Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984)

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General		Extras
Category	Star Trek	Theatrical Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	1984
Running Time	100:52
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (58:55)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Programme
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Leonard Nimoy
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	William Shatner Leonard Nimoy DeForest Kelley James Doohan George Takei Walter Koenig Nichelle Nichols Merritt Butrick Christopher Lloyd
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$39.95	Music	James Horner

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Greek English Spanish French Hebrew Croatian Italian Portuguese Slovenian	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The story follows on from where The Wrath Of Kahn finished off (pity we cannot yet see that film on DVD), with Spock (Leonard Nimoy) dead and the wounded Enterprise limping her way back to Earth. There are a few surprises in store when they get back - the Enterprise is to be decommissioned, and her crew disbanded. Then the real shock comes - as the crew are celebrating a wake for the Enterprise, Kirk (William Shatner) receives a visit from Spock's father, the Vulcan ambassador Sarek (Mark Lenard), who informs him that Spock has deposited his essence in the mind of Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelly) - much to the annoyance of the good doctor. In order for Spock to be reborn, they must retrieve his body and take it and McCoy to Vulcan for a sacred ritual. There's only one problem (well, two really) - Spock's body is on the Genesis planet, and Kirk and crew have no way of getting there as their request to use the Enterprise has been denied. What to do? Obvious really - steal the Enterprise and attempt the rescue anyway. Unfortunately for Kirk, a group of Klingons lead by the ruthless Commander Kruge (Christopher Lloyd) has already learned of the Genesis device and the Genesis planet, and have gone there to search out its secrets.

    This Trek instalment has some strong moments, and some weak ones. The scenes where the Enterprise is navigating around the Earth space station - both on her return, and after she is stolen - are visually spectacular, and the scenes of the Enterprise's abduction are easily the best in the film dramatically as well. There were a few changes in visual effects between the original Trek adventure and this film. Most notably, the visual effects for The Search For Spock were handled by the masters at Industrial Light and Magic, and they surpass themselves here, using all their experience with the Star Wars films to produce some truly spectacular space sequences that easily surpass anything from the first two Treks and the original Star Wars trilogy. The only slightly disappointing change is that, in the Star Wars style, the ship models are lit by some unidentified massive light source, unlike the Enterprise model from The Motion Picture that was "self-lit" by numerous spotlights - the majesty of the ships, and the realism of some of the scenes is somewhat reduced because of this choice.

    Dramatically, this film is a mixed bag. Any film that has its dramatic high under half-way through will always tend to lag during the second half, and that is certainly the case here. Once the crew of Enterprise get away with her, the remainder of the movie does not hold as much interest. The biggest failures are the scenes with Lieutenant Saavik (played by Kirsty Alley replacement Robin Curtis), and Kirk's son David (Merritt Butrick) - these are quite bland, are filled with terrible dialogue, and even worse acting (especially from Curtis - it is not a real surprise to learn that following the Treks she went on to appear in such well-regarded fare as Bloodfist VI and Santa With Muscles - Kirstie Alley she ain't). On the upside, Christopher Lloyd is a real joy (and almost unrecognisable) as Klingon Commander Kruge. It is easy to see that he enjoyed playing a such a ruthless character, and he throws himself into the role with passion.

    In the final wash, The Search For Spock is an enjoyable and visually spectacular entry in the Trek series that is hampered by a somewhat uneven dramatic feel. Certainly not the first film that should be seen by non-Trek fans, but a worthy addition to the collection for those who already know their Trek back to front.

Video

    Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, this transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    For the most part, sharpness is excellent displaying an amazing amount of detail and clarity for an 18 year old film. The first few minutes (until the mid-point of the opening titles at around 3:10) are not as good as the remainder of the transfer, and are not helped by containing virtually the only noticeable grain in the entire movie. From the point the clouds start pulling back, this is an amazing transfer. Shadow detail is very good, although the vast majority of this film takes place in well lit conditions, so it never really comes to the fore. It is during the sequences set on Vulcan (which is very much an "orange" planet) that the shadow detail is most important, as the lighting is a dark orange. There is no low level noise present.

    Colours are quite good, although they do tend to look a little muted on occasions, especially during the scenes on the Genesis planet. Where it should be lush and green, it is a more a dull green, but this does not affect the look of the film to any great extent.

    There are no compression artefacts present in this transfer. In fact, the greatest problem with this transfer is aliasing, for though it only occurs infrequently, when it does occur it tends to be extremely obvious. The most common culprit is the detailing on the various models used to represent the space ships and stations, and once the action moves away from the many model shots that occur in the first half of the film, aliasing only becomes a minor problem. In fact, while I noted many instances of aliasing prior to the half-way mark, there is only one bad instance in the second half: on the flight of stairs from 85:43 to 85:55. Film artefacts make a few appearances, although few are of a size sufficient to distract. The frequency of the film artefacts is almost inversely proportional to the instances of aliasing in that the first two-thirds of the transfer is virtually free of film artefacts, but once the story shifts to the location of the final act, there is a sharp jump in frequency. This is mostly likely due to the optical effects processes that would have been used to generate the unique look of the planet.

    The subtitles are clear, well-paced, and easy to read. They follow the spoken word closely, although there are a few words changed for the sake of brevity, however these changes did not affect the intent of the dialogue.

    This is an RSDL formatted disc with the layer change taking place during Chapter 7 at 58:55. It is not at all well placed, being mid-scene and quite easily discernible.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are four soundtracks present on this disc, being the original English dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 (at 448 Kbps), and dubs in Spanish, French, and Italian in Dolby Digital 2.0 surround (at 192 Kbps).

    Dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times. The re-mix of the soundtrack from stereo did not create any problems with the balancing of the score, effects, and dialogue. Audio sync is spot on throughout the transfer.

    The music for this particular adventure to where no man has gone before is provided by James Horner. Sadly it does not quite come up to the standards of Jerry Goldsmith's Trek scores, such as for The Motion Picture, and is badly lacking a discernible theme. Having said all that, it does still do its job, but it is just very workman-like about it.

    The surround channels are very aggressively used throughout the transfer, and carry not only score, but ambient noise and directional effects that are all quite impressive. There were the expected occasions where the sound-field collapsed back to the front channels only, but for what is a re-mix of a stereo theatrical release, this is an above-the-call-of-duty surround re-mix.

    The subwoofer gets a few opportunities to come alive, but for the most part does not play an extremely large part, only backing up the score on the odd occasions it reaches into the lower frequencies.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer (1:03)

• English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack

• Spanish and Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks

    The video quality is excellent, especially given the age of the transfer. There are a large number of obvious aliasing problems, but as the movie progresses they decrease.

    The audio quality is just as good, if not better, than the video. It is a brilliant 5.1 surround re-mix of a movie that was presented theatrically in stereo.

    The solitary extra leaves somewhat of a bitter after-taste, especially considering what Paramount are capable of given the presentation of The Motion Picture. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that we eventually get the "Special Edition" of this film here too.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall