Apparently, from memory, if you go by stardate, Catspaw, which appears to be Chekov's first episode, takes place before Space Seed.
Trollheart's Star Trek Movie Reviews and Musings
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Title: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Released: 1984
Writer(s): Harve Bennett
Director: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: All the usual Star Trek crew plus: Mark Lenard as Sarek, Merritt Butrick as David Marcus, Christopher Lloyd as Kruge, Robin Curtis as Saavik and James B. Sikking as Captain Styles
Runtime: 105 minutes
Budget: USD 16 million
Boxoffice: USD 87 million
Critical acclaim: Extremely high
Fan acclaim: Extremely high
Legacy: Brought Spock back from the dead, final voyage for NCC-1701
Enterprise: NCC-1701
We pick up exactly where the second movie left off, as Enterprise limps back home after having defeated Khan, and with Spock dead. Lieutenant Saavik and David Marcus have stayed behind on the newly-formed Genesis planet to survey it. Meanwhile, a shifty character has sold the Genesis data to a Klingon woman, who now transmits it to her lover, Kruge. He then destroys the ship she is in, along with the traitor, and heads for the Neutral Zone. Enterprise arrives home, and as they dock Chekov alerts Kirk to the fact that the door to Spock’s quarters has been forced, after the captain had ordered it sealed, and that a life energy reading is being detected there! Rushing down, Kirk finds McCoy sitting there, seemingly in a trance. He emulates Spock’s voice and asks Kirk to take him home. When Kirk says they are home it becomes clear he means Vulcan, not Earth, and that somehow the dead Spock is talking through Doctor McCoy, who then collapses.
Kirk and the others are dismayed to find that the Enterprise is to be decomissioned, Starfleet believing it is too old and has had its day. They are also told that the Genesis Planet is off-limits, as ordered by the Federation High Council. Scotty is seconded to the Excelsior as head of engineering, and goes with bad grace. Kruge meanwhile sets course for the Genesis Planet, intent on discovering the secret of this new, as he sees it, Federation weapon. Saavik and David, onboard the USS Grissom which is surveying the planet, locate the torpedo tube which was used to eject Spock’s body into space, but are intrigued to see that there is a lifeform registering in the area. They decide to beam down to investigate. Sarek, Spock’s father and Vulcan ambassador, visits Kirk and berates him for having left his son behind. Spock trusted him, he tells the captain, to bring his body back to Vulcan, where his katra, his spirit, his soul, could be regenerated. Sarek finds it unbelievable that Spock did not make this request to Kirk, his closest friend and the one who saw him last. After mind-melding with him though, Sarek sees that this is not the case. Kirk points out that they could not touch, that glass separated them, so Spock could not have mind-melded with him. Sarek sighs, saying that in that case, all is lost. Spock’s katra is gone, and his second chance at life has vanished.
But Kirk is not prepared to give up so easily. If it was that important, he says, Spock would have found a way. Reviewing the tapes of the incidents leading up to Spock’s death, he and Sarek see Spock place his palm on McCoy’s face and say “Remember”, and they known now that the Vulcan must have mind-melded with the doctor. Sarek says that in order to separate the two, Spock’s katra from McCoy’s brain, he must bring Spock’s body with McCoy to Vulcan. Thsi will not be easy, as they have just been advised a) their ship is to fly no more missions and b) the Genesis planet is off-limits, but Kirk determines to ensure he performs this one last service for his friend.
On the planet’s surface Saavik and David find the source of their liefform readings: microbes which were o n the surface of the torpedo tube when it was launched have grown and mutated under the Genesis effect. But they also find the empty burial robe of Spock: his body is nowhere to be seen. The planet appears to be going through some sort of tectonic acitivity, as tremors shake it. Then a voice pierces the air, a roar of something in pain. Meanwhile, Kirk springs McCoy, whose odd behaviour and an attempt to charter a ship to the Genesis planet has constrained Federation Security to place him in holding. He and the crew then “appropriate” the Enterprise and take it to the Genesis planet. The Excelsior, sent to pursue it, suffers something of a mental breakdown thanks to Scotty’s tinkering while stationed there and is left behind. On the planet Saavik and David find a Vulcan child, whom they believe to be Spock, regenerated by the Genesis effect. She recommends they beam back up, but before that can happen Kruge’s ship appears and destroys the Grissom.
He is annoyed however, as he had intended to take prisoners. When lifesigns are detected on the planet below, he sends a landing party and takes the three prisoner. David reveals that he used proto-matter, a substance that is prohibited or at least that all ethical scientists have denounced as “dangerously unpredictable” in the Genesis Device, and he believes this is why the planet is now tearing itself apart. Genesis, it would seem, is something of a failure. The Spock child, too, is ageing rapidly, turning from a small boy to a teenager in the space of a few hours. His instability seems to be mirrored in that of the planet, as if the two have some kind of psychic connection. Saavik worries that he will soon face Pon Farr, and is not prepared for the Vulcan blood ritual. Kirk in concerned that there has been no reply to his hail from the Grissom, and wonders if the captain will join him or try to turn him in, as the admiral and all his crew are now fugitives from Starfleet. He is unaware that the science vessel is not answering because it has been destroyed.
As Spock begins to go through Pon Farr the planet seems to rage with him, and when the Enterprise encounters Kruge’s Bird of Prey they are able to partially disable it, but as Scotty did not anticipate a combat situation their few shots have knocked out the power for the shields. As the two ships hang in space, each badly damaged but trying to bluff it out and force the surrender of the other, Kruge plays his trump card, and tells Kirk he has prisoners on the planet. If the admiral does not surrender, he will kill them, and to show he is not bluffing he tells his soldiers to pick one of the three to kill now. The Klingon goes to kill Saavik, but David attacks him and ends up becoming the victim. Kirk is crushed to hear that his son is dead. To save the rest of the prisoners though he agrees to surrender his ship, but starts the self-destruct sequence before beaming down to the Genesis Planet. When Kruge’s people beam over the Enterprise explodes, taking them with it.
Reunited with Saavik and the young-but-ageing Spock, Kirk contacts Kruge, taunting him that he has the secret he has been looking for, and Kruge beams down. As the planet tears itself apart they fight, until eventually Kirk is victorious and they trick the crew of Kruge’s ship into beaming them aboard, wherepon they take over the ship. Setting course for Vulcan, they deliver Spock to the priests there, also meeting Uhura and Sarek. The procedure for merging his katra with his body is a dangerous one, and by no means certain to succeed. But of course it does, and Spock is reborn.
The human adventure, as it says at the end, is just beginning.
QUOTES
Kirk (to log): “The Enterprise feels like a house with all the children gone; no, more empty even than that.The death of Spock is like an open wound, and it seems that I have left the noblest part of myself back there, on that newborn planet.”
Kirk: “How much refit time before we can take her out again?”
Scott: “Eight weeks, Sir. But ye don’t have eight weeks so I’ll do it in two.”
Kirk: “Mr. Scott, have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?”
Scott: “Certainly, Sir. How else can I keep my reputation as a miracle worker?”
Valkris: “Transmission sent. You will find it most useful.”
Kruge: “Then you have seen it?”
Valrkris: “I have, my lord.”
Kruge: “Unfortunate.”
Valrkis: “Understood. Success, my lord. And my love.”
Kruge: “You will be remembered with honour.”
Kirk: “My friends, the great experiment: Excelsior!”
Sulu: “She’s supposed to have transwarp drive.”
Scott: “Aye. And if my grandmother had wheels she’d be a wagon!”
Kruge: “Oh yes, new cities, homes in the country, your woman at your side, children playing at your feet. And overhead, fluttering in the breeze, the flag of the Federation! Charming!”
Sulu: “The word, Sir?”
Kirk: “The word is no. I am therefore going anyway.”
McCoy: “How much and how soon?”
Alien: “How soon is now. How much is where?”
McCoy: “Somewhere in the Mutara sector.”
Alien: “Oh! Mutara is restricted! Cost permits many, money more.”
McCoy: “There aren’t going to be any damned permits! How can you get a permit to do a damned illegal thing? Look: price you name, money I got.”
Alien: “Place you name, money I name or else bargain no.”
McCoy: “Alright then dammit! Genesis! The name of the place we’re going to is Genesis!”
ALien: “Genesis?”
McCoy: “Yes! Genesis! How can you be deaf with ears like that?”
Guard: “Make it quick Admiral: they’re moving him to the Federation funny farm soon.”
Kirk: “Yes, poor fellow. I hear he’s fruity as a nutcake!”
Kirk: “You’re suffering from a Vulcan mind-meld, Doctor.”
McCoy: “That green-blooded son of a bitch! It’s his revenge for all those arguments he lost!”
Kirk: “Unit two, this is unit one. The Kobyashi Maru has set sail for the promised land.”
Kirk: “NOW, Scotty!”
Scott: “Sir?”
Kirk: “The doors, Mr. Scott!”
Scott: “Aye, sir. I’m workin’ on it!”
Kirk: “Good work, Mister Scott.”
Scott: “The more they improve the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drains!”
Kirk: “Gentlemen, your work today has been outstanding, and I intend to reccomend you all for promotion. In whatever fleet we end up serving…”
Saavik: “How many have paid the price for your impatience? How many have died? How much damage have you done? And what is yet to come?”
(Tune in next week to find out!)
Kirk: “You Klingon bastards! You killed my son!”
(This is a watershed moment for Kirk. He has never trusted Klingons but has up to now not really had any reason to hate them. Now, his fury and grief will carry him through three more movies, culiminating in his heartfelt wish to see the entire race die. It’s hard to be sympathetic when your own flesh and blood has been murdered by these people).
Kruge: “Genesis! I want it!”
Kirk: “Beam the Vulcan up and we’ll talk.”
Kruge: “Give me what I want, and I’ll consider it.”
Kirk: “You fool! Look around you! The planet’s destroying itself! If we don’t help each other we’ll die!”
Kruge: “Perfect! Then that is how it shall be!”
Kirk: “Help us or die!”
Klingon: “I do not deserve to live.”
Kirk: “Fine. I’ll kill you later.”
Spock: “My father says that you have been my friend, that you came back for me.”
Kirk: “You’d have done the same.”
Spock: “Why would you do this?”
Kirk: “Because the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.”
Memorable scenes and effects
The self-destruct scene of the Enterprise is both effective, moving and slightly humourous as the Klingons report “There is nothing on board but someone speaking”, this being the computer counting down to the self-destruct. But the scenes as the ship tears itself apart and slowly descends into the atmosphere of the equally doomed Genesis planet raise a lump in the throat. After all, we’ve seen this ship ply its way through space for over twenty years now, on and off, and somehow we’ve just never expected to see it destroyed. It’s the end of an era, and further proof that within the film franchise, the series is growing up and facing the hard questions, taking the tough decisions.
The scene where Kirk finds David’s body and covers it with his jacket is also very touching.
Spock’s rebirth scene on Vulcan is really well done too. The wearing of the white robe to signify, presumably, a new life, the officiating of a high-profile Vulcan high priestess mirrors what happened in “Amok Time”, though the ritual was of course different, and the sense of ceremony without real emotion and the overarching logic, which temporarily gives way to the stronger feelings and beliefs of a father for his lost son, is carried out well.
Kirk’s hubris
To be fair, there’s not that much this time around. After two movies, Kirk has learned his lesson. He’s older, wiser and sadder. It’s like with the death of Spock, much of the fight has been knocked out of him and he is almost like an old man who allows himself to be led without resistance. Which for Kirk means listening to what his crew says and not second-guessing them, and using this procedure most of his decisions seem to be the right ones. The only time he guesses wrong is when he challenges Kruge to come down to the planet to get “the secret of Genesis” (which sort of echoes his taunt to Khan in the previous film, when they were marooned) and the Klingon decides instead to beam down and beat it out of him. Oops!
Those clever little touches
The captain of the Grissom is called Esteban, his initials being J.T., obviously a nod to Kirk.
When McCoy is being arrested by Federation Security, he tries to nerve pinch the guard. Of course, being only human he cannot do this, but obviously Spock’s mind does not realise it is not in its own body.
When Kirk hears the news about the death of his son, he staggers backwards and goes to sit down but misses the chair, just as someone who had received a terrible shock would do. I’m not sure if it was planned, but either way it’s very authentic and gives a sense of reality to the scene.
It’s good too, how when he fights Kruge, the climactic scene takes place on an outcrop of rock overlooking a buring, molten chasm. Kirk is staggering on the precipice of his own personal hell, dealing with the death of two of the most important people in his life, and he’s about to exact vengeance for the death of at least one of them. Couldn’t be more symbolic. It’s also interesting how Genesis becomes Hell (Genesis to Revelation?) and how Kirk literally saves Spock (and himself) from Hell at the very last moment by beaming off the doomed planet.
I like, too, how the place of Spock’s rebirth on Vulcan is another high promontory, a cliff which resembles the one off which Kruge was kicked by Kirk and from which Spock was then rescued.
Questions?
Where is Carol Marcus? In The Wrath of Khan we are given to understand that the Genesis Project is her baby, with David only helping her. It is, after all, she who makes the proposal to the Federation, and she who must have had the last word as to who they would work with, as her son has reservations about getting in bed with Starfleet. But here it’s David who is in charge, and Carol is not mentioned once, not even by Kirk. Are we supposed to believe she forgot about the whole thing? Is she answering delicate Starfleet questions? Is she under arrest? Is she now working covertly for the Federation on other projects? Nothing is ever said, and it’s something of a large omission I feel, given that so much of the second movie revolved around her.
Why does Kruge’s henchman, when told to kill one of the prisoners --- he doesn’t care which --- circle around until he is behind them and then strike? Klingons are supposed to be honourable warriors: is this any way to behave? Attacking someone from behind? And an unarmed victim too?
Parallels
Without meaning to offend any hardline Christians here, the rebirth of Spock obviously mirrors the resurrection of Jesus, right down to his empty coffin being found on the Genesis planet. The factions warring over the --- eventually proven to be faulty and therefore useless --- Genesis technology harks back to the arms race between the superpowers, and in a small way there’s a nod to the godawful “Spock’s Brain”, where the Vulcan’s brain is literally stolen from his head by aliens and Kirk and McCoy have to go in pursuit of it to save their friend. I’m not joking, you know I’m not! Parallels too of course to “Amok Time”, where we first see the planet Vulcan and learn of its inhabitants’ spiritual beliefs, which almost seem at odds with logic.
And isn’t that….?
Although she reprised her role as Janice Rand in the first movie, Grace Lee Whitney is in a very brief scene near the beginning here, in a very bad wig, and not named. She is the woman who watches the Enterprise return, damaged but victorious, to spacedock.
Boston Legal’s John Larroquette is Maltz, the Klingon transportation chief on Kruge’s ship.
Music
Although it’s great music I feel that Horner, returning to score this as a promise he made, sticks pretty closely to the theme he developed for the second movie, and while there are new sequences that accompany, for instance, the breakup of the Genesis planet and the battle above it, and on Vulcan at the end, I find it hard to separate the two whenever I hear them. Not surprisingly, this basic musical motif would become the new theme for most of the movies, especially as soon enough the original soundtrack used on the first movie would become the theme for TNG. It is nice though to hear the old fanfare from the TV series being used right at the end, as Spock recognises Kirk. Nice touch.
Themes and motifs
Loss and rebirth, faith and friendship certainly have their place in this movie. There’s the continuing gulf left by the loss of Spock, mirrored in Sarek’s eyes when he realises his son could not have mind-neled with his friend before he died. There’s even the loss of Leonard Nimoy from the opening credits for the very first time ever, and the loss of Scotty --- temporarily --- to the Excelsior. Then there’s the initial loss of the Enterprise, as Kirk is informed his ship is to be decommissioned, and later the very real and actual loss of the very ship that has carried Kirk and co through so many adventures. Genesis is a loss, too, as it is clear it is a broken flush. David having taken the shortcuts he berated his father for taking has ensured that this is an unstable process which will never fly, Kirk loses David to the Klingons, setting him up for the loss of any empathy or sympathy he might once have had for the warrior race. In the series, generally, the Klingons were seen as loud and obnoxious, occasionally evil but really more like the Vogons in The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. They were buffoons, foils for Kirk and the polar opposite of the do-gooding Federation.
Here though they become, at least for Kirk, a symbol of savagery and evil, a reckless, wild people who will do anything to take power and hold on to it, and he has good reason now to hate them. I don’t believe they’re even mentioned, much less used, until the final “original” movie, Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, but it’s clear that Kirk now hates every Klingon and wishes they were dead. Here we come across failure: failure of the Genesis Project, Kirk’s failure to save his son, Spock’s failure to mind-meld with Kirk and Kruge’s failure to discover “the secret of the Genesis Torpedo!” Rebirth is another theme of course, most obviously in the regeneration of the body of Spock, with his immortal katra trapped inside the mind of Doctor McCoy, a clever touch in itself, as if he had any choice in the matter this is the last place Spock would want to reside. Faith and friendship carry the movie far; if it wasn’t for Kirk’s faith in, if not the beliefs of his friend, their right to be exercised and credited, he would not have put himself at risk of lsoing his position in Starfleet as he steals the Enterprise to enable him to help Spock. The friendship and loyalty of his crew demands they share the risk with him.
Does this movie deserve its reputation?
I’d say yes it does. It’s something of a get-out clause to bring Spock back, but let’s face it, nobody wanted him to remain dead and Star Trek would excel at doing this sort of thing. In series like Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica, people who died stayed dead: there was no coming back. But Star Trek has always been a series of second chances, and until the advent of Deep Space Nine, no major character who ever died stayed dead, so this fits in with the whole ethos behind the franchise.
However, making this part of a trilogy was something of a master stroke, and obviously copied from the likes of Star Wars. This idea of almost making a film-length episode of a TV series would become quite popular in film over the nineties and beyond, and of course left us all salivating for the next part, or conclusion. But up until almost the end, there is still no actual guarantee that Spock wil be back, or at least as we know him, so there is some element of doubt there. It’s not as good as The Wrath of Khan of course, but it’s a very worthy followup, and I would award it a good
Genesis to Revelations - I love than analogy!
I actually cried when Enterprise died.
I think it was shame that Nimoy went so far remove Saavik's emotional responses. Even if they never mentioned it on screen, it would have been nice to retain the Implication of her Romulan heritage.
Uhura's big scene is one of her best in the franchise. It's a shame that they kept shovelling the supporting cast back into their early career roles, delivering filler dialogue. Seeing them less often in better scenes might have been more enjoyable. Sulu's rescue of McCoy is fun. Chekov looks like he should be playing with a hoop and stick in the 19th century.
Grace's hair was just her 80's hairdo, not a bad wig, that's why she's a redhead. Nimoy gave her a post production reshoot cameo so she was just bussed in and plopped in the scene. It works brilliantly but it's a shame that they didn't use her more, e.g. as Morrow's assistant.
I don't know why so many rate this movie so poorly. I rather enjoy it.
I actually cried when Enterprise died.
I think it was shame that Nimoy went so far remove Saavik's emotional responses. Even if they never mentioned it on screen, it would have been nice to retain the Implication of her Romulan heritage.
Uhura's big scene is one of her best in the franchise. It's a shame that they kept shovelling the supporting cast back into their early career roles, delivering filler dialogue. Seeing them less often in better scenes might have been more enjoyable. Sulu's rescue of McCoy is fun. Chekov looks like he should be playing with a hoop and stick in the 19th century.
Grace's hair was just her 80's hairdo, not a bad wig, that's why she's a redhead. Nimoy gave her a post production reshoot cameo so she was just bussed in and plopped in the scene. It works brilliantly but it's a shame that they didn't use her more, e.g. as Morrow's assistant.
I don't know why so many rate this movie so poorly. I rather enjoy it.
Yes I got a little carried away with the Heaven and Hell aspect, but it does make sense, especially when the planet is called Genesis and not only did Spock die in the last movie, he died as a saviour. I think there's a lot of religious subtext in that movie, more so than in the others. Not sure if it's deliberate or if I'm just seeing what I want to see.
Me too. Couldn't believe it. Like when they blew up Babylon 5 at the end.
Which Saavik did you prefer? I mean actress-wise.
Don't quite get that one. You saying he seemed too young?
That was her hair? Oh man. She should have worn a wig then!
People rate it poorly? I thought it was liked, and that all the vitriol was saved for the next one, which got slated for being too set on Earth and too light-hearted?
Thanks for your comments.
People seem to rate all the odd numbered movies poorly. STIV was one of the most accessible movies to a non Trek fan and the level of comedy wasn't too forced, so it gets rated highly, usually.
I was talking about Chekov's casual clothes. He looks like a Victorian schoolboy.
While I certainly disagree with your TMP take (it's my fav Trek film), these have all been incredibly well written and thoughtful reviews! I look forward to reading your thoughts on the remaining films 
Title: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Released: 1986
Writer(s): Harve Bennett/ Leonard Nimoy/Nicholas Meyer/Peter Krikes/Steve Meerson
Director: Leonard Nimoy
Starring: All the usual Star Trek crew plus: Christine Hicks as Gillian Taylor, Mark Lenard as Sarek, Jane Wyatt as Amanda Grayson, Robin Curtis as Saavik, Majel Barrett as Christine Chapel
Runtime: 122 minutes
Budget: USD 21 million
Boxoffice: USD 133 million
Critical acclaim: Extremely high
Fan acclaim: Cautiously high; many claimed there was too much emphasis on humour
Legacy: Final film in the trilogy begun with The Wrath of Khan, only one without the famous starship, only one set on Earth and only one (before First Contact set in the past).
Enterprise: None
As a strange alien probe is detected on its way to Earth, the Klingons demand “justice” for the “murder” of Kruge’s crew and the theft of their Bird of Prey, (see previous movie) while also asserting that Kirk personally was testing a weapon of mass destruction, to be used against the Klingon people. Sarek, speaking for Kirk and his crew, refutes these wild allegations and places them in context. The council have though already made up their minds to charge Kirk with violation of several Starfleet regulations. Kirk and his crew meanwhile are still on Vulcan, but after three months spent there have decided to return to Earth and face the consequences of their actions. They have renamed the Bird of Prey as HMS Bounty. Spock is coming with them, to offer testimony in their expected trial. Meanwhile, the probe is emitting a signal as it nears Earth which is having a detrimenal effect on every ship it encounters, destroying some, knocking power out of others. As it gets to Earth, Starfleet Spacedock is completely shut down as they lose all power, and the alien device begins to probe the oceans, stirring up massive tidal waves.
As Earth sends out a general distress call, warning other craft not to approach lest they get caught up in the probe’s damaging signal, Kirk and his crew monitor this and wonder what the probe could want? Since it is now being directed at the seas, Spock surmises that it may be intended for some or one of the denizens of Earth’s oceans. When he has narrowed the sound down though, he is somewhat aghast to find that the probe’s transmissions most closely mirror the song of the humpback whale, which has been extinct for over two hundred years. Realising that if the probe does not get its answer it will eventually, unintentionally but certainly destroy Earth, Kirk and Spock decide the only thing they can do is go into the past, to bring humpback whales back to answer the signal. Using the method they tested in the series, that of building up to maximum warp speed and then slingshotting around the sun, they manage to go backwards in time to the twentieth century. Intending to seek for whales in the oceans (of course) they are surprised to find readings coming from the city, San Francisco.
But there is a further problem. The time-travel has taken everything the ship has and its dilithium crystals are dead. In order to be able to return, they need to re-energise them. Spock suggests using material from nuclear fission reactors, and you can already hear the sighs. With stunning lack of knowledge of the twentieth century and the relationship between the US and Russia, Kirk chooses Sulu, Uhura and --- wait for it --- Chekov to track down some nuclear subs from which to get the radioactive protons they need, while he and Spock go hunting the snark, sorry, whales. They discover that a nearby maritime institute has two humpback whales in captivity, and hightail it there. They meet the tour guide, Dr. Gillian Taylor, and learn that the two whales are to be released back into the oceans, as the institute cannot afford to keep them. Kirk and Spock team up with Taylor later, as Spock, who has gone swimming with the whales, explains that the female is pregnant. They try to convince Taylor that they can help her, but it’s hard to do that without giving away who they are and why they’re here.
Scotty, meanwhile, sets about showing a glass factory designer how to produce the thin flexible glass he needs the tank for the whales to be made of, while Chekov and Uhura have made it on to the carrier USS Enterprise (yeah) and are harvesting the protons, but chased by Navy security Chekov falls to a lower deck and is paralysed. Kirk comes clean about who he is, but Taylor of course does not believe him. She can see his passion though for the whales, and begins to wonder, especially when she drops him off in the park and he seems to just vanish. When she gets back to the institute the next morning however the whales are already gone. In desperation, she returns to the park in search of Kirk, not believing his story but at a loss for options. She happens to arrive as the parts for the tank are being loaded by helicopter flown by Sulu into what looks like empty space with a man’s top half (Scotty) leaning out and then she runs smack into the cloaked ship calling Kirk’s name. With no other choice Kirk has her beamed aboard the Bird of Prey.
She, Kirk and McCoy then have to go to save Chekov’s life. He is not expected to live, at least by the medical standards of the twentieth century, but of course McCoy can save him if he can get to him. After they do, it’s all speed ahead to the whales, where they just about manage to catch them before a whaling ship does. Returning them to the twenty-third century, they save the Earth just in time as the whales return the probe’s signal and give it the answers it was looking for, and it buggers off. Kirk and his crew are tried on their return, but all charges bar one are dropped, given the slightly mitigating factor of their having saved the world: that of disobeying a direct order from a superior officer is seen as the most important charge, and cannot be dismissed.
Kirk is reduced in rank to Captain, and as they head towards their new assignment, they are all delighted to see that the Enterprise has, after all, been refit and rebuilt, and they are to serve aboard her. Taylor is assigned to a scientific ship; being the only person now on Earth who has any experience with whales she will be a valuable resource and looks like she will do well. Spock decides to remain with the crew rather than return to Vulcan.
QUOTES
Klingon ambassador: “There shall be no peace between our peoples while Kirk lives!”
Kirk: “Mister Scott, how soon can we be underway?”
Scott: “Give me another day Admiral. Damage control is easy; reading Klingon --- that's hard!”
Kirk: “That’s a lot of work in a short time. I’m impressed, Mr. Chekov.”
Chekov: “We are in an enemy vessel, Sir. I do not wish to be shot down on the way to our own funeral!”
McCoy: “You really have gone where no man has gone before! Can’t you tell me what it was like?”
Spock: “It would be impossible to discuss, Doctor, without a common frame of reference.”
McCoy: “You mean I have to die to find out what happened to you?”
Spock: “Excuse me Doctor, I am receiving a number of distress calls.”
McCoy: “I don’t doubt it!”
Kirk (leaving the cloaked ship): “Everyone remember where we parked!”
Spock (as he and Kirk are thrown off a bus): “What does it mean, exact change?”
Chekov (to cop, in his best Russian accent): “Excuse me Sir, could you direct us to the Almeda Naval Base? It’s where they keep the nuclear vessels.”
Spock: “To hunt a species to extinction is not logical.”
Taylor: “Who ever said the human race was logical?”
Kirk: “It’s not always necessary to tell the truth.”
Spock: “I cannot lie.”
Kirk: “Not lie, no, but can’t you exaggerate? You did it before, don’t you remember?”
(This is a clever little link back to “The Wrath of Khan”, where Saavik accuses Spock of lying when he used the coded words to make it seem that the Enterprise was in worse shape than it was. “You lied”, she said, to which he replied, “I exaggerated.”)
Chekov: “Admiral, we have found the nuclear vessel. And Admiral, it is the Enterprise!”
(Nice touch, to make their target one of the ships that bore the same name as theirs, making a very tenuous argument against there being no Enterprise in this movie!)
Kirk: “There she is: the girl from the institute. If we play our cards right we may be able to find out when the whales are leaving.”
Spock: “How will playing cards help us?”
Taylor (to Spock): So, you were at Berkley?”
Spock: “I was not.”
Kirk: “Memory problems too.”
Spock: Are you sure it is not time for a colourful metaphor?”
Taylor: “Are you sure you won’t change your mind?”
Spock: “Is there something wrong with the one I have?”
Taylor: “Don’t tell me: you’re from outer space.”
Kirk: “No, I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space.”
Navy interrogator: “Okay, let’s take it from the top.”
Chekov: “The top of what?”
Navy guy: “Name.”
Chekov: “My name?”
Navy guy: “No, my name!”
Chekov: “I do not know your name!”
Navy guy: “You play games with me, mister, and you’re through!”
Chekov: “I am? Can I go now?”
McCoy: “What’s wrong with you?”
Old lady: “I need dialysis.”
McCoy: “Dialysis? What is this: the Dark Ages? You swallow this, and if you have any problems, call me.”
Guard: “How’s the patient, doc?”
Kirk: “He’s gonna make it.”
Guard: “He? You came in with a she!”
Kirk: “One little mistake…”
Scott: “Admiral! There be whales here!”
Taylor: “The whales are trapped! They’ll drown!”
(How the fuck can whales drown???)
Starfleet Chairman: “Captain Spock, you do not stand accused.”
Spock: “Mister Chairman, I stand with my shipmates.”
Sarek: “As I recall, I opposed your enlisting in Starflet. it is possible that judgement was incorrect.”
(This is a huge admission for Sarek, who has always resented his son leaving behind, as he sees it, his heritage and destiny, and the decision has been a bone of contention and discord between father and son for decades. For Sarek to even admit the possibility that he might have made a mistake is a huge thing in itself, to admit it to his son is almost unheard of.)
Kirk: “My friends, we have come home.”
Most memorable scenes and effects
The Bird of Prey landing in Golden Gate Park, cloaked, while two binmen look on with a mixture of fear and horror is classic.
The scene on the bus, where Spock uses the Vulcan nerve pinch on an annoying punk who won’t turn down his music, and the resultant applause from the other passengers, is a great one too.
The scene where McCoy meets a woman waiting to go in for dialysis and gives her a pill, whereafter she is in her wheelchair telling everyone in delight “Doctor gave me a pill and I grew a new kidney!” as the doctors shake their heads in amazement, total class comedy with human drama added. In fact, in the hospital the whole reaction of McCoy to twentieth-century medicine is great: it’s like someone from our century going back to the thirteenth and railing on about leeches and entrails reading.
The looks on the faces of the whalers when their harpoon hits the side of the cloaked ship instead of whales, and when the ship then decloaks above them like something out of War of the Worlds is truly memorable!
Houston, we have a problem!
I feel that the sudden interest Taylor takes in Kirk and Spock as they walk down the road, having been ejected from the insititute --- by her --- is a little hard to believe. If you had just thrown out two jokers who had tried to compromise your job, would you be as willing to stop and give them a lift? I just feel that’s hard to justify.
When the navy guard is patrolling with his dog on the ship, it pulls him towards where Chekov and Uhura are hiding, but he ignores its growls and pulls it away. I know people do this with dogs --- dogs can be easily distracted --- but given that this is a guard dog, should he not be paying more attention to what it is trying to tell him?
Themes and motifs
There is of course one overriding theme in this movie, which is of conservation and ecological responsibility. The message may be hammered home with less finesse than Roddenberry reminded us of how bad the Nazis were in “Patterns of Force” or even how racism is bad, m'kay, in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”, but it’s a valid one. If we wipe out certain species here forever, how are we to know what consequences that could have for us in the future? It’s certainly a bleeding heart, liberal view, but when you think about it, why do whales need to be slaughtered as they are being now, except to feed our insatiable greed and need for comforts?
There’s a rebirth motive of sorts, looking to the past for the solutions of the future, and of course many sidelong comments on our century (well, you know what I mean: our time, even though we’ve now moved out of that century) and at the end of course there’s another rebirth, as Admiral Kirk reverts to the Captain Kirk we knew in the series, and the Enterprise is given a new lease of life, which will carry it through two more movies.
Music
I know Leonard Nimoy wanted his friend Leonard Rosenstern to score the previous movie, and here he gets his wish obviously, but I don’t see it. The music is great, but there’s nothing Star Trek about it. Apart from a brief nod to the original theme, this could be the music for any adventure movie. It’s more classical in feel, and doesn't and wouldn’t make me think of Star Trek if I heard it out of context, not the way the themes for the second and third (and even, if I’m honest, the first) films do. I feel they missed a trick here, but I suppose it could tie in with the fact that this is a very different Trek movie: not set in the twenty-third century for the bulk of it, no Enterprise and a whole lot more concentration on non-science-fiction themes than the ones that have gone before, Still, so far, my least favourite of all four. In terms of music, that is.
Does this movie deserve its reputation?
With far too much emphasis on being clever and humourous (this movie features more jokes and shots than the other three put together) and its “save the whales” message, much of what is quintessentially Star Trek is somewhat lost here, and many fans believed it was too light-hearted, especially as the conclusion of the arc begun in The Wrath of Khan. I would agree: too much time spent in the past makes this a movie that could almost be an Earth-based one, and overall I found it quite disappointing. The conclusion of the arc was good, yes, but I think that the writers took the easy way out by setting it somewhere other than the usual, making reliance on effects less and the story easier to write, and excuding any other alien races including a proper villian. They could even have had someone on Earth who was trying to prevent the whales being brought back, or someone who had come through time to prevent Kirk’s mission …. ah the possibilities were there. But I feel overall this was made too easy and while it’s not my least favourite Trek movie, it’s down there among them.
Critics do not agree with this assessment, seeing the film as the most lighthearted of the series (to that point) and more true to the spirit of the series itself. That may be true, but to be honest I don’t or didn’t go to a Star Trek movie to laugh at it. I expect the odd joke, humourous line or scene, sure, but generally I expect to be entertained by a science-fiction movie, not a conservation one. Fans and critics clash on this one, which makes it hard to give it a proper rating, but for my own personal opinion, I award it
It's very similar to a lot of what Rosenmann did with Bakshi's Lord of the Ring movie.
Is that the animated seventies one? Man, it's been a long long time since I saw that! I remember being so impressed with it at the time.
No, it was a theatrical film. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077869/?ref_=fn_al_tt_7
Bakshi had planned to do the first half of the trilogy and use it to secure financing to do the second half. The first half didn't do so well, so the second half was never done. I do love the music, though.
Yeah, like I said: the animated seventies one. I remember getting it on video from a video rental store - shows you how old I am! Almost entirely animated, if I remember, with a bit (I think the Nazgul?) live-action.
Actually, most of the movie was shot in live action and rotoscoped (animation drawn over the live action frames). The reason I gave the link is that it wasn't a series, although it was intended to be two films.
Scotty, meanwhile, sets about showing a glass factory designer how to produce the thin flexible glass he needs the tank for the whales to be made of.
That is slightly incorrect. Scott provides the secret of transparent aluminum in exchange for the plexiglas (or whatever 20th century material) they need.
Whales can drown. They are air-breathing mammals, not fish.
Okay but I still think of it as animated. Plus I never said it was a series, did I? My first experience of LOTR outside of the book. I remember being spellbound.
Okay well he still gave him a secret of 23rd century technology. Love it when he picks up the mouse: "Com-puter?"
Whales can drown. They are air-breathing mammals, not fish.[/QUOTE]
Did not know that. Thanks. I wonder is there a version of whale lifeguard then? A whale David Hasselhoff?
It is definitely animated; just a different type of animation.
My mistakes. I think I maybe read "seventies" as "series".
Mine too. I saw it several times, and I was very disappointed when it wasn't finished. I've read that the Rankin-Bass "Return of the King" was done because Bakshi's second film was dead.
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