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Considered by some the best STAR TREK feature, this installment is a bit hokey, but serves as an excellent time capsule of its era. Taking a page from ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES, VOYAGE HOME finds the 23rd Century crew of the Enterprise in ’80s San Francisco. Silly humor aside, the film has a message at its core that applies to the current time, which was a hallmark of the classic TV series. It’s not all that deep, but it’s fun and entertaining.

Admiral Jim Kirk (William Shatner) has saved his once-dead friend Spock (Leonard Nimoy), who is coping with his rebirth and readjusting to his duel lineage as a logical Vulcan and emotional human. The Federation wants to try the crew for their actions in the third film, but a mysterious probe has come to Earth and will destroy the planet unless it can make contact with humpback whales. The problem is humpback whales are extinct. So Kirk devises a plan to travel back in time and bring back two whales. In the past, they team up with whale expert Dr. Gillian Taylor (Catherine Hicks, TV’s 7TH HEAVEN), who first believes the strangely dressed Kirk and Spock are crazy.

The thing I liked the most about this installment was the moments it created for the crew. Bones (DeForest Kelley), Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Chekov (Walter Koenig) and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) all have to use their skills and knowledge to help the plan work. The story works best when it focuses on how the characters are more advanced than the rest of the 20th Century humans, especially the Bones and Scotty parts.

The set-up for why the crew has to go back in time and save whales is very thin. The reasons for the probe’s need to talk to whales is never explained. It’s a plot device to use the STAR TREK franchise to make a contemporary point plain and simple. The message is noble, but slightly dated. Saving endangered species is great, but “Save the Whales” is so totally ’80s. Plus, making whales the sole savior of the planet from an intergalactic attack is pretty ridiculous.

However, Shatner and Nimoy (who also came up with the story and directed) have fun with the premise of putting their characters in unfamiliar territory. It often worked on the series (the crew dealing with 1940s gangsters anyone?), so why not the features. STAR TREK IV has the loopy vibe that made the “Trouble with Tribbles” episode so endearing.

If WRATH OF KHAN is the pinnacle of the original cast films than VOYAGE HOME falls in at third behind STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY. You have to give the film some props for having the guts to try such a premise. The fact that it wasn’t the MOONRAKER installment is impressive. A great deal of the success comes from the joy of the actors and the campy humor that worked in the TV series. It’s the lightest of the features and keeps its message light as well. It never gets preachy. This gives it an innocent charm. Nimoy is having fun with the franchise and that transfers over to the viewers. Give me a goofy VOYAGE HOME over a pretentious THE MOTION PICTURE any day.