Show notes provided by Jack Adrien

How does a rejuvenated science fiction franchise follow arguably the best installment in its long-standing television and movie series? Well, if it’s the decades-long Star Trek franchise and following Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan’s (Khan’s) critical and commercial success, Paramount Pictures greenlit for producer Harve Bennett to write a sequel the day after Khan opened. But how would that work? We watched and mourned Mr. Spock’s heroic sacrifice to save the Enterprise and her crew, marking the “death” of not only one of the franchise’s most beloved and well-known characters, but also a character that embodies the science fiction genre. And Leonard Nimoy, the actor who brought Mr. Spock to life, had long expressed his frustration with the weight of playing the character, most notably in his first autobiography released in 1975, I Am Not Spock. With Khan, did Paramount grant Nimoy’s wish?

Whereas Star Trek: The Motion Picture rebooted the franchise for cinema audiences, Khan reintroduced a memorable antagonist from one of the series’ first season episodes. Although the third film in the Star Trek film franchise,Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Search) marked the second part of what many consider a three-film story arc – beginning with Khan released in 1982 and ending with 1986’s Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (Voyage) – that shows how the original series characters accept aging in the franchise’s world building. Within this loose narrative trilogy, Captain James T. Kirk met his son, David Marcus – neither of whom had met before – and Kirk witnessed the death of his best friend, Mr. Spock, in Khan. And in a startling reversal, rogue Klingons kill Kirk’s son and Mr. Spock is “resurrected” in Search. Memorably, to save his life and those of his crew, Kirk must kill the franchise’s most central character in Search: The USS Enterpriseitself. Nestled as the story-arc’s midpoint, Search allowed the Star Trek franchise to mature and move beyond its television series roots. Released three years before the successor television series in the franchise, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Search delivers on poignant story arcs for its characters, particularly William Shatner’s portrayal of Kirk.

As Paramount released more films over the years, the fandom (i.e., Trekkies) settled on an “Odd-Even Rule” (i.e., the even-numbered films are often considered better than the odd-numbered ones). But that shorthand has often overlooked and underrated Search’s significance to the franchise. Foremost, Search marks Leonard Nimoy’s motion picture directorial debut, deftly balancing action, humor, and tension. Nimoy later garnered acclaim for his direction of Voyage and Three Men and a Baby, respectively. Further, Search formally introduced the grammar, syntax, andvocabulary for the Klingon language. The constructed language gained greater notoriety when its creator, Marc Okrand, and Pocket Books published The Klingon Dictionary in 1985. Moreover, Nimoy cast Christopher Llyod against type as the primary Klingon antagonist, Commander Kruge, and whose standout performance paved the way for his later iconic role as Dr. Emmett “Doc” Brown in the Back to the Future trilogy. Lastly, Kirk’s destruction of the USS Enterprise over the Genesis planet in Search would later introduce the USS Enterprise-A in Voyage, the replacement for the destroyedstarship, creating a legacy of distinguishing successor ships of the line with the next letter in the alphabet that has endured in the franchise. 

Join the Mint Condition crew of James, Joe, John, Josh, and Jack as we go behind the scenes and discus Search’s history, our impressions when we saw the movie, and where the movie fits in the Star Trek film franchise today. Moreover, we discuss alternative castings and storylines, and does Search disprove the Odd-Even Rule. Because the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.