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 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.

1 Cast
2 Plot summary
3 Themes
4 Notes
5 Trivia
6 External links

[edit] Cast

Actor	Role
William Shatner	Admiral James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	Captain Spock/Excelsior computer voice (as "Frank Force")
DeForest Kelley	Commander (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
John Larroquette	Klingon First Officer Maltz
Robert Hooks	Fleet Admiral Morrow
James Sikking	Captain Styles
Carl Steven	Spock at 9
Vadia Potenza	Spock at 13
Stephen Manley	Spock at 17
Joe W. Davis	Spock at 25
Frank Welker	Spock's screams (voice-over, uncredited)
Scott McGinnis	Mr. Adventure
Stephen Liska	Klingon Second Officer Torg

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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. 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. 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. Unknown to them, Klingon commander Kruge becomes interested in Genesis (for much the same reasons as Khan; as a weapon), and travels to the Genesis planet to learn its secrets after stealing information related to it.

Spock's father, Sarek, visits Earth and discovers, with Kirk's help, 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 direct orders prohibiting anyone from visiting the Genesis planet, Kirk reunites his officers and steals the Enterprise and travels to the remote world, which is beginning to self-destruct.

Kruge arrives at Genesis first, destroying the research vessel USS Grissom. (He also summarily executes the member of his crew responsible for Grissom's destruction; Kruge wanted prisoners.) His crew captures the scientists on the planet- David, Saavik, and a now-teenage 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 during the Klingon counterattack. The Enterprise is crippled. 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.

Rather than surrender, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov order the ship to self-destruct, killing several of Kruge's men, and beam to the planet's surface where they watch as the Enterprise disintegrates 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, which they are able to easily capture thanks to their numbers and the element of surprise as there was only one remaining 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's memories must still be restored, but, nevertheless, the Vulcan is now alive and well.

[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, much was made of the attachment Kirk had to the Enterprise, so his willing destruction of the vessel here is a resounding note indeed.

[edit] 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 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 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 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 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.

[edit] Trivia

The computer voice on the Excelsior turbolift is provided by Leonard Nimoy.
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).
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 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.
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 co-incide 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.
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.
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 Hunley'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.

[edit] External links

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Star Trek television series and feature films
	Television series The Original Series · The Animated Series · The Next Generation · Deep Space Nine · Voyager · Enterprise
	TOS-Era Feature films The Motion Picture · The Wrath of Khan · The Search for Spock · The Voyage Home · The Final Frontier · The Undiscovered Country
	TNG-Era Feature films Generations · First Contact · Insurrection · Nemesis
	Unknown-Era Feature films XI