Post by klep on Sept 13, 2021 11:17:32 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/13: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
HOME AT LAST WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
My mother does not like Star Trek. Oh, she doesn't hate it or anything, but she doesn't like it. So I don't know why we saw this in the theatre. It's the only one I ever have. At the time, it was the only Star Trek movie I'd seen, full stop. It is definitely the most accessible Star Trek movie. It is in many ways not much like the rest of the series and in other ways exactly like it. And it doesn't matter what the subtitle is, because everyone knows the subtitle of this one is The One With The Whales.
Obviously, this is after the events of Star Trek III; funny how that works. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is getting himself back after that whole dying thing. The crew of the Enterprise is disgraced and on Vulcan. Meanwhile on Earth, a mysterious probe is destroying, like, everything. No one knows what it is and what it wants. The crew of the Enterprise works out, it doesn't matter how, that it is broadcasting the song of the extinct humpback whale and therefore goes back in time to the late twentieth century to retrieve a pair of whales and Save The Earth.
We could unpack the fact that it's always about Earth, but let's be real; the framing device doesn't matter. Even a little. What we're all here for is Spock, Kirk (William Shatner), Bones (Forrest DeKelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), Scotty (James Doohan), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) wandering about '80s San Francisco. We don't care why they're there or what they're hoping to accomplish. We want to watch the fish-out-of-water shenanigans of characters we know and love.
What's notable is that they all remain competent. Oh, Uhura isn't given much to do—Uhura is pretty well never given much to do. And mostly Chekhov gets shot. But there are lots of individual moments in this movie that are memorable, certainly more so than Kirk's standard Forced Romantic Subplot. Even if you don't remember anything else about it, you remember Spock neck-pinching the punk on the bus. Maybe Scotty's "a keyboard—how quaint." Bones curing a woman with kidney disease with a pill. Heck, at the only Star Trek convention I've ever been to, literally everyone was telling the people they'd gone with to remember where they'd parked.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/20: The Haunting (1963)
HOME SWEET HOME WEEK!
For Home Sweet Home Week we'll be watching this lesbian horror romance about two women attempting to take up residence in a house which proves to be haunted. Be sure to join us next week for our discussion of Robert Wise's The Haunting, available for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/21: Reminiscence
The first feature from Westworld writer and showrunner Lisa Joy is the focus of next week's podcast. Be sure to join us Wednesday as we discuss Reminiscence, available on HBO Max and at a theater near you!
HOME AT LAST WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
My mother does not like Star Trek. Oh, she doesn't hate it or anything, but she doesn't like it. So I don't know why we saw this in the theatre. It's the only one I ever have. At the time, it was the only Star Trek movie I'd seen, full stop. It is definitely the most accessible Star Trek movie. It is in many ways not much like the rest of the series and in other ways exactly like it. And it doesn't matter what the subtitle is, because everyone knows the subtitle of this one is The One With The Whales.
Obviously, this is after the events of Star Trek III; funny how that works. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is getting himself back after that whole dying thing. The crew of the Enterprise is disgraced and on Vulcan. Meanwhile on Earth, a mysterious probe is destroying, like, everything. No one knows what it is and what it wants. The crew of the Enterprise works out, it doesn't matter how, that it is broadcasting the song of the extinct humpback whale and therefore goes back in time to the late twentieth century to retrieve a pair of whales and Save The Earth.
We could unpack the fact that it's always about Earth, but let's be real; the framing device doesn't matter. Even a little. What we're all here for is Spock, Kirk (William Shatner), Bones (Forrest DeKelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols), Sulu (George Takei), Scotty (James Doohan), and Chekhov (Walter Koenig) wandering about '80s San Francisco. We don't care why they're there or what they're hoping to accomplish. We want to watch the fish-out-of-water shenanigans of characters we know and love.
What's notable is that they all remain competent. Oh, Uhura isn't given much to do—Uhura is pretty well never given much to do. And mostly Chekhov gets shot. But there are lots of individual moments in this movie that are memorable, certainly more so than Kirk's standard Forced Romantic Subplot. Even if you don't remember anything else about it, you remember Spock neck-pinching the punk on the bus. Maybe Scotty's "a keyboard—how quaint." Bones curing a woman with kidney disease with a pill. Heck, at the only Star Trek convention I've ever been to, literally everyone was telling the people they'd gone with to remember where they'd parked.
It is a sweet, charming movie that is incidentally Star Trek, and that sounds like the recipe for a lot of angry Trekkies. Or Trekkers, if you like that term better. However, it seems to be beloved by pretty much everyone who doesn't hate fun. It's got a plot about how we need to protect our planet—and I think whale populations have increased since then, though I also think it's simplistic to give the movie all the credit—but who cares, because it gets Spock in a tank talking to whales. And that is the best Star Trek has to offer.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 9/20: The Haunting (1963)
HOME SWEET HOME WEEK!
For Home Sweet Home Week we'll be watching this lesbian horror romance about two women attempting to take up residence in a house which proves to be haunted. Be sure to join us next week for our discussion of Robert Wise's The Haunting, available for rent at the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 9/21: Reminiscence
The first feature from Westworld writer and showrunner Lisa Joy is the focus of next week's podcast. Be sure to join us Wednesday as we discuss Reminiscence, available on HBO Max and at a theater near you!