Rewatching the Star Trek movies! While Spock’s death in the previous film is moving, everyone doubted he was really dead. Hence 1984’s The Search for Spock.  

Here’s what happens: The Enterprise returns to a Federation space station following the events of the last film. But McCoy’s strange behavior and a message from Spock’s father has Kirk and the crew stealing their own ship to return to the Genesis planet to find what really became of Spock. A Klingon ship is also headed straight for Genesis, with murderous intent.

Captains courageous: There’s a great scene early on where the head of Starfleet denies permission for the Enterprise to return to Genesis, saying Kirk’s plan is based on nothing but Vulcan mysticism. Here we have the famously atheist Trek franchise going down a spiritual route. Everything Kirk does is based on faith – faith that Spock and McCoy can be saved, and faith that innate humanity can win out over the hard logic of the “needs of many vs. needs of few” thing.

Ol’ pointy ears: Does Spock have a character arc in this movie? Kinda. He spends most of the movie as a blank. He has returned as viewers predicted, so the suspense becomes in what way has he returned, and will he be the same? The movie’s final scene has Spock remembering who he is. Can we view this as a mirror to him accepting his human side in The Motion Picture, or am I reaching?

Welcome aboard: Christopher Lloyd hams it up delightfully as the evil Captain Kruge. But what is this bizarre scene at the beginning of the film where he confronts the mystery woman Valkris? She’s a Klingon agent delivering the Genesis info to him, and he kills her for looking at it without his permission. The dialogue suggests that the two may have been lovers, but the tie-in fiction disputes that, with a backstory about how they agreed to her death ahead of time, so that her dying with honor (does she?) will restore her family’s high status in the Klingon Empire.

Continuity café: McCoy goes to a bar aboard the starbase, and there’s a lot of fun alien/sci-fi gags. This includes an appearance by Tribbles. What to make of this? Does this mean Tribbles have been successfully domesticated by humans at this point, or are they about to overrun this station like they did in the classic series? Was this before or after the Klingons raided the Tribble homeworld and killed them all? Or are they not Tribbles at all, but the fake Tribbles you can buy at conventions? (Not that I’ve ever bought one…)  

What you leave behind: Bringing someone back from the dead happens a lot in sci-fi/fantasy, because it’s something you can do there that you can’t do in, say, a romcom set in a small-town bookstore. I’ve been of the mind that if your story absolutely must bring a character back from the dead, it should be really hard. In this film, Kirk makes huge, life-changing sacrifices in pursuit of Spock. This speaks to the story’s theme of acting on faith. Good movie, lots to think on.

Next: San Fransico is lovely in the springtime.

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