Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986). All's Whale That Ends Whale.

[@GrinderCB]

The woman who told Chekov and Uhura to go to Alameda wasn't supposed to speak, but she just responded like someone trying to be helpful. Then Nimoy and Bennett liked the scene so much that they jumped through hoops to get her a SAG card so her dialogue could be kept.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Yeah they actually had to run after her when she walked out of the scene, getting her name and info so she knew what this all was about. They deliberately even had the camera hidden and used a long a focal length to shoot this scene.

[@matthewmarcinko9157]

My Mom, rest her soul, who never watched an episode of Star Trek in her life, saw this film and enjoyed it immensely. Well written stories with characters worth caring about cross all genre boundaries.

[@a35362]

"We know it's [the '80s] because there's funky saxophone music." Yup, nailed it!

[@wearetomorrowspast.5617]

"Are we going swimming"? "Yes , Mr. Scot, off the deep end". Love this film.

[@StarTrekDoor]

I love Star Trek 4. Such a feel good film. 🖖🙂

[@dvd11811]

Catherine Hicks said in an interview that she had never watched Star Trek before filming, which makes her acting in this movie that much more endearing. Of course Catherine would give up her job as a Cetacean Biologist, travel back to the past and marry a former Star Fleet Captain who becomes a Protestant Minister ...

[@RJSRdg]

Before doing the "beaming up" scene, she asked Nimoy and Shatner what it felt like to be beamed up (not realising it was a special effect). They replied "It tingles!"

[@Cafeman_2D]

I remember I was a freshman in college, in fall of 1986, and watched this on opening weekend, the small cinema was 3/4 filled with a lot of fans trekkier than I was and LOL'd constantly, making the film even better. What a fantastically entertaining movie it was! Then the next day in university French class, the instructor couldn't stop talking about the film for half the class.

[@jasonblalock4429]

One writing detail I love: when time travel comes up, it's *McCoy* who explains, very offhandedly, that slingshotting around the sun makes it happen. Giving this dialogue to a non-techy character makes it feel like it's common knowledge (even though it isn't) and helps the audience swallow the idea without getting hung up on it. That's impressively economical writing. Also, more random trivia about the bus punk scene: Thatcher wrote and recorded the punk song ("I Hate You") himself with a couple friends. It's actually not bad, and the lyrics are pretty funny. The whole song eventually leaked and is on YT now.

[@RJSRdg]

The whole crew had slingshotted round the sun before in the TOS episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday" so they all knew it worked.

[@nobilismaximus]

Thanks!

[@StamFine]

Nice!

[@TheBeird]

I'm no Star Trek guy, but I was surprised how much I enjoyed this film. It were a nice time

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

yeah it's generally the most accessible Trek movie for non Star Trek fans. It even works as a standalone movie for most people without even having to watch the other movies. It also really is a great introduction :)

[@xx3868]

One of the great things about this film is so much location shooting with the Bus going over the bridge and cars and restaurants and parks and just has a very grounded realistic feel to it and its a smart film with no laser, deaths but plenty of action and suspense ticking up in the background. The co stars got $150K? i hear as their money in original series per week being pretty dismal and only Shatner and Spock (after a time) got thousands per show. This is very easy family viewing and it mixes sci fi with comedy and a environmental theme and message, so anyone will enjoy it with good pacing too. Nimoy unlike his cold logical Spock, really places feel and soul into films he directs and everyone seems to be having a great time and relaxed and Hicks is great and gritty as caring biologist .

[@jsentman]

My Father-In-Law, who was a Nephrologist, would yell out at hilariously inopportune moments “Doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!!!”

[@nealwhaley63]

One of the best moments I ever had in a theatre was watching the Bird of Prey de-cloak in front of the whalers. The whole audience broke out in joyous laughter. You don’t forget moments like that.

[@georgehenderson7783]

Agreed! I'm hoping you also watched Moonraker in the theater in 1979. If you did let me know, I have a question for you!

[@nealwhaley63]

@@georgehenderson7783 If I did, I don’t remember it.

[@mammothchimp1774]

My first trek movie my cousin dragged me to in the 80s. Immediately fell in love!

[@user-bu7ig1dr9e]

I Loved the one with the Whales the Best Star Trek ever! Two Thumbs Up 👍🏽👍🏽

[@tycannah4271]

Another great recap of the very best Star Trek fun where all of the crew get their moment to shine.

[@james5460]

At the time, I thought it kind of lazy to just do a contemporary visit - now, oddly enough, it's actually charming and works because... it's no longer 1986. The film has aged like fine wine in that way. That now looks so familiar... but so remote. Kind of nostalgic now. A decision that took 40 years to work for me.

[@TheLAGopher]

Essentially it was Back to the Future with the mid 1980s being the destination of time travelers from the future vs being the point of origin.

[@fobwatchful]

If I recall correctly, Walter Koenig was saying "Wessel" with the think accent in the first act, so it wouldn't be out of place when he said "nuclear wessels" later. This trope would later be referred to as *Chekov's Accent* . He also left his gun, oops, I mean his phaser, on board the 20th century war ship. This was never mentioned again.

[@jacobktan]

I think I have the world record for watching Star Trek IV. I watched it on my TV/VCR every night before bed for 2 or 3 years.😊

[@SimonLeicester]

Picked up the blu ray set of these movies when it was on offer earlier this week. It’s remarkable how most of them warrant repeat viewing and still hold up to this day. This one is great fun and the humour really lifts it. Scotty attempting to do an early ‘Alexa’ makes me smile every time.

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

the current 4K remaster is absolutely remarkable. The movie never looked better. It just sucks that Paramount / Universal decided to not include the prolog. And as a european viewer.... this movie feels absolutely incomplete without that "Last time on Star Trek...." prolog. This is why i keep my old DVD version since it still has that prolog.

[@neiltaylor6645]

Has a tribute to the challenger shuttle disaster at the start of the film

[@idiedforthisproductions]

Fantastic retrospective one of my all-time favorites

[@ianhill8345]

Such a great star trek movie very enjoyable enjoy your vids keep it up Stam

[@thomasmcginnis3783]

Frigging witty. Very well done. *"Nice job!!"*

[@cgcolin]

9:10 It's Alameda, CA where they keep the "wessels," where I live! My friends and I joke about this often.

[@ScottWozniak]

I love this movie. It's my most watched of the classic Trek films. Kirk and the mom from 7th Heaven have great chemistry, but let's face it, Kirk would probably have great chemistry with a dissected frog. "Double dumbass on you!" ❤

[@aaronleverton4221]

Sending the heavily-accented Russian to find out where the USN's most powerful warships are kept had so many levels to it.

[@Toerinator]

This is my absolute favorite Star Trek movie. I see a lot of fans dismiss this one as the weird one, which accidentally did well because of lack of competition. But that doesn't do it justice. This is the one I can watch with my wife genuinely being invested in the movie, laughing at every other scene. It's so accessible while still being a good Star Trek-story, all in a competent made movie.

[@loftus4453]

Your reference to a one winged butterfly in relation to you time traveling was genius! ❤

[@bensneb360]

This movie is so funny, it always has me… Whaling with laughter lol

[@jacobktan]

*cringes*

[@kellyweingart3692]

😂😂😂😂

[@francisfischer7620]

Love! Love! Love! This!!!! Thanks!!!

[@Cafeman_2D]

Another great program, thanks!

[@blockmasterscott]

I went to see this in the theater with low expectations, and actually enjoyed it. It’s awesome.

[@robertlight5227]

"This a violent and paranoid culture...: Best. Line. Ever!

[@reneperez3043]

I love this movie.2,3, 4 and 6 and absolutely amazing movies.

[@TheToonMonkey]

My God (the one who needs a starship) I love this film.

[@richardgadberry8398]

What does God need with a starship?

[@TheToonMonkey]

Who is this creature @@richardgadberry8398 ?

[@ShamrockParticle]

​@@richardgadberry8398 to get through the McDonalds drive-thru faster? 🍔 🍟 🥛 😋

[@josemariamesa5460]

Luv the end credit music here,1 of the most wonderfully-crafted musical pieces i've ever heard,has that soaring,glorious feel 2 it!! 👍👍👍👍

[@marysheeran519]

Catherine HIcks was two years ahead of me in college. Nice person. Love this movie. Enjoyed your comments. I like to joke that none of these people in the 80s knew about Star Trek, but no one ever gets it. Okay, it was parallel time...

[@misterhoeflak]

Great vid! Love this film. According to one of the commentaries on the blu-ray, the scene of Sulu meeting his grandfather was cut because the boy they cast apparently did a great audition but sadly just didn't perform on the day.

[@Barrlounge]

I've no idea if Roddenberry had a World History almanac to refer to, but in the Voyager episode where they travelled back to California, Janeway references that the entire coastal area is underwater and now a coral reef. So I imagine that Chekov and Uhura not finding their way to Almaeda might make sense. Plus, Imagine how different San Fran was 100 years ago. Imagine 200+ years later, after a catastrophic World War and resource drainage.

[@kurtwinter4422]

In that episode - they went to LA, not SF.

[@carlrood4457]

The novelization gets around the whole formula for transparent aluminum thing by having Scotty recognize the guy's name as the person who invented it.

[@carlrood4457]

The Alameda thing didn't bother me because, there's no guarantee it's still called that in 300 years. There's also been at least one world war in the interim, so it might not exist.

[@RJSRdg]

Yes, if it was being used as the base for the US's most powerful warships, it was going to be a major target.

[@BarryHart-xo1oy]

Good point.

[@cologne2792]

An absolutely outstanding review of my favourite Trek film and one of my very favourite films of any genre! How about a review of, "Support Your Local Sheriff "?

[@Grumpy-Fallboy]

it's also referred to as "The One That's Funny" 35 years after its debut.

[@ShamrockParticle]

Dated, it is! 😅

[@inkermoy]

I watched Star Trek 4: TVH seven times in the theater when it came out. I loved how the movie expands on the Federation and Starfleet Command. I love how we get to see starships being rendered useless and the sights of other captains dealing with it. And when the crew make it back to the future with the reveal of the Enterprise-A... Chef's Kiss! I also love the stuff in 1980's San Francisco and even the message about whaling. Is it really preachy? Maybe. But Meyer and Burnett were able to weave a great and entertaining story out of it, not letting the message overshadow the characters and the rest of the story. Gillian has a personal investment in the 2 whales and is not just some activist roaming around like a nut. So the movie has a strong ecological message and a diverse cast of characters with even a black woman (before Martin-Green as Burnham) being captain, but no one made hay of it back in the day. Maybe that's because the creators were talented enough to weave it into story and make it entertaining at the same time. As for the diversity of the Starfleet officers, you're not supposed to see skin color, you see competent people doing their jobs. That will ultimately earn one more respect than any other physical characteristic. All in all, a great film for anyone. Thanks for the review.

[@allenelliott5647]

Computations for time warp should always start with a jump to the left...

[@raybearoz]

Okay, I do need to watch this again... Great work

[@kosh6612]

lol. I was at my grandparents place who were watching Entertainment Tonight and I remember a clip of him boasting about being in a Trek movie and played the cafe clip shortly before the films release. I thought it was a tidbit that NOBODY but that guy would remember. Props!

[@richhopkins6968]

I actually love the time travel sequence- it’s like a dream and I love the 3 second end with the reeds on a lake! I reckon that’s Don Peterman’s (the DoP) idea!

[@billmurray7473]

Leonard Nimoy (Rest In Power 🙏) designed the film to be ' user - friendly ' , for Non- Trek fans. Which it was.

[@fredgrunder6348]

Really one of the best.

[@gjpyoung]

Terrific review/over view on one of my absolute favourites mate! You were bang on with your commentary, and brought many a wry smile from me! Good on ya!

[@StamFine]

Thanks

[@casbot71]

What haunts me is the Christmas Elf hats the Vulcan ground crew were wearing as they got the Klingon ship ready.

[@ourladyofguadalupebotanica6732]

It was never about the crew traveling from the 23rd century to the 20th century. It was the crew traveling from the 1960's to the 1980's. Awesome movie and so easy to watch.

[@carlrood4457]

This is one of the few times time travel works, mainly because it's primarily used as a way to get the characters to where they need to be and isn't the focus of the plot. Sure, there are things like the transparent aluminum and the glasses, but for the most part they left it simple. Also, my personal head canon is that the pill that regrew the old woman's kidney was created from the spores in the episode "This Side of Paradise".

[@inkermoy]

I think the scene where McCoy voices his concern about given the guy the formula to transparent aluminum is cut short, because in a deleted scene or the novel Scotty states the guy's name as the inventor of transparent aluminum. Just reading the wiki now, apparently they made some form of transparent aluminum even before the movie came out and patented it in 1980. Science!

[@nunyabizness6595]

Stam you're hilarious! Never change.😂

[@GrinderCB]

Not sure if they actually filmed the scene where Sulu meets an ancestor but they did film the scene where he steals the Huey but it got cut for time. In the finished film, he went from talking to an Air National Guardsman about it, to flying it with the plexiglass sheet.

[@monotonehell]

So when Stam Fine reviewed Battlestar Galactica, why did he not cover The Sound of Cylons by Simon & Garfunkel?

[@Otokichi786]

I look on "Star Trek IV" as a "Save the Whales" tale and could have been a Greenpeace recruitment film. It also helped that Comedy ran throughout the movie. Then there's Kirk Thatcher's Faux Punk song, "I Hate You.";) This movie was as great as a Romulan Ale-based cocktail, the Colorful Metaphor.

[@biotrekker]

The less said about Star Trek V, the better. Thank God for Star Trek VI.

[@LordTalax]

One can only wonder where Chekov got that sweet leather outfit

[@RighteousBrother]

Bonus points for the "sabotaging" gag

[@Scimarad]

Look, I'm sure I'm supposed to say something else but really this is my favourite one:)

[@All2Meme]

No, Stan, the one where they go back in time for giant spiders was the never-made Star Trek Voyager movie (Janeway needed some new ones for her giant spider terrarium on Deck 12).

[@jonathanfeldheim6554]

Haha this was my first exposure to Star Trek, I was 7 in theaters figuring it out like the 20th century lady

[@davidfausel9029]

1000 bonus points for the Shatner "sab-ah-taj" reference 😁👍

[@gakabler]

This movie is great. The novelization fills in a few loose ends and details that there wouldn't have been time for in a movie, including the Sulu ancestor pass-by and the removed Spock/Saavik pregnancy, just to name a few.

[@N0die]

Somehow I forgot that awful part w/ the etherial head busts but this video popped a Spock on it for me I’ll never be the same

[@adamholiday3450]

Not my favourite but still probably my most watched ST film. Oscar worthy special effects. Took me 3 decades to realise the whales were fake 😂. The scene of with rhe bird of prey going under the bridge still blows me away.

[@fatcat8033]

“Hello computer…” 👌

[@KyleRDent]

"-free Chekov before Russian to save-" I see what you did there.

[@jrmcdonald7510]

Ah, a fish out of water story! 😂 Also nice allusion to Bradbury's The Sound of Thunder. . . kind of.

[@jacobktan]

I still think that 'LDS' is not Kirk misremembering 'LSD' but a shot at Mormons.

[@pablosonic892]

I thought he was promoting them.

[@shaneh2357dw]

Spock blocker, brilliant😂.

[@noahheninger]

This is the best Trek film.

[@jeffstrawn3073]

The scene was about the dream they all had passed out at time warp

[@dougoloughlin6237]

Thanks! Small nitpick, it's Jane Wyatt playing Amanda Grayson (Spock's mom). Not "Amanda Wyatt."

[@rumrstv]

I wonder how many people got the great "Sabotage" joke at 6:36?

[@andrewblanchard2398]

FUN FACT the original preview for STAR TREK: TNG nearly killed that series it was a video of the USS EXCELSIOR leaving spacedock with the narrator saying : " JOIN THE CREW OF THE ALL NEW STARSHIP USS ENTERPRISE AS THEY BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE " then the USS EXCELSIOR went to warp millions of STAR TREK FANS wrote in to complain that a NEW series with the USS EXCELSIOR as the new USS ENTERPRISE would be unwatchable so the series got delayed so the redesigns could be made

[@petes5829]

yes! loved this growing up lol

[@mcrazza]

"The horror, the night sweats, the bed wetting" 🤣🤣🤣

[@Whiskey_Games_Caffine]

Great reviews Have you thought about looking at another Irving classic Time Tunnel

[@StoneyBrownTV]

Okay so what if the probe showed up and the whales told the probe... "They've been holding us in containment for years and looking at us day in and out. They feed us but we can't leave. Let's take this planet over. Send backup!"

[@lucasoheyze4597]

Then Star Trek V would have been a better film

[@shaggycan]

As much as I dislike the overuse of time travel in scifi, this movie does very well considering it is not based on a Starship, no real antagonist, more of an obstacle and it still works. Also I'd like to point out this is the movie that sets in canon that people from the 23rd century don't swear anymore. F*&%#ing PIcard. Oh and the score is trash, sounds like a score from a Hallmark Christmas movie. I also just noticed the nun from the diving scene is very cute.

[@RenePeraza]

After TMP, this was the movie that got me back into original cast Trek, so I back-tracked to II and III. The arc and storytelling device is priceless - you get the sci-fi and are very earthbound story for the price of one! I really think if the new (Kelvin timeline) movie cast were to do a IV of their own, they could follow a similar cost-saving formula of shooting on location - just change the story to a new McGuffin.

[@Steve-gc5nt]

What's not to love about this movie 😊

[@biotrekker]

Spock-blocking! LOL

[@carlrood4457]

The whole thing with aliens coming to talk to whales a couple years after extinction really stretches things because it means they somehow communicate over interstellar distances.

[@slayerstenis]

It's my number 1

[@brianskirk]

Love your videos.

[@Felchenstien]

It had a bigger budget than Part 3 but not big enough to afford a closed set on location. Check out all the extras gawking at the camera -- it's worse than a Larry Cohen movie. But seriously I love this movie. Great video.

[@gakabler]

One other note - several shots from this movie were recreated for sequences in early episodes of season 3 of Star Trek: Picard.

[@allimone5400]

This movie was liked by both Star Trek fans and non-Star Trek fans

[@Vandervecken]

So how do whales send messages across interstellar distances again? Inquiring minds want to know.

[@daiichidoku]

most men wouldnt even dare to try to attempt to repopulate the species with even one whale, but kirk is such a god damn sexual tyrannosaurus he is going to do the job with two whales at once. he'd would have done three or four if they could have found the extra ones.

[@stevefaul1710]

Would this be a good time for a colorful metaphor?

[@Cmdr1962]

Sulu's "ancestor" was a child actor who just couldn't relax and do the work, so they abandoned the story line.

[@Steve-gc5nt]

Can you imagine how George stropped about that 🤣

[@richardmattocks]

So popping a spock on it can also be a spock block. Sheesh. Spock can’t catch a break (even if he can guess a timewarp to the nearest minute) poor bloke.

[@feanol22]

That was really a $#@$# good review.

[@joshpinchuk7061]

I've been watching your videos for a few months now, and the play on words in this one is just fantastic. However, I didn't get the bit with the word sabotage?

[@rory_pond1701]

There's a YT clip that explains it perfectly: How does Kirk say "sabotage"? kzbin.info/www/bejne/jqfOc4xnf76so6c