Whales In Space

The fourth, and most apalling (IMHO), in the StarTrekMovies series. Officially called "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home", it was a most unappealing attempt at StarTrekAsHumour, trading plot, characterisation, style and depth away in favour of gags.

Some people feel that in fact, GodIsaTrekkie (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier) was even worse. Personally, I'd have to be tied to something really robust, with my eyelids forcibly retracted and my head locked in a vice, to watch either again.

-- JonGreen

Perhaps with some of the ol' Ludwig Van playing loud, on a real horrorshow rig...? ;-)

"Everybody remember where we parked." GagMeWithaSpoon!

For space-bound cetaceans, nothing beats the whale and petunia sequence in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

Ground! I wonder if it'll be friends with me?

I beg to differ. I found the humor to be one of the things that was sadly lacking from the rest of the Star Trek Movies. The humor was one of the best things about TOS -- from the terrific sight gag of Kirk being buried in dead tribbles in "The Trouble with Tribbles", to Bones' line of "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer" in "Devil in the Dark". And there was decent characterization -- let's face it, William Shatner and James Doohan were more believeable as the aging but slick wheeler-dealers in this movie than they ever were as cartoon action heroes. Personally, I rank this one as being the second or third best of the ST movies -- only surpassed by ST II and (perhaps) ST:First Contact. -- KyleBrown

I can sympathize with those who see ST IV as being self-indulgent self-mockery, and who would haved preferred to see a good Trek movie that took itself seriously. But I enjoyed ST IV. One of my favorite StarTrekOriginalSeries episodes is "A Piece of the Action", which was silly, but fun, and I like ST IV in the same way. And I prefer intentional humor to those ST episodes/movies that are unintentionally funny because they are so bad (like "Spock's Brain" and Star Trek V).

-- KrisJohnson

My impression is that Star Trek IV is one of the fans' favorites of all the films. It is perhaps analogous to the X-Files episode "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" which manages to parody the show from within itself. Folks may loathe it unless they recognize the fundamental humor. -- BrentNewhall

CategoryOffTopic CategoryMovie CategoryHumor