This week: The onlyTrekfilm that feels like a Howard Hawks comedy.
Last week:TheTrekfilm about the clashing egos of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.
Next week: Shatner unleashed.
In 1965, Leonard Nimoy said the first words ever uttered in theStar Trekuniverse.
says Spock at the start of The Cage, the original pilot forStar Trekand the first timeStar Trekwas boring.
NBC didnt likeStar Trek, didnt like Spock.
A year later, Gene Roddenberry filmed a new pilot.
He fired everybody he fired his mistress!
but he kept Nimoy.
Twenty years later, Roddenberry was gone toNext Generation, not for long and Nimoy was in control.
Tricky thing, applying words like control or authorship to anythingStar Trek.
Nimoy directedStar Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and received a Story By credit.
Bennett shares screenplay credit alongside three other men.
One of those writers later wroteDouble Impact, the movie where Jean-Claude Van Damme headbutts Jean-Claude Van Damme.
And one of those writers was Nicholas Meyer, the man who madeWrath of Khan.
Meyers generally credited with writing the films 20th Century-set Act 2.
Perhaps not coincidentally,The Voyage Homehas one of the greatest and daffiest Act 2s of any film ever.
It is the kind of movie where characters spend the whole movie taking a break from the movie.
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.
His previousStar Trekfilm 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.
And Nimoy loved people.
Nimoy loved the supporting players, and his film bestows each of them with a Hall of Fame moment.
Scotty: A keyboard.
McCoy, undercover as a surgeon, asks an old lady in a hospital whats wrong with her.
Kidney dialysis, she says.
McCoy sputters an actual honest-to-god sputter, DeForest Kelleys voice like an old engine cackling.
What is this, theDark Ages?
Sulu was supposed to get a showcase scene meeting his own great-great-great-grand-something.
Nine point six!Nine point seven!
Did I mention that theyre warping straight into the sun so they can travel through time?
Theres an energy-sapping probe destroying Earth, apparently because no one can respond to the probes message.
Is the probe saying hello to humanity?
Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man, Spock chastises.
In the past, every hint of antagonism is quickly undercut.
CHEKOV: The top of what?
FBI AGENT: Name?
CHEKOV: My name?
FBI AGENT: No,myname.
CHEKOV: I do not know your name!
FBI AGENT: You play games with me, mister, and youre through.
CHEKOV: I am?
Can I go now?
His partner says, Hes a Russkie.
Every one-scene character inThe Voyage Homeis smarter than they should be, wittier than they have to be.
Chekov grabs his phaser and tries to fire it, but its run low on batteries.
He tosses it to the FBI agent, and watch closely here.
The Voyage Homereminds me of somethingDan Harmon told VultureregardingCheers: The characters were so distinct.
And heres something strange.
Behind them: The bay, the Bridge, the fog.
No otherStar Trekfilm has done location shooting like this; maybeThe Voyage HomeisTrekas neo-realism.
The humor ofThe Voyage Homeis playful without ever becoming sarcastic, self-aware without ever feeling like self-loathing.
; and then they aim their ship right into the sun.
Think, too, of Catherine Hicks, in a tricky role.
She plays Gillian, the whale-loving marine biologist.
A lesser film might make a run at architect this interaction somehow.
Gillians an obvious love interest, but they never really have a romantic scene.
Gillian thinks Kirk is interesting; Kirk likes how much she cares.
How will I find you?
he asks her kidding but not quite, Shatners laugh a bit too forced.
Dont worry, she says.
What do you think is going through his mind?
Is he amazed that, for once,hesthe one left behind?
Is he bemused at the grand divine comedy of existence?
I think Im in love!
My god, Shatner!
Needing money, he pawns McCoys birthday glasses at an antique shop.
The owner will pay a hundred dollars for them.
Is that a lot?
Kirk asks, smiling wide like a con man.
To his crew, he pretends to know everything about the past.
(Double dumb ass on you!)
To people in the past, he offers one BS line after another.
(I think he had a little too much LDS.)
It has heart, and passion Save the Whales!
and a tremendous sense of fun.
When the crew crash-lands into the Bay, they need to climb out of their sinking ship.
The whales start singing; the probe is vanquished.
The line between character and actor falls away, phasered into nonexistence.
James Doohan does a bellyflopping dive into the water; Nichelle Nichols splashes water toward DeForest Kelley.
At one point, Kirk pulls Spock into the water or maybe thats Shatner and Nimoy, fooling around.
And yet, there is a seriousness to the wonderful, exuberant silliness ofThe Voyage Home.
At the films beginning, the resurrected Spock is asked a question: How do you feel?
And none of that plot stuff matters half so much as Spock saying, nonchalant: I feel fine.
Nimoy died last year, age 82: A long life, and prosperous.
Spock will live forever, of course andThe Voyage Homeis his magnum opus.
Quickly, listen to the theme music forVoyage Homeby Leonard Rosenman.
Can you hear the festive melody?
Arent those bells ringing vaguely yuletidal?
So maybeThe Voyage Homeis our newA Christmas Carol.
Probe bless us, every one.
THE WHOLE MOVIE IN ONE SHOT:
