The One With The Whales

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home celebrates its 25th anniversary this December, and to mark the occasion in the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine, Star Trek author Howard Weinstein, writer of "The Pirates of Orion," recalls his visit to the set of the movie at Paramount Studios. Read on for an extract from the feature...

I was lucky enough to spend two afternoons at Paramount. First up: Bird of Prey day! After a quick look at the Klingon bridge set (surprisingly small and cheap-looking – which makes it even more amazing to me that it looks big and real on film), publicist Eddie Egan took us out to a parking lot between soundstages to see the life-size lower section of the Klingon Bird of Prey. It stood on tons of reddish dirt and sand brought in to represent the arid surface of Vulcan (as seen early in the movie when Kirk and friends are preparing for departure). The mock-up included just the left side and rear of the ship, with one landing leg, a wing stub, and an open cargo ramp leading up… to nowhere, since the rest of the ship didn't exist. But the name HMS BOUNTY was scrawled on its flank, thanks to Dr. McCoy's "fine sense of historical irony" regarding their status as Starfleet mutineers.

I half-kiddingly contemplated scooping up some red dirt and taking it home to package and sell at conventions as "Real Vulcan Sand." Even though Eddie noted drily that fans would probably snap up souvenir vials of the stuff, I did not pursue this brilliant but illicit idea. (Had I been caught in the act, Paramount might have shipped me off to Rura Penthe!)

Behind the abbreviated Klingon ship, there was a painted backdrop of mountains and sky – looking like something from a high school musical, not a big-budget Hollywood picture. Of course, I only saw the live elements which would be enhanced by Industrial Light & Magic's matte-painting wizards, adding the rest of the ship and Vulcan's soaring, copper-hued peaks and desert sky. If you have the Star Trek IV Special Collector's Edition DVD, check out the visual effects featurette From Outer Space to the Ocean – just under 11 minutes in, you'll see a ship's stumpy rump in a parking lot transformed into a captured Klingon vessel on the red sands of Vulcan. It's a neat little clip, and a great demo of movie magic.

You can read the full article by Howard Weinstein in Star Trek Magazine #38 (US numbering), on sale now.

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