Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

I’d like to start off by letting you, the reader, know that when it comes to Star Trek, I don’t really consider myself a “Trekkie”. I’ve watched all of the TV series (even the complete run of Enterprise even though there were several times I wanted to (and probably should have) abandon it) and watched all of the movies (most at least a dozen times, with the exception of Final Frontier and Nemesis). However, that’s where it ends with me. I’ve never read any of the books, of which there are so many it wouldn’t even be feasible to start now even if I was so inclined. I’ve never dressed up in costume for any character, race, or faction, not even for Halloween, and I’ve most definitely never attended a convention. I’m a fan…not a fanatic! I love Star Wars (at least the original trilogy) more than the Star Trek franchise, but I do have a great fondness for both and have never understood the animosity between the two fan bases. Oh, and I started my fandom with The Next Generation as this was the new series on TV growing up as a kid. I also enjoyed Deep Space Nine more than the original series (I know, blasphemy but…). With that said, let me begin my review of Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

Many people thought that the end of Khan meant the end of the franchise, especially considering Leonard Nimoy’s animosity toward the series and his notion that he was being type-cast by his portrayal of Spock. Well, that all changed when Nimoy regained his love for the character (and to some extent, because of the success of Khan), so when asked if he wanted to reprise his role for a third film even though he’d been killed off in part two, he emphatically accepted the opportunity. With the leverage he had garnered by threatening to leave the series forever, he also convinced Paramount to allow him to direct the third film. With the main thread of the story pretty much set in stone with how the previous film ended, we start with the Enterprise limping back to space dock after its battle with Khan and the Reliant. Many were taking Spock’s death hard, but none more so than Bones (Dr. Leonard McCoy for the uninitiated). He started exhibiting odd behavior, including breaking into Spock’s quarters, where Kirk finds him mumbling about Vulcan. Upon arrival at the space dock, Kirk is informed of the decommissioning of his other long time friend, the Enterprise. So not only was he trying to cope with the loss of Spock, now was losing his ship as well! The rest of the crew is sent on extended shore leave, except for Scotty who is reassigned to a new vessel, the Excelsior, which is the first in a line of ships with an experimental technology, a transwarp drive.

Kirk and the most of mainstays (except Bones who is currently sedated and Scotty who has been reassigned to another starship), Sulu, Uhura, and Chekhov are drinking for their absent friends when Kirk tells them that the Enterprise is being decommissioned. Someone knocks on the door, and Kirk goes to answer it thinking its Scotty, but to his surprise it is actually Spock’s father who demands an audience with Kirk…alone! Sarek is upset that Kirk did not follow what would have been Spock's final wishes, but Kirk is unaware of any particular request Spock would have made, and had no contact with him in the immediate moment of his death. Sarek believed Kirk would hold Spock's katra, his living spirit, but after a mind meld, Sarek does not find it. Kirk determines that if Spock knew he was going to die, he would have found a way to save it. After reviewing surveillance tapes at the time of Spock's death, they find out that it was Bones that received his katra which explained his odd behavior upon arrival back at the space dock. Kirk swears he will get Spock's body back and return him and Dr. McCoy to Vulcan so they can find peace. With this vow, Kirk attempts to get Starfleet to allow him the use of the Enterprise and to return to the Genesis planet, which now has been restricted. His request is promptly denied, so he decides to go anyway, even if he has to steal the Enterprise and end his Starfleet career. He recruits his friends, Scotty, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura, to rescue Bones, who is being driven beyond his control by Spock’s katra and has been arrested for trying to charter his own vessel. After saving Bones, and thanks to the great engineering skills of Scotty, they are able to, with a small crew, steal the Enterprise and elude capture.

All the while, Kirk’s son, Daniel Marcus (Merritt Butrick) and Lt. Saavik (Robin Curtis now replacing Kirstie Ally) have hitched a ride with the USS Grissom to the Genesis planet (created in part two) and scan the planet. During these scans, they detect an unidentified life form, so they beam down to the planet’s surface to investigate. They determine that the life form is an evolved form of a microbe that was attached to Spock’s casket that landed (undamaged) on the planet’s surface and is now EMPTY! They hear a scream from the nearby forest and startled, go to investigate. They find a young Vulcan boy they conclude (DUH!) to be Spock. Saavik requests to have Spock beamed aboard, and while awaiting authorization, a Klingon war bird decloaks above the planet. Apparently, those pesky Klingons, led by Kruge (played by Reverend Jim…er, I mean Doc Brown…er, I mean Christopher Lloyd) and his most trusted officers, Maltz (John Larroquette) and Torg (Stephen Liska), have been plotting and scheming, as they always seem to do, to steal the Genesis technology for use as a weapon of mass devastation. The Klingons are primarily used as the antagonists of the story to keep Kirk and crew from finding Spock, but the best thing that came out of this movie for me is the introduction of the now-legendary Klingon warship, the “Bird of Prey”, which will be important as we head from part three to part four of the Star Trek series. Anyway, is the process of threatening the Ulysses, one of Kruge’s crew inadvertently destroys the Federation ship while trying to shoot a warning shot across her bow. Enraged, Kruge executes the incompetent crewman right there on the bridge. After detecting life signs on the planet’s surface, Kruge and a landing party beam down to the planet to pursue and capture the remaining Federation crew members.

Kirk, riding the captain’s chair of the Enterprise once again, arrives at the Genesis planet, briefly detecting the Klingon Bird of Prey before it cloaks and disappears. They hail the Ulysses with no luck, and begin to scan the surface of the planet for life signs. Meanwhile, Kruge has captured Daniel, Saavik, and Spock and has beamed back up to the Klingon ship after being notified of the presence of the Enterprise and begins stalking his prey in the cloaked Bird of Prey. Kirk and Sulu detect some unusual readings on their sensors and just as the Klingon ship decloaks to attack, the Enterprise fires two photon torpedoes at the Klingon position, both making direct contact. Unfortunately, the shots didn’t do enough to cripple the other ship and they return fire, causing significant damage to the Enterprise and setting her adrift, lifeless and defenseless. Kirk, realizing the situation, tries to bluff the Klingons into surrendering before they had a chance to scan the Enterprise and destroy her. Unfortunately, Kruge recognized that he has the upper hand and calls Kirk’s bluff, demanding he give them all the information he had on the Genesis project or risk harm to the hostages on the planet. To show that he’s not playing around, he orders his men to kill one of the hostages. The Klingon warrior chooses Saavik and is about to stab her with his weapon and David jumps in front and tries to take on the far superior fighter in the Klingon warrior. David is stabbed in the chest and dies. Upon hearing that his son is dead, Kirk surrenders to the Klingons. In classic Kirk fashion, he tricks the Klingons into beaming over to the Enterprise just as he sets the auto-destruct and he the rest of the crew beam down to the planet. Before Kruge, who is still over on the Klingon ship, realizes what Kirk has done, the Enterprise explodes and disintegrates into the planet’s atmosphere!

Kirk and the crew, now on the surface of an ever-deteriorating planet, detect life signs and head that way, hoping to rescue Saavik and Spock. Kirk taunts Kruge, trying to get him to beam them up to his ship before the planet destroys itself, but instead Kruge beams up everyone except Kirk and Spock and beams down to the planet, ready to kill or be killed. They have as epic a battle as possible considering it’s an aging William Shatner fighting Reverend frakkin’ Jim, with Kirk obviously coming out victorious by kicking Kruge off a cliff into a river of lava! Kirk tricks one of the remaining Klingons on board the Bird of Prey to beam them up to the ship by impersonating Doc Brown, I mean Kruge, and upon arrival, takes control of the ship. Once Scotty figures out how to control operate the foreign vessel, they plot a course to the Vulcan home planet where Sarak and Uhura greet them. They are all taken to a ceremony where a Vulcan priestess reunites Spock with his katra, making him whole again and relieving Bones of the heavy burden. Spock, still trying to piece together his memories, recognized Kirk and says, “Jim. Your name... is Jim." and Kirk smiles.

This film is quite literally a rebirth of the franchise with the infusion of passion that was once lost from its director and co-star, and is a decent bridge between Wrath of Khan, which was the ultimate battle of wits between two legendary adversaries, and The Voyage Home, which was ultimately a buddy adventure flick teaming up two old friends relearning their relationship one step at a time. Obviously, this film was doomed to failure from a fan’s perspective by following and trying to live up to the best film of original cast films (I’ll explain this in more detail later), and making Reverend Jim the main villain was a curious choice, but I think for a directorial debut, Nimoy pulls it off well especially if you compare it to Shatner’s awful first attempt at directing is later in the series.