At the time I’m writing this, things are pretty nebulous in the world of Star Trek. The latest in JJ Abrams lens-flaring, Beastie Boys-blaring, wishing they were Star Warsing film series, Star Trek Beyond, has been out for a while, and despite a decent showing at the box office it seems unlikely that we’ll see another one. The newest addition to the Star Trek TV canon, Star Trek: Discovery, seems to be suffering from a multitude of problems; Loss of its showrunner, being locked behind CBS’ streaming service, and being yet another prequel series set before TOS being just some of the more noticeable issues. Add in the general lack of supplemental material, video games, comic books and other franchise type things, and it seems like Trek’s star has definitely diminished since the glory days. Which is saying something, since that glory is in spite of Voyager and Enterprise.
Perhaps Trek fans in the 1970s felt much the same way as we do now. After all the show had been canceled near the beginning of the decade, a rather meek ending to the show that not only helped to popularize sci-fi TV in America, but had also been saved once before from the executioner’s axe by an outstanding level of fan support. There was an animated series in 1973 which was okay, it even featured Will Shatner and the rest of the cast as voices, but it was a far cry from the Trek that we had grown accustomed to up till that point. Plus it’s a bit hard to call Ruby-Spears does ‘animation’ with a straight face. Other than that though, the future of Star Trek was far less optimistic than the future in Star Trek.
Then in 1979, it all changed. Star Trek: The Motion Picture arrived in theaters, solidifying Trek’s position in pop culture that had begun a decade or so previous. Although a bit heavy on the philosophy and light on the action, recalling 2001: A Space Odyssey more than new competitor Star Wars, TMP was a visual spectacle and a love letter to those long suffering fans who were hoping beyond hope to see Kirk behind the wheel of the Enterprise again. It was also the first time the Trek audience got to see the new and improved model of Klingon, spikes, head ridges and all, which would later become their standard look in the franchise moving forward. No matter what your opinion of the film, the spirit of Star Trek, ‘seeking new life and civilizations, where no one has gone before’ is undoubtedly there.
The success of Star Trek: The Motion Picture meant a sequel was more or less inevitable, and a few years later movie audiences received Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Starring Ricardo Montalban as the genetically augmented villain Khan Noonien Singh (reprising his role from the TOS episode “Star Seed”), WoK could be seen as a reaction to the criticism of the first movie. While both film feature theme of mankind’s grand aims being used against them, V’GER in TMP and the Genesis Project in WoK, Khan is dedicated much more firmly to action than its predecessor, with plenty of shooting, killing, and ship combat to go around. Which totally worked, as it turns out. Wrath of Khan not only was a huge success at the time, it has since become known as arguably the best Star Trek film in general. Certainly it has the strongest presence in our collective consciousness, with Kirk’s tortured scream of ‘Khan!’ having achieved gold-level meme status in the years since. A bit dodgy in the plot department, I mean this is Star Trek not Cervantes, but overall I found Wrath of Khan just as entertaining as The Motion Picture, and in some areas even moreso. A worthy addition to the canon.
SPOILERS BELOW
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock takes up pretty much directly where Star Trek II left off. Spock is dead, having sacrificed himself to save the crew after the end of the last film. The Genesis Project has transformed a once dead moon into a vibrant garden of Eden, which is now the subject of scientific studies by Kirk’s son David. Enterprise and her crew manage to limp all the way back home, but what they find there is no hero's welcome. Turns out that Genesis is somewhat of a controversial issue in the Federation, and Starfleet is eager to keep a lid on it. Not only are Kirk and the crew ordered to keep quiet on the issue, but they’re being reassigned as well, pushed off to desk jobs and other such exciting tasks. Enterprise, after 20 years of service, is set to be dismantled. The dream is dead, and life goes on.
Or so it would seem. Just as Kirk seems to accept his new fate, Spock’s father Sarek arrives and drops a bombshell. Although Spock’s body may be dead, according to Vulcan religion his katra (the equivalent of a soul, basically) is still alive, just transferred into the mind of another, in this case Leonard McCoy. The rules dictate that Spock must be taken to Vulcan so that he can be laid to rest and his katra removed from McCoy, and it just so happens that Spock’s coffin landed on Genesis. Of course, Starfleet has forbidden Kirk from going to Genesis. Not to mention that the Klingons (led by Kruge, played by the great Christopher Lloyd) have found out about Genesis, and they’re very interested in weapons that can destroy entire planets. Oh, and it turns out that Spock may not be as dead as events would imply. Still, when has something like insurmountable odds bother James T. Kirk?
If Star Trek I was Asimov/Matheson style science fiction, and Star Trek II was the big budget action thriller, then Star Trek III is the TOS call back. It’s all your favorite cast members having one last adventure on the Enterprise (in fact it’s pretty much only your favorite cast members, apparently you only need three people to pilot a starship), fighting classic Star Trek villains for serious but largely personal stakes, all the loose ends from Wrath of Khan are all tied up with a nice little bow, and we leave off on a happy ending. Well, aside from the fact that Kirk and the others are likely headed to space prison for a very long time.
However, although Star Trek III is pretty fun, it also feels rather superfluous. While The Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan had the benefit of being their own separate stories, Search for Spock is stuck stitching together the leftover bits from the previous movie without being given the chance to stand on its own two feet. Not to mention, honestly, those loose ends are tied up pretty sloppily. Kirk’s son,which is a nice change of status quo? Abandoned. Genesis? Abandoned. Spock being dead, the biggest bombshell of Wrath of Khan? Nah, we’re bringing him back, even if it smacks more of Doctor Who than Star Trek. Sure, bringing back Kirk vs. the Klingons is fun in theory, but they don’t really do all that much to be honest, and they’re not nearly as bloodthirsty and ridiculous as Klingons eventually became. Kruge is the only one with any sort of personality, Christopher Lloyd earning that paycheck, and even he ends up falling short as a primary antagonist. I mean compared to Khan, who was eating up as much scenery as he could every time he was on camera, blowing up ships, sticking worms in people, Kruge seems downright tame in comparison. They’re so extraneous that I believe it’s fully possible to remove them from the film entirely and there’d barely be any difference. Not so good for one of the major member of the Federation rogue’s gallery.
That’s not to say it’s a bad movie. The visuals and the music are up to par with previous Trek films, and despite the serious events that happen on screen there’s a general feeling of humor and light-hearted adventure that wasn’t apparent in its predecessors. However, as I said Star Trek III feels like a film made specifically to appeal to fans of the original TV series, and not necessarily to build potential new fans like the first two films. Whether or not you decide to watch The Search for Spock then is dependent on how interested you are in the TOS-era, or how invested you are in the events of Wrath of Khan. The choice is yours, as it always is, but as someone who got into the franchise through Star Trek: The Next Generation, I’d say you’re not missing much by skipping out on this one.
