Sunday 05 February 2012

Behind the scenes on The Voyage Home

Released in 1986 for Star Trek's twentieth anniversary, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home remains the most successful of the Star Trek feature films. It is also the most light-hearted of the series, despite its lofty themes. Director Leonard Nimoy was responsible for both attributes.

Early in the planning stage with producer Harve Bennett, Nimoy had decided, "no dying, no fist-fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical 'bad guy'. I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film, to really sit back, lose themselves, and enjoy it. That was the main goal. And if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of bigger ideas at them, well, then that would be even better."

Another unique element of The Voyage Home was its use of time travel as a key plot device. In terms of story, it set teh stage for humour as the twenty-third century crew of the Enterprise collided with contemporary twentieth-century life. In terms of production costs, though, it freed the production to shoot on location without the need to create an expensive illusion of the future in every frame. With half the movie set in the present, The Voyage Home contained the least amount of science-fiction design of any of the films, which, ironically enough, is thought to account for its wide general appeal. For the half of the film that was set in the future, Nimoy and Bennett wisely retained the winning team that had contributed to the success of the previous two films. Once again, Industrial Light & Magic provided spectacular visual effects. Interestingly enough, one of the most convincing effects in the film was so realistic that few people noticed that in most shots the humpback whales were either minatures shot at ILM or life-sized robotic replicas shot in the Paramount parking lot.

This time out, the critics' response to the film mirrored its fortunes at the box office. Understanding its appeal, USA Today said the film would "delight those who don't know a tribble from a Romulan," and that the truly funny script "turns Kirk and his followers into the most uproarious out-of-towners to hit the Bay area since the Democrats in 1984." Referring to the film's reduced use of visual effects, the review went on to note that without the usual special-effects camoufalge, the performers prove themselves more capable actors than ever before." But Janet Maslin of the New York Times summed up the film's impact best when she noted that The Voyage Home "has done a great deal to ensure the series' longevity." Star Trek V was already waiting in the wings.

 

N. Ottens
1 July 2007

Sources for this article include:
• McQuarrie, R., with S. Stice and J.D. Scoleri, The Art of Ralph McQuarrie (2007)
• Reeves-Stevens, J. & G., The Art of Star Trek (1995)
• Images courtesy of Trekcore.