Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home: Special Collector's Edition

With Leonard Nimoy at the director's helm, this fourth feature film in Paramount's long-running Star Trek franchise has the 23rd century starship Enterprise returning to Earth only to find it's under attack by an alien probe. Defeating the probe requires a trip back to 20th century San Francisco to enlist the help of humpback whales (and Catherine Hicks as a plucky marine biologist). Nicely adhering to the unofficial Trekkie formula (even-numbered films are better), The Voyage Home is a stylish effort with much more humor in its Enterprise crew fish-out-of-temporal-waters ecologically-correct storyline than in any previous effort. As with the earlier Star Trek double-disc "special collector's editions," this release boasts a handsome widescreen digital transfer, fine Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and a plethora of great extras, including a fan's dream commentary--a funny, insightful, scene specific talk by Nimoy and William Shatner. Extras on the second disc include an 11-minute investigation into the possibilities of time travel, a six-minute piece on the language of whales, a half-hour-shy retrospective "making of" documentary with all-new cast and crew interviews, and a touching tribute to the father of Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry by his son Eugene). Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)