To boldly go back

This is the most light-hearted of all the Star Trek movies; the one with the most jokes, and with the actors clearly having a good time.

At the same time, it's also a movie about the threatened end of planet Earth as we know it.

You know the plot: the Star Trek-era future Earth is visited by an Enormously Powerful Alien Spaceship that wants to talk to the humpback whales. Chew some fat. See how they're doing.

Well, the species is extinct. The EPAS gets torqued off, starts to tear up Earth's oceans, and our heroes need to go back in time to pick up a humpback and then deliver it to future Earth before the planet goes phft.

A question arises here. One humpback? Oh, wait, I forgot. The whale they picked up was pregnant. And did they take two? At any rate, the possibility of re-populating future Earth with humpbacks exists.

The joke is that when the crew goes back in time (not in the Enterprise - in a Klingon bird-of-prey - see Star Trek 3) they arrive at a very recognizable twentieth-century San Francisco, where everybody is so weird anyway that our back-from-the-future space heroes fit right in. Spock needs to cover up his ears, but that's about it.

A few pieces of dialogue will give you a feel for the tone of the movie:

Kirk to crew: (as they leave the bird-of-prey, which is sitting--cloaked--in a SF city park): "Everybody remember where we parked."

Spock, being ejected from a city bus: "What does it mean, exact change?"

Lady whale doctor (disbelieving): "You're from outer space."
Kirk: "No, I'm from Iowa. I only work in outer space."

There are some wonderful set pieces in the movie, of which the rescue of Chekov from a 20th century hospital is my favorite, followed by a nice piece of comic/straight man dialogue between Kirk and Spock in lady whale doctor's pick up truck.

Lady whale doctor: "Do you guys like Italian?"
Kirk: "Yes."
Spock: "No."
Kirk: "Yes."
Spock: "No."
Kirk: "I love Italian." [looks at Spock] "And so do you."
Spock: "Yes."

Nimoy (who directed) has described his vision for the film as " . . .no dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy."

It was a joy to watch The Voyage Home. If you're feeling depressed about (pick one): nuclear proliferation, economic meltdown, global warming, or all of the above - give it a try.