Kirk's attitude end of Trek 2 vs start of Trek 3.

[Mutara Nebula 1967]

Kirk goes from the close of TWOK to SFS from a "Young, I feel young." peaceful happy attitude to very melancholy and haunted by the death of Spock when the movie opens.

The whole "I feel young" thing seemed inexplicable as if Meyer wanted to still have a happy ending despite the death of one of the two major players in Trek.

Kirk's feelings at the start of Trek III seemed way more consistant with wha we would expect him to be feeling.

 

[Maurice]

That's because they rearranged the beginning of the film to start on the Enterprise instead of at the Grissom. Kirk is feeling uneasy because of Grissom's discovery and McCoy's (cut) odd behavior. When they rearranged the scenes the tone makes no sense.

 

[CoveTom]

^ A lot of things make no sense with the rearranged scenes. Not sure why they did that.

 

[SonicRanger]

Maybe Kirk had time to think about it while he had the bridge floors repainted white and red between TWOK and TSFS.

 

[Candlelight]

And altered the battle damage on the secondary hull.

 

[Gary Sebben]

There are stages to grief. In the heat of the moment while looking at a new planet and surrounded by loved ones he bound to get a little up beat. But in the long trip home it would be easy for him to slip into depression. It makes perfect sense.

 

[Doug Otte]

There are stages to grief. In the heat of the moment while looking at a new planet and surrounded by loved ones he bound to get a little up beat. But in the long trip home it would be easy for him to slip into depression. It makes perfect sense.

Despite the grammar/typo issues, I'm with you. That's the way I think of it.

Doug

 

[Gorn Captain]

There are stages to grief. In the heat of the moment while looking at a new planet and surrounded by loved ones he bound to get a little up beat. But in the long trip home it would be easy for him to slip into depression. It makes perfect sense.

Despite the grammar/typo issues, I'm with you. That's the way I think of it.

Doug

Agreed. Kirk's upbeat mood came after the graveness (no pun intended) of the funeral. It was a light moment to be obscured by the weight of his grief.

 

[Gary Sebben]

Despite the grammar/typo issues, I'm with you.

Doug

Be careful of the late night you're finger slips on the keyboard. I'll be there watching.

Or I won't. I actually don't care that much...

 

[Grant]

He read the script.

In TWOK he accepted Spock's death because it was a good noble death and saved many people. That's what 'military' people do.

IN TSFS he realized that since the script said Spock was coming back to life he should therefore be upset and angry and not accepting the death because, of course, in most cases death is reversable.

Really, that's the truth. Bennett who was writing the script wanted Kirk to not accept it because it would be cool if kirk couldn't accept it and viola, Spock's alive. Wow great coincidence.


And yes they should have left at least the first, 'discovery of the tube' scene by the Grissom in original order. Because intending to cremate a friend and then finding out his casket/body is just sitting on the surface of a planet would be disturbing.

They had to rearrange the rest of the scenes because Curtis had no charisma and no chemistry with Butrick and the planet scenes looked so lame (Tacky sets) that they felt they had to emphasize the crew to get the movie rolling.
But the bridge scene on Grissom where they discover the tube should have been left in place.

 

[Gary Sebben]

In TWOK he accepted Spock's death because it was a good noble death and saved many people. That's what 'military' people do.

That's such a TNG thing to say. So you really think that just because someone is a military man they can brush off the death of a 20 year friendship? Really? And people never ever look normal and hide deep rooted pain in the military. PTSD is just a myth, right?

 

[Tuxedo Dragon]

At the end of Star Trek 2 Kirk came to terms with growing old. He no longer felt too old to command a starship. He realized Spock was trying to tell him this with his brithday gift ( A Tale of Two Cities). Kirk was at peace with himself in that regard but still missed Spock. Hench why he is still upset in Star Trek 3. He is no longer concerned with getting older like he was in the second movie. Which was his character arch in the second movie. In the third movie it was more about him trying to do right by his best friend.

 

[Anticitizen]

Test audiences reacted badly to Spock's death and the film's ending (the tone of which was dark and final), so the ending was made more uplifting by Bennett. The scene of Spock's casket on the planet and Nimoy's closing monologue were added; Meyer objected, but did not stand in the way of the modifications.

http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Star_Trek_II:_The_Wrath_of_Khan

So, there's your reason.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

They did the same thing with Rocky. He was supposed to die at the end of the movie...

 

[Sci]

Kirk goes from the close of TWOK to SFS from a "Young, I feel young." peaceful happy attitude to very melancholy and haunted by the death of Spock when the movie opens.

The whole "I feel young" thing seemed inexplicable as if Meyer wanted to still have a happy ending despite the death of one of the two major players in Trek.

It's not inexplicable if you pay attention to Kirk's character arc. He starts the film feeling old, and useless, as though his best days are behind him and life is no longer worth living. As painful as Spock's death is, the entire process of defeating Khan gave Kirk a re-invigorated sense of the value of his own life and of the years ahead of him.