Star Trek: Start to Finish

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

I watched Star Trek III: The Search For Spock (Memory Alpha) nearly a month ago. Some of the lag time is due to life taking more time than I had, but a lot of it is due to my not having much of anything to say about this movie. I will now spend a few hundred words telling you all about it.

The Good

This movie marks the directorial debut of Leonard Nimoy, who is also the titular character of the film. Oh, and he starts out dead. That’s a promising back-story, and you can see how profoundly Nimoy makes his mark on the rest of the Trek universe in this film: his shots are beautiful, with great framing and a keen ability to draw your eye to what’s important.

The cinematography serves the universe well by showcasing the world of Star Trek, which has until now been a motley collection of ideas. Search begins where Khan left off and tries to weave the various parts together, bringing the science into the warfare and the politics into the technology. This extends especially to the Spacedock, whose very size frames the already-massive Enterprise and lets us know that we’ve seen only a sliver of what’s on offer in this little universe.

The emphasis on the Vulcan culture is well-done and well-timed; Nimoy got a lot of control over something that was very dear to him, and he uses it to make the race he exemplified fascinating and alien.

The minor characters all get to stretch their legs a bit here, too. Sulu and Uhura both get great vignettes (not, quite, whole scenes), and Rands makes an appearance for those in the know. Sarek returns and steals a few scenes from Kirk. Christopher Lloyd does a good job of being the baddie.

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The best scene in the whole of the movie is the loss of the Enterprise. She’s a member of the cast, and seeing her die is a moving sequence. Like Spock she sacrifices herself for her friends, and she gets as much effects on her as he did for his death scene. The shot of all of them standing on the mountaintop watching her burn up in the atmosphere is perfect, and the dialog is just right:

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

End Spoilers

The Bad

The plot feels contrived from beginning to end. Spock is dead, but the title tells you there’s a search for him. So he’s coming back. Then there’s a whole movie where they kind of stumble around while you don’t get to see Kirk and Spock interact, except in weird sequences where Bones is doing a (well-acted!) Spock impression off-camera. And since Bones is busy being Spock, he doesn’t get a chance to be Bones as much as he should (the above-mentioned scene being a notable exception).

Meanwhile, you have a split camera movie where David and a recast Saavik are wandering around searching for “Spock” and finding other actors who don’t play the roll well because it’s written in a way that all the Spock-like things about Spock aren’t present. So two characters you don’t really care about find a character you want to care about but he’s not actually the guy you care about. Great!

But don’t worry; Kirk and the crew are stealing the Enterprise (you can run that thing with four guys, you know) and flying back to the Genesis Planet because… why, exactly? They need Spock’s body or something? It turns out they do, but it’s not clear why they know that beforehand.

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And then when the big turning point of everything comes and the Klingons go ahead and kill David, you get a brief moment where the two stories collide and Kirk does all the acting work (with, I must say, more subtlety than I thought he could manage). This is a big plot point, but David’s newness still made him feel expendible to me: it wasn’t an unexpected loss or an uncoverable blow. The impact could have been bigger had the character gotten to play onscreen for a while longer.

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And the whole atomic-bomb überweapon thing seemed avante-guard then, but it just seems tired now. This debate has played out in better movies and didn’t need to be the plot of a Trek movie, since it’s already been covered a few times in episodes.

And where the hell did Carol go?

Best Dialog

Bones: That green blooded son of a butch. It’s his revenge for all those arguments he lost.

Kruge: No.
Kirk: Why?
Kurge: Because you wish it!

Bones: I choose the danger.

Grade

C; I’d watch it again just because it was such a pretty movie to watch, but there’s nothing to make me recommend it to anyone who doesn’t already like Trek.

Elaan of Troyius

Elaan of Troyius (Video; Memory Alpha) is a mediocre episode with one awesome scene. In a disputed star system on the border between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, two warring planets are ready to forge a peace with a marriage.

There’s some stuff that’s supposed to be funny with the bride not wanting to go and being a savage barbarian and Kirk telling her what-for, but it kind of falls flat. And then she cries and her tears enslave Kirk and that has very little apparent effect on him but makes her into a completely different person. Then half way through the episode the writer forgets this plot and focuses on Klingons.

The Klingons want the system for their own purposes, and stopping the peace treaty is apparently in their interests even though it’s never explained why. So the Klingon Warbird attacks the Enterprise, making strafing runs while the Enterprise’s warp drive is out. There’s some tactics and maneuvering, with feints and bluffs and last-minute aid from Scotty in Engineering. It’s a nice little bit of action and it’s pulled off well. Too bad it’s in such a lame episode.

Grade

C

Day of the Dove

The Day of the Dove (HD Video; Memory Alpha) starts with Kirk getting punched in the face by a Klingon, and quickly goes downhill from there.

Best part

The Klingon Captain Kang is played by the Technomage from B5.

Worst part

Basically everything else in the episode. There’s some terrible sword fighting, Klingons in blackface, a being that’s crazy powerful but stupidly scared, a total lack of backstory, a simple plot mechanic with no twist, and a sixties pean to race relations that’s so guileless it doesn’t even pretend to be anything else.

Grade

D

A Private Little War

The primitive peoples of Neural have never known violence against each other, but flintlocks have started A Private Little War (Memory Alpha; SD Video). The Enterprise is here on a scientific mission, and Kirk is saddened to see the world he surveyed thirteen year ago falling from the pacifist heights it had attained. Saddened and suspicious: did the village people invent the flintlocks, or did the Klingons provide them?

This episode has a great idea at its center, but it suffers from the same old problem of not enough going on, and it fills the space with crap. The basic dynamic of discovering if the Klingons are involved and the slow-motion ethical conundrum over what to do if they are is sound, and well done. But the episode flails about badly in the surrounding story of Kirk being attacked by a rubber suit monster and his healing by Nona, a hill people witch who wants weapons for her people, too.

Nona is not a bad character, but her costume and makeup make her look like a trailer queen and she’s terribly acted. But the really problem is that she is given such an important role while her husband Tyree, who resists the escalation, is given no real lines about his resistance or why he does so, and is left with just angst. This cripples the major story, which is a what-should-be-done about providing these people with weapons to defend themselves.

And what’s really interesting about the episode is this escalation conflict, which is a pretty obvious commentary on Vietnam. The Federation and the Klingons are the Cold War powers, and they are pushing arms into this poor little backwater to wage a proxy war with each other. McCoy is vocally against this strategy, but Kirk thinks it’s the only thing that will possibly keep both sides alive; mutually assured destruction for the black powder set. The end of the episode leaves the actual outcome uncertain, most likely because Kirk’s solution is the only real way out that can be shown onscreen, barring a silly deus ex machina. That the writers didn’t think of giving each side some nonmilitary technology that would foster trade (or somesuch diplomatic solution) is kind of sad.

Also, that rubber suit monster is really lame, as all rubber suit monsters are.

However, the above is a pretty negative view of the episode, and I actually rather enjoyed it. The central idea is sound, the writing is good, and the pacing hits at the right times, even if some of those hits are the lame surrounding story. This episode even has a C-plot involving Spock healing up in the Enterprise after getting shot in the cold open. It’s interesting even though it is in no way related to the main action, even on a thematic level. But this episode is saying something about the world it lived in, which was a brave and smart thing to do, even if they only point out a problem and don’t even offer a hint of a solution, or a direction in which a solution could be found.

Bottom line: a good episode, but it could have been great.

Grade

B-

The Trouble with Tribbles

The Trouble with Tribbles (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is a great concept with a whole lot of teh funnies, but a very poorly constructed episode.

We start with a very clunky exposition scene with Kirk, Spock, and Chekov talking in the conference room. Where are we going? Space Station K7! Why are we going there? To prove we’re better than the Klingons!

Wait! A Priority One Alert Call! Says Kirk, “we can only assume the Klingons have attacked.” You have an alert call that leaves you making assumptions about what has happened? Seriously? Maybe you should send actual words.

When the Enterprise reaches the station, they find that it’s just the panicky Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs Nilz Baris, who wants a few more security guards, if anyone happens to have them.

Wait, wasn’t this episode supposed to have Tribbles in it?

Why, yes. Let’s have a poorly edited scene where Uhura and Chekov overhear a long bartering conversation about the price of Tribbles.

Oh, it is quite a long scene, isn’t it?

And quite pointless, too. Upshot: Uhura gets a Tribble.

Wait, Klingons! A Klingon ship appeared! And they have demands! They want… shore leave! [Cue dramatic chord]

Aside: the Klingon captain is the squire of Gothos.

Now there’s drinking! In this corner: Scotty has scotch, a man’s drink. In that corner, Chekov has vodka, a real drink! Are everyone’s cultural stereotypes firmly fastened? FIGHT!

Wait, you’re fighting the Klingons! That could start an international incident!

Wait, you’re still fighting the Klingons? This fight is a little long, here.

Meanwhile, on the Enterprise:

McCoy: Spock, I may not know much about these little Tribbles yet, but I have discovered one thing.
Spock: Oh?
McCoy: I like them. Better than I like you.
Spock: They do indeed have one redeeming characteristic.
McCoy: What’s that?
Spock: They do not talk too much.

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But McCoy and Spock do discover something: the Tribbles are everywhere! Like, in the grain that Baris is so eager to protect! (If you forgot who Baris is, he’s the one who issued to Priority One Alert looking for security guards way back in Act One. He’s interesting in that he and Kirk are just outright mean to each other, which is a relationship dynamic that this show doesn’t use very often, especially between high-ranking officials).

But back to the Tribbles! They’ve eaten all the grain! Without it, the Federation can’t prove that they’re better than the Klingons! Oh no! It looks bleak, but then we learn that the grain was poisoned in a nefarious Klingon plot, to which the Klingon ship is an extraneous and altogether uninterested side party. This, somehow, makes things better.

Speaking of better, the Enterprise is Tribble free! McCoy, Spock and Scotty just rounded up all the little buggers and transported them onto the Klingon ship! International incident that we narrowly avoided earlier in the episode: bring it on!

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Grade

B+; this episode is simply different than anything else. It’s whimsical and funny, and it goes to great lengths not to take itself too seriously. But given an even cursory glance it kind of falls apart. Still, it’s The Trouble with Tribbles; how can you grade that badly?

Friday’s Child

Friday’s Child (Memory Alpha; SD Video) never mentions Friday, but there is indeed a child.

Also: Klingons!

We open with a long scene telling us all about how dangerous Capella IV is. The crew beams down to the native encampment, and then:

[Klingon comes into view; he is unarmed and standing amongst the natives]
Grant the Redshirt: A Klingon! [Draws phaser, points at Klingon]
[Natives throw weapon; kill Grant instantly]

One scene later, Kirk defends Grant’s decision. Really, Kirk? Because Grant was an idiot.

And you know who else is an idiot in this episode? Scotty! Scotty, who is normally on top of things, falls for the most obvious trap I’ve ever heard of. Really, Scotty? I had more faith in you.

But as for the actual content of this episode, it’s a rather bland little adventure where the Enterprise is trying to secure mining rights (yawn) and has to be hospitable, but fails, and then there’s a coup so it doesn’t matter that they’ve failed, but now they’re on the run from the usurper. Just for kicks, they bring along the very-pregnant wife of the former leader. There’s a little bit of a chase, and the lame B-plot with Scotty, and a resolution that feels forced. Unsatisfying.

Of note, however, is that this is the first time we see a Klingon vessel. It’s a glowing yellow chevron of light. I hope that’s not because you spend all your budget on the ridiculous costumes in this episode.

Grade

C-

Errand of Mercy

Errand of Mercy (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is a fun little episode. War breaks out between the Federation and the until-now-unseen Klingon Empire. The flashpoint is a little planet in the disputed zone called Organia, and both sides send ships to try to hold it. But nothing goes right, and the Organians are none too happy to be in the middle of this violence.

This episode does a pretty good job of keeping you guessing as to what’s going on, while still meting out enough action and information to keep you interested. The mysterious Organians and their bizarre actions provide a backdrop, and the Klingon Military Governor a superb villain.

In fact, he’s so good that he deserves his own paragraph. This is the guy who defines what the Klingons are. He’s the first Klingon we see, and he makes them brusque but smart, fierce but not foolhardy, and calculating in the best way. He is in microcosm the Klingon Empire that becomes such a big component of the Trek universe; you can see him as the originator of the entire genre. He’s terribly well written and superbly played, even if his Fu Manchu mustache and olive makeup look a little ridiculous.

Grade

A-