I’m continuing my series driving deeply into the Star Trek Original Series movies with Star Trek III The Search For Spock from 1984. Listen to the podcast version, watch on YouTube, or read the text version below.
Welcome to Nerd Heaven.
I’m Adam David Collings, the author of Jewel of The Stars
And I am a nerd.
This is episode 111 and today, we’re talking about Star Trek III The Search for Spock, as we continue our journey through the original series Star Trek movies.
The description on IMDB reads
Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock’s body.
This movie was written by Harve Bennett.
It was directed by Leonard Nimoy
and it first released on the 1st of June 1984.
Leondard Nimoy Director
Leonard Nimoy was somewhat hesitant to return to the role of Spock in Star Trek II. I talked about this in the last episode. So Harve Bennett pitched to him the idea of having a great death scene. This intrigued Nimoy, who figured this was surely going to be the last Star Trek movie, so why not go out with a bang?
As they were filming Star Trek II, it became more and more evident to those involved that they might just have a hit on their hands, and maybe, this wouldn’t be the last one after all.
Bennett wanted to insert some kind of back-door to give them an opportunity to bring back Spock in the future. The mind-meld was Nimoy’s idea. They had no idea at the time how they would pay it off, but it served as a beautiful setup.
With Spock dead, Leonard Nimoy was keen to try his hand at directing. The studio needed a director, and they were keen to resurrect Spock. Nimoy pitched to them that he could solve both problems if they’d give him a chance at the big chair.
The movie starts in the only place it can. By replaying Spock’s death scene in a small, blue-tinted window that slowly expands to fill the screen as the scene plays out. This movie is a direct sequel to Star Trek II in the truest sense. Star Trek was experimenting with serialised storytelling in a way that had never been done before. And it wasn’t planned out in advance this way, but Star Trek 2, 3, and 4 followed directly on from each other, forming to tell one large story. A serialised trilogy.
We see the funeral scene and then we hear Nimoy’s reading of the Star Trek prologue, as we heard at the end of 2. It’s a very fitting way to introduce the movie, as we scroll through the forests of the Genesis planet, seeing Spock’s coffin, as the titles roll.
James Horner’s score is back. It’s not the exact same arrangement as the beginning of Star Trek II. They intercut a lot of the TOS fanfare into it, but it’s the same familiar music, which by now, we love.
I wonder what people were expecting, going to see this at the cinema for the first time. Nimoy’s name was conspicuously absent from the opening credits but appeared later as Director. The title made it clear this would be about trying to save Spock in some way, but did audiences actually expect to see Nimoy on screen? Having seen these movies in reverse order, I can’t put myself back into that mindset, but I imagine I would have been hoping but not wanting to count on it.
Return of The Enterprise
Kirk’s opening personal log serves both to catch us up on what’s happened since the end of the last movie, with most of the trainees re-assigned, David and Saavik studying Genesis, but also to give us some poetic and moving insight into how Kirk is feeling.
Kirk had to come to terms with his middle age in the previous movie. Right now, he’s dealing with the next life stage – the empty nest. It’s not something this movie spends any time or effort exploring, but it’s a nice little moment.
Kirk orders Chekov very matter-of-factly to take the science station. He’s the Captain, and he’s doing a good job of being professional. But Chekov shows it all on his face. Taking the science station is a painful reminder to all of them that Spock is no longer there to stand at his station.
I love the big black smudge all over the turbolift door and wall next to it, demonstrating the presence of battle damage from the previous movie. Starfleet is being oddly silent regarding the Genesis Planet, which Kirk wants permission to return to. His plan is to get the ship refit as quickly as possible and head straight back out.
We get our first introduction to Scotty’s approach to time estimation. His deliberate over-estimation to give the appearance of being a miracle worker. We’ll revisit this in the TNG episode Relics. Here, it’s a nice humorous moment between two friends. I think Scotty is deliberately trying to give Kirk something to smile about here.
Kruge, Valkris, and the Klingon Bird of Prey
We meet Valkris, a Klingon working with a crew of human mercenaries. Her Captain, Kruge is, after all the information he can get on Genesis. World has been spreading, as we’ll learn later. The ship they’re on looks great in high definition. It has a gritty reality to it. A design that is likely inspired by Star Wars.
Speaking of ships, we get our first glimpse of the infamous Klingon Bird of Prey – the ship that will form the backbone of the Klingon fleet for a hundred years.
Once again, the TOS movies have taken something that was originally Romulan, and given it to the Klingons. Last time, we had the neutral zone, this time the bird of prey concept. Romulan ships will later be referred to as warbirds, the bird-of-prey name being kept for Klingons, but this whole concept of modelling a spaceship after a bird of prey was originally attributed to the Romulans. The TV version even had a bird painted on the hull.
I don’t know why the movies keep doing this. It feels odd to me, but at the same time, the Klingon Bird of Prey is so familiar to me I can’t imagine Star Trek without it.
In universe, we can probably explain it using the technological exchange made between the Romulans and Klingons. The Klingons provided the Romulans with D7 battleships. The Romulans gave the Klingons cloaking technology (although that bit is not firmly canon, and is kind of retconned by Discovery season 1). I imagine there was just a lot of intermixing of technologies and design ideas between these two empires which probably explains the Klingon Bird of Prey.
And we get to hear the Klingon language in all its glory.
They hired Mark Oakrand to create a proper Klingon language for this movie. In a previous episode, I talked about how Okrand took the random words developed by James Doohan, and spoken by Mark Leonard, in Star Trek The Motion Picture, and built the language in such a way as to preserve all those lines of dialogue as valid Klingon. Great stuff. But in this movie, it’s not random. This is a language with rules, grammar and vocabulary. It really lends a new level of believability to the Klingons as an alien race.
This movie also continues the visual look of a Klingon bridge, and the makeup and uniform designs.
This movie would have a Klingon as its main villain. Following on from such a powerful presence as Khan in the previous movie, they really needed a great actor to elevate this villain. They succeeded by casting the amazing Christopher Lloyd. Everyone praises Ricardo Montablan’s Khan, and rightly so, but I don’t think Lloyd’s Kruge gets enough praise. He plays an awesome villain, and an awesome Klingon, in this movie.
Kruge is disturbed to learn that Valkris has seen the Genesis data. And that means her human associates have probably seen it too. He wants to keep this information to himself. If it is to be an advantage to him, the less people with access to it, the better.
So much is communicated between the two Klingons with just one word – Unfortunate.
So much is her loyalty to Kruge that she accepts her fate without question. You can see in her face that she doesn’t want to die, but will do so gladly for her captain, and lover.
It’s an honourable death. This is the Klingon way.
I feel we learn a lot about Klingon culture from this scene.
We also get to see our first Targ, which is never actually named as such in the film. It looks really cool.
Spacedock
The new Space dock in Star Trek III is awesome – a truly amazing spectacle. This will become the standard for Starfleet space stations for the rest of Star Trek.
Kirk introduces us to The Excelsior, the great experiment. Sulu is immediately in love with his future ship, not that he has any idea of his future. We learn it has something called Transwarp drive. Scotty is put out by a new ship with new technology.
The woman who watches the Enterprise fly past the window is Janice Rand. Apparently, she wasn’t in the script, but Nimoy gave her a cameo here.
Chekov gets a security alert. Someone has broken into Spock’s quarters. Kirk goes to check it out. And for some reason, Chekov says something in Russia to Scotty, even though he likely knows Scotty doesn’t understand. I always found that a very odd moment. The Star Trek movies are full of them.
Google suggests that he said “I’m not crazy, Look”. I can’t verify the accuracy of this.
I can’t help but wonder what the intention here was. Why would Chekov suddenly start speaking his native language on the bridge? Now don’t get me wrong. I’m all for Chekov speaking Russian. I think that’s cool. But this moment doesn’t work because for those in the audience who don’t speak Russian, it adds nothing to the film and just feels awkward. Remember, Scotty and the others don’t know what he’s saying.
A much better moment was seen in the 2009 Kelvin film. While trying to beam Kirk and Bones aboard, Chekov swears in Russian. For local Russians, this was likely a big laugh out loud moment. A nice little thing for them, that must have made this American-created character feel more like a proper Russian. One of them. For the rest of us, it was pretty obvious from context that Chekov was making an exclamation. We don’t need to understand the words. And it makes perfect sense in the story that Chekov would use Russian in this moment.
That moment succeeded, where I think this one largely fails.
Inside Spock’s quarters, Kirk finds McCoy. Speaking in Spock’s voice. “You left me on Genesis. Why did you do that?” McCoy tells Kirk to take him home, to climb the steps of Mount Saleya on Vulcan. Then he repeats Spock’s line “Remember” before passing out. Is McCoy just losing his mind due to his grief over losing Spock? Those two were always closer than either was willing to admit openly. We suspect there is more going on, but Kirk never saw that “remember” moment in the previous movie.
Admiral Morrow is briefing the Enterprise crew. Extended shore leave for all after their brave actions dealing with Khan. All except Scotty. He’s promoted to captain of engineering and ordered to help solve some of the problems that the Excelsior is having. This is the last thing Scotty wants. The Enterprise is his baby. He wants to supervise her refit.
But Morrow delivers a devastating blow. There will be no refit. The Enterprise is 20 years old. Her time is past.
Kirk wanted to take the Enterprise back to Genesis once it was repaired. After all, isn’t that their mission? To explore strange new worlds? There can be no world stranger than Genesis. They didn’t have time to look around properly before. They had battle damage and wounded to take care of.
Unfortunately, Genesis has become a galactic controversy. The Federation has no official policy yet. It’s a quarantined planet and a forbidden subject.
This isn’t surprising. The Genesis device is a powerful tool for creating life, but it also has the potential to be misused as a devastating weapon. It was always highly classified. Nobody on the Enterprise knew about it except Kirk. Now that its power almost fell into the hands of a tyrannical madman, it’s even more important to guard its secret carefully.
Of course, we know that the cat is already out of the bag. Commander Kruge and his crew are viewing the stolen data files. We get to see the Genesis simulation, this time narrated by Kirk instead of Marcus. It’s well worth repeating in full. Not just because it brings new audiences up to speed, but also just because it’s cool.
Kruge immediately sees the potential of this device as a weapon of ultimate power. We learn here that the Klingon and Federation governments are actively negotiating for peace – an end to the cold war that has existed between them since the end of Discovery season 1, with a brief flare up into open warfare at the time of Errand of Mercy. But there will be some roadblocks along the way to that peace.
Kruge sees the development of such a devastating weapon as an act of treachery on the Federation’s part. He will seize it, to act for the preservation of the Klingon race.
Like all good villains, he sees his actions in a more heroic light than we do. The fact that we can understand his perspective adds to the intensity of the drama.
USS Grissom – The Oberth Class
Time to check in with David and Saavik at the Genesis Planet. They are working with the crew of the USS Grissom. Named after Gus Grissom, the second American in space who tragically lost his life in the Apollo 1 fire.
It’s a weird-looking ship. Its secondary hull connected to the saucer only by two thin pylons just under the nacelles. But the Oberth class will be used for scientific missions well into the late 24th century (due to Paramount’s budgetary decision to re-use existing models).
It seems a very inefficient design. The turbolifts would have to travel down those handled pylons. They don’t look thick enough to contain turbo shafts and having them hollow has got to weaken their structural integrity. Interestingly, the Oberth provides some justification for the ridiculous design of the California Class as seen in Lower Decks. That design is even crazier. In order to get to the little secondary hull, the turbo lifts would have to travel through the inside of the nacelle, which has got to be an absolutely terrible idea. I remember Mike McMahon once responding to criticisms of this design saying “Don’t you guys know that turbolifts can go sideways as well as up and down?” But that’s not the issue. For me, the issue is using the inside of the warp nacelle as a thoroughfare for the crew.
But back to Star Trek 3.
So Starfleet isn’t completely ignoring the scientific investigation of the Genesis planet, they’re just limited who knows about it. The Grissom crew are the ones tasked with the job.
This movie recast Saavik with a new actor – Robin Curtis, replacing Kirstie Alley. She was offered less money for Star Trek III than she was for Star Trek II. Alley said in an interview she felt this might have been William Sharner’s influence as the two didn’t get along. Many Star Trek actors had difficulties with Shatner.
I don’t mind the recast. I’m equally fond of both actresses’ portrayals. I guess I tend to think of Robin Curtis as Saavik more than Kirstie Alley, because Curtis played the role in two movies (and again in the recent short film Unification), while Alley only played the role once.
While scanning the planet, they locate Spock’s coffin tube. It has soft-landed intact. Scanners indicate an animal lifeform present at the coffin. There shouldn’t be any lifeforms on the planet, according to David’s science.
They’ve got to go down and see what it is.
Captain Estabon is an interesting character. Probably the biggest example of the “all captains except Kirk are stupid” trope. I dislike that trope immensely.
Estabon doesn’t lack confidence. He’s sure of his beliefs and acts in accordance with them. His main problem is that he’s extremely cautious – to the extreme. Now I have nothing against caution. I’m a very cautious person myself, but as Kirk will someday say “risk is part of the game if you want to sit in that chair. He seems almost unwilling to do his job – which is exploration because there might be some danger. He doesn’t even want to inform Starfleet of their discovery – for some odd reason. But he relents and allows Saavik and David to beam down and investigate.
Sarak Arrives
We’re back in Kirk’s San Francisco apartment. Kirk is in civilian clothes, but a similar maroon colour to the Starfleet uniforms. We’ll see him in this costume for the remainder of the next two movies.
The Enterprise is being decommissioned. Kirk can’t get an answer as to whether they’ll get a new ship. He’s meeting with his crew – his family.
And he has an unexpected visitor. Sarek. Spock’s father. Played by Mark Leonard, reprising the role of the original series. It must have been a big surprise for viewers seeing him for the first time. Personally, I don’t remember a time before I knew he was in these movies.
Sarek wants to know why Kirk left Spock on Genesis. “You denied him his future.”
I think, at this point, that he’s not hoping for a bodily resurrection. He has no reason to think that is possible. He’s just wanting Spock’s Katra, his soul, to be preserved. I’m not sure exactly what Vulcan custom dictates happens, but it seems that giving up the katra to another through a mind meld is not an uncommon thing when Vulcans die. Perhaps they store them in a museum or something.
Sarek assumes Kirk received Spock’s katra because he was the last one to be with Spock, but they were separated by glass. Spock couldn’t touch him.
Kirk would have given his life to save Spock if he could. That’s how much his friend, his brother, meant to him.
Sarek confirms via mind-meld, that Spock’s Katra is not in Kirk. It was lost. It must be hard for Kirk to re-live this moment. But no less hard for Sarek to witness his son’s last moments through Kirk’s eyes.
Kirk reviews the security footage from the Enterprise and sees that ominous scene, the one suggested by Nimoy himself. When Spock mind melds with McCoy and say “remember”.
Now the writers tell us what actually happened. Spock placed his katra in McCoy’s mind. That’s why he’s acting so weird, so like Spock. Two men, neither at peace. Kirk swears to Sarek that he’ll take them both to Vulcan so they can find peace.
This is where the script breaks down a little. Why would Kirk take Spock? It’s a corpse. He doesn’t know what’s happening on Genesis. Bringing McCoy to Vulcan, I understand, but why would Sarek request they bring Spock?
It’s only the miraculous regeneration of Spock’s body by the Genesis effect that makes the re-fusion possible, and nobody knows about that yet, not even Marcus and Saavik.
Speaking of David and Saavik, they beam down to the planet.
Pretty much every word out of Estaban’s mouth is an expression of worry over danger. He’s terrified he’ll get in trouble if something happens to the away team.
They’ve found the lifeform. A group of interesting looking alien animals. They were microbes on the torpedo tube, shot from the Enterprise. Something about this planet has caused them to evolve rapidly. They open the tube and find, to their astonishment, that it’s empty. All that is left is Spock’s burial robe. This is somewhat reminiscent of Jesus resurrection, leaving behind his wrappings in the empty tomb.
Admiral Morrow won’t allow Kirk to go to Genesis. It’s against the rules. He doesn’t even understand the reason for Kirk’s request. He doesn’t understand Vulcan Mysticism. Kirk isn’t even sure he believes, but if there’s even a chance that Spock has an eternal soul, it’s his responsibility. And he’ll do whatever it takes, for the sake of his friend.
He requests the Enterprise, but Morrow says what they both know. The Enterprise would never stand the pounding.
Morrow warns Kirk that if he keeps up this emotional behaviour, he’ll destroy himself and his career.
The lounge where they’re sitting looks pretty cool. Very late 70s early 80s, but pristine. Everything about 23rd and 24th century Earth is pristine, clean, and beautiful. Star Trek II, III, and IV probably show us more of 23rd century Earth than we’ve ever seen or will see again.
When Sulu asks Kirk how it went, he delivers that immortal line. “The word is no, I am therefore going anyway.” This is a big deal because Kirk is actively disobeying and rebelling against Starfleet. This is the beginning of a bit of a Star Trek trope. We’ll often see captains go against orders in the future, but this is the first time it happened in a big way. Kirk has always had a bit of a rebellious spirit and has definitely bent and even broken some important rules in the past, but here we see it on a whole new level. This would have been revolutionary to audiences at the time. It’s almost on the level of Sheridan breaking away from Earth in Babylon 5. It has to be a major rebellion for the payoff at the end of the movie.
But this is very much a theme of the TOS movies. Friendship and loyalty to one’s crewmates takes precedence over career and loyalty to Starfleet. We even see this reflected in the Voyager episode Flashback when we see Tuvok serving under Captain Sulu at the time of Star Trek 6.
Rescuing McCoy
So, Mccoy enters a bar. He’s on a personal mission. We get a glimpse of some tribbles on a table. I assume they have been spayed. It seems Bones has a bit of a reputation around here. The waitress clearly has a thing for him. I wonder if it was mutual.
This is where we start to see how the personalities of Spock and McCoy are at war within him. He is kinda both.
He orders Altair Water, clearly something Spock would order. McCoy is more of a whiskey guy. When the waitress queries this he replies “To expect one to order poison in a bar is not logical.” This is one of my favourite lines in the movie. I always thought it was cool.
Anyway, Bones is here to meet someone. He’s got big ears and is eager for profit, but he’s no Ferengi. I really like this character. He has quite a unique look and also a unique way of speaking. He orders his words differently than is common in English. Not the same as Yoda, but I can see that some may think they were trying to copy Yoda here, but I don’t think that’s fair. The universal translator can translate the words someone says, but it doesn’t always do a perfect job of the grammar. We see that in Voyager’s Nemesis. I always love this kind of thing. I would say that in this guy’s native language, sentence structure is quite different. The actor portraying the character has this really interesting soft-spoken way of talking. He feels alien – more so than many Trek species do.
McCoy realises this is the transport captain he has contacted. He’s trying to get passage to Genesis. He makes a good point to the alien when he says you can’t get a permit to do an illegal thing. But I can well understand the captain wanting more money for the extra risk.
McCoy starts to mimic the alien’s speech as he gets frustrated. The captain won’t name a price unless he knows exactly where they’re going. So, McCoy relents and tells him he wants to go to Genesis. The captain freaks out at this. He’s willing to break the rules, but Genesis is a step too far. Whatever he’s heard about it, he clearly knows it’s a big deal – very secret.
As McCoy gets irritated, he draws the attention of Federation security, who take him into custody. They’re sending him to a mental health facility. Sadly, even with Spock’s Katra swimming around in his head, McCoy can’t manage to do a Vulcan nerve pinch.
Kirk comes to rescue him from his cell.
McCoy doesn’t really understand what’s happening to him. He’s got this instinct, from Spock, to go to Genesis, but it isn’t until Kirk tells him he’s suffering from a Vulcan mind meld that he really understands and states “It’s his revenge for all those arguments he lost.”
We see Sulu do a little martial arts as he incapacitates one of the prison guards. I know it’s probably an Asian stereotype, but I always thought it would be cool to have a character who knows martial arts in Star Trek, someone doing Jackie Chan style antics.
Kirk and Sulu have crossed a line now. They’ve assaulted Starfleet personnel and broken McCoy out of prison.
Scotty does a good job of holding in his offence when the Excelsior’s captain says he’s looking forward to breaking some of the Enterprise’s speed records tomorrow. What an insult to the honour of Scotty’s beloved ship. He’s out of his normal uniform in some kind of Starfleet jacket. Not sure why.
Stealing The Enterprise
Uhura doesn’t get much to do in this movie. She gets short changed by most of these movies, but she’s got a very nice scene in the transporter room. Her presence here is all part of the plan, so the rest of the crew can beam aboard the Enterprise. Not sure why she couldn’t have set a time-delay on the console and beamed over with them, but anyway. She plays an important role in the mission, and I feel quite emotional when she says “Admiral, all my hopes.”
Scotty has left the Excelsior and set up a bunch of automation so a reduce crew can operate the Enterprise. I’ve always had thoughts about this. I can accept that the Enterprise has a large crew, and so there would probably need to be additional automation when a crew of 4 are running it, and Kirk was planning for it to potentially just be him and McCoy, But then I think the story forgets that the Enterprise has a computer. All those consoles, they’re computer terminals. This ship is already highly automated. Sure, long term, you need people to maintain systems in Engineering. You need security. You need a medical staff. But a lot of a Starship’s crew are scientists, people who live on the ship, and carry out various missions on her, but aren’t actively keeping the ship flying. There are lots of off-duty personnel and redundancies. I think TOS often treats the Enterprise like an old steam ship. As if activating warp speed on the helm is just like sending a message down to Engineering, telling them to shovel more dilithium in into the chamber or something. This isn’t the Titanic.
I’ve always maintained that in order to fly a Starfleet through space, all you really need for the short term is someone at the helm. In Voyager, we saw Seven and the Doctor fly the ship alone through a nebula for weeks. Now there was a lot of ongoing maintenance that kept them both busy all day long, but you want the ship to go left, you press the button on the terminal and the ship moves. You want to fire a torpedo, you press the fire button and the torpedo should fire out.
And fair enough, this is almost a century before Voyager, so the technology is a lot less advanced.
I’m not saying the situation doesn’t require any additional automation, but I like to think of Scotty’s automation here as akin to bringing the ship up to the standard of the Enterprise D, where Geordi can monitor engineering remotely from a console on the bridge. That kind of thing. But later on, we’ll see the automation system get knocked out, and suddenly Scotty has no control over ANYTHING. He can’t move the ship or fire a phaser. Nothing. And that’s the bit that doesn’t really work for me.
Anyway, Sulu, Chekov and Scotty are all along for the ride. Spock means a lot to them too and they’re willing to sacrifice their careers for him. It’s very touching. This is a very emotional movie. I love the theme of sacrificial friendship that flows through it.
The escape from spacedock is a very exciting moment, perhaps one of the most exciting in the TOS movies for me.
Captain Styles is called to the bridge of the Excelsior with a yellow alert. Someone is trying to steal the Enterprise.
So it’s time to talk about Styles. This is another example of all captains but Kirk are stupid. Styles isn’t so much incompetent as he is a massive jerk. He would have stopped Kirk if Scotty hadn’t sabotaged his ship.
Styles comes across as very arrogant. As we would say in Australia, he loves himself a little too much. And he carries around this ….. Horse thing. I don’t really know what it is. It’s not a whip, it’s just a short stick. I don’t know exactly its purpose in horse riding, but I’m sure it has one. But why does a Starfleet Captain carry it around wherever he goes? He can’t go anywhere without it in his hand. I have no idea what that’s about, but I can tell you that it comes across as very pretentious. Not to mention weird.
I get that we’re not supposed to like Styles, and all I can say is that both the script, and the actor’s performance, do a great job of making us dislike the character to an almost irrational level.
You get an awesome sense of scale as you see the Enterprise slowly backing past the massive windows in the spacedock.
The Excelsior bridge looks a lot different here than when Sulu will later command her. I guess the ship is still a prototype.
Scotty manages to hack the space doors and get them open. The Enterprise narrowly makes it through as Horner’s awesome music plays. The top-down shot of the Enterprise backing out of the doors looks awesome.
There is no way the Enterprise can outrun the Excelsior, not with this transwarp drive.
Styles gives Kirk an ultimatum. “If you do this, you’ll never sit in the Captain’s chair again.” Kirk knows. And he goes ahead. The Enterprise goes to warp. This is the moment Kirk gives up his career. It’s over.
But of course, the Excelsior can’t follow because of Scotty’s handiwork. The sputtering sound effects are a little too slapstick for me.
Spock Lives?
Savik and David have found the source of the screaming. A young Vulcan boy 8 to 10 years old. It seems the Genesis wave has regenerated Spock’s body. From scratch. But it is rapidly aging, just like everything on this planet seems to be doing.
Saavik wants to beam up with the child but Estaban is hesitant. Surprise surprise. It seems the guy has a radiation phobia. David can detect done. Estaban isn’t even going to beam them aboard without getting Starfleet’s okay. He seems completely unable to operate independently. He says he wants to do it by the book, which I can completely respect. I’m a by the book kinda guy myself, but I can’t think the book is this specific. Starfleet trains their captains to be independent thinkers. They’re not always within hailing range. Starfleet captains have to be able to make decisions on their own, and sometimes those decisions will have far-reaching consequences for the Federation. It’s a big responsibility.
But this is just a decision to beam aboard with a child that clearly needs help. David has already cleared any risk of contamination.
Maybe Estabon just doesn’t want to make any mistakes regarding this very controversial planet.
But before he can get in touch with Starfleet, Kruge’s bird of prey decloaks and attacks.
Kruge wants prisoners who he can interrogate regarding Genesis. The Grissom is completely destroyed so Kruge turns his attention to Saavik and David. Kruge is very unforgiving of mistakes. Kinda like Darth Vader. I’ve never understood this mentality in villains. You keep executing your crew for making mistakes, you’re gonna have no crew left.
Once again, I have to praise Christopher Lloyd. He plays a great Klingon, and most of what we think of today as the Klingon manner, the way they speak, it all comes from him.
Saavik and David have a frank conversation about the Genesis planet. It isn’t what it was supposed to be. The planet is highly unstable. Not at all what the Genesis project promised. David admits the reason. He used protomatter in the matrix. A dangerously unpredictable substance that is banned by all ethical scientists. It was the only way to solve certain problems.
I can relate to that problem. As a programmer, sometimes you just have a solve a problem with the only tool that you can manage to use, even if it feels like a horrible hack.
But to use something considered so unethical as protomatter. That’s not a good idea.
I’ll bet his mother didn’t know. She’d never have gone for that.
Just like his father, David changed the rules. But it’s had some nasty consequences.
Side note, protomatter will later be considered safe to use as it is often mentioned in the 24th century. Professor Seyetik used it in DS9, and Neelix even traded in it.
Those microbe creatures have progressed into something almost snakelike. Again, very cool alien design.
There’s an insane moment where the Klingons look over their shoulder and suddenly broad daylight becomes pitch black in a matter of seconds.
This has always struck me as ridiculous. You want to move the setting to night, you do it with a cut to another location. You don’t have do this.
Now, to be fair, maybe there is some logical scientific explanation as to how this might happen on a planet, so maybe it’s a cool piece of world-building, but if such a phenomenon exists, I don’t know about it, so it just comes off as really dumb to me. Maybe it’s just part of the rapid aging.
Pon Farr
Young Spock seems to be sick. Saavik is wiping sweat from his face. The planet is aging rapidly and so is Spock. They seemed to be joined. Genesis only has days, maybe hours, before it is destroyed. Presumably, if they can’t get Spock off the planet before then, he’ll die? It’s not entirely certain.
Saavik points out it’ll be hardest on Spock. He’ll soon begin to experience Pon Farr, which Vulcan males must endure every 7 years of their adult life.
This movie makes no attempt to explain Pon Farr. The first few times I watched this movie, I hadn’t seen Amok Time in decades. I didn’t remember what Pon Farr was, and frankly, as a child, I probably didn’t understand what it meant when I saw the episode as a kid.
So, I had no idea this was a mating urge. I just thought it was some kind of pain that comes on them every 7 years, and Saavik helped get him through it …. Somehow. Like a telepathic painkiller or something.
But we’ll get to that in a bit.
When the tricorder detects the Klingons approaching, Saavik offers to go deal with them. David offers to take her phaser and go instead. On the face, this seems odd. He’s a civilian. Saavik is a Starfleet officer. She’s had training for combat. David hasn’t. But then…it seems Saviik will be needed by Spock, so I think that’s why David offers to be the one. If you understand that Pon Farr is the Vulcan mating urge, then the implications of this are kinda disturbing.
So, the urge arrives. Spock is going through his first Pon Farr. And Saavik …. Helps him.
The first few times I watched this movie; I thought she was just doing some kind of weird Vulcan telepathic ritual with him. But the clear implication is that she has sex with him. If she doesn’t, the blood fever will kill him.
I have lots of feelings about this. I view sex as a very sacred thing. She is doing here, what needs to be done to save his life. But it still makes me very uncomfortable.
All we see on screen is a thing where they touch fingers and Spock slowly caresses Saavik’s hand in a very ritualistic but intimate way. This amount of physical touch is extremely intimate for a Vulcan. I guess this is how things get started with their species. It’s actually a nice bit of world-building.
Interestingly, there was a dropped side plot which was originally intended to be explored in future movies, that Saavik became pregnant with Spock’s child here. There’s nothing on screen to contradict it, but nothing that says it happens, either.
In the Otoy short film Unification, a resurrected Kirk in the early 25th century meets Saavik. A Vulcan man stands next to her. It has been said, by many fans, that this is likely Spock’s son. Spock and Savik’s son.
We know that Spock married some time during the 24th century. Jean-Luc Picard was in attendance. TNG never told us who Spock married, but a popular fan theory is that he married Saavik. So, was this man the result of their marriage? Or their union here? It’s all up the individual’s head canon. But interesting to think about.
Kruge Vs The Enterprise
The Enterprise has arrived in orbit of Genesis. The Klingons have seen us. They cloak.
It seems David failed to stop the Klingons. He has been captured, and now, so have Spock and Saavik.
Saavik warns him the planet will be destroyed in hours. The Genesis experiment is a failure.
But not to Kruge. The most powerful destructive force ever created. It may not have succeeded in its original purpose, but to a Klingon, it is a raging success. He refers to it as “The Genesis Torpedo.” and he demands they give him its secrets.
When the bird of prey informs Kruge that a Federation starship has arrived, he sees his chance to use his prisoners as leverage. He returns to the ship. They decloak and fire, taking the Enterprise by surprise. AT least partially. They can tell there’s something out there. The cloak on this bird of prey is not perfect. Remember, this is the very first time we’ve ever seen a Klingon ship with a cloaking device (other than Discovery, I guess).
I love the shimmering effect they use for the cloak. It will continue to be used all the way through the Berman era.
Because they were able to see the distortion, the Enterprise actually gets off the first shot once the Bird of Prey decloaks, delivering a nasty blow, and sadly killing the poor Targ.
The automation system is overloading. Scotty wasn’t expecting to take the ship into combat. And that does make sense to me. Flying a basic course with a skeleton crew is one thing. Engaging in combat is another.
The Klingons fire and knock out the automation system.
Okay.
Scotty can’t transfer power to the phaser banks. That makes perfect sense. Power management is something usually done in Engineering. Scotty’s automation allows him to control engineering functions from the bridge, like Geordi can in TNG, as I talked about earlier. I can totally accept that.
But then he says “I’ve got no control over anything.”. Neither does Sulu. This is the bit that doesn’t work for me. Even without Scotty’s automation system, they should still be able to steer the ship. The helm should still do what the helm does.
They should be able to fire a phaser, but we’ve established they need to divert power to the phaser, so okay, that bit works.
Anyway, I’m nit picking here. To be honest, the more I think about this, to discuss it, the more accepting I am of the whole thing.
The point is it makes for a very exciting battle. The Enterprise is in big trouble now.
With no automation, barely a crew, and plenty of battle damage from the previous movie, It’s a sitting duck.
Kirk tries to talk his way out of it. The classic Kirk bluff.
But Kruge is a capable warrior. His instincts tell him they’ve dealt the Enterprise a more crippling blow that he realised.
“Do not lecture me about treaty violations,” he says. “The federation in creating an ultimate weapon, has become a gang of intergalactic criminals.” He calls Genesis a doomsday weapon.
This actually ties nicely into Discovery. The reason T’Kuvma started that war was basically out of fear of the Federation. In that case, it was fear of their culture being consumed by a rapidly growing alliance that seemed, from his perspective, to suppress individual cultures and assimilate everything into a big human-looking blob. Whether it’s fair or not, that’s how he saw the Federation.
Kruge feels quite justified in ordering Kirk’s surrender. He threatens the lives of his hostages. Saavik is able to tell Kirk that Spock isn’t himself, but he lives. He’s subject to rapid aging like the planet.
To prove his sincerity, Kruge orders his men to kill one of the hostages. He doesn’t care which.
We see a D’k tahg for the first time. I’ve always loved the little side blades that slide out.
The Klingon chooses Saavik, but David, in an act of heroic chivalry, tries to save her, and is killed.
Saavik delivers the news in a very Vulcan way, but you can see right through her supposedly emotionless delivery. It’s good acting from Robin Curtis.
But we now get a great performance by Kirk. When he hears the news that his son is dead, his legs just give out beneath him. It’s great acting. It’s a gut-wrenchingly tragic moment.
Kirk has only just been re-united with his son. And now, he’s lost him. What a cruel shift of fate.
This is a catalytic moment for Kirk. We birth a new arc for his character here, which will continue on up to Star Trek 6. The pain of this moment creates not only a distrust, but a hatred of Klingons.
We also get Star Trek’s first swear word.
I can hardly blame Kirk for that.
This is such a powerfully emotional movie.
Kruge still doesn’t know the Enterprise only has a crew of 5. He orders a boarding party armed heavily to prepare to take the ship, following Kirk’s surrender.
His aide rightly points out that they are vastly outnumbered (as he believes). I love Kruge’s response.
“We are Klingons!”
Those three words say it all.
He intends to take the secrets of Genesis from the Enterprise computer.
Kirk takes a moment to grieve, but only a moment. He has a job to do. He’ll fully grieve later, but right now, he needs to protect his crew. Accomplish his mission.
The Klingon ship has a complement of 12, with some on the planet.
“I swear to you we’re not finished yet.”
It’s a nice little triumphant moment.
There is a lot of hidden meaning when Kirk says to Kruge, “I’m looking forward to meeting you.”
Desctruction of The Enterprise
The only way Kirk can protect the Genesis information is by destroying the Enterprise. Doing so will take out most of the Klingon crew.
And so, he orders the self-destruct.
The script takes it time as three of them enter the codes. It’s a big moment. This isn’t just any ship. This is the Enterprise. The same Enterprise we’ve seen on screen ever since “The Cage.”
And Kirk is going to blow it up.
That’s unheard of.
At least it was.
Now, we’ve seen the destruction of an Enterprise several times, but this was the first. This was a huge deal – almost on the same level as killing Spock.
At first, it might seem that the Klingon away team leader is really stupid. The bridge is deserted and run by computer. It is the only thing speaking. He doesn’t know what a countdown means – but Kruge does.
But the away team officer probably doesn’t speak English. He probably has no universal translator. He hears a voice but probably doesn’t know that’s a countdown of English numbers.
It’s all very dramatic. A great moment when Kruge yells “Get out! Get out of there!” and then the bridge explodes.
And it actually happens. We watch, breathless, as the Enterprise is destroyed.
And it’s terrible, and it’s horrible.
And it’s wonderful.
The effect work is top-notch. It still holds up beautifully today. The movie very effectively conveys the emotion and heaviness of this moment through visual effects.
It looks fantastic.
And it hurts. But in the best way.
The Enterprise was a character just like any other. It has carried us through three seasons, 22 animated episodes, and 3 movies. And now, she’s gone to a fiery grave over the skies of Genesis.
This was a bold choice on the part of the writers, but it was absolutely the right choice.
Our beloved ship gets to go out in a blaze of glory, taking the Klingons with her, giving her life for Spock and the crew.
I can only imagine how this moment felt for people watching this movie in the cinema for the first time.
As Kirk watches the ship burn up in the atmosphere, he asks “What have I done?”
Bones replies “What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.”
The destruction of the Enterprise is a character death like any other, and it’s given more emotional weight and the death of Tasha Yar, maybe even more than David Marcus, Kirk’s own son.
These movies know how to do a gut-wrenching character death right. First Spock, now the Enterprise.
Remember, this is the middle part of the trilogy. We’re at the point in the story where things should be the darkest. Where all hopes seem lost and our heroes wonder that even if they can somehow win, will it be worth the price they’ve paid?
This is so brilliantly done. It hurts to see the Enterprise lost, but I love it.
And this loss has meaning. This is what Kirk does. He cheats death. But he’s learned from his experience in the previous movie. He knows he can’t avoid the price of death. So, this time, he sacrifices his ship. He pays the price upfront, knowing that it will help him save his friend.
It feels quite poetic to me.
Kirk Vs Kruge
The planet is getting more unstable by the minute, and it’s tearing Spock apart.
Our heroes follow the life signs on their tricorder and effect a rescue, shooting the remaining Klingon soldiers.
Spock is aging up every minute or so. Lots of different actors. I never really picked it up on the VHS but you can see the various faces clearly in HD. It’s very well done.
There’s a great shot where Kirk shoots a Klingon with a phaser, and the Klingon goes flying back. Awesome effect and stunt work.
Kirk takes a moment to say goodbye to his son, when he finds the body. In a sense, he barely knew David. There are no tears, but there is still a sense of unimaginable loss.
Spock is rapidly reaching the age when he died, but his mind is a void. As Bones says “It seems I’ve got all his marbles.”
There’s only one way off this planet before it explodes. The Klingon ship.
He picks up a communicator and calls Kruge. “I’m alive and well on the planet surface. I have the secret of Genesis but you’ve gonna have to bring us up there to get it.”
He knows he has Kruge baited.
But Kruge doesn’t beam them up. He beams down. He has all but Kirk and the unconscious Spock beamed up. There’s only one Klingon left on the bird of prey – Matz. Kruge is confidant Matz can handle them. Kirk is equally confident they can take the ship from him.
Kruge is more than willing to die on the planet. It’s exhilarating. He is very Klingon in his attitude.
We get a classic Kirk fist fight at the climax of this movie, but much better than anything we saw in the original series. There’s some really good stunt work here, only enhanced by the pyrotechnics and moving set pieces. We really get the sense they’re on a planet that’s tearing itself apart. So exciting. It’s a great fight scene.
In the end, Kruge falls.
In true Star Trk fashion, Kirk says “give me your hand.” He’s offering to save his enemy.
But when Kruge tries to pull him down, he delivers this great line.
“I…have had…enough of … you!”
And he Kicks Kruge down into the lava. He has avenged his son.
Having paid attention when Kruge ordered the beam up of the others, Kirk takes the communicator and says in Klingon “Matz activate beam”, taking Spock with him, who is now conveniently Leonary Nimoy.
Save for voice lines, this is Nimoy’s first appearance in this movie.
I’m glad they took the entire movie to bring him back. IT was the right way to do it.
Kirk tries to coerce Matz “help us or die”
But Maltz says “I do not deserve to live.”
“Fine. I’ll kill you later.”
A nice moment of humour that doesn’t take away from the heaviness of all that is around it.
They fly the bird of prey out of orbit just as Genesis explodes.
“Goodbye David.”
Journey to Vulcan
McCoy is glad to have Spock’s body. He still doesn’t understand what he’s supposed to do. How does he get Spock’s essence out of himself into his own body?
Then McCoy makes a vulnerable confession. “It seems I’ve missed you, and I don’t know if I could stand to lose you again.”
Spock and McCoy’s friendship has always been defined by conflict and bickering. But Bones admits out loud here, what we’ve always known. McCoy loves Spock as a true friend. Like a brother.
It’s a beautiful moment.
They arrive on Vulcan. Sarek and Uhura are there waiting.
Vulcan looks great. I love the mountain with the stone stairs leading up. Great design.
The Vulcan chamber, high on the mountain, feels very mystical. This idea was established in Amok Time, but he’s shown so much better here on a movie budget.
The Refusion
The priestess says “the body of your son breathes still. What is your wish?”
Sarak asks for the re-fusion.
This is unusual. The re-generation of Spock’s body has made possible something that has only been done in legend, in the distant past. Can they really fuse Spock’s soul, his Katra, back into his body? Can they really bring him back from the dead?
The priestess points out that his request is not logical. This is a purely emotional request, born out of Sarak’s sense of loss.
Sarak has a great response. “Forgive me, T’Lar. My logic is uncertain where my son is concerned.”
This is beautiful. Sarak, a full-blooded Vulcan, a man of logic, who has been in conflict with Spock for decades, loves his son and wants him back. And is not ashamed to admit it.
These movies form important pieces of a powerful and emotional arc, exploring the relationship between Sarak and Spock. I’ll talk about that in detail next time at the end of Star Trek IV, but this is probably the emotional climax of that arc.
This isn’t a simple thing, though. McCoy may not fully understand what is going on, but T’Lar assured him there is grave danger.
McCoy declares “I choose the danger.”
I know it was born out of an afterthought when shooting Star Trek 2, but the choice of McCoy as the one to carry Spock’s soul was inspired. It’s the emotional climax of the arc of their relationship too.
So T’Lar establishes a mind meld with both Spock and McCoy and performs a ritual than can only be seen as spiritual. It doesn’t shy away from the supernatural aspects of life and death.
And I love this.
Vulcans are a people of logic. They value science and intellect.
But they are also a deeply spiritual people. They have a mystical side.
To some, this may seem to be a conflict, even a contradiction, but to them, it is not.
As a person who tends to be very logical and intellectual myself, but is also spiritual, and has religious beliefs, I really appreciate this. In fact, I kinda love it.
The movie takes its time with the aftermath of the ceremony. It drags it out a little, making us wait to understand if this has truly worked. And I think that’s good. It adds a feeling of weight to it all.
McCoy is all right.
Sarak thanks Kirk. He points out the cost, your ship, your son.
“If I hadn’t tried, the cost would have been my soul.”
Kirk has given up everything to save his brother, Spock.
Because if he hadn’t, he wouldn’t been Kirk.
It’s heart-breakingly ironic, though. Kirk has gone through all of this to save someone he loves, from death. But in the process, he has lost someone else he loved to death.
Was this one-for-one exchange worth it? Would he have chosen it? Would he take it back if he could?
Can he quantity to value to him of Spock’s life versus David’s life?
In the end, you can’t really cheat death. There is a code, and that cost was death.
You Came Back for Me
Spock is being led away, but he stops and turns, removing his hood, he looks back at Kirk and his friends. He approaches them.
The first one he stops to acknowledge is Saavik. She looks into his eyes and then has to break contact. She looks down, almost in shame, at what she did with him, what she had to do. Once he’s fully himself again, would he approve? It’s nicely acted by Robin Curtis.
Spock continues on, past his friends, to Kirk.
“My father says that you have been my friend. You came back for me.”
Spock is not fully himself. He’s not sure if he knows these people or not. I guess things are still settling inside him.
“Why would you do this?”
To Spock, the maths doesn’t add up. The cost we were talking about before. Spock is trying to understand the logic of it. But how can you quantify friendship with logic?
Kirk gives a great answer, turning the theme we’ve been exploring since Star Trek II on its head.
“Because the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.”
Sometimes it’s not about the numbers. Kirk and his crew valued Spock above their careers, their ship. They were willing to risk anything and everything, out of love. Because it was that important to them.
And there are no regrets in Kirk’s voice.
He’s trying to remember that friendship. He’s starting to remember his last moments.
And then it begins to click. He looks Kirk in the eye and says “Jim. Your name is Jim.” Not just Admiral Kirk, his superior, but Jim, his friend.
While there will still be a long recovery, we know that Spock is back.
There’s a wonderful music cue that morphs into the TOS theme
..And the adventure continues.
Final Thoughts on Star Trek III
Ah. I love this movie.
I really don’t understand why some people don’t.
I’m sure you’ve heard. There’s a meme among Star Trek fans, that all the even numbered Star Trek movies are great, and all the odd-numbered Star Trek movies are terrible.
Now, there is a sliver of truth in this. Generally speaking, the even numbered movies tend to be better than their odd numbered counterparts, but I don’t really agree with the theory.
To me, Star Trek III stands out as a personal favourite. A deeply emotional journey that delves deep into why we love these characters so much. It’s a triumph. The whole thing was born out of a desire to undo Spock’s death, to bring back this favourite character.
But they did it with grace and skill.
I’ve also heard it said, by my friend Ben Avery, who is a great author, comic book creator, and podcaster, that while the even numbers are better movies, the odd numbers are better Star Trek.
I think he’s discovered a real truth here.
I’ll talk about this more when we get to Star Trek V, but for now, I’ll say that Star Trek III has a real sense of discovering the unknown to it. Genesis is indeed a strange new world. Star Trek II was a great submarine movie in space, but Star Trek II is very Star Trek to its core.
And as the ending credits roll, I’m sad to think that this is the last time we’ll have James’ Horner’s music. It feels so weird, given how much of an impact his score has on the TOS movie era, that he only scored two movies.
Next time, I’ll be delving into Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, as we complete this trilogy.
Until then, Live long and prosper
Make it so.
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