A Look Back at Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

The fourth feature film of the Star Trek franchise, The Voyage Home, was released in 1988. It immediately stood apart from the first three films, and its magic has never been duplicated. Conceived and directed by Leonard Nimoy, it highlighted each main character from the Original Series and used plenty of humor to contrast the 23rd century with 1980s San Francisco. And what little violence it contained turned out to be counterproductive. Who was responsible for straying from the formula? Well, three writers got credit for the screenplay.

So it was a team effort, in front of the camera and behind the scenes. But it was a team effort with a leader. And the leader wanted to make a different kind of film. Nimoy later explained the core concept: “No dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy.” His previous Star Trek film had all those things, and outer space, and aliens, and sets. Nimoy wanted to make a movie about Earth, right now, shot on location, with human people.

Now that the franchise is celebrating its 50th anniversary and the 13th film is coming, it’s nice to look back at the one film that even non-Trekkies can quote. Entertainment Weekly tells the story of how Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home came about, and gives us some great behind-the-scenes stories, too.  -via Metafilter