4 Reasons Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home is PERFECT!

Star Trek IV "The One with the Whales" sounds like a Friends episode (THAT is a sitcom that hasn't aged well) but as it is what it is known by that tagline, I thought to share why it is a PERFECT movie in my view 

I'll offer a brief synopsis first 

After retrieving Spock's Katra and putting it back where it came from--OR SO HELP ME--our intrepid crew has to fly back in a Klingon ship.  Meanwhile, a probe is sending out soundwaves that neutralize the USS Saratoga captained by the late Madge Sinclair.

 

The Federation President issues a planetary distress call warning them to avoid Earth at all costs and that the probe is vaporizing the oceans 

Our crew goes to contemporary 1986 San Francisco to retrieve humpback whales. They determined this by putting the probe's soundwaves underwater. Will our crew save the planet from its shortsightedness? There were two movies after this so I can safely say the answer is yes 

Reason 1: Light Hearted Tone    

From the opening theme full of wonder, awe, bright feelings and beautiful to listen to, all the humor that fits so well with no need for a laugh track. Even at the darkest moments it still remains light hearted and makes the film fly by. It was so engaging I was surprised when it was over. 

Favorite moments: Spock and Amanda on Vulcan, dinner with Gillian, Scotty at the Factory, Bus Scene, The Hospital Scene, and many more that you'd have to watch the film to see. I especially liked the lines "Double Dumbass on you" and "break up, you look like a cadet review" 

I am glad we had this light hearted movie to give us a breather from serious Star Trek 

Reason 2 All the Cast Were Involved 

Normally in the show, it would be Kirk, Spock and McCoy and Scotty would appear in there somewhere, but in this film everyone had a part in the story. Let's go back to Part III

Uhura: She forced a guy she dubbed "Mr. Adventure" into a closet while she beamed Kirk, Spock, McCoy Chekov and Sulu to the Enterprise 

Sulu beat up a guy that called him tiny in a bid to break out McCoy

Scotty drained USS Excelsior's transwarp drive so it wouldn't be able to catch the Enterprise when it went to warp 

So with a great setup, it continued into Part IV 

Sulu gets a helicopter to airlift the transparent aluminum once it's ready 

Scotty and McCoy go to a factory and give the formula for transparent aluminum to make an aquarium onboard the ship 

Chekov and Uhura drain photons from the USS Enterprise naval ship 

Kirk and Spock go to get humpback whales  

For this, I felt like the cast was perfect here, everyone was integral to the plot and having a role that furthers the story. 

Reason 3 No "enemy"

What is remarkable about this is the story and how it lacks an antagonist. In Part II it was Khan. In Part III it was Klingons and now it's circumstance and humanity. Usually in a story like this it's a dystopia, but here it's a race against time; in part caused by humanity's shortsightedness

Reason 4 Great Message

I love that when the probe comes back, the humpback whales communicate with it and there are no subtitles. This hearkens back to "Only human arrogance would assume the message must be meant for man" It leaves us with a message that was timely then and even now. As Gillian said "Humanity has done a lot of damage with hand thrown harpoons" and at the time a lot of whales were endangered. I feel that the snide remarks of the Dark Ages in the hospital scene and the colorful language, reflections on the possibility of mankind's survival and how they're grateful mankind had gotten where they are in their timeline...all of it comes together masterfully and in a way that just works. 

With that, those are four reasons I feel Star Trek IV The Voyage Home is not only PERFECT, but the BEST movie out of The Original Series cast