The plot about Star Trek IV? ...  In Star Trek IV the key characters have to go home to Earth from the Vulcan planet... They have to go back to face Court Martial for all the nasty things they did and all the rules they broke in Star trek III. And they get into the Bird Of Prey which they have refurbished and when they are in around home they discover that Earth is in kind of trouble. The entire planet is in terrible trouble... In order to solve the problem they must go back 300 years in time to the late 1980s to the city of San Francisco to pick up... to pick up... to pick up (laughing)... a pair of creatures let's say, to fly them into the 23rd century to save the earth. Is that what you want to know?

Asked about working with Bill Shatner:
We worked together once before the Star Trek series in the early 1960s. I think it was in an episode from "A Man from U. N. C. L. E." I respected him then. He is an extremely professional and well trained actor. And in a sense he and I came from the same professional theatrical background...  His training was more classical than mine, Shakespeare and such in Canada. Mine was more American naturalistic kind of theatre. I know how he thinks... we are very close in mentality... I can honestly say we admire each others work... he's a hard working professional actor.

De Forest Kelly:
He is a classic film actor, a classic film actor. He is a guy whom you never see do a dishonest moment. He is very spare, very sparse in his choices, not flamboyant or theatrical... He is very real. He isn't performing, he "behaves" in front of the camera... and I think the best tradition of film actors... I love him, he is a very talented and dear friend.

"How do you feel about directing and acting in Star Trek?"  
Don't do it. Don't do it, it's hard. (laughing )... The acting is enough and the directing is enough. Both is hard work...  The disadvantage is that when you are in a scene you can't keep your eye on it as a director might... Very tiring physically, too...  

In this picture we have done - I hope- the most fun, adventure, humorous Star Trek yet. I real runaway, have a good time, scary, exciting adventure with fun. 

Q: Crew - like family. How do you get them into that?
You don't have to work very hard getting this group back into chemistry. I think that over the years people have asked "what is the reason for the success of Star Trek"? And I think that is one of the mayor elements, not the only element... This particular group of people have a chemistry. If you put them together something starts to happen. They interact with each other in wonderful ways... Its like family coming together again. For a director it is shaping a little bit, controlling a little bit and designing a little bit, but you have that chemistry working. Its a tremendous plus.

I think that in Star Trek IV more than in any of the other Star trek films yet, each character of the Star trek family comes to life in a wonderfully dimensional way... 
Comparing Star Trek and Star Wars. I think Star Trek is more about the people. Some of the others or chore of the others is more about the adventure.

... My hope is that we will be able to continue the trend which we established so far with these movies...  The Star Trek movies have gotten better and better and better. If we continue that pattern, Star Trek IV will hopefully be accepted as the best...
We make an effort to make them as a scientific fact, not necessarily as an event which has taken place. We are trying to be scientifically credible.

Q: Emotions? What place do they have in Star Trek? Which the plots?
Star Trek plots should depend very heavily on ideas, characters, people, circumstances, social questions, political questions, interplanetary questions - much more than the hardware. The hardware should, in a good Star Trek film, used to help tell the story about those other elements.

Q: In Star Trek IV, The Voyage Home, do you think it will be an objective look at our home by someone from the outside? ... or will it make a moral statement?  
I think Star Trek IV will make a comment, a fun and an exciting way. It is not a message picture. But there are some ideas about what is happening on Earth today...

What appeals to you in the character Spock? 
(without laughing)  Spock is very much like me. He is intelligent, well read, logical, very likable, charming, great sense of humour and totally humble.
No reaction from the interviewer, who seems to check on his notes. 
Pause
I never lie,
Leonard adds and laughs.
 

What would you like the audience to think of the movie?
I'd like them to walk out of the picture and say: "Wow! That's great! I'll get into line to see it again."

A message to the audience?
I'd like to say to the science fiction readers, film-goers and television-watchers, who have been incredibly supportive to Star Trek over the years and appreciate Star Trek, they have been an enormous help and inspiration to us, they have kept us alive as a series and a series of motion pictures.