History Trivia / StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome

** Saavik was supposed to be revealed to be pregnant with Spock's child from the scene in the previous film where she had to, ahem, help him through puberty, which was to explain why she didn't go back to Earth with the rest of the crew to serve as a witness on their behalf at the trial, but it was cut for unknown reasons.

* DatedHistory: As of TheNewTens, humpback whales are no longer an endangered species due to the whale hunting moratorium. This film is one of the reasons why.

* BeamMeUpScotty: It's often claimed that there isn't a single weapon fired in the movie. This isn't really correct, as there are two actual weapons firings (Kirk using his phaser to weld a door shut, and the whalers trying to harpoon George and Gracie) and one attempted (Chekov trying to stun the interrogation officers). This is likely a mix-up with a real fact, namely that this is the only ''Star Trek'' film with a body count of zero (assuming [[NoEndorHolocaust everyone survived the Probe's "attack"]], though WordOfGod is they did).

* {{Defictionalization}}: Within 3 years of this film coming out, there was a formula for transparent aluminum.

** As stated below, the random cop who Uhura and Chekhov ask about "nuklear wessels"? An actual cop who had no idea what was going on and [[ThrowItIn ended up in the final cut.]]
* ExecutiveVeto: Even though Paramount liked the film's storyline, the studio was dissatisfied with the first screenplay. In response, its head of production Dawn Steel asked Nicholas Meyer to help rewrite the film from scratch.
* InMemoriam: The film was dedicated to the memory of the Challenger astronauts.
* PropRecycling: The look of the alien probe may remind science fiction fans of another classic BigDumbObject. The probe model prop was actually built for an intended movie based on Arthur C. Clarke's ''RendezvousWithRama'', a film project that has been in and out of DevelopmentHell since TheEighties. Hollywood warehouses store many props and items that were made for aborted film projects and this one was probably altered and used in the interests of keeping costs down on this film.

** They actually had Nichols and Koenig asking real San Franciscans where the nuclear submarine in Alameda was, although they were all employed as non-speaking extras. However, Layla Sarakalo, the woman who answers, "I don't know if I know the answer to that -- [[CaptainObvious I think it's across the bay, in Alameda]]", wasn't an actor at all: she had woken up that morning to find that her car had been impounded as part of the traffic reorganisation surrounding the movie shoot. Determined to make enough cash to get it back, she approached the film crew, got herself hired as an extra and deliberately ad-libbed so that they'd have to pay her. Her line ended up in the movie and, as a result, she had to be inducted into the Screen Actors Guild. See details [[http://web.archive.org/web/20070519051542/http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/14344.html here]].

** The scene where Spock nerve pinched the punk rocker originally ended with Spock turning the punk's radio off manually, but they went with the take where the radio shuts off from the punk's head falling on the button.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Downplayed to an extent as it doesn't whack you over the head with TheEighties, but it has its moments. Gillian thinks Kirk's communicator is a "pocket pager", cutting edge in those days but were it just a few years later, she'd probably assume it was a mobile phone. The whole debacle with Chekov being caught on board a US Navy ship is pure Cold War, and Scotty attempting to work a Macintosh Plus very much dates it. "Just use the keyboard" sounds like Dr. Nichols simply assumes that Scotty isn't used to computers with a mouse- cutting edge back then!
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Creator/EddieMurphy was originally going to play a conspiracy nut radio personality that filled the story role of the marine biologist Kirk interacts with (minus the romance, obviously). He eventually backed out of the movie but it resulted in a massive change to the storyline. The producers were worried that if Murphy was in the movie it would turn into a guest star movie like ''Film/SupermanIII'' became Richard Pryor's movie. So they made sure the biologist character was clearly a secondary character to Kirk and Spock.

** There was supposed to be a scene of Sulu stealing the helicopter, but it required him to jump into the chopper and George Takei couldn't do it because he was too stiff legged from running in the San Francisco marathon. They tried filming it with a stunt man throwing him inside but that didn't look right so it was cut.

** Shatner and Nimoy had an agreement in their contracts that anything offered to one was offered to the other. Since Nimoy was hired to direct Star Trek III, Shatner was lined up to direct this film. But since he was busy with ''Series/TJHooker'' it didn't allow him the several months of pre and post-production work needed as the director. This was the same reason he ended up directing ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''.
** Creator/GeneRoddenberry wrote [[http://www.roddenberry.com/media/vault/ST4-Outline.pdf a pitch]] for the film, which took the form of an {{interquel}} set in-between ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' and ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', and depicted the ''Enterprise'' being thrown 15 million years into the future, with Kirk mysteriously disappearing in the process and being replaced by a new captain named Edmund West. As with all of Roddenberry's ideas during this time period, Paramount politely ignored it.
** The ending, with Kirk demoted back to captain and given command of a new ''Enterprise'', was actually the ending of the previous film in earlier screenplay drafts. It got cut out for timing reasons and concerns that it would look like Kirk was too EasilyForgiven, with the ending of this film at least allowing the implication that Kirk would have been punished a hell of a lot worse if not for his saving the Earth.

** Ironically, the crew of the ''Enterprise'' ''did'' command the ''Excelsior'' in the intern between ''The Search for Spock'' and ''The Voyage Home'' in the Creator/DCComics series, but were promptly tossed out to match the movie.

* {{Defictionalization}} / LifeImitatesArt: Within 3 years of this film coming out, there was a formula for transparent aluminum.

** Leonard Rosenmann, the film's composer, originally included Alexander Courage's ''Star Trek'' theme in the main title sequence. However, Nimoy had him rewrite a new composition and Rosenman used part of the end title themes for the opening.

* As stated below, the random cop who Uhura and Chekhov ask about "nuklear wessels"? An actual cop who had no idea what was going on and [[ThrowItIn ended up in the final cut.]]

** There was supposed to be a scene where Sulu encountered a little boy whom he would realize was actually his ancestor, but when the time came to film it the child actor who had been hired became upset and could not be made to act properly, and unable to find another child actor, the scene was cut.

** Producers considered bringing R.C. Carmel back for a cameo as Harry Mudd, who would have served as a character witness for Kirk at his trial. This also would have been an ironic ContinuityNod to the TOS episode [[Recap/StarTrekS1E6MuddsWomen "Mudd's Women"]], where Kirk had promised to be a character witness at ''Mudd's'' trial.

** Creator/GeneRoddenberry wrote [[http://www.roddenberry.com/media/vault/ST4-Outline.pdf a pitch]] for the film, which took the form of an {{interquel}} set in-between ''Film/StarTrekTheMotionPicture'' and ''Film/StarTrekIITheWrathOfKhan'', and depicted the ''Enterprise'' being thrown 15 million years into the future, with Kirk mysteriously disappearing in the process and being replaced by a new captain named Edmund West. As with all of Roddenberry's ideas during this time period, Paramount politely ignored it.

** Shatner and Nimoy had an agreement in their contracts that anything offered to one was offered to the other. Since Nimoy was hired to direct Star Trek III, Shatner was lined up to direct this film. But since he was busy with ''Series/TJHooker'' it didn't allow him the several months of pre and post-production work needed as the director. This was the same reason he ended up directing ''Film/StarTrekVTheFinalFrontier''.

** Creator/SusanSarandon was considered for Dr. Gillian Taylor.

* PropRecycling: The look of the alien probe may remind science fiction fans of another classic BigDumbObject. The probe model prop was actually built for an intended movie based on Arthur C. Clarke's ''RendezvousWithRama'', a film project that has been in and out of DevelopmentHell since TheEighties. Hollywood warehouses store many props and items that were made for aborted film projects and this one was probably used (and redressed) in the interests of keeping costs down on this film.

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: Creator/EddieMurphy was originally going to play a conspiracy nut radio personality that filled the story role of the marine biologist Kirk interacts with (minus the romance, obviously). He eventually backed out of the movie but it resulted in a massive change to the storyline. The producers were worried that if Murphy was in the movie it would turn into a guest star movie like ''Film/SupermanIII'' became Richard Pryor's movie. So they made sure the biologist character was clearly a secondary character to Kirk and Spock.

* EncorcedMethodActing: The Navy and Marine personnel used in the film were very gung-ho, leaving Walter Koenig in some doubt as to what would happen if he failed to outrun them during the chase scene--so he ''really'' ran.

* ExecutiveVeto: Even though Paramount liked the storyline, the executives was dissatisfied with the first screenplay, so Dawn Steel, its head of production, asked Nicholas Meyer to help rewrite the film from scratch.

** That cop staring at Uhura and Chekhov suspiciously? That's a real SF cop who had no idea what was going on.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Downplayed to an extent as it doesn't whack you over the head with TheEighties, but it has its moments. Gillian thinks Kirk's communicator is a "pocket pager", cutting edge in those days but were it just a few years later, she'd probably assume it was a mobile phone. The whole debacle with Chekhov being caught on board a US Navy ship is pure Cold War, and Scotty attempting to work a Macintosh Plus very much dates it. "Just use the keyboard" sounds like Dr. Nichols simply assumes that Scotty isn't used to computers with a mouse- cutting edge back then!

* WhatCouldHaveBeen: EddieMurphy was originally going to play a conspiracy nut radio personality that filled the story role of the marine biologist Kirk interacts with (minus the romance, obviously). He eventually backed out of the movie but it resulted in a massive change to the storyline. The producers were worried that if Murphy was in the movie it would turn into a guest star movie like ''Film/SupermanIII'' became Richard Pryor's movie. So they made sure the biologist character was clearly a secondary character to Kirk and Spock.

* ExecutiveVeto: Paramount was dissatisfied with the first screenplay. As such, Dawn Steel, the studio's head of production at the time, hired Nicholas Meyer to help rewrite the film.