Rent Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986)

Entertaining Family SciFi Adventure - Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home review by GI

With a lighter touch than the previous three films 'Voyage Home' is an entertaining addition to the franchise and is often cited as people's favourite. It actually is the final film of a loose trilogy but the story is a stand alone one and can be enjoyed without having seen the previous two films although the start of this film may seem confusing if you are unaware of what occurred in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (1984). In this film Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones (DeForest Kelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), Chekhov (Walter Koenig) and Scotty (James Doohan) - all the old favourites in other words - are on their way back to Earth in a commandeered spacecraft to stand trial for various misdemeanours committed in the previous film. They find that a mysterious alien probe is in orbit around the Earth causing a massive power drain (This is actually a very similar plot to Star Trek: The Motion Picture methinks). All the mighty brains in the world fail to decipher what it wants but good ol' Spock works it out fairly quickly, and so off Kirk and crew trot, back in time, to find some humpback whales that are extinct in the 23rd Century but are to be found but endangered in the 20th and hold the key to survival of the human race in the future and the answer to the strange probe. Actually a cleverly plotted story and Star Trek has used time travel before in the TV series, at least one episode being one of the very best of the entire series. Everyone is clearly having a great time and the addition of humour as the intrepid crew try to fit in San Francisco of 1986 works really well although it's a bit cheesy at times. This is Star Trek getting to grips with adventure sci-fi for the family and the film is an entertaining and fun filled experience.