History Film / StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome

-->'''Kirk:''' Oh, him [Spock]? He's harmless. Part of the free speech movement at Berkeley in the sixties. I think he did a little too much LDS.[[note]]This acronym refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, aka the Mormons.[[/note]]

Kirk (Creator/WilliamShatner) is prepared to face the consequences of his actions in the [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock previous movie]], but a powerful alien probe is making its way to Earth ([[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture yes, another one]]), wreaking havoc with the environment and shutting down anything with power. Deducing that the probe is searching for humpback whales, which are extinct in the twenty-third century, Kirk and crew use a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey they stole in the last film to TimeTravel to UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco in TheEighties, where they hope to retrieve some and save Earth. HilarityEnsues. Instead of the traditional SpaceOpera, this movie is an outright comedy. It even lacks a villain, outside of the whale probe and a whaler boat. ''Star Trek IV'' also concludes a loose trilogy arc that began with ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.

Kirk is prepared to face the consequences of his actions in the [[Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock previous movie]], but a powerful alien probe is making its way to Earth ([[Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture yes, another one]]), wreaking havoc with the environment and shutting down anything with power. Deducing that the probe is searching for humpback whales, which are extinct in the twenty-third century, Kirk and crew use a Klingon Bird-Of-Prey they stole in the last film to TimeTravel to UsefulNotes/SanFrancisco in TheEighties, where they hope to retrieve some and save Earth. HilarityEnsues. Instead of the traditional SpaceOpera, this movie is an outright comedy. It even lacks a villain, outside of the whale probe and a whaler boat. ''Star Trek IV'' also concludes a loose trilogy arc that began with ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan''.

* ScaryScienceWords: [=McCoy=] bluffs getting Gillian past an orderly into the hospital by claiming she's suffering from "acute post-prandial upper-abdominal distension". Afterwards, when asked about by Kirk, he reveals it to mean "cramps."

** Scotty refers to the ''Excelsior'' as a "[[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack bucket of bolts]]."

( OutOfCharacterMoment: At the end when [[spoiler:the crew are in the water outside the sinking ship, just after the whales have successfully communicated with the probe]], Spock appears to be laughing.

* FailedFutureForecast: The probe is causing bad weather in 23rd-century Leningrad (the name of Saint Petersburg between 1924 and 1991), although the oblast (province/state) still retains that name.
* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The whole premise of the film, figuratively and almost literally, thanks to the cetaceans out of temporal water.

* WhatWeNowKnowToBeTrue: See WeWillHavePerfectHealthInTheFuture.

* FailedFutureForecast: The probe is causing bad weather in 23rd-century Leningrad, although the oblast (province/state) still retains that name.

''[[caption-width-right:330:Stardate:1986. How on Earth can they save the future?]]''

** Madge Sinclair has an uncredited cameo near the beginning of the film as the captain of the ''Saratoga''. This was actually the first appearance of a female Starfleet captain in the franchise.

* TheCameo: Both Creator/MajelBarrett and Grace Lee Whitney make appearances in the film. Barrett reprises her role as Christine Chapel, now a Commander at Starfleet Medical.[[note]]This is Majel Barrett's final appearance as Dr. Chapel, though she'd be far from done with ''Trek''.[[/note]] Whitney also appears at Starfleet Command, and is credited as Janice Rand, also a Commander.

* ArmorPiercingSlap: Gillian gives one to the aquarium director for not telling her George and Gracie were being transported ahead of schedule.

* MythologyGag: The Bridge Computer Sound Effects from ''The Original Series'' can clearly be heard in the background as Kirk says "Let's see what she's got".
* NamesTheSame: An InUniverse example. "Sir! Ve have found the nuclear wessels! And Admiral....it is the ''Enterprise''!"

* CriticalResearchFailure: InUniverse. The crew, knowing only the broad strokes of the sociopolitical environment of the late-twentieth-century United States, failed to realize that putting Chekov, a Russian, on the ground looking for "nuclear wessels" was a bad idea.

* SimpleSolutionWontWork: When Spock deduces that the probe is seeking humpback whales to communicate with, Kirk suggests trying to answer it with recordings of whalesong, which would certainly be much easier than traveling back through time to try and find living instances of a long-extinct species. Spock points out that since they had no idea what the whalesong they were broadcasting ''meant'', they'd effectively be speaking gibberish.

This is JustForFun/TheOneWith [[SpaceWhaleAesop The Whales]]. And the nuclear "[[FunetikAksent wessels]]".

[[caption-width-right:330:"And right above the Golden Gate Bridge, folks, is a Klingon Bird-of-Prey from 300 years in the future. How about that?"]]

* AllThereInTheManual: The Blu-Ray releases include the Library Computer, an interactive database that will appear on screen as the movie plays offering entries on characters, ships, places, etc. with additional information on them.

* EverythingIsAnIPodInTheFuture: In the brief shot of the ''Enterprise''-A's bridge at the end of the movie, the entire bridge is painted white with black touchscreen control panels.