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Star Trek III: Search for Spock |
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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Paramount Pictures, 1984; see also 1984 in film) 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.
Plot summary
A few days after the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, the USS Enterprise limps back to Earth. Once there, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) 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 (DeForest Kelley) exhibits strange behavior, somehow related to the deceased Captain Spock.
Simultaneously, Kirk's son Dr. David Marcus (Merritt Butrick) and Lieutenant Saavik (Robin Curtis) explore the Genesis planet, created at the end of the last film. Unknown to them, Klingon commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) becomes interested in Genesis, and travels to the Genesis planet to learn its secrets.
Spock's father Sarek (Mark Lenard) 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 Vulcan child — and then the Enterprise arrives. The Enterprise is much larger than the Klingon ship, but is crippled by its recent battle and skeleton crew. Kirk sacrifices the ship to kill Kruge's men, and defeats Kruge in hand-to-hand combat on the planet's surface, which is rapidly disintegrating. Kirk captures the Klingon ship and escapes the Genesis planet just in time as it explodes, and returning both McCoy and the now-aged boy — who is Spock (Leonard Nimoy) — to Vulcan, where his katra is returned to his body.
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, never mind actually resurrecting him.
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
TSFS was directed by Leonard Nimoy, which fueled advance speculation that Spock would turn up alive and well.
The film contains much more humor than TWOK, 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 to be not up to the level of his TWOK work.
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 Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
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.
The music was scored by James Horner.
Although fans welcomed the return of Spock, the film did not generate 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.
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