Star Trek III: The Search For Spock/Trivia


 * Directed by Cast Member: Leonard Nimoy, marking the first time a cast member directed a Star Trek production, paving the way for future cast members like Jonathan Frakes.
 * Same can be said for Shatner, but people tend to ignore that one.
 * Fake Russian: In letter, but not in spirit. Chekov actually speaks Russian for the first time. Though Walter Koenig was born in America, his parents are Russian immigrants who emigrated from Lithuania.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: James B. Sikking as the Excelsior captain. Also, Phil Morris, who would play Jackie Chiles on Seinfeld, appears in the beginning as Cadet Foster.
 * Not to mention Christopher Lloyd as "Doc" Kruge. His ship even looks like a DeLorean. And it was later used for Time Travel.
 * And a post-Black Sheep Squadron pre-Night Court John Larroquette as the surviving Klingon crewmember.
 * "Mr. Adventure" was played by Scott McGinnis, who became a prolific television director.
 * I had to kill the Excelsior helmsman because he made a mistake. Now it's time to erase that mistake.
 * The Other Darrin: Kirstie Alley loved playing Saavik (she apparently wore the ears home a number of times) and wanted to return, but apparently failed to communicate this clearly to her agent, who demanded a higher fee for her to play Saavik than Paramount was willing to pay. Paramount switched in Robin Curtis instead.
 * Throw It In: Kirk stumbling off the chair after being told was entirely accidental, but Leonard Nimoy felt it suited the scene, and left it in.
 * To be quite exact: Shatner stumbled on a previous take, whereupon the two convened and decided that the scene should include such a gesture. The recorded take was then staged, leading to the movie we now know.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * Edward James Olmos was Leonard Nimoy's preference for Kruge.
 * Early scripts had the Klingons as a rogue group who commandiered a Romulan Bird of Prey.
 * And earlier than that, it was supposed to be Romulans, period, in Harve Bennett's treatment. Spock's role is relatively the same, except he goes feral and kills several Romulan miners when they drill for dilithium on the Genesis planet. A subplot would have also had the Vulcans threatening to secede from the Federation over the Genesis Torpedo...
 * In the novelization, Saavik and David Marcus became romantically involved (the seeds for this were planted in the previous movie's novelization); this storyline was completely dropped from the films.
 * In the novelization, Saavik became pregnant with Spock's kid. This, too, was dropped.
 * There was some debate as to.
 * Maltz was going to return during the trial of Kirk and McCoy in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country; he was going to testify about their actions in stealing the Klingon scout ship. John Laroquette was unavailable at the time of filming, so the scene wasn't done.