A Brief Guide to Star Trek

made due to the show’s cancellation. Now Nimoy saw his opportunity: in return for reviving Spock in
Star Trek III
, he wanted to direct the movie.
    Expecting to meet studio resistance, Nimoy was pleasantly surprised to find much support for the idea among the Paramount executives, including Harve Bennett (Nimoy hadpreviously directed a TV movie that Bennett had produced,
The Powers of Matthew Starr
). Perhaps more surprising was the support of studio boss Michael Eisner. According to Nimoy’s
I Am Spock
memoir, Eisner immediately latched on to the promotional aspects of the idea: ‘Leonard Nimoy directs the return of Spock? I love it!’ Nimoy noted of Eisner’s reaction, ‘He was so enthusiastic, I went totally slack-jawed.’ Eisner even asked Nimoy if he’d like to write the script, but the actor was content to leave that task to Harve Bennett.
    Picking up the story threads planted in
The Wrath of Khan
,
The Search for Spock
reveals that the ‘Remember’ scene saw Spock implant his ‘katra’ (his essential essence) within McCoy’s psyche during the mind-meld as a back-up, in case he perished attempting to save the
Enterprise
. Realising this, Kirk and his crew steal the
Enterprise
in order to retrieve Spock’s body from the Genesis planet and reunite it with his katra. In the process they come into conflict with hostile Klingons, led by Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who are after the secrets of the Genesis device. Kirk’s newly found son David Marcus is killed, and the
Enterprise
is destroyed.
    As far back as
The Motion Picture
, William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had enjoyed a ‘favoured nations’ clause in their contracts, meaning each would be offered the same benefits as his co-star. Shatner therefore expected to also direct a film in the
Star Trek
movie series, regarding that as a benefit to be shared. Starting work on
The Search for Spock
, Shatner admitted to finding being directed by his co-star difficult and awkward until he got used to the situation. The absence of Spock from much of the movie allowed Nimoy to focus on his work behind the camera. The third film in the series finally offered a prominent role to DeForest Kelley as Dr McCoy, the incongruous and unexpected carrier of Spock’s katra. The rest of the regular
Star Trek
cast all had their moments, but none beyond the three central bridge characters really had a chance to make any significant impact.
    Once again Bennett’s TV production habits kicked in and he decided to open the film with a series of clips from the previousmovie to remind audiences of the key story threads, the same way a TV series might open a new episode that built on last week’s developments. The difference with the
Star Trek
movies was that audiences would go years between instalments. In writing the screenplay, Bennett had the film’s ending in mind from the beginning. It was obvious that the crew would find and resurrect Spock, so Bennett came up with the ‘Your name is . . . Jim’ line to signal that Spock’s consciousness had survived. As a result the movie is perhaps rather predictable with all the dramatic high points fairly well telegraphed, even though Bennett took the opportunity to feature the Klingons as big screen adversaries.

    Following the ageing and death themes of
The Wrath of Khan
, Bennett introduced a more optimistic friendship and commitment theme to
The Search for Spock
. The film would be about the central trio of
Star Trek
characters’ commitment to each other. Kirk is prepared to break the rules to save Spock, while McCoy – despite his comic antagonism to his Vulcan friend – takes on the burden of carrying his katra. For his part, Spock had enough faith in Kirk and McCoy to trust them to bring him back from beyond death. While Roddenberry objected to story developments such as the destruction of the
Enterprise
, he remained silent about the apparent introduction of Christian sacrifice and resurrection themes to his previously usually anti-religious series.
    Produced on a slimline $16-million budget,
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
opened on 1 June 1984, competing with other summer blockbusters that year including
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
,
Gremlins
and
Ghostbusters
. Breaking the record-making weekend gross of the second
Indiana Jones
movie released the week before,
The Search for Spock
recovered its production budget in its opening weekend. The movie went on to gross $76.5 million in the US, reaching a total