Definitely! Very influential on the rest of the franchise, moreso than any other Trek film before or since. TSFS... 1. Introduced the notion to Trek that the hero's ship is fair game for destruction during an adventure, but don't worry, it'll be replaced in the next film (or next episode, in the final season of Deep Space Nine). 2. Was the debut of the Excelsior, which represented 90% of Starfleet vessels in the TNG era. 3. Began the trend of the Klingons being the most over-used alien race in Trek lore. 4. Unveiled the Klingon Bird of Prey, which became at least as common in the Klingon space armada as the Excelsior did in Starfleet's, in multiple sizes, even! Also, the Romulans were no longer the alien race with the cloaking attack vessels. 5. Featured that-there Shroomdock, showing use in no uncertain terms that Starfleet's main base was situated in orbit around Earth. 6. Had the heroes no only disobeying orders from Starfleet Command, but also becoming outlaws. (Don't worry though everything will turn out fine, and their illegal activities will have saved the day!)
They recently added the blu ry version of star trek 3 on netflix so i was able to watch it again and you know what i actually enjoyed it even more then my first viewing. Theres a lot to love about the film. My top star trek movie lists now reads Star trek voyage home( the comedy and characer interactions are my favorite thing about trek and this did it wonderfuly) Star trek first contact Star trek undiscovered county (for some reason i just love this one the musc fits in perfectly) Star trek wrath of kahn ( loved it but was a little disapointed after hearing about how great it was but like it better after more viewings) Star trek search for spock
I always love the space dock scene. It's a visual reminder of the grandness of the federation and indeed the whole Star Trek universe.
I don't understand a lot of the Star Trek III hate. It's a damn solid film. It provides nice drama, good characters, and possibly the best resurrection of a popular character ever. I personally like the whole Genesis trilogy, but not Star Trek IV as much as the first two, though, but for my own reasons.
Watching The Search for Spock on SyFy right now, even though I own it on Blu-ray. It really is an underrated movie.
I don't recall any hate for it in its day. TMP had polarized fan opinions, and ST II seemed to appeal more to the ones who'd been disappointed by TMP but had not yet stomped away from fandom in anger. ST III was great fun, even though Australia had to wait six months attempting to avoid spoilers. Down Under, Sydney fans had a very busy couple of weeks attending two free gala previews in costume and then opening night. Then came the popular success of ST IV and it was probably about then (and definitely confirmed by ST V) that someone suggested the "even-numbered Trek films are best" truism. And even people who barely remembered ST III began to diss it.
I obviously wasn't there when III came out (well I was but 2 years old) but if there was hate for it, I doubt they would have allowed Nimoy to direct the next one.
Sorry to double post but someone just posted the premiere event of the film on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv8aAOSLkXc
I actually saw III before II and liked III Very much. I thought it was a fun movie, and had that 80s action movie feel that I liked as a kid. Its funny because I picked that one out at the Blockbuster thinking that was the one where spock died. The Search for Spock, well he must have died right? He did, turns out in the very first scene of the movie.
Anytime I want to show off my home theater I put on the Enterprise self-destruct scene. BOOOOM!!!!!!! Of course I am just a little too young to remember because I was only 4 or 5 years old when it came out. But that must have been shocking to a lot of people. I remember how torn up I was about the Enterprise-D in Generations, and that's despite kind of hearing rumors in the months leading up to the movie it might happen. I bet that wasn't the case in 1984.
III to me has some good, and some bad. I thought this marked a turn where the characters started to become parodies of themselves, rather than playing it straight. Which I'm fine with in STIV, but that shift I feel was detrimental to the series as a whole. Thought the "no, you can't have a ship and go out to this classified area you were just at" made little sense, given how important Kirk was to the federation at the time. It was easy to explain their situation to the brass, given McCoy's stuff going on. So the stealing the ship and sabotaging the excelsior portion of this felt a bit cheesy to me. The main conflict still holds up well. I like genesis, it's a good sci-fi theme. I like David and Carol. The enterprise destruction was cool. Tough time buying Back to the Future guy as a klingon (I have no idea why his name is eluding me, and lazy to look it up). Love how David's arc played out. End scene where Spock returns sans memories is pretty touching. So good and bad. Like a 6.5-7/10 for me. I skip it on most rewatches, but don't skip it ALL the time (like V, Insurrection, Nemesis)
Writing "(I have no idea why his name is eluding me, and lazy to look it up)" is actually more effort than Googling "st3 klingon captain", so you did more work being "lazy" than if you'd actually looked it up. Congrats!
Of course at the time Kirk asked for the Enterprise he had no idea that Spock's body had regenerated on Genesis. All he actually had to do was bring McCoy to Vulcan so Sarek could get Spock's katra. Unless of course there was a deleted line where Sarek said "oh, by the way, we need his body too." Mmm... Sarek did say "why did you leave him on Genesis?" implying that they shouldn't have left his body there... I might just have invalidated my earlier point...
Spock's katra, via McCoy, also asked why Kirk left Spock on Genesis. It's possible that Kirk was making a leap of faith based on that.
McCoy was also trying to get a ship to the Mutara Sector before they found out what was wrong with him and Kirk had considerable knowledge of the Genesis effect and Sarek didn't go into any details - he just said they should bring Spock to Vulcan without defining if he meant his body or his katra, if I remember correctly. He probably just thought, Spock - that is McCoy in that context - wants to go to the Mutara sector and then to Mount Seleya, Sarek wants to have him on Vulcan. Well, let's go to Vulcan and do the Mutara sector on the way.