Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|'''Gillian''': ''[sarcastic]'' Don't tell me; you're from outer space.
'''Kirk''': No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space. }}
 
[[The One With...]] [[Green Aesop|The Whales]].
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Kirk is prepared to face the consequences of his actions in the [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|previous movie]], but a powerful alien probe is making its way to Earth ([[Star Trek: The Motion Picture|yes, another one]]), wreaking havoc with the environment and shutting down anything with power. Deducing that the probe is searching for humpback whales, which are extinct in the twenty-third century, Kirk and crew use a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey they stole in the last film to [[Time Travel]] to [[The Eighties]] to retrieve some and save Earth. [[Hilarity Ensues]]. Instead of the traditional [[Space Opera]], this movie is an outright comedy. It even lacks a villain, outside of the whale probe and a whaler boat.
 
The wild success of this movie was proof to Paramount that [[Star Trek]] can survive as an expanded franchise, and gave [[Gene Roddenberry]] the opportunity to create a new series, ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Star Trek the Next Generation]]''.
 
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=== Tropes seen in ''The Voyage Home'' include: ===
{{tropenamer}}
* [[Space Whale Aesop]]
 
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acronym Confusion]]:
{{quote|'''Kirk:''' Oh, him? He's harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.
'''Gillian:''' L ''D'' S? }}
** [[Genius Bonus]] / [[Stealth Pun]]: LDS commonly refers to The Church of Latter-Day Saints.
* [[Adam and Eve Plot]]: With the whales brought to the future
* [[Arc Words]]: "How do you feel?" Later, "I feel fine."
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* [[Ass in Ambassador]]: The pompous Klingon ambassador, to be specific.
* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: Kirk, McCoy, and Gillian getting into the hospital to rescue Chekov. See [[Expospeak Gag]] below.
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]:
** In a more traditional application of this trope, it's often claimed that there isn't a single weapon fired in the movie. This isn't really correct, as there are two actual weapons firings (Kirk using his phaser to weld a door shut, and the whalers trying to harpoon George and Gracie) and one attempted (Chekov trying to stun the interrogation officers). This is likely a mix-up with a real fact, namely that this is the only ''Star Trek'' film with a body count of zero.
* [[Big Dumb Object]]: The "whale probe".
* [[Black Boss Lady]]: Audiences applauded when Madge Sinclair appeared as the (unnamed) Captain of the ''Saratoga'' at the beginning of the film.
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{{quote|'''Kirk:''' If we play our cards right, we may be able to find out when those whales are being released.
'''Spock:''' How will playing cards help?
 
 
'''Dr. Taylor:''' Are you sure you won't change your mind?
'''Spock:''' Is there something wrong with the one I have? }}
* [[Brake Angrily]]
* [[Came Back Wrong]]: It's implied that maybe we didn't quite get all of Spock back at the end of the previous movie, that there's a certain... something missing. He gets better by the end though. Death apparently isn't something you can just get over straight away.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Hellllllo, Computer."
* [[Catfolk]]: The Caitian admiral at Star Fleet headquarters.
* [[Changed My Jumper]]: The short notice for this particular mission results in the crew arriving in San Francisco in their 23rd Century clothes. As it's [[San Francisco]], they don't look that out of place. [[Truth in Television]] -- they had unknown crew walk around San Francisco in the outfits for a week before shooting started, and got no comments whatsoever. See [[City of Weirdos]] below.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Hellllllo, Computer"
* [[Changed My Jumper]]: The short notice for this particular mission results in the crew arriving in San Francisco in their 23rd Century clothes. As it's [[San Francisco]], they don't look that out of place. [[Truth in Television]] -- they had unknown crew walk around San Francisco in the outfits for a week before shooting started, and got no comments whatsoever. See [[City of Weirdos]].
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:
** The Klingon Bird-of-Prey, which was just the enemy ship and later a means of escaping from the exploding Genesis Planet in the previous film, ends up being a vital part of this film's storyline thanks to its ability to cloak and land.
** Kirk's glasses are an unusual case of this; from the perspective of the audience and Kirk himself, this is the last time the glasses are seen. However, 298 years down the line, they're going to be very important once again.
* [[Chekov's Gun]]:* [[Just for Pun|Fails him at an important moment]], thanks to the effects of being next to a nuclear reactor.
* [[City of Weirdos]]: Most people are willing to accept the slightly out-of-touch Spock as a [[The Stoner|harmless stoner]], even as he does weird things like jump into the whale tank... until he says things about the whales that he shouldn't be able to know. [[Truth in Television]] as anyone who lives in San Francisco could tell you.
* [[Cluster F-Bomb|Cluster "The Hell" Bomb]]
* [[Crapsack Only by Comparison]]: How the crew of the Enterprise see [[The Eighties]].
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* [[Death Amnesia]]: Played with. Spock never says he can't remember what dying and coming back was like, but it was such an alien experience that he can't discuss it in terms anyone else will understand.
* [[Dedication]]: To the crew of the ''Challenger'' at the beginning of the film.
* [[Defictionalization]]: There are no less than three formulas for transparent aluminum in reality.
* [[Did Not Do the Research]]: [[In-Universe]], the crew, knowing only the broad strokes of the sociopolitical environment of the late twentieth century United States, failed to realize that putting Chekov, a Russian, on the ground looking for "nuclear wessels" was a bad idea.
* [[Directed by Cast Member]]: [[Leonard Nimoy]] again.
* [[The Eighties]]
* [[Everybody Lives]]: The only ''Trek'' film that can boast this.
* [[Enforced Method Acting]]
* [[Every Helicopter Is a Huey]]: Sulu mentions he trained on Hueys at the Academy as a hobby to a helicopter pilot (though the pilot probably didn't know he meant ''Starfleet'' Academy). The [[Novelization]] expands on it.
* [[Everybody Lives]]: The only Trek film that can boast this.
* [[Expospeak Gag]]:
{{quote|'''McCoy:''' This woman has acute post-prandial upper-abdominal distension!
'''Kirk:''' What did you say she had?
'''McCoy:''' Cramps. }}
* [[Every Helicopter Is a Huey]]: Sulu mentions he trained on Hueys at the Academy as a hobby to a helicopter pilot (though the pilot probably didn't know he meant ''Starfleet'' Academy). The [[Novelization]] expands on it.
* [[Fish Out of Temporal Water]]: The whole premise of the film, figuratively and almost literally, thanks to the cetaceans out of temporal water.
* [[Gaia's Lament]]: Whales are extinct in the 23rd century.
* [["Get Out of Jail Free" Card]]: Starfleet can't really punish Kirk and crew ''too much'' just after they saved the world, can they?
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: Multiple instances of profanity in a PG-rated movie, including [[Flipping the Bird]], some even [[Lampshaded]].
* [[Good Old Ways]]: A perfect example of the ways in which Bones ''subverts'' this trope. See [[We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future]] below.
* [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]: The probe is causing bad weather in 23rd century Leningrad.
* [[Green Aesop]]: "To hunt a species to extinction is not logical."
* [[I'll Take Two Beers, Too!]]: Kirk orders his own large pizza.
* [[Inferred Holocaust]]: We never do find out what happened to the crew of the Saratoga, or the other ships that the probe disabled en route to Earth. Who knows how many, if any, survivors there were on the ships where the life support was barely functioning, and the crew had to watch their emergency power run lower...and lower. [[Word of God]], however, [[Jossed]] the idea that they died, and the novelization mentions in passing that the captain of the ''Saratoga'' managed to save her crew.
* [[Large Ham]]: John Schuck as the Klingon ''Ham''bassador makes Shatner look positively subdued.
{{quote|"You pompous ass!"}}
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* [["Mister Sandman" Sequence]]: An interesting version, seeing as it was applied to what was then the real-life present day.
* [[Humans Are Morons|Modern Humans are Morons]]: Kirk states to his crew before exploring 20th Century San Fransisco that "this is an extremely primitive and paranoid culture" and believes that no one pays attention to you in the contemporary age "unless you swear every other word." Bones is shocked to find a woman in a hospital on dialysis, asking if this is [[The Dung Ages|The Dark Ages]].
* [[Mythology Gag]]: The Bridge Computer Sound Effects from ''The Original Series'' can clearly be heard in the background as Kirk says "Let's see what she's got"."
* [[Name's the Same]]: "Sir! Ve have found the nuclear wessels! And Admiral.... it is the ''Enterprise''!
* [[No Antagonist]]
* [[Oh Crap]]: The whaler upon seeing the Bird-of-Prey decloak. Not only could the entire whaler fit in the Bird-of-Prey's ''torpedo launcher'', but these are late 20th century humans. They have never seen an alien (or even ''human'') starship of any kind before.
* [[Photographic Memory]]: Gillian Taylor mentions that she has one -- "I ''see'' words!" -- but it comes into play only once, during Spock's [[Time Travel Tense Trouble]].
* [[Precision F-Strike]]: Lampshaded. "Are you sure it isn't time for a colorful metaphor?"
* [[Reality Subtext]]: At the end of the movie, when the crew are speculating what ship they're going to get:
{{quote|'''Sulu:''' I'm counting on ''Excelsior''.
'''Scotty:''' ''Excelsior''? Why in God's name would you want that bucket of bolts? }}
** This is a twofer: Harve Bennett, producer and writer of the film, had initially wanted the crew to end up commanding the USS ''Excelsior'' (which had been seen in the [[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|previous film]]) but was overruled; and Sulu himself ends up as captain of the ''Excelsior'' [[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|two films later]].
* [[Sarcastic Confession]]: Kirk flat out tells Gillian exactly who he is and where he comes from over dinner. Subverted in that Kirk tells her with utter conviction and she naturally thinks he's full of shit.
* [[Sequel Hook]]: The crew is absolved of all criminal charges and are given a new ship, a virtually identical Constitution class USS Enterprise: NCC-1701-'''A'''. The adventures of this ship are continued in ''[[Star Trek V: The Final Frontier|Star Trek V the Final Frontier]]'' and ''[[Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country|Star Trek VI the Undiscovered Country]]'', but it also paved the introduction of the [[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Galaxy Class USS Enterprise]] NCC-1701-'''D'''.
* [[Shout-Out]]: According to [[Word of God]], the probe is modeled after [[Rendezvous With Rama|Rama]].
** The Whales are named after [[George Burns|George Burns and Gracie Allen]].
* [[Sophisticated As Hell]]: A major source of humor from Spock.
* [[Space Whale]]: theThe likely pilot of the probe.
* [[Space Whale Aesop]]: [[Trope Namer]]. Don't hunt whales to extinction or an alien probe will destroy us all!
** Only an example, though, if it's taken too literally. The intended Aesop is more along the lines of "you don't know what you've got till it's gone", specifically the permanence of extinction.
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'''Kirk:''' He's going to make it.
'''Guard:''' He? They went in with a she!
'''Kirk:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|One little mistake...]] [runs] }}
* [[Stable Time Loop]]: All over the damn place.
** Scotty and transparent aluminum. In the novelization, the engineer he sells the formula to is the one who introduce[d/s] it to the world.
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** When Kirk sells his glasses at a pawn shop.
{{quote|'''Spock:''' Admiral, weren't those a gift from Dr. McCoy?
'''Kirk:''' And they will be again. That's the beauty of it. }}
** The [[Expanded Universe]] has also established in some form that the whole movie is one as well -- that Kirk's theft of the whales from 1986 ''helped cause'' them to become extinct, thus resulting in the probe nearly destroying the Earth, [[Timey-Wimey Ball|thus needing the whole movie to happen in the first place]].
** No one checks to see if removing Gillian from the timeline will change anything historic. DispiteDespite her insistanceinsistence "I have nobody here", no one considers the possibility that any future actions of her's could be important.
* [[Stupidest Thing I've Ever Heard]]: During the FBI's interrogation of Chekov:
{{quote|'''Agent #1:''' What do you think?
'''Agent #2:''' He's a Russkie.
'''Agent #1:''' That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard in my life. Of course he's a Russkie, but he's a retard or something. }}
* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Cartwright Admiral Cartwright] for [http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Harry_Morrow Admiral Morrow], who appeared in ''[[Star Trek III: The Search For Spock|Star Trek III the Search For Spock]]''.
* [[Throw It In]]: They actually had Nichols and Koenig asking real San Franciscans where the nuclear submaine in Alameda was. The police officers staring suspiciously at the pair was a real cop who didn't know what was going on. The woman who answers, "Ooh, I don't know. I think they're in Alameda", had to be chased down to sign a release form for providing such a hysterical line in response to their queries.
* [[Time Travelers Are Spies]]: Chekov and Uhura, big time. Though it might have gone better if one of them wasn't Russian.
* [[Time Travel Romance]]: Kirk finds a [[Love Interest]] wherever and whenever he goes, doesn't he?
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* [[We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future]]: Demonstrated when McCoy, visiting a twentieth century hospital, is horrified that a woman is undergoing kidney dialysis. "Dialysis? What is this, the Dark Ages?" He gives her a pill, and minutes later, doctors are dumbfounded by her miraculous recovery as she ''grows a new kidney''.
* [[What We Now Know to Be True]]: See [[We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future]].
* [[Wham! Line]]: (In Universe) {{spoiler|"Gracie is pregnant."}}.
* [[Wham! Line|Wham Reveal]]: {{spoiler|The first appearenceappearance of the ''Enterprise A''}}.
* [[Wiper Start]]: Sulu with the helicopter.
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{{reflist}}
{{Star Trek Franchise}}
[[Category:Science Fiction Films]]
[[Category:Films of the 1980s]]