Star Trek III: The Search for Spock review

Audiences at the time had to deal with the shock of seeing the actors’ old faces in this weighty but fun threequel that dealt with the mysteries of matter, death and eternal life

Forty years ago, the Star Trek movie franchise reached its Solaris stage with this mystic and melodramatic threequel, written and produced by TV veteran Harve Bennett and directed by Leonard Nimoy himself. The Search for Spock (and how that title must have startled everyone still getting over the shock of his demise) dealt with the mysteries of matter, organisms, death and eternal life. The last two of these were especially piquant considering that the audiences at the time had to deal with something that is forgotten now: the unease and even shock at seeing the characters’ faces, so youthful in the concurrently running TV show, looking suddenly older, blown up to big-screen size.

This is a film about the passionate bromance between Kirk and Spock – and above all about sacrifice. In the previous film, of course, Spock had died, thus teaching future franchise creators a lesson about how a death can electrify the fanbase. This one begins by remembering his poignant farewell to Kirk in a small black-and-white panel in the centre of the screen; rather a coup de cinema. And yes, it is a genuinely sad moment, accurately depicted in the famous episode of Seinfeld when George Constanza realises that he is more devastated by Spock’s death than by that of his own wife.