‘Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home’
You don’t normally associate the Star Trek franchise with “comedy.” There are funny episodes and exchanges, to be sure. But flat-out comedy? For that, you have to turn to the 1986 movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Picking up where the previous two movies left off (Wrath of Khan and Search for Spock), The Voyage Home shoots the Enterprise back in time in a mission to save some whales — and the Earth. Instead of leaning into the epic stakes Voyage Home is a goofy, fish out of water comedy that was a welcome respite after the intensity of the previous films. The franchise may not have leaned so heavily into laughs after that, but we’re glad it did, at least once.