Star Trek III: Search for Spock SE - 10/8/02 (1 Viewer)

[John_Berger]

It must have been the Deck 73 thing

Oh, man! I completely forgot about the ascending deck levels!
Hmmm.... That does put a different spin on things...
I still think that the underlying story is better than most of the others.

 

[John_Berger]

"Weak" as in "impossible to resolve in any satisfactory manner."

Now, that I can agree with. I found the underlying story itself to be quite strong, which I know puts me in the minority, but its potential never really came through. I don't think that it had anything to do with God or Satan as much as it did faith in one's beliefs and the boundaries that we impose on ourselves when dealing with that faith. I also felt that the movie did a good job at demonstrating the bonds between Kirk and Spock, although the scene on the Klingon ship after Kirk's rescue was really hokey.
Given the choice between dealing with ST V as a whole and watching Curtis' rigid, cardboard acting as Saavik in ST III, I honestly can say that I don't know which one is worse. I thought that they both had a fair share of strong, poignant moments as well as scenes that were completely ridiculous.
The only thing that I really would like for the ST V DVD is the complete remake of all special effects. The special effects were absolutely the worst of all of the movies. Get the people at ILM, Weta, or even Pixar to just rip it apart and completely redo the FX scenes.
For Star Trek III -- I'm not sure what can really be done to "improve" it since there's no way to get Curtis out of there.

 

[DanHaya]

I agree that Lloyd is the only one who makes this film watchable.

Oh, come on! Surely John Larroquette's performance as Maltz deserves some credit, doesn't it?

 

[DanHaya]

As far as what is canon, let me summarize:

1. The 5 live-action television series (TOS, TNG, DS9, VGR and ENT). The animated series is NOT canon.

2. The 9 (soon to be 10) feature films.

3. The Star Trek: Voyager novel Mosaic by series co-creator Jeri Taylor.

That's it, as far as I know. And only what was shown on screen is canon...nothing that was cut should be considered canon. And I'm sure there is some discussion about scenes that are put back into a Director's Cut if it wasn't in the original theatrical release. Someone from Paramount would have to confirm that for us. It might be a good question to ask the staff at Star Trek Communicator.

Are there discrepancies? Of course! There's so much Trek material that it is very hard to be consistent. Ask Rick Berman about that...he has mentioned that the Enterprise writers are having a tough time with that. They have to be very careful not to contradict the hundreds of hours already in existence. But it does happen.

 

[DanHaya]

Dave,
I agree with you about Saavik. Kirstie Alley was way better than Robin Curtis. It's a shame that she wanted so much money to come back for III (and VI, for that matter). I think she really hurt her career after that before she landed on Cheers. And, what has she done since Veronica's Closet?
Can anyone say "Pier One"?

 

[Daniel Kikin]

3. The Star Trek: Voyager novel Mosaic by series co-creator Jeri Taylor.

I think this one has been under debate for a while. Most people assume Mosaic and Pathways are canon since Jeri Taylor wrote them, but according to the Pocket Books editors, nothing written is officially canon, only what you see onscreen (with the exception of TAS, I think).

 

[Chad E]

Hmmm... if it's now restored, then it's "on screen", and it should count. It's not like it contradicts anything from the theatrical release; in fact, in helps explains some things. No reason why it shouldn't be "official".

 

[Jaxon's Dad]

FYI,
Just got my copy of Star Trek II: DE. The scene with Kirk and Spock that establishes Saavik's Romulan heritage has not been inserted into the new cut. So I guess it's official; Saavik being half Romulan is not canon.

 

[Todd K]

Yes, I didn't expect that in there, I think they just restored the ABC version of the film. The trailer with the vulcan/romulan thing looks like it was made VERY early into production. About half of the scenes are different versions of what actually made it into the movie. There is one new scene, though, that I can't figure out where it would have gone -- Everyone is on the Enterprise bridge, and Kirk says "Lt. Saavik, I believe you know David Marcus," and then the two give each other a silly smile like they just had intimate carnal knowledge of each other, and then Kirk adds "Ah, she's learning by doing." Very interesting!

 

[DaveBB]

Has anyone read the novelization of ST:III? I believe it's by Alan Dean Foster. Some added parts that I remember:

• Scotty taking his nephew's (Peter Preston) body home and dealing with his sister's anger.
• A romance between David Marcus and Saavik.

I wonder if Foster dropped those in or they were in the shooting script but never got filmed?

 

[Todd K]

I would guess they were added to flesh out the story. I can't imagine them even being in the shooting script of the film. I also seem to recall Carol Marcus going back and talking to the families of the dead Regula One crew, and admitting she and Madison were having some sort affair. Those subplots really had no place in the movie, since they have nothing to do with the real plot.

 

[DaveBB]

Correction: Vonda N. McIntyre was the author of the ST:III book.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Originally posted by Dave Beebe;
I believe it's by Alan Dean Foster.
It was actually written by Vonda N. McIntyre (who also penned the novelizations of II and IV), who is for my money, the best of all the STAR TREK authors, but sadly, she's been absent from the TREK landscape since about 1986. You are correct about the expanded plot details, but I'm quite secure in saying that the bulk of those (Spock's wake, Preston's funeral, love play between Saavik and David, the departure and further character arc of Carol Marcus, etc.) are McIntyre's own invention, and were never part of anything scripted or filmed (though they all added greatly to the story, and would have been welcomed by me if they had been in the film)...

 

[Brad Cook]

Actually, adding all that stuff would have turned the film into a 3-hour epic, which is not what Trek is all about.

I'm looking forward to getting these SEs.

 

[DanHaya]

You know, I've been wondering about these story arcs from the novels we keep bouncing around. Were these arcs part of the original script at some point during production or are the simply the result of the author using a little artistic license?

 

[Brad Cook]

Is that ST II trailer with the cut and alternate scenes available for download on the Web anywhere? I'd love to check it out.

Thanks.

- Brad

 

[Travis Brashear]

Originally posted by Dan Haya:
Were these arcs part of the original script at some point during production or are the simply the result of the author using a little artistic license?
95%+ Author's artistic license

 

[Stewart Gregory]

I'll be getting this