Desk from the Past IV: The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home
We return to my voyage through the many Star Trek films (Abrams was reputably intimidated when he discovered there were ten of them) in anticipation of the new film. This time round we’ll plow through The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home, both directed by Leonard Nimoy, best known as the original actor to portray Spock.
What the Score Means
10.0: Excellent. Terrific. Might not be perfect, but it's damn close. Best in the field.
9.0: Pretty damn good. I've seen better stuff, but not much. Most people should enjoy it.
8.0: Pretty good, if you really like this sort of stuff, but it might be more underwhelming if you're not. Even if you are one of the latter, though, I'd expect you to find it passingly amusing, if nothing else.
7.0: Good or average, but take note that your mileage may vary. In other words, if you're already a fan or predisposed to works like this you may really like it or think it's good. But if you're not, steer clear or at least approach with a cautiously open mind.
6.0: Meh. You might enjoy it, but I wouldn't guarantee it. If you do like it, it'll probably be a passing thing and I wouldn't count on it having any revisitable value. Semi-average, semi-poor. What I like to call "thoroughly mediocre."
5.0: This steps beyond thoroughly mediocre into the realm of true bad. I'd be surprised if anyone thought this was high quality and would be highly suspect of their opinions from the on on matters of criticism. It might not be horrible, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
4.0: Okay, we've definitely passed into bad here. This stuff actually will make you walk out of a movie theater it's so lame. It's not even stylistically bad. It's just boring bad and you likely won't have the patience to go through with it.
3.0: This is a wierd little category few get to but a few deliberately reach for. So bad it's good. That is to say, if you take this at face value it's going to be horrific. But, if you just hang along for the ride and turn off your brain or, conversely, decide to get ridiculously symbolic about it, it can actually be very entertaining, if only for its comically bad quality.
2.0: Could be so bad it's good, but more likely this has verged into so bad it's horrible quality. There's nothing funny about it, except perhaps that the human mind could be so warped that it would actually produce the shit. Not fun.
0-1.0: Burn! Burrrrrrn! Burn the evil! It hurts!
Table of Contents
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Overview
NOTE: Since this is a retrospective review and I fully anticipate the reader to have already seen the film expect some spoilers, though I will try my best to refrain from them. Look at it this way, I may one day get around to doing a retrospective of ESB. I will not refrain from saying Luke's father is Vader.
Screenwriter Harve Bennett, the individual most responsible for the scripts of every Star Trek film between The Wrath of Khan and The Final Frontier, once said “seventeen other people could have written” The Search for Spock, noting the predictability of the story (if you don’t want to be spoilered, please pay attention to the notation I have already given). Specifically, he meant the resurrection of Spock, which was so heavy-handedly implied in the final cut of Wrath of Khan, saying, “[if we had had] Captain Kirk turn to the camera and say ‘Sorry, we didn’t find him,’ people would throw rocks at the screen.” As a result, this film faces the same problem that all prequels and historical novels do - the audience already assumes the end result.
The trick then, as JMS, chief writer of Babylon 5, once wrote, is to turn the audience’s focus not towards the ending, but rather to the middle portion - towards the actions that result in the reactive ending. Surprise them there, keep the suspense there. Perhaps surprisingly, Harve Bennett manages to do this in The Search for Spock and though it can be readily assumed even by those who have no knowledge of the later Star Trek films that Spock will be “found” there is still a layer of suspense that hangs over the film, providing drama for the viewer.
The Search for Spock is, in many ways, a first. It’s the first film, for instance, to pit the Klingons against Kirk, immortalizing them as Star Trek’s most memorable villains (even besting the Borg, if only slightly). It also marks the first instance in which Starfleet is portrayed not entirely positively and the first film in which the characters are defeated. But it also marks the first instance of commercialism preempting the writing, given that the resurrection of Spock was more out of promoting the franchise than a genuine writing need.
Unlike many other films, The Search for Spock is a controversial film amongst fans. Most fans will agree that The Motion Picture is unnecessarily slow or that The Wrath of Khan is a classic or that The Final Frontier is irredeemably bad. However, reception of The Search for Spock is more mixed. Some see it as the beginning of a decline in the films’ qualities. Others see it as a classic in its own right. My opinion falls somewhere in between though, in the end, I’d probably agree that The Search for Spock, while flawed, is often underrated, too often being summed up as “one of those odd-numbered Treks.”
Plot
The Search for Spock is the first proper Star Trek sequel. Whilst Wrath of Khan carried over character continuity to some small degree from the first film, the plot had nothing to do with the events that took place in TMP. The Search for Spock, contrastly, is entirely dependent on the events of TWoK, though only to a small degree. For instance, though the Genesis Device is mentioned again and again in the film and Spock’s death is the primary motivator for the plot, Khan is never mentioned at all. Nor, for that matter, is the battle with the Reliant or Dr. Carol Marcus whose conspicuous absence is highlighted by the focus thrust on to her and Kirk’s son, David Marcus who, if the film is any indication, apparently designed the Genesis Device all by himself.
Regardless of these small continuity hiccups, however, in comparison to other works of its time, The Search for Spock does a fairly admirable job at acknowledging the chronology of the series. Though specific details are missing, the film simply wouldn’t work without TWoK, being that the death of Spock, the Genesis Device (and planet), and the severely damaged and outmoded status of the Enterprise are all important elements of the plot. It just seems a little odd that the reasons why Spock sacrificed himself are glossed over, as are the events that led to that sacrifice and the Enterprise’s near destruction.
In any case, as far as can be told, The Search for Spock starts one minute after the end of The Wrath of Khan. The crew is battered, both physically and emotionally, and Kirk misses his deceased friend. The Enterprise, badly in need of repairs, is headed towards Earth (evidently Earth is quite close to the Mutara Nebula, since it never occurs to them to go anywhere else). On the way there, Kirk discovers that the ship’s chief doctor and his old friend, Leonard McCoy, is going batshit crazy. Unable to discern why, he has McCoy confined.
Meanwhile, news travels fast. Though the Genesis Device was detonated just hours before the film starts (or so it is implied anyway), the Klingons are already on the scene. In what appears to be an intelligence gathering mission, a Klingon warship under the command of the bold Commander Kruge makes a rendezvous with a freelance freighter, recovering information from the freighter’s captain and a Klingon spy regarding the Genesis Device. How they got information on the Device so quickly is unclear, but it seems that Federation counter-intelligence is as effect as our own was during the end of the Second World War (which is believed to be the primary way that the Soviets got the bomb so quickly after us). However, while the spy is able to acquire the Federation’s top secret description of the Genesis Project, which must be hours old since it is a bizarre copy of Wrath of Khan’s file on the Project but with Dr. Marcus replaced with Kirk, she is unable to acquire technical specifications.
Nonetheless, the news is enough to frighten the Klingons into action. Believing that the Genesis Device will give the Federation an unfair advantage in the cold war being waged between them and the Klingon Empire, Kruge decides that he must acquire the specifications of the device for himself and the Empire, so that the Klingons can build a device of their own. Little does he know, of course, that the Federation no longer have such a device and are unsure about replicating it.
Shortly thereafter, Spock’s father shows up and makes a startling revelation. Spock is not really dead. He’s just mostly dead. That is to say, his husk of a body is quite, literally (or so Sarek thinks anyway) dead. However, his katra, his immortal soul, has been fused with McCoy’s brain. After an “ah…” moment (so that’s why McCoy’s acting so wacko) and a brief heart-to-heart conversation between Sarek and Kirk, Kirk decides he’s obliged to bring McCoy to Genesis.
There’s a problem here, however. Why on Earth would Sarek want Kirk to go to Genesis? Nobody, aside from the science team investigating the planet in top secret (which includes Saavik and David from the previous film), knows that Spock’s body has regenerated itself into the body of a swiftly-aging child. Nobody. And yet both Spock (through McCoy) and Sarek insist that Kirk go to Genesis. Again, why? Wouldn’t it be more logical for Kirk to bring Spock’s katra to Vulcan, where presumably they have rituals for this kind of thing. Unless, of course, Sarek wants Kirk to retrieve Spock’s dead body and zombify it. Presumably, though, that’s not what Sarek intends. Maybe he wants to clone him. But then, again, why go to Genesis?
Actually, the whole katra thing is rather blurry and haphazard. I can’t really blame the writers for that. It’s a silly, silly concept. Not the concept of a soul, per se, but the concept of resurrection presented. After all, if Vulcans can do this sort of thing than why don’t they do it all the time. Presumably, because they don’t have enough volunteers. It’s also implied that the ritual is highly controversial near the end of the film, when the Vulcan priestess admonishes Sarek for his lack of logic. However, if this is the case and the practice is kind of looked upon by other Vulcans as superstitious and crazy, then why does Spock go through with it? Why doesn’t Spock just sacrifice himself? What’s so important about him that he, out of all the Vulcans in several centuries (as explicitly stated by the priestess), breaks the taboo on the process?
However, while the katra thing is silly and full of plot holes, there’s also really no way out of it. The writers were stuck with resurrecting Spock and anything else, other than a literal return from the dead (which would have likely been anathema to Roddenberry, given his anti-religious views) would have been likely even more silly. The fact is that the resurrection was thrust on to Bennett by Paramount and Nimoy, rather than his concept.
Other than the katra device, which admittedly is the whole point of the film, the plot of the film is actually pretty solid. While the reasons for going to Genesis are never properly explained by Sarek, Kirk’s reaction is believable given the context and the film, in spite of its foregone conclusion, manages to surprise and thrill. The theft of the Enterprise is probably one of the franchise’s most memorable moments, as is the ship’s destruction later in the film.
Speaking of which, the fight between it and the Bird-of-Prey is well done, short though it is, relying heavily on the events of the previous film to realistically justify why a heavy cruiser like the Enterprise would be so easily bested by a ship with a tenth the firepower. Similarly, the death of David comes swiftly and so unexpectedly that it adds another kicker to what would otherwise be a boring and unsuspensful plot. Once David’s dead and the Enterprise has been destroyed there’s no longer a clear guarantee that Spock’s life won’t be paid for with, say, McCoy’s or Sulu’s. In the end, this doesn’t become necessary, but it means that Bennet successfully manages to keep the drama high.
Lastly, the film also clears up a mess left by the previous one - namely, the Genesis Device. As I said in my review of that film, the Genesis Device makes no sense. At least, it didn’t before David makes it clear that the Device shouldn’t have worked but did because of his dangerously applied phlebotinum. Even then, it turns out that, not only does it not work, but the very nature of the device (which dissolves some matter and reforms it to form a preprogrammed structure) makes its creations, very, very unstable. So, in a sense, the Genesis Device actually makes more sense in this film than it did in the previous one.
Overall, the plot of The Search for Spock is entertaining. It relies on a pretty ridiculous premise and has some unexplained assumptions of the characters that may leave you scratching your head, but the continuity nods, as well as the surprising retention of suspense in spite of the foregone conclusion make this film’s story a little underrated.
Score: 7.4 (out of 10)
Characters
The Search for Spock, as one might expect, is a little bit confused when it comes to characters. For one thing, the film is ostensibly about Spock and his resurrection. But in the end, it becomes as much a character story for Kirk more than anybody else - just like the last two films. It also imports some characters from the previous film, while conspicuously leaving out others. And how well it portrays those characters imported is also variable.
Representative perhaps of the film, Kirk is a mixed individual here. On the one hand, he’s a strong character and his acting upon emotion is within his character’s nature. On the other hand, the fact that he’s so desperately eager to bring back Spock (which must have provided unintentional fetish fuel for slashers back in 80s) contradicts his own rebirth and coming to terms with the fact of Spock’s death in The Wrath of Khan. That said, one can hardly blame Kirk for wanting to resurrect his best friend but you might have expected a little bit more of internal conflict out of the decision, especially since it ends up meaning giving up his right to command a starship and going against direct orders by Starfleet Command.
Still, Kirk’s decision to destroy the Enterprise is one of the highlights of the film and of the character. It was joked by Roddenberry during the original series’ run that Kirk was “married” to the Enterprise. The previous two films only increased that impression, from Kirk’s tearful return to command in TWP to the revelations about his strained but loving relationship with Dr. Marcus. His sacrifice of the ship in this film is noteworthy, because it shows him moving beyond his youth, giving up his dreams for the sake of another - in this case Spock.
McCoy also, understandably, stands pretty well in this film - far better than in the previous two. Where he was merely a supporting character in the previous two, no more important than Scotty or Sulu ultimately, in this film he’s secondary only really to Kirk. Sure, the film’s title talks about Spock but Spock really only shows up in person at the end of the film. McCoy, burdened with the katra of a man whom with his relationship can, at best, be described as “stormy” is forced to carry on the burden of the film’s story. His growth and evolution as a character that result are part of what makes the film work, including McCoy’s revelation that, deep down, he misses Spock and wants him back for real (and not just, presumably, because he wants him out of his head).
Unfortunately, this growth is sometimes impeded by Nimoy’s unnecessary use of his own voice at times for McCoy’s dialogue when the doctor is channeling Spock. This ultimately distracts from the film and brings us out of our suspension of disbelief. It’s a tactic that’s used again and again in film and television and I can’t for the life of me know why. Surely, any idiot knows that voice is not a projection of your soul but a physical process? McCoy’s voice is going to sound like McCoy, no matter if Spock or McCoy is speaking through it.
Another character that does well in this film is David. While David fared fine in the previous film he really only comes unto his own in this one, which makes it a shame that he ends up dying. Sort of a sidekick to his mother, her conspicuous and unexplained absence (especially since she is presumably on the ship when the film begins) lets him develop more fully, however. His expanded role also allows the comparison between him and his father to become stronger, even to the point of becoming a minor plot point in the film.
On the other hand, Saavik does rather badly in this film. Part of this (in fact, perhaps most of this) is the fact that she has a new actress who neither acts nor looks anything like the previous one. But her sudden stereotyped Vulcan lack of emotion (hell, even Sarek shows more emotion that she does this time round, as does Spock) doesn’t help. It’s almost like she’s a completely different character.
Speaking of Vulcans, this marks Sarek’s first reappearance in the franchise after his initial debut in the TOS episode Journey to Babel. This is notable, because it shows a sense of continuity with the original series that few of the films have. It also is noteworthy because it is the first instance of a full-blooded Vulcan (note that Saavik, like Spock, is half-Vulcan according to the scripts) displaying emotion. There is only a hint of this, from Sarek’s desperate need for his son to live again, but it is powerful in that it hints that, beneath his veneer of logic and emotional detachment, Sarek is weeping inside. This would later be played up later in the franchise, when it became evident that rather than being emotionless as many assume they are, Vulcans are in fact far more passionate than humans, which is why they struggle so hard to lead a life of logic.
None of the other protagonists truly stand out, though all of them get a few amusing character moments that show that writers, this time around, are at least paying attention to the existence of other characters besides Kirk and Spock. Spock is actually a rare exception here as he’s more a plot device than a character in this film, which makes the implied heavy focus on him all the more ironic. But aside from him, every character gets a small moment to shine, though only Kirk, McCoy, Sarek, and David get any characterization with depth.
However, the villain is also a powerful character. Kruge is the first instance of a Klingon villain since the original series and though the shoes of Khan are difficult to fill, he does so admirably. Like Khan, Kruge is a villain with a purpose, with a meaning to his madness. And unlike Khan, that purpose is not personal or selfish in nature, but rather patriotic. This does not make him a better character than Khan, but it provides a nice contrast from many of the stereotyped, mad with power villains space opera is often burdened with. Kruge, perhaps rightly, views the Federation as a genuine threat to his people. The analogies with the Soviet Union are almost assuredly intentional, since Kruge’s fear of the Federation’s newly gained weapon seems much like the fear of another, more familiar superweapon.
But while this could be played as an overbearing message on the Cold War it isn’t. Instead, Kruge’s simply portrayed as a complex villain, one who is willing to do the Vaderesque “you have failed me for the last time” heat-of-the-moment executions but who silently grieves over the death of his crew’s majority later on in the film. A powerful figure, Kruge sets the standard for the Klingons to follow, breaking out of the Orientalist, vaguely racist savagery the Klingons of TOS fell into.
I suppose that, in the end, I’m pretty impressed with The Search for Spock’s cast. While some of the character see a decline from the previous film the characters, as a whole, shine rather well. In particular, the supporting characters are not left behind in this film and the villain manages to stand well against the precedent set by the formidable Khan.
Score: 8.5 (out of 10)
Production
This is where the film really, really shines. Whilst the production of TMP and TWoK shone at parts brilliantly, such as in the acting and sound design, their visual effects were, while hardly bad, unimpressive considering the opposition the two films were going up against (namely, the Star Wars original trilogy). The Search for Spock, however, absolutely blows every previous Star Trek film out of the water in this regard.
This is likely due, in part, to the fact that TMP’s special effects were never quite finished and TWoK was given a significantly smaller budget than TMP (hence the latter’s extensive use of stock footage from the former). The success of TWoK, however, seems to have prompted Paramount into renewed confidence with the series. I’ve been unable to discover the budget for the third film but it was undoubtedly greater than TWoK’s, if for no other reason than the visual evidence that suggests as much.
Everything about the film’s visual effects are spectacular (at least in the context of its time of production). The Enterprise looks fantastic, the retention of battle damage from the previous film just being a nice touch. It’s destruction sequence is awe-inspiring, even today. The stardock, while a bit unrealistic, is much more impressive than the bare-bones skeleton used in the previous two films (even though that is admittedly more realistic). Not to mention that in this film, not only do the special effects team get to show off one new ship (like the Reliant in TWoK) but three new ships - the Grissom, the Excelsior, and the unnamed Bird-of-Prey. All three of these ships are inventive and aesthetically pleasing designs. In particular, the Bird-of-Prey would prove so popular a design that it (and its derivatives) would overtake every other Klingon warship design in sheer number of appearances - even the original, classic D7 design (and its K’tinga offshoot).
The immense quality in the film’s production does not stop with the visuals however. While ther has been a small controversy over composer Horner’s reuse of some leitmotifs from the previous film, both in The Search for Spock and the film Aliens these instances are less prevalent than one might imagine. While Khan’s theme is indeed used to some extent as the basis for Kruge’s, it is not identical, but rather a base for the latter in the same manner that John Williams and other composers have reused familiar leitmotifs in Star Wars for a wide variety of characters and events (in particular, the leitmotifs of the Empire or Luke staring at the twin suns). It’s not really an offense so much as the use of the theme as a springboard for invoking emotions.
Actually, in many ways, The Search for Spock has the best soundtrack yet of the Star Trek films. It uses what was excellent about The Wrath of Khan, but not without adding bits of its own or other legacy pieces. Hints of both the themes from both TMP and TOS are used as well as several original pieces. The music surrounding the Klingons is appropriately suspenseful and exotic, invoking the idea of an alien enemy (though not to the same extent that V’Ger was in TMP) and the leitmotifs for Spock and the Genesis planet are mournful, somber pieces that reflect the slow death of the planet and the failure of David’s work.
Acting wise, the film is a bit more divided. Once again, Shatner does an excellent job playing the bravado and command of a man a bit too old to be doing this sort of thing but who says “what the hell” and does it anyway. All of the actors are clearly comfortable working with one another, a result likely of the fact that they’ve, by this point, spent the majority of their careers working together. Aside from Shatner, DeForest Kelly does the best job of holding up the protagonists’ line. To some extent, he actually upstages Shatner, which nobody was able to do in the previous films, with the possible exception of Ricardo Montalban as Khan. After spending the previous two films in the background, Kelly gets to shine here, portraying a trouble and bitterly aged man who, in spite of himself, manages to show he’s a good person down beneath his crotchety exterior.
This is also the swan song for David - and not just the character, but to a lesser extent his actor Merrit Butrick as well, who did a few more mostly unknown films and then died five years after this film was released, from AIDS (may he rest in peace). While he’s still nowhere near the actor that some others in the film are, he still does a pretty damn good job with David, comparable with his work in the previous film. It’s too bad really that both he and the character ended up getting killed off, as it would have been interesting to see the father-son dynamic evolve a bit more.
It’s also worth nothing the quality of Christopher Lloyd’s performance. While at first his portrayal of Kruge was a distraction (I found it difficult not to imagine the Klingon shouting at some bizarre moment that the Bird-of-Prey’s power level needed to be above “1.21 jigowatts!”) I eventually eased into it. If you ignore the obvious associations the actor has he actually does a rather spectacular job. Kruge, as played by Christopher Lloyd, is a character of dignified brutality, who kills not because he enjoys it necessarily but because its his job and he has a ruthless, all-or-nothing approach to his job. He’s threatening in a different way than Khan was (who was more of a magnificent bastard gone ax crazy), but threatening nonetheless.
On the other hand one of the few real flaws in the film’s production is the casting of Saavik. I understand that the original actress, Kristin Alley, asked for too much money. I know her agent’s demands were outrageous. But really - Robin Curtis was the best you could do? She doesn’t look, sound, or act anything like Alley! And honestly, her acting kind of sucks - all though, who knows, maybe they were trying to get her to look wooden intentionally (cause we all know Vulcans are emotionless - right?).
Other than this small hiccup however, the production values of The Search for Spock are nothing short of spectacular. Thumbs up, for sure.
Score: 9.8 (out of 10)
Summary
Plot: 7.4
Characters: 8.5
Production: 9.8
Overall: 8.6
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Overview
NOTE: Since this is a retrospective review and I fully anticipate the reader to have already seen the film expect some spoilers, though I will try my best to refrain from them. Look at it this way, I may one day get around to doing a retrospective of ESB. I will not refrain from saying Luke's father is Vader.
Though The Voyage Home (TVH) has the same cast and crew for the most part, you would never know it. The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home contrast so differently in style, that it might be a shock to learn that Nimoy directed both and Bennett penned the story for both as well. While The Search for Spock continued the darker and grittier Star Trek themes that The Wrath of Khan had built up, The Voyage Home instead plays to TOS’s more self-referential, politically anvilicious, and campy elements - all at once. The result is one of the most bizarre Star Trek films ever made but one that is nonetheless beloved amongst both the fandom and critics.
The change in tone was far from accidental. Leonard Nimoy, after finishing The Search for Spock, had begun to tire of the weariness thrust on the characters by the previous two films and felt that both he, the cast, and the characters were in need of a well-deserved break. On the subject, Nimoy said his vision for TVH was one with “no dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy. I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film [and] if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of big ideas at them, well, then that would be even better.” He certainly accomplished that.
The weird thing, and this still surprises me sometimes, is how well TVH works. Everything about it should fly against my usual preferences. The film is campy and self-referential - things I generally despise in an ostensibly serious franchise like Star Trek and one of the things I disliked the most about TOS. The film is lighter and fluffier and the consequences of the last film are hardly dealt with. The plot is ridiculous. The characters are, at times, caricatures of themselves. And then there’s of course the very bad case of “writer on board” that the film suffers from (so bad, in fact, that it spawned its own sub-trope). And yet it works.
I think this is because, in the end, TVH is not a space opera the way the previous two films were or the majority of the following films were. It’s not even a serious, navel-gazing science fiction epic in the style that TMP attempted. It’s a comedy. Straight up. No questions. Satirical both of the franchise and of the period in which the film is made, TVH is that most odd quagmire of science fiction films - one that doesn’t take itself seriously and yet remains good.
Plot
Okay, it’s probably best to get this out of the way immediately and as honestly as possible.
The plot for The Voyage Home is made of Swiss cheese.
I mean that in the best possible way of course. TVH is entertaining, fun to watch, and occasionally hilarious. However, it would be wrong to say it doesn’t suffer from some very significant plot holes, which I shall get to shortly. First, a summary.
It is three months after the end of The Search for Spock. The command crew of the destroyed Enterprise are now enjoying the arid climate of Vulcan, debating whether they should return to a Federation that, by all rights, would likely try them of several crimes and have them, at best, stripped of their rank. Sure enough, back home, not only are the Federation Council debating the fate of the crew but the Klingon Empire’s ambassador to the Federation is demanding Kirk’s head on a platter due to his theft of one of their ships and “murder” of the ship’s crew (including it’s commander, Kruge, who was apparently a hotshot back home as implied by the “Lord” title his crew kept bandying around). Never mind, of course, that the Klingon crew was illegally violating Federation space. Never mind, of course, that the Klingons initiated the combat. Not as if the Klingons have anything to hide, as they feel it necessary to show us the entire incident during the hearings.
But enough of that. What’s even more surprising is that the Federation Council apparently is aware of Kirk’s presence on Vulcan and has done nothing about it. Sarek must have some pull, considering he appears to be the only thing standing between them and a speedy court martial. Or maybe the President likes Kirk too. He’s quite a charmer I hear.
In any case, the crew decides to return to Earth and accept the consequences of their action. Saavik, for reasons perhaps best left unexplained (the script apparently heavily implies she’s pregnant with Spock’s child from his accelerated pon’farr in the previous film), will be staying on Vulcan. Sadly, she will not be missed given the decline the character took in the previous film. The new Spock, meanwhile, is still coming to grasp with having the entirety of his memories and consciousness thrust back upon him suddenly while still possessing the mind of a child. Naturally, he’s having some trouble and everything’s very confusing.
Fortunately for our heroes, it turns out the Federation have much better things to worry about than whether Kirk’s charisma can save him from life imprisonment. Out of nowhere, a large alien probe appears that renders any ship it comes across completely defenseless. It does not, however, destroy them, but instead simply passed by them as it proceeds on its course straight towards Earth. This particular plot element is very, very similar to TMP’s plot although the similarities quickly end (the probe’s journey doesn’t take two hours of compressed time for one thing but rather a few minutes)
Okay, here’s my question. Precisely, why, pray tell, does the probe disable the ships? Now, sure, it seems to be a side effect of its broadcasting whalesong message (yes, this is the film with the whales if you still hadn’t gotten that) but why is it broadcasting the whalesong message before it reaches Earth - when it is, indeed, several hours or even days (since it’s near the Romulan Neutral Zone when it is first encountered) away from Earth even when travelling at warp speeds. It’s almost like it intends to render Starfleet vessels helpless, just for the hell of it. But that doesn’t seem to fit the motivation given.
Anyhow, when the probe reaches Earth is starts making a very big mess. It seems to make the Earth’s weather go crazy for one thing, though I’ve concluded that this is not some weirdo supernatural god-like power but rather the natural result of its capacity to render Starfleet technology useless, thereby disabling the Federation’s weather-control devices that keeps Earth so nice and sunny (except, presumably, when they want it to rain). So all the crazy weather? Not a plot hole. On the other hand…
How the hell does the communication device even work? It’s supposed to be broadcasting whalesong, which we all know is sound. Sound doesn’t travel in space. So how on earth (pun unintended) can the whalesong be beamed from the probe and into the oceans. Unless, of course, it’s not sound waves but radio waves, which would explain why the ships get disabled (perhaps an EMP pulse of some kind). But if that’s the case… then how can the whales be expected to receive the message in the first place since radio waves most certainly do not magically turn into sound waves.
Unless, of course, the whales actually possess radio transmitters, as implied by Spock’s comment about the probe returning to Earth because contact had been lost. But this is even more ridiculous, for two reasons. First, it implies humpback whales have industrial-grade technology. Absolutely ridiculous, given that such technology would have long since been discovered as well as for the fact that, since fire has fueled our technological process since the Neolithic age, it would be impossible for whales to develop said technology in the first place. Secondly, if the whales have transmitters than the fact that the whales brought back to the future are able to communicate implies said transmitters are imbedded in the whales themselves. Again, we would surely have found said transmitters.
Once again, the plot is akin to Swiss cheese.
The next part actually kind of makes sense, however. You see, once Kirk and company find out about the probe they, being the nice heroes that they are, decide they have to try and stop the probe. Since humpback whales are extinct (due to the Evils of Man™) the only possible remedy is to recycle an old plot device from TOS - the time warp. Now, I know this sounds positively ridiculous. But listen to me - it’s not nearly as ridiculous as the aforementioned whale stuff and actually, to a degree, makes sense.
Think about this. The main problem with FTL (faster than light travel) is not the lightspeed barrier. Hyperspace gets around that no problem (as do several other theories). The main problem with FTL is the same problem with time travel, which is that, for some strange reason, theoretical physicists have a problem with wrapping their heads around the idea of a universe without causality - that is, to say, a linear chain of events. Maybe it’s because I’m a gamer or something but I have no problem with that. I see to hell with causality. However, the consequence of this is that any viable means of FTL is also potentially a method of time travel.
Actually, even those familiar with just general relativity (probably the best known cosmological theorem) understand the concept that, if you go faster than the speed of light, time moves backwards. So, logically it stands that characters in Star Trek should travel all the time. For some reason, they don’t, so evidently the warp drive doesn’t actually work by propelling the characters faster than the speed of light. How it does work is never explained in detail (perhaps for the best) but the very fact that they possess a method of moving faster than the speed of light (or at least appearing to do so) makes the time warp concept far less unlikely than it might at first seem.
So the result? Star Trek moves from the Future® to Next Sunday AD which, is actually now Twenty Years Ago AD. But it wasn’t when the film was released. In other words, it’s time to watch the crew make fun of themselves in the 20th century! Yay!
Actually, it’s at this point that the plot actually starts making sense and becomes fun. It doesn’t hurt that the source of humor is also entirely realistic. One of the common fallacies of Star Trek is to presume that everyone in the 23rd and 24th centuries will know and care about what happened in the good ol’ 20th and 21st (oh, sure, I’m sure most people know about Zefram Cochrane but other than that…). But what do you about the early 18th, 17th, or 16th centuries (perhaps the wrong audience though since most of you are likely to be about as, close to, or more nerdy than myself)? How about this… what about your family and friends? Or your friends’ friends? Oh, I’m sure they’ve heard of the American Revolution and Queen Elizabeth. What about the Spanish War of Succession (the 18th century’s World War Two)? Or the Thirty Years War? How about Maria Theresa? Peter the Great? Maybe they’ve heard of Isaac Newton. But what about Copernicus?
It’s just not realistic to expect everyone to be an amateur historian in the future. And, oddly, TVH gets this right (though it still makes the odd - but expected - assumption that everyone will be speaking modern American English in the future) and it is from this that most of the humor derives. Actually, they still tend to know a little more than is likely, but that can be handwaved due to the fact that a substantial portion of them are geniuses (Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Scotty…). The characters know little or nothing about the Cold War. They don’t understand the technology, the culture, the slang… It’s pretty well done actually.
It is this middle portion, which was reputably written not by Bennett surprisingly enough but by TWoK director Nicholas Meyer that really shines. Here, we see the characters deconstructed and put in the odd position of having little or no control over what’s going on around them. It’s funny, it’s amusing, and it’s makes far more sense than the beginning and end of the film.
The only poor part of this portion really is that it is also the most anvilicious portion. The writers can’t let up the chance to beat the audience over the head again and again with their sociopolitical views (such as the “obviousness” of whales being sophonts or the extremely “primitive” culture of 20th century Earth). However, this is balanced out by two things. First of all, nearly all satire is anvilicious. That’s sort of the point. If you’re not offending anyone and everyone you’re not really doing your job. Secondly, the film’s satire is self-deprecating as well. If it were just the Starfleet officers telling the audience how we all suck that would be one thing. But it’s that, plus the fact that the Starfleet officers clearly have no clue what they’re doing. That makes it funny, rather than simply pontific.
I will say one thing though. I rather dislike the introduction of the Enterprise-A for the same reason the Spock resurrection felt off. It makes the sacrifices of the previous film meaningless. But I get over it. After all, the Enterprise redesign from TMP is one of my favorite starship designs.
Enough ranting I suppose, it’s getting a bit late over here so it’s probably time to speed this up. As far as I can see, TVH has a hilariously weak premise. However, this is balanced out by the good pacing and some surprisingly good ideas thrown into the middle portion of the film. On the other hand, the numerous holes and poor continuity with the previous film drags it down. Fair, but not in the same territory as TWoK and noticeably poorer in design than The Search for Spock turned out to be.
Score: 6.7 (out of 10)
Characters
The characters of TVH are, like the film, an odd quagmire. On the one hand, none of them are taken seriously, the closest one being Dr. Grayson. However, this doesn’t make them badly written. In fact, given the rather comical plot, it’s better that they’re not. Not only that, but every character from TOS gets a chance to shine - far more than was true even in The Search for Spock. The focus has shifted again. Just as TMP shifted the attention away from Spock to Kirk, TVH suddenly shifts the focus again… from Kirk to the entire command crew.
Oh, there’s no doubt Kirk’s still a main character and one of the most prominent ones. But he shares that role much more equivocally than in previous films. Spock and Dr. Grayson are just as important and take up just as much time in the film. And that time is also reduced, since far more time is spent on Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov than occurred in most of the previous films. The only real exception here is McCoy, who falls back into supporting character after being a central figure in The Search for Spock. But he’s still a prominent character - just not as prominent as he was before, mostly to make room for everyone else.
I do have a few complaints to levy, however. First off, this is clearly the beginning of the decline of Kirk. Not just in importance. That’s actually kind of welcome, since, as I said, it makes room for the others to play. But rather, in characterization. Kirk, from TMP to TWoK was a character who was growing, evolving, and learning to become a different man. He was aging gracefully. No more. While Kirk is still fun to watch, he effectively returns within a few minutes of the film’s beginning to the role he had back on TOS - the charming, bravado, brash captain who goes out and does things. It’s not an unfun character to watch - it was fun on TOS. But it’s less deep and it’s more conceited. It also is a regression. It’s as if all the character development in the previous three films didn’t happen.
Similarly is the case with Spock, though at least in this case it’s justified. After all, he’s just been effectively reborn. It makes sense that he’s reliving his old mentality, that he’s having to once again become comfortable with the idea of emotion and balancing it with logic. After all, he’s not the same Spock (something that is glossed over all too easily) but rather, a clone with implanted memories (and presumably a soul). I actually kind of regret the fact that the film never goes into depth about this except at the very beginning and for comical effect a few times. The idea could have been a pretty interesting plot device. Instead, it becomes an amusing gimmick, with Kirk sometimes having to remind Spock that they’re on familiar terms and not just in a professional relationship or explain the use of “colorful metaphors.” Still, Spock’s characterization here, for the first time since TOS, blows Kirk’s out of the water.
Dr. Grayson is also a weak point in the film and I’ll quickly explain why. She’s a walking, talking Author Avatar. She’s a mouthpiece for the writers and their sociopolitical views, which means that the most brutally anvilicious stuff, ironically, comes from her and not from the more civilized Starfleet officers. This makes her character kind of hard to like, since she spends most of the time talking down to the audience (via proxy). What’s even worse is her hypocrisy in deciding to force herself on to Kirk’s ship in order to time travel back to the future. So, what? She’s giving up on the present so she can live in happy-la-la Federation utopia? Supposedly, Meyer was similarly displeased with this version of the screenplay.
I guess it at least makes sense in that avoids dealing with the concept of a time paradox though, ultimately, wouldn’t that have been a more effective way of dealing with the probe? You know, preventing the whales’ extinction in the first place rather than bringing back two to the 23rd century. Whatever the case, it makes Grayson look like an overbearing, hypocritical bitch. Obviously everyone in the 20th is too stupid to save the whales so she figures why bother trying.
It’s not actually that I disagree with Grayson’s views (for the most part - I certainly didn’t agree with the hinted veganism) or don’t think she’s a sympathetic character in other ways. But she represents the very worst part of TVH, which, admittedly, isn’t enough to make the film unenjoyable. But it is worth pointing out.
Another part where the characterization fails in keeping it relevant. This is not necessarily a flaw, or at least it wasn't in its time. But I observed, while watching, that TVH will ultimately age very badly. So many of the jokes depend on pop culture references of the 80s that, well, even today a significant number need to be explained to the young'uns (such as why Chekov so immediately attracts suspicion). In another ten or twenty years the movie will be near incomprehensible to anyone who is not familiar with the history of 1980s America. That's a shame, but it's also true.
There’s a few other characters that appear in the film but none are prominent enough to really pay attention to. All in all, the characterization of TVH is its strongest point. The dialogue is witty and funny, and the characters are a blast to watch. On the downside, the result is some shallower characterizations than the earlier films allowed and the beginning of the return of Star Trek’s self-parody.
Score: 9.2 (out of 10)
Production
Narrowing down the production values of TVH is a bit trickier than with the previous Star Trek films. While the previous films followed the standard science fiction formula of lots of special effects, layered with epic music, TVH veers away from this - though it’s not at first obvious. Sure, TVH uses special effects, but in a more subtle way that might be expected of a more typical, non-science fiction film with the exceptions being the beginning and the end, with a few tricks of light thrown in the middle. And while portions of the soundtrack suppose a sense of epic grandeur, most of the music is far more contemporary, with jazzy and even techno-ish themes thrown in to evoke the atmosphere of the 80s.
In the case of the special effects, they do a remarkable job actually, with a few exceptions. I’d actually be unsurprised to learn that the film had a budget similar to The Search for Spock, in spite of the fact that it has far less use for such a budget. While the scenes in which over science fiction goodiness is required are relatively few in number, there is little disappointment. The Bird of Prey looks even better than it did in the previous film - to a point where it doesn’t even appear to be the same ship (the bridge, for instance, looks nothing like the bridge in Spock). There’s also a reappearance of the Reliant-style ships seen in TWoK, which have a far more unique appearance than before. Hell, the special effects team even manages to make the new (and very cheaply introduced) Enterprise-A look spectacular again, namely by completely redesigning the bridge (again).
It’s also worth noting the whales. The whales, are, of course, not real. There’s no way that any modern aquarium, even today, could possibly keep humpbacks in captivity. It’s beyond impractical. It’s basically impossible. However, the design of the whales is so well done that you would never know just by locking. I certainly was fooled as a young kid. What they really are is a combination of animatronic puppets (akin to the same puppets used for the dinosaurs in Jaws or Jurassic Park) along with some early CGI (for underwater scenes primarily). There’s also a bit of stock footage of real whales near the end, which almost blends seamlessly in (except for when the whales are breaching supposedly in San Francisco Bay but very clearly in the middle of the ocean).
There are a few slip-ups, however. For instance, while most of the ships look fantastic the whale probe is a bit… underwhelming. The design is not actually all that bad, though it is plain. It would seem to me that, rather than being the special effects team going cheap and using an old cardboard tube, it’s actually an attempt at making a vessel akin to the probe in Rendezvous with Rama, which is described similarly. That would imply, of course, that the interior of the probe is actually inhabitable and akin to a large biosphere - perhaps an ocean of sorts? So the design itself isn’t bad. But it does look unimpressive as hell.
The music is a bit more mixed. On the one hand, there’s some very good tracks in there. The main theme is memorable, if not as emotionally evocative as the previous three films’. There are also a few good pieces scattered through the rest of the film and the soundtrack appropriately matches its tone with the film’s semi-campy, semi-serious feel.
And you have to give it to the composer, Leonard Rosenman who really evokes the sound of the 80s. Unfortunately, he does it in a way that is neither complimentary of the decade nor of the film. Some of the music is really wonky. Granted, some of the music from the 80s was too. But the weird contrast is sometimes just a little bit too much. At other times, though, it blends seamlessly in and helps in the depiction of the crew in this strange and alien environment that is (semi-)modern America.
The acting is also pretty top notch, though the campiness I think seeps in just a little bit too much. But as I said earlier, and as Ebert has also said, there is a natural camaraderie between the actors, a result of having spent their careers together, bleeding and working together on this franchise that has become a part of their identity. Acting their characters comes almost naturally to them, as does interacting with those characters. This is even more astonishing when you consider the fact that many of the actors, when not playing their roles, did not get along with each other in the slightest.
Ultimately, TVH continues some of the high production values set by the previous three films. There is top quality acting and special effects here, with a few slip ups. The soundtrack is a bit more mixed and is at times distracting or unpleasant. At other times it soars, however, and it never drags the film down.
Score: 8.2 (out of 10)
Summary
Plot: 6.7
Characters: 9.2
Production: 8.2
Overall: 8.0
What the Score Means
10.0: Excellent. Terrific. Might not be perfect, but it's damn close. Best in the field.
9.0: Pretty damn good. I've seen better stuff, but not much. Most people should enjoy it.
8.0: Pretty good, if you really like this sort of stuff, but it might be more underwhelming if you're not. Even if you are one of the latter, though, I'd expect you to find it passingly amusing, if nothing else.
7.0: Good or average, but take note that your mileage may vary. In other words, if you're already a fan or predisposed to works like this you may really like it or think it's good. But if you're not, steer clear or at least approach with a cautiously open mind.
6.0: Meh. You might enjoy it, but I wouldn't guarantee it. If you do like it, it'll probably be a passing thing and I wouldn't count on it having any revisitable value. Semi-average, semi-poor. What I like to call "thoroughly mediocre."
5.0: This steps beyond thoroughly mediocre into the realm of true bad. I'd be surprised if anyone thought this was high quality and would be highly suspect of their opinions from the on on matters of criticism. It might not be horrible, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
4.0: Okay, we've definitely passed into bad here. This stuff actually will make you walk out of a movie theater it's so lame. It's not even stylistically bad. It's just boring bad and you likely won't have the patience to go through with it.
3.0: This is a wierd little category few get to but a few deliberately reach for. So bad it's good. That is to say, if you take this at face value it's going to be horrific. But, if you just hang along for the ride and turn off your brain or, conversely, decide to get ridiculously symbolic about it, it can actually be very entertaining, if only for its comically bad quality.
2.0: Could be so bad it's good, but more likely this has verged into so bad it's horrible quality. There's nothing funny about it, except perhaps that the human mind could be so warped that it would actually produce the shit. Not fun.
0-1.0: Burn! Burrrrrrn! Burn the evil! It hurts!
Table of Contents
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Overview
NOTE: Since this is a retrospective review and I fully anticipate the reader to have already seen the film expect some spoilers, though I will try my best to refrain from them. Look at it this way, I may one day get around to doing a retrospective of ESB. I will not refrain from saying Luke's father is Vader.
Screenwriter Harve Bennett, the individual most responsible for the scripts of every Star Trek film between The Wrath of Khan and The Final Frontier, once said “seventeen other people could have written” The Search for Spock, noting the predictability of the story (if you don’t want to be spoilered, please pay attention to the notation I have already given). Specifically, he meant the resurrection of Spock, which was so heavy-handedly implied in the final cut of Wrath of Khan, saying, “[if we had had] Captain Kirk turn to the camera and say ‘Sorry, we didn’t find him,’ people would throw rocks at the screen.” As a result, this film faces the same problem that all prequels and historical novels do - the audience already assumes the end result.
The trick then, as JMS, chief writer of Babylon 5, once wrote, is to turn the audience’s focus not towards the ending, but rather to the middle portion - towards the actions that result in the reactive ending. Surprise them there, keep the suspense there. Perhaps surprisingly, Harve Bennett manages to do this in The Search for Spock and though it can be readily assumed even by those who have no knowledge of the later Star Trek films that Spock will be “found” there is still a layer of suspense that hangs over the film, providing drama for the viewer.
The Search for Spock is, in many ways, a first. It’s the first film, for instance, to pit the Klingons against Kirk, immortalizing them as Star Trek’s most memorable villains (even besting the Borg, if only slightly). It also marks the first instance in which Starfleet is portrayed not entirely positively and the first film in which the characters are defeated. But it also marks the first instance of commercialism preempting the writing, given that the resurrection of Spock was more out of promoting the franchise than a genuine writing need.
Unlike many other films, The Search for Spock is a controversial film amongst fans. Most fans will agree that The Motion Picture is unnecessarily slow or that The Wrath of Khan is a classic or that The Final Frontier is irredeemably bad. However, reception of The Search for Spock is more mixed. Some see it as the beginning of a decline in the films’ qualities. Others see it as a classic in its own right. My opinion falls somewhere in between though, in the end, I’d probably agree that The Search for Spock, while flawed, is often underrated, too often being summed up as “one of those odd-numbered Treks.”
Plot
The Search for Spock is the first proper Star Trek sequel. Whilst Wrath of Khan carried over character continuity to some small degree from the first film, the plot had nothing to do with the events that took place in TMP. The Search for Spock, contrastly, is entirely dependent on the events of TWoK, though only to a small degree. For instance, though the Genesis Device is mentioned again and again in the film and Spock’s death is the primary motivator for the plot, Khan is never mentioned at all. Nor, for that matter, is the battle with the Reliant or Dr. Carol Marcus whose conspicuous absence is highlighted by the focus thrust on to her and Kirk’s son, David Marcus who, if the film is any indication, apparently designed the Genesis Device all by himself.
Regardless of these small continuity hiccups, however, in comparison to other works of its time, The Search for Spock does a fairly admirable job at acknowledging the chronology of the series. Though specific details are missing, the film simply wouldn’t work without TWoK, being that the death of Spock, the Genesis Device (and planet), and the severely damaged and outmoded status of the Enterprise are all important elements of the plot. It just seems a little odd that the reasons why Spock sacrificed himself are glossed over, as are the events that led to that sacrifice and the Enterprise’s near destruction.
In any case, as far as can be told, The Search for Spock starts one minute after the end of The Wrath of Khan. The crew is battered, both physically and emotionally, and Kirk misses his deceased friend. The Enterprise, badly in need of repairs, is headed towards Earth (evidently Earth is quite close to the Mutara Nebula, since it never occurs to them to go anywhere else). On the way there, Kirk discovers that the ship’s chief doctor and his old friend, Leonard McCoy, is going batshit crazy. Unable to discern why, he has McCoy confined.
Meanwhile, news travels fast. Though the Genesis Device was detonated just hours before the film starts (or so it is implied anyway), the Klingons are already on the scene. In what appears to be an intelligence gathering mission, a Klingon warship under the command of the bold Commander Kruge makes a rendezvous with a freelance freighter, recovering information from the freighter’s captain and a Klingon spy regarding the Genesis Device. How they got information on the Device so quickly is unclear, but it seems that Federation counter-intelligence is as effect as our own was during the end of the Second World War (which is believed to be the primary way that the Soviets got the bomb so quickly after us). However, while the spy is able to acquire the Federation’s top secret description of the Genesis Project, which must be hours old since it is a bizarre copy of Wrath of Khan’s file on the Project but with Dr. Marcus replaced with Kirk, she is unable to acquire technical specifications.
Nonetheless, the news is enough to frighten the Klingons into action. Believing that the Genesis Device will give the Federation an unfair advantage in the cold war being waged between them and the Klingon Empire, Kruge decides that he must acquire the specifications of the device for himself and the Empire, so that the Klingons can build a device of their own. Little does he know, of course, that the Federation no longer have such a device and are unsure about replicating it.
Shortly thereafter, Spock’s father shows up and makes a startling revelation. Spock is not really dead. He’s just mostly dead. That is to say, his husk of a body is quite, literally (or so Sarek thinks anyway) dead. However, his katra, his immortal soul, has been fused with McCoy’s brain. After an “ah…” moment (so that’s why McCoy’s acting so wacko) and a brief heart-to-heart conversation between Sarek and Kirk, Kirk decides he’s obliged to bring McCoy to Genesis.
There’s a problem here, however. Why on Earth would Sarek want Kirk to go to Genesis? Nobody, aside from the science team investigating the planet in top secret (which includes Saavik and David from the previous film), knows that Spock’s body has regenerated itself into the body of a swiftly-aging child. Nobody. And yet both Spock (through McCoy) and Sarek insist that Kirk go to Genesis. Again, why? Wouldn’t it be more logical for Kirk to bring Spock’s katra to Vulcan, where presumably they have rituals for this kind of thing. Unless, of course, Sarek wants Kirk to retrieve Spock’s dead body and zombify it. Presumably, though, that’s not what Sarek intends. Maybe he wants to clone him. But then, again, why go to Genesis?
Actually, the whole katra thing is rather blurry and haphazard. I can’t really blame the writers for that. It’s a silly, silly concept. Not the concept of a soul, per se, but the concept of resurrection presented. After all, if Vulcans can do this sort of thing than why don’t they do it all the time. Presumably, because they don’t have enough volunteers. It’s also implied that the ritual is highly controversial near the end of the film, when the Vulcan priestess admonishes Sarek for his lack of logic. However, if this is the case and the practice is kind of looked upon by other Vulcans as superstitious and crazy, then why does Spock go through with it? Why doesn’t Spock just sacrifice himself? What’s so important about him that he, out of all the Vulcans in several centuries (as explicitly stated by the priestess), breaks the taboo on the process?
However, while the katra thing is silly and full of plot holes, there’s also really no way out of it. The writers were stuck with resurrecting Spock and anything else, other than a literal return from the dead (which would have likely been anathema to Roddenberry, given his anti-religious views) would have been likely even more silly. The fact is that the resurrection was thrust on to Bennett by Paramount and Nimoy, rather than his concept.
Other than the katra device, which admittedly is the whole point of the film, the plot of the film is actually pretty solid. While the reasons for going to Genesis are never properly explained by Sarek, Kirk’s reaction is believable given the context and the film, in spite of its foregone conclusion, manages to surprise and thrill. The theft of the Enterprise is probably one of the franchise’s most memorable moments, as is the ship’s destruction later in the film.
Speaking of which, the fight between it and the Bird-of-Prey is well done, short though it is, relying heavily on the events of the previous film to realistically justify why a heavy cruiser like the Enterprise would be so easily bested by a ship with a tenth the firepower. Similarly, the death of David comes swiftly and so unexpectedly that it adds another kicker to what would otherwise be a boring and unsuspensful plot. Once David’s dead and the Enterprise has been destroyed there’s no longer a clear guarantee that Spock’s life won’t be paid for with, say, McCoy’s or Sulu’s. In the end, this doesn’t become necessary, but it means that Bennet successfully manages to keep the drama high.
Lastly, the film also clears up a mess left by the previous one - namely, the Genesis Device. As I said in my review of that film, the Genesis Device makes no sense. At least, it didn’t before David makes it clear that the Device shouldn’t have worked but did because of his dangerously applied phlebotinum. Even then, it turns out that, not only does it not work, but the very nature of the device (which dissolves some matter and reforms it to form a preprogrammed structure) makes its creations, very, very unstable. So, in a sense, the Genesis Device actually makes more sense in this film than it did in the previous one.
Overall, the plot of The Search for Spock is entertaining. It relies on a pretty ridiculous premise and has some unexplained assumptions of the characters that may leave you scratching your head, but the continuity nods, as well as the surprising retention of suspense in spite of the foregone conclusion make this film’s story a little underrated.
Score: 7.4 (out of 10)
Characters
The Search for Spock, as one might expect, is a little bit confused when it comes to characters. For one thing, the film is ostensibly about Spock and his resurrection. But in the end, it becomes as much a character story for Kirk more than anybody else - just like the last two films. It also imports some characters from the previous film, while conspicuously leaving out others. And how well it portrays those characters imported is also variable.
Representative perhaps of the film, Kirk is a mixed individual here. On the one hand, he’s a strong character and his acting upon emotion is within his character’s nature. On the other hand, the fact that he’s so desperately eager to bring back Spock (which must have provided unintentional fetish fuel for slashers back in 80s) contradicts his own rebirth and coming to terms with the fact of Spock’s death in The Wrath of Khan. That said, one can hardly blame Kirk for wanting to resurrect his best friend but you might have expected a little bit more of internal conflict out of the decision, especially since it ends up meaning giving up his right to command a starship and going against direct orders by Starfleet Command.
Still, Kirk’s decision to destroy the Enterprise is one of the highlights of the film and of the character. It was joked by Roddenberry during the original series’ run that Kirk was “married” to the Enterprise. The previous two films only increased that impression, from Kirk’s tearful return to command in TWP to the revelations about his strained but loving relationship with Dr. Marcus. His sacrifice of the ship in this film is noteworthy, because it shows him moving beyond his youth, giving up his dreams for the sake of another - in this case Spock.
McCoy also, understandably, stands pretty well in this film - far better than in the previous two. Where he was merely a supporting character in the previous two, no more important than Scotty or Sulu ultimately, in this film he’s secondary only really to Kirk. Sure, the film’s title talks about Spock but Spock really only shows up in person at the end of the film. McCoy, burdened with the katra of a man whom with his relationship can, at best, be described as “stormy” is forced to carry on the burden of the film’s story. His growth and evolution as a character that result are part of what makes the film work, including McCoy’s revelation that, deep down, he misses Spock and wants him back for real (and not just, presumably, because he wants him out of his head).
Unfortunately, this growth is sometimes impeded by Nimoy’s unnecessary use of his own voice at times for McCoy’s dialogue when the doctor is channeling Spock. This ultimately distracts from the film and brings us out of our suspension of disbelief. It’s a tactic that’s used again and again in film and television and I can’t for the life of me know why. Surely, any idiot knows that voice is not a projection of your soul but a physical process? McCoy’s voice is going to sound like McCoy, no matter if Spock or McCoy is speaking through it.
Another character that does well in this film is David. While David fared fine in the previous film he really only comes unto his own in this one, which makes it a shame that he ends up dying. Sort of a sidekick to his mother, her conspicuous and unexplained absence (especially since she is presumably on the ship when the film begins) lets him develop more fully, however. His expanded role also allows the comparison between him and his father to become stronger, even to the point of becoming a minor plot point in the film.
On the other hand, Saavik does rather badly in this film. Part of this (in fact, perhaps most of this) is the fact that she has a new actress who neither acts nor looks anything like the previous one. But her sudden stereotyped Vulcan lack of emotion (hell, even Sarek shows more emotion that she does this time round, as does Spock) doesn’t help. It’s almost like she’s a completely different character.
Speaking of Vulcans, this marks Sarek’s first reappearance in the franchise after his initial debut in the TOS episode Journey to Babel. This is notable, because it shows a sense of continuity with the original series that few of the films have. It also is noteworthy because it is the first instance of a full-blooded Vulcan (note that Saavik, like Spock, is half-Vulcan according to the scripts) displaying emotion. There is only a hint of this, from Sarek’s desperate need for his son to live again, but it is powerful in that it hints that, beneath his veneer of logic and emotional detachment, Sarek is weeping inside. This would later be played up later in the franchise, when it became evident that rather than being emotionless as many assume they are, Vulcans are in fact far more passionate than humans, which is why they struggle so hard to lead a life of logic.
None of the other protagonists truly stand out, though all of them get a few amusing character moments that show that writers, this time around, are at least paying attention to the existence of other characters besides Kirk and Spock. Spock is actually a rare exception here as he’s more a plot device than a character in this film, which makes the implied heavy focus on him all the more ironic. But aside from him, every character gets a small moment to shine, though only Kirk, McCoy, Sarek, and David get any characterization with depth.
However, the villain is also a powerful character. Kruge is the first instance of a Klingon villain since the original series and though the shoes of Khan are difficult to fill, he does so admirably. Like Khan, Kruge is a villain with a purpose, with a meaning to his madness. And unlike Khan, that purpose is not personal or selfish in nature, but rather patriotic. This does not make him a better character than Khan, but it provides a nice contrast from many of the stereotyped, mad with power villains space opera is often burdened with. Kruge, perhaps rightly, views the Federation as a genuine threat to his people. The analogies with the Soviet Union are almost assuredly intentional, since Kruge’s fear of the Federation’s newly gained weapon seems much like the fear of another, more familiar superweapon.
But while this could be played as an overbearing message on the Cold War it isn’t. Instead, Kruge’s simply portrayed as a complex villain, one who is willing to do the Vaderesque “you have failed me for the last time” heat-of-the-moment executions but who silently grieves over the death of his crew’s majority later on in the film. A powerful figure, Kruge sets the standard for the Klingons to follow, breaking out of the Orientalist, vaguely racist savagery the Klingons of TOS fell into.
I suppose that, in the end, I’m pretty impressed with The Search for Spock’s cast. While some of the character see a decline from the previous film the characters, as a whole, shine rather well. In particular, the supporting characters are not left behind in this film and the villain manages to stand well against the precedent set by the formidable Khan.
Score: 8.5 (out of 10)
Production
This is where the film really, really shines. Whilst the production of TMP and TWoK shone at parts brilliantly, such as in the acting and sound design, their visual effects were, while hardly bad, unimpressive considering the opposition the two films were going up against (namely, the Star Wars original trilogy). The Search for Spock, however, absolutely blows every previous Star Trek film out of the water in this regard.
This is likely due, in part, to the fact that TMP’s special effects were never quite finished and TWoK was given a significantly smaller budget than TMP (hence the latter’s extensive use of stock footage from the former). The success of TWoK, however, seems to have prompted Paramount into renewed confidence with the series. I’ve been unable to discover the budget for the third film but it was undoubtedly greater than TWoK’s, if for no other reason than the visual evidence that suggests as much.
Everything about the film’s visual effects are spectacular (at least in the context of its time of production). The Enterprise looks fantastic, the retention of battle damage from the previous film just being a nice touch. It’s destruction sequence is awe-inspiring, even today. The stardock, while a bit unrealistic, is much more impressive than the bare-bones skeleton used in the previous two films (even though that is admittedly more realistic). Not to mention that in this film, not only do the special effects team get to show off one new ship (like the Reliant in TWoK) but three new ships - the Grissom, the Excelsior, and the unnamed Bird-of-Prey. All three of these ships are inventive and aesthetically pleasing designs. In particular, the Bird-of-Prey would prove so popular a design that it (and its derivatives) would overtake every other Klingon warship design in sheer number of appearances - even the original, classic D7 design (and its K’tinga offshoot).
The immense quality in the film’s production does not stop with the visuals however. While ther has been a small controversy over composer Horner’s reuse of some leitmotifs from the previous film, both in The Search for Spock and the film Aliens these instances are less prevalent than one might imagine. While Khan’s theme is indeed used to some extent as the basis for Kruge’s, it is not identical, but rather a base for the latter in the same manner that John Williams and other composers have reused familiar leitmotifs in Star Wars for a wide variety of characters and events (in particular, the leitmotifs of the Empire or Luke staring at the twin suns). It’s not really an offense so much as the use of the theme as a springboard for invoking emotions.
Actually, in many ways, The Search for Spock has the best soundtrack yet of the Star Trek films. It uses what was excellent about The Wrath of Khan, but not without adding bits of its own or other legacy pieces. Hints of both the themes from both TMP and TOS are used as well as several original pieces. The music surrounding the Klingons is appropriately suspenseful and exotic, invoking the idea of an alien enemy (though not to the same extent that V’Ger was in TMP) and the leitmotifs for Spock and the Genesis planet are mournful, somber pieces that reflect the slow death of the planet and the failure of David’s work.
Acting wise, the film is a bit more divided. Once again, Shatner does an excellent job playing the bravado and command of a man a bit too old to be doing this sort of thing but who says “what the hell” and does it anyway. All of the actors are clearly comfortable working with one another, a result likely of the fact that they’ve, by this point, spent the majority of their careers working together. Aside from Shatner, DeForest Kelly does the best job of holding up the protagonists’ line. To some extent, he actually upstages Shatner, which nobody was able to do in the previous films, with the possible exception of Ricardo Montalban as Khan. After spending the previous two films in the background, Kelly gets to shine here, portraying a trouble and bitterly aged man who, in spite of himself, manages to show he’s a good person down beneath his crotchety exterior.
This is also the swan song for David - and not just the character, but to a lesser extent his actor Merrit Butrick as well, who did a few more mostly unknown films and then died five years after this film was released, from AIDS (may he rest in peace). While he’s still nowhere near the actor that some others in the film are, he still does a pretty damn good job with David, comparable with his work in the previous film. It’s too bad really that both he and the character ended up getting killed off, as it would have been interesting to see the father-son dynamic evolve a bit more.
It’s also worth nothing the quality of Christopher Lloyd’s performance. While at first his portrayal of Kruge was a distraction (I found it difficult not to imagine the Klingon shouting at some bizarre moment that the Bird-of-Prey’s power level needed to be above “1.21 jigowatts!”) I eventually eased into it. If you ignore the obvious associations the actor has he actually does a rather spectacular job. Kruge, as played by Christopher Lloyd, is a character of dignified brutality, who kills not because he enjoys it necessarily but because its his job and he has a ruthless, all-or-nothing approach to his job. He’s threatening in a different way than Khan was (who was more of a magnificent bastard gone ax crazy), but threatening nonetheless.
On the other hand one of the few real flaws in the film’s production is the casting of Saavik. I understand that the original actress, Kristin Alley, asked for too much money. I know her agent’s demands were outrageous. But really - Robin Curtis was the best you could do? She doesn’t look, sound, or act anything like Alley! And honestly, her acting kind of sucks - all though, who knows, maybe they were trying to get her to look wooden intentionally (cause we all know Vulcans are emotionless - right?).
Other than this small hiccup however, the production values of The Search for Spock are nothing short of spectacular. Thumbs up, for sure.
Score: 9.8 (out of 10)
Summary
Plot: 7.4
Characters: 8.5
Production: 9.8
Overall: 8.6
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Overview
NOTE: Since this is a retrospective review and I fully anticipate the reader to have already seen the film expect some spoilers, though I will try my best to refrain from them. Look at it this way, I may one day get around to doing a retrospective of ESB. I will not refrain from saying Luke's father is Vader.
Though The Voyage Home (TVH) has the same cast and crew for the most part, you would never know it. The Search for Spock and The Voyage Home contrast so differently in style, that it might be a shock to learn that Nimoy directed both and Bennett penned the story for both as well. While The Search for Spock continued the darker and grittier Star Trek themes that The Wrath of Khan had built up, The Voyage Home instead plays to TOS’s more self-referential, politically anvilicious, and campy elements - all at once. The result is one of the most bizarre Star Trek films ever made but one that is nonetheless beloved amongst both the fandom and critics.
The change in tone was far from accidental. Leonard Nimoy, after finishing The Search for Spock, had begun to tire of the weariness thrust on the characters by the previous two films and felt that both he, the cast, and the characters were in need of a well-deserved break. On the subject, Nimoy said his vision for TVH was one with “no dying, no fighting, no shooting, no photon torpedoes, no phaser blasts, no stereotypical bad guy. I wanted people to really have a great time watching this film [and] if somewhere in the mix we lobbed a couple of big ideas at them, well, then that would be even better.” He certainly accomplished that.
The weird thing, and this still surprises me sometimes, is how well TVH works. Everything about it should fly against my usual preferences. The film is campy and self-referential - things I generally despise in an ostensibly serious franchise like Star Trek and one of the things I disliked the most about TOS. The film is lighter and fluffier and the consequences of the last film are hardly dealt with. The plot is ridiculous. The characters are, at times, caricatures of themselves. And then there’s of course the very bad case of “writer on board” that the film suffers from (so bad, in fact, that it spawned its own sub-trope). And yet it works.
I think this is because, in the end, TVH is not a space opera the way the previous two films were or the majority of the following films were. It’s not even a serious, navel-gazing science fiction epic in the style that TMP attempted. It’s a comedy. Straight up. No questions. Satirical both of the franchise and of the period in which the film is made, TVH is that most odd quagmire of science fiction films - one that doesn’t take itself seriously and yet remains good.
Plot
Okay, it’s probably best to get this out of the way immediately and as honestly as possible.
The plot for The Voyage Home is made of Swiss cheese.
I mean that in the best possible way of course. TVH is entertaining, fun to watch, and occasionally hilarious. However, it would be wrong to say it doesn’t suffer from some very significant plot holes, which I shall get to shortly. First, a summary.
It is three months after the end of The Search for Spock. The command crew of the destroyed Enterprise are now enjoying the arid climate of Vulcan, debating whether they should return to a Federation that, by all rights, would likely try them of several crimes and have them, at best, stripped of their rank. Sure enough, back home, not only are the Federation Council debating the fate of the crew but the Klingon Empire’s ambassador to the Federation is demanding Kirk’s head on a platter due to his theft of one of their ships and “murder” of the ship’s crew (including it’s commander, Kruge, who was apparently a hotshot back home as implied by the “Lord” title his crew kept bandying around). Never mind, of course, that the Klingon crew was illegally violating Federation space. Never mind, of course, that the Klingons initiated the combat. Not as if the Klingons have anything to hide, as they feel it necessary to show us the entire incident during the hearings.
But enough of that. What’s even more surprising is that the Federation Council apparently is aware of Kirk’s presence on Vulcan and has done nothing about it. Sarek must have some pull, considering he appears to be the only thing standing between them and a speedy court martial. Or maybe the President likes Kirk too. He’s quite a charmer I hear.
In any case, the crew decides to return to Earth and accept the consequences of their action. Saavik, for reasons perhaps best left unexplained (the script apparently heavily implies she’s pregnant with Spock’s child from his accelerated pon’farr in the previous film), will be staying on Vulcan. Sadly, she will not be missed given the decline the character took in the previous film. The new Spock, meanwhile, is still coming to grasp with having the entirety of his memories and consciousness thrust back upon him suddenly while still possessing the mind of a child. Naturally, he’s having some trouble and everything’s very confusing.
Fortunately for our heroes, it turns out the Federation have much better things to worry about than whether Kirk’s charisma can save him from life imprisonment. Out of nowhere, a large alien probe appears that renders any ship it comes across completely defenseless. It does not, however, destroy them, but instead simply passed by them as it proceeds on its course straight towards Earth. This particular plot element is very, very similar to TMP’s plot although the similarities quickly end (the probe’s journey doesn’t take two hours of compressed time for one thing but rather a few minutes)
Okay, here’s my question. Precisely, why, pray tell, does the probe disable the ships? Now, sure, it seems to be a side effect of its broadcasting whalesong message (yes, this is the film with the whales if you still hadn’t gotten that) but why is it broadcasting the whalesong message before it reaches Earth - when it is, indeed, several hours or even days (since it’s near the Romulan Neutral Zone when it is first encountered) away from Earth even when travelling at warp speeds. It’s almost like it intends to render Starfleet vessels helpless, just for the hell of it. But that doesn’t seem to fit the motivation given.
Anyhow, when the probe reaches Earth is starts making a very big mess. It seems to make the Earth’s weather go crazy for one thing, though I’ve concluded that this is not some weirdo supernatural god-like power but rather the natural result of its capacity to render Starfleet technology useless, thereby disabling the Federation’s weather-control devices that keeps Earth so nice and sunny (except, presumably, when they want it to rain). So all the crazy weather? Not a plot hole. On the other hand…
How the hell does the communication device even work? It’s supposed to be broadcasting whalesong, which we all know is sound. Sound doesn’t travel in space. So how on earth (pun unintended) can the whalesong be beamed from the probe and into the oceans. Unless, of course, it’s not sound waves but radio waves, which would explain why the ships get disabled (perhaps an EMP pulse of some kind). But if that’s the case… then how can the whales be expected to receive the message in the first place since radio waves most certainly do not magically turn into sound waves.
Unless, of course, the whales actually possess radio transmitters, as implied by Spock’s comment about the probe returning to Earth because contact had been lost. But this is even more ridiculous, for two reasons. First, it implies humpback whales have industrial-grade technology. Absolutely ridiculous, given that such technology would have long since been discovered as well as for the fact that, since fire has fueled our technological process since the Neolithic age, it would be impossible for whales to develop said technology in the first place. Secondly, if the whales have transmitters than the fact that the whales brought back to the future are able to communicate implies said transmitters are imbedded in the whales themselves. Again, we would surely have found said transmitters.
Once again, the plot is akin to Swiss cheese.
The next part actually kind of makes sense, however. You see, once Kirk and company find out about the probe they, being the nice heroes that they are, decide they have to try and stop the probe. Since humpback whales are extinct (due to the Evils of Man™) the only possible remedy is to recycle an old plot device from TOS - the time warp. Now, I know this sounds positively ridiculous. But listen to me - it’s not nearly as ridiculous as the aforementioned whale stuff and actually, to a degree, makes sense.
Think about this. The main problem with FTL (faster than light travel) is not the lightspeed barrier. Hyperspace gets around that no problem (as do several other theories). The main problem with FTL is the same problem with time travel, which is that, for some strange reason, theoretical physicists have a problem with wrapping their heads around the idea of a universe without causality - that is, to say, a linear chain of events. Maybe it’s because I’m a gamer or something but I have no problem with that. I see to hell with causality. However, the consequence of this is that any viable means of FTL is also potentially a method of time travel.
Actually, even those familiar with just general relativity (probably the best known cosmological theorem) understand the concept that, if you go faster than the speed of light, time moves backwards. So, logically it stands that characters in Star Trek should travel all the time. For some reason, they don’t, so evidently the warp drive doesn’t actually work by propelling the characters faster than the speed of light. How it does work is never explained in detail (perhaps for the best) but the very fact that they possess a method of moving faster than the speed of light (or at least appearing to do so) makes the time warp concept far less unlikely than it might at first seem.
So the result? Star Trek moves from the Future® to Next Sunday AD which, is actually now Twenty Years Ago AD. But it wasn’t when the film was released. In other words, it’s time to watch the crew make fun of themselves in the 20th century! Yay!
Actually, it’s at this point that the plot actually starts making sense and becomes fun. It doesn’t hurt that the source of humor is also entirely realistic. One of the common fallacies of Star Trek is to presume that everyone in the 23rd and 24th centuries will know and care about what happened in the good ol’ 20th and 21st (oh, sure, I’m sure most people know about Zefram Cochrane but other than that…). But what do you about the early 18th, 17th, or 16th centuries (perhaps the wrong audience though since most of you are likely to be about as, close to, or more nerdy than myself)? How about this… what about your family and friends? Or your friends’ friends? Oh, I’m sure they’ve heard of the American Revolution and Queen Elizabeth. What about the Spanish War of Succession (the 18th century’s World War Two)? Or the Thirty Years War? How about Maria Theresa? Peter the Great? Maybe they’ve heard of Isaac Newton. But what about Copernicus?
It’s just not realistic to expect everyone to be an amateur historian in the future. And, oddly, TVH gets this right (though it still makes the odd - but expected - assumption that everyone will be speaking modern American English in the future) and it is from this that most of the humor derives. Actually, they still tend to know a little more than is likely, but that can be handwaved due to the fact that a substantial portion of them are geniuses (Kirk, McCoy, Spock, Scotty…). The characters know little or nothing about the Cold War. They don’t understand the technology, the culture, the slang… It’s pretty well done actually.
It is this middle portion, which was reputably written not by Bennett surprisingly enough but by TWoK director Nicholas Meyer that really shines. Here, we see the characters deconstructed and put in the odd position of having little or no control over what’s going on around them. It’s funny, it’s amusing, and it’s makes far more sense than the beginning and end of the film.
The only poor part of this portion really is that it is also the most anvilicious portion. The writers can’t let up the chance to beat the audience over the head again and again with their sociopolitical views (such as the “obviousness” of whales being sophonts or the extremely “primitive” culture of 20th century Earth). However, this is balanced out by two things. First of all, nearly all satire is anvilicious. That’s sort of the point. If you’re not offending anyone and everyone you’re not really doing your job. Secondly, the film’s satire is self-deprecating as well. If it were just the Starfleet officers telling the audience how we all suck that would be one thing. But it’s that, plus the fact that the Starfleet officers clearly have no clue what they’re doing. That makes it funny, rather than simply pontific.
I will say one thing though. I rather dislike the introduction of the Enterprise-A for the same reason the Spock resurrection felt off. It makes the sacrifices of the previous film meaningless. But I get over it. After all, the Enterprise redesign from TMP is one of my favorite starship designs.
Enough ranting I suppose, it’s getting a bit late over here so it’s probably time to speed this up. As far as I can see, TVH has a hilariously weak premise. However, this is balanced out by the good pacing and some surprisingly good ideas thrown into the middle portion of the film. On the other hand, the numerous holes and poor continuity with the previous film drags it down. Fair, but not in the same territory as TWoK and noticeably poorer in design than The Search for Spock turned out to be.
Score: 6.7 (out of 10)
Characters
The characters of TVH are, like the film, an odd quagmire. On the one hand, none of them are taken seriously, the closest one being Dr. Grayson. However, this doesn’t make them badly written. In fact, given the rather comical plot, it’s better that they’re not. Not only that, but every character from TOS gets a chance to shine - far more than was true even in The Search for Spock. The focus has shifted again. Just as TMP shifted the attention away from Spock to Kirk, TVH suddenly shifts the focus again… from Kirk to the entire command crew.
Oh, there’s no doubt Kirk’s still a main character and one of the most prominent ones. But he shares that role much more equivocally than in previous films. Spock and Dr. Grayson are just as important and take up just as much time in the film. And that time is also reduced, since far more time is spent on Sulu, Scotty, Uhura, and Chekov than occurred in most of the previous films. The only real exception here is McCoy, who falls back into supporting character after being a central figure in The Search for Spock. But he’s still a prominent character - just not as prominent as he was before, mostly to make room for everyone else.
I do have a few complaints to levy, however. First off, this is clearly the beginning of the decline of Kirk. Not just in importance. That’s actually kind of welcome, since, as I said, it makes room for the others to play. But rather, in characterization. Kirk, from TMP to TWoK was a character who was growing, evolving, and learning to become a different man. He was aging gracefully. No more. While Kirk is still fun to watch, he effectively returns within a few minutes of the film’s beginning to the role he had back on TOS - the charming, bravado, brash captain who goes out and does things. It’s not an unfun character to watch - it was fun on TOS. But it’s less deep and it’s more conceited. It also is a regression. It’s as if all the character development in the previous three films didn’t happen.
Similarly is the case with Spock, though at least in this case it’s justified. After all, he’s just been effectively reborn. It makes sense that he’s reliving his old mentality, that he’s having to once again become comfortable with the idea of emotion and balancing it with logic. After all, he’s not the same Spock (something that is glossed over all too easily) but rather, a clone with implanted memories (and presumably a soul). I actually kind of regret the fact that the film never goes into depth about this except at the very beginning and for comical effect a few times. The idea could have been a pretty interesting plot device. Instead, it becomes an amusing gimmick, with Kirk sometimes having to remind Spock that they’re on familiar terms and not just in a professional relationship or explain the use of “colorful metaphors.” Still, Spock’s characterization here, for the first time since TOS, blows Kirk’s out of the water.
Dr. Grayson is also a weak point in the film and I’ll quickly explain why. She’s a walking, talking Author Avatar. She’s a mouthpiece for the writers and their sociopolitical views, which means that the most brutally anvilicious stuff, ironically, comes from her and not from the more civilized Starfleet officers. This makes her character kind of hard to like, since she spends most of the time talking down to the audience (via proxy). What’s even worse is her hypocrisy in deciding to force herself on to Kirk’s ship in order to time travel back to the future. So, what? She’s giving up on the present so she can live in happy-la-la Federation utopia? Supposedly, Meyer was similarly displeased with this version of the screenplay.
I guess it at least makes sense in that avoids dealing with the concept of a time paradox though, ultimately, wouldn’t that have been a more effective way of dealing with the probe? You know, preventing the whales’ extinction in the first place rather than bringing back two to the 23rd century. Whatever the case, it makes Grayson look like an overbearing, hypocritical bitch. Obviously everyone in the 20th is too stupid to save the whales so she figures why bother trying.
It’s not actually that I disagree with Grayson’s views (for the most part - I certainly didn’t agree with the hinted veganism) or don’t think she’s a sympathetic character in other ways. But she represents the very worst part of TVH, which, admittedly, isn’t enough to make the film unenjoyable. But it is worth pointing out.
Another part where the characterization fails in keeping it relevant. This is not necessarily a flaw, or at least it wasn't in its time. But I observed, while watching, that TVH will ultimately age very badly. So many of the jokes depend on pop culture references of the 80s that, well, even today a significant number need to be explained to the young'uns (such as why Chekov so immediately attracts suspicion). In another ten or twenty years the movie will be near incomprehensible to anyone who is not familiar with the history of 1980s America. That's a shame, but it's also true.
There’s a few other characters that appear in the film but none are prominent enough to really pay attention to. All in all, the characterization of TVH is its strongest point. The dialogue is witty and funny, and the characters are a blast to watch. On the downside, the result is some shallower characterizations than the earlier films allowed and the beginning of the return of Star Trek’s self-parody.
Score: 9.2 (out of 10)
Production
Narrowing down the production values of TVH is a bit trickier than with the previous Star Trek films. While the previous films followed the standard science fiction formula of lots of special effects, layered with epic music, TVH veers away from this - though it’s not at first obvious. Sure, TVH uses special effects, but in a more subtle way that might be expected of a more typical, non-science fiction film with the exceptions being the beginning and the end, with a few tricks of light thrown in the middle. And while portions of the soundtrack suppose a sense of epic grandeur, most of the music is far more contemporary, with jazzy and even techno-ish themes thrown in to evoke the atmosphere of the 80s.
In the case of the special effects, they do a remarkable job actually, with a few exceptions. I’d actually be unsurprised to learn that the film had a budget similar to The Search for Spock, in spite of the fact that it has far less use for such a budget. While the scenes in which over science fiction goodiness is required are relatively few in number, there is little disappointment. The Bird of Prey looks even better than it did in the previous film - to a point where it doesn’t even appear to be the same ship (the bridge, for instance, looks nothing like the bridge in Spock). There’s also a reappearance of the Reliant-style ships seen in TWoK, which have a far more unique appearance than before. Hell, the special effects team even manages to make the new (and very cheaply introduced) Enterprise-A look spectacular again, namely by completely redesigning the bridge (again).
It’s also worth noting the whales. The whales, are, of course, not real. There’s no way that any modern aquarium, even today, could possibly keep humpbacks in captivity. It’s beyond impractical. It’s basically impossible. However, the design of the whales is so well done that you would never know just by locking. I certainly was fooled as a young kid. What they really are is a combination of animatronic puppets (akin to the same puppets used for the dinosaurs in Jaws or Jurassic Park) along with some early CGI (for underwater scenes primarily). There’s also a bit of stock footage of real whales near the end, which almost blends seamlessly in (except for when the whales are breaching supposedly in San Francisco Bay but very clearly in the middle of the ocean).
There are a few slip-ups, however. For instance, while most of the ships look fantastic the whale probe is a bit… underwhelming. The design is not actually all that bad, though it is plain. It would seem to me that, rather than being the special effects team going cheap and using an old cardboard tube, it’s actually an attempt at making a vessel akin to the probe in Rendezvous with Rama, which is described similarly. That would imply, of course, that the interior of the probe is actually inhabitable and akin to a large biosphere - perhaps an ocean of sorts? So the design itself isn’t bad. But it does look unimpressive as hell.
The music is a bit more mixed. On the one hand, there’s some very good tracks in there. The main theme is memorable, if not as emotionally evocative as the previous three films’. There are also a few good pieces scattered through the rest of the film and the soundtrack appropriately matches its tone with the film’s semi-campy, semi-serious feel.
And you have to give it to the composer, Leonard Rosenman who really evokes the sound of the 80s. Unfortunately, he does it in a way that is neither complimentary of the decade nor of the film. Some of the music is really wonky. Granted, some of the music from the 80s was too. But the weird contrast is sometimes just a little bit too much. At other times, though, it blends seamlessly in and helps in the depiction of the crew in this strange and alien environment that is (semi-)modern America.
The acting is also pretty top notch, though the campiness I think seeps in just a little bit too much. But as I said earlier, and as Ebert has also said, there is a natural camaraderie between the actors, a result of having spent their careers together, bleeding and working together on this franchise that has become a part of their identity. Acting their characters comes almost naturally to them, as does interacting with those characters. This is even more astonishing when you consider the fact that many of the actors, when not playing their roles, did not get along with each other in the slightest.
Ultimately, TVH continues some of the high production values set by the previous three films. There is top quality acting and special effects here, with a few slip ups. The soundtrack is a bit more mixed and is at times distracting or unpleasant. At other times it soars, however, and it never drags the film down.
Score: 8.2 (out of 10)
Summary
Plot: 6.7
Characters: 9.2
Production: 8.2
Overall: 8.0