The definition of “holiday movie” seems to widen with each passing year.
“It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Elf” and “A Christmas Story” are definitely Christmas movies. If you take the holiday stuff out of them, the narrative collapses upon itself, and becomes odd or frighteningly thin. Buddy in “Elf,” for example, is just some weird drifter. Ralphie’s “Christmas Story” quest boils down to an NRA mailer.
“Home Alone,” “Die Hard” and “Gremlins” are movies that have Christmas in them. You could rewrite the holidays out of the script — Kevin’s family went to Paris for the summer, or John McClane is coming back to L.A. for his kids’ ballet recital — and nothing fundamental changes in the plot.
Since it has become clear the rules for this are shifting, I’d like to propose a third category: movies that have absolutely no mention of Christmas at any point in their run time, but still encapsulate the holiday spirit. The 1986 movie “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” fills this category, and it is the best Christmas film.
The setup appears to be galaxies away from “Miracle of 34th Street.” “Star Trek IV” ends a three-movie story arc, that has the familiar crew of the Starship Enterprise — that ship was destroyed at the end of “Star Trek III” — returning to Earth in a Klingon vessel after their rescue of science officer Mr. Spock. They run across what looks like a giant interstellar Duraflame log, that will destroy mankind if they don’t go back in time and return with two humpback whales.
Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and the rest land in the 1980s, which is where my argument starts to pick up momentum.
The “Star Trek” castmates had been working together for 20 years, and they walk into this movie with the type of warmth and chemistry and sense of time and place that other holiday movies (“A Christmas Story,” etc.) spend most of the first act establishing. These characters know each other, love each other and are in a comfortable zone. But they still have something to learn from their relationship. They will be tested, fantastical and bittersweet things will happen, but good will prevail.
It’s startling that “Star Trek IV” was even made. In the same year as “Top Gun,” “Aliens” and “Platoon,” director Leonard Nimoy convinced Paramount to finance a big-budget action/adventure movie with no shootouts or space battles, no romantic subplot and no villain to speak of.
Like many of the best Christmas films, the biggest struggles are internal. There is a complicated challenge, that will be solved by camaraderie and faith, not tough talk and photon torpedoes. Strength is measured by love and hope.
In a 1986 interview with The Chronicle reporter John Stanley, Nimoy says all of the above was intentional.
“We’d just done two films with a lot of violence, with real bad guys, Sturm and Drang, death and dying,” he said “I’d been a party to all that but I wanted the film to be particularly different in tone. The worst thing that happens in this film, I pinch a punk rocker on the neck because he won’t turn his radio down.”
All of the above makes “Star Trek IV” a joyful, even festive viewing experience.
But the Christmas spirit comes in the biggest conflict in the movie, experienced by a marine biologist Gillian Taylor, played by Catherine Hicks. Like the George Bailey character in “It’s a Wonderful Life,” she’s having a crisis of faith. She must believe in magic — when Captain Kirk says he’s a space traveller from the future, he might as well be Santa Claus — to save a Christmas-like spirit, in the form of two humpback whales that are destined for death by a whaling ship.
If you think this is all an incredible stretch, watch the movie again in 2020. It ages incredibly well, particularly in the middle of a pandemic, where hope and faith are in short supply.
The fears in 1986 were about nuclear war, but climate disaster themes are baked in as well. Even with its spaceships and whale sound-spewing intergalactic probes and time travel sequences, the message couldn’t apply any better. Our problems are cataclysmic, and we can’t shoot or bully our partisan-politic way out of them. We must be creative and innovative, stand up for the powerless, and be the light at the end of the tunnel.
Most importantly the tone is holiday friendly. “Star Trek IV” is a comedic caper, with moments of disarming warmth. There are lessons everywhere. We must value our old friendships, build new ones and leverage the good these bonds can produce.
“Your associates are people of good character,” Spock’s father Sarek says, at the end of the movie,an emotionless man finding words of kindness.
“They are my friends,” Spock responds.
And with that, cue “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” or a non-denominational holiday song if you prefer. (The Pretenders’ “2000 Miles”?) Watch with family every year, or by yourself during those bourbon-infused last two past bedtime hours wrapping the presents. As the Klingon Bird of Prey spaceship decloaks, let the yuletide feelings in.
Thirty-four years later, a new holiday classic is born.
Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com
More Information
Total SF virtual movie night: “Star Trek IV” is set for 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9.
Pick up local beer, popcorn and merchandise at the Balboa Theatre in San Francisco.
Turn on the movie at home at 7 p,m. (Free on CBS All Access or rental on other streaming services.)
Discuss on Twitter and Instagram using hashtags #PunkOnTheBus and #DoubleDumbassOnYou
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