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:
quote
Gentlemen, your work today has been outstanding and I intend to recommend you all for promotion... in whatever fleet we end up serving.
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.