Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Directed by	Leonard Nimoy
Produced by	Harve Bennett
Written by	Harve Bennett
Starring	See table
Music by	James Horner
Cinematography	Charles Correll
Editing by	Robert F. Shugrue
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	June 1, 1984
Running time	105 min.
Language	English
Budget	$17,000,000
Preceded by	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Followed by	Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
IMDb profile

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Paramount Pictures, 1984) is the third feature film based on the 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.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot summary

Shortly after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the USS Enterprise carrying the combined crews of both Enterprise and USS Reliant, limps back to Earth, scarred from its battle with 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 refitted, but will instead be retired, and its crew reassigned. Meanwhile, Dr. Leonard McCoy exhibits strange behavior, somehow related to the deceased Captain Spock. He even seems to be channeling both Spock's behavior and voice.

Simultaneously, Kirk's son Dr. David Marcus and Lieutenant Saavik are now on board the research vessel USS Grissom to explore the Genesis Planet, created at the end of the last film. The two transport down to the planet's surface to explore its terraforming progress. 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. Marcus, pressed by Saavik, admits that he used unstable "protomatter" in building the Genesis device to solve "certain problems". Without it, he would go on to claim that the Genesis Project could have been delayed by years or would have never been completed at all. The unstable matter puts the planet in a state of accelerated evolution that will conclude with the planet's premature destruction.

Unknown to them, a Klingon commander named Kruge has intercepted information about Genesis becomes interested in it (for much the same reasons as Khan: as a weapon). He travels to the Genesis Planet to learn its secrets after stealing additional information related to it.

Spock's father, Sarek, visits Earth and discovers, with Kirk's help, that McCoy possesses Spock's "katra" (soul). Both his katra and body are needed to properly lay him to rest on his homeworld Vulcan, or McCoy could die. Disobeying direct orders prohibiting anyone from visiting the Genesis Planet, Kirk reunites with his bridge officers, steals the Enterprise, disables the pursuing USS Excelsior and travels to the remote world, which is beginning to self-destruct due to accelerated aging.

Kruge arrives at Genesis first, destroying the USS Grissom with all hands (save for the landing party). He also summarily executes his weapons officer responsible for Grissom's destruction; Kruge wanted prisoners. His crew locates and captures the scientists on the planet: David, Saavik, and a now-teenaged Spock. Kirk and the skeleton crew of the Enterprise arrive, unaware that the Klingon ship and its crew are cloaked nearby. The Enterprise detects the cloaked Bird of Prey and strikes first, hitting the Klingon ship as it de-cloaks, but is unable to raise shields due to the fact after the two photon torpedoes were fired the automation systems had overloaded then during the Klingon counterattack they fire one torpedo and cripple her disabling all bridge systems. Kruge demands that they surrender and to prove that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants, orders the men that he had sent to the surface of the Genesis Planet to kill one of the prisoners. David defends Saavik, who was to be the intended victim, and dies as a result. Kirk is crushed to hear his son had been murdered.

Rather than surrender, Kirk had ordered McCoy and sulu to the transporter room then He,Scotty and Chekov order the ship to self-destruct,and escaped the enterprise for the last time sucessfully killing the majority of Kruge's crew who had just beamed over to complete the ship's capture. The Skeleton crew of the ship watched as the Enterprise their home for the last twenty years disintegrate as it enters the atmosphere. They find Saavik and Spock and free them from their captors. Moments later, Kruge beams to the planet and has everyone but Kirk and Spock beamed aboard his Bird of Prey. Still demanding the technology of the Genesis project, Kruge and Kirk engage in hand-to-hand combat on the disintegrating planet. Kirk defeats Kruge, who plunges into a volcanic rift. Kirk quickly grabs Spock, and, imitating Kruge's voice, shouts the order to beam them both aboard Kruge's ship. The Enterprise crew are able to easily capture the Klingon vessel and the one crewman left on board.

The crew return to Vulcan, where Spock's katra is reunited with his body in a dangerous procedure called "fal-tor-pan" which will reunite Spock's mind with his body. Dr. McCoy agrees to the ritual, knowing that it is quite risky for both him and Spock. The ritual is successful, and Spock is resurrected alive and well, though his memories are still extremely fragmented. The final scene, a brief discussion between Kirk and Spock, ends with Spock slowly remembering the man before him: "Jim. Your name is Jim."

[edit] 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 and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, much was made of the attachment Kirk had to the Enterprise, so his willing destruction of the ship as revenge for the loss of his son strikes a resounding note indeed.

[edit] Notes

Alternate promotional poster for the film.

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 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^{[citation needed]}, though Kirk's 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 - which ended in a warp core breach rather than the saucer exploding and the remainder burning up in the Genesis planet's atmosphere - was deemed to have too 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. This was the final Star Trek film to be scored by Horner, who was reportedly upset at the short amount of time he was given to complete the music for this film. Horner later reused elements from his Search for Spock score -- in slightly modified form -- in his score for the film Aliens.

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, Star Trek: Nemesis, failed at the box office and also attracted poor reviews.

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.

[edit] Trivia

• Edward James Olmos was Leonard Nimoy's original choice for the role of Kruge. Harve Bennett preferred Christopher Lloyd for the role. Eventually, Nimoy was persuaded to cast Lloyd, who came across as more operatic and physically intimidating (and was much taller than Olmos).
• The computer voice on the Excelsior turbolift is provided by Leonard Nimoy, credited as "Frank Force".
• The film marks the first appearance of a guest star "movie era" admiral, that being the 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).
• Christopher Lloyd's performance as Commander Kruge is notable in that the character is one of the first Klingon antagonists not to be portrayed as cowardly or duplicitous. Though ruthless and cruel, he adheres to the Klingon principles of honor and bravery that many TOS Klingons merely espoused, despite behaving to the contrary; faced with the possibility of death on Genesis while confronting Kirk, he describes the situation as one of excitement to him.
• 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). Despite the rarity of Chekov being seen speaking Russian, the line is not provided with subtitles.
• 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 the registry NX-72307, but this was not seen clearly or mentioned onscreen.)
• The film is also the first to feature an Oberth class starship, the USS Grissom (NCC-638). The design would reappear in several episodes of The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and at the end of Star Trek: Generations. It is also the first appearance of a purely scientific (as opposed to multi-mission) Federation starship.
• 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.
• 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, as well as a small FX model of a spacesuited Kirk, also used in the first film.
• The Enterprise has much more external battle damage (there are additional scars/patches on the saucer, engineering hull, and nacelles) at the beginning of this film than it did at the end of The Wrath of Khan.
• Initially, actor George Takei was reportedly upset that his character was called 'tiny' during Dr. McCoy's rescue from detention. After seeing the movie however, he realized that his comeback "don't call me tiny" was one of Sulu's great moments in the series, and apologized to writer-producer Harve Bennett for being upset after he had changed his mind.
• 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 events of TSFS take place around the year 2285. In the film, Fleet Admiral Morrow states that "the Enterprise is 20 years old," implying that the ship has been in service since around 2265, which would coincide with TOS's Season One DVD release (Region 1), which states that 'the year is 2264.' However, these '20 years' do not coincide with the Season One Episode The Menagerie whereby Spock indicates that the events of the Pilot Episode The Cage take place "13 years ago," indicating that the ship has been in service since roughly 2253, when commanded by Capt. Pike. Most texts place the initial launching of Enterprise and the Constitution-class Starships (then under the command of conjectural character Robert April) around the year 2245.
• Saavik (played by Kirstie Alley) is cut from the opening scene which repeats Spock's funeral wake aboard the Enterprise from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as she is now played by Robin Curtis.
• A romance was intended to develop between David Marcus and Saavik, but while it was mentioned in the novelization, it was not shown in the finished film.
• The self-destruct codes spoken by Kirk, Scotty and Chekov are the same (other than the words "code" and "sequence" being exchanged) as those used by Kirk, Spock and Scotty (in that order) in the original series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".
• When the cast originally received their scripts, several pages concerning the Enterprise's destruction were missing; they only later learned of what would be for them a highly emotional scene.
• There was a debate during writing as to which character should die on the Genesis planet, Saavik or David, and it was ultimately decided that David should sacrifice himself to save Spock and Saavik as atonement for his actions regarding the Genesis project.
• The music score by James Horner was actually adapted from the score to the previous film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, with more emphasis on Craig Hundley's composition "The Genesis Project" (which served as theme music for the Genesis planet, and heard primarily during Genesis' destruction).
• The security graphic shown to depict Spock's quarters being occupied in the beginning of the film clearly depict the Enterprise in its pre-refit, Original Series, configuration. This is most notable in the engine nacelles.
• Around 1984 there was an Atari video game based on this movie; as with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, it was never released.
• In a 1986 episode of The Real Ghostbusters a reference is made by Egon Spengler to the transwarp drive system featured onboard the USS Excelsior NX-2000 in 1984's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock at the Internet Movie Database
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock at Rotten Tomatoes
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock at Box Office Mojo
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock at StarTrek.com
• Interview with Robin Curtis (Lt. Saavik) in which she describes working with Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and the rest of the cast of Star Trek III and IV