Viaje a las estrellas IV - Misión: Salvar la Tierra

'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' is the most popular of the Trek films and quite right too. Not only does it appeal to both fans and non-fans of the show but it revels in the spirit of what Trek has always been about: how perfect and Utopian the citizens of the twenty-third century are compared to their Neanderthal ancestors of the late twentieth century!

The film sees Kirk and his crew, in disgrace after disobeying Starfleet orders to save Spock following the events of 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock', travel to 1986 San Francisco to retrieve a pair of hump-back whales, a species extinct by Kirk's era. The whales are the key to communicating with an alien probe that is in the process of destroying Earth. As well as the non-too-subtle eco-message ('don't allow any animal be hunted to extinction as they may save us all in the future!'), there is much fun to be had as Kirk, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and the ever-logical Spock struggle to integrate themselves into most alien situation they have ever been in. They are clueless about exact-change buses, pizzas and why 1986 doctors think it's a good idea to drill into someone's head.

It is very light-hearted at times but I imagine this is the film Gene Roddenberry is most proud of given the way it portrays the best of all our favourite characters and reaches the heart of the ethos of 'Star Trek'. When I first watched this as a child, I wished Kirk would come and let me join him in the twenty-third century. In fact, the only thing that could improve this film would be if the probe had aimed its venegeance entirely at Japan and Norway in retaliation for the sins of these countries' backward twenty-first century 'ancestors'. After all, it's these two countries who will surely bring about the extinction of whales.

While this doesn't delve too much into the mythology and background of Trek, it is a great film and deserves to be counted as the best of the ten films. It is also an excellent option for Trek fans trying to convert friends and family to 'seeing the light' and loving Trek!

The fourth entry in the "Star Trek" movie series is the most popular and unarguably the best-liked of these entertaining movies. It has a fine variety of scenes, intelligent comedy to leaven the more serious adventures. it is fast paced, beautifully directed by Leonard Nimoy who also plays "Spock". What prevented it from being even better perhaps appreciated is a deliberate attempt by the writers to write short, choppy-sentence dialogue that in some scenes does not work as well as more formally-structured words might have worked. The film is bright, the art direction is very good, the music by Leonard Rosenmann is outstanding. And the story line is one of the best that sci-fi filmmakers have yet devised, in my judgment, because it has everything. As Captain James T. Kirk of the 23rd century starship Enterprise, William Shatner acts with unusual intelligence and even strength to get by. As his half-alien First Officer Spock, just recovering from a traumatic experience that caused him to have to be reeducated from ground zero, Leonard Nimoy is even better. Everyone of Jim Kirk's crewmen, including James Doohan as Engineer Montgomer Scott, De Forest Kelley as CMO Leonard McCoy, Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Uhura of Communications, talented George Takei as Helmsman Sulu, and Walter Koenig as Navigator Pavel Chekhov, have good scenes to perform and do them seamlessly and with professional style. Others in the cast including Brock Peters, Jane Wyatt, Mark Lenard, Grace Lee Whitney, Alen Henteloff, Robert Ellenstein and a relative unknown as the earthwoman who becomes enmeshed in the Enterprise officers' mission,are given telling moments. There are many memorable visual moments, including the departure of a stolen Klingon warbird from the planet Vulcan, the near-wreckage of Starfleet Headquarters, the landing of an invisible vessel in Golden Gate Park, a slingshot run around the sun, a descent from the invisible craft to the ground, scenes around the Alameda Navy Yards, a chase in a hospital and scenes at the cetacean Institute all make themselves hard-to-forget. It is the sheer fun and adventure of the storyline--sending a starship back in time to rescue two hump-backed whales and save the earth from alien destruction--that sets this film apart. Ignored by critics who have nearly always ignored sci-fi achievements, this cinematic attainment set a standard for future sci-fi to which hardly any film's maker has yet approached. The revelation of character could have been deeper, but the relevance of every moment to the plot line could hardly have been bettered. Harve Bennett deserves some of the credit for this script's excellences; so do the special-effects creators, since for once in Hollywood, every such effects serve to further the progress the central character and his helpers are making. This is probably a film to be watched over and over; I wish there were more such adult sci-fi efforts that eschew pretension and present so much intelligent dialogue, acting and intriguing "differences".

I saw the Special Collector's Edition of this(which I understand doesn't have any additional scenes that weren't in the original). Ah, 'the funny one'. There is a theory that after a few heavy or dark episodes in a row, they'd have a fun one. This is the movie version of said lighter one. And yet, it's smart, dramatic and, well, a blast. Again directed by Nimoy, and this also partially penned by him, this is superior to the one before it. This could be absolutely lousy, given the concept, but it's... not. It's marvelous. The humor is genuinely well-done, timing, material, it all works. Most of it is verbal, with a little bit of silly, with none of it being childish or worse. The prerequisites to "getting" it, apart from knowing the series, are simply understanding American culture and slang, specifically that of the period. The plot is good. The situations are resolved in a satisfying manner, albeit certain aspects might benefit from more seriousness. The dialog is excellent, possibly the best of any of these I've seen thus far. The language is pervasive, to a greater extent than earlier(and harsher, as well), though some of it is there for a purpose(namely, hilarity). There is another minor offensive thing in this. If viewers can tolerate or look past them, they're likely to thoroughly enjoy this. This has a moral, but it isn't preachy. I recommend this to fans of Star Trek and/or sci-fi, and will suggest that the second film be watched first(the third is perhaps optional). 8/10

This one is great-I remember laughing my butt off the first time I saw it, and it still works now. Very well done, the time travel angle was better handled here then it has been in other Trek films, shows, etc.-and one thing that makes this work is that they didn't take themselves too seriously. What a romp! The crew come back to save the whales so they can save themselves in the future-and make some commentary on 1986, too.

Personally I donno if this is the best of the run-Undiscovered Country and Khan are its main competition-but I applaud them for doing this; and hope they can lighten up the newer generation too now. It is needed.

*** outta ****, good stuff.

"The Voyage Home" (a.k.a Star Trek 4) ranks as my most loved "Original Series" based film. The other Kirk and Co adventures were good but just not as good as this. The comic value of this film is just great and I think that this was what made the film so loved by some and hated by others. For me however, the crazy adventures of the ever aging cast placed a smile on my face and a laugh in my mouth. This deserves at least 7 out of 10.