks as Dr. Gillian Taylor

2 comments:

Julia Phillips Smith said...

I'm a Trek fan, and this one had a more mainstream appeal - non-Trekkies flocked to the theatre as well as the die-hards. The fish-out-water theme is a gut-splitter.

Congrats to your daughter on the first hurdle, and thanks for the lovely post on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

Lisa Brawner said...

I love the old star trek movies !!