Before I fully get back to my TNG episode reviews and beyond, since I recently acquired and watched the complete TOS and TNG movies sets on DVDs or Blu Ray while convalescing, I thought I'd quickly review each movie.
I mean, wow, each set was less than $10, so I guess that averages around $2 a movie, which is not bad.
I have watched them all and my overall impression is they are ALL better than I recall. That is to say, all good, well above average episodes of Star Trek.
I have not rewatched the Kelvin line yet, but I suppose I will when I'm done reviewing these first ten movies. However, unless I change my mind, I suspect I'll just be nit picking those last ones to death and pointing out how they would be considered below average Trek episodes or how they were made by those who didn't seem to particularly care about canon, science, or common sense. But I'll see that when I rewatch them. I have never actually taken the Kelvin movies apart piece-by-piece before, so I might actually enjoy doing that and listening to any comments from those who loved those remakes.
Who knows? Maybe I'll like them better than before just as I seem to have liked the TOS and TNG movies better than I remember. I might just be in the right frame of mind.
The Original Series Movies:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
The Next Generation Movies:
Star Trek Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
The Kelvin Timeline:
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Trek Beyond
I'll do one a day, just so others can comment if they feel so inclined, and by then I hope to be up to continuing with the TNG episode reviews, if, indeed, I don't renew my efforts there even sooner. But we'll see. I can't even cough yet without it hurting quite a bit, so this is taking more time than I hoped. But the movie reviews are easy, in comparison, since it's a superficial treatment, and I wanted to do them since I just watched them.
We begin with Star Trek: The Motion Picture, sort of. The 1979 theatrical release, IMO, was inferior to the 2001 Director's cut or even the TV release. The original was 10 seconds shy of 2 hours while the director's cut was 7 minutes and 15 seconds longer than the original movie. Added or deleted scenes, improved sound, new computer graphics, digital enhancements, etc. made the director's cut THE version to see if you have the choice. This DVD set I bought for under $10 with all 6 TOS movies didn't give me that choice, but I have the director's cut on a separate DVD, anyway.
The Starfleet uniforms are mildly lame - always looking like extreme comfort wear or sleep wear, just the change in uniform styles from TMP to Wrath vastly improved the feel of the movies. But there was little to be done about that.
Almost a retread on the episode, The Changeling, V'Ger differs from Nomad in its ultimate goal - to join with its creator - aka - God. Nomad was just looking for perfection and for some unexplained reason, decided imperfection needed to be sterilized or destroyed, and it mistook James Kirk for its creator - thus sealing its fate with that demonstrable error of its own imperfection.
The sheer awe of V'Ger, however, compared to Nomad, is not to be denied.
Both probes got much farther into space than should have been possible, though this is a common problem is all of Trek - underestimating the vastness of space. And both probably fix this using wormholes that, however unlikely to have occurred near the Earth, sent the probes halfway across the galaxy or more.
The acting isn't terrible, but it's not great. They are finding themselves again.
The Klingons are changed, but that's fine - and explained, eventually - and their ships are awesome and the Klingon Theme music will be inspirational for decades to come. But alas, the Klingons could not stand up to V'Ger's assault.
Federation tech, however, had improved, and was still superior, and with it the Enterprise managed to survive the initial onslaught of V'Ger's probes, and through that typical Trek logic, they discovered the answers they needed to give themselves more time to find the ultimate solution to the puzzle of V'Ger.
The Earth, or more correctly, most of Humanity, was almost brought to the brink of annihilation, but in the end Captain Decker decided to sacrifice himself - in a way - and join with V'Ger - and his dearly departed girl friend, Illia - and evolve, transcending logic and science and, it would seem, becoming what is perhaps one possible next step in humanity's evolution. Alas, we never hear from him, his GF, or V'Ger, or this transcended being ever again, so who can really say?
But Kirk did save the Enterprise and most of Humanity and Earth (and probably the Federation of Planets), so it's small wonder he is so historically important and one of the most well-known people in human history.
The movie may be slower paced than some, but it's a good story with good effects and it was a welcome return of the franchise. Far too many have written this movie off as a slow and boring, but then so too have many written most of TOS off in similar fashion. Word and words. If words were water, the humans would have drowned us all. TOS has never been for everybody, but I loved it as a kid and have never found reason to change my mind.
And so, once again, Kirk and his valiant crew are in command of the USS Enterprise. To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.
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Meanwhile the real Voyagers are still boldly going, and beaming back data. What troupers!
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
This movie was a wonderful sequel to TOS's episode, Space Seed. Though the events of Khan's life would soon be surpassed in real life, the movie was released in 1982 and those more epic events were still a decade or more away. Of course, it's 2020 now and we still don't have flying cars, let alone sleeper ships capable of leaving Earth's solar system, and nor are we in the aftermath of any Eugenics wars or WW III. Oh well. No matter.
I think the biggest flaw is how Chekov and company failed to recognize Ceti Alpha V, and the proposed explanation of Ceti Alpha VI's destruction shifting the orbit of Ceti Alpha V seems far too unrealistic. Lifeless astronomical bodies should, in fact, be quite easy to find, too, and we're not 100% sure why the Genesis team required lifelessness - an ethical concern, or just the only way to prove life can arise from lifelessness. Anyway, this mistake is pretty damned implausible. Oh well.
Of course, the fact Khan knew Chekov is sometimes stated as a mistake since Koenig wasn't even in season 1 of TOS, but that's just nonsense since there are 400+ people on the ship we never really see but we know are there, anyway, so it's more than possible, and even likely they had met during Space Seed.
Khan also seems oddly well versed about Klingon proverbs, but who knows what he was reading when he was given run of the Enterprise's libraries 15 years prior to these events.
And Star Trek will touch on Melville's Moby Dick numerous times, but it's never done better than here with Khan's loss of his wife (assumed to be Marla McGivers, though it's never confirmed on screen) as the missing part of Khan that locks his obsession for revenge on Kirk. His position is, of course, unreasonable, but he's mad, and his augment followers have sworn absolute obedience to him long ago, and though his #1 man, Joachim, tries to reason with him, it's a lost cause, just as any who tried to reason with Ahab could not move him off his ultimate goal of revenge, no matter the costs.
The Genesis torpedo, while impressive that it can do so much, so quickly, really isn't doing much more than what transporters and replicators can already do - it's just on a more massive scale. In fact, though they say it made the Mutara planet, that star wasn't there before, either, so it may have collapsed the Mutara Nebula into a small stellar system, and that is impressive for how quickly it reorganized all that mass. As for being a weapon, they already have weapons of mass destruction that can take out whole planets, probably, or destroy entire biospheres, so I'm not overly concerned they have a new devastating weapon. It just takes a willingness to kill an entire planet. Naturally, the fact Kirk's son, David, used an unethical and unpredictable material to make it work (in an imperfect manner) is likely why little ever came of it, to build worlds, or destroy them.
Carole Marcus may have been that little blond number Gary Mitchell aimed at Kirk, but we can never be sure. But how many others would Kirk "almost" have married if not her?
I was always impressed with the surprise opening of this movie, finding Saavik in command, only to finally discover the now famous, or infamous, Kobayashi Maru test in progress. How they keep something like that a secret from future recruits is beyond me. And the flawed hero, Kirk, having cheated to beat the no-win scenario, is all the more real for doing something like that. No-win situations may come, but no-win scenarios do seem like a cheat. I applaud his original thinking (though I was quite saddened to see how it was depicted in a Kelvin timeline movie).
And so Kirk feels old. Gosh, he only 49, and still younger than when most people finally make captain, probably, but well past his youth even where humans tend to live to be over 100. But he's not past his usefulness to Starfleet, though he's never cared for administrative work and that's what he's got, apart from teaching at the Academy. But they will develop that more as the movies go on.
And what an action-packed story, too. Wow. Few things come as close as this to edge of your seat thrills. Sad Kirk stepped into it like a rookie, even ignoring a rookie's warnings, but he is far from perfect and it shows. That, and Scotty dragging his dying nephew up to the bridge instead of to sickbay, but hey, isn't the doctor often on the bridge instead of in sickbay?
There's good humor about the place, too, so we have more than just action for action's sake, a villain who doesn't think of himself as a villain, but an avenging and righteous man, and the cleverness of experience defeating even the so-called superior intellect.
There are even good reasons why photon torpedoes are being used at minimal yields, if you think about how unshielded ships have to avoid blowback - or initially, how Khan didn't want to kill Kirk outright but wanted him to know who had beaten him and why.
Another flaw, probably, was David stating they couldn't stop the Genesis torpedo. But that, too, was probably due to his inexperience. If they could beam over at all, they could have beamed the device into nothingness, or probably even have blown up the Reliant (and the Genesis torpedo) with more photon torpedoes. But Kirk just took David's assessment at face value, and so did Spock. But his logic was impeccably valid, if not sound. But assuming David was correct, All die, including him, or just him. Obvious. Sadly obvious. Yet it would hardly occur to most.
I am a little sorry they didn't show the expression on a dying Khan's face when Kirk warped away and he knew in those last seconds he had failed and Kirk had won. Instead, I think he died believing he had won, even though death would take him and all his followers, his revenge was assured. But no - it was not.
But perhaps Khan did far worse than kill Kirk, or maroon him, but he took his best friend. And what a hell of a powerful death scene, yes? More than a few in the audience were openly crying as Spock lay dying and he said his final farewell to Kirk. Me? The tears caught up to me during Kirk's eulogy.
Yet, from all this, Kirk, at least temporarily, felt young again - until the reality of his administrative position at Starfleet reasserted itself, but we'll see that later.
Nevertheless, Spock's death was a hell of a thing.
But wait. Remember? Huh.
It never surprises me most people seem to feel this is the best of the TOS movies. But it is of a definite flavor, and not everybody likes that flavor best.
Last edited by Jilerb on Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:46 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I love The Motion Picture a lot more than most fans do. And I love The Wrath of Khan as much as everyone does.
There is a pretty amusing bit in one of the Lower Decks episodes that parodies the "Kirk and Scotty fly the pod around the Enterprise for hours" scene from TMP.
I agree that the pajama uniforms are not so good....the WoK-era ones may be a bit too formal-looking for some (I can't imagine enjoying spending an entire duty shift in one) but I love the look of them. And of course, there is that one moment in TMP with the pajama uniforms that lets us see the "full Decker".
I remember a contemporary reviewer who said that "Wrath of Khan" was not so much a sequel as a case of going back and doing it right. And I wholeheartedly agree.
It was the first big sci-fi movie I ever saw on the big screen in its initial release. It blew me away then, and again some years later when I had the chance to see it on the big screen a second time.
_________________ The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls who, when he found an especially costly one, sold everything he had to buy it.
I saw Wrath of Khan before I ever saw an episode of the original TV show. It was what really got me into Star Trek. After it was on at the movies, Channel 7 in Australia began repeating old episodes of TOS and that's how I finally saw it.
_________________ "They'll bite your finger off given a chance" - Junkie Luv (regarding Zebras)
Wrath of Khan is on my list of all time great movies. I love the way it handles the friendship between Kirk and Spock - a theme that recurs in many of my favorite movies (ESB for example). Guys willing to do whatever it takes for their friends. Very resonant for me.
Wrath of Khan is on my list of all time great movies. I love the way it handles the friendship between Kirk and Spock - a theme that recurs in many of my favorite movies (ESB for example). Guys willing to do whatever it takes for their friends. Very resonant for me.
In one movie, it encapsulated so much of what Star Trek truly means to me. Almost all of my favorite elements were there:
1. The idea that Kirk is an unexplainably inspired tactician, outsmarting the genius Khan. 2. The idea of Kobyashi Maru, that Kirk faces no-win situations and finds a way to win (with his teammates). 3. The idea of there being a profound bond of love between Kirk and Spock. 4. The idea that Kirk's character has influenced Spock, making him willing to sacrifice anything for his Captain and the Enterprise. His heart is as big as his mind. 5. The idea that Spock does great, heroic things, but still finds a way to logic them out in his head -- "the needs of the many . . ." 6. The idea that Spock is superhuman despite his mild manners (only he could have done the radiation chamber thing). 7. The idea that Kirk has become legendary from a long resume of victories and exploits. 8. The idea of Kirstie Alley. Oh yes.
It's all there. One reason I never emotionally attached (or watched) Next Generation is that for me, Star Trek was the above things. It was the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and their awesome supporting team. I would have preferred a recast reboot to a new gang of characters that did not draw upon the deep attachment I had formed from 1982-1986. But the timing was off because Shatner and Nimoy were still very much viable and really could not have been recast at that time.
Wrath of Khan is on my list of all time great movies. I love the way it handles the friendship between Kirk and Spock - a theme that recurs in many of my favorite movies (ESB for example). Guys willing to do whatever it takes for their friends. Very resonant for me.
In one movie, it encapsulated so much of what Star Trek truly means to me. Almost all of my favorite elements were there:
1. The idea that Kirk is an unexplainably inspired tactician, outsmarting the genius Khan. 2. The idea of Kobyashi Maru, that Kirk faces no-win situations and finds a way to win (with his teammates). 3. The idea of there being a profound bond of love between Kirk and Spock. 4. The idea that Kirk's character has influenced Spock, making him willing to sacrifice anything for his Captain and the Enterprise. His heart is as big as his mind. 5. The idea that Spock does great, heroic things, but still finds a way to logic them out in his head -- "the needs of the many . . ." 6. The idea that Spock is superhuman despite his mild manners (only he could have done the radiation chamber thing). 7. The idea that Kirk has become legendary from a long resume of victories and exploits. 8. The idea of Kirstie Alley. Oh yes.
It's all there. One reason I never emotionally attached (or watched) Next Generation is that for me, Star Trek was the above things. It was the adventures of Kirk, Spock, and their awesome supporting team. I would have preferred a recast reboot to a new gang of characters that did not draw upon the deep attachment I had formed from 1982-1986. But the timing was off because Shatner and Nimoy were still very much viable and really could not have been recast at that time.
All that they loved, all that they fought for, all that they stood for will now be put to the test… Join us on this, the final voyage of the Starship Enterprise.
The final voyage of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701? Who wouldn't be anxious to see that? Who wouldn't need to know? If you didn't see the advertising then, thank YouTube and the Internet you can still see it now.
Wow. Just wow. If that wasn't worth the price of admission, what would be? And the ship, herself, was as important as any one cast member or character, and her loss as keenly felt after nearly two decades of us getting to know her and what she represents during her 40-year career run.
I was even impressed the way they worked Janice Rand into the piece as she was almost shocked at the level of battle damage the Enterprise suffered in Wrath while the ship slowly pulled into space port. The slow, shaking of her head said it all. However, I'm not sure it's official that was supposed to be Janice Rand - even if it was Grace Lee Whitney. Take a look at about 1:55.
The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) was a 23rd century Federation Constitution-class starship operated by Starfleet. It was also the first ship to bear the name Enterprise with this registry. Launched in 2245, the ship was commanded by Captain Robert April until 2250, when command of the ship was turned over to April's then First Officer Christopher Pike. (TAS: "The Counter-Clock Incident"; DIS: "Brother")
During the Klingon War, The Enterprise and its crew were intentionally left out of the fighting by Starfleet Command as they considered the Enterprise to be the "best of Starfleet" and wanted them to survive. (DIS: "Project Daedalus")
Following the end of the war in 2257, the Enterprise was tasked with investigating one of a series of unidentified signals detected throughout the galaxy. Unfortunately the Enterprise suffered multiple catastrophic systems failures, leading the Enterprise to be towed back to spacedock and Pike to be transferred to command the USS Discovery to continue the mission of investigating the red bursts. (DIS: "Will You Take My Hand?", "Brother")
After several months of repairs, the Enterprise was returned to service with Captain Pike returned to command the ship and taking part in the battle with the Section 31 artificial intelligence Control. (DIS: "Such Sweet Sorrow", "Such Sweet Sorrow, Part 2")
Pike's command of the Enterprise ended around 2265 when Pike was promoted to fleet captain and command of the ship was turned over to Captain James T. Kirk. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", "The Menagerie, Part I")
In the course of its 40-year career, the Enterprise became the most celebrated starship of its time. It was later identified as "the original Enterprise" or "Kirk's ship". (DS9: "Trials and Tribble-ations"; ENT: "These Are the Voyages...")
In its forty years of service and discovery, through upgrades and at least two refits, the Enterprise took part in numerous first contacts, military engagements, and time travel incidents. The vessel achieved its most lasting fame from a five-year mission (2265-2270) under the command of Captain Kirk when he returned with, believe it or not, most of his crew intact. (Star Trek: The Original Series; Star Trek: The Motion Picture; VOY: "Q2")
The Enterprise was destroyed over the Genesis Planet in 2285, when Kirk activated the ship's auto-destruct sequence to prevent the Enterprise from falling into the hands of the Klingons. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock) It was soon replaced by the USS Enterprise-A. (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
And wow, that was one hell of a call back, wasn't it?
Note: Though it's not ever stated as canon, the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A was likely a refit of one of the original Constitution class starships. One possible list would include the Constitution, Enterprise, Exeter, Excalibur, Lexington, Yorktown, Potemkin, Republic, Hood, Kongo, Constellation, Farragut, Valiant, Intrepid, and Defiant. Naturally, the Enterprise, Defiant, Constellation, and Intrepid were destroyed or lost beyond Starfleet's ability to retrieve or repair then, and one, as is, even ended up in the fleet's museum (Picard saw it). True, some were sorely damaged or their entire crews killed in battle or sickness, but they could have been refurbished and turned into 1701-A. After all, it makes little sense to quickly build a starship using 40-year old technology, and they wouldn't have had time to build a new one that quickly, anyway, so they rushed a current refit job (just as 1701 was refit) and recommissioned it as 1701-A just as a thank you for Kirk and his crew. And due to the rush job, though its warp drive was fine, its transporters and many of its doors and lesser systems were still glitchy. Despite all that, 1701-A only saw about 7 years of service before it, too, was decommissioned in 2293 when they commissioned an Excelsior class starship, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC 1701-B to replace her with the latest technology.
When it becomes clear what Spock did to McCoy, there is little Kirk wouldn't do to save both his dearest friends. He puts his life and career on the line, and there's little Spock's other shipmates wouldn't sacrifice to save them both, too. Who could ask for greater loyalty and friendship than that?
Meanwhile, some Klingon warmonger (they aren't all like that, but we see that side of the Klingons all too often) is intent on obtaining the weapon of mass destruction - to preserve his people, his culture, to maintain parity, or just his play for personal power and glory, all we know is he is prepared to kill most anyone, including his wife, I think, to keep the secret of his actions until he emerges victoriously with weapon in hand - the ultimate power in the galaxy. And Christopher Lloyd (Command Kruge) and John Larroquette (Maltz) are excellent as the Klingon heavies.
Starfleet's response is far less caring about one man, but at least it's not unreasonable, considering what such a device might suggest on the galactic stage.
A pity, I will always think, that they couldn't accommodate Kirstie Ally, and that they replaced her with Robin Curtis. I don't know how much difference it might have made, but Kirstie was so good and lovely before, that lone would have been worth it, IMO, whatever she was asking. Though they cut any suggestion she was half Romulan, what she did with Spock to help him, and even Saavik's subsequent marriage to Spock, is an important part of the story. And she came so close to being murdered just to make an example of Kruge's degree of determination. If David hadn't acted she would have been dead before her career really began. But, as a science geek, David had the courage but just not the fighting chops to win against your typical Klingon warrior, so R.I.P., David, and the cost to Kirk mounts up. And let's not forget, the Federation lost an entire science vessel and crew of 80 here, too, when the Klingons destroyed the U.S.S. Grissom. Kruge was a bigger Klingon bastard than perhaps we knew. R.I.P., USS Grissom (NCC-638)
Again, Kirk goes hand-to-hand with a physically larger opponent. I'll say this for Kirk - he's hard to intimidate, and he never let's something like that slow him down. It also suggests Starfleet combat training is nothing to sneeze at, but in the end, again his cleverness tricks Maltz into beaming him and Spock up. Maltz may not deserve to live, but he does - though we never really learn what they did with him after they took him to the planet, Vulcan.
And Vulcan mysticism and some scantily clad Vulcan babes prevail as McCoy, son of David, risks all again to save Spock. I wonder if he really thought he won all those arguments with Spock or if he was just joking.
Together again, reunited, the bridge crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise prevailed, the evil Klingon plans were thwarted, and despite the cost and probable pending consequences, there is an optimistic outlook and hopeful future awaiting them.
He's alive, Jim.
I can't think of any awful mistakes that detracted from this movie. Well, maybe the self destruct was a little incomplete for what probably should have been a total dump of their anti-matter into the ship's matter environment, but I'm not too worried about it.
The Genesis effect does some weird stuff and I have my doubts it would reconstitute a person from their cells like that, but it is a powerful and unpredictable device, and in comparison, it's hardly as implausible as some other things in other episodes or movies of Trek. As such, this movie ranks pretty high with me - better than I recall. Probably not as high as Wrath, but a great movie nonetheless.
For reference, that's the one where the British Frenchman in charge of the Enterprise says "We surrender" in the first half hour of the pilot episode.
Yes. It was his legal right to do so and so it was a good and/or fun decision. I don't know if he washed his tights, but maybe he had people to do that for him.
_________________ "They'll bite your finger off given a chance" - Junkie Luv (regarding Zebras)
The film is dedicated "to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger", which exploded shortly after liftoff on 28 January 1986, almost ten months before the release of Star Trek IV.
And the movie did so well they decided to make Star Trek: The Next Generation, for TV, so there's that.
The flavor of this movie is decidedly different - more humorous and light hearted, no one dies, apparently, and it has serious environmental messages that are not too heavy-handed, IMO.
So we begin three months after "Search," on Vulcan where Spock is still on the mend and the bridge crew is preparing to return to Earth and face the consequences of their illegal actions, but another catastrophe rears up that endangers the Earth and all human civilization.
Another probe of immense power has entered the Terran system, and it's causing havoc, either deliberately or through unintentional side effect, they can't be sure. It seems to want something, but what? A signal it is directing toward Earth's oceans goes unanswered, and planetary, spaceports, and starship power generation systems all simply fail in the wake of this probe's actions. Battery reserves work, but they won't last long. Without power generation, it's just a matter of time before people start dying by the millions. And perhaps worse, the probe has started ionizing Earth's atmosphere and vaporizing Earth's oceans, altering the environment for some unknown purpose. If some way to answer the probe cannot be found, all life on Earth will soon perish.
Back on Vulcan, Dr. McCoy renames the captured Bird-of-Pray the HMS Bounty (I guess there's technically a mutiny in there somewhere) and they head to Earth, though they leave Saavik behind.
Some of this was filmed but none of it was used or became canon, but Rodenberry wanted it so, so . . . it would appear Saavik and Spock consummated during his forced pon farr on the Genesis planet, resulting in her pregnancy, and Kirk approved her maternity leave and she stayed on Vulcan with her later to be mother-in-law, Amanda, giving those scenes deeper meaning. In TNG, though Picard said he attended Sarek's son's wedding, they don't mention Spock or Saavik by name, but it's assumed to be Spock and Saavik, so perhaps our favorite Vulcan left a family behind when he hopped off into the Kelvin timeline. Picard did spend considerable time with one of the few other humans at the event, which is where he met and developed a relationship with Leonard McCoy. Neither Kirstie Ally or Robin Curtis got to reprise the Saavik role again, though it did get mutated a bit into a different character, Valeris, but few liked the idea of Saavik turning traitor, so it was a completely different character.
On the way home, normal traffic and communications are out - due to the disruptive nature of the alien probe. Even the U.S.S. Yorktown had to deploy a makeshift solar sail to survive. I mention this since when they repaired the Yorktown from this encounter (which was more damaging than the film might lead one to believe) that Constitution Class Starship was the most likely candidate to get the quick makeover and be recommissioned the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-A.
Comm traffic establishes the problem, the alien probe, and listening to the message directed to Earth's oceans, and adjusting it for various factors, Spock determines it is meant for humpback whales, an extinct species. With no other option, they attempt a slingshot time travel maneuver around the sun and hope to travel back to 20th century Earth, find two humpback whales, and returned them to the 23rd century to answer the alien probe.
And they do just that, and along the way they have fun, make jokes, make light of serious situations, yet remain professionally dedicated to solving the problems of the mission at hand.
There's a silly bit concerning the regeneration of dilithium crystals that was needless - or better explained as simply needing to steal a lot of energy - instead of being able to recrystallize dilithium - something they couldn't even do with better equipment in the future. And some comic bits in the hospital after Chekov's comedic interrogation where I have to believe he's playing it stupid. Though he leaves some defective equipment behind, I heard Gary 7 and Roberta Lincoln snatched those up to prevent problems, so those two are still on the job (maybe).
The colorful metaphors (vulgarities) are laugh out loud funny when Spock finally uses one correctly.
Where the hell is that power, Spock?
One damn minute, Admiral.
A few time paradoxes occur, too, which is fun to think about it. Are those the same glass frames McCoy will later buy for Kirk? And did Dr. Nichols really invent transparent aluminum? At least the consensus seems to be for the latter, Nichols did, and Scotty knew it, so he really had to do this.
Despite working with inferior equipment, and from questionable memory with complicated time equations, Spock manages to get the Bounty there and back again, and through valiant effort, Kirk and company deliver two humpback whales (three if you count the fact Gracie was pregnant) to the 23rd century. And maybe through genetic manipulation, they help quickly repopulate the oceans with that species, now that hey have the genetic material on hand.
Note: I forget where I read this, but it seems the probe was wiping out life on Earth to reseed it with whales (its favorite species, or something) and while the new whales were young and inexperienced, it decided restarting from those two would still be quicker and more efficient, so it packed up and left. It almost looked like just leaving restored things, as if it removed an active power dampening effect, but some permanent damage was done, and some serious repairs had to be made. But like I said, nobody lost their lives in this film.
Kirk and company stand accused, and Spock stands with his shipmates, and while Kirk pleads guilty, due to extenuating circumstances (like saving humanity) Starfleet dismisses all charges save one - disobeying direct orders, which is only directed at Kirk. And they bust him down to captain and give him a new ship, which is what everybody who knows him knows he wanted.
And how is Spock? Sarek asks, and we learn he feels fine - his emotional response about where he left it before, so Spock is truly Spock again, though he might have some missing memories, he seems fine and good to go, so Spock is back.
I'm sure the Klingons are still upset, and probably even issued standing orders to kill Kirk on sight, if at all possible, and we'll see more of that in the last two TOS movies, but for now, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, Chekov, and Uhura (sorry, Chapel) are back on familiar ground and free to seek out new life and new civilizations, and to boldly go where no one has gone before.
As I said, this was a different flavor - almost a comedy in a way, and certainly more environmentally conscious film than most other Trek films. But it was fun and enjoyable and a good story. This would be a well above average episode. It's not as exciting as Wrath, and though a different flavor, it might be every bit as good as Search. I certainly enjoyed it more the last viewing than I recall I did from previous viewings. However, ultimately I would probably rate it a tad lower for the improbability of this alien probe's interest in Earth, or whales, and it's god-like abilities, and the general lack of follow up as to its origins or anyone even attempting to follow it after it became less threatening. That, and no future Trek really mentions it. If it's so big on whales, why would it populate only one planet with them and not hundreds, anyway? One might consider it a pretty big deal to find all those things out, but they don't, apparently just happy to be alive and well rid of it, and maybe happy to have some whales in their backyard again. And hey, Kirk literally saved the world. Again. Sort of.
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