Star Trek: the Search for Spock

The Wrath of Khan ends with the death of Spock, a sacrifice that costs him everything but save the life of everyone on the Enterprise by getting them away from the Genesis planet. Once back at Starfleet headquarters the crew of the Enterprise mourn Spock and are visited by Sarek (Spock’s father) who reveals that Spock would have left his entity, his “soul” in Kirk or another close individual and that Kirk must bring this individual and Spock’s body to Vulcan for his final rites. Kirk asks for permission to take the Enterprise to Genesis and retrieve Spock’s tube but is told that the ship is going to be decommissioned and Kirk should enjoy his time off. This leads Kirk and crew to steal the Enterprise and make their way to Genesis where Saavik and David have encountered not only a crew on Klingons looking to turn Genesis into a weapon but a being that appears to be a very young, quickly maturing Spock.

Star Trek: the Search for Spock is a great movie. I honestly think that this is one of my favorite Star Trek movies, I mean for crying out loud Kirk, Sulu, Scotty, McCoy, Uhura & Chekov steal the Enterprise and disable another Starfleet ship in order to get to Spock. Then you have McCoy doing an amazingly hysterical Spock impersonation through half the movie, and Scotty and Uhura get to be badasses. It’s a pretty damn cool Star Trek experience.

Watching the original series has reminded me of two things: Bones has always been one of my favorite characters in fiction, and that James T. Kirk is an amazing character.

Bones is always the character that points out the obvious in the most sarcastic way possible. He gets the best lines and whether he’s played by Urban or Kelley they are delivered perfectly. He is the epitome of the opinionated prick and he is a more memorable character because of it.

Kirk on the other hand is a brash, intelligent, adventurous character – he’s practically Davy Crockett in space. Kirk doesn’t look for challenges, but when presented he does the only thing that occurs to him – he faces them head on and finds a way to defeat them. Kirk inspires loyalty from those that are close to him and hate from his enemies because they know he will stop at nothing to defeat him. Kirk is the hero that can even cheat death if he had to.

I grew up with The Next Generation and loved the adventures of Picard and crew, but before I was ever introduced to Q or the Borg I watched Kirk, Spock & McCoy deal with the Klingon’s, Romulan’s and Starfleet brass. I am glad that these characters have been reincarnated for a new generation.

Director: Leonard Nimoy
Writer: Harve Bennett
Kirk: William Shatner
Spock: Leonard Nimoy
McCoy: DeForrest Kelley
Scotty: James Doohan
Sulu: George Takei
Chekov: Walter Koenig
Uhura: Nichelle Nichols
Cmdr. Kruge: Christopher Lloyd


Kirk: My God, Bones... what have I done?
McCoy: What you had to do. What you always do: turn death into a fighting chance to live.