Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, Part One
Recap: This movie starts by briefly showing us Spock's death and funeral scenes from the last one. We hear Nimoy's "Space: the Final Frontier" from the last film and see Spock's burial... tube.... on the planet. ("Call for Mr. Spock." "Is it about his tube?") The credits roll, not featuring Leonard Nimoy's name (clever ruse, that).
We see the Enterprise, still scarred from Khan's attacks, fly through space as sad music plays. Cut to the bridge, where Kirk is pacing as Shatner's voiceover (his personal log) muses that the ship feels empty. Saavik and David are off studying the Genesis planet, and most of the cadets have been reassigned. Kirk says that the death of Spock is like an open wound, and he feels like he left the best part of himself behind on the Genesis planet. As the voiceover ends, the flesh Kirk gives a few minor orders to the crew. He calls Scotty in Engineering, who tells him that a refit of the Enterprise will take eight weeks--but Scotty can do it in two. Kirk asks if he always multiplies his repair estimates by four, and Scotty says that's how he got his reputation as a miracle worker.
Kirk prepares to leave the bridge, but is stopped by a young black cadet who asks if Starfleet will have a reception for them when they get home. Kirk says that there should be, considering the price they paid.
Elsewhere in space, a small ship crewed by a few scuzzy looking humans carries an elegant female alien passenger to an appointed rendezvous. She hails "Commander Kruge",whose Klingon Bird of Prey deactivates its cloaking device and appears nearly on top of the merchant ship. "Valkris" tells Kruge that she has the information he wants--a tape describing the Genesis project, whose contents she broadcasts to the Klingon ship. She tells Kruge that he will find it useful. On finding out that she's seen it, Kruge has his BoP attack and destroy the merchant ship, killing everyone aboard. He tells them to set a course for the Federation neutral zone, and he orders one of the crew to feed the monstrous dog-creature he keeps near his captain's chair.
Comments:
The bridge is much more brightly lit in the early scenes of this movie than it was in the last one.
It's unclear how much time has passed since the end of Wrath of Khan, but it's clearly not too long. A few days, or maybe a couple weeks.
This film makes only one brief mention of Carol Marcus; in fact the Genesis exposition tape that she had made in the last movie is redone by Kirk in this one, for no reason. I guess she had to run to Earth to deal with political fallout from Genesis? But seriously, were the producers just cheap, or did Bibi Besch not want to come back?
Kirk and Scotty are obviously joking around in this scene, but it's somehow become "common knowledge" that Scotty always pads his repair estimates. In the TNG episode where he appears he even tells Geordi to start doing it. If he's just giving himself a little wiggle room I can see it, but the "factor of four" would be wildly irresponsible if it were true. IIRC, in TOS Kirk usually asked Scotty something like "can you fix this before we die", and I can't imagine him being dishonest in that scenario.
Chekov appears to be a normal member of the crew in this movie, despite being first officer of Reliant in the last one. Well, Kirk needs a navigator and the Reliant sure doesn't need a first officer anymore, so why not? Actually....who's first officer of Enterprise right now? No one, I guess.
The cadet who talks to Kirk is a young Phil Morris, best known as Jackie Chiles.
"Are they planning a ceremony for when we get in? I mean a reception?"....or maybe a trial? For you, Kirk, for abandoning Khan on a random planet without telling anyone so he could go on a bloody rampage years later?
Starfleet seems to take "all's well that ends well" as its principle of justice. Kirk beat Khan in the end, so who cares about his responsibility for what Khan did in the meantime?
Khan's actions hang like a shadow over this movie, but no one ever mentions him by name. I guess they figured it was best not to confuse new viewers (or to invite comparisons to the last movie).
Kirk tells the cadet "We've paid for the party with our dearest blood". (I always heard it as "dearest beloved".) This is a badly written line that makes Kirk sound like a drama queen. It must also puzzle the cadet, who presumably barely knew Spock.
For all Star Trek talks about human progress, there sure are a lot of lowlife human space criminals around whenever the plot needs them. Look at Harry Mudd, Cyrano Jones, the Orion Syndicate, or Vash for that matter.
The Bird-of-Prey, complete with cloaking device, was designed to be a Romulan ship (since BoPs and cloaking devices were kind of their things, back in the day) but someone liked Klingons better. In one draft Kruge stole his ship from some Romulans, but they eventually just said that Klingons had Birds of Prey and cloaking too. Well, they did share technology...in "Elaan of Troyius" Romulans used Klingon ships, for the same real life reasons (they already had the ship models and wanted to save on the budget). Maybe TNG-era Romulans hate Klingons for biting their style.
This basic Klingon Bird of Prey design stays in use for several decades, into the TNG era. I do like it as an aesthetic design.
I liked the cloaking device better when it was a mysterious tech that only the Romulans had (and they paid a price for it, as seen in "Balance of Terror"). If everybody has it then Starfleet looks dumb for not using it themselves.
Valkris doesn't look Klingon, but as a spy maybe she shouldn't.
Valkris says she "purchased" the Genesis data, suggesting corruption (to say nothing of treason) within the Federation.
If she was sent specifically to get info about Genesis, then coming back with a brief explanation of what it is and nothing else doesn't seem that impressive. On the other hand, if no Klingon had any idea what Genesis was before she got the tape, then she did them a hell of a service.
In the novelization Valkris gets herself killed on purpose to redeem her family's honor from being tarnished by her worthless lazy brother. By contrast, her reaction in the film suggests that she didn't expect Kruge to kill her, although she accepts it very quickly.
Valkris calls Kruge "my lord and my love". Everyone in the movie calls Kruge a "Lord"; the script calls him a "Klingon War Lord", because I guess in this movie that's a thing. It seems the Klingons retired the "Lord" title in embarrassment after Kruge got owned by Kirk. As for "my love"...well, that seems like kind of a pointless detail to add right now.
"You will be remembered with honor", Kruge tells Valkris before shooting her. This sentence sums up everything there is to know about Klingons.
Kruge's pet is probably the inspiration for the Klingon targ seen in later series, but it doesn't look like the targs we've seen on screen. (Then again, different Earth dog breeds can look like different species too.) Memory alpha just calls it a "monster dog".
Valkris pronounces Kruge with a hard g, "Kroog". I instinctively tend to use a soft g so it rhymes with "Scrooge".
We see the Enterprise, still scarred from Khan's attacks, fly through space as sad music plays. Cut to the bridge, where Kirk is pacing as Shatner's voiceover (his personal log) muses that the ship feels empty. Saavik and David are off studying the Genesis planet, and most of the cadets have been reassigned. Kirk says that the death of Spock is like an open wound, and he feels like he left the best part of himself behind on the Genesis planet. As the voiceover ends, the flesh Kirk gives a few minor orders to the crew. He calls Scotty in Engineering, who tells him that a refit of the Enterprise will take eight weeks--but Scotty can do it in two. Kirk asks if he always multiplies his repair estimates by four, and Scotty says that's how he got his reputation as a miracle worker.
Kirk prepares to leave the bridge, but is stopped by a young black cadet who asks if Starfleet will have a reception for them when they get home. Kirk says that there should be, considering the price they paid.
Elsewhere in space, a small ship crewed by a few scuzzy looking humans carries an elegant female alien passenger to an appointed rendezvous. She hails "Commander Kruge",whose Klingon Bird of Prey deactivates its cloaking device and appears nearly on top of the merchant ship. "Valkris" tells Kruge that she has the information he wants--a tape describing the Genesis project, whose contents she broadcasts to the Klingon ship. She tells Kruge that he will find it useful. On finding out that she's seen it, Kruge has his BoP attack and destroy the merchant ship, killing everyone aboard. He tells them to set a course for the Federation neutral zone, and he orders one of the crew to feed the monstrous dog-creature he keeps near his captain's chair.
Comments:
The bridge is much more brightly lit in the early scenes of this movie than it was in the last one.
It's unclear how much time has passed since the end of Wrath of Khan, but it's clearly not too long. A few days, or maybe a couple weeks.
This film makes only one brief mention of Carol Marcus; in fact the Genesis exposition tape that she had made in the last movie is redone by Kirk in this one, for no reason. I guess she had to run to Earth to deal with political fallout from Genesis? But seriously, were the producers just cheap, or did Bibi Besch not want to come back?
Kirk and Scotty are obviously joking around in this scene, but it's somehow become "common knowledge" that Scotty always pads his repair estimates. In the TNG episode where he appears he even tells Geordi to start doing it. If he's just giving himself a little wiggle room I can see it, but the "factor of four" would be wildly irresponsible if it were true. IIRC, in TOS Kirk usually asked Scotty something like "can you fix this before we die", and I can't imagine him being dishonest in that scenario.
Chekov appears to be a normal member of the crew in this movie, despite being first officer of Reliant in the last one. Well, Kirk needs a navigator and the Reliant sure doesn't need a first officer anymore, so why not? Actually....who's first officer of Enterprise right now? No one, I guess.
The cadet who talks to Kirk is a young Phil Morris, best known as Jackie Chiles.
"Are they planning a ceremony for when we get in? I mean a reception?"....or maybe a trial? For you, Kirk, for abandoning Khan on a random planet without telling anyone so he could go on a bloody rampage years later?
Starfleet seems to take "all's well that ends well" as its principle of justice. Kirk beat Khan in the end, so who cares about his responsibility for what Khan did in the meantime?
Khan's actions hang like a shadow over this movie, but no one ever mentions him by name. I guess they figured it was best not to confuse new viewers (or to invite comparisons to the last movie).
Kirk tells the cadet "We've paid for the party with our dearest blood". (I always heard it as "dearest beloved".) This is a badly written line that makes Kirk sound like a drama queen. It must also puzzle the cadet, who presumably barely knew Spock.
For all Star Trek talks about human progress, there sure are a lot of lowlife human space criminals around whenever the plot needs them. Look at Harry Mudd, Cyrano Jones, the Orion Syndicate, or Vash for that matter.
The Bird-of-Prey, complete with cloaking device, was designed to be a Romulan ship (since BoPs and cloaking devices were kind of their things, back in the day) but someone liked Klingons better. In one draft Kruge stole his ship from some Romulans, but they eventually just said that Klingons had Birds of Prey and cloaking too. Well, they did share technology...in "Elaan of Troyius" Romulans used Klingon ships, for the same real life reasons (they already had the ship models and wanted to save on the budget). Maybe TNG-era Romulans hate Klingons for biting their style.
This basic Klingon Bird of Prey design stays in use for several decades, into the TNG era. I do like it as an aesthetic design.
I liked the cloaking device better when it was a mysterious tech that only the Romulans had (and they paid a price for it, as seen in "Balance of Terror"). If everybody has it then Starfleet looks dumb for not using it themselves.
Valkris doesn't look Klingon, but as a spy maybe she shouldn't.
Valkris says she "purchased" the Genesis data, suggesting corruption (to say nothing of treason) within the Federation.
If she was sent specifically to get info about Genesis, then coming back with a brief explanation of what it is and nothing else doesn't seem that impressive. On the other hand, if no Klingon had any idea what Genesis was before she got the tape, then she did them a hell of a service.
In the novelization Valkris gets herself killed on purpose to redeem her family's honor from being tarnished by her worthless lazy brother. By contrast, her reaction in the film suggests that she didn't expect Kruge to kill her, although she accepts it very quickly.
Valkris calls Kruge "my lord and my love". Everyone in the movie calls Kruge a "Lord"; the script calls him a "Klingon War Lord", because I guess in this movie that's a thing. It seems the Klingons retired the "Lord" title in embarrassment after Kruge got owned by Kirk. As for "my love"...well, that seems like kind of a pointless detail to add right now.
"You will be remembered with honor", Kruge tells Valkris before shooting her. This sentence sums up everything there is to know about Klingons.
Kruge's pet is probably the inspiration for the Klingon targ seen in later series, but it doesn't look like the targs we've seen on screen. (Then again, different Earth dog breeds can look like different species too.) Memory alpha just calls it a "monster dog".
Valkris pronounces Kruge with a hard g, "Kroog". I instinctively tend to use a soft g so it rhymes with "Scrooge".