Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Paramount Pictures, 1984) is the third feature film based on the popular Star Trek science fiction television series. It is often referred to as ST3:TSFS or TSFS. It is a direct sequel to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and has a similar feel although often with a lighter, more humorous touch.
Contents |
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| William Shatner | Vice Admiral James T. Kirk |
| Leonard Nimoy | Captain Spock |
| DeForest Kelley | Dr. Leonard McCoy |
| James Doohan | Commander/Captain Montgomery Scott |
| George Takei | Commander Hikaru Sulu |
| Walter Koenig | Commander Pavel Chekov |
| Nichelle Nichols | Commander Uhura |
| Grace Lee Whitney | Commander Janice Rand |
| Mark Lenard | Ambassador Sarek |
| Judith Anderson | High Priestess T'Lar |
| Merritt Butrick | Dr. David Marcus |
| Robin Curtis | Lieutenant Saavik |
| Christopher Lloyd | Klingon Commander Kruge |
| Robert Hooks | Fleet Admiral Morrow |
| James Sikking | Captain Styles |
| Stephen Manley | Spock at 17 |
| Frank Welker | Spock's screams (voice-over, uncredited) |
Plot summary
Shortly after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the USS Enterprise limps back to Earth, scarred from its battle with Khan in the previous movie, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Once there, Admiral James T. Kirk is informed that the obsolete vessel's days are over (it is stated to be 20 years old, but official production timelines place it as about 40 years old, with Kirk's command of the Enterprise being about 20 years); it won't be refit, but will instead be retired, and its crew reassigned. Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard McCoy exhibits strange behavior, somehow related to the deceased Captain Spock.
Simultaneously, Kirk's son Dr. David Marcus and Lieutenant Saavik explore the Genesis planet, created at the end of the last film. While there, they discover, much to their shock. that Spock's body has been resurrected by the Genesis effect, although his mind is no longer present and he operates on a purely child-like level. Unknown to them, Klingon commander Kruge becomes interested in Genesis, and travels to the Genesis planet to learn its secrets.
Spock's father Sarek turns up on Earth and discovers with Kirk that McCoy possesses Spock's "katra" (soul), but that both his katra and body are needed to properly lay him to rest on his homeworld Vulcan, or McCoy could die. Disobeying orders, Kirk reunites his officers and steals the Enterprise to head to the Genesis planet, which is beginning to self-destruct.
Kruge arrives at Genesis first, destroying the research vessel USS Grissom there. His crew captures the scientists on the planet- David, Saavik, and a now-teenage Spock- and then the Enterprise arrives. The Enterprise strikes first, hitting the Klingon ship as it de-cloaks, but is unable to raise shields during the Klingon counterattack. The Enterprise is crippled, and Kirk is powerless to prevent the Klingons from killing David on the planet. Instead of surrendering, Kirk self-destructs the Enterprise to kill Kruge's men, and defeats Kruge in hand-to-hand combat on the planet's surface, which is rapidly disintegrating. Kirk tricks the lone Klingon on board the Bird of Prey into beaming Kirk and Spock up, then takes the ship over. The crew return to Vulcan, where Spock's katra is reunited with his body in a risky procedure. Spock's memories must still be restored, but, nevertheless, the Vulcan is now alive and well.
Themes
A theme of TWOK was summed up by Spock as "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one." A theme of TSFS is "the needs of the one sometimes outweigh the needs of the many." Kirk and company are willing to sacrifice their careers, lives, and ship to put Spock's soul to rest, not even imagining that Spock's resurrection is a possibility.
In the Original Series, much was made of the attachment Kirk had to the Enterprise, so his willing destruction of the vessel here is a resounding note indeed.
Notes
Image:Star trek III version 2.jpg TSFS was directed by Leonard Nimoy, which fueled advance speculation that Spock would turn up alive and well.
The film is quite literally a sequel, with the opening scenes picking up almost at where the previous movie concluded.
The film contains more humor than Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, fueled partly by the comic talents of Christopher Lloyd, DeForest Kelley and James Doohan (as Scotty). Shatner's performance, on the other hand, has been viewed by some as not up to the level of his TWOK work, though his reaction to the death of his son David is a high point in the drama.
The destruction of the Enterprise had to be done twice, since the initial destruction sequence was deemed to have little emotional impact, and also appeared to be too similar to the ending of the Star Wars film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
Harve Bennett had been trying to keep the Enterprise's destruction a secret until the film's release, only for his efforts to be wasted when the event was mentioned in the film's trailer. The trailer didn't reveal exactly how the Enterprise had been destroyed, though, and instead implied that it was destroyed outright by the Klingon Bird of Prey.
Early drafts involved Romulans as antagonists, rather than the Klingons. This is why in the final film the Klingon ship is a Bird-of-Prey, which historically was a Romulan ship name. Star Trek: The Next Generation would perpetuate this confusion between the two races, attributing the Romulans' sense of honor to the Klingons. However, the naming would later be explained as a result of an alliance between the two races, resulting in the Klingons garnering the cloaking device.
The music was scored by James Horner.
Although fans welcomed the return of Spock, the film did not generate quite the same acclaim from critics and fans as its predecessor, helping to establish the notion that odd-numbered Trek films are somehow inferior and less financially successful than the even-numbered ones, a notion that held true until 2002 when the 10th Trek film failed at the box office.
While the film had a budget of $17 million, quite higher than its much-appreciated predecessor (Khan had only a budget of $11 million), it was still a very low budget for a film of its period. For comparison, two science fiction films released that year, Dune and Ghostbusters, had budgets of $45 million and $30 million, respectively.
Trivia
- The film marks the first appearance of a guest star "movie era" admiral, that being that character of Fleet Admiral Morrow. It is also the first time in Star Trek that more than one admiral is seen on camera at the same time (Morrow and Kirk) and also the first appearance of a Fleet Admiral in Star Trek (a character named Fleet Admiral Nogura had been mentioned in Star Trek: The Motion Picture but was never seen on camera).
- In the film, it is not exactly clear why (during the transporter room scene where Uhura gives Kirk and friends permission to beam aboard the Enterprise) Uhura locks her fellow officer - dubbed "Mr. Adventure" in the script and "Lieutenant Heisenberg" in the novelization - in the closet. Some fans have speculated that Uhura did this out of revenge for Heisenberg's remark about Uhura's career "winding down", but it is unlikely that Uhura would stoop to such levels merely because of an offhand remark. The novelization makes it clear that Uhura's actions were intended to prevent Heisenberg from stopping Kirk and company's attempt to steal the Enterprise, and also to make it clear to Starfleet that Heisenberg was attempting to do his duty (as evidenced by his objections in the film that Kirk's group had no official Starfleet orders, nor did they have proper identification) and was not involved in the conspiracy to steal the ship.
- This film contains one of the few instances of Pavel Chekov actually speaking Russian. In the opening scenes when the crew discover life signs in Spock's quarters, Kirk leaves the bridge to investigate. Chekov, at the science console, says (in Russian) "I'm not crazy! There it is." (pointing to the computer screen).
- This film also documents the only recorded incident of a starship stalling. The Excelsior stalls whilst trying to pursue the Enterprise after Kirk steals it from Spacedock - in fact it has been sabotaged by Scotty. The film is also the first to feature an Excelsior class starship, and the first to introduce the NX prefix (for experimental or prototype vessels) in Federation ship registration rather than the traditional NCC. The Excelsior class was used in various forms in TNG, DS9 and notably as the Enterprise-B in Star Trek: Generations. The registration number for the Excelsior in this film is NX-2000; the same ship features again in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, by which time it has been re-registered to NCC-2000. Other ships seen to bear the NX prefix are the USS Defiant (DS9 season 3-7), the USS Prometheus (VGR, Message in a Bottle), and the Enterprise in Star Trek: Enterprise. (The USS Bradbury, mentioned in an episode of TNG, had a the registry NX-72307, but this was not seen clearly or mentioned onscreen.)
- The now-famous Klingon d'ktahg knife is also first introduced here.
- In the scene where McCoy goes to the bar to try and charter a ship to take him back to the Genesis Planet, there's a brief shot of two Starfleet officers cuddling some tribbles.
- The first scenes filmed in principal photography were the opening scenes on the Enterprise bridge. In the version of the film that has been shown on television, these first scenes on the bridge of the Enterprise had been cut out.
- At the Starfleet bar where Kirk asks Morrow to have the Enterprise back, prop models of the Epsilon 9 Space Station from Star Trek: The Motion Picture can be seen hanging on the walls as decorations.
- The Enterprise appears in the film with more damage than in the ending of The Wrath of Khan, indicating that either the Enterprise was damaged in another battle or probably a continuity error.
- Actor George Takei was reportedly upset that his character was called 'tiny' during Dr. McCoy's rescue from detention. After seeing the movie, he realized that his comeback "don't call me tiny" was one of Sulu's great moments in the series, and told writer-producer Harve Bennett so.
- Triangular-shaped plastic sandwich containers were painted and glued to the walls of the Klingon Bird of Prey ship for decoration. They were also attached to the base of Kruge's command chair.
- The Enterprise's self-destruct system was activated one other time on screen, in the Original series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". In that episode, the command to abort the sequence was "1-2-3 Continuity".
- The post-destruction model of the Enterprise (with the main saucer mostly blown away, but with the secondary hull and warp engines attached) was later re-used as a model in the TNG episode "The Best of Both Worlds," and again as the wreck of the USS Olympia in the DS9 episode "The Sound of Her Voice."
External links
- {{{2|{{{title|Star Trek III: The Search for Spock}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- Template:Memoryalpha article
- Star Trek III: The Search for Spock at StarTrek.com
| Star Trek television series and feature films | ||
| Television Series The Original Series · The Animated Series · Phase II · The Next Generation · Deep Space Nine · Voyager · Enterprise | ||
| Feature Films The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier The Undiscovered Country · Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis · XI | ||
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