Star Trek III - The Search for Spock B00004RE7DParamount Studio11 (Star Trek)
Star Trek III - The Search for Spock
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| B00004RE7D |
| Paramount Studio |
| 11 April, 2000 |
| You didn't think Mr. Spock was really dead, did you? When Spock's casket landed on the surface of the Genesis planet at the end of Star Trek II, we had already been told that Genesis had the power to bring "life from lifelessness." So it's no surprise that this energetic but somewhat hokey sequel gives Spock a new lease on life, beginning with his rebirth and rapid growth as the Genesis planet literally shakes itself apart in a series of tumultuous geological spasms. As Kirk is getting to know his estranged son (Merritt Butrick), he must also do battle with the fiendish Klingon Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who is determined to seize the power of Genesis from the Federation. Meanwhile, the regenerated Spock returns to his home planet, and Star Trek III gains considerable interest by exploring the ceremonial (and, of course, highly logical) traditions of Vulcan society. The movie's a minor disappointment compared to Star Trek II, but it's a--well, logical--sequel that successfully restores Spock (and first-time film director Leonard Nimoy) to the phenomenal Trek franchise...as if he were ever really gone. With Kirk's willful destruction of the U.S.S. Enterprise and Robin Curtis replacing the departing Kirstie Alley as Vulcan Lt. Saavik, this was clearly a transitional film in the series, clearing the way for the highly popular Star Trek IV. --Jeff Shannon |
| If anyone is wondering where the Klingons of the later Star Trek movies and television series' came from, this is it. Christopher Lloyd's "Kruge" is the defining character after which all the later ones were patterned. This movie also dramatically introduces the much used Klingon Bird-of-Prey that turns up frequently in later movies and on TV. In my opinion, this is the best movie after "The Wrath of Khan" and keeps the drama and action moving quickly along. The oft-quoted rule that has even-numbered Trek movies beating odd-number movies was never that convincing - and this flick proves it wrong. Picking up at the moment where "Wrath of Khan" left off, "Search" has Spock's coffin soft landing on the Genesis planet. Dr. Marcus and Saavik return to their to investigate that world's development. Meanwhile, the badly damaged Enterprise returns to Earth where Captain Kirk learns the ship is to be scrapped. When Dr. McCoy begins showing signs that he was "mind-melded" with Spock - thinking he actually is Spock - he tries to get a ship back to the Genesis planet where Spock's body was left. (In a scene that sends up the cantina scene from the first Star Wars flick, McCoy tries getting a ride with an alien who bears a resemblance to the Vorvon from "Buck Rogers"). Kirk, informed by Spock's father Sarek that both McCoy and Spock's body must be returned to Vulcan, tries to get to Genesis himself, even though Starfleet has quarantined the planet. Meanwhile, Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), a rogue Klingon warlord with his own ship and crew, penetrates federation space greedy for the secrets of Genesis. Though this flick seems a bit abbreviated - filler between "Khan" and "Voyage Home" it's not only a lot of fun, but a great example of how good Trek can be. The script has our heroes working outside Starfleet regulations and having loads of fun with each other. Prime examples: Scott explains how he saboutaged the Excelsior to McCoy, dropping that ship's isolinear chips into McCoy's palm like spare change ("From one Doctor to another, when you've learnt how to clean the pipes, you know how to stop the drain"). Kirk, when meeting up with the Spock-possessed McCoy holds his hand up in the Vulcan salute, asking the Doctor "how many fingers am I holding up"; and let's not forget that magic moment when Bones tries to give a Starfleet Security the Vulcan neck-pinch. Laughs aside, the script is tight and sticks with its central theme of pulling life from death - epitomized by the rescue of Spock and the awesome self-destruction of the Enterprise. Christopher Lloyd's Klingon was underused, but he showed some potential. The special effects beat anything I've seen on the Next-Generation movies and the script makes the characters seem a whole lot livelier. If you've put off this flick because this was an odd-numbered Trek movie, think again and give it a try. a Story that is the transitionary story from movie 2 to movie 4. So obviously this movie is the middle movie where we find the crew of the enterprise trying to find and re-animate the body of Spock, our long lost vulcan friend. A movie worth noting because, unlike other sequels, it is actually worth seeing more than once in a life time. |
Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 32 - Episodes 63 & 64: The Empath/ The Tholian Web
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| B00005M2D0 |
| Paramount Studio |
| 28 August, 2001 |
| "The Empath" "The Empath" is an absolute must for fans of Star Trek's recurring shirtless-Kirk-being-tortured motif. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are taken to a strange laboratory and tortured by powerful aliens while a mute woman is forced to watch--a woman whose empathic abilities are being put to the test. There is, of course, a broader scheme to it all--this is one of the early manifestations of Trek's eternal conflict between the needs of the many and the needs of the few, or the one. Keep an ear out for one of the all-time great Bonesisms ("I'm a doctor, not a coal miner!") and hang on to those fragile but oh-so-important human emotions. --Ali Davis "The Tholian Web" |
| The original "Star Trek" series is cheesy at times but often fun and sometimes dramatic. However, 2 episodes per disc is a sure sign that Paramount was milking this series for all that it's worth, because they knew that the loyal "Star Trek" fans would buy every disc - all 40 of them. Paramount has now released the entire series in season boxed sets which, although still pricey, include bonus features and are a better value than these single-disc releases. Skip these discs and buy the boxed sets instead. The Tholian Web The USS Enterprise finds her sister ship, the USS Defiant in unsurveyed territory at her last reported position. The vessel which vanished without a trace three weeks ago is investigated by Captain Kirk and a boarding party consisting of Spock, McCoy and Chekov. They discover upon beaming over to the vessel that the Defiant's crew had killed each other apparently during a mutiny on the ship. The landing party found out after further investigation of the vessel that it was mysteriously dissolving prompting Kirk to order the landing party be beamed off the ship immediately. The space that the Defiant had been drifting in was playing havoc with the Enterprise's transporter system, allowing for only three members of the landing party to be beamed off the fading vessel, Kirk elected to stay behind enabling them to return safely aboard the Enterprise. Scotty attempted to beam Kirk back to the Enterprise when the Defiant suddenly disappeared. Spock used the computer to calculate that Kirk would be able to be retrieved during the next period of spatial interphase, which would occur in two hours and twelve minutes. Chekov, who experienced momentary stabs of pain while onboard the Defiant went mad and was removed from the bridge making it extremely urgent for Dr. McCoy to isolate and treat the madness which was apparently affecting the Enterprise crew just like it had affected the Defiant's crew. The rescue mission was disrupted by a Tholian ship claiming that the Enterprise had violated territory belonging to the Tholian Assembly. Spock relayed to the Tholian Commander that the Enterprise was on a rescue mission, the Tholians had no problem in allowing Spock and the Enterprise to complete it. The rescue mission failed due to the Tholian vessels entry into the area. The Tholians who don't tolerate deceit or lack of punctuality fire on the Enterprise, forcing Spock to return fire thereby damaging the Tholian ship. The Enterprise who was damaged herself in the Tholian's attack starts to drift. A second Tholian ship appears and both ships begin to weave a web of energy around the crippled Enterprise. Spock who is forced to take command of the Enterprise deals with the loss of the Captain and the affect that it has on the crew. The race against time was on for Scotty to repair the damage sustained in the Tholian attack and for McCoy to find a cure for the madness that was tearing the crew apart before the Tholians completed their web of energy trapping the Enterprise for good. Despite rising tensions and further episodes of madness amongst the crew, Scotty is able to repair the ship and McCoy finds an antidote to the madness. The Enterprise is able to escape the Tholian's web and retrieve Kirk alive and well. I was planning on reviewing this and four other 2-episode original Star Trek DVDs I hadn't yet gotten to before I heard the news. And what news would this be, you're askin' yourself? Well, I'll tell ya: I've discovered that Paramount will be re-releasing the original series in full-season DVD box sets, complete with a shebang of extra features, some time later this year. It's yet another sad example of what I call "the dreaded DVD double-dip ploy" (read about this annoying phenomenon at www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/guides/guide-display/-/3CVFIEG84F2PF/ref=cm_aya_av.sylt_sylt/002-5334556-6482418 ) that the major Hollywood studios like to pull on videophile consumers. #ell, they've already got the full-season box sets out in parts of Europe already, so you know they'll be comin' stateside fairly soon as of this writing. BTW why do parts of Europe get to have the old-school Trek season box sets before the U.S. Does?! Shouldn't the country where the show was shot in have first dibs?! That's kinda like Honduras getting "Monty Python" on DVD before the UK does! Or "Akira" streeting in Brazil before becoming available in Japan! It's just not right I tell ya... Anyhoo: if you wanna get alla' the eppies of old-school Trek on DVD (well, perhaps all but the last season, anyway), I recommend you wait `til the full-season sets come out later this year, or some time next year. In the meantime, I'm pretty sure your gradually disintegrating Columbia House Collector's Edition VHS tapes will last a few months longer. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta find a way to palm my own collection of classic Trek platters off on some unsuspecting Trekkies! Wish me luck... `Late Post Script: I know some folks will read this and think of me as some whiny, ungrateful little fiend who doesn't appreciate the fact that Paramount at least bothered to put the show out on DVD. All I can say is... do you people own stock in the company or something?! What are you, members of their sales and marketing department?! Yeah, I should REALLY be grateful for them tryin' to hose me and all the other Trekkie DVDphiles by gettin' us to buy (pretty much) the same stuff twice! Hey, they did it with the Star Trek movies, why NOT the classic TV show?! Howzabout puttin' out the best possible product the first time around, huh?! Buncha avaricious, money-hungry jerks... `Later |
posted by scifinutter
at 11:31 PM
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