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?
Now the crew of the USS Enterprise, in official disgrace after the highly irregular commandeering of their craft during their “search for Spock”, are heading for home in a cranky old Klingon ship which Mr Scott (James Doohan) has fixed up with his customary self-pitying bluster. But on nearing Earth, they find that it is being threatened by a vast and mysterious ship which is transmitting a weird hailing – or rather wailing, or indeed whaling – frequency. In short order, our heroes work out that these are whale noises, and the menacing ship could well be placated with some answering calls, but whales are now extinct. So the obvious answer is to travel back in time by arriving at warp speed with a “slingshot” circuit around the planet, whoosh back to San Francisco circa 1986, teleport a couple of whales into a specially created tank, bring them back to the 23rd century and let those moaning, keening animals soothe the aggressor and send it on its way.
Huh? Wha …? Excuse me? WTF? The pure goofiness of this idea, with its half-baked environmentalism and semi-intentional comedy, is enjoyable, while the scenes in which the Enterprise crew stumble like whales out of water around the streets of San Francisco are funny in their entirely ridiculous way. Nimoy’s bass-voiced Spock is always entertaining to watch, and there is an uproarious scene in which Kirk and Spock discuss the potty-mouthed vulgarity of 20th-century America, which they attribute to the popularity of Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins. (The fact that they were talking about writers shows how high-minded Kirk and Spock always are.) The scene in which Spock swims with the whales, ecstatically communing with them, makes the whole thing worth it.
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is in UK and Irish cinemas from 4 September.
