Why Was Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Actually So Successful?
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- Опубліковано 7 тра 2024
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▶Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
7:20 - Star Trek IV Summary
17:30 - Accessible to Newbies, Satisfying to Trekkies
22:13 - A Welcome Change of Pace
31:05 - Leonard Nimoy, Star Trek’s Secret Weapon
32:13 - Saving the Whales, Classic Trek Style
36:06 - Great Ending, New Beginning
40:04 - Conclusion
41:21 - Shoutouts, Plugs, and Announcements
#startrek #videoessay #startrek #startrektheoriginalseries #startrektos - Розваги
I have always been confused by the fact that subsequent Star Trek movies would try so hard to recapture the appeal of Wrath of Khan, but never try to duplicate the appeal of Voyage Home, the much more financially successful entry in the franchise
Because context is important.
Wrath of Khan was a compelling story with great acting. It was released on June 2, 1982...the exact same day as Poltergeist and a week later, ET the Extra Terrestrial premiered (the top-grossing movie of the year by leaps and bounds). A month later, Raiders of the Lost Ark, which was the number two top grossing film that year. Khan ranked 8th for the year.
Voyage Home was a goofy, midwit sitcom using the UC Berkeley soup-du-jour as a plot device, released during Thanksgiving of 1986 and was up against...nothing. American Tail released the week before, and the stiffest competitor to follow up in December was The Color Purple a full month later. It ranked 7th of the year in box office gross.
Another context comment. The first Star Trek poisoned the well somewhat since it seemed slow and boring compared to Star Wars. Wrath of Khan was more a return to form, but a lot of people has sworn off Star Trek movies after the first one. It is important to note that pretty much every one in the late 1970's and early 80's was familiar with The Original Series since it had been regularly in the "after school block" of TV programming since the mid-late 1960's. Since many of us had grown up with TOS, I suspect that the long-time familiarity with the characters is what allowed Voyage Home to do well. It was a bit like watching old friends go on an entertaining adventure.
@@valecrassus7835 Wrong - I was there - "The Color Purple" was a December 1985 release, not 1986.
Because although Star Trek has humorous highlights it is basically a drama not a comedy. Although Star Trek IV is generally more popular with the general audiences - Star Trek II is much mire popular than Star Trek IV.
Yeah unfortunately trying to do voyage home again is hard - you need good directing, acting and writing and even then there's no guarantee. Whereas you can see why your average producer would go for the star trek 2 template as it fits into the generic Hollywood template more easily. Space battles. Check. Moustache twirling villains. Check. Big explosions or shock character deaths. Check. I suppose it's easier to market too - even if your script is rubbish you can chuck a few of the shouty moments and explosions in the trailer and hope general audiences are lured in.
"Dialysis?! What is this, the Dark Ages?" Well said Bones.
Aside: I used to work in organ transplantation. Every once in a while someone suggests that we should allocate organs based on ability to pay - give the available organs preferentially to those with good commercial insurance or deep pockets, and leave poor folks, particularly those on Medicare/Medicaid, on dialysis or heart bypass or whatever.
But here’s the thing: if we really were to base it on finances, rather than medical need, the poor folks would get the organs. In addition to an organ transplant being better medically than the alternatives, it’s _way_ cheaper in the long run. And even the medium run. Depends which organ you’re talking about and how far the patient’s condition has progressed, but for kidney dialysis the financial break-even point [we’re talking total costs, here, not just what the patient has to pay] might be as little as 1.6 years. One of the heart surgeons I worked with estimated that a couple-million-dollar heart transplant pays for itself in as little as a year.
So, yeah, let’s give the cheaper treatment to poor people-give them the organs first and the 1% can go to the back of the line. /sarcasm.
…oooorrrr…maybe we should try to get more folks to donate their organs and continue to allocate them based on medical need, not wealth (at least until we have single-treatment kidney-regeneration pills we can hand out like aspirin).
Also Dr. McCoy: "Don't leave Chekov in the hands of 20th century medicine!"
Doctor gave me a pill, I grew a new kidney!
@@natbarmore "Every once in a while someone suggests that we should allocate organs based on ability to pay" growing up with the NHS that's genuinely mindboggling. With the exception of a platformed and vocal minority NOBODY here thinks having to pay for healthcare, or more accurately withholding healthcare from those unable to pay, is anything other than barbaric.
Hey, watch it. My mother-in-law is a dialysis nurse.
This film is the only one I ever saw in a movie theater with my dad. He needed to get away from mom for a bit, and I asked him if he wanted to go see a movie. He agreed, and we went to The Voyage Home.
Dad and I didn't get along for various reasons, but I remember him laughing during the film, and enjoying the movie. It's one of my best memories from my very early adulthood.
Nimoy was a great director, which he proved in his other work, and while ST:TUC is my favorite film from the original cast, this is way up there.
This was the first TOS Flim that I grew up watching on TV & VHS.
I loved that it was a precursor to Centacean Ops due to the fact of sub sonic sounds that went into space & when a probe didn't find the wale song it decided to destroy the world
I had arrived in Monterey, CA at the end of September that year. I had gone straight from graduating high school to army basic training to Monterey to attend language school. I didn't even realize that there was a new Star Trek movie in the works, let alone about to premiere. But, when I saw it on the marquee at the old movie theater on Alvarado Street (the "Main Street," if you will, in Monterey), I thought "that sounds like fun."
I was surprised by the line around the block. (I mean there's popular, and then there's POPULAR!) But I went ahead and waited it out. When I finally got to the ticket booth, I was informed that they were selling tickets for the NEXT showing, which was about an hour later, I think. When in due course I got in to see the film, I didn't understand why the entire theater erupted at the sight of the Cetacean Institute. It turns out that it was actually the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which hadn't visited yet, but I have done so a few times since. The only thing that was changed to the exterior was the sign itself. Even the signs surrounding it were the same, and as of my most recent visit in 2017, still are
The most amazing talent on ST4 was Scotty's novice keyboard skills. The first time he saw a qwerty keyboard and mouse combo, he did Matrix-level learning and started cranking out pages plastered with special characters and symbols.
I always thought it was that Scotty is just that familiar with all technology.
@@EddieCaplanPerhaps he minored in Ancient Computers like Captain Freeman from Lower Decks.
I'm pretty sure he used a keyboard before, just as a person today would have no problems typing on a typewriter (maybe the carriage return would confuse them). It wasn't really until TNG that we saw truly interactive displays; the tech portrayed in TOS was certainly button heavy.
@@ianwestc he did expect to be able to talk to the computer, and when told to use a keyboard he says "how quaint". Not "I've never done this before!", but he's reacting like we would if we were told there's no keyboard and to just toggle the memory in manually.
And this isn't just a nitpick, because I love the little detail that he doesn't go "oh right, this is before speech interfaces" he goes "oh right, this is when you had to HOLD microphones" and assumes that's what the mouse is.
It's worth bearing in mind records from the 20th and 21st century were said to be quite fragmented, so maybe people really did just have the timeline a bit wrong.
To add to your point about ST4 being a comedy: This movie also contributed the most hilarious and ridiculous insult I've ever heard: "Well double dumbass on you!"
EDIT: HAHA! YES! Im so glad you used that in your ending.
I love that quote & use it often. It is mostly a private joke as people don't catch it. Thrilled you used it.
My friends and I still use that one!
"Is that a lot?" seems to be the line I quote the most. so many real world applications.
fish out of water comedy, great ensemble cast who all get a bit, and has a really poignant message.
"they are not, the hell, your whales"
time for some colourful metaphors.
Mammal out of water comedy you mean...
Haaaaa!
Double dumbass on anyone who thinks otherwise.
You know what's annoying about exposition dump style worldbuilding? We have wikis now for the people who want the deep lore. For the show itself, you can totally just build the world through action and dialogue and then let the seeds flourish. You didn't have that in the 80s, so they gave the audience what they needed, and left everything else to the audience's own intelligence. It's great.
it's the classic example of "SHOW, don't tell."
this was the most infuriating thing of watching DISCO seasons 1-2. They kept hammering us with all this stupid exposition that they could have just SHOWED on the fucking show
I think the existence of wikis has measurably transformed how film and TV are made: a lot of shows and movies now seem to “assume the wiki”, in other words, proceed on the assumption they can get away with much less explanation because newcomers can just look up the lore or watch an explainer video.
And STIV is probably the prefect example of that with the Whale Probe. Would it be interesting to get more of the backstory of just what the deal is with the probe? Sure! Would that actually have served the movie or story in any way? Not really. Some things are just better off left mysterious and the Whale Probe may be the best example of that.
@@CCNYMacGuy I'll go further and say that I actually don't think learning more about the whale probe would be fun. I think it would just get silly. lt would move the tone in a more hitchhikers guide to the galaxy direction which isn't right for Star Trek. I like what we got which is "the gang time travel to 80s SF to get whales for some reason, and saving the whales is in at the moment so this is relevant"
In the 70s and 80s we didn't have wikis, but there were fan rags like Starlog as well as lots of paperbacks for both behind the scenes ("The World of Star Trek", "The Making of Star Trek", "Star Trek Lives", "The Trouble with Tribbles" by David Gerrold, etc), as well as script novelizations and embellishments like the James Blish Star Trek books. Not to mention The Star Trek Technical Manual, blueprints, etc. All of these served as wiki material back in the day for us hardcore Trekkies. They did, however, come after the fact, and I guess it does present problems the OP mentioned, specifically to my mind which should come first. As we see with most attempts to bring large lore items like Dungeons and Dragons to the screen, the result is often cringy or baffling at best. Perhaps it really is better if storytelling comes first, and coherent lore later, if at all. After all, if you try to fill in all the details even after the fact, you can end up with "midichlorians" and "I have the high ground". Maybe some legends are best left to the imagination. I'm glad I never saw attempted depictions of the C-beams at the Tannhäuser gate, just fine to have heard it from the child-like mind of Roy.
"No I'm from Iowa, I only work in outer space" remains one of my all time favorite Kirk lines. It's up there with "What does God need with a starship?" and "I AM KIROK!"
I do remember in the novellization that Gillian was apparently going to die in a car accident like a week after the events in the 86 portion of the movie, which is why Kirk agrees to take her with, but I can totally see Kirk just going "eh fuck it, let's screw up the timeline!"
I've always thought it was a very humanizing touch for the Great Hero Spaceman to be from the most ordinary of ordinary places.
I love that entire scene.
The last time Kirk knew his woman was going to die in a car accident, he had to let it happen. NOT THIS TIME, DAMNIT!
My insanely cynical thought is that Gillian took her life after learning her beloved whales had been slaughtered, just after being released.
@@robertmiller9735 I think a lot of great adventures start with restless people with dreams too big for a farm or small town. It's as if their ambition and drive are tested by the confinement and only those who persevere will go on to do great things.
My father grew up dirt-poor in a community that wasn't on any map, but became an engineer and traveled the world. Another man I knew came from a family of sharecroppers, but became a very wealthy and successful businessman. Unlike Kirk, however, neither believed the ends justified the means and both were very upstanding, generous men. : )
One thing that I think helped connect THE VOYAGE HOME to audiences was the dedication at the start of the movie to the memories of the Space Shuttle Challenger crew! When I saw the movie on it's opening weekend, when the dedication came on-screen, the whole audience applauded!
My favourite piece of Star Trek IV trivia is that the punk on the bus that Spock neck-pinches is a guy called Kirk Thatcher. He's one of the producers on the film, and he wrote and performed the punk song that's playing on his boom box.
Nice.
and that’s not his only appearance as the punk on the bus!
Sulu charming some random dude into letting him borrow a helicopter? Legend behavior
The end titles of Robocop2 will remind you of the main theme here because of the same composer.
Also, Star Trek IV was protested for abusing whales in the movie. To this, they proudly revealed that Gorge and Gracie were four-foot-long animatronic models.
Considering the Oscar nomination for Visual Effects, it’s not a HUGE surprise that the animatronic whales were mistaken for real whales by environmentalists.
I heard they didn't win an Oscar because people voting thought those were real whales.
I’m still surprised that I didn’t know those were animatronics. They look fracking real.
That image of Nemoy looking through the camera in full costume and make-up is outstanding. I hope he sometimes stayed in character while giving direction as well, it would be so neat to feel like you were on the set of a film directed by Spock.
My understanding was he did that on the motion picture and everyone found him weird. Was withdrawn and didn't talk to the rest of the cast/crew beyond functional things he needed to say for the first half and then during the second half, after spock opens up a bit, went back to being normal leonard nimoy. Still whatever worked for him as an actor.
My mom willing went with us to Star Trek IV, and has never had a bad word to say about it; for me that's the ultimate endorsement of its wide appeal.
My folks, too.
When people who hate Trek say they like it is when you give them a double take.
I often say this is the best Trek movie and I think you've hit all the reasons why. Nothing against Wrath of Khan, but if you don't know the story of Space Seed (as I didn't when I first saw it in the theaters), you watch the movie a lot like Carol Marcus - "Who is Khan, and why is he so wrathy?" That accessibility is the key. While I was already a Trek fan when this movie came out, I was able to take my mom to see it, and she really enjoyed it. So much so that a year later when TNG premiered, she watched with me. I recently took my son to see in on the big screen, and he who isn't really into Trek but likes movies in general, really enjoyed it. Personally, I love watching DeForrest Kelly and Jimmy Doohan having so much fun when they toured the factory.
When we got home from watching _Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan_ "Space Seed" was playing on TV (which I hadn't seen yet) but I wasn't allowed to watch it, so had to wait 80 weekdays for it to come around again (79 episodes plus the two-parter).
Everyone remembers Scotty giving away transparent aluminum as the time line screw up, but a Russian getting to the reactor of a carrier in port then escaping with help would be a massive international incident. Heads would roll at the CIA, DOD, FBI, and all the higher ups at Treasure Island
One of my favorite lines from Futurama was, while returning from a past they realllllly made a mess of, Professor Farnsworth give the line, "choke on that, Causality!"
I want to mention the sound design. The probe's constant low rumble and whale speech adjusted for not being in the ocean is so mysterious and unnerving in the opening sequences before Kirk, Uhura, and Spock figure out what it's doing.
One of my favorite scenes in the flick is after they've crash landed and freed the whales when the crew is enjoying their victory and splashing around in the water. The crew is completely convincing as a found-family in that scene, despite some of their behind-the-scenes quarrels.
I'm happy to have anyone reference The Final Countdown. Such an underrated movie. That being said, ST4 is just perfection. From the humor, to the story, to the light and airy soundtrack..... just perfection. I still say "Hello, Computer" to my mouse from time to time.
I sometimes do this on Teams calls for work, especially if we’re discussing, shall we say, an inexperienced computer user. Never fails to get a chuckle.
_Peggy Sue Got Married (1986)_ was also big at the time and a successful time travel movie for its budget, but nobody mentions it these days, not even in _Avengers: Endgame._
Why don't you just use the keyboard?
Ah!
...how quaint.
_The Final Countdown_ is really underrated. We think of the "should we or shouldn't we change history" as overdone, but back then it was a compelling film.
The one thing that drives me nuts about STIV is that Gillian comes back to the future is that she is the only one who will know anything about whales in a world with no whales. But then she immediately jumps on a science ship and flies off leaving George and Gracie to fend for themselves. Like, WTF?
Yeah, but 24th century Earth not knowing anything about whales while 20th century science knows what 65 megayear extinct dinosaurs had for lunch and 21st century science figuring out that dinos likely had feathers never made any sense anyway.
In fact whales would have probably already been de-extincted by the enlightened 24th century before that probe appeared.
And even if not - AI talking whale would have been a much easier solution than time travel.
Unless George and Gracie are going on the ship with her....
Well did she specifically say that it was a STARSHIP? It could be an actual ship on the ocean. Hmm?
@@zaphoddog3878 The origin of Cetacean ops?
Plus, 23rd century tech being what it is, she can info-dump from anywhere and train others in cetacean biology remotely.
"Double dumbass on you!" A classic invication. ST IV was one of my favs to watch with my family as a kid.
The look on Kirk's face after he drinks the beer at the pizza joint says that he also thinks that Michelob Ultra tastes like beer-flavored water.
In 1986 I managed to convince my English teacher that the novelization of Star Trek IV was an acceptable choice for a book report. The one thing I remember from that book is that Scotty says Dr. Nichols actually did invent transparent aluminum.
Posted above, but repeated here: transparent aluminium was patented in the US 1984 by T.M. Hartnett abd RL Gentilman (#4,481,300). So in-story, *it already existed.*
("The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed.") Will Nichols get in trouble for violating their patent? *That* could change the future.
Amazingly, it is four times as hard as fused silica glass per unit volume, and it'll stop multiple .50 caliber armor-piercing rounds!
Well, everyone in and around the Monterey Peninsula went to see it as fast as we could get to a theater.
This had a lot to do with the several months of complaints about traffic jams along tiny Cannery Row, a major tourist spot that saw tourism drop precariously as they filmed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
I'm reasonably certain a similar phenomenon occurred in the San Francisco Bay area, as well.
I talked to many people who'd never watched any Star Trek ever before who absolutely loved it an began watching reruns on TV.
It was hella fun, sitting with an audience, excitedly laughing, gasping and sniffling.
Of course, much whooping also happened, as landscapes of our daily lives projected huge in the dark.
Gawd, I miss going to the movies!
💗💯🖖🏾💐
"Trekkies bash new movie as 'fun' 'watchable'" That was one of my favourite onion articles hahaha
I'm probably not the first or even the smartest (definitely not the best looking) person to say this, but I think it's fair to say that a 4th Kelvinverse film might've happened by now if not for what happened to Anton Yelchin.
I agree
The cast wanted exorbitant amounts of money to come back.
@@shanedenmark5536you mean they wanted to be paid what they were worth and the production company didn’t want to?
The movie is also frequently credited with helping revive the humpback whale population. Which was critically endangered at the time and is now only threatened. Go Trek. Fun movie. My first movie going experience when I was two
I was today years old when I realized the "home" to which they are voyaging is the Enterprise, not earth. Yes, I've watched this movie MANY times.
What I love about The Bounty is that it's so perfectly tailor-made for the plot of Voyage Home. The Enterprise could never land like a shuttle, couldn't cloak to hide from contemporary tech, and its disposable and doesn't have to survive the end of the film for your dramatic crash scene. It baffles my writer's brain that the team made such a perfect fitting story with the elements that existed at the end of The Search For Spock.
This movie is what made me a Trekkie 🖖It was a bright spot of fun and positivity at a time when my life was dark. It will always hold a special place in my heart.
Reasons it was successful for me as a kid
Klingon ship
Cloaking device
San Francisco
Nuclear Wessels
It has whales! That's why I liked it when I first saw it (besides the Star-Trekkiness). "[Network Executive], there be whales here!" :-) Thanks for covering my 3rd favorite even-numbered TOS movie!
This was my introduction to star trek. I was 2 when it came out (I did not see it in theater) My family had a pirated off TV VHS of it that I watched till the tape broke. It helped that we traveled to San Fransisco several time a year, so I knew all the places. I love this movie.
In the novel adaptation, Scotty thought the guy DID invent transparent aluminum. He was super excited to meet him at first...before realizing he was the one who gave him the formula for it.
I'd wondered if they changed history at all. It would have been interesting if before they left they were worried the windows would break, and one does, but when they get back it doesn't because of that one change. Unfortunately it still breaks.
This movie is the best introduction to Star Trek. My father showed it to me when I was 9. I had no idea about Star Trek or even sci-fi at the time, but I wasn't lost, I immediately loved what I was seeing, and understood everything easily, all the while being inticed by the story and characters. When I later saw The Wrath of Khan, I was so sad with the death of Spock. That wouldn't have been the case if I hadn't seen The Voyage Home before. I would have need to see at least a bunch of episodes of the original series to be as attached to those characters as I had been.
Before I get into this vid, ST:IV was and still is at least in my top 5 favourite movies. What made it great for me as a kid and even now was; Klingon Bird of Prey, the clear humour and improv as well as a sort of underdog tale. Can't forget the bus punk too, he's cool
Delightful character work, a wonderful mix of drama and comedy, a liberal dose of satire, and a ***MESSAGE*** that was as subtle and well-hidden as the ***MESSAGES*** in the original episodes. My favourite Star Trek film, as much as anything because it felt most like the original show.
They could have done social commentary in the previous three films but didn't. Instead it was like a do-over for "The Changeling," "The Deadly Years," "Balance of Terror," and stealing the Enterprise in "The Menagerie, Part 1."
I've often felt one of the reasons this was so successful and enjoyable was not only was it fish out of water comedy, but the crew was relatable and for the audience it felt like the closest we'd ever get to interacting with the actual crew of the Enterprise.
“1986 was almost forty years ago”
Me, who was born in 1986: “Don’t remind me!!”
Wow. I haven't seen this movie since before my grandmother died, and I was not prepared for how much that old woman with the new kidney looked like her.
I still remember when I saw this for the first time and there's the scene where Spock suddenly appears swimming in the whale tank - hilarious.
I enjoyed this trek down memory lane. I think you could've mentioned briefly the conflict to your younger viewers the significance of Chekov's detainment on the USS Enterprise in the 80's, a nice callback to how Star Trek was basically America against the Soviet Union since a lot of these youngsters (30 and under somethings ugh I'm old) don't remember much if anything about the Cold War, which some people are trying to bring back some of those elements into the 2020's.
Star Trek’s relation to the Cold War is already mentioned so many times it’s a trope, at this point a person can infer that a Russian man being captured by US military before 1991 is bad for well known reasons.
I regret to inform you that an unknown Russian found on the USS Ranger.... I mean Enterprise in 2023 would be met with the same suspicion (notwithstanding that both the USS Enterprise and the USS Ranger are in the scrapyard now). We're so much closer to armageddon than we were in 1986.
ST: TOS was shown as reruns for the best part of a decade, on KTVU out of Oakland. It was such a part of the local subculture, I find it difficult to overstate. So, when The Voyage Home was in the cinema, for those of us who lived in the Bay Area, the hardest thing to wrap one's head around was they were returning to an Earth where Star Trek was not an infused part of Bay Area culture.
Clearly they went back to a variant of our "timeline." I assume we didn't have a George and Gracie in the Bay Area on this event scheme at all. (Most of what we see in the film are animatronics.)
This was the first Star Trek movie I saw in theaters when I was 7.
I went with my dad and one of my older brothers.
To this day, it is one of my favorite Trek movies.
Though the time travel scene with the plastic heads freaked me out back then.
I agree Steve, it DOES suck that we didn't get a fourth Kelvinverse movie. The first two were honestly kind of mediocre but Beyond was really, really good, and the creative team behind it deserved the opportunity to make more.
It's also kind of maddening when you realise that JJ Abrams career is one of the most illustrative examples of what white privilege looks like. His first big break is Lost - a series that famously ended on a really sour note for fans because Abrams didn't plan ahead and had to rush the conclusion as a result. But his career goes on regardless and eventually he gets Star Trek. He makes a decent first entry but doesn't really plan ahead for the sequel, and ends up heavily relying on older material to hold everything together, making into Darkness a significantly weaker entry in the franchise. While he does get replaced for Star Trek beyond, the baggage of "Into Darkness" results in Beyond being the LAST Kelvinverse movie.
Meanwhile, Abrams goes on to direct two of the Star Trek sequels - the first of which heavily takes cues from old material to flesh it out and the last of which is the objective worst Star Wars movie because, AGAIN, he didn't plan ahead and rushed the ending in a way that left everyone unhappy. The dude got chances upon chances upon chances and made the same mistakes repeatedly. Meanwhile, the creative team on Star Trek Beyond (Directed by Justin Lin and written by Doug Jung and Simon Pegg) who made an actual good movie don't get to continue working on that franchise - and I feel like it's worth noting that two thirds of that creative team aren't white guys. JJ Abrams repeatedly made the same mistakes across multiple very large franchises, and we've only just seen studios start to decide they don't really wanna work with him as a result. But if you're NOT white and you work in Hollywood, you're not gonna get that many chances to repeat your mistakes.
Actually, Abrams' first big break was the coming-of-age drama series Felicity.
The big problem with Abrams is what he calls his Mystery Box writing style, which really isn't much of a writing style at all. The Mystery Box is nothing but a list of story ideas, most of them very, very rudimentary ideas that haven't been worked out to any real extent. Abrams is great at spewing out such ideas, and it is said that he's also great at putting on a big, enthusiastic presentation to the powers-that-be in which he makes his rudimentary ideas sound like they're not so rudimentary, which is how he keeps getting jobs in Hollywood. But the thing is, ideas are the easiest part of the process. Anybody can have ideas. What matters much, much more is what is done with those ideas, the way they're actually turned into stories. That takes work, and the Mystery Box is just Abrams being too lazy to do that work. If he can surround himself with creative people who are willing to put in the effort for him, fine, something good can happen. If he's working with people who aren't so industrious, it won't be so fine.
JJ Abrams and his team of hacks... don't get me started. Lost was a long con on the audience which becomes obvious at the end. That said, he and members of his team of hacks do sometimes put out something good---but it feels more like it's by accident than anything else. I liked a lot of things about the first and third Kelvin movies, but the second one really bugs me. That said, I still love it as Star Trek, consider it part of the Trek universe (or multiverse I guess) and will watch it. It's just that--like Star Trek V--it's not among my favorites.
Yes, JJ is totally overrated and criminally doesn’t plan ahead. The man who single-handedly killed both Star Trek and Star Wars with no respect for any source material, ever.
This is mostly true, but the Star Wars sequels get way more flak than they deserve. They're fun movies with a lot going for them! It's beyond insane that they didn't plan out the trilogy from the get-go and each entry has serious flaws as a result, but people go in expecting them to be The Godfather or Citizen Kane instead of what they really are: pastiches of Flash Gordon serials.
Again, I agree with the basic point that Abrams loves setting up mystery boxes but isn't willing to do the work of building them around a satisfying reveal, but it sometimes works out ok anyway.
Also, his movies make a shit ton of money. For all the shit Episode IX gets, it was still ludicrously profitable. Studios aren't going to pass on a director of profitable movies just because some fanboys get persnickety about him.
Star Trek Beyond was really, really bad. The story had potential, but it was resolved in lamest way possible. There is guy who steals the Enterprise and wants the Federation to experience conflict and war, so what does he do?
Attack the Klingons, or the Romulans, or the Cardessians or the Breen or whoever to provoke a war? No, he attacks a Federation starbase and is easily stopped. On top of that there is a lot of cringe in this movie.
One technical aspect of this movie that I think should get more respect is the way that the video call between Kirk and Federation HQ gets glitched. It’s not quite like modern video/audio compression artifacts, but it makes more sense than static and other analog issues we see in subspace transmissions elsewhere in the franchise.
"We are going to attempt time travel."
I have been an ardent Trekker since September 8, 1966 with a love of all the series and movies. The Voyage Home remains my favorite of all movies or episodes for one simple reason: like many humans, I have great admiration for marine mammals of all sizes and species. Saving one of these magnificent creatures maintains the main platform of Star Trek, that the future will be better than the present and past.
Someone suggested the attention the movie gave the issue, actually helped save the whales! I don't know if that's true, because I remember watching _Whale Wars_ on TV 20 years or so later to stop Japanese whaling.
It had the best story. The actual story was fantastic. It's the best of all the Star Trek movies I like the interpersonal relationship between Spock, finding himself and growing you can see like all of Star Trek in the one movie.
This movie was my childhood introduction to Star Trek. Ahhhh, memories.
steve i didn't know if you knew this but also while the film was being made paramount wanted a subtitle for every scene with the probe and the subtitle was supposed to say where are you? and nimoy fought against it and when they saw the film for the first time they said never mind it doesn't need a subtitle for the probe
Have always enjoyed Steve's Trek, Actually series, but since the Jellico debut it's been delightful to see how far he's come as a writer and essayist. Entertaining but critical analysis is a difficult trick to pull off, and am looking forward to seeing what new insights will be explored in this goofy but meaningful franchise that I love.
As for the trilogy arc and character ... The novelizations for the three movies were all written by the late Vonda N. McIntyre, and they were written well and connect nicely. Today, the three novelizations are usually sold as an omnibus, titled "Star Trek: Signature Edition: Duty, Honor, Redemption". Well said.
Great work Steve. I can recall seeing this in the theater and the line to get in was around the building. But one element that I think bears more emphasis is the great interplay (often comedic) between the characters. The relationships of the the characters was always one of the most important characteristics of ST. And there are so many good inter-character beats that make the movie enjoyable even upon multiple viewings. The whole mini-arc of Spock doing calculations culminating in his “guessing” and McCoy’s classic line -about Kirk feeling safer about Spock’s guesses than most other people’s facts - is so satisfying.
"The doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!" They didn't have to add that little aside to the hospital adventure and I just LOVE so much that they did.
I saw this movie the evening of the first day it came out. I was thinking of avoiding the crowds, but the theater was mostly empty. I was concerned about how they would wrap up the story established in the previous two movies.
I laughed out loud when they busted Kirk back to captain, but I absolutely fell on the floor when they revealed the new Enterprise NCC-1701-A. I supposed I may have disturbed the other half-dozen people in the theater. They wrapped that story up tighter than Spock's ass.
When I took my new girlfriend to see the movie a few days later, I gave her a quick rundown of all the previous movies, how the first movie was a bit disappointing but the second one saved the franchise and a lot of stuff happened that was further resolved in the third movie but they destroyed the Enterprise and are now using a stolen Klingon ship. I was attracting a crowd in the lobby by this time.
But I told her that she didn't have to remember any of that because it's only important for the first five minutes and the last five minutes of the movie. Most of this movie is about something completely different.
Not having previously seen the earlier movies, she was delighted with this movie, largely because she recognized Spock's mother from TV shows she had seen in her childhood, and she particularly liked the "save the whales" aspect. She liked that it was really a lot of fun and thanked me for sharing the movie with her.
The soundtrack, even the non orchestral tracks (track 3 market street) which for me is one of the defining sounds of the 80’s (or at least to me as a child in the 80’s it was ) 😂😂
I haven't commented in years.
I looked it up. I've been following you for almost 8yrs.
This was great and beautiful.
Thank you, Steve.
Just like to add a mention of Spock's scene with Sarek at the end. "Tell her I feel fine."
And also, Sarek's reaction to "They are my friends": "...Yes, of course," in the voice of every outwardly-conservative father really trying to understand their weird kid
Not to mention Spock’s reaction when Sarak admits that his opposition to Spock joining Starfleet may have been incorrect.
31:00 Interesting to learn the background behind the composer. The overture of Star Trek IV has always been one of my favorite pieces of music in the whole franchise, up there with Horner's work on Wrath and the overture from Undiscovered Country. You can't help but love Goldsmith's original theme that is used so often, but every time one of these movies had an entirely original score, it was so refreshing.
The thing that works, for me, is the chemistry is on point, EVERY SINGLE SCENE.
I have my own time paradox headcanon about this movie: since George and Gracie alone were not a viable breeding population, Starfleet greenlit several missions to the past to find more humpbacks and bring them forward in time. And this effort reduced the humpback population in the past to a point that made it easier for them to be hunted to extinction. And thus, the future's effort to resurrect an extinct species led to that very same species' extinction in the first place.
Ooooo, fascinating!
"Peggy Sue Got Married" also came out in 1986 and was sort of a time travel story.
A nice little movie.
"No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space" is one of my all-time favorite Star Trek (and from-a-movie in general!) quotes.
I love your videos. Keep up the good work.
"And if you do not listen, then double dumb ass on you!"
The Final Countdown still holds up ridiculously well.
My favourite part was how Nimoy portrayed spoke as naive and bumbling when in SF and first meeting Marcus but transitioning instantly to dignified, in control, scientist when meeting her on the Bounty.
I don't care what you say, I like the cameo of the punk in Picard. 😂😅
Love you anyway, no matter how wrong you are😊
I remember seeing this in the theatre in my mid-twenties, and when Chekov fell and just lay there, I audibly gasped. The poor guy had been through so much, first being controlled by Khan with that space-earwig, and now this? It was such a relief when they found him, after McCoy patched him up and they asked him for his name and rank, when he replied, “Admiral,” it was so cathartic I laughed through the rest of the escape scene. That is great writing and directing right there.
Chekhov was O’Brien before O’Brien was a thing.
STIV isn't just my favorite Trek film, but one of my favorite movies. Kirk and Spock work well as a comedy duo. Plus, I love seeing the sights of mid-80's Frisco. As much as I enjoy the other movies in the series (except part 5), this is the one I go back to the most. It never fails to put me in a good mood.
"He is Steve, Marylandian. He won't cry, so I cry for him." Oh man, the "Conan the Barbarian" reference had me rolling on the floor. Great job, Steve!
The Final Countdown is one of my favorite movies. Thanks for referencing it.
Still remember the whalers in this movie that were clearly Norwegians, but for some oddball reason spoke Finnish with a odd, probably Norwegian accent. Perhaps in fear of diplomatic repercussions. Damn us if we'd ever accuse Norwegians of whaling!
Great episode, but one small nit.
How can you list time travel episodes and leave out the amazing DS9 entry, "Trials And Tribbleations"?
Seeing a battered Sisko at the Captain's Mast before young Kirk Himself ALONE is worth the price of admission!
A tear-filled Conan-referencing prayer to Santa was the icing on the cake I never knew I wanted.
It also had humpback whales at a time when they were showing kids all across America "The Voyage of the Mimi" in elementary school science classes.
6:38 I have to pause here because there is a very specific reason that I remember The Final Countdown.
My dad is in it!
They shot the movie on the carrier that he was stationed on and used sailors as extras. And it has Kirk Douglas in it, which is kind of funny. Because HIS dad was a Navy extra in In Harm's Way, also starring Kirk Douglas.
I had never heard of “The Final Countdown” until I was looking through the Free with Ads selections on UA-cam Movies. I watched it mainly because Charles Durning was in it, who I remembered from the NCIS episode “Call of Silence” in 2004. Considering that the movie was made 24 YEARS earlier, it's AMAZING that I recognized him as the same person (I didn't remember that he had played Doc Hopper in the Muppet Movie the year before).
I remember seeing this in the theater some two months after it was released. That is something fairly unusual by today's standards. I had just turned 14 and my older sister took me to see it on a Sunday in late January. I remember because my old man sprung for our outing after the Giants won a big game. He was always in a good mood and charitable after one of their wins. Neither my sister nor I were huge Star Trek fans, but we both found the film to be highly entertaining and very funny. Along with 2 and 6, 4 is among my favorite entries in this saga. A great film!
Oh Steve, way to easily become my favorite new UA-camr!! To say I am excited to see all you post from this point off (and to use "catching up" on your previous videos an excuse to not do laundry or yard work for potentially weeks) would be an understatement!! Brilliant, in-depth, well thought out stuff!!
I'm also from Iowa. Saw this in the theater in 86, and when Shatner said that line, the whole crowd cheered.
We're a simple people, but Kirk is one of us...or will be.
I am 90% sure that seeing it on TV was my introduction to Star Trek as a kid.
I absolutely adore the part in the Hospital where DeForest Kelly get to be "Dr. McCoy, 30 Year Veteran Chief Surgeon" for a short while. It was a crime that he didn't get to just Be That for a longer time.
Such a well done video, and your presentation style & persona are really good.
Peak Steve. Happy Holidays and thanks for making this 🎉
Going to watch it again, for the first time in decades. Thanks for the reminder and happy holidays!
The Voyage Home was one of the first VHS tapes we owned.
Thanks for this, Mr. Shives. Well done! Like the movie itself (still my personal favorite ST picture and, I'd argue, one of the 3 best installments of all of TREK ever produced-- including all the various series' episodes and the currently extant 13 movies) your breakdown and analysis was not only smart but also a lot of fun. And I'm inspired to watch THE VOYAGE HOME once again tonight; it's one of those films that just makes you feel better about life in a general way unique to the art and craft of filmmaking.
Probably somebody else said this already but the Russian Chekov asking for “nuclear wessels” in 1986 during the Cold War would absolutely be a scary idea. For that matter, having a Russian as one of the “good guys” anyway was just as shocking as having a Klingon on the bridge of Enterprise D (TNG premiered one year after ST4).
Steve, excellent in-depth discussion of my favorite Star Trek film!
Yes Steve. The Fast franchise has 9 sequels. Like you, I'm flabbergasted as to why. General bad taste just doesn't explain it.
This is a brilliantly entertaining synopsis. Great Job!
I always loved TMP as a kid and I still really rate it now, sure it could be seen as a bit pretentious/high brow depending on your point of view, but I think its really good and has a palpable sense of tension all the way through and the pay off at the end is good. I think the main reason I liked it so much though was 'cos I had it recorded off the TV and it was one of the only sci-fi films that I had on video. I was only about 7,
As someone who enjoyed The Changeling it was nice to see the episode expanded into a movie.
The only thing I didn't like were the ugly uniforms.
A wonderful video Steve and beautifully written. Thanks Steve 👍🖖
"The Voyage Home" was, and in many ways still is my favorite Star Trek movie. Leonard Nimoy did an amazing job of bringing out the character of the characters in a way no other director ever had. I miss him being around. And, I'm with you - I want a 4th movie in the rebooted universe. The whole cast is amazing and Chris Pine is a great Kirk. And, the soundtrack for the 1st movie is one of my favorite soundtracks of any movie, ever. In fact, I'm going to watch it again, right now. Happy New Year, everybody!!!
Having seen it opening day in 1986 I will say the reason it was so successful was because it actually gave people a sense of hope in the uncertainty of the cold war of the 1980s which saw nuclear annihilation a realistic possibility
Excellent video for what is my 3rd favorite Star Trek film (1. Wrath of Khan 2. Undiscovered Country). I"m glad you highlighted the score because I love it and find it a bit underrated. It completely fits and sets the tone of the movie. It's bright, joyous, energetic, and a bit playful. I can play the opening theme and it always lifts my mood.
"Causality loop! Stress-free time travel! Yeah, baby!" This cracked me up hard. I had just finished my cup of coffee, so all good.
This was my introduction to Star Trek when I was 6 years old. It captured my soul and never let go. It made me the life-long Trekkie I would grow up to be, and still remains my favorite Star Trek film from top to bottom. I firmly believe that if I first saw Wrath of Khan, I would not have become a Star Trek fan, at least not in the same way. Perhaps later I would have grown into it,... but 6-year-old Me would have been so terrified that I would have actively stayed away from it. Hell... 10-year-old Me was so horrified by the floating blood scene in Undiscovered Country that I stuffed all my Star Trek stuff in a box and hid it away for a solid week, even after being the biggest little Trekkie in the world.
So yeah, thank the gods I saw this movie first.
This and "The Trouble With Tribbles" were the Trek I remembered most vividly from when I was very very small before I came back to Star Trek as a sentient being. For me, it was the whales.
Star Trek IV was the only Star Trek beyond The Trouble With Tribbles is the only Star Trek my parents could follow.