Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body.
- Awards
- 1 win & 7 nominations
Leonard Nimoy
- Spock
- (as Frank Force)
- …
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn the opening credits, there is a six-second-long pause between William Shatner and DeForest Kelley's names, where Leonard Nimoy's name would normally be. It's only one second between each of the other names.
- Goofs[27:49]When Kirk checks the video logs to find the keeper of Spock's katra, the timestamp reveals that Spock melded with McCoy on stardate 8128.78. Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982) begins on stardate 8130.3.
- Crazy creditsLeonard Nimoy is credited as director in the opening credits, but is not included in the cast list. There is a long gap between the names of William Shatner and DeForest Kelley, which lasts for the length of time Nimoy's name would have been displayed.
- Alternate versionsSome network broadcasts are noticeably truncated. In particular, the scene where Kruge destroys the female mercenary for looking at the Genesis information is deleted. The scene ends instead with the two characters expressing love for each other. The scene where McCoy refers to "that green-blooded son-of-a-bitch" is also censored.
- ConnectionsEdited from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982)
- SoundtracksTheme From Star Trek (TV Series)
by Alexander Courage
Featured review
A watchable but disappointing search
Having been one of the shows that was part of my childhood and growing up, the original 'Star Trek' still holds up as great and ground-breaking, even if not perfect.
'The Search for Spock' is not the 'Star Trek' franchise at its worst (marginally better than 'The Motion Picture' and much better than 'Final Frontier' for the films based on the original series). However, considering that it came after one of the best (perhaps even the best) 'Star Trek' films 'The Wrath of Khan', it was a disappointment and could have been so much more. It is not as bad as has been said by some but has too many faults to be in the passionate defence camp. Am in the camp that was mixed on the film.
Starting with the faults with 'The Search for Spock', like 'The Motion Picture' the pacing is pedestrian, again taking a while to get going, and parts could easily have been trimmed and gotten to the point more. The whole Grissom and crew stuff could have been better explored (like being lost suddenly and then their fate being ambiguous).
Leonard Nimoy takes the director's helm and while he does a competent job it is somewhat workmanlike and his experience in TV and not-so-much-experience in feature films shows, loved the focus on the characters and their relationships but it could have been more expansive. While 'Wrath of Khan' took a darker approach it wasn't consistently so and had themes that many could relate to, with the pacing being as dull as it was the tone often feels bleak and funereal which takes away from any excitement. The final scene is emotional, but the lead up is somewhat self-indulgent, while Robin Curtis is as stiff as a board and with the emotion of a corpse.
However, for all its flaws 'The Search for Spock' has a lot to recommend too. The visuals, like 'Wrath of Khan', are a marked improvement over the original series. The sets are more elaborate, the photography is moody and stylish and the special effects (and there's plenty of them) are amazing and have a real sense of wonder and emotional charge. The music by James Horner is even more clever than in 'Wrath of Khan' and him returning was effective for continuity reasons. It is bombastic and rousing at times but also swelling in romance and sensitivity and beautiful orchestration, the heavy representation of the percussive and dissonant theme for the Klingons was also effective.
'The Search for Spock' does have an intelligent script that develops the characters very well indeed, it also doesn't feel too talky like 'The Motion Picture' did. The story is not perfect and the search could have been more exciting and had more point to it, but that it focused on the characters and allowed them and their relationships to drive the story proved to be a good move, plus the characters that were underused before have more to do and the characters are interesting apart from the underdeveloped villain. The stealing and destruction of the Enterprise are a lot of fun and also very tense and the Kirk and David relationship does bring some emotional wallop.
Acting-wise, 'The Search for Spock' is just fine. Nimoy proves why Spock is such an interesting and well-loved character, while William Shatner is more understated than usual and the rest of the original series crew have expanded screen time and make good impressions, DeForest Kelley having some really meaty moments. Consensus on Christopher Lloyd has been mixed, to me he did a really good job with what he was given to work with (the character itself could have been better written and was the problem, not Lloyd), bringing a sinister approach and also an enjoyably over-the-top one.
In conclusion, watchable but disappointing at the same time. 6/10 Bethany Cox
'The Search for Spock' is not the 'Star Trek' franchise at its worst (marginally better than 'The Motion Picture' and much better than 'Final Frontier' for the films based on the original series). However, considering that it came after one of the best (perhaps even the best) 'Star Trek' films 'The Wrath of Khan', it was a disappointment and could have been so much more. It is not as bad as has been said by some but has too many faults to be in the passionate defence camp. Am in the camp that was mixed on the film.
Starting with the faults with 'The Search for Spock', like 'The Motion Picture' the pacing is pedestrian, again taking a while to get going, and parts could easily have been trimmed and gotten to the point more. The whole Grissom and crew stuff could have been better explored (like being lost suddenly and then their fate being ambiguous).
Leonard Nimoy takes the director's helm and while he does a competent job it is somewhat workmanlike and his experience in TV and not-so-much-experience in feature films shows, loved the focus on the characters and their relationships but it could have been more expansive. While 'Wrath of Khan' took a darker approach it wasn't consistently so and had themes that many could relate to, with the pacing being as dull as it was the tone often feels bleak and funereal which takes away from any excitement. The final scene is emotional, but the lead up is somewhat self-indulgent, while Robin Curtis is as stiff as a board and with the emotion of a corpse.
However, for all its flaws 'The Search for Spock' has a lot to recommend too. The visuals, like 'Wrath of Khan', are a marked improvement over the original series. The sets are more elaborate, the photography is moody and stylish and the special effects (and there's plenty of them) are amazing and have a real sense of wonder and emotional charge. The music by James Horner is even more clever than in 'Wrath of Khan' and him returning was effective for continuity reasons. It is bombastic and rousing at times but also swelling in romance and sensitivity and beautiful orchestration, the heavy representation of the percussive and dissonant theme for the Klingons was also effective.
'The Search for Spock' does have an intelligent script that develops the characters very well indeed, it also doesn't feel too talky like 'The Motion Picture' did. The story is not perfect and the search could have been more exciting and had more point to it, but that it focused on the characters and allowed them and their relationships to drive the story proved to be a good move, plus the characters that were underused before have more to do and the characters are interesting apart from the underdeveloped villain. The stealing and destruction of the Enterprise are a lot of fun and also very tense and the Kirk and David relationship does bring some emotional wallop.
Acting-wise, 'The Search for Spock' is just fine. Nimoy proves why Spock is such an interesting and well-loved character, while William Shatner is more understated than usual and the rest of the original series crew have expanded screen time and make good impressions, DeForest Kelley having some really meaty moments. Consensus on Christopher Lloyd has been mixed, to me he did a really good job with what he was given to work with (the character itself could have been better written and was the problem, not Lloyd), bringing a sinister approach and also an enjoyably over-the-top one.
In conclusion, watchable but disappointing at the same time. 6/10 Bethany Cox
helpful•41
- TheLittleSongbird
- Jul 19, 2017
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Official site
- Languages
- Also known as
- Star Trek III: In Search of Spock
- Filming locations
- Occidental College - 1600 Campus Road, Eagle Rock, Los Angeles, California, USA(near the end, stairs and fountain on planet Vulcan)
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $17,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $76,471,046
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $16,673,295
- Jun 3, 1984
- Gross worldwide
- $76,471,046
- Runtime1 hour 45 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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By what name was Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984) officially released in India in English?
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