A couple reviews back, I stated that Star Trek II was the best of the Star Trek films, and I still believe that's true, I must say my absolute favorite of the series is actually Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. With a unique storyline and humor to spare, it is easily the most thoroughly entertaining entry in the series, at least for me.
With the crew of now destroyed Enterprise unanimously deciding to return to Earth to face the consequences of their actions, they return, in the Klingon warship they stole from Kruge, to find Earth under attack from an alien probe of unknown origin. The probe appears to be searching for something, sending out a signal no one recognizes. Since the probe appears to be searching for something in the Earth's oceans, Uhura filters the message to account for water density and discover the message sounds like that of the now extinct humpback whale. With no other option and it being clear the probe won't leave until it communicates with the Humpback whales, the crew decides to attempt to travel back in time to retrieve a couple from the past. Naturally, they are successful but in for a culture shock when they come face to face with the comparatively primitive 1986 San Francisco. The crew is divided up with Kirk (played by William Shatner) and Spock (played by Leonard Nimoy) tasked with locating two humpback whales, Scotty (played by James Doohan), McCoy (played by Deforest Kelley) and Sulu (played by George Takei) tasked with retrofitting the large cargo bay for the whales, and Chekov and Uhura finding a nuclear reactor to claim some radiation to use to recharge the ship's power source, as it was drained during the time travel process.
Kirk and Spock locate two potential whales at the local Cetacean Institute and find a potential ally in a Marine Biologist that looks over the two whales, Gillian Taylor (played by Catherine Hicks), who initially thinks Kirk and Spock are crazy, but comes to believe them and sees them as an alternative to the two whales existing in the 20th century oceans where they are in danger of being killed by whalers. The problem is that the whales are due to be released back into the wild within the next day, causing a bit of a time crunch for the crew, who need to get the ship retrofitted and refueled before they can retrieve the whales and return to the future.
Leonard Nimoy returned to direct the fourth film and it certainly is the stronger of the two films he directed. After the rather emotionally heavy second and third films, it was a conscious decision to make the fourth film a lighter one. Harve Bennett and Nicholas Meyer collaborated on the script for the film, crafting an interesting tale with a less clear cut villain (it's inferred that the probe is unaware of the damage it's doing on Earth and is just there because to find out why their people lost contact with the whales they had communicated with previously). It made for a refreshing change of pace for the series after two nasty villians from the previous films. Meyer also manages to mine plenty of humor of the Enterprise Crew in 20th Century America, whether it's Spock trying to grasp the "colorful metaphors" people seem to like to use (profanity, basically) and failing miserably, McCoy expressing his disgust at 20th century medical practices, Scotty having to use an early Mac computer ("A keyboard? How quaint."), or Chekov, a Russian, walking around Cold War America with Uhura asking where he can find a "Nuclear Wessel." The film also makes great use of it's Save the Whales message without being too overbearing or obnoxious, and the humor and action of the story keep things from being too preachy. I also have to give props to composer Leonard Rosenman, who composed a unconventional but delightful score to the film.
The cast does well in the film, with each cast member getting their own wonderful moments to shine in the film and is a bit more balanced between all the cast members for once (they actually gave Chekov something to do for once!). The film feels more like an ensemble piece, rather than the focus being solely on Kirk and Spock for once, which is a nice change. Catherine Hicks makes a nice addition to the cast as Gillian and has some decent chemistry with William Shatner and plays off nicely with both him and Leonard Nimoy. Likewise, Deforest Kelley is great as McCoy finds himself dealing with 20th Century Medicine when they have to rescue an injured Chekov from the local hospital, and may be my favorite scene of the movie.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is probably my favorite of the series. It's just plain fun from beginning to end and is a more unique entry in the Star Trek film series. It's one I've always enjoyed since I saw it as a kid shortly after it came out on video.
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