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Review: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)
Looking to corner the box office market with sequels to two of their successful cinematic ventures—OK the Indiana Jones adventures were Lucasfilm productions—Paramount offers up another mission for the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew with Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Admiral Kirk (William Shatner), having survived Khan’s wrath two summers ago, along with most of the regulars from the last film—save his loyal science officer Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy, this time doing a tour of duty in the director’s chair)—head back to Earth for some r and r. Finding his ship is going to be mothballed doesn’t sit well at all with the admiral. Engineer Scotty (James Doohan), elated to be named captain of engineering for Starfleet’s latest addition: U.S.S. Excelsior, is equally deflated at the news of the vessel he has known since the late sixties when the craft first began traversing the final frontier on the small screen on NBC.
Kirk’s son (Merrit Butrick) and Spock’s protege Lt. Saavik (newcomer Robin Curtis essaying the role originated by Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan) are exploring the planet Genesis, created by the device developed by Kirk’s son and colleagues (surprisingly no mention is made of his mother or his co-workers) and finds that despite the miraculous achievement he has been part of, creating a world might not be the greatest idea.
Familiar foes of the Federation return (OK they did appear briefly in the opening sequence of Star Trek: The Motion Picture), albeit with considerable cosmetic alterations courtesy of cinematic makeup wizardy, as the Klingons are keen on posessing the secrets of this strange new world. Though in doing so, they have journeyed out of the Neutral Zone (the galactic territory where the Klingons are limited to). In their quest to obtain such information they find themselves facing a familiar spacecraft and her Starfleet protocol-violating crew; well actually it’s Kirk, Scotty, McCoy (DeForest Kelly), Sulu (George Takei), and Chekov (Walter Koenig).
While not quite the quality of the last Trek tale, this installment is far from lacking in entertainment. Nimoy is no Nicholas Meyer but rises to the challenge of turning in a satisfying film despite coming nowhere to eclipsing the greatness of it’s predecessor. However, it’s not the effects-laden overkill that made Return of the Jedi far short of the greatness of The Empire Strikes Back.
Mark Lenard, who played Spock’s father (on the episode “Journey to Babel”) returns .His presence is truly one of the film’s highlights. It’s a shame he wasn’t in either of the prior films—though he did cameo as the commander of the Klingon craft in the first film. Christopher Lloyd of the recently retired comedy series “Taxi” is a Klingon brute light-years away from Jim Ignatowski. Sharp-eyed Trek fans won’t miss a cameo from Grace Lee Whitney (Yeoman Janice Rand on the small screen and briefly in the first film). For those oblivious to the name, she’s the orange-maned Starfleet uniform clad woman seen in closeup when the Enterprise returns to spacedock.
Unlike last summer’s Superman III, Return of the Jedi, and let’s not forget Jaws 3-D, Star Trek III is proof that third chapters need not necessarily be disappointments. However, Paramount would be wise to not even consider planning future Grease or Saturday Night Fever films.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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