Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (Widescreen)

The story is basically this: Ambassador Sarek (Spock's father) comes up to Kirk and makes it known to him that his essence may be living within a crew member of the Enterprise. They discover it is McCoy (which is hilarious, considering Spock and McCoy's quirky friendship), which explains why many in StarFleet thought he had been driven insane, and locked him up for it. Kirk and the boys spring McCoy out of the cell, steal the Enterprise, and head into space on "personal matters."

Even if this movie lacked in action, which is does not at all, it would have plenty in hilarious dialogue. There are many examples, such as when McCoy tries to hire a mercenary at a bar (very reminiscent of the Star Wars cantina, clientele et al). McCoy tells him, "Place I name, money I go." And the perterbed alien (eerily reminiscent of George C. Scott and Dr. Evil) fires back, "Place you name, money I name or else bargainnnnnnno." It hilarious the way he says it. Another funny part comes when Sulu jokingly prods a bored Federation security guard, "Keeping you busy?", the guard slowly, menacingly stands up from his chair, towering over the short Sulu and says, "Don't get smart, tiny." It isn't so much what they say that's funny, it's the body language and the intonations, brought out in full by first-rate directing by Leonard Nimoy.

There are tons of great action scenes, and even a stabbing death which is implied, but not shown, making it action-packed but still accessible for the whole family. A memorable performance by Christopher LLloyd as a Klingon renegade is also within this fine film. It's not as good as The Undiscovered Country, but it stands firm not only as a great Trek movie, but just as a great movie overall.

However, even before production ended on The Wrath of Khan, Nimoy and producer Harve Bennett decided that "there were always possibilities" for the future, both for the franchise and Spock.

Thus it came to pass that Star Trek III: The Search for Spock had its, pun intended, genesis. With a subtle scene here and a more upbeat ending there, several plot strands were left unresolved....what did Spock mean when he gave Dr. McCoy a mind meld with the word "Remember?" Why was he left on the Genesis Planet? Those two scenes, coupled with Nimoy reciting "Space: The Final Frontier" at the end of the second movie practically screamed "Sequel Ahead!"

As it happened, Star Trek III would also mark Nimoy's feature-film directorial debut. Although he was given a modest budget - which does, unfortunately, become obvious in many scenes - Nimoy fared fairly well his first time out as a director.

As in the movie that follows (The Voyage Home), Bennett and Nimoy give us a mix of adventure, suspense and even moments of comedy in the continuation of a three-movie story arc.

The setup is simple. After the events depicted in Star Trek II, the USS Enterprise has been ordered back to Earth. Spock is dead, the Enterprise's trainee crew has been reassigned, and Starfleet has quarantined the Genesis planet. Only a science vessel, USS Grissom, has been assigned to survey the forbidden world.

Little does the Federation know, however, that the Klingons have found out about the Genesis device. Fearing that the Federation has plans to destroy the Klingon Empire, Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) is determined to obtain its secrets.

At the same time, upon his return to Earth Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) discovers that Spock has somehow placed his "katra" in Dr. McCoy's (the late DeForest Kelley) body. Kirk is urged by Sarek, Spock's father (the late Mark Lenard) to retrieve Spock's remains from the Genesis planet. After that, Kirk is to go to Vulcan with McCoy and Spock's body, where both of his friends will "find peace."

When Kirk requests permission to take the soon-to-be retired Enterprise back to Genesis to retrieve Spock's body, Starfleet Command refuses, saying that the science ship (where Lt. Saavik and Kirk's son David Marcus are now serving) is the only ship allowed by the Federation to investigate. As usual, Kirk takes matters into his own hands and, assembling most of his bridge crew, steals the Enterprise and warps off to Genesis, setting up a sequence of events that Kirk will find to be more costly than he bargained for.

The Collector's Edition DVD set, unlike the previous two Director's Editions, has no added scenes or director's cut version. The theatrical version of the film (with a running time shy of two hours) is featured here with director's audio commentary by Nimoy and text commentary by Michael Okuda. The movie will delight some Trek fans, satisfy most fans, and disappoint others. (This being an odd-numbered film, it seems to prove the theory that even numbered Treks are great, while odd-numbered ones are either just okay or just plain bad!) The extra features disc includes the usual mix of "making of" documentaries, interviews, and the theatrical trailer (which, unfortunately, gave away a crucial plot device).