Star Trek III: The Search For Spock/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: When the movie started early production and Nimoy was interested in directing, the producers realized they would hit a fandom gold mine just with the credits. The Search for Spock directed by Leonard Nimoy.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: James Horner strikes again. Special mention goes to "Stealing the Enterprise", where the orchestra just goes fucking nuts when the Enterprise starts to move.
    • Was there a more in-series triumphant moment than immediately after "We have cleared space doors"?
  • Ho Yay: Kirk had always put his ship before everything else in his life - until it came down to a choice between his Silver Lady and his First Officer. He chose Spock. And that's not gay... how?
    • How about the whole conversation between Kirk and Sarek at the beginning of the movie, which implied that Kirk and Spock were once romantically involved.
    • Search For Spock holds the trophy for the most Ho Yay of all the films. How could it not with such gems as:
      • Kirk and Superior Officer: "But if there's even a chance that Spock has an eternal soul... then it's my responsibility." "Yours?" "As surely as if it were my very own."
      • Kirk (to Sarek): "Your son meant more to me than you can know."
      • Kirk and Sarek: "What I've done, I had to do." "But at what cost? Your ship. Your son." "If I hadn't tried, the cost would have been my soul."
      • Spock: "Jim. Your name... is Jim." (It works in context: the only thing Spock remembers is Kirk. Daww.)
    • Bones' scene with Spock's body. "I don't know if I could stand to lose you again" indeed...
    • And then there's Hikaru "Don't call me 'tiny'" Sulu. Oh my!
  • Magnificent Bastard: Kruge. "YES!!!! - EXHILARATING, ISN'T IT!!!!!"
  • Narm:
    • Kruge's line about Kirk being "Enemies of Galactic Peace!"
    • "The Federation in creating an ultimate weapon has become a gang of intergalactic criminals!"
      • Christopher Lloyd's rambling Doc Brown voice kind of makes this Narm Charm, especially to the nostalgic among us who originally watched the film as kids.
    • Klingon bastards, you killed my son!!!!
  • Replacement Scrappy: The starship Excelsior.
  • Special Effect Failure: Due to the conservative budget compared to the first movie, a lot of the Genesis planet looks like obviously fake once it starts to fall apart.
  • What the Hell, Casting Agency?: Christopher Lloyd as the balls-out ruthless Kligon Commander Kruge. He was prior and after that mostly associated with comedies and light dramas. But hey, he did pretty damn well playing the most brutal Klingon captain ever seen in the Star Trek franchise. Every other Klingon captain either had minimal screentime or wound up earning at least some sympathy. Kruge was a monster, and every kick he took to the face from Kirk's boot was pure audience satisfaction. He is also the only Klingon to call Kirk on his bluff when Kirk demands his surrender.

Kruge: He's hiding something. I must have dealt him a more serious blow than I thought.

  • WTH Costuming Department:
    • Chekhov's pink jacket is so bad, he changes out of it after a cutaway. Nicholas Meyer points it out in the Director's Commentary.
    • Also deserving mention is the waitress at the bar McCoy goes to.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: The destruction of the Enterprise, which involved blowing up models rather than just overlaying explosions. It was so successful, they used the same technique in Star Trek the Next Generation when the Enterprise-D is (temporarily) destroyed in the Groundhog Day Loop episode "Cause and Effect".
    • And parts of the blown-up Enterprise 1701 models were used in the aftermath of the Battle of Wolf 359 sequence in "The Best of Both Worlds", because they were so detailed they could be shown very close to the camera without looking fake.
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