I Hate You

Sunday Screening: “I Hate You” from Star Trek IV

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986) is remembered for many things, all of them good.  People call it “the one with the whales”, but I call it “the funny one”.  It really was the closest they got to doing flat-out comedy.  (Don’t forget:  director Leonard Nimoy also directed the hit comedy Three Men and a Baby.)  As the second-best Trek (behind The Wrath of Khan), The Voyage Home was successful by utilising the old reliable time travel gimmick.

Sending the crew of the USS Enterprise HMS Bounty back in time to 1986 set up numerous fish-out-of-water sequences.  One of the funniest involved Spock and Kirk on a bus, annoyed by a punk rocker playing a song called “I Hate You” on a boombox.

Just where is our future, the things we’ve done and said!
Let’s just push the button, we’d be better off dead!
‘Cause I hate you!
And I berate you!
And I can’t wait to get to you!

The sins of all our fathers, being dumped on us the sons.
The only choice we’re given is how many megatons?
And I eschew you!
And I say screw you!
And I hope you’re blue, too.

With a single-fingered gesture, the punk refuses to turn it down.  Spock makes the point moot with an ol’ neck pinch.  It’s a brilliant scene.

“I Hate You” was written and performed by associate producer Kirk Thatcher, who also played the punk in the scene.  The full song was never heard in the movie, only a few seconds.  Now you can hear the whole thing on Youtube.  Enjoy!