Speaking of which, I wonder if the time-traveling "save the whales" story was always what they had in mind for Star Trek IV. I've never heard anything otherwise, of course. All I can remember from the making-of retrospective on the dvd was that Nimoy wanted it to be about time traveling back to "now" and Harve Bennett came up with the plot device macguffin of the humpback whales.

Nimoy also mentions at the beginning of the commentary that there was a feeling of wanting to get away from the grimness of the previous two movies.

Growing up watching these movies on vhs I didn't really think about these things, but watching them again on dvd gave me a new perspective.

I can't help but wonder if it was always going to be a time-travel story or if there were other possibilities being considered in the days following Search for Spock's theatrical release in the summer of '84.