Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

This third instalment of the film franchise follows hot as a Klingon Bird of Prey on the heels of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and takes us into very familiar Trek territory: the fate of everything hinging on Kirk and some brute alien kicking the living daylights out of each other in an inhospitable rocky landscape. The storyline, strongly linked to the previous film, although providing much of the film’s strength, is perhaps the weakest link in the chain of the unofficial trilogy of STII, III and IV. The title does exactly what it says on the tin and none other than Leonard Nimoy, who obviously has a vested interest in the search for Spock, is hands-on as director.

Klingon commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) gets hold of Genesis data (so beloved of Khan in Wrath) and sets about grasping hold of Genesis itself as quickly as he does the device’s potential for mass destruction. We know Kruge is a real nasty very early on when he gets a kick out of sacrificing his lover for the sake of greater martial glory. Back on Earth, Kirk is alerted by Spock’s father, Sarek (Mark Lenard) that his son’s katra lingers within the universe even though his physical body does not. In order to honour Spock’s friendship and rescue his very essence, Kirk and crew turn renegades against the Federation in seeking out the source of the katra, located on the no-go zone of the Genesis Planet.

Friendship! Love! It has seen the series and the films span decades of history in the trajectory of the Star Trek arc and in the lives of its fans. Greater involvement from the whole ensemble cast this time round enhances it. There is a lighter, even knockabout feel to some of the dialogue, presaging the mood of the instalment to follow: The Voyage Home. There is also a hint of another franchise with ‘Star’ in the title in scenes such as the one in which McCoy (DeForest Kelley) visits a bar full of galactic lowlifes. But it isn’t all knockabout; where The Motion Picture had portentous epic to provide gravitas and Wrath grim enmity, The Search for Spock has Vulcan mysticism – and Kirk being dealt a mortal blow.

Some of the storyline details are more like the transporting of ruses from the previous outing than real advancements. And while Lloyd’s Kruge is a nasty adversary, unlike Khan he has no history. If, as a result, events don’t resonate as much as they did in Khan, they move along at a satisfying lick. Counterpoint is provided by James Horner’s score, previously tapping out the military stomp of Shostakovich, now echoing grief-stricken Prokofiev and notably Richard Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration to portray the mystical. Well inside his Star Trek compositional skin by now, his skilful quotation from the original TV series theme to accompany an arched eyebrow still has the power to induce tears. Although the Genesis strand stretches the film to breaking point, Harve Bennett’s screenplay (which Bennett said 17 other people could have written!) in its focus on the bond of friendship between the core characters manages to hold it all together. As a marooned Kirk and crew look up at a sky bleeding with flame, he asks: “My God, Bones, what have I done?” To which Bones replies: “What you had to do. What you always do: turn death into a fighting chance to live.” And thus, once more, we find ourselves racing towards a climactic confrontation, never in any doubt – raised eyebrow and all – that something fundamental and seminal and important is being played out in the universe.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Dir. Leonard Nimoy 1984. Sold as part of six-disc boxset Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection, Paramount Home Entertainment DVD £44.99, Blu-ray £99.99