Star Trek III: The Search for Spock directed by: Leonard Nimoy

 

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock stars William Shatner, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Merritt Butrick, and Christopher Lloyd.  It is directed by: Leonard Nimoy, written and produced by: Harve Bennett, and was released theatrically June 1, 1984.

 

It’s honestly weird that an actor like Leonard Nimoy would ever return to the role of Spock after his powerhouse performance in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, however, that film reignited his love of the character.  Add to this the fact that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was a success at the box office, a sequel would be greenlit and Paramount Pictures decided that Nimoy would direct the film after Nicholas Meyer refused to return for a sequel on grounds of not liking the idea of resurrecting Spock.  This is one of those stances that I have to at least agree with Meyer being at the very least wary of, when telling a story death being reversible can often lower the stakes and deflate the tension of a story.  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a film that wraps its entire narrative around the idea of Spock coming back, being lost and only reappearing in the final scene with writer Harve Bennett starting with what would essentially be the final line of the film and working backwards from there when writing the script.  Bennett’s script is largely contemplative, in its best moments focusing on what happens when the Enterprise crew has to deal with the hole left by the death of Spock.  Gone is the swashbuckling tone from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and in its place is a film that feels slower despite being eight minutes shorter.  Much of this is down to Leonard Nimoy’s style of direction, attempting to create this sense of mystery as to what is actually occurring in the plot while Meyer was more interested in bringing out the space adventure.  The back half of the film becomes essentially a quest narrative when discovering where Spock lies, the film to this point being split between an A, B, and C plot.

 

The A plot is following the rest of the Enterprise crew as they head home and discover along the way what has happened to Spock’s soul, the B plot and C plot both involve the Genesis planet.  The B plot involves Saavik (played here by Robin Curtis) and David Marcus cataloging the life on the Genesis planet discovering a rapidly aging young Spock, while the C plot is our villain’s wish to take control of the Genesis planet for the Klingon Empire.  The villain Kruge is played wonderfully by Christopher Lloyd under the intense but now recognizable Klingon makeup, largely dialing in a performance under what he would usually give.  Lloyd’s general history as an actor in comedy could have led to him going too over-the-top, but he has the range as an actor to pull off a villain.  He’s taking the material largely straight, especially when he has to deal with Klingon dialogue which as a conlang began to be properly constructed for this film, though it would be refined throughout the sequels.  Lloyd’s performance is largely overcoming one of the weaker aspects of the film and that is both plotlines involving the Genesis planet.  Kruge’s motivations are muddled and reduced poorly to wishing to expand the Klingon empire and start a war for glory, something that feels while not out of character for a Klingon but almost shallow and to be expected.  Star Trek III: The Search for Spock has a major issue of the B and C plots not integrating well enough in the main plot to the greatest effect.  While the effects work on the Genesis planet of the rapidly evolving life forms is quite nice, a lot of the revelations to Saavik and David don’t parallel nearly as nicely as with the main plot as Kirk and company discover that Spock’s soul, called a katra here, is inside Bones causing him to act increasingly erratically and eventually try to escape Earth to reunite with Spock’s body.  There is also the decision to have David killed in what should be a dramatic moment for Kirk and Saavik, and while Robin Curtis plays it well, Shatner despite his best efforts doesn’t feel nearly as connected to David as Kirk’s son.  There is also the issue of the film repeating itself on the events of Spock’s death, being replayed twice, once at the beginning and once in the film proper which would have been far more effective without the recap at the top.

 

When the film switches from a mystery to a quest narrative with Kirk and company stealing the Enterprise and breaking McCoy out of prison it comes at a surprise that the tonal shift doesn’t cause many problems.  It’s a sequence of the film where the rest of the supporting cast outside of Shatner and DeForest Kelley are able to shine, especially in actually pulling off the heist to take control of the Enterprise.  There’s also a gambit near the climax of the film to set the Enterprise to self destruct allowing James Doohan and Walter Koenig a chance to stretch their gravitas to a dire situation, great especially for Doohan whose wry comic relief adds fun to much of the rest of the film.  Nimoy not being in the film also means as a director he is able to get truly great performances out of Shatner and Kelley, though some of the minor characters don’t fair so well with the occasional line delivery that is particularly awkward.  Shatner throughout the film is largely in the mode he was at the end of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, incredibly serious and pushing himself through to fix his problem and saving his friend, the script paralleling Spock’s final words by turning them on their head so that the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.  The scene he shares early on with Mark Lenard as Sarek is particularly interesting because it allows Kirk to reflect deeply on his friendship with Spock.  Kelley on the other hand gets to play McCoy as essentially deteriorating and disoriented through the film, a tricky needle to thread by allowing both characters shine through at moments without really changing too much in his vocal delivery.  Having it be McCoy in possession of the katra is also a brilliant reflection on the mirror between him and Spock as characters, and an expression of their deep friendship despite the outwards animosity in their relationship.

 

Overall, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is clearly not as good as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but having to follow-up to that film was always going to be a difficult task.  The characters are excellent and the actual way Spock comes back is particularly excellent (with a small role from Judith Anderson).  Leonard Nimoy’s direction is slick and handles the different tones of the film quite well while he gets some of the best performances out of his main cast, even if some minor roles suffer underneath it.  It’s quite the good time, but is held back almost too much by the unevenness of the plotlines and not really having the strongest showing from an antagonist due to a lack of thematic linkage to the main thrust of the film.  6.5/10.