WHALES??? STAR TREK 4: THE VOYAGE HOME (1986) - Movie Reaction - FIRST TIME WATCHING

[@trayolphia5756]

32:32 The novel of the movie actually “translates” the conversation between the whales and the probe…the text of that scene is as follows - [Probe] “why did you remain silent for so long?” They (the whales) tried to explain, but it reacted in surprise and disbelief. “Where were you?” It asked. “We were not here,” they replied, “but now we have returned. We cannot explain, traveller, because we do not yet understand all that has happened to us.” By ‘us’, the traveller understood them to mean themselves as individuals and all their kind for millions of years in the past. By their song it recognised them as youths. “Who are you?” It asked. “Where are the others? Where are the elders?” “They are gone,” the whales sang, with sadness. “They have passed into the deep, they have vanished upon white shores. We alone survive.” “Your song is simple,” the traveller said, chiding. It was not above petulance. “Where are the tales you have invented in all this time, and where are the stories of your families?” “They are lost,” replied the whale song. “All lost. We must begin again. We must evolve our civilisation again. We have no other answer.” The traveller hesitated. It wondered if perhaps it should sterilise the planet anyway espite the presence of the untaught singing youths. But if it began a new evolution here, the planet would be silent at least as long as it would take the traveller to circumscribe the galaxy. The traveller would have to endure the pain of the world’s silence. Organic evolution required so much time. Besides, the traveller possessed very little cruelty. It could consider destroying the young singers, but the conception caused great distress. It abandoned the idea. “Very well,” it said. “I shall anticipate young stories.” “Fare thee well.” The traveller fell silent. The whales bid it farewell. The traveller collected its energy. It ended its interference with the patterns of the blue-white planet. It caused to power the violent storms ravaging the surface. It sought its usual course, oriented itself properly, and sailed on a tail of brilliant flame into the blackness of the galaxy. - So for anyone who has ever wondered…that’s the text from the relevant chapter of the novel

[@hrs2044]

Never knew that, just awesome

[@corpopolis]

Wow that is great thank you!😮

[@tombo1984]

Brilliant. Of course it's worth noting that wales and dolphins serve on Federation Starships in the future. Referenced in Enterprise D ship schematics and shown in Star Trek Lower Decks.

[@itzakpoelzig330]

Wow, thanks for sharing with us! Very cool.

[@meajur]

I have that book. I also have _Probe_ where (for those who have not read it) it's revealed that the extraterrestrial telepathic whales that built the probe died off a long time ago. The probe has been carrying out a mission for creators that no longer exist.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

Fun Fact - Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) and Walter Koenig (Chekov) were actually just asking passersby if anybody could help them find the naval base in Alameda. The camera was hidden and nobody knew they were being filmed. The one lady who stopped to vaguely answer had to be chased down afterwards, advised she had just been filmed and signed up to Actors' Equity on the spot to allow her to be in the movie. Edit: I meant SAG (Screen Actors' Guild) card, not Actors' Equity.

[@ianbremner4436]

Another fun fact. When they are walking down the street and Sulu is looking into a window, they had made this take several times and on the last take a woman inside the shop George Takei is looing into flashed him.

[@Stephanie-StarTrekFan-is-Muji]

The woman was a passer by but the cop was a hired extra. I saw a panel with an expert that addressed this at the 2021 Star Trek Creation Convention in Las Vegas.

[@richnorcal]

Yeah that was a great scene, most people don't get the political situation at the time between East and West. It just makes it extra funny that a obvious Russian man is asking where the navy nuclear vessels are...brilliant

[@captainbryce1]

@@Stephanie-StarTrekFan-is-Muji Yeah, the cop had to be a hired extra because if a man walked up to a real cop in San Francisco and asked for "nuclear vessels" with a thick Russian accent in 1986, he probably would have been arrested on the spot.

[@thomasnieswandt8805]

Not completly right. The woman was not part of the movie. Her car was in the way and she asked if she could walk through the frame in return for her "bad parking spot" The filmcrew said yes, but also said "What ever you do, dont speak!" But by accident she answered the question. So they had to chase and stop her, because the moment you say something on camera (in the us) you have to be a registrated actor. So they had to sign her.

[@nathanielreik6617]

Chekhov has a Russian accent and when they time travelled they ended up around the end of the Cold War, so just imagine a random Russian in the middle of San Francisco in Cold War USA asking where to find the “nuclear wessels”.

[@sawin-rf7yr]

The executives at Paramount wanted subtitles between the probe and the whales but the director fought them on it. He argued that it gives the audience something to think about instead of having everything explained. I agree with him. I like when movies do that. It's more artistic and makes space more mysterious.

[@gordieparenteau6555]

"Human arrogance would assume that this message must be meant for Man"

[@ross8884]

Fun fact: Nimoy insisted no-one got killed in this movie. The previous one was so dark with several people dying so it partially explains the lighter positive tone to the movie

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

It's something I love about it and I wish more moviemakers would take note. You don't have to have deaths to make something gripping and high stakes. Although I do enjoy films with a good villain, I think it's pretty constricting and repetitive having the same 'gotta stop the bad guy' schtick every movie. I'd love Trek to become playful again.

[@jakerazmataz852]

It was an even number, it was destined to be good.

[@Jeremytorgersonofficial]

By the way, I was 15 and skipped school so that I could be the very first in line in my town to see this in a theater packed full of diehard Star Trek fans. The Denver Post actually came and interviewed me and I still have that article somewhere about the rabid fandom of Star Trek. I cannot tell you, after losing Spock and then our beloved Enterprise, the fans’ joy at seeing the 1701 - A on screen for the first time. I’ll never forget it. People roared and stood cheering and we didn’t even hear the rest of the film. People were hugging the guy next to them. Popcorn flying, it was pandemonium. It’s really awesome moment for Star Trek fans who thought they had lost so much up to that point. Star Trek 2 is incredible, but 4 is for many fans, the moment when Star Trek truly “came home”. The crew reunited, Kirk is Captain again, and the E never looked better. That’s why the title is so fitting. To truly appreciate this amazing franchise, you have to watch some TV. It is the television shows, much less than the movies, that give you the spirit of Star Trek.

[@marcbloom7462]

The woman playing Spock's mother, Amanda, is Jane Wyatt. She played the same character in the original series 19 years before. There's a belief that Saavik is carrying Spock's child, that's why she doesn't go back to Earth with them. @12:34 "It's just a jump to the left" They're in San Francisco, she's not going to bat an eye at their outfits. @20:17 The US Navy has had a few ships named Enterprise. The one at the time of filming was CVN-65, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier; that was not in SF at the time. They used the USS Ranger CV-65, which was conventionally powered, in the film. @50:39 When I saw this in the theater in it's first run, the audience cheered when the Bounty decloaked in front of the whaler.

[@karter95]

The Ranger was actually CV-61. Enterprise was CVN-65. The internal shots were on the Ranger as the Enterprise Nuclear reactor was classified. The Ranger also stood in for the Enterprise in Top Gun

[@marcbloom7462]

@@karter95 oops, thanks for catching the typo

[@Daniel-Strain]

Yes, this method of time travel was used a couple of times in the original series. They discovered it on accident. If you warp fast enough in a high gravity area (like near a star), the spacetime compression 'pops' you out of the warp envelope into normal space while you're still moving faster than light. In the microseconds before physics forces you to obey relativity, dropping you below the speed of light, you shift backwards in time.

[@oaf-77]

TOS episode 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'

[@leslauner5062]

@@oaf-77 And also TOS episode "The Naked Time." That one was a cold-start time warp.

[@Daniel-Strain]

@@oaf-77 Yes. Kirk also says in the opening of "Assignment: Earth" that they used the technique there too.

[@ronbeck201]

I thought it was the flux capacitor, they are in doc Brown's ship.

[@BigGator5]

"Don't tell me! You're from outer space." "No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space." Fun Fact: Scotty helps Dr. Nichols "invent" transparent aluminum, which, in real life, became possible 23 years later in 2009, developed partially by Professor Justin Wark of Oxford University's Department of Physics. I Hate You Fact: Associate Producer Kirk R. Thatcher cameos as the punk on the bus who is nerve pinched by Spock. Thatcher expressed displeasure at the music chosen for his boom box, and asked to write and perform a song that he feel would be more representative of his character. The result was the "I Hate You" song. Extra Nuclear Wessels Fact: The woman who answers Uhura and Chekov when they are looking for the nuclear "wessels" was an extra who was not supposed to speak. Layla Sarakalo had never acted before and "act naturally" was her instruction. So when she was asked, she improvised an answer. Much to Sarakalo's surprise, her unscripted line was kept in the film. Sarakalo happened upon the set when her car was towed away to make room for the film's production. Sarakalo offered to be an extra so that she could make money to get her car back.

[@LeChaunce]

Kirk R. Thatcher would later play the character again in an episode of Star Trek: Picard in a cameo similar to that scene.

[@DV80s]

This movie is special to me because it took place during my favorite years, my teen years in the '80s and it actually takes place in the '80s in the movie. Plus, Kirk and Spock trying to curse is like the cherry on top of a perfect cake.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

Same here - I was born in 1970 and thus was ten years old in 1980 and twenty in 1990. The eighties are my teen years.

[@DV80s]

@@tulinfirenze1990 Same here, September 1970.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

@@DV80s Awesome! June, 1970 for me - Didn't we have THE BEST movies in our young years? We grow up with Disney films (I still love the original "Pete's Dragon"!) and then get STAR WARS in our seventh year. Cut to the eighties and it's ET, ROTJ, the STAR TREK movies, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Terminator, The Goonies, Back to The Future, Aliens, Weird Science, all the fun slasher movies, The Last Starfighter, Young Sherlock Holmes, all the Amblin films and so on and so on!!!

[@DV80s]

@@tulinfirenze1990 Our teen years, even our pre-teen years were filled with hit after hit after hit. Correction: MEGA HIT after MEGA HIT. Today's generation rely on our blockbusters for their remakes. Sorry to say it for today's generation, but during our teen years, we were getting original hits one after the other, not just in movies, but also on TV and music and even wrestling was epic.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

@@DV80s Mate! (Aussie here) I was OBSESSED with WWF in the 1980's and yes, you're right - for MANY years now, kids have been treated to warmed over retreads of the MEGA HITS of our childhood and teen years! Which of those re-do's have been any good? Judge Dredd? There's not many of them that hold a candle to the original.

[@ghostsquirrel8739]

The punk on the bus was also responsible for writing and singing the song playing on his boom box. He was working on the movie in another capacity and they were going to license a punk song for use in the movie. Kirk Thatcher (the punk) was in a band and figured he could just write a song for the movie and save them money. So that’s what happened.

[@kevinsalt2719]

He also appeared in Star Trek: Picard

[@Jeremytorgersonofficial]

Yes, he was in the band “Edge of Etiquette”. If I remember him telling the story, they recorded this in a bathroom somewhere in the Paramont office building.

[@sarahfullerton6894]

I like that his first name is Kirk!

[@krissiep1317]

He just showed up in Disney’s Werewolf by Night.

[@ghostsquirrel8739]

@@krissiep1317 Indeed.

[@richardstarkey2247]

Let's just take a moment to appreciate the irony of them using Christopher LLoyd's ship to time travel in this movie.

[@christopherferrarelli2262]

Interesting fact: Nicholas Meyer, the director of Wrath of Khan, co-wrote the screenplay for this film. Ironically, one of the influences for the scenes where Kirk and the crew are in 20th Century San Francisco was Time After Time (1979); which was also directed by Meyer. Give it a reaction if you can.

[@bfdidc6604]

That remains one of my favorite films through the present. I have seen it reacted to but it’s uncommon.

[@lrsrosebud]

I love Time After Time!!

[@silkwesir1444]

very underrated movie

[@markharris1125]

When I saw this in the cinema, way back when, the whole audience applauded when the Bird of Prey decloaked in front of the whaling ship. A magical moment. There is a sequel to this story, of sorts, in the excellent graphic novel 'Debt of Honor'. Most of it is a series of linked stories looking into Kirk's past, but they're bookended by scenes of Kirk visiting Gillian as she studies the whales. We even see Gracie's baby being born. Well worth reading. I wonder if you'd like this more if you knew the original series back to front. After three very serious films, we finally saw a comedy episode, where our friends are having fun and having a ball. It was breath of fresh air. Plus, I fell in love with Gillian Taylor, so your comment that she was 'bland' grates on me just a little bit. And remember - there are still two more films with the original cast to go.

[@mikeclemens795]

Debt of Honor is a wonderful read.

[@bookkitty]

There was also a novel post four named Probe. But I forget exactly what happened, it been so long. I just remembered really liking it.

[@actioncom2748]

The whales were not CGI. They were robots that ran off of remote control. There's actually behind the scenes footage on how they made them.

[@trevorgoddard2278]

As always with films of this age it is never that simple. All the underwater shots of swimming whales are the 4 foot long remote control models, all the mid to long distance surface shots are of real whales, the whale Spock is communicating with and the surfacing whale in the aquarium are life size models of the relevant parts.

[@RolyPolyOllieReactions]

USE PROMO CODE: OLLIE15 for 15% off your order at Movie Palette!!! Website: moviepalette.com/ I didn't expect WHALES!! This movie was so much fun and the comedic tone was actually very refreshing! Some really fun character moments as well as having Spock try to be hip and cool made for a fun Star Trek experience! Thanks for watching! Have a great day! :)

[@Serai3]

Fun fact: There are no whales in this movie. Scratch that - there's one bit of real whales, and that's near the end when you see them breaching the surface from a distance. CGI did not exist at all at the time - every shot of the whales aside from that one bit of footage was achieved with puppets: small ones for the long shots, and massive pieces for the closeups. (Spock in the Institute tank is sitting on the fin of a mechanical whale section.) The effects were so seamless that animal rights groups tried to have the film investigated!

[@robertjewell9727]

If you see a roadsign that says,Expectations Ahead veer off rapidly and find a better course.

[@Serai3]

@@robertjewell9727 Hey, it's better than being stuck in the Doldrums forever. :D

[@daleflannery7667]

There was multiple times they went back in time in the original Star Trek is in the first season I believe called Tomorrow is yesterday in it they accidentally slingshot around the Sun and ended up back in time and was discovered in Earth's atmosphere with the Enterprise and the Earth people of that century had the Enterprise filmed on camera by playing cameras so they had to erase the camera footage of the Enterprise being in the atmosphere because it would alter history

[@daleflannery7667]

Another time they went back in time was called assignment Earth and it was supposed to lead to a spin-off television series but never got off the ground with a guy named Gary Evans who was an alien that traveled through time to cause historical event to keep Earth going on the path to Starfleet and at the time the Enterprise was observing Earth's history by staying in orbit and they accidentally intercepted Gary and they didn't know what his mission really was cuz he wouldn't tell them and they ended up sort of interfering then too back in time another time travel event in the Star Trek television series was called city on the edge of forever but they didn't go or slingshot around the Sun they simply went through a corridor and went back in time and in the event bones took some bad medicine that caused him to go psychotic and he went through the gate and altered history to where the Nazis got the nuclear bomb which erased Starfleet in Star Trek so Kirk and Spock had to go through the gate at the precise time Bones did and fix history

[@chrisleebowers]

36:46 "Imagine trying to pitch this to executives..." As outlandish as the underlying concept is, this was the movie that brought Star Trek out of niche nerd fandom into the mainstream. The first three did well enough to keep making more, but to people who weren't naturally drawn to complex, challenging science fiction, Star Trek was thought of as Star Wars with less action and more technobabble . (ST2WOK's cult status took some years of home video and cable reruns to develop) "Voyage Home" was the one that made Trek as well known as Star Wars, if not as popular. Whales were in serious trouble in 1986 and it was all over the news at the time, (they still are, but all the activism and media attention back then helped stabilize the threat and slowed their population reduction somewhat) and Star Trek has always had a progressive social and political agenda, so it was natural fit for a reason to go back in time. And then, the Enterprise crew in modern San Francisco was apparently easier for non-nerds in 1986 to wrap their brains around than Klingons and V'ger; and it made for a fun, painless entry point into a franchise that most people thought of as a dense, complicated mythopaeia that wasn't friendly to newbies.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

Yep - I had PLENTY of friends and parents of friends who either saw this on the big screen or watched it later on home video and really enjoyed it, much to their own surprise!

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

@@tulinfirenze1990 Yup, this movie is my gateway drug I prescribe friends and family. I just tell them not to worry about the court scene, just know Kirk's been naughty and is off to 'space jail' at the start in a stolen pirate ship.

[@justinp4996]

Star Trek has always been forward thinking. The whales were a simple way for us to connect as an audience with the harm humans were doing to the planet in the 1980s, from the environment and impact on species. I always think of this as the eco movement star trek movie, and this isn't a bad thing. Always enjoy seeing your fresh perspective on these films.

[@hrs2044]

Can you imagine this movie coming out today? It would be criticized by some as being too "woke." Ugh it feels like we're going backwards 😖

[@stevemattfis]

The reason things aren't living up to the expectations you had been told are based in the high points in the Original TV series. We had those memories and had twenty years of hopes/expectations so when the movies came out we were living our hopes with these scenes. Not having the episodes/high points held in for twenty years you are seeing through our eyes about that build up but not through your own years of dreams.

[@tulinfirenze1990]

So true! It was SUCH a special time! TOS was still on re-runs in the afternoon where I lived and the movies, at this point were about every two years apart. I looked forward to them like I looked forward to my birthday or Christmas. Going to see a new STAR TREK movie SO incredibly special. When the trailers finished, the lights came down, the theatre curtain opened just a little bit wider and the Paramount logo appeared on the big screen ..... God I am SO GLAD I was alive back then.

[@richardhoehn9922]

I was 17 when this film came out. The space shuttle Challenger, from the dedication, exploded shortly after my birthday. And you left out the funny scene with the old lady in the hospital that gets the "Doctor McCoy pill" and grows a new kidney!

[@GenXCellent1970]

You're gonna LOVE part 6..... Enjoy the sparks that exist in 5. When this came out the save the Whales was a huge movement so it was very topical at the time. The year this came out was the year i got my drivers license and i remember borrowing the car and seeing this nearly every weekend for like two months( movies stayed in theatres much longer back then). It was great growing up with this crew in the theatre.... Having a great time watching your reactions, like I'm reliving them again, thanks!!!

[@RolyPolyOllieReactions]

Thank you for watching! I am glad you are enjoying them!!! :) I would have been so cool to see any of these movies in theatres

[@Jim-Mc]

Love your username, and "Six" is lowkey my favorite Trek movie.

[@Sgt_Glory]

@@Jim-Mc same here, 6 is straight fire

[@trayolphia5756]

Yeah, many fans consider 6 and 2 to be neck and neck for best of the original films 5 sadly is considered poor compared to the rest, but 2-3-4 had the benefit of being multi part A lot of the good points in 5 were the comedic ones…my personal favourite is a continuance of the bickering between McCoy and Spock gap from this movie, notably around a campfire…and a certain outburst of exasperation from McCoy Won’t specify further to avoid potential spoilers

[@paulmurgatroyd6372]

In the original series, Kirk jumped around the timeline quite a bit. As the Department of Temporal Investigations described him: "The worst offender".

[@richardhoehn9922]

"The man was a menace."

[@glennwisniewski9536]

Some actors in this have had famous roles (or jobs) in the past. Robert Ellenstein (Federation Council President) was one Cary Grant's abductors in North by Northwest. Brock Peters (Admiral Cartwright) was the man on trial in To Kill a Mockingbird. Jane Wiedlin (Alien Communications Officer) is one of The Go-Go's. Vijay Amritraj (Starship Captain) was a professional tennis player.

[@wrdreacts4247]

Brock Peters is Vader in the Star Wars radio dramas. They are amazing and on KZbin. Highly recommended.

[@wrdreacts4247]

Jane Wiedlin danced with me at a wedding....... I was very young. LOL

[@emwungarand]

The whales didn't swim from SF to AK in less than 24 hours. Gillian mentions earlier in the film that they will be transported by air in a specially modified Boeing 747

[@tinkinc85]

In the opening act Madge Sinclair plays the captain of the USS Saratoga which you called an ugly ship:-). This is canonically the first female captain of a ship in Star Trek and the first woman of color commanding a starship. Regardless of what you have heard in the decade since. Also of note is the only other Starship Captain you see is someone of Southeast Asian descent capturing the Yorktown

[@MLJ7956]

She also played chief engineer Geordi Laforge (Levar Burton) mother on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation 😉🖖

[@tulinfirenze1990]

That other person was Vijay Armitage - a famous tennis player at the time and STAR TREK fan who asked to be in the movie.

[@MLJ7956]

@@tulinfirenze1990 - Vijay was also in (and very good in) the James Bond film Octopussy (1983) with Roger Moore...

[@AlistairBrugsch]

And of course the Yorktown became the enterprise-A

[@dupersuper1938]

@@AlistairBrugsch I don't buy that.

[@FrankJReynolds]

The Enterprise crew went back in time in the series episodes “Tomorrow is Yesterday,” “Assignment: Earth,” and they kind-of do in “The City on the Edge of Forever” (“City” is the best Trek episode ever.)

[@danboyle7165]

And they did so many times since in the other series, 2 of which were time travel to the very year of episode filming like with TVH (1 in VOY, & 1 in ENT).

[@RyanBlazeheart]

The Naked Time also had time travel right at the end to get away from the planet disintegrating into Ice and had the disease that made everyone feel drunk.

[@Tigermania]

I still laugh for the old lady who was excited to have grown a new kidney after Bones gave her a pill.

[@Strout1791]

Same! Lol 😂

[@jameswoods4793]

As a dialysis patient that would be amazing.

[@richardhoehn9922]

A dear friend of mine recently passed away from kidney failure. I remember thinking about this scene when she first told me about having to go through dialysis.

[@DennisKochAuthor]

For those who unaware, all starships eject a log buoy in an emergency so all data is preserved and last shots of any activity is shot.

[@trayolphia5756]

As a kid my parents had this movie and the original Star Wars trilogy on tape for me to watch to my hearts content Seeing a reactor actually take the time to go through and watch them is a true blessing, as I’ve watched them many many times since childhood, to get that first time sensation and thrill is a truly special thing indeed If you intend to continue the Star Trek film series, even if it’s off camera, before watching film 8 - FIRST CONTACT, it is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to watch a trio of episodes from “the next generation” in order to fully understand the gravity of the situation. It is available on Netflix - if not in your area set VPN location to Australia and it will be there Season 2 - “Q WHO Season 3 - “best of both worlds” ( 2-part season ended cliffhanger)

[@shainewhite2781]

Fun fact: Eddie Murphy, a huge fan of the franchise, was going to be in this movie as a college professor and when he meets Kirk Spock and the Enterprise crew, he learns that they are time travelers that need to get back to the 23rd Century. Unfortunately, Murphy was too busy working on Beverly Hills Cop 2 at the time.

[@ckobo84]

Wasn't Eddie Murphy closer to college student age?

[@tulinfirenze1990]

During the crisis moments at Starfleet Emergency Headquarters there is a famous onscreen cameo. A few years before, Leonard Nimoy (pronounced Nee-moy) had cameoed in a music video for the all girl pop group, The Go-Go's. Their lead singer, Jane Wiedlin was a HUGE STAR TREK fan and used to watch the original series as a girl. When she found out Nimoy was going to be directing STAR TREK IV, she asked if there was any role for her. You will see a female Starfleet officer appear on a large wall-mounted view screen at the back of the room. She has the famous Astroboy hair style and has thus been labelled Lieutenant Astrogirl. Wiedlin has spoken over the years of what a massive thrill it was to film for a STAR TREK movie for a day and be directed by one of her idols.

[@jcarterla]

I was at a club in LA and was out on the patio talking to this woman for about an hour when I told her she reminded me of Jane Wiedlin from the GoGo's and she told me it was because she was Jane. I was gooped.

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

@@jcarterla Ha! Wow, that's a night to remember! :D

[@captmurdock]

That music video that Nimoy cameo'd in wasn't for the Go-Go's -- it was the Bangles' "Going Down to Liverpool." But yes, that is Jane Weidlin rockin' the Astro Boy haircut.

[@Jeremy-83]

I remember people used to complain that the people who played savvik didn't do a good job of hiding emotions, not realizing savvik was half Romulan...

[@henrikharbin5521]

Hi, Ollie :) Fun fact: the young lady who answered them when they were looking for Alameda was a random extra who didn't have any lines. Because she ad libbed her response, they almost cut her out, but Leonard Nimoy liked her so much that he decided to keep her... So they hired her and gave her an actors' union card so they could legally pay her for the scene.

[@wrdreacts4247]

Not quite, she wasn't an extra. She was a random woman, walking on the street, that somehow got past the barricades, and didn't realize there was a camera on them. They had to chase her down to get her to sign the papers to allow herself to be on film. That was in a commentary track on the Director's Special Edition tin box set. 🖖

[@Daniel-Strain]

Yeah there was a random camera in space - it was on the Klingon Bird of Prey, which they have control of :)

[@mikejankowski6321]

They did a recap in III, they had to do a recap in IV. Have to help the audience keep up!

[@jorgezarco9269]

The NASA Challenger disaster happened on January 28th, 1986 in Florida. All seven crew members died. It was a dark, somber day. My father saw the whole thing on Univision. There was an O-ring seal failure 73 seconds into the flight.

[@wrorchestra1]

Star Trek has always used it's setting as a platform to cover issues of the day. In the 60's they dealt with Racism and prejudice. This was Leonard Nimoy's way of addressing the environmental issues concerning whale hunting. It was also his idea to, and I quote, "kick off our heels and do a caper." It is a voyage home but home for Kirk and his crew is not Earth, it's the Enterprise.

[@zulby09]

My 2 cents’ contribution to my most favourite ST movie sequel: the 2 chasing cops in the hospital scene might be a wry nod to William Shatner’s role as a cop in the tv series TJ Hooker which incidentally ended its run in 1985, the year this movie went into production.

[@RobinWells89]

I'd forgotten just quite how hilarious it is to hear Spock say "double-dumbass on you", albeit while quoting Kirk 😅

[@nancyomalley6286]

But McCoy *DID* die once-in the TOS episode "Shore Leave". He was impaled with a lance by a knight he 'imagined'

[@LordVolkov]

Voyage Home is my fave of the classic Trek movies. The whole crew being 'fish out of water' in the past to bring back whales to the future is great, and there's a lot of good fun to be had. "Nuclear wessels!"

[@kuribayashi84]

Yeah, they filmed the scenes set onboard the Aircraft Carrier on an *actual* Carrier, the USS Ranger (the "real" USS Enterprise was at sea at the time, as far as I know), with its crew serving as Extras. And the Whales were realized using animatronic miniatures. They looked so real at the time that Greenpeace actually complained to the filmmakers. Also, it was suggested by someone in the production that the final "conversation" between the Probe and the Whales should be subtitled, but Nimoy and Harve Bennett were adamant that it should go without and leave the contents of their interaction to the imagination of the filmgoers. The Novelisation contains a "Translation", though.

[@craigm3353]

If you like time travel movies I have one of my favorites for you to react to. The Final Countdown (1980) The U.S.S. Nimitz goes back to December 6th, 1941. It's filmed on the Nimitz.

[@brandonflorida1092]

A good movie.

[@karter95]

Very good classic movie

[@crownprincesebastianjohano7069]

The score for this film was nominated for an Oscar.

[@shag139]

The USS Enterprise in 1986 was the lead carrier in the Enterprise Class and first nuclear powered carrier. 8 other ships have named Enterprise including a WWII carrier

[@71lizgoeshardt]

Glad someone pointed this out when Ollie seemed confused. I grew up on naval bases and I've been on the Enterprise numerous times. This scene in the movie always got cheers.

[@dwmadroxxide5090]

This is the only Star Trek movie where nobody dies.

[@Serai3]

The scene where they were mingling around in San Francisco was covertly filmed; none of the people they spoke to knew about the movie. That cop was doubtless trying to decide if he should arrest this obvious Soviet spy who kept asking about "nuclear wessels". 🤣

[@wrdreacts4247]

No, the cop was security for the film set, they told him to act blankly. The woman that said it's across the bay was rando that got through the barricades, everyone else was planned.

[@DV80s]

There's about 2 or 3 times the Enterprise crew traveled back in time. Maybe a few more times by other means, like portals.

[@itzakpoelzig330]

As a person who has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area all my life, including Alameda, and has been to that aquarium many times (it's actually in Monterey, not San Francisco), I feel like I'm obliged to consider this my favorite Star Trek movie. Fortunately for me, that's no hardship!

[@Jim-Mc]

On Star Trek: the Next Generation the Enterprise schematics show a deck called " Cetacian Ops." So presumably whales and dolphins went on to be officially employed by Star Fleet.🤣

[@Iymarra]

Lower Decks has Cetacian Ops too, and that's a canon show. There's dolphins on crew!

[@1978rharris]

@@Iymarra and beluga whales

[@deadNightwatchman]

Cetacean

[@AlistairBrugsch]

@@Iymarra the TNG technical manual is canon and this is where the cetacean ops in lower decks comes from. It's just that LD is the first time we got to see them on screen. But then by that token, the enterprise D also has a duck room...

[@dupersuper1938]

@@AlistairBrugsch But Cetacean Ops gets mentioned in an announcement on TNG, albeit in an alternate timeline.

[@DP-hy4vh]

Transparent Aluminum is real. It's called Aluminum Oxynitride (ALON). It was most likely inspired by this movie.

[@colonelb]

Great reaction to a classic. One of the things worth noting about this one is if you go and do an image search for "humpback whale population by year", you'll see charts that show that the population started to climb after this movie came out, and that's due in part to the awareness of how endangered humpback whales were at the time this was made. It's cool to see Star Trek's impact on the real world manifest in interesting ways like that. Cheers.

[@robertstephens1203]

I rate the 6 movies as follows: II, VI, IV, III, I, V. BTW, watching in a theater really adds to the experience, especially for the first movie. It's like the difference between frozen pizza and restaurant pizza.

[@lexiburrows8127]

Pretty decent, though I would change the first two listings around.

[@mikejankowski6321]

@@lexiburrows8127 Ditto!

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

I went to see the first one on the big screen in the latest remastered cut. It knocked my socks off. What surprised me even more was that it was in a double bill with Wrath of Khan, and I found myself actually enjoying ST:TMP more! (Though maybe I overwatched TWoK back in the day)

[@robertstephens1203]

@@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures I want to see the remastered cut. I have heard good things about it. I watched TMP opening weekend back in '79. What an event. I ended up watching it 13 times in the theater. I admit that I fell asleep a few times during Spock's tour of V'ger then awoke abruptly during the Sick bay scene with all that white. It was blinding. Good times.

[@davidklinginsmith34]

If it's not the best Star Trek movie, then it's certainly one of the most enjoyable. 😄 I feel like I could watch it anytime and be in a good mood throughout the whole thing.

[@trayolphia5756]

22:45 Star Trek has been noted as the inspiration and direct cause for creation of technologies we take/took for granted. The original series showed concepts for things that didn’t exist at the time Desktop personal computers Mobile/flip phones Doors that automatically opened after sensing your approach Hell, they pretty much had SKYPE back then on their systems as well This film introduced “Transparent Aluminium”…and it IS an ACTUAL THING today. It was a few years ago when there were announcements made about its development, and was being described as being a likely component of future modules and other crafts for earth orbit, as it was less bulky, lighter, and more importantly, more durable than glass to withstand debris impacts

[@DogwafflDan]

The monochrome Macintosh peronsal computer was released in 1984 and Amiga personal computer (considered the first multimedia computer and first computer with a preimtive operating system) were released in 1985, although Windows 3 (the fist 32 bit version of windows) was still 4 years away when the film came out. The film also featured some really early 3D scanning of human figures.

[@trayolphia5756]

@@DogwafflDan I remember my families first computer with windows 3.11 Computer booted up, you’d hear the whirring and clicking sounds inside, then up came the prompt “C:\ _” “C:\win”…enter… Windows opens…the old days when you had to manually tell the computer to open the operating system…

[@majkus]

Leonard Rosenman composed the music. He had also composed the score for the Ralph Bakshi "Lord of the Rings" animated film, a pretty good score. There was a bit of similarity that people did notice at the time.

[@airmaildolphin7013]

We now use transparent aluminum IRL. Another name for it is sapphire and we can make it artificially. It shows great promise for things like the windows of spaceships.

[@gordieparenteau6555]

Transparent Aluminum is actually a real thing that exists right now IRL.

[@Will-nn6ux]

I love the fact that since this movie was made, the population of humpback whales has significantly recovered, and their conservation status is now 'Least Concern'.

[@danmanmtn2331]

Originally, during Spock’s training scene, the computer asked who invented transparent aluminum and that guy was the answer. They cut that question, but it would have made for some nice continuity.

[@blacktronlego]

6:10 His name is 'Sarek' he is Spock's father and a Vulcan Diplomat, I believe he is the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth. 12:12 It seems we may have averted this future by banning the hunting of whales except for scientific research. I believe Japan are the only country that has not banned hunting whales. 24:15 You cannot repopulate a species with only four individuals, especially not four related individuals, you need a much wider gene pool. 35:14 It is not quite the same as the original Enterprise, but it is more similar to it than many of the other ships we have seen. 36:36 They have done time travel before, I'm not sure if they used the 'slingshot round a star' method before, but they certainly did time travel in the Original Series, a couple of times, I think.

[@fd009597]

Gas in 86 was about 1.49 where i grew up so 100.00 was Alot..and the Guy on the Bus spoke Nerve pinched...reappears in Picard same Actor

[@EvanG529]

I love how clueless you were about what a wild ride this movie was going to be. You didn't see any of that coming.

[@themotleycollector]

You think the space cylinder was weird -- check out the discovery of the asteroid Oumuamua in 2017. It was described as the first interstellar object we've ever seen. It made so many people think of this movie.

[@strongdecaf3729]

If you'd asked people in 1986 if the whales were CGI, they would've looked confused and asked "what's CGI stand for?" (They probably also would've asked you what you meant by "cosplay" and rolled their eyes when they learn it just means "wearing a costume".)

[@nluna75]

Maybe to the general audience member but CGI tech was used in Tron and The Last Starfighter before this movie was made.

[@Omegafire17]

You repeatedly mentioned the main crew's strange outfits (from our view), and how the 20th century people are probably making fun of them in their heads ^In reality, when the cast were filming in San Francisco in their costumes, literally no one batted an eye at their appearances. They see weird(er) stuff every day :P

[@jonathanmurphy3141]

Yes, “Whales” for this adventure and environmental message. If “Wales”,…quite different 😉 What would the adventure be, if Trek visited the Welsh? (Fine people, great landscape, food and music)

[@MI-hz1cp]

Hey man, I love you. Reactions. Especially to the original series. Fun fact, Kirk's bird of prey. The SS bounty Is retrieved from the bottom of San Francisco Bay by Geordi LaForge. Starfleet had a hard time finding it because its cloaking device was still working. And in Star Trek Picard, The cloaking device is stolenby Picard's son, Jack and La forges daughter Sydney.

[@jonathanmurphy3141]

“The song is coming from San Francisco!” says Uhra to Krik. It would have been too comedic if they tuned into Tony Bennett crooning his ode to San Fran’, or the crew tracked down The Greatful Dead grooving a concert. 😎🎸 The symphony score, by Leonard Rosenman for ST4 is an odd one. He had done the score for “Lord of the Rings” 1978, Ralph Bakshi, animated only half of the epic,..and, there are some shared music elements, between the two films. 🤔

[@Osprey850]

Since it sounded like you might be unfamiliar, there have been 8 real ships named Enterprise since the Revolutionary War era. The 7th was the most decorated ship in WWII and the 8th was the world's first nuclear-powered carrier. The latter is the one featured in this movie (at least in name). Because of the history and prestige associated with the name, Gene Roddenberry adopted it for his starship when he created Star Trek. It was neat that this movie paid respect to that inspiration and just neat to think of the name carrying on from the 18th century all the way to the 23rd. Also, you noted that the inside of Star Trek's Enterprise looks a bit like a boat. One reason why Roddenberry picked a real ship name for his starship is that he envisioned it as a space version of a naval flagship. He also based James T. Kirk partly on Horatio Hornblower, a fictional 19th-century sea captain in a book series that was popular in the decades preceding the creation of Star Trek.

[@Steve-gc5nt]

There have also been British RN ships called Enterprise. There is one still in the fleet today.

[@johnnie2638]

Someone with a Russian accent asking where American nuclear vessels are kept during the Cold War. Still funny after all these years. 😄 The whales were actually 4ft long remote control models. FX back then had to be practical as CGI would have been in its infancy. There were some examples of CGI in film as far back as the 70s in the movie Westworld but this kind of imagery was prohibitively expensive and the effects were limited. This movie employed CGI in the dream sequence during the time warp to 20th century Earth.

[@imafgc]

One of the things I love about the Star Trek movies is just how different they are, like as you say imagine pitching this movie after the wrath of khan lol. It's a movie series which hasn't really been replicated imo

[@wrdreacts4247]

Brock Peters (Admiral Cartwright), is the voice of Vader in the Star Wars radio dramas. He's amazing! I actually like Brock's Vader more than James Earl Jones... The radio dramas are a lot longer than the movies, a lot of great new scenes. Definitely recommend listening to them here, on KZbin.

[@magesentron]

So the view screen they're watching isn't an image like we're used to but a 3 dimensional image with depth, like a recreation in a game, with fully 3D environment. When they're watching a view screen they can zoom around a room and interpolate the image from the information around it. That's why, in some cases, when the captain is standing in front of a view screen, you can see the sides of both actor's faces, unlike a 2D image. You're seeing what amounts to a 3D display, like looking through a window. That's how they can recreate images like the destruction of the Enterprise, but its also how, in episodes like Balance of Terror, they were able to look around the room with the image from the screen. It's future tech! Lots of people miss that bit in Star Trek.

[@PeterEvansPeteTakesPictures]

Oh. Okay. I just thought the Klingons had rented Star Trek III on DVD. Makes sense.

[@nedrini1055]

The reason why this movie was the most successful Star Trek of this generation is because at the time save the whales was a very big movement. So it hit home to a lot of people.

[@defunctus408]

A Russian guy asking where he can find a nuclear vessel during the Cold War was sus. 🤣

[@brockbaby]

Making a comedy was a massive risk. But the risk paid off to be one of the funniest movies of all time.

[@TheCkent100]

Fun Fact: "Beam me up Scotty" was never actually said in the original series or in any of the movies. The closest they came was at 29:00 . That is similar to the oft repeated phrase credited to "Casablanca" - "Play it again, Sam", which was also never actually spoken in the film. In "Casablanca", Ilsa comes the closest to saying it with "Play it, Sam. Play 'As Time Goes By.' " Bogart (Rick) actually only says "Play it." By the way, dolphins are whales. They are the smallest of the parvorder Odontoceti or toothed whales. Humpback whales are of the parvorder Mysticeti or baleen whales.

[@lesphinxinfotech9180]

i love your reactions ! Your so emotionnal its cool to see you discover why we all love star trek ! 😁😁

[@visionaryventures12]

This premiered in December 1986. Star Trek: The Next Generation began its seven season run in September 1987. It has the Enterprise-D.

[@inarar5334]

The punk with the boombox on the bus (he's a musician that works a lot on movies) turned up in Spider-Man Homecoming of all things. When the hot dog vendor tells Spidey to do a flip, that's him with the beard and, still, a boombox.

[@ashleywilliams1060]

Chekhov, a Russian, being interrogated by the military police at the height of the Cold War was hilarious.

[@richardb6260]

The Enterprise was an aircraft carrier. In the rec room in Star Trek: The Motion Picture there's a mural that shows all the incarnations of ships called Enterprise and one is the aircraft carrier. A sailing ship is also included as well as some earlier starships before Kirk's ship. They time traveled a few times in the original TV series using the timewarp method. Both by accident and on purpose. Various crew members have also time traveled using portals on aliens planets. Actually the budget for this as film was larger than the budgets for the previous two films. But Shatner and Nimoy got a big pay raise.

[@oaf-77]

She was the pride of the US navy and was in service for over 50 years.

[@s.henrlllpoklookout5069]

"Tell my mother...I feel fine"

[@shauncraigparkinson8165]

6, 7 and 8 are my favs. The Undiscovered Country, Generations, and First Contact. I do love The Motion Picture, and The Wrath of Khan too.

[@thesilversage1]

Fun fact from the novelization: its a little odd and out of character that spock would jump the fence to get in the whale tank in front of so many people when that could have gotten them detained, arrested, in some kind of big trouble. It would have been more logical to beem in at night. Kirk gave him a soft drink earlier. A diet coke if i remember right. Something spock had never been exposed to. The artificial sugar actually made him drunk. Thus jumping fences in front of everyone, dropping the fact he knew gracie was pregnant. He lost a bit of good judgment for a while.

[@mikejankowski6321]

Well now we know the answer to McCoy's question from the series. No, you can't handle a drunk Vulcan.

[@rashka134]

The reason why James doohan aka scotty is typing a little funny is because he is missing fingers on his left or right hand due to his combat experience in world war 2 and I actually got to meet scotty when I was about 9 or ten and he was very kind and generous and autographed a picture I still have to this day

[@tulinfirenze1990]

Right hand - I noticed it when he shook my hand when I met him in 1991. I was a ST fan my whole life and I had never known that about him.

[@sawin-rf7yr]

His missing finger is noticable in Star Trek 5. I hadn't noticed it before until that movie when he is holding up the food rations.

[@Parallax-3D]

James Doohan was Canadian, and was on Juno Beach on D-Day. The finger was lost due to friendly fire.

[@okeefe757]

I would say it's a sci-fi comedy basically. Originally, Eddie Murphy was supposed to co-star, but he couldn't due to scheduling conflicts between this movie and Beverly Hills Cop II. I think you'll like Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country a lot more. Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is just silly.

[@DogwafflDan]

Yeah, if you like Klingons, there's lots more on the way. The next 3 films have Klingons.

[@stevemccullagh36]

Wasn't so much scheduling conflicts, more that Murphy would have been waaaaaaay out of their price range.

[@gggooding]

_Time After Time_ (1979) was written/directed by the co-writer of this. It's very similar/different. He (Nick Meyer) also wrote and directed Trek's 2 and 6.

[@oaf-77]

Great movie. Great cast.

[@gggooding]

@@oaf-77 there's a hour long discussion with McDowell and Warner about Time After Time (Trek certainly comes up). It's on KZbin, no need to watch, charming to listen to if you're inclined.

[@kosh6612]

love this film. Time Warp was a thing, they accidentally discovered in the original series in a great episode centered around a real life UFO incident of a US fighter encounter with a UFO (ep Tomorrow Is Yesterday, the Mantell UFO incident). The timing of this film can not be understated. Humpbacks (among others) were VERY close to extinction, the population health now is a bit of a success story. This film came at a perfect time and helped tip popular opinion into stronger international action. A morbid movie fact.. the new Enterprise presented to the crew at the end was one of the Starships that lost power at the start of the film. All the crew asphyxiated. The bodies were cleaned out and the ship renamed Enterprise. Semi confirmed by Roddenbery. I always get chills when the Bird Of Prey decloaks in front of the whaling wessel. To answer your question as someone who saw a UFO fairly close (about the same as the garbo's in the movie), no we don't tell many people and one of the people in our group said "nope, I didn't see that" and refuses to speak of it again. Another fun movie fact, the whale models were so good the producers had a complaint about animal treatment. Since I am already writing War&Peace.. it was not essential to watch the original ep before Wrath of Kahn, but it would help A LOT to see at least 3 eps from The Next Generation BEFORE First Contact (S02Ep16 Q Who, and S03ep26/s4ep01 Best OF Both Worlds)... bonus ep s04ep2 for insight into Picard's headspace following events from the previous ep. Watch Them before Generations if you want the vibe of the TNG crew from the series before you see their cinematic debut. It would be a good introduction before a 'meh' first movie (imo)

[@itzakpoelzig330]

What did the UFO look like that you saw? Don't leave us hanging on what sounds like a very cool story!

[@candicelitrenta8890]

I used to live in Santa Cruz, California which is in the Monterey Bay area. In Davenport 10 miles up the coast from SC, they have whales in the ocean, and you could see them really good, and they would spout water from the top. It was so cool, but way before phones with camera's so I never got a shot of one

[@katwithattitude5062]

Using blue works for the oceans. The Enterprise that was destroyed in the last movie had the number NCC1701. The new Enterprise at the end was another starship that was renamed and renumbered as NCC1701-A. The Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation was NCC1701-D. Other Enterprises make appearances in other TV series and movies.

[@johnandrews3151]

This movie won an award. Many of the scenes featuring whales in this movie were done with props!

[@BondFreek]

This was the biggest hit Star Trek ever made. Adjusted for inflation this is still the highest grossing Star Trek ever.

[@ControlTouchMaster]

Time traveling has been a part of Star Trek since the original series.

[@Dularr]

City on the Edge of Forever is considered the best episode of the original series. it was also a time travel episode. This movie borrowed a time travel method form another episode.

[@TTM9691]

I'm laughing just at the thumbnail! Yeah, what's great about this is: the TV series had different "kinds" of episodes, and so this movie hits two kinds: the lighter comedic type, and the ones where they go back to Earth (or go to an Earth-like planet). The movies are basically just a half hour longer than a movie so basically these films are just like getting new episodes. :D

[@catbyte0679]

FYI, humpback whales "stand" upside down when they sing. It's their natural position. It was cool that the probe assumed the same position to communicate with them. Great movie & review.

[@trayolphia5756]

35:22 this was in an era before “after credit” scenes, but through the first half of the credits are some replays of parts of scenes, there’s also some footage that isn’t seen in the main film…while Kirk is inside trying to free the trapped whales, Dr Gillian Taylor and Scotty are climbing out of the escape hatch on the bridge, the credits show Scotty trying to climb down but slips and falls in the water

[@Beuwen_The_Dragon]

Hey now, stop hating on the Miranda Class Starship, they’re doin the best they can. They’re the valiant Little Work ponies of the Federation.

[@mattbowen1022]

Having whales in the movie made sense for the culture at the time this movie was made. Whale extinction and over hunting was a huge political issue so it would have been a hot topic and attracted an audience. In a way it's kind of like "Free Willy", where the kid saves a killer whale.