Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home story

movie: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) · 1986-11-26

Intent on returning home to Earth to face trial for their actions in the previous film, the former crew of the USS Enterprise finds the planet in grave danger from an alien probe attempting to contact now-extinct humpback whales. The crew travel to Earth's past to find whales who can answer the probe's call. It is the fourth feature installment in the Star Trek film series, and is a sequel to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984); it completes the story arc begun in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and continued in The Search for Spock.

23 total · 7 major · 16 minor

Theme	Level	Motivation
accidental alien destruction of planetary civilization	major	An alien probe of unknown origin nearly destroyed the Earth. It turned out to have been sent by whale-like aliens that were merely trying to contact humpback whales on Earth.
endangered species	major	We learned that Humpback whales had gone extinct in the 21st century.
future point of view	major	Kirk and his crew in 1980s San Francisco. For example, they had trouble understanding and using contemporary slang, and it was remarked how money was no longer used in the 23rd century.
interstellar space travel	major	Travel among the stars is a fundamental reality in the Star Trek universe.
problem of language and meaning	major	The space probe communicated in the language of humpback whales.
speculative spaceship	major	Kirk and his crew took a Klingon Bird of Prey back to 1980s Earth.
time travel	major	Kirk and his crew traveled back in time to 20th century Earth to fetch a humpback whale.
decision making in the face of uncertainty	minor	Spock had to make a guess to complete his calculations about how to return to the future. This was a big deal to Spock who has a mind for exactness.
father and son	minor	Spock and Sarek.
fusion power	minor	Spock remarked to Kirk about how humans briefly used nuclear fission reactors until fusion power was mastered.