Star Trek 3: The Search for Spock (4 Stars)

Spock is dead. Long live Spock!

At the end of the second Star Trek film Spock died. His death scene and his funeral are shown again at the beginning of this film. Soon afterwards we're given hints that he might not be dead after all.

Spock's father, Ambassador Sarek, comes to visit Jim Kirk to ask him why he didn't preserve Spock's consciousness before his death. It's customary for a Vulcan to pass on his essence, made up of his memories and his soul, to his best friend by mind meld before his death. This had not been possible because Spock was already trapped inside the warp drive containment room when Jim arrived. However, it's discovered that he had already mind melded with Leonard McCoy a few minutes earlier.

It's then revealed that the power of the Genesis Project has caused Spock's dead body to regenerate, so he's now been reborn as a young but rapidly ageing child on the planet called Genesis. Sarek requests that Spock's essence be transferred back from McCoy to Spock's body in a rarely used Vulcan ceremony called fal-tor-pan.

My question is, what's done with Vulcan essences if the body isn't miraculously regenerated? It was unexpected for Spock's body to return. Would the essence have remained in McCoy, transferred to an unborn child or stored in a Vulcan essence super-computer? Has this question ever been answered in the Star Trek canon? Please let me know.

Saavik (Robin Curtis)

Saavik (Kirstie Alley)

I felt slightly disappointed when I saw that Saavik was played by a different actress in this film. I don't like inconsistencies in casting in film series. Look how "The Dark Knight" was spoilt by replacing Katie Holmes with Maggie Gyllenhaal. However, I changed my mind as the film progressed. Robin Curtis looks more like a Vulcan than Kirstie Alley. I hope that doesn't offend any of my Vulcan readers. It might just be that I'm prejudiced in my ideas of what Vulcans should look like. At the fal-tor-pan ceremony there's a Vulcan banging a gong who looks Chinese. Maybe there's more racial diversity among the Vulcans than I suspect.

And while we're on the subject of the women in the film, could it be that Nichelle Nicholls is getting more beautiful with age? I liked her appearance in the last two films, but she looks even better now. She's stunning, even at the age of 52.

"Star Trek 3" has a minimal cast, compared to the previous films. We're used to seeing dozens of extras playing the crew of the Enterprise. In this film Jim Kirk steals the Enterprise from a space dock, so his only companions are his closest friends: McCoy, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov. Uhura and Saavik join him later.

This is an odd film. Is it worse than the even films? I don't think so. It's just as good as the second film, "The Wrath of Khan".

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