Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

An original movie poster in 1986; the cast of ST:TVH on a 1986 San Francisco street (Clockwise from left)- Nichelle Nichols (Cmdr. Nyota Uhura), DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), Leonard Nimoy (Capt. Spock), William Shatner (Adm. James T. Kirk), Walter Koenig (Cmdr. Pavel Chekov), James Doohan (Cmdr. Montgomery Scott), George Takei (Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu); Spock and Kirk asking for directions to the Cetacean Institute; the Klingon Bird-of-Prey passing home under the Golden Gate bridge; Dr. McCoy, Kirk and Dr. Taylor treating and rescuing Chekov from '20th century medicine'; Kirk and crew aboard the USS Enterprise-A's bridge; the USS Enterprise-A NCC-1701-A on its maiden voyage from SpaceDock; Kirk and crew aboard the Klingon bridge; Starfleet Headquarters; "Hello, Computer!" "Just use the keyboard!"; Spock discussing his theory of the whale connection to the destructive probe; Kirk and crew abandoning the sinking Bird-of-Prey in San Francisco Bay; the Klingon ship hovering over the whaling vessel.
Summary

Completed by Paramount Pictures in 1986, The Voyage Home continued the storyline of its predecessor, with Admiral Kirk and company leaving Vulcan shortly after Spock's ceremony and the intensive reeducation and reacclimation efforts that followed it. They were on their way home to Earth, in a Klingon ship...........

At the same time of their departure from Vulcan, a massive alien probe had already traveled through Federation space. As it passed through space, it sapped all energy from everything in its path, leaving them powerless and vulnerable. Its apparent mission was to determine why it had lost contact with a certain intelligent species on Earth. The Klingons had already lost at least two ships, and Starfleet was also losing contact with some of its ships, as well. Upon entering the Sol System, Starfleet's various bases lost power, and eventually, so did Earth. A warning message was broadcasted into space for all ships to avoid approaching the blue planet. Kirk's ship was able to receive the broadcast, along with all available data on the probe's particular form of communication. Searching through the databanks produced the probe's intended recipient species - humpback whales - which had been extinct since the 21st century. Kirk decided that the only way to save 23rd century Earth was to obtain whales for the probe to communicate with. Being forced into a difficult and potentially dangerous situation, Kirk was forced to order time travel After plotting the required calculations, the creaky Klingon Bird-of-Prey barely survived being slingshotted around the Sun but successfully arrived over the skies of 1986 Earth.

The ship was cloaked upon arrival to avoid being seen and was landed in Golden Gate Park. Things seemed to be going well until Scotty, the chief engineer, soon remarked with renewed urgency that the already strained dilithium crystals in the warp drive had fractured and were steadily losing their power. The ship would lose all power and decloak within 24 hours. A plan was made for Cmdr. Uhura, the communications officer and Cmdr. Chekov, to beam over to the naval vessel USS Enterprise, in the Alameda Naval Base to obtain enough nuclear radiation to recharge their dilithium crystals. While this was going on, the rest of the crew split up and wandered through San Francisco. Scotty and Sulu arrived at a Plexiglas factory to purchase Plexiglas to build a whale tank aboard their ship. Since they did not have money, Scotty gave the company the formula for transparent aluminum in exchange for the needed materials. Kirk and Spock went to locate a whale, later boarding a bus towards Alameda on-route to the Cetacean Institute. (Monterey Bay Aquarium was filmed for this purpose.) During the aquarium's tour, Spock branched off and slipped into the whale tank. While underwater, and in plain sight of the tour group, Spock mind-melded with one of the whales, named Gracie, and learned of the whale's thoughts and reaction to being captured and brought to a different time, safe from whalers and hunters. When an elderly lady remarked about the 'man in the tank', Kirk and the tour guide, Dr. Gillian Taylor, who was also a marine biologist and co-director of the Institute, scrambled outside to confront Spock. During the conversation Spock blurted out he and Kirk's intention to capture a whale, and they were told firmly to leave the premises immediately.

On their return trip to the ship, Kirk and Spock encountered Dr. Taylor, who passed by in a pickup truck. She offered them dinner and a ride. Spock refused to participate and was dropped off at the park. Admiral Kirk went ahead. At the pizza parlor, Kirk's communicator went off and Gillian became suspicious of his origins. Kirk went on to explain that he came from the 24th century to a get a whale to save Earth from an alien probe. Believing that Kirk was telling her a fabricated story, the Gillian still went ahead and told him that the whales at the institute were scheduled to be released back into the wild the next morning..... That evening, at about the same time, Commanders Uhura and Chekov were completing their radiation collection operation aboard the navy ship. They had already been detected as intruders a few minutes earlier, and were desperate to transport back to the ship. With the transporter at minimal power, only one could be transported at a time. Uhura went first with the power collector, but Chekov could not be transported in time, and was detained, on suspicion of being a Russian spy. After a brief questioning, Chekov threatened the navy crew with his phaser, which had been drained of power. He escaped the room and fled through the ship, persued until he fell off the deck and became seriously injured. He was taken to a hospital.

The next morning, Dr. Taylor went off to work. Arriving there, she learned from her co-worker that the whales had been released over the course of the night, as not to attract media attention. The whales were in danger because of the active whaling season. She drove to Golden Gate Park, seeking the mysterious 'spaceman's' help. Kirk transported her into the ship, and proved to her that what he had said earlier was, indeed, true. She told him about the whale's release, and sought his help. Kirk agreed, but in exchange for a favor. An away team was formed to rescue Chekov from the hospital. Dressed as physicians, they found Chekov in an operating room, being prepped for surgery. They locked the doctors and nurses in the closet, while Dr. McCoy brought out his high-tech equipment and healed Chekov in the fraction of time it took for 1980's medicine. They fled from the operating room, with the police on their tail, through the hospital, and finally into an elevator, where they beamed back to the park. From there, Kirk said farewell to Gillian and beamed aboard. Dr. Taylor grabbed him in the middle of the transport sequence and was beamed aboard the ship, as well. She had no place to go to anymore, having been betrayed by her co-workers and her whale friends being released to sea. She wanted to go to the 23rd century. She had to, as there was no one else qualified to take care of and monitor the whales there. The ship took off over the Bering Sea to locate the giant mammals, equipped with a completed tank to accommodate them. A few minutes later, they were located, being closely persued by a whaling ship. Kirk hovered the Bird-of-Prey over the boat and then decloaked it to scare them off. The whales were transported, and the ship accelerated once again for the solar slingshot.

Arriving back in the 23rd century, the ship lost all its power as it coasted towards Earth's atmosphere. The alien probe was still nearby. The Klingon ship crash-landed in San Francisco Bay, near Starfleet Headquarters, and slowly began to sink beneath the waves. The crew was evacuated, while Kirk went underwater in the rear part of the ship to access the manual cargo bay door overrides, which freed the whales a few minutes later. As the whales swam out into the bay, they communicated with the probe. The probe apparently became satisfied with their response and slowly left orbit, restoring power to the planet and the ships and bases around it. The probe no longer posed a danger to Earth. When all the commotion was over, the Federation Council convened to put Kirk's crew on trial, for misdemenors that he had committed earlier. He and his crew were charged with violating direct orders from Starfleet (for going to the restricted Genesis Planet), hijacking the Enterprise, sabotaging the Excelsior's transwarp computer, and for destroying Federation property (blowing up the Enterprise). Kirk was reduced in rank from Admiral to Captain, but received a new ship. Dr. Taylor, now a member of a Federation Science Agency, showed up and told Kirk that they would meet again someday. She would seek out and find him. Kirk and his crew traveled to SpaceDock to find what ship that Starfleet had assigned them to. Dr. McCoy proposed that they might get a freighter. Sulu anxiously wanted the sleek, new Excelsior. Instead, they received the newly commissioned USS Enterprise-A, which they immediately test-drove into the final frontier......









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