Full Review: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Bob's Guide to Star Trek Films, part 3

Principle Cast: First Generation + Christopher Lloyd, Robin Curtis, and Merritt Butrick

*Basic Plot *

The movie picks up where "Wrath of Khan" leaves off.  The Enterprise is barely holding together after its battle with the Reliant, the trainee crew has been reassigned, and Lt. Saavik (Curtis) and David Marcus (Butrick) have gone to study the Genesis planet with the crew of the USS Grissom.  Dr. McCoy is losing his mental health for reasons unknown, and upon their return to Earth, the Enterprise crew learns the ship is to be decommissioned.  Kirk then receives a visit from Spock's father Sarek (played by Mark Leonard) and learns that there is a way to bring Spock back to life, and save McCoy, who we learn is carrying Spock's living essence within his mind.  They must bring the two together on Vulcan to perform the reunification.  Two problems stand in the way; planet Genesis has been quarantined and Kirk has no ship.  At the same time on Genesis, Saavik and David are trapped on the planet surface when their ship is destroyed by a Klingon ship searching for the destructive potential of the Genesis device.  To make matters worse, the planet is unstable and is working its way to self-destruction.  Kirk and his crew steal the Enterprise and take McCoy to Genesis in their mission to bring their shipmate and friend back to “life”, but are soon locked into a standoff with the Klingon Captain.

My Take

*Spoiler Alert* Even though this is the third film in the franchise, it is the first "true" sequel we see in the series, directly following the events of "The Wrath of Khan".  It doesn't seek to explore any ideas of modern times or universal ideas and concerns the way the previous two films did with the role of technology and man (ST1) or overpopulation (ST2).  Whether that is a good thing or not is in the eye of the beholder, as I am fond of saying.  For me, personally, there was nothing gained or lost with the narrative style of this picture.  You might not leave with anything to think about, but that is something you don't always need.  That being said, the drama in this picture is very high from start to finish.  It begins with Spock's death scene from the previous film and moves quickly to McCoy's growing insanity.  At the Genesis planet we have Saavik who has been reunited with her lost teacher, if only his body, which has been regenerated along with the formation of the planet.  Spock is also aging rapidly (seemingly tied to the planet’s condition) and endures the Pom Far, the burning of the Vulcan blood, which can only be relieved by mating with a female.  Even though this is not shown on screen (the movie is PG) the ritual she performs with the teenage Spock shows that she is acting to save his life.  It was interesting to me to see Spock in this state of mindlessness, since he is always so collected, even when he is at odds, as he was in the first film.  With logic impossible, he becomes more animalistic and some would say more human.

The Wrath of Khan introduced Kirk to his long, lost son David Marcus, who we learned was a scientist on the original Genesis creation team.  During the standoff between Kirk and the Klingons, David is killed by a Klingon officer, which compounds the losses Kirk has already endured, and Shatner does an excellent job in showing this.  His reaction to David's death was improvised on set and it is never known whether he meant to miss the seat and fall to the ground or if it was a highly effective ‘accident’.

This film also marks the first time we see the destruction of the Enterprise, which at the time was a monumental shock in a franchise where the ship seemed as much an “untouchable” character as any of the crew.  The audience at the time was anticipating Starfleet to change its mind and rebuild the landmark starship.  But instead, it is the final casualty of the film.  I still remember the reaction in the theater when I saw this movie for the first time.  It was as if we could feel the shockwave of the explosion in our chests because everybody gasped at the same time, even James (you know you did).  

All in all this was a pretty good Trek film.  Effects were well done and the cast performance was on par.  Christopher Lloyd was excellent as the Klingon Captain Kruge, although I will note in the scenes on the Genesis planet, it almost seemed as though he was not at 100%, maybe because of an illness or something, but on the bridge of the Bird of Prey, he was as intense as any Klingon could be.

*Interesting note*: In the Star Trek universe, the Bird of Prey was a Romulan designed ship, and the main antagonists of this movie were going to be Romulan.  But, it was decided that Kruge and his crew were to be Klingons since their kind were already well known in Trek.  The Bird of Prey can be explained by the fact that in the Trek universe the Klingons and Romulans often traded ships and technology until the betrayal of Kitomer discussed in ST: The Next Generation (Worf's father died in that battle).  But in this time line, it would be common for a Klingon to have a Bird of Prey for its cloaking device.

Oh, by the way, they save Spock.