warren@ihnss.UUCP (Warren Montgomery) (06/11/84)
It finally made it to central Illinois. I felt that this movie was by far the best of the 3, perhaps even better than the best of the TV episodes. It was very well tied with the other movies and the TV series (right down to the tribbles in the bar!). It had lots of inside humor for all of those that plan their lives around the series reruns and can recite the scripts. The blend of action and characters was very good, not the slow paced plastic quality of the first movie or the heaviness of the second, but balanced, like the best of the TV episodes. I didn't find the death of the enterprise at all depressing, since it wasn't treated that way in the movie. It was doomed to destruction by star fleet anyway, still heavily damaged from ST-II, and the end was the only logical way out. I was more amused by Kirk's trickery and wondering how they were planning to get out of the next one than anything else. I suppose that the other thing at work is that I never really liked the rebuilt enterprise of the movies all that much. In the TV show, everything was routine. Transporting took place in a flash, warp drive never failed in peculiar ways, and damage was limited to some heavy duty rattling of the insides of the ship. On the new and improved enterprise, everything seemed to be a production requiring lots of time and people, and with a significant probability of major failure. Hardly an improvement to me, but that's Hollywood, I guess. David's death was a surprise, but not really unexpected. It rid Kirk of emotional baggage, just as anyone else who got close to him was disposed of in the old series, and provided a neatly wrapped up solution to his fraud in the Genesis project. My geologist wife was more than a little dismayed at the scientific problems with the rapid aging of the Genesis planet (old planets just simply beocome cold and dead, they don't erupt into fountains of lava!), but it took no more liberties than any of the rest of Startrek and again provided some crucial elements to the plot. The resurection and life of spock was an excellent solution to a difficult plot problem. It was very well handled, especially the ending. My only big dissappointment with the film was Savik. Not only did I think that the actress who played her in ST-II was more credible, but her role was a big dissappointment as well. In ST-II, she is treated as a major character, with a significant personality, intelligence, and capabilities. In ST-III, she seems to be there for the ride and really plays no role. Her emotional outburst at David is out of character. They missed lots of opportunities for her to use special Vulcan/Romulan skills to help, like mind-linking with McCoy and Spock to transfer him back, or at least to put enough thinking into Spock so that he becomes a person, not a vegetable, or fighting the Klingons when David did his little bit of heroics. Instead, she gets to stand around like a passenger while the men do all the work. I guess this isn't really unexpected either, since I doubt that Startrek will ever be seen as balanced or liberated. It was just a dissapointment after the second show. I hope that the attendance is better elsewhere, since I saw it in a theater that couldn't have been more than about 10% full. I am looking forward to ST-IV, and feel confident that Kirk will command again. As for the reserection of the enterprise, didn't it fall onto that funny Genesis planet like spocks dead body had? :) -- Warren Montgomery ihnss!warren IH x2494