Character Analysis
Admiral James T. Kirk is no spring chicken. Unlike the previous films in the series, which focused heavily on Kirk's personal life, The Voyage Home allows him to sit back and let everyone else deal with the whole "personal growth" nonsense. We don't learn a ton of new things about our favorite captain, but we do get to see him just be himself, which is already fun enough.
Captain Context
If you didn't see the previous two Star Trek films, The Voyage Home is probably going to leave you mighty confused about what's going on with Kirk. In The Wrath of Khan, Kirk reconnects with his son, David, and his former flame, Carol Marcus. His long-lost archenemy returns and rains destruction down upon Enterprise and its crew. The film ends with Spock sacrificing his life to save the others.
The next film in the series, The Search for Spock, is bittersweet. Kirk breaks every rule in the Starfleet handbook to bring Spock back to life, which turns out to be just about as easy as time travel (which is surprisingly easy, as The Voyage Home shows). Sadly, however, David is killed. Plus, Enterprise blows up. How much more teary-eyed can we get?
So why are we spending so much time talking about these other films? The reason is that it's the only way to understand Kirk's state of mind at the beginning of The Voyage Home. Sure, it's great that Spock is back, but Kirk has lost everything else in his life: his career, his family, and, most importantly, his ship. He has nothing.
Chillaxing to the Max
This sounds like the beginning of a very emo story arc, but it's anything but. In a way, Kirk seems happy to be freed from the rigid guidelines that have stifled him since he was made an admiral. He wants to go home, of course, but he enjoys working off the books.
For instance, during their time-traveling gig, Kirk lets everyone wear their civilian clothes, something that underlines the casual nature of the mission. Hey, things just get more casual when you get to California, right?
But that's kind of how Kirk rolls in general. Instead of acting stiff and serious, like Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Kirk spends as much time flirting with Gillian as he does getting down to business. And no matter what he says, we know he enjoys shouting "colorful metaphors" at unsuspecting 20th-century barbarians. He's too skilled at it to not be having fun.
Follow the Leader
Even more than previous entries in the series, The Voyage Home is a true ensemble film, with the lead actors sharing the limelight relatively evenly. This film shows us Kirk trusts his shipmates of 20 years enough to let them take the lead when the going gets tough. He really relies on his crew.
A great example comes when Spock is hard at work on the calculations for time travel:
SPOCK: Mr. Scott cannot give me exact figures, Admiral. So I will make a guess.
KIRK: A guess? You, Spock? That's extraordinary.[Kirk leaves.]
SPOCK: I don't think he understands.
MCCOY: No, Spock. He means that he feels safer about your guesses than most other people's facts.
Kirk trusts Spock more than he trusts most, but we think he'd be willing to put his life in the hands of anyone in the crew. Hey, if there's one thing he loves more than hooking up with alien hotties, it's working together with the people he trusts.
Best Punishment Ever
After saving the world, Kirk is indeed "punished" for his actions in the previous two films—though not in the way you might expect. He's demoted from admiral to captain. So sad. To top it off, he's being immediately assigned to a new post. And where is that new post? Oh, just on a little ship called Enterprise.
In other words, Kirk is not getting punished at all. Ever since he was made an admiral, he's been pining for his former life as a renegade captain, and now he finally has the opportunity to go back. In fact, it's a reward of sorts for Kirk's selfless actions over the past few films. After all, how many times has the dude saved the world?
Kirk's Timeline