Here is the fourth and silliest movie in the Star Trek franchise, now on rerelease for its 40th anniversary. Directed by Leonard Nimoy, it’s a film of pure shark-jumping or rather whale-jumping absurdity. The film’s opening credits proclaim, with sublime confidence in its own unquestioned pop-cultural importance in the field of space travel, that Star Trek IV is dedicated to the crew of the space shuttle Challenger, which had that year catastrophically exploded midair, killing all seven of them.
Spock has been brought back to life, as the apparent end result of all the bizarre metempsychotic plot contortions of the previous film. But the permanent and irrevocable death of Kirk’s son seems to be passed over remarkably casually. The eerie boyishness of Shatner’s Kirk, with that beaming smile, almost makes you forget that he has been through an agonising bereavement. Hasn’t he?
