I am not afraid to admit that I am a big star trek fan. To be fair it would probably be more accurate to say that I am a sci-fi fan. I have watched many series and films from Star Trek and Star Wars through to Farscape and Battlestar Galactica. One particular film that always intrigued me and that I have watched dozens of times is Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home. Yes, the one with the whales. It’s a good rule of thumb with Star Trek films that the even numbered ones are the best and this is the definitely the case here. Whilst there are no massive space battles the film locates to late 80’s San Francisco and its all the better for it.
Now the man that impresses me greatly in this film is Scotty. Now I know some great Same Day Courier firms that can delivery pretty much anything to anywhere in the UK and abroad. But I don’t know any Same Day Courier that can build a container to hold water and two large whales and then deliver said whales in a day! He had a little trick that he revealed to Geordi la Forge, never given the Captain the correct time frames for repairing something. He’ll think you’re a miracle worker, “Ahh Captain it’ll take me several hours to get the Heisenberg Compensator back online” when it fact it only takes 15.
The film was released in 1986 and was directed by Leonard Nimoy. It is the sequel to the third Star Wars film – The Search for Spook and was written to have an environmental message included and no obvious bad guy. In the film the USS Enterprise and its crew are travelling back home to Earth to stand trial for their actions in the previous film. On their journey they discover that Earth is in immense danger from a probe from an alien life form that is trying to communicate with the now-extinct humpback whales. The Enterprise team decide the only way they can help is to travel back to the past and visit Earth and find some humpback whales that can communicate with the alien probe and alleviate the dangers posed to the planet. They do this by taking a clapped out Klingon Warbird, its self a knock off from a Romulan one, and sling shot it around the Sun.
In what was a surprisingly emotional scene the crew are able to find two Whales, one being heavily pregnant and transport them to the ship before they are shot by Whalers. The whale’s return to the future and sing to the space whale probe placating it. It’s a very cautionary tale as we slowly eradicate the planets species via our actions. They ramp by the comedy in this one too. It’s thought of as the best in the Original cast series apart from Wrath of Khan.
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