science fiction

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Movie Review

Starring: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Catherine Hicks
Enter a review
of your own!
"Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"
Message Board
Star Trek Movies Resident Scholar Profiles
TOP SCHOLAR: David Loftus

SCHOLARS:
Artemis  trotsky  Stephanie White  Isabelle Herbert  Jarrett Fontaine  Portia  nooala  Xenos Existo  Soccerjock013  Emily M  
Would you like to be a scholar and make five dollars per review? Click here to submit a review!

Click here for free online dating advice!

Review Summary
An alien space probe threatens to destroy the Earth and, the crew of the Enterprise must travel back in time to save humanity. They have to bring home a pair of humpack whales to answer the probe. In this movie you see how short-sighted humanity can be when it comes to preserving the enviroment. One of the most important themes of the movie is that future humanity has to redeem mistakes made in the past.
trotsky, Resident Scholar

Like TOS Star Trek 4 make a social commentary on how we live our lives. This time around we see a light hearted trek movie minus the space battles and the phaser/disrupter fights that had become the staple of ST2.With save the whales as the underlying message in this film, the crew of the Bounty (Enterprise) embark on a mission to the earth's past to retrieve Humpback whales, so that an alien probe that's wreaking havok on earth can communicate with them. In the process Scotty gives the formula for transparent aluminum, Chekov gets hurt and Kirk uncharacteristically passes on a chance at romance with Gillian. The cast must have been very happy to be working again and gave no input to the script because somebody should have remembered that the crew made 3 journeys to the past, 4 worlds that copied ancient earth history and they would not have been looking like .. . It would have been a better movie if they had brought back the Gary Seven character to help them. Now that would have been interesting.
, Resident Scholar

When a massive, destructive alien probe arrives at Earth in search of extinct humpback whales, James Kirk leads his crew back to the 20th Century in order to find the creatures and save the future Earth. The most fun and accessible Star Trek movie of the series.
Artemis, Resident Scholar

This is the Star Trek movie with the lightest touch -- probably the most appealing to the non-fan. A giant unidentified space probe heads toward Earth in the 23rd century, sucking up all of Starfleets' space vehicle and command energy, churning up the oceans, and endangering the entire planet while broadcasting a mysterious signal. Spock and Kirk figure out it's attempting to communicate with whales, which are extinct, so they take their Klingon vessel (from Star Trek III) back in time to the 20th century -- San Francisco, 1986, to be exact -- in order to find and retrieve some humpback whales who could respond to the probe's call. Catherine Hicks guest stars as the beguiling cetologist who helps our heroes. The script, partly conceived by director Nimoy and doctored by Nicholas Meyer, contains a lot of humor (much of it at Spock's expense). The film is very amiable, rather too politically correct, and remains the only Star Trek film in which nobody dies. Its success (more than $100 million stateside, $133 million worldwide) inspired the creation of the new TV series "Star Trek: The Next Generation" the following year.
David Loftus, Resident Scholar

Admiral Kirk must go back in time to the 20th century and save the whales.
steve, Resident Scholar


Detailed literary breakdown of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Our unique search engine breaks down books and movies into
dozens of literary elements, all of which are searchable.

New movie search (click here) New book search (click here)
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot

Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzle - 50%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30%




**Fantasy or Science Fiction?** - science fiction story
Explore/1st contact Yes
Time Travel: - primarily to the past
Part of a series? - Star Trek
Time Travel Story? Yes
Generally friendly 1st contact with aliens? Yes
Environmental disaster? - preventing ecological disaster
To what time period? - 1980's-2000

Main Character
Identity: - Male
Profession/status: - military officer, senior
Age: - 40's-50's
Hair color? - brunette (Brown)
Hair type - (man) short/medium wavy
Body type - average (man)
Events of movie makes character more... - happy
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)
How sensitive is this character? - sensitive to others' feelings - middling sensitive to others' feelings
Intelligence - Average intelligence
Physique - average physique

Secondary Main Character
Identity: - Male - Female
Hair color - brunette (Brown)
Hair style - (man) short/standard straight
Body type - very skinny (man)
How much in movie? - 60% - 90%-100%
Ethnicity/Nationality - White (American)

Main Adversary
Identity: - An "It".
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in: - 20%
Sense of humor? - Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence - Average Intelligence
Physical condition - average physique
How sensitive is this character? - hard edged

Setting
Earth setting: - 20th century (1970's to Present) - medium future 22-24th century
A substantial portion of this movie takes place on a non-Earth planetary body: - humans in a futuristic society - inhabited by friendly aliens - very controlled society
Takes place on Earth? Yes
Planet outside our solar system? Yes
Takes place in spaceship? Yes
Misc settings - bar/restaurant

Style
Accounts of torture and death? - no torture/death
Tone of movie - upbeat
Comedy or somewhat funny movie? Yes
Any profanity? - Occasional swearing
Kinds of F/X - exotic spaceships - exotic aliens
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE... - Orchestra/classical
Is this movie based on a - TV show
Most similar reviews by Gordonator ranking
Frances Mayes starring Patrick Stewart, William Shatner
Star Trek: The Motion Picture starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Persis Khambatta
Star Trek Generations starring William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, Malcolm MacDowell
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy
Star Trek First Contact starring Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, James Cromwell, Alfre Woodard
Think you can enter a better review
of this movie? Click here to try!




Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
Try our new Star Wars & Star Trek puzzle pictures! Click here

Advertise with us
Feedback
Star Wars Revenge of the Sith plot spoilers
Hobbits
The politics game
The lawyer game

3 Book search options!
1) Simple lookup
(title or author)

or
2) Detailed book search
(click here)
or

3) One-click plot searches! Simply click on a plot below!

Animal Story

Clones

Coming of age

Cultural problems, alien culture

Explore/1st contact/ enviro story

Family relations

GIANT monster(s)

Horror story?

Inner Struggle

Lifeform altered?

Mental/magical powers focus

Parody

Political power play

Religious overtones?

Repressive society story

Robots, Computers, VR

Romance

Spying & Investigations

Tech./$$$/Info hunt

Time Travel story?

Training/Apprent.

War or Invasion


Games:
Trivia Masters!

Rescue your favorite
scifi characters from
slavery!


Talk to your favorite
scifi characters!


Eating New Yorkers
Computer Game


Pomeranians

Most recent TV & Movie discussions:

The Borrowers: The Borrowers 5/11/2008 10:53:57 PM

Xena: 37 reasons why Xena and Gabrielle are... you know.... 5/11/2008 7:02:04 PM

Star Trek Voyager: Did B'nana find her labor pains to be erotic? 5/11/2008 6:55:09 PM

A Boy and His Dog: A Boy and His Dog 5/8/2008 8:17:30 PM

Blade Runner: Blade Runner 5/6/2008 12:23:07 PM

The Space Explorers: The Space Explorers 5/6/2008 10:16:13 AM

2010: Exactly why was 2010 a lame movie? 5/4/2008 10:19:38 PM

Star Trek Classic: "Mark of Gideon"--A pitch for family planning 5/4/2008 10:15:47 PM

Star Trek Classic: Star Trek's dim view of earth-hugging hippies 5/4/2008 10:10:06 PM

Star Trek Classic: Nancy Crater a bisexual monster? 5/4/2008 10:02:29 PM


Newest slaves:
Heather Graham 12:09:26 PM
Galadriel 12:09:11 PM
Cameron Diaz 12:08:55 PM
Dana Delaney (China Beach) 12:08:24 PM
Rebecca DeMornay 12:08:06 PM
Bo Derek 12:08:01 PM
Eva Longoria 12:07:53 PM
Reese Witherspoon 12:07:36 PM
Gandalf the Grey (Ian McKellen) 12:07:05 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 12:06:35 PM
All slaves
(click here)


Celebrity interviews:
President George W. Bush 6:32:00 PM
Jan-Michael Vincent 2:16:51 PM
Captain Kathryn Janeway 3:47:46 PM
Jack ONeill (Richard Dean Anderson) 1:39:22 PM
Jennifer Aniston (Friends) 5:01:07 PM
All celebrities
(click here)