I hadn’t seen this film in years. When Leonard Nimoy died, I watched Wrath Of Khan in tribute, and I remember watching Search For Spock as well (or I might have watched them both again later) but for whatever reason I didn’t get round to this one. Not quite sure why. But I’ve seen it again now, and it’s been too long.
Firstly - this movie is fun! After the very heavy sombre tone of the previous two, it was a conscious decision by Harve Bennett and Leonard Nimoy to make the atmosphere a little lighter. Also they wanted to make the movie more accessible to people who had never seen Star Trek before. Hence bringing them back in time to the then-present day.
Story-wise, this actually follows on very nicely from the previous two films. Spock’s mind is still not quite back to normal. Kirk and the others are in trouble for their actions in the previous film. They had to think of some way of getting the characters off the hook, and what better way then saving the world? The travelling back in time to get members of a now extinct species actually worked very well. The story holds up. If you can suspend your disbelief in the whole time travel element, then the rest makes sense.
Having to recrystalise the dilithium using contemporary means is very much like repairing the DeLorean in Back To The Future from the previous year. That’s not the only parallel between contemporary or recent movies. Catherine Hicks’ character, Dr Gillian Taylor, is not dissimilar to Ally Sheedy’s character in Short Circuit, and her sense of belonging reminded me of Flight Of The Navigator - both these movies were from the same year as this one. Also, the character of Dr Taylor was originally envisioned quite differently - specifically, as a vehicle for Eddie Murphy, who again pulled out, as he did with Ghostbusters a couple of years earlier.
The thing that really struck me though were the visual effects for the cloaked ship. Even now, they still hold up. The dustbin getting invisibly flattened, the dent in the grass, the helicopter lowering the crate into something that’s not there, half of Scotty sticking out, the door opening - it’s still brilliant.
It was also nice to see both of Spock’s parents in this movie - Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt had both appeared in the original series episode “Journey To Babel”, and of course Lenard had appeared as Sarek in the previous film, and would do so again in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. But this was the only time in the movie franchise Jane Wyatt appeared as Amanda, Spock’s human mother.
Everyone gets their moment in this movie. Chekov especially gets all the comic sequences. Nuclear Wessels indeed! Although arguably when Kirk assigns them into teams, he perhaps doesn’t play to everyone’s strengths. Uhura had been locating the whales, and yet she’s detailed to go with Chekov to the naval vessel (the Enterprise!). She and Spock might have been better off switching jobs. Although of course only Spock could mind meld with Gracie. McCoy also seems to be a little out of place at times, until they have to rescue Chekov from the hospital. Sulu is somewhat in the background here, although his job is still as a pilot in some way. Scotty of course has plenty to do on all fronts, and I’ve said before that James Doohan deserved a higher credit than he got in the series as a whole.
Another fun moment was when Kirk beams Gillian on board the ship, and he basically turns into Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka, showing her around.
And of course this is the movie where “Admiral” Kirk finally gets demoted back to Captain at the end. And the new Enterprise makes its appearance at the end, ready for the next movie . . .
Classic.
