Star Trek III: The Search For Spock

There is an unwritten rule of thumb that says that every odd numbered Star Trek movie is crap, while all the even numbered movies are great. If you were to sit down and compare, say "The Motion Picture" or "The Final Frontier" to "The Undiscovered Country" or "The Wrath Of Kahn" it's pretty easy to see how that rule is bang on the money. Star Trek III, though, is not quite so easy to dismiss.

Taking place pretty much straight after the previous movie, we find Kirk getting something of an ear-bashing from Spock's father, Sarek, about Spock's soul no longer existing, while McCoy seems to be getting more and more Spock-like as time wears on.

Ultimately, and despite the fact that they are expressly forbidden from doing so, Kirk and his faithful crew decide to travel to Genesis where Spock's body is, taking McCoy with them - who is apparently possessing Spock's soul - and then reuniting the two on Vulcan. However, little do they know that on Genesis, something has happened that has recreated Spock...

The Search For Spock, like The Wrath Of Kahn, plays like an episode of the series, but much bigger and grander, and is actually the better off for doing so. Unlike later films in the series, it is the Enterprise crew who are the central characters, with only their Klingon opponent getting any other real screen time. This is a good thing as the script actually allows William Shatner and
DeForest Kelly to shine. Shatner is a complete fruit cake, and I don't have a lot of time for Kirk, but I must admit that there is a sneaky little piece of nostaligic love for the character, and it's great to see him on screen doing what only Kirk can do.

McCoy, on the other hand, was an odd sort of character in the television series; ostensibly one of the three leads, but more often than not as sidelined as the rest of the crew in favour of Kirk and Spock. In this movie where Spock is not actually present, McCoy steps up and takes the lead rather magnificently.

Checkov, Sulu, Scotty and Uhuru all get smaller roles to play that prove essential to the overall plot of the movie, but none of them get quite as large a chunk of the action as Saavik, returning from The Wrath Of Kahn, but now portrayed by Robin Curtis as opposed to Kirstie Allie. No great loss to be brutally honest, but Curtis doesn't really deliver anything astonishingly memorable, despite the fact that, apparently, the fans fell in love with the woman.

No, in spite of all of this it is Christopher Lloyd, strangely cast as the Klingon commander Kruge, who actually makes the movie, straying just the right side of OTT in his vicious performance of a driven Klingon who has a strange love as well, possessing not only a girlfriend who is willing to sacrifice her life for his cause, but also a dog-like creature that Kruge is quite upset about when it gets killed. It seems very strange on paper, and yet it works in that same strange way.

However, regardless of how good the performances are, there is still something lacking in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, and it is actually the decision to have Leonard Nimoy direct the film. It lacks pace and punch and no matter how much the actors deliver, it doesn't seem to make its way onto the screen. It is beautifully shot with some wonderful costume work and music, and with the aforementioned acting, the only thing that is letting the team down has to be the direction. This is a shame because the movie has more than enough otherwise to really shine.

"B"