That Green-Blooded Son of a Bitch!

The next film in our Star Trek lineup is Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. The film was released in 1984 (I had been born!), starred the same main crew as before, and added Christopher Lloyd (best known to me for Back to the Future) and Robin Curtis. It also brings back Merritt Butrick as David, Kirk's newly discovered grown-up son. The movie was directed by Leonard Nimoy - his first time directing a feature film.

The thought that best expresses this plot is Scotty's line from this movie: "The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain." Sorry, folks, this is a long one.

This film starts just a wee bit after the first one leaves off. Exhausted, grieving, the crew of the Enterprise arrive at Earth, preparing for the Enterprise to get a refit. They discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned, and that Genesis (far from making them heroes) is now under quarantine and a forbidden subject. Other governments, such as the Klingon Empire, have expressed outrage that the Federation would have such powerful and destructive technology, and that they would keep it to themselves. (Cold War, anybody?)

Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, comes to see Kirk just after his arrival on Earth. Sarek is convinced that Spock transferred his soul, his katra - everything that was not of his body - to Kirk, as per Vulcan tradition. Finding nothing in Kirk's mind, Sarek despairs, until Kirk puts two and two together. Kirk figures out that McCoy's odd behavior was not from stress or exhaustion, but rather because two very opposite souls were competing in his one body. Sarek tells Kirk that they must bring the body of Spock and McCoy to Vulcan to possibly give Spock new life. Though forbidden to do so, the crew of the Enterprise (minus Uhura, who promises to meet them later on Vulcan), hijack their own ship and high-tail it to Genesis.

In the meantime, a Federation science ship, with Lt. Saavik (this time, played by Curtis) and David on board has ventured to Genesis to find out more about it. they detect animal life forms, and Saavik and David beam down to the surface to investigate. They discover that the microbes that had been on Spock's coffin had evolved somewhat and multiplied immensely in size. When they look in the coffin itself, it is empty. Detecting another life form, they find a young Vulcan boy, who they assume to be a sort of reincarnation of Spock. The boy has no speech capabilities, however - he seems but a shell of a person.

While the science ship waits to hear from Star Fleet what they should do about the child, a Klingon Bird of Prey suddenly de-cloacks. When the Federation ship refuses to give over the information on Genesis, the Klingon ship accidentally destroys them. This rogue Klingon commander, Kruge (Lloyd), has decided to gain the Genesis information for himself, thus wielding the ultimate power, and bringing glory to the Empire in the process. Kruge detects life forms on the surface, and sends an away team down to see if he can still retrieve the Genesis information.

Meanwhile, the planet has been roughly aging - far beyond its normal speed - and Spock with it. With no trouble at all, the Klingons capture Spock, Saavik, and David, and begin to interrogate them as the Enterprise enters the system. After a brief but devastating fire-fight, Kirk staunchly refuses to give them Genesis. Kruge orders his men to kill one of the hostages. When the Klingons go to kill Saavik, David lunges at the one with the knife and scuffles with him briefly before being killed.

Disabled in ship and sorely grieved, Kirk agrees to surrender the Enterprise to Kruge and his men. Kruge sends over nearly all of his men, while Kirk sets the self-destruct, and beams the Federation officers to the planet's surface. The Enterprise is then destroyed - looking like a flaming comet over a dying planet - and most of Kruge's crew with it.

Kirk and crew reunite with Saavik and Spock, and free them from the Klingons. Kirk taunts Kruge via one of the dead Klingon's communicators, and Kruge, in a rage, beams down to the surface. In exchange for the Genesis information, Kruge beams up the Federation officers to his ship, except for Spock and Kirk. When Kirk reveals that he had lied to get his crew off of the planet, he and Kruge wrestle on the planet until Kirk is able to throw Kruge off a cliff. He and Spock then beam aboard the Klingon vessel, overcome the one Klingon left, and fly to Vulcan.

There, at great risk to themselves, McCoy and Spock undergo the fal-tor-pan - a transfer of Spock's katra from McCoy's body to his. The transfer is successful and neither are permanently harmed, but it is clear that it will be a long process before Spock is himself again.

*Whew!* Now that that's done with, some notes...

Though a dubious honor at best, this is the best of the "odd" Star Trek films. The even-numbered films tend to be significantly better movies than the odd-numbered ones. I think the main issue with this film is that they tried to cram so much information into 105 minutes. Some of the scenes got truncated that would be more interesting to expand - the scene on Vulcan, for instance. Other scenes are completely unnecessary, or go on for too long - the microbes, anyone? The fight between Kruge and a microbe?? Interesting puppetry, totally pointless scene.

The filmmakers also re-showed the Genesis effect animation from Star Trek II. Animated by Industrial Light and Magic, this was the first entirely computer-generated sequence in a film, which is pretty darn cool, considering that computer-generated effects are rampant in today's movies.

It's hard for me to take Christopher Lloyd seriously as a Klingon, given his roles in the Back to the Future series. However, I looked it up, and Star Trek III was released a year before Back to the Future, so the original viewers would probably not have had that issue.

Seeing the Enterprise destroyed must have been devastating for the fans. I remember when I saw the Enterprise D destroyed in Generations. I don't think I've ever forgiven them for that. I wonder if it was the trade-off they decided on when they decided to bring back Spock.

Speaking of which, this film is full of convenient death and resurrection. Spock probably, despite my great love for him, should have stayed dead. His death and funeral scenes in Wrath of Khan were extremely moving. Would it have been better plot-wise to see how the crew deals with it after Spock dies? It's a question we'll never know, but I would be surprised if it has not been explored in a what-if book scenario. Also, David's death is very useful - we don't know what to do with him, so let's just kill him off.

Final thought: Kirk should not be able to defeat a Klingon commander in hand-to-hand combat.

Best of the odds, still not a favorite. Let me know what you think of the movie in the comments section!

In My Own Little Corner

Taking a departure from Star Trek (I still have until May!), I decided to watch the 1957 live television production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring the wonderful Julie Andrews. Apparently, CBS wanted to televise a musical for audiences at home to see. Since Rodgers and Hammerstein were, as Andrews says in her introduction, "synonymous with Broadway," CBS enlisted the illustrious duo to write/compose a new version of Cinderella. At the time, Andrews was the sweetheart of Broadway, as she had been playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She was a shoe-in for the role of Cinderella.

Cinderella's story is simple. A young woman relegated to servitude by her step-family after the death of her father is visited by her fairy godmother. With magic to dress and transport her, Cinderella goes to the royal ball, where the prince falls in love with her, and she with him. Required by the magic to leave by midnight, she disappears into the night, leaving behind a single glass slipper. The prince tries the shoe on every girl in the kingdom until he finds Cinderella. They marry and live happily ever after. As for the step-family, different versions treat them different ways. This particular version is kind to them, allowing the now simpering fools to attend Cinderella at her wedding, and presumably attain tenuous royal favor for their connection to her.

A note first on Julie Andrews. I have loved Julie Andrews for my entire life. While most people know her from her roles in Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music, or, much more recently The Princess Diaries I and II (which were actually quite sweet - I'll review them one of these days), I also love her for her less innocent and motherly roles, such as in The Americanization of Emily and Victor/Victoria. Although Cinderella is firmly within the first vein of movies I mentioned (minus the motherly), I wanted to establish that I admire Andrews for her breadth of acting, not just for her sweet roles.

I am familiar with this score and version-of-story because of the 1997 Disney production of the same musical starring Brandy in the title role, so I can't help but compare the two. The 1957 version was sweeter and more innocent, but far less polished, and the side characters (even when playing the exact same scenes) were more one-dimensional than the 1997 version. Andrews outsang Brandy (through no fault of Brandy's!) completely, yet both managed to maintain a sparkle of wonder in their eye, and fill their character with character.

Overall, I was pleased with this version, but Andrews is who makes the production. It was not the fancy production I was hoping for, but it was quite impressive, given their circumstances. Worth a view; I'm not sure if it's worth owning.