Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Part Seven
Recap: Kruge beams up to his Bird-of-Prey, leaving Saavik, David and Spock guarded on the Genesis Planet. The cloaked BoP tries a sneak attack on the Enterprise, but Chekov spots it before it cloaks and Sulu and Kirk visually track it by its "energy surge". Kirk orders all power to weapons and shoots the Bird of Prey seconds after it decloaks to fire. However the damaged Klingon ship gets its own shot in, which destroys Scotty's jury-rigged control system and makes the Enterprise a sitting duck.
Kruge wonders why the more powerful Enterprise doesn't destroy him, and is surprised when Kirk comes on screen and orders him to surrender. Sensing Kirk's weakness, Kruge tells him to surrender instead. Kruge tells Kirk he has prisoners, and he will kill them if Kirk doesn't cooperate.
Kruge allows Kirk to speak to the prisoners. Saavik tells Kirk that Spock is alive; David admits to him that Genesis is a failure, and says that he doesn't think the Klingons will kill them. Kruge, of course, immediately decides to kill one of them, telling his guard he doesn't care which. The guard selects Saavik, but as he raises his knife David attacks him and gets stabbed in her place. Saavik breaks the news over the communicator to Kirk. Stunned, Kirk tries to sit down in his chair but misses, and shouts "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son!" Kruge threatens to kill the other prisoners, and Kirk agrees to surrender the Enterprise.
Kruge orders Torg to lead every Klingon left on the ship (except Kruge and the transporter operator, Maltz) onto the Enterprise. Meanwhile, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov activate the Enterprise auto-destruct and then our heroes beam down to the Genesis planet. The six Klingons beam onto an empty ship. They reach the bridge, where the Enterprise computer is counting down the final seconds to auto-destruct. Torg has no idea what this means, but when he lets Kruge hear it over a communicator the commander screams at him to get off the ship. Too late; the Enterprise explodes and takes the Klingons with it.
Comments: David's smirk when he hears Kirk's voice over the intercom is great. Partly relief but mostly "I knew that bastard would show up". He even says as much a little later.
Kirk and Sulu detect the cloaked BoP's "energy surge" with their naked eyes (although I guess it could have been enhanced by the viewscreen). This seems like a little more than a minor flaw in the cloaking device. The Romulans didn't have this problem twenty years ago...maybe they didn't share all of their tech with the Klingons. (In fact, knowing the Romulans I'm pretty sure they didn't.)
Kirk decides not to raise the shields, directing power to weapons instead. I suppose they have limited power...but you'd think Kirk would have learned his lesson about the shields in the last movie.
Kirk "guesses" that the BoP has to decloak before firing, probably because he remembers that the Romulans always did. In Star Trek VI a prototype Klingon BoP was built without this limitation, but the technology was apparently forgotten immediately afterwards.
I guess they're deep enough in Fed territory that any Klingon ship can be assumed to be hostile and fired upon without further cause. As Kirk says, this is an act of war on the Klingons' part. The Fed (typically) doesn't do anything about it, even though in STIV the Klingons don't seem to be distancing themselves from Kruge's actions.
The structure of this battle is a little strange. Why have our heroes outwit the cloaking device to get the first shot in, then become sitting ducks because of a malfunction and end up at the Klingons' mercy? Why not have the Klingons fire first/only? Kruge didn't want to destroy the Enterprise, so you'd end up in the same situation.
The Enterprise's first shot kills Kruge's dog-lizard. It's on now! (Well, I guess the writers had to get rid of the animal before our heroes took over the ship. Can you imagine Kirk striding onto the bridge of the Bird of Prey and having his throat ripped out by that thing? Because I can...and honestly, it's pretty funny. But not an ending that would leave fans happy, I suppose.)
Whatever damage the BoP takes doesn't affect anymore it after Kirk hijacks it, apparently.
Scotty complains that he wasn't expecting to take the ship into combat...he's served under Kirk for how long? Doesn't he know how these things work by now?
Kirk demands Kruge's surrender, but they reach a stalemate when Kruge says "Fuck you! You surrender!" I can't help but think the battle scene could have used a rewrite.
Kruge calls the Federation "intergalactic criminals" who have built a "doomsday weapon". TOS-era Klingons can't decide if humans are wimps they should beat up, or bloodthirsty savages who want to destroy them (and who they should therefore beat up). By the TNG era, they've pretty much settled on "wimps".
Saavik doesn't directly tell Kirk that Spock is alive, instead calling him "a Vulcan scientist of your acquaintance". My guess is that she assumed there was a crew on the ship and didn't want to startle them. Still, this could have led to misunderstandings.
"There's someone else...a Vulcan scientist of your acquaintance. "
"This Vulcan...is he alive?"
"Why would he not be alive? I'm talking about the Grissom's science officer, Lt. Sporthak. You met at that reception last year?"
"What? Fuck that guy! Where's Spock?!"
".....Spock is dead, sir. I'm pretty sure you were there. "
Silly David. Never doubt a Klingon's willingness to kill anyone for anything.
It's kind of dumb of Kruge to kill a prisoner at random, since he ends up killing the only person (in this movie) who's even capable of giving him what he wants. If you have to kill someone, it would be a better idea to kill the mute Vulcan teenager who doesn't seem likely to know much about Genesis, but that would end the movie in a hurry.
David sacrifices himself to save Saavik. He was always brave, I'll give him that.
In the novelization Saavik goes berserk and attacks the Klingons when David dies; in the movie she doesn't seem to care that much. I understand why they didn't have her go crazy, because it would take attention away from Kirk's reaction. Also, they would probably need to explain that she's not a full-blooded Vulcan.
Shatner missed his chair by accident, but they left it in.
Sulu says the BoP has a crew of twelve. It's interesting that Sulu knows this and Kirk doesn't; some have it that Sulu is a bit of a military geek, in addition to his many other hobbies.
Twelve seems like a small-ass crew compared to the Enterprise's 400, but it's a smaller ship, and really, how many of the Enterprise crew were needed for the ship to function? The Klingons presumably get by without astrophysicists, geologists, 20th-century historians, yeomen, and such. I'm pretty sure they don't even have doctors, come to think of it.
In TNG we see Bird-of-Prey type ships with a much larger crew than this, but they might be different classes that look the same.
Kirk cannot let the Enterprise fall into Klingon hands, period, even if it means that every one of our heroes dies on Genesis. Since he has no means of fighting them off with a crew of five and a crippled ship, there's no choice but to blow it up.
I've complained about this before, but...Kruge sends six guys to take over a ship with a normal crew of 400? If the Enterprise were remotely functional, there would be dozens of ways of taking out the boarding party with minimal casualties. I guess Kruge isn't thinking too clearly with Genesis seemingly within his reach...
Kruge wants to take Genesis from the Enterprise memory banks, but how much info does the Enterprise actually have? Not enough to make a Genesis device, I bet.
They haven't changed the destruct codes at all in fifteen years? I guess they rely on the voice recognition as much as the code, but that's not particularly secure either. As Data once demonstrated, you can really fuck things up if you can imitate the Captain's voice.
"Destruct zero" blows up the ship with pre-placed charges. The alternative is "destruct one", which is a matter-antimatter explosion; however that would blow up the Bird-of-Prey and possibly the Genesis planet as well.
The transporter room has to be really close to the bridge for the timing of this scene to work.
Obviously Kruge understands a little English (at least basic numbers, and what they might mean in this context) while Torg does not. (Universal translator issues, as always, are best left unexplored.) As the "new" Uhura might point out, you never know when it might help to learn your enemy's language.
The original Enterprise dies in a fairly fitting manner, Far more so than the poor Enterprise-D, which was destroyed by a lucky shot from an outdated BoP in a meaningless battle with the horrible Lursa and B'Etor.
Kruge wonders why the more powerful Enterprise doesn't destroy him, and is surprised when Kirk comes on screen and orders him to surrender. Sensing Kirk's weakness, Kruge tells him to surrender instead. Kruge tells Kirk he has prisoners, and he will kill them if Kirk doesn't cooperate.
Kruge allows Kirk to speak to the prisoners. Saavik tells Kirk that Spock is alive; David admits to him that Genesis is a failure, and says that he doesn't think the Klingons will kill them. Kruge, of course, immediately decides to kill one of them, telling his guard he doesn't care which. The guard selects Saavik, but as he raises his knife David attacks him and gets stabbed in her place. Saavik breaks the news over the communicator to Kirk. Stunned, Kirk tries to sit down in his chair but misses, and shouts "You Klingon bastard, you killed my son!" Kruge threatens to kill the other prisoners, and Kirk agrees to surrender the Enterprise.
Kruge orders Torg to lead every Klingon left on the ship (except Kruge and the transporter operator, Maltz) onto the Enterprise. Meanwhile, Kirk, Scotty and Chekov activate the Enterprise auto-destruct and then our heroes beam down to the Genesis planet. The six Klingons beam onto an empty ship. They reach the bridge, where the Enterprise computer is counting down the final seconds to auto-destruct. Torg has no idea what this means, but when he lets Kruge hear it over a communicator the commander screams at him to get off the ship. Too late; the Enterprise explodes and takes the Klingons with it.
Comments: David's smirk when he hears Kirk's voice over the intercom is great. Partly relief but mostly "I knew that bastard would show up". He even says as much a little later.
Kirk and Sulu detect the cloaked BoP's "energy surge" with their naked eyes (although I guess it could have been enhanced by the viewscreen). This seems like a little more than a minor flaw in the cloaking device. The Romulans didn't have this problem twenty years ago...maybe they didn't share all of their tech with the Klingons. (In fact, knowing the Romulans I'm pretty sure they didn't.)
Kirk decides not to raise the shields, directing power to weapons instead. I suppose they have limited power...but you'd think Kirk would have learned his lesson about the shields in the last movie.
Kirk "guesses" that the BoP has to decloak before firing, probably because he remembers that the Romulans always did. In Star Trek VI a prototype Klingon BoP was built without this limitation, but the technology was apparently forgotten immediately afterwards.
I guess they're deep enough in Fed territory that any Klingon ship can be assumed to be hostile and fired upon without further cause. As Kirk says, this is an act of war on the Klingons' part. The Fed (typically) doesn't do anything about it, even though in STIV the Klingons don't seem to be distancing themselves from Kruge's actions.
The structure of this battle is a little strange. Why have our heroes outwit the cloaking device to get the first shot in, then become sitting ducks because of a malfunction and end up at the Klingons' mercy? Why not have the Klingons fire first/only? Kruge didn't want to destroy the Enterprise, so you'd end up in the same situation.
The Enterprise's first shot kills Kruge's dog-lizard. It's on now! (Well, I guess the writers had to get rid of the animal before our heroes took over the ship. Can you imagine Kirk striding onto the bridge of the Bird of Prey and having his throat ripped out by that thing? Because I can...and honestly, it's pretty funny. But not an ending that would leave fans happy, I suppose.)
Whatever damage the BoP takes doesn't affect anymore it after Kirk hijacks it, apparently.
Scotty complains that he wasn't expecting to take the ship into combat...he's served under Kirk for how long? Doesn't he know how these things work by now?
Kirk demands Kruge's surrender, but they reach a stalemate when Kruge says "Fuck you! You surrender!" I can't help but think the battle scene could have used a rewrite.
Kruge calls the Federation "intergalactic criminals" who have built a "doomsday weapon". TOS-era Klingons can't decide if humans are wimps they should beat up, or bloodthirsty savages who want to destroy them (and who they should therefore beat up). By the TNG era, they've pretty much settled on "wimps".
Saavik doesn't directly tell Kirk that Spock is alive, instead calling him "a Vulcan scientist of your acquaintance". My guess is that she assumed there was a crew on the ship and didn't want to startle them. Still, this could have led to misunderstandings.
"There's someone else...a Vulcan scientist of your acquaintance. "
"This Vulcan...is he alive?"
"Why would he not be alive? I'm talking about the Grissom's science officer, Lt. Sporthak. You met at that reception last year?"
"What? Fuck that guy! Where's Spock?!"
".....Spock is dead, sir. I'm pretty sure you were there. "
Silly David. Never doubt a Klingon's willingness to kill anyone for anything.
It's kind of dumb of Kruge to kill a prisoner at random, since he ends up killing the only person (in this movie) who's even capable of giving him what he wants. If you have to kill someone, it would be a better idea to kill the mute Vulcan teenager who doesn't seem likely to know much about Genesis, but that would end the movie in a hurry.
David sacrifices himself to save Saavik. He was always brave, I'll give him that.
In the novelization Saavik goes berserk and attacks the Klingons when David dies; in the movie she doesn't seem to care that much. I understand why they didn't have her go crazy, because it would take attention away from Kirk's reaction. Also, they would probably need to explain that she's not a full-blooded Vulcan.
Shatner missed his chair by accident, but they left it in.
Sulu says the BoP has a crew of twelve. It's interesting that Sulu knows this and Kirk doesn't; some have it that Sulu is a bit of a military geek, in addition to his many other hobbies.
Twelve seems like a small-ass crew compared to the Enterprise's 400, but it's a smaller ship, and really, how many of the Enterprise crew were needed for the ship to function? The Klingons presumably get by without astrophysicists, geologists, 20th-century historians, yeomen, and such. I'm pretty sure they don't even have doctors, come to think of it.
In TNG we see Bird-of-Prey type ships with a much larger crew than this, but they might be different classes that look the same.
Kirk cannot let the Enterprise fall into Klingon hands, period, even if it means that every one of our heroes dies on Genesis. Since he has no means of fighting them off with a crew of five and a crippled ship, there's no choice but to blow it up.
I've complained about this before, but...Kruge sends six guys to take over a ship with a normal crew of 400? If the Enterprise were remotely functional, there would be dozens of ways of taking out the boarding party with minimal casualties. I guess Kruge isn't thinking too clearly with Genesis seemingly within his reach...
Kruge wants to take Genesis from the Enterprise memory banks, but how much info does the Enterprise actually have? Not enough to make a Genesis device, I bet.
They haven't changed the destruct codes at all in fifteen years? I guess they rely on the voice recognition as much as the code, but that's not particularly secure either. As Data once demonstrated, you can really fuck things up if you can imitate the Captain's voice.
"Destruct zero" blows up the ship with pre-placed charges. The alternative is "destruct one", which is a matter-antimatter explosion; however that would blow up the Bird-of-Prey and possibly the Genesis planet as well.
The transporter room has to be really close to the bridge for the timing of this scene to work.
Obviously Kruge understands a little English (at least basic numbers, and what they might mean in this context) while Torg does not. (Universal translator issues, as always, are best left unexplored.) As the "new" Uhura might point out, you never know when it might help to learn your enemy's language.
The original Enterprise dies in a fairly fitting manner, Far more so than the poor Enterprise-D, which was destroyed by a lucky shot from an outdated BoP in a meaningless battle with the horrible Lursa and B'Etor.