The Search For Spock: The Underrated Star Trek Film

29 Sep, 2023

I recently re-watched Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (as part of my long-running plan of watching through the original series films) and while I have always enjoyed it when I was younger, I usually skip from Wrath of Khan to The Voyage Home. I think it's because I bought into the general notion that the odd-numbered Trek movies are inferior, the even-numbered films being the best. As I said, I was always planning on re-watching it at some point, but I was recently spurred to do so last weekend after listening to a recent episode of the Transporter Room 3 podcast¹.

I really enjoyed the movie, from start to finish. It felt like a short movie - it was paced quickly enough, and upon cursory research it is a shockingly short 105 minutes. Barely longer than your run-of-the-mill comedy. I guess this is why it felt closer to an episode of Trek than a movie. I think some people would want more from a feature film, but I thought the intimacy of a "smaller" film fit this one just right.

If you're not familiar with the movie, it takes place immediately after Star Trek II - the Enterprise is limping back to Earth after taking heavy damage. Spock's father, Sarek, demands Kirk go back for Spock's body and bring it back to Vulcan; along the way they discover he shared his "katra" with Dr. McCoy, and when they discover Spock has been resurrected on the planet Genesis, it becomes a journey to return Spock's mind to his body.

I'll admit that's not a great summary but I mainly wanted to point out some of the elements that I thought were great in this film. Firstly, it's a LOT darker than most people think. It's like the Star Trek franchise's Empire Strikes Back in terms of bleakness throughout the film. Thankfully it finishes on a high note, but from the start of the film it hits hard.

In Kirk's Captain's Log voice-over at he start of the film when he's talking about the journey back to Earth, he mentions all the young crew members and cadets being offloaded to other assignments. As he's saying all of this, the Enterprise flies by the screen showing off the terrible damage it took at the hands of Khan in the previous film. How scarred must these crew members and cadets be, forced into hard battle when they were originally only going out on a training / inspection cruise?

And later, Christopher Lloyd's Kruge blows up the ship of a woman he apparently loves, because she's seen a video demonstration of the Genesis project - something he doesn't want anybody else seeing. Because she saw the video, she has to die to keep it secret. The height of the darkness of the movie is Kruge ordering his men to kill one of his hostages - and that ends up being David, Kirk's son.

In most films with PG ratings, you'd expect that somehow the hostages are saved and everything works out. Not in this movie! The villain, Kruge, is intense and actually comes across as legitimately dangerous. The Enterprise is also finally disabled beyond repair - not like other movies when they find just enough power to get away or save the day.

The movie isn't all dark, though. It opens up the world of Star Trek a bit - we see what we assume must be some sort of pirates (the ship that Kruge destroys early in the movie); McCoy visits a bar full of bright and colourful aliens, including one that talks in funny broken English (not like Yoda, though). Scotty had probably his greatest line of the movie:

Aye, and if my grandmother had wheels she'd be a wagon.

I don't exactly get it but it was a great moment of levity early on in the movie as the crew is returning to space dock. And when the bridge crew have to steal the Enterprise to Search for Spock - that whole sequence is great fun, especially when Uhura deals with Mr. Fantasy².

I want to watch it again, before I go on to Star Trek IV. I watched the 2009 Blu-Ray edition, and apparently that collection of movies were poorly transferred. I don't know, I liked the look of III okay. But maybe I'll hold off watching these again until I eventually get my hands on the 4K sets.

It's not a flashy movie, but it's a fun ride. If you were skipping it because of the "odd-numbered" Trek notion, give it another chance.

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