Star Trek: First Contact - "They've Adapted!"

Today's film is Star Trek: First Contact. It was released in 1996, and was directed by Jonathan Frakes, who had previously directed several episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, and Voyager, but never before this a feature film. The movie stars the same crew as before, with the excellent additions of Alice Krige, James Cromwell, and Alfre Woodard.

The movie begins when Picard receives word of the Borg in the Terran system - home to Earth and Starfleet Headquarters - and also the newly-made Enterprise E is to stay in the Neutral Zone during the battle. When Picard protests, the admiral issuing orders informs him that while they have the utmost confidence in the Enterprise and her crew, they didn't think it wise to bring Picard - who had previously been assimilated as a human/Borg hybrid "ambassador" and escaped - into a situation where he would encounter the Borg again. Shortly after the battle begins, Picard disobeys orders. In the nick of time, the Enterprise saves the heavily damaged fleet, including the Defiant, a rather familiar ship commanded by Worf. The Enterprise takes on the crew of the Defiant and takes command of the fleet. Picard orders all ships to fire at what appears to be a non-essential part of the Borg cube, but succeeds in destroying the cube.

A life-pod escapes from the cube, and opens up a temporal rift. The Enterprise gets caught in the temporal wake, and sees the world change around them; they see Earth entirely assimilated and the Borg living on it. Determined to stop this potential future, the Enterprise follows the Borg sphere in.

They find themselves in the 21st century, one day before the first warp-capable ship (the Phoenix) was to fly. The Borg try to annihilate that ship and her captain, but the Enterprise destroys the sphere before they are able to do so. In an effort to ensure the safety of the Phoenix and her captain, an away team beams down. After they locate the Phoenix, and begin minor repairs, Troi finds Zephram Cochran (Cromwell) - the man who is to make the first warp flight - drunk in a bar. She and Riker tell him the truth: they are from the future, and he has to make the flight to usher in a new era for humanity (since this flight would attract the attention of the Vulcans, and be the catalyst for the Federation). He agrees to make the flight, but is creeped out by the hero he is to become.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, they discover that the Borg had gotten onto their ship before they blew up the sphere. The Borg commandeer Engineering, lock out the controls from the bridge, and start assimilation of both ship and crew. Picard forms several teams to investigate the situation with the Borg and confront them, as necessary. While patrolling, Data gets captured by the Borg, and Picard gets separated from his team.

Picard, while attempting to outrun the Borg and get back to the bridge, runs into a 21st century woman, Lily (Woodard), who had been brought on board for medical treatment. Picard explains the situation to her and, after some initial conflict and disbelief, the two work their way back to the bridge.

Data, meanwhile, is reactivated strapped firmly to a table. He meets the Borg Queen (Krige), an entity that is the one mind of the Borg, like the queen in a hive of bees. "I am the Borg," she introduces herself. She reactivates Data's emotion chip, and attempts to seduce him by hooking up human skin to his mechanical frame and allowing him to feel the sensations that follow.

After a few more battles with the Borg, the remaining bridge crew advises Picard to set the ship to self-destruct. He vehemently disagrees and orders them to go on fighting. In fact, he loses his temper enough to call Worf a coward. Lily follows Picard into his ready room. The two joust verbally. Finally, Picard realizes that it is a misbegotten sense of revenge that is driving him to keep fighting to the point of suicide rather than destroying the ship, and the Borg with it (giving the Borg the Enterprise as well, as he saw it). Because of Lily, he sets the self-destruct, and evacuates the ship.

Picard stays on board in an effort to save Data. He enters Engineering and encounters the Borg Queen. He offers to willingly take his place by her side as Locutus - sacrificing himself - if she lets Data go. She seemingly accepts his offer, has drones hold him in place, and then calls to Data. Data responds that he does not wish to leave. Data then unlocks the ship's computer for the Queen, and fires torpedoes at the just-emerged Phoenix.

And misses.

Data then breaks open a coolant tank, which releases toxic gas that destroys organic material. Picard deftly maneuvers out of the reach of the gas with quick climbing, while the Queen and her drones die in gruesome agony. Picard stops the self-destruct sequence, and the Phoenix successfully goes to warp. The Vulcans see the warp signature and come down to Earth. The rest, as they say, is history (future?), and the Enterprise goes home.

This was critically considered the best of the Next Generation movies. I haven't re-watched them all yet, but it is certainly excellent. It is definitely more action-oriented than Generations, and also manages to carry with it the character development from TNG.

One of the coolest carry-overs from the series is, of course, the Borg. The Borg are simply terrifying. It's both freaky and cool that you can walk among the Borg until they consider you a threat, for example. Before then, you are no more than a bird on a branch to them, and they don't even look at you. The incorporation of Lily into this environment was especially effective. She reacts by screaming, clutching at Picard's arm, and visibly shaking until they get to relative safety. Lily brings the viewer straight into what it must be like to be in a Borg environment. The TNG crew are so used to it, the viewer can become nonchalant about the Borg. Not so when Lily is reacting the way we would to the same situation.

The interaction between Data and the Borg Queen, however, really bothers me. The character of the Queen is well-played, and quite an interesting concept, but I don't see Data being seduced the way he was, or at least the way he seemed to be. Of course, he only considered the Queen's offer to stay and rule with her for .68 seconds, but, as he said, that is an eternity for an android. I guess that Data is more human-like than even I want him to be.

I believe we see Picard at his best and worst in this movie. He is brave and self-sacrificing, but also petty and vengeful. He calls Worf a coward merely to rile him up - which it does. Worf retorts,"If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand." When he argues with Lily about the ship, I actually get frightened of his ferocity and single-mindedness. But then he goes back to the Picard we know and love, quoting Moby Dick, and finding that he is no different than Captain Ahab in that moment. Absolutely superb acting, although I have always been quite partial to Patrick Stewart.

A side-note issue is when Picard is explaining the 24th century to Lily, he says that, "Money doesn't exist in the 24th century." This is clearly not the case, as in other TNG movies and clearly in Deep Space Nine, gold-pressed latinum is the currency of the day. What that should have said in my opinion, was that money is not at play within the Federation. Then again, I suppose it is easier to explain the first way.

Deanna is incredible when she's drunk, and I believe it is her best acting yet. She also seemed like she was having fun, which was a first.

This film is certainly worth a watching. It has two simultaneous "A" plots, action, terror, and even a few laughs. Totally worthy of being a descendant of the TNG series.

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Star Trek: Generations - I Just LOVE Scanning for Life Forms!

My next film is Star Trek: Generations.  This is the movie that hands over the mantle of Star Trek from the original cast to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation, who had completed seven seasons on television before making this film.  This movie was released in 1994, and was directed by David Carson, who, other than this film, has only directed in television, including a few Star Trek: TNG and DS9 episodes.  Generations features the talents of William Shatner as Kirk, James Doohan as Scotty, and Walter Koenig as Chekov.  It stars the ensemble cast from Star Trek: TNG - Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Jonathan Frakes (Will Riker),  Brent Spiner (Data), LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge), Michael Dorn (Worf), Gates McFadden (Beverly Crusher), and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi).  This film also includes Whoopi Goldberg in her reoccurring role as Guinan, and introduces Malcolm McDowell into the Star Trek universe.

Generations begins with the christening of the Enterprise B.  On board in a merely honorary capacity are Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov.  On it's first run around the galaxy, the ship, swarming with reporters and new officers, gets a distress call and is the only one in range.  Since the ship is missing a great deal of staff, systems, and supplies, Captain Harriman (played by Alan Ruck) relinquishes command to the more experienced Kirk.  Kirk immediately sets a plan in action to rescue the distressed ships from the energy ribbon tearing them apart.  Unfortunately, they are only able to transport 47 of the over 300 people on board the ships.  

In order to attempt to break the Enterprise itself free from the energy ribbon, Kirk goes down to a lower level of the ship to re-program the deflector dish.  Although the successful reprogramming allows the Enterprise to escape, a stray tendril from the ribbon strikes the ship, causing a hull breach in the section where Kirk is.  By the time Scotty, Harriman, and Chekov get down there, Kirk is simply gone.  Only a star field beyond ragged edges of metal remains.

Seventy-eight years later, the Enterprise D receives a distress call from a Federation space station being attacked by Romulans.  By the time they arrive, the Romulans have left, leaving what amounts to a completely dead crew with the notable exception of Dr. Soran (McDowell).  After a short time on the Enterprise, Soran beams back to the station and shoots a photon torpedo into the sun, making it explode.  With the help of a nearby Klingon ship, Soran beams off of the station before the shock wave destroys the station.  The Enterprise barely escapes in time.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew discovers that the Romulans were trying to regain their stolen trilithium - a highly explosive experimental energy source.  The trilithium had been stolen not by the Federation, but by Dr. Soran as payment to the Duras sisters - Klingons who helped him to get from the station to his final destination.  They also discover that Dr. Soran had been one of the people rescued from the energy ribbon 78 years before, and that Guinan had been too.  Picard and Guinan have a discussion, and she explains that the ribbon is not just a random phenomenon in space, but rather a different plane of existence.  On that plane - the Nexus - each individual lives any and all of their dreams, since time has no meaning.  "It's like being inside joy," she describes.  Guinan also goes on to inform him that Soran is probably obsessed with getting back to it.

Picard and Data take this information and determine that Soran destroyed the sun near the station in order to change the gravitational pulls in the sector, and move the ribbon.  They also determine that if he were to destroy the sun in the Veridian system, he would move the ribbon to intersect with Veridian 3, so that he could get back into it.  Unfortunately, that would kill several million pre-industrial people on Veridian 4.  Determined to stop such a tragedy, the Enterprise travels to that system.

Picard beams down to Veridian 3 to try to persuade Soran not to destroy the sun.  In the meantime, the Enterprise gets into a fire-fight with the Klingon ship, in which the Enterprise is heavily damaged before destroying the Klingon ship.  They are forced by a warp core breach to separate the sections of the ship, and the saucer crash-lands on Veridian 3.  Picard is unsuccessful with his persuasion, and he and Soran end up in the Nexus while all that surrounds them is destroyed by the exploding sun.

In the Nexus, after encountering his heart's desire, Picard realizes that he must do something to change what has happened.  An echo of Guinan tells him that time has no meaning here, so he can go anywhere and any time he pleases.  He decides that he cannot do it alone, and goes to find Kirk, who is in the Nexus, and not dead after all.  After Kirk comes to the same conclusion as Picard - that this is not real and that there is still some good to do in the universe - he agrees to go back with him.  They leave the Nexus together, and fight Soran for control of the missile he wants to fire into the sun.  They lock the missile in place, killing Soran and stopping his nefarious plan, but killing Kirk as well.  Picard buries Kirk, and then meets up with the rest of the crew as they are evacuated from the wreckage of the Enterprise.  He muses with Riker that he doubts that this will be the last ship to bear the name Enterprise.

The plot of this film is very rich.  It took me a while to write the summary, as I realized I had to leave out several B-plots that were not part of the main story: (1) the interactions with the Duras sisters - well known to many of us from their existence in the television series, (2) Data installing his emotion chip and what follows, and (3) Picard losing his only remaining family - his brother and young nephew - in a fire at their winery.  Each subtext is so rich that it could be an episode in and of itself.  I think that this is an advantage that this film has over its predecessors.  A great deal of the scenes with the most joy and the most sorrow come from these subplots.  I will forever love Data's reaction to a disgusting new drink he is served by Guinan.  Delighted by the fact that it produces an emotional response - hate - when he drinks it, when Guinan asks, "More?", Data replies with great relish, "Please!"  The scene where Picard talks to Troi about the death of his family rips at my heart.  I can never stand to see him hurting in any way.

This leads me to my next point.  This crew and their sorrows and joys affect me so much more.  I discovered the original crew as an adult.  This crew was like family from my childhood, since I started watching TNG at a very young age.  I can't honestly say whether this batch of actors is more skilled, or if I'm just horribly biased.

I have always found it amusing that Alan Ruck plays Captain Harriman.  For those of you who don't recognize his name, he played Cameron in Ferris Beuller's Day Off - another staple of my adolescence.  I like to pretend that Cameron, after getting the worst of everything in high school, grew up and became a starship captain.  I know, it doesn't even make sense in the timeline, but I like the idea of him getting his own.

On a sour note, they used way too much slow-motion in this film.  They seemed to feel the need to slo-mo almost every action moment.  Maybe it was a hallmark of the time the movie was made.  I'm not sure.  I haven't focused much interest on films made in the 90s.  

Finally, a great joy for me in this film was Spot, Data's cat.  When Data finds Spot trapped in a barrel in the wreckage of the Enterprise at the end, it is very moving.  Troi says, appropriately, "Another family reunited."

I think this film may be tempered with nostalgia for me, but it's a very good movie, and a fun ride.

Logic is the Beginning of Wisdom - Star Trek VI

I've seen the new Star Trek film.  A review will be up after we finish the rest of the Star Trek movies.  The short version?  Go see it.  I loved it.

So let's get going on Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  It was released in 1991, and I actually saw it in theaters when it was released and had seen no other Star Trek movie besides Star Trek IV.  I was quite confused.  For the last time as a complete ensemble, it starred the same cast, with Kim Cattrall and the masterful addition of Christopher Plummer.

The story opens with an explosion, as most interesting action movies do.  A very important Klingon moon with their most important energy production facility is destroyed due to factors unknown, and the previously reclusive and violent people reach out to the Federation for assistance.  The Enterprise crew - three months from retirement - is given the simple-on-the-surface task of escorting the Klingon chancellor (played by David Warner) and his party to the peace conference.  Kirk expresses great dismay, anger, and prejudice at this - he has still not forgiven them for the death of his son (in Star Trek III).  He has no choice in the matter, however, and so carries on with the mission.  On this, their potentially last mission, Spock brings his protege - Lt. Valeris (Cattral).

During the trip, after a spectacularly failed diplomatic dinner between the Klingon and Federation officers, strange things happen.  Without the knowledge of the crew, the Enterprise shoots two photon torpedoes at the Klingon Bird of Prey, crippling it, and disabling the artificial gravity on board.  Then, two people in Federation space suits with magnetic boots beam over to the Klingon ship, and massacre much of the helpless crew, including the visionary chancellor.

Wracked with guilt for hating the Klingons so and with fear about what this would do to the peace talks, Kirk and McCoy beam over after gravity is restored to see if they can give medical assistance.  The chancellor dies, despite McCoy's efforts, because of a lack of knowledge of Klingon anatomy.  The chancellor's right-hand man, General Chang (Plummer) arrests Kirk and McCoy for the murder of the chancellor and the others, given that the Enterprise disabled the Klingon ship.  They are taken away to stand trial in a Klingon court.

Meanwhile, Spock, as acting captain, order an investigation.  Star Fleet command orders them back home, but they have "malfunctions" that stop them from following that particular order.  After an exhausting search, Chekov and Valeris turn up the environmental suits that went to the Klingon ship, but are unable to determine who wore them.  Scotty personally counts all of the torpedoes in the bay, and discovers that all of them are present, despite that the computer log has been altered to show that two are missing.  Spock deduces that the saboteur is on board, but that there might have been a cloaked ship beneath them that could shoot while cloaked - a previously unheard of concept.  Spock observes, "When you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

After a clearly fixed trial, Kirk and Spock are declared guilty and sentenced to prison for life on the very harsh prison and mining colony on Rura Penthe.  There, they meet a shapeshifter (Iman) who helps them get to the surface of the planet and outside the magnetic filed that prevents transport only to turn them in to the Klingon guards.  She would get a full pardon for helping to kill them.  Once Kirk realizes this, he gets into a scuffle with her, and she morphs to look like him, to confuse McCoy and keep him from interfering.  When the guards arrive, they, too, get confused and shoot the shapeshifter, vaporizing her instead of Kirk.  Immediately before they shoot Kirk and McCoy, Spock locks onto the signal he had placed on Kirk and transports them back to the ship.

After determining which crew members own the two space suits that had gone onto the Klingon ships, Chekov finds those crewmen dead.  Spock puts out the information that the crewmen are, indeed, alive and recovering in sickbay, hoping to lure the true saboteur.  Sure enough, the culprit springs their trap: Valeris enters sickbay with a phaser only to discover Kirk and Spock waiting for her.  After a brutal interrogation/mind-meld, Spock determines that she had worked with General Chang and various members of Star Fleet to destroy both the chancellor and the infant peace between the two governing bodies.  He also learned that the torpedoes had indeed come from a cloaked Bird of Prey beneath them, as he had surmised.

After getting the coordinates of the peace conference from Captain Sulu of the Excelsior, the two ships rush to the scene, have a fire fight with the prototype Bird of Prey, and stop an assassin from killing the Federation president.  The Klingons and Federation vow anew to work for peace.  Basing in the success of one final glorious mission, the Enterprise crew takes a turn around the galaxy.  Indeed, our heroes fly off into the sunset.

This plot is very involving, probably because of its strong ties to real life.  Although I was quite unaware at the time of the political climate, I have since discovered (because of the behind the scenes) that this was a direct commentary on what was going on between Russia and the US at the time - the end of the Cold War, and rebuilding of Russia.  

The racism (species-ism?) in the movie also gives it a very "real" feeling.  Gene Roddenberry - who this film was dedicated to, it was released shortly after he died - had a real problem with the script.  He took issue with that Kirk and other members of the Federation would be saying such racist things against the Klingons.  He had hoped we would have been past all that by now.  I think, however, that he had forgotten some of his own work in terms of racism in the original series (the white/black and black/white race or the Vulcans and Romulans and the crewman's bigotry towards Spock upon seeing the Romulans, for example).  It is my sad thought that racism will never be destroyed on an individual level.  Instead, I see us taking away the power of prejudice - not allowing it to help us make decisions or run governments.  Prejudice, I hope, will become an individual failing, and not that by which we exist as a society.  I think this film speaks highly to that - that peace triumphs over prejudice.  Even Brock Peters, a fantastic African-American actor who played Admiral Cartwright - a man who could not stand the alliance with the Klingons - had difficulty speaking the lines that he did.  It seemed so vile to him, such a parallel to the racism that he had personally encountered in his life, that he had to do the speech in several takes - never all in one go.  But he thought that that perspective was important to have in the film.  And I do, too.

Notably, Gene Roddenberry saw a screening of Star Trek VI three days before he died and enjoyed it.

An interesting note - the penal colony feels very much like Star Wars.  It could be the more creative alien makeup, the dirt, or the fact that the Universal Translator is broken.

The mind meld between Spock and Valeris feels like a massive invasion - something wildly out of character for Spock.  It is so uncomfortable, it almost feels like watching a rape of the mind.  I am clearly not alone on this, as everyone in the crew, even Spock, seemed very disturbed by what was happening on that bridge.

Overall, this is an excellent ending for the original series.  It ends up very warm and hopeful.  In the behind-the-scenes, all of the crew were interviewed and said that the series had "ended" so many times that they didn't actually believe it.  As Nimoy said, "And I'll say goodbye again, and then we'll see if the phone rings," and then laughed in his big, booming laugh.  And, indeed, the phone did ring for him one more time in Star Trek - almost 20 years later.  I am pleased to say goodbye again to Star Trek's original cast in Star Trek VI - a totally worth-while movie.

What Does God Need With a Starship?

Our next film is Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. Released in 1989, this was the feature film directorial debut of William Shatner. He also helped to write the story. The film stars the same cast as the previous movies, with the addition of Laurence Luckinbill. 

The crew of the Enterprise begins this film on shore leave - a well-deserved rest after saving the Earth! While on leave, all are recalled to the Enterprise, which is having technical problems, to go and investigate a hostage situation on Nimbus III. Nimbus III had been a diplomatic attempt to bring together Romulans, Klingons, and the Federation into one central colony. The colonists who had moved there were not, shall we say, the cream of the crop, and the planet and it's capital - Paradise City - had quickly fallen into disrepair and corruption. The hostage situation arose when a gifted rogue Vulcan, Sybok (Luckinbill), took the three representatives (one from Romulus, one from Klingon, and one from the Federation) hostage in an effort to get attention for himself and his vision.

When the Enterprise arrives on scene, Kirk quickly makes a plan to surreptitiously rescue the representatives while Chekov - who styles himself Captain for this plot - seems to acquiesce to Sybok's demands. Kirk's plan seems to go well until he encounters the three representatives, who promptly hand him and his team over to Sybok. Sybok then tells them of his vision - he knows where God is. He believes that he knows where to find the central location of mythologies from around the cosmos - Sha Ka Ree (Vulcan), Eden, Qui'tu (Klingon), Vorta Vor (Romulan), etc. With this vision, and a talent for exposing people to their innermost pain and sadness and helping them to accept it and move on, Sybok had turned the whole of Paradise City to his way of thinking.

With his superior numbers over Kirk's away team, Sybok quickly takes over their runabout, and then hijacks the ship after tossing Kirk, Spock, and McCoy into the brig. There, Spock reveals that Sybok is his older half-brother - another son of Sarek. Meanwhile, on the bridge, Sybok converts all of the remaining crew members (with the exception of Scotty, who was working on the transporters and managed to get away after seeing the away team escorted from the runabout) to believe in him and his vision. They set course for Sha Ka Ree - in the center of the galaxy, a completely unreachable place because of a celestial body surrounding it called the Great Barrier.

En route to Sha Ka Ree, Scotty helps Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to escape from the brig. When they are finally caught by Sybok, he attempts to have Kirk, Spock, and McCoy share their pain with him as well. McCoy succumbs quickly, but not so much that he forgets his friends. Spock views his pain, and then tells Sybok he had dealt with it long before. Kirk refuses to go through with it at all, saying "I need my pain!" The three men stick together, deciding to be wary of Sybok's message and approach the Great Barrier carefully.

They successfully navigate through the Great Barrier and find a planet inside, mystical, blue, and shrouded in electrical clouds. The three men, along with Sybok, beam down to the planet's surface, as Kirk wanted to do the away mission by the book. After a long trek across mountains, the four men find a flat piece of land, where spires of rock shoot up from the ground, surrounding them. A floating blue entity greets them, showing them faces of several different gods from around the cosmos, finally settling on a generic human, Christian traditional God face, complete with white beard.

The men are in awe, until the "God" starts asking them to take him to their starship. Kirk questions his motives, and the "God" attacks him, striking him to the ground with blue lighting. Spock repeats Kirk's question - "What does God need with a starship?" and also gets struck down. McCoy expresses indignant doubt, and finally Sybok sees the truth of the matter - this "God" has been imprisoned here for millennia, and only wanted them to get out of his prison. Sybok approaches the entity, and asks him to share his pain, then enters into a suicidal wrestling match, so that the other three can get away, along with the Enterprise. The Enterprise escapes after destroying the entity.

While this movie has the worst reputation (debatably - some say Star Trek: Nemesis was the worst), I think it is largely undeserved.  Yes, it's true that this film glorifies Kirk a little bit more than usual, and Spock is generally more annoying than usual, but I don't think that Shatner directing this film makes it an automatic fail of a movie.  It may be that I came into the film not remembering the plot and thinking that it would be awful, and then was pleasantly surprised that it was not as bad as I expected.  A low expectations makes for better viewing sort of situation.  But I truly think this film has its merits.

The dialogue, for example, is quite crisp.  I love the camping trip scenes at the beginning and end, and the interactions between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy in them.  Particularly, I like McCoy's side comments ("God, I liked him better before he died!").  I also like the brief exchange between Spock and the Klingon representative.  The representative says, "I'm a foolish old man," - suggesting that he is incapable of having a commanding presence - and Spock replies, "Damn you, sir, you will try."  I think that is the most polite insult ever.

The best part of this movie for me, though, was the scenes dealing with the "God."  I found it fascinating that the four men were so captivated by the entity, and found myself wondering how I would have reacted in the same situation.  I found myself writing down in my notes, "If they don't look for a scientific explanation soon, I will be irritated."  This is Star Trek.  I expect them to look for the scientific first and then concede the possibility of the supernatural in a vague sort of way, if at all, as is their usual modus operandi.  I therefore could not have been more pleased with the dialogue that followed the title question.  The "God" asks, "You doubt me?" and Kirk replies innocently, "I seek proof!"  After the "God" attacks Spock and Kirk, McCoy bursts out with, "I doubt any god who inflicts pain for his own pleasure!"  It's just fascinating.  It made me question what I would believe in that situation, which I believe was the intent of the scene in the first place.

So, while the plot does wander a bit in the beginning, and this is the weird one with Uhura dancing naked, it's really not so bad of a film.  Give it another watch and let me know what you think.  Or just let me know what you think if you have a better memory than I.

Admiral, There Be WHALES Here!

The next Star Trek film is Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. (I still have until - ACK! May is this week!!! Okay, people, time for me to crack down.) It was released in 1986, directed by Leonard Nimoy. This film starred the same cast as before, with the addition of Catherine Hicks (best known nowadays for her role as Annie in "Seventh Heaven"). It also featured Mark Lenard, reprising his role as Sarek, Spock's father, and Jane Wyatt, reprising her role as Amanda, Spock's mother.

The film takes place shortly after Star Trek III. Kirk and his crew, in the meantime, had re-fitted the Klingon ship they had hijacked in the last film, so that it would be simple for them to fly. They pack up to go back to Earth, where they are to face judgement for their crimes - stealing and destroying the Enterprise, going to a quarantined planet, and disobeying direct orders, to name a few. Spock wishes to go with them, to lend support to the crew that saved him. He is still not fully himself, and tends to take things too literally and too logically.

Meanwhile, Starfleet ships and starbases across the galaxy are suffering power drains due to a mysterious probe that is sending out signals that no one understands. When it gets to Earth, it stops, pulling up water from the ocean until the Earth is smothered in clouds and rain. As the Bird of Prey comes close to Earth, it gets a warning from the President of the Federation, saying that all ships should stay away from Earth, since the probe disturbs power to such a degree that vital systems (such as life support) are completely shut down. Spock and Uhura analyze the sound that the probe is making, and discover that it would be the same as humpback whale song, if heard underwater. When they research this phenomenon further, they realize that the humpback whales had gone extinct centuries before, hunted down to the last by humans.

In a desperate act, Kirk decides to go back in time - just a simple slingshot around the sun - to retrieve the whales, and fix the problem. Knowing that they could clearly die, given an imprecise calculation, the crew agrees to go through with the time travel. They end up in 1986, and land in a park in San Francisco, cloaking the ship as soon as they arrive in that time period. They also realize that they need nuclear power to get the ship back up to working condition. Splitting off into teams, Kirk and Spock go to find some whales, Chekov and Uhura go to find some nuclear power, and Scotty, Sulu, and McCoy look for materials to build a tank to hold the whales.

Kirk and Spock end up going to The Cetacean Institute - a fictional aquarium - where they meet Dr. Gillian Taylor (Hicks), and George and Gracie, the humpback whales she works with. After determining that the whales are going to be re-introduced into the wild, since Gracie is pregnant, and they can't guarantee the survival of the baby, Kirk and Spock decide that these are the perfect whales to take into the future. Dr. Taylor objects at first, but when they are moved to the ocean before she has the chance to say goodbye, she changes her mind and helps them retrieve the whales in the nick of time before they are killed by some whale hunters.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew has managed to complete their missions, with some various silly hijinks and some fixable danger to Chekov. The crew flies forward in time with the whales and Dr. Taylor in tow (since she refuses to leave her whales). The whales and probe communicate, and, after a brief conversation, the probe takes off to places unknown and leaves the Earth at peace again.

Kirk and his crew are tried for their crimes. Since Kirk was leading the others, they are dismissed of their charges. Kirk is downgraded to the rank of Captain, and "punished" by having to command a starship - the new U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-A.

I should mention that this film was dedicated to the spaceship Challenger crew, in honor and memory of the tragic accident that occurred in 1983. Props to them for that.

The interesting thing about this movie is that it is the most fun. Even Nimoy, in the behind-the-scenes said that. It's probably the least violent (minus the whale-hunters), the most genuinely funny, and the one with a truly happy ending. The Main Title song for this film highlights all of that perfectly. It's very triumphant - almost Christmas-y. I actually downloaded it onto my iPod, I love it so much.

The only violent bit, as previously mentioned, was a video shown at the Cetacean Institute about whale hunting. It still makes me sick, even with all of the desensitizing I've had over the years from watching various movies. I couldn't watch it as a child, and I still find it very hard to watch.

A note on the bus punk: I LOVED that miniature song - "I Hate You" - as a kid because it had such a fun beat. When I started singing it around the house (because I didn't know what "screw you" meant), my brother had to gently correct me and tell me that Mom and Dad shouldn't hear me singing that, so stop. I still think that's funny and carry a fondness for the character and the song to this day.

I wonder, was the Temporal Directive in play here? Does it apply if they need to change the past to save the world? Would there be any other reason to go back in time besides something utterly dire like saving the world? McCoy and Scotty did have a bit of a stab at this concept when Scotty gave the molecular composition for transparent aluminum to a plastic-maker. McCoy pulled Scotty aside and expressed concern. Scotty said, "How do we know he didn't invent the thing?!" At first, I thought that was a sloppy way of dealing with it, and then I saw it as more of a way for the writers to say, yes, we understand this is not the way they should be dealing with time travel, but it's a fun movie, so forget it. Still, the geek in me is irritated.

I have to say while Wrath of Khan has replaced The Voyage Home as the absolute best Star Trek movie (at least in this viewing), I still hold a very fond place in my heart for the latter. I believe this is the most accessible film for both fans and non-fans. Everyone knows what you're talking about when you mention the "one with the whales."

That Green-Blooded Son of a Bitch!

The next film in our Star Trek lineup is Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The film was released in 1984 (I had been born!), starred the same main crew as before, and added Christopher Lloyd (best known to me for Back to the Future) and Robin Curtis. It also brings back Merritt Butrick as David, Kirk's newly discovered grown-up son. The movie was directed by Leonard Nimoy - his first time directing a feature film.

The thought that best expresses this plot is Scotty's line from this movie: "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." Sorry, folks, this is a long one.

This film starts just a wee bit after the first one leaves off. Exhausted, grieving, the crew of the Enterprise arrive at Earth, preparing for the Enterprise to get a refit. They discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned, and that Genesis (far from making them heroes) is now under quarantine and a forbidden subject. Other governments, such as the Klingon Empire, have expressed outrage that the Federation would have such powerful and destructive technology, and that they would keep it to themselves. (Cold War, anybody?)

Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, comes to see Kirk just after his arrival on Earth. Sarek is convinced that Spock transferred his soul, his katra - everything that was not of his body - to Kirk, as per Vulcan tradition. Finding nothing in Kirk's mind, Sarek despairs, until Kirk puts two and two together. Kirk figures out that McCoy's odd behavior was not from stress or exhaustion, but rather because two very opposite souls were competing in his one body. Sarek tells Kirk that they must bring the body of Spock and McCoy to Vulcan to possibly give Spock new life. Though forbidden to do so, the crew of the Enterprise (minus Uhura, who promises to meet them later on Vulcan), hijack their own ship and high-tail it to Genesis.

In the meantime, a Federation science ship, with Lt. Saavik (this time, played by Curtis) and David on board has ventured to Genesis to find out more about it. they detect animal life forms, and Saavik and David beam down to the surface to investigate. They discover that the microbes that had been on Spock's coffin had evolved somewhat and multiplied immensely in size. When they look in the coffin itself, it is empty. Detecting another life form, they find a young Vulcan boy, who they assume to be a sort of reincarnation of Spock. The boy has no speech capabilities, however - he seems but a shell of a person.

While the science ship waits to hear from Star Fleet what they should do about the child, a Klingon Bird of Prey suddenly de-cloacks. When the Federation ship refuses to give over the information on Genesis, the Klingon ship accidentally destroys them. This rogue Klingon commander, Kruge (Lloyd), has decided to gain the Genesis information for himself, thus wielding the ultimate power, and bringing glory to the Empire in the process. Kruge detects life forms on the surface, and sends an away team down to see if he can still retrieve the Genesis information.

Meanwhile, the planet has been roughly aging - far beyond its normal speed - and Spock with it. With no trouble at all, the Klingons capture Spock, Saavik, and David, and begin to interrogate them as the Enterprise enters the system. After a brief but devastating fire-fight, Kirk staunchly refuses to give them Genesis. Kruge orders his men to kill one of the hostages. When the Klingons go to kill Saavik, David lunges at the one with the knife and scuffles with him briefly before being killed.

Disabled in ship and sorely grieved, Kirk agrees to surrender the Enterprise to Kruge and his men. Kruge sends over nearly all of his men, while Kirk sets the self-destruct, and beams the Federation officers to the planet's surface. The Enterprise is then destroyed - looking like a flaming comet over a dying planet - and most of Kruge's crew with it.

Kirk and crew reunite with Saavik and Spock, and free them from the Klingons. Kirk taunts Kruge via one of the dead Klingon's communicators, and Kruge, in a rage, beams down to the surface. In exchange for the Genesis information, Kruge beams up the Federation officers to his ship, except for Spock and Kirk. When Kirk reveals that he had lied to get his crew off of the planet, he and Kruge wrestle on the planet until Kirk is able to throw Kruge off a cliff. He and Spock then beam aboard the Klingon vessel, overcome the one Klingon left, and fly to Vulcan.

There, at great risk to themselves, McCoy and Spock undergo the fal-tor-pan - a transfer of Spock's katra from McCoy's body to his. The transfer is successful and neither are permanently harmed, but it is clear that it will be a long process before Spock is himself again.

*Whew!* Now that that's done with, some notes...

Though a dubious honor at best, this is the best of the "odd" Star Trek films. The even-numbered films tend to be significantly better movies than the odd-numbered ones. I think the main issue with this film is that they tried to cram so much information into 105 minutes. Some of the scenes got truncated that would be more interesting to expand - the scene on Vulcan, for instance. Other scenes are completely unnecessary, or go on for too long - the microbes, anyone? The fight between Kruge and a microbe?? Interesting puppetry, totally pointless scene.

The filmmakers also re-showed the Genesis effect animation from Star Trek II. Animated by Industrial Light and Magic, this was the first entirely computer-generated sequence in a film, which is pretty darn cool, considering that computer-generated effects are rampant in today's movies.

It's hard for me to take Christopher Lloyd seriously as a Klingon, given his roles in the Back to the Future series. However, I looked it up, and Star Trek III was released a year before Back to the Future, so the original viewers would probably not have had that issue.

Seeing the Enterprise destroyed must have been devastating for the fans. I remember when I saw the Enterprise D destroyed in Generations. I don't think I've ever forgiven them for that. I wonder if it was the trade-off they decided on when they decided to bring back Spock.

Speaking of which, this film is full of convenient death and resurrection. Spock probably, despite my great love for him, should have stayed dead. His death and funeral scenes in Wrath of Khan were extremely moving. Would it have been better plot-wise to see how the crew deals with it after Spock dies? It's a question we'll never know, but I would be surprised if it has not been explored in a what-if book scenario. Also, David's death is very useful - we don't know what to do with him, so let's just kill him off.

Final thought: Kirk should not be able to defeat a Klingon commander in hand-to-hand combat.

Best of the odds, still not a favorite. Let me know what you think of the movie in the comments section!

In My Own Little Corner

Taking a departure from Star Trek (I still have until May!), I decided to watch the 1957 live television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring the wonderful Julie Andrews. Apparently, CBS wanted to televise a musical for audiences at home to see. Since Rodgers and Hammerstein were, as Andrews says in her introduction, "synonymous with Broadway," CBS enlisted the illustrious duo to write/compose a new version of Cinderella. At the time, Andrews was the sweetheart of Broadway, as she had been playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She was a shoe-in for the role of Cinderella.

Cinderella's story is simple. A young woman relegated to servitude by her step-family after the death of her father is visited by her fairy godmother. With magic to dress and transport her, Cinderella goes to the royal ball, where the prince falls in love with her, and she with him. Required by the magic to leave by midnight, she disappears into the night, leaving behind a single glass slipper. The prince tries the shoe on every girl in the kingdom until he finds Cinderella. They marry and live happily ever after. As for the step-family, different versions treat them different ways. This particular version is kind to them, allowing the now simpering fools to attend Cinderella at her wedding, and presumably attain tenuous royal favor for their connection to her.

A note first on Julie Andrews. I have loved Julie Andrews for my entire life. While most people know her from her roles in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, or, much more recently The Princess Diaries I and II (which were actually quite sweet - I'll review them one of these days), I also love her for her less innocent and motherly roles, such as in The Americanization of Emily and Victor/Victoria. Although Cinderella is firmly within the first vein of movies I mentioned (minus the motherly), I wanted to establish that I admire Andrews for her breadth of acting, not just for her sweet roles.

I am familiar with this score and version-of-story because of the 1997 Disney production of the same musical starring Brandy in the title role, so I can't help but compare the two. The 1957 version was sweeter and more innocent, but far less polished, and the side characters (even when playing the exact same scenes) were more one-dimensional than the 1997 version. Andrews outsang Brandy (through no fault of Brandy's!) completely, yet both managed to maintain a sparkle of wonder in their eye, and fill their character with character.

Overall, I was pleased with this version, but Andrews is who makes the production. It was not the fancy production I was hoping for, but it was quite impressive, given their circumstances. Worth a view; I'm not sure if it's worth owning.