1986 / 118 Minutes / PG
Reviewed by Dale J. Nauertz

Making feature films within the “Star Trek” universe has always, arguably, been about broadening the “Trek” fan base. That base began with a small, devoted cult that lamented the early demise of the original TV series. Others were indoctrinated through late night syndicated broadcasts and their ranks swelled enough that someone at Paramount smelled money and decided to take “Trek” out of mothballs and onto the big screen. Despite the relative financial disappointment of the first film, they still sensed the potential…and the success of “Khan” proved them right. Even if one hadn’t seen the original series and wasn’t familiar with the characters, “Khan” was an engrossing film and quite a profitable one (it cost $11 million to make and made $14 million in its opening weekend ALONE). Hence “The Search for Spock”, a film that disappointed nearly everyone and, while it made more than “ST: TMP”, failed to rival the stellar box office of “Khan”. Therefore, it was time to go back to the drawing board, so to speak. If Paramount wanted to make more money, they once again had to broaden Trek’s appeal.

“The Voyage Home” seems like a fairly calculated film. The characters that everyone knows and loves (Robin Curtis’s bland Capt. Saavik is jettisoned very early on) return to Earth, a PLANET that everyone knows and loves. If that wasn’t enough, those characters then time travel (”Back to the Future” had just been released, not so coincidentally, and had become a monstrous hit) to modern day (1986) San Francisco to save the whales, a theme that everyone can get behind. Even if you don’t like whales, you’d have to be a pretty overwhelming asshole to wish them ill. You see, despite what Whitney Houston may have to say about children, it turns out that whales are the future. If they go extinct, then a distant race of whale enthusiasts will one day send a probe that will evaporate our oceans and destroy the Earth…which is exactly why Kirk and the others have to go back to 1986 to find one, bring it to the future, have it communicate with this probe, and save everyone’s ass. Plus, it’s probably the only way the Enterprise’s crew can avoid court martial and prison time after going to a quaratined planet and destroying a military wessel, er, vessel. Spock comes along because, well, what would a “Star Trek” movie be without Spock. Also, he directed this movie.

As I said, this all seems like a pretty calculated way to win back the old fans and gain a few new ones…but it works. “The Voyage Home” is often hailed as one of the best “Star Trek” movies if not THE best and there’s one very simple reason for that: this is the movie where “Star Trek” finally took the stick out of its ass. Nimoy and his collaborators get the expository elements out of the way as quickly as they can and then get Kirk and the rest back to where they don’t belong…which, of course, is where the fun is. These characters are excellent when called into battle on the other side of the galaxy, but they are rather hopeless when doing something as mundane as riding the bus. It’s great fun to watch Kirk try to understand the use of money, to watch Spock attempt to use profanity and swim with whales. It’s highly entertaining the first dozen times that Chekov uses the word “wessels” (after that, sorta grating). Ditto to Scotty’s possible time paradox and, my personal favorite, Dr. McCoy’s opinion of modern medicine (”Kidney Dialysis?! My God, I’m in the Dark Ages!).

The movie has a solid plot, provides large doses of fun even for the uninitiated in the audience, and breezes by at a brisk pace. It also works in an environmental theme without coming off as a long-winded dousche, making it perhaps the only movie in human history that’s managed to do so. I can’t really complain about this movie…but I’m going to anyway. Yes, it’s fun. (Another thing I liked about it: there’s more of a diversity of aliens in the beginning of this movie than in any other “Trek” film. It almost turns into “Star Wars” for a moment, which made me very happy.) Yes, it’s well-plotted and briskly paced. But it just doesn’t have much gravity to it. The entire Earth is in peril, after all, and after the opening half hour goes to great pains to hammer this fact home, the rest of the film feels like a lark, a sprightly little piffle. We never get a sense that anything truly bad is going to happen. There’s not much true suspense here. I think it’s that, more than anything, which has always bugged me about this film.

For any other film this fact might prove a fatal flaw, but this movie is such marvelous fun that it hardly matters. The actors seem to be having a blast here and their fun is pretty infectious. It doesn’t stack up to “Khan” (which, so far, is the high water mark of the “Trek” series) but Nimoy DOES acquit himself pretty well behind the camera (I’m going out on a limb here, but this is probably the best film he’s directed) and everyone has a good time, including the audience. Comparing the “Trek” series to the “Star Wars” series, using the “Khan”= “Empire” equation, I will say that this one is the “Return of the Jedi” of the bunch. It’s a fun machine, pure and simple. But I have no problem with that, so long as the machine in question actually delivers the fun, which this one does in spades.

And with this film under my belt, my grand experiment to watch all of the Original Cast “Trek” films before the new “Star Trek” is released now enters the home stretch. Next up, Shatner gets behind the wheel for “The Final Frontier”. Bring. It. On!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 12:29 pm and is filed under Dale's Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.