Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock
Sometimes in a popular franchise, the very creative direction of the storyline itself can be dictated by the behnd the scenes drama going on with the productions themselves. Thus was the case with the Star Trek Series and the legendary Leonard Nimoy as Spock, playing out his death scene at the end of Part 2: The Wrath Of Khan with the sincerest intentions that it was indeed his final scene that he would ever play as the beloved character (and backed up by Wrath Of Khan’s director, Nicholas Meyer), and what a beautiful scene it was with Spock sacrificing himself to save his fellow crew members who were all like family to him. Nimoy however had been wary of getting caught up in the movie series from the beginning, finally accepting an offer that he couldn’t refuse just to do Star Trek 1 before practically demanding the death scene in Trek 2 if just so he could finally be free of the character and franchise once and for all. And so that is how it was, save for a controversial insert shot against’s Nimoy’s wishes where he put his hand to the face of DeForest Kelley’s Dr. McCoy with the cryptic word, “Remember”. That of course formed the basis of what would be Part 3 in the series (released in 1984), but obviously Nimoy was still adamant that his decision was indeed final. So the producers smartly got Nimoy at where he was most vulnerable, that being his artistic / creative side, this time offering him the chance to come on and direct a major motion picture for the first time in his life, albeit one with the subject matter that he was most familiar with, and with his name being on the director’s credit but NOT amongst the listed cast, the anticipation for the fanbase was literally boiling over with excitement at the prospect of coming out and buying a ticket just to see if Spock would live again. And with reportedly some help from writer / producer Harve Bennett, Nimoy managed to achieve the not so mean feat of making a Trek movie that while it never reached the euphoric highs of The Wrath Of Khan, still became perhaps the most UNDERRATED Trek movie of them all, a living representation of the love that the fans have for these original characters (and actors) not to mention the love, loyalty, and devotion that the characters have for each other. Interestingly, as Trek 1 was stolen acting wise by Nimoy as Spock and William Shatner’s James T. Kirk was fully in charge of Trek 2 via his showdown with Khan, here with Nimoy on the sidelines the acting honors actually manage to go to Kelley’s Dr. Leonard H. “Bones” McCoy, who appears to be suffering from “emotional problems” but is really seemingly “possessed” by Spock himself, having been imbued with his essence and soul during that fateful moment at the end of Part 2. But that’s not to discount Shatner’s performance here either, playing Kirk at possibly the most vulnerable we’ve ever seen him, having never fully recovered from his best friend’s death and undertaking the mission to “save” him for almost purely selfish reasons, risking both his career and reputation in doing so. Part of the story problems here arise in the rationale for even bringing Spock back, as his body had been jettisoned to the newly created world of Genesis and somehow reanimated by the planet’s ever evolving transformation from that of a virtual paradise to a literal hellhole, thus featuring a bit of a turnaround from Part 2 of Genesis being such a “wonderful thing” to now that of a failed experiment and extremely unstable lifeform, all being monitored by Kirk’s son David (Merritt Butrick returning to the series one last time before dying from AIDS, now playing David as a rather cocky sort before realizing that his life’s work was a failure) and Lt. Saavik (Robin Curtis replacing the salary demands of then rising star Kirstie Alley in what many consider to be an unwise decision) who find the boy Spock wandering about on the planet and take him along with them. It should also be noted that Kirk undertakes his illegal mission at the insistence of Spock’s father Sarek (Mark Lenard), who despite being a respected Vulcan ambassador (and the obvious respect that is shown for the Vulcan race in general) seems completely unable himself to commander a mission to have Spock’s body retrieved and brought back to their home planet and (even more unbelievably) The Federation higher ups themselves seem to show absolutely no respect whatsoever in allowing Vulcans to be able to honor their own customs, beliefs and traditions, even as the concept of mind and soul transference to whomever is with them in their last moments is one that was thought up just for this story as one would think that SOMEBODY (especially Saavik) would have told Kirk in Part 2 that shooting Spock’s casket into space to land on some planet was not exactly Vulcan tradition along with the whole soul transference thing. Worse, the tortured McCoy is now shown to be having possessed spells, talking in Spock’s voice beseeching Kirk to go back to Genesis and recover him. But there is big trouble ahead. A renegade Klingon vessel (although knowing The Klingons, they only WISH to appear that way) is pursuing The Genesis Project, because (as McCoy was the only one to point out in Part 2) they see Genesis as really being a glorious weapon of mass destruction, and the unstable, self destructive nature of the planet after the fact is like the icing on the cake to them. Even better, they are led by none other than Christopher Lloyd (in one of his first featured movie roles after playing Reverend Jim on Taxi) as Klingon Commander Kruge (with John Larroquette as his second in command) and despite Lloyd having the toughest job imaginable following up Ricardo Montalban’s Khan as the new primary villain, he still manages to do a magnificent job as THE definitive Klingon bad guy in the entire history of Star Trek, coming across successfully as both a proud and ruthless warrior eager to match wits with the infamous Kirk while also preferring sheer brutality over endless negotiations with his willingness to kill a major character being almost a matter of formality. In short, a beautifully and classically conceived Trek villain to give Kirk the type of opponent that he must take on and then take out with his own classic brand of extreme prejudice, and Lloyd’s vastly underrated contributions here are not to be discounted. But as said, the true purpose of the story is to show the extent of the love that the Enterprise crew (and by extension, the fans) have for Spock himself, making whatever sacrifices are necessary to do the right thing for their dearest and most beloved friend, and it must be noted that the way that Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Chekov (Walter Koenig), and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) are absolutely unwavering in both their support and assistance of Kirk and McCoy in this endeavor (placing their own futures at risk as well for a greater cause) is an absolutely touching thing that almost completely transcends the known infighting (mostly instigated by Takei) in real life where the lower end original crew members in the cast were widely known for taking cheap shots at Shatner mostly just to draw more attention to themselves for being the acting equivalents of one hit wonders while Shatner himself moved on to winning Emmys for starring on the TV show Boston Legal. And really for a show that had such tremendous popularity in the flower power days of the 1960s, the primary theme here does appear to be that of pure love amongst a group that has been together through one crisis after another, and the ways of proving that love even at the expense and great risk that it can incur, and perhaps that was Nimoy’s greatest contribution as director here (as opposed to fancy special effects shots), which was to take this core group of actors whom he knew so very well and rally them into showing such teamwork and a sense of unity that the emotional payoff for the longtime fans going back to the original series is literally palpable. And the final scenes, featuring legendary stage and screen actress Dame Judith Anderson coming out of a 10 year retirement in order to play the Vulcan High Priestess who must reintegrate Spock’s mind, body and soul, perfectly demonstrates that with the simple skills of editing and camerawork just how you really can give your devoted fanbase exactly what it is that they wanted, to see a beloved ensemble made whole again, and more importantly, the final nail in the coffin to once and for all seal Kirk’s victory over his most hated enemy in Khan Noonian Singh…
9/10