Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Genre

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

Director

Leonard Nimoy

Country

USA

Cast

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Christopher Lloyd, Merritt Butrick, Robin Curtis, Mark Lenard, James B. Sikking, Robert Hooks, Judith Anderson, Stephen Liska, Cathie Shirriff, Miguel Ferrer

Storyline

After their return on Earth, Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew of the Enterprise are shocked to discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned. Even worse, Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) is, seemingly inexplicably, being driven insane, and Scotty (James Doohan) is being reassigned to another ship. When a visit from Sarek (Mark Lenard), Spock's father, reveals that McCoy is carrying the living spirit of Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Kirk is forced to steal back the Enterprise and fly across space to the Genesis planet.

Opinion

Presumed dead, Spock directs Kirk and company in this third installment of the saga, a disappointing follow-up to the great "The Wrath of Khan".

Short of action, dazzling special effects and plot, "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" is a mediocre chapter with some moments filled with tension.

Unlike its predecessor, the plot is a little thin here - it doesn't get any deeper than the rescue and recovery of Spock, interrupted along the way by some Klingons passing by -, and it isn't particularly interesting, but at least it's coherent. The plot would have been fine if the subplot with the Klingons was the main plot, and the whole search for Spock was the subplot.

Because of the plot's lack of interest, something exciting had to happen to keep the audience from falling asleep. So the writers decided to blow up the Enterprise. I'm not a Trekkie so that wasn't a major issue for me, but I can't imagine what it might feel like for a fan of the franchise. It has to be terrible. 

However, the film has inherited something from the second Star Trek film. Such as the quite intelligent dialogue, and the characters - those that used to be secondary now are primary characters.

The action does not abound and it's definitely not the greatest - especially the rescue of Bones, one of the highlights yet so poorly shot -, and the special effects, even though they turned out pretty well, aren't as good as episode two's. But I guess the film makes up for that with the theft of the Enterprise, a wonderful sequence loaded with tension, and humour from McCoy.

William Shatner gives his best performance as Kirk so far, but also pulls some of the best overacting on Genesis planet, and DeForest Kelley gets some great material as the 'possessed' McCoy. Once again, the standout performance comes from the villain wonderfully portrayed by Christopher Lloyd.

Live long and prosper