Hello and welcome back to I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You. I am Dave-El and I totally deny the rumors I am being replaced by Jeopardy producer Mike Richards.
The blog has been on a bit of a break with no new posts since last Wednesday.
Today, I tentatively dip my toe back into the blogging waters as our weekly feature Cinema Sunday continues our series of looking back at the Star Trek movies.
Today we look at what is arguably considered the best of the Star Trek films, Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home.
In the 23rd century, Starfleet becomes aware of an alien thing, an enormous cylindrical space faring probe.
As it moves through space, emitting a strange and powerful signal, it turns off the power of every star ship and space station it passes.
The alien thing is heading to Earth.
Uh oh!
The alien thing has arrived at Earth.and is messing up the whole planet. Super storms are ravaging the planet and power systems are failing everywhere.
What, pray tell, does the alien thing want?
Meanwhile, on the planet Vulcan...
The former officers of the former USS Enterprise are prepared to leave their Vulcan exile and return to Earth to face all sort of charges for mutiny, treason and littering for their actions in the previous movie.
Joined by Spock, still slightly dazed from being dead then not dead, the gang take their captured Klingon Bird of Prey back to Earth to face the music.
But Earth is no place to dance. Receiving the distress call from Earth and the recording of the probe's signal, Spock determines that the signal matches the frequency of the song of humpback whales.
Extinct humpback whales.
So the probe is going to keeping hollering at Earth for a response it will never get.
So our intrepid gang come up with a plan to get some humpback whales. Not from a place where they are not extinct but from a time.
Time travel, y'all!
Spock runs some numbers on the fly and Scotty holds the damn rickety Klingon ship together with duct tape, spit and gumption and BOOM !
Earth, 1986, baby!
Three things to do:
1) The Klingon ship needs power for the return trip. Uhura and Chekov are off to look for a nuclear reactor where they can tap into some much needed energy on the sly. And they find a reactor... on the aircraft carrier Enterprise.
2) Something to carry whales back in. It's up to Scotty, Bones and Sulu to make a 23rd century aquarium with stuff from the 20th century. With total disregard for not screwing with the time line, they get that job done.
3) Find some actual damn whales. Kirk and Spock are on the job.
And they find some: George and Gracie, a pair of whales in the care of Dr. Gillian Taylor at a Sausalito aquarium. But over her objections, the whales are set to be released into the wild where they will surely be hunted and killed.
Kirk tries to get Dr. Taylor's help by telling her the truth: "We're time travellers and we need to bring back a couple of humpback whales to the 23rd century to save the Earth."
Gillian is understandably not convinced of the veracity of his story. But when the penny pinching pricks at the aquarium decided to release the whales earlier than plan, Gillian gets desperate enough to trust these crazy wackos.
After saving George and Gracie from whalers (Oh my God! There were only out there like 5 minutes, right?), Dr. Gillian Taylor is on a rickety Klingon ship stuffed full of two hump back whales and a crap ton of sea water hurtling through space and time back to the 23rd century where the whales tell the alien thing to quiet down already. The alien thing wanders off and the Earth is safe again.
Hooray!
But we're not done yet. Got some plot stuff to clean up. At a Starfleet hearing, charges against Kirk's crew are dropped but the man himself has to pay for some damages as James T. Kirk is demoted from Admiral to Captain and put back to work.
As Captain of the Enterprise, NCC-1701-A.
All is as it was except the Kirk and his crew are a little older, a little wiser and Spock has learned to cuss.
The plot beats of Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home may seem a bit absurd on the surface (the Enterprise crew travels back in time to bring back hunchback whales) but what makes this film really sing is the great character work of an ensemble cast that is actually given stuff to do. Yes, there are the prerequisite scenes spotlighting Kirk and Spock but Voyage Home is truly an ensemble piece with Scotty, McCoy, Uhura and the rest of the gang more than just background furniture for Kirk and Spock.
And this movie is truly a funny movie. Not a broad comedy but it mines laughs out of genuine character moments.
Scotty getting lost in his role as a visiting professor from Edinburgh. Chekov genuinely trying to be cooperative with the naval officers who have captured him on the aircraft carrier Enterprise. Kirk and McCoy improvising like mad to save Chekov from the clutches of barbaric 20th century medicine. Spock trying once again to be Spock and needing to not act so Spock like.
Spock nerve pinching the obnoxiously loud punk rocker on the bus is a stand out scene.
At the start of the film while still on Vulcan, Spock is engaging in a series of rapid fire written and verbal tests. He demonstrates an astonishing range of knowledge at a lightning fast pace until he's stumped by one question: "How do you feel?"
All his life, Spock has sublimated his human half to his Vulcan heritage and here is this simple human question that perplexes him: "How do you feel?"
By the end of the movie, Spock has in his rebirth achieved a sort of balance with these two part of himself. He informs Sarek he has a message for his mother: "Tell her, I feel fine."
Shatner has some good moments as Kirk. One of my favorite lines comes when Taylor challenges Kirk's story, asking if he's from outer space. Knowing he's sounding weird but still trying to be charming, Kirk replies, "I'm actually from Iowa. I only work in outer space."
With no Enterprise or Starfleet to back him up, Kirk is dancing as fast as he can to juggle all these diverging elements of this strange time travel mission. Kirk tells Taylor at one point she is not catching them at their best. But improvising like mad without their usual resources of people and tools, Kirk and crew have never been better.
Star Trek IV - The Voyage Home hangs its hat on a very big and bold concept: let's time travel to save some whales. But what makes the movie an actual joy to experience is the wonderful character work and the genuinely funny script that truly keeps this movie aloft.
The future of the Star Trek film franchise looked bright. Surely things can only get better.
Next time, Cinema Sunday looks at Star Trek V - The Final Frontier.
Uh oh.
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No blog post for Monday but the Tuesday TV Touchbase returns the day after that with Kevin Can F**k Himself.
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