Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

An original movie poster in 1984; the cast of ST:SFS (L-R) 1st row- William Shatner (Adm. James T. Kirk), George Takei (Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu). 2nd row- DeForest Kelley (Dr. Leonard McCoy), Walter Koenig (Cmdr. Pavel Chekov), James Doohan (Cmdr. Montgomery Scott); the USS Enterprise NCC-1701 in SpaceDock opposite the new, experimental USS Excelsior NX-2000; a damaged Enterprise confronting Kruge's Bird-of-Prey; the auto-destruct sequence that killed most of Kruge's invading crew and the Enterprise; the Klingons holding an adolescent Spock, David Marcus and Lt. Saavik hostage on the Genesis Planet.
Summary

Released in theaters in 1984, The Search for Spock was intended to the final Trek movie if ratings did not improve. However, the movie turned out to be very popular at the box office, essentially saving Star Trek from the virtual wrecking ball. Picking up at the end of The Wrath of Khan, Kirk followed Starfleet's orders to return home to the Spacedock orbiting Earth for the Enterprise's repair and refit. Sending the crew on temporary shore leave, Kirk discovered instead that Starfleet intended to mothball the aging Enterprise and not refit it. Meanwhile, Sarek, the Vulcan ambassador, and Spock's father, dropped in on Admiral Kirk at home and explained the need to reunite Spock's corpse and his living spirit on Vulcan to resurrect him. At first, Kirk knew nothing of this Vulcan ritual, and Sarek probed Kirk mind to see if Spock left his katra or living spirit with him. He did not find it there and assumed the worst - that Spock had no chance for resurrection and was lost forever. Kirk, remembering that Dr. McCoy had been acting strange and in the behavioral manner resembling a Vulcan, mentioned this to Sarek. Sarek explained with urgency that both Dr. McCoy and Spock's body must be brought to Vulcan for the rejoining process. Kirk then went to seek permission from the commander of Starfleet to return to the Genesis Planet, explained his situation, but was ultimately turned down. No matter. Kirk decided to spring Dr. McCoy from the psychiatric ward and hijack the Enterprise from Spacedock. Montgomery Scott (Scotty), Kirk's chief engineer, had been transferred to the USS Excelsior, a state-of-the-art starship that was docked in Spacedock. Because of its experimental transwarp drive, the Excelsior had the capability to easily outrun the Enterprise, should any escape occur. Kirk informed Scotty of his plans in advance, and Scotty sabotaged the Excelsior's transwarp computer to ensure that they wouldn't meet any opposition.

As this was going on, the Klingons were already on their way to the Genesis Planet. Through smuggled files, they were able to discover about the awesome device and the power that it represented. Arriving there cloaked, the Klingons discovered a small science vessel orbiting the planet - the USS Grissom. A little earlier, the Grissom had been conducting scans of the planet and found an animal lifeform, where there shouldn't have been. Kirk's son, David Marcus, a researcher working with the Genesis Device and Lt. Saavik, a Vulcan science officer, beamed down to investigate. There, they found Spock's casket empty except for his burial robe and a Vulcan child wandering about nearby. They surmised that Spock's dead body was regenerated into a child. A problem in the manufacture of the Genesis Device on the part of the scientists caused the planet to age rapidly, and with it, Spock, as well. Shortly after their discovery of the child, the Grissom was attacked and destroyed by the Klingons in orbit. Meanwhile, the Enterprise, with Kirk and handful of his loyal crew aboard, entered the star system and approached the planet. The Klingons beamed a group onto the planet to take Marcus and Lt. Saavik hostage, then cloaked to minimize their detection by the Enterprise.

The Enterprise crew raised shields and prepared for battle after detecting unusual readings in the vicinity of the planet, seeing a distinctive 'shimmer' in space, typical of a cloaking device and being unable to raise the Grissom on any subspace communication channel. Eventually, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey uncloaked, and the Enterprise shot at it, disabling it for a couple minutes. The Klingon ship came around and shot at the Enterprise, shorting out its computer and all of its various functions, such as weapons control, thus making the Enterprise vulnerable. When the Klingon commander discovered that his opponent was disabled, he proceeded to force the Enterprise to surrender. Kirk initially believed that it was a bluff, but surrendered the ship after Kruge, the Klingon commander, had his son killed on the planet below. Kirk set the ship on auto-destruct sequence, while he and his crew transported to the Genesis Planet. A few seconds later, the Klingons beamed aboard the Enterprise, and were killed when the ship exploded.

Kirk challenged Kruge on the planet, first promising to give him all information about the Genesis Device, if Spock and his crew were saved from the planet, which, due to its rapid aging process, was in the process of destroying itself. Kirk eventually killed Kruge, and had himself beamed up to the Klingon ship, which had already been taken over by his small crew. Kirk ordered the ship to leave orbit, just as the Genesis Planet disintegrated. From there, Kirk and his crew went to Vulcan to reunite Spock with his katra within Dr. McCoy, in an a complicated procedure where a matriarch served as a neural conduit for the transfer of the katra. Kirk and his small crew made repairs and modifications on their newly captured ship before they were to head home to Earth.......









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