Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), directed by Leonard Nimoy.

This middle episode of an unplanned trilogy doesn't seem to get a lot of love from Trek fans, but has nostalgia value for me as the first film I owned on home video. In SuperBetamax!

Is it any good otherwise? It has points in its favor:

• Rather than something gradiose like preventing the spectacular crash of galaxies, it is about loyalty and friendship, giving us a chance to love the characters, not just their adventures.
• Kirk's deep grief is a new, affecting side to him. His voice-over personal log at the beginning of the film is unlike anything we've heard from him before.
• The humor comes along nicely. In my favorite bit, Kirk and crew have hijacked the Enterprise:

• The Spock and McCoy bickering always seemed like good-natured joshing and chafing to me, but perhaps there was deeper enmity underneath it. That gets healed here.
• They effectively mine the original series, bringing back Mark Lenard as Sarek and remembering the auto-destruct procedure.
• The Klingons begin to develop their own plot stream.
• The unexpected destruction of the NCC-1701 is an emotional jolt the first time you see it. That was pretty bold.
• James Horner continues his vivid music from the previous film.

Not so good:

• This must be a record for most strained plot contrivance.
• The sound-stage planet is hard to believe (on the other hand: that's real Star Trek).
• Christopher Lloyd tears it up as the Klingon commander, but I can't help but see him as a comic actor. Same for John Larroquette, although his makeup is so elaborate I know him only by his voice.
• The broken down jalopy sound effects for the sabotaged Excelsior: ouch, that hurt. Transwarp drive never recovered.
• Judith Anderson is the least convincing Vulcan wise woman I have ever seen.

Spot young Miguel Ferrer as First Officer of the Excelsior. Grace Lee Whitney has a cameo as an observer when the damaged Enterprise returns to space dock, but is not credited as Janice Rand.

Available on Blu-ray with two interesting commentary tracks.

The first is an edited commentary with Leonard Nimoy and others. He says:

• It is not true that he insisted on dying in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) and had it written in his contract. Michael Eisner believed it for a long time and kept him from directing.
• His instructions were to make the film theatrical and grandly operatic. He is happy with the results, given the severe budget constraints.
• He has nothing but praise for Shatner, Horner, Lloyd and many others. He says Lloyd gave an overpowering audition with chameleon-like flexibility. On using a comic actor for this role: "Type casting? Don't talk to me about type casting."
• He also praises writer Harve Bennett: "The franchise was a beached whale after Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979); Bennett got it floating again."

The second commentary is an excited, happy track by fans-turned-pro Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor. They think the film deserves more credit and point out its overlooked strong points.

They say something interesting about Shatner: his performance has always been like a little boy's dream of a starship captain. As such, no one can do it better.