Spock's DEATH SCENE

[RobertScorpio]

Perfect the way it is. Too bad ST3 came along and spoiled it all.

Did you think Kirk was really dead in “Amok Time," “The Tholian Web,” or “The Enterprise Incident”? Or that McCoy was really dead in “Shore Leave”? Or that Scotty was really dead in “The Changeling”? Or that Chekov was really dead in “Spectre of the Gun”? So why did anyone expect Spock to really die at the end of ST II?

Yes we believed that Spock was dead. Because there was the common misconception at the time that Leonard Nimoy did not want to play Spock or be involved with Star Trek. Star Trek: Phase II was re-written without Nimoy as Spock. The common misconception was that Star Trek projects were being derailed and cancelled because Nimoy didn't want to do them or was being difficult. Nimoy wrote an autobiography titled I Am Not Spock that made us believe he hated Star Trek and Spock. Even Michael Eisner, then head of Paramount, believed that Nimoy wanted Spock to die as a requirement of his contract to appear in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. We really expected Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan to be the last filmed Star Trek adventure in 1982 and he was truly dead.

Oh yes..I really thought he was going to stay dead too. I think people don't remember that KHAN came out before the internet and if there were rumors of his coming back for SEARCH...they weren't well known.

My friends and i thought he wanted it out, they killed him, and TREK would go on without him. I believe to this day that KHAN should have either been the last movie, or, they should have gone on without him and let Savik become the 'new' vulcan of the movie series.

Rob

 

[Herbert1]

^Unfortunately, I no longer have my magazines from the period, but I remember that the cast members were under the impression that Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan would be their last Star Trek project. That they came back together just to make this one film.

 

[Sabataage]

For some reason, the moment that does me in every time happens before they even start talking to each other through the glass. Its when McCoy (IIRC) calls Kirk down to engineering. He looks over at the science station and sees Spock's empty chair. He didn't even know he had left. But probably the cruelest moment for me though is when a blinded Spock walks into the barrier. I'm shaking a little just thinking about it. No. I don't think they could have done it any better.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

It's pretty ironic, that Nimoy is the only one being there from the very first episode, unaired as it originally was, and the latest incarnation to date despite his death scene, which was perfect enough for me.

 

[RobertScorpio]

For some reason, the moment that does me in every time happens before they even start talking to each other through the glass. Its when McCoy (IIRC) calls Kirk down to engineering. He looks over at the science station and sees Spock's empty chair. He didn't even know he had left. But probably the cruelest moment for me though is when a blinded Spock walks into the barrier. I'm shaking a little just thinking about it. No. I don't think they could have done it any better.

Yep..that look shatner gives that empty seat when McCoy tells him to get down to engineering is really well done. And his rush to engineering as the new world is evolving is really a great editing job too.

Rob

 

[Nero's Shadow]

I have to say it still makes me sad when spock dies kirk,s look as spock slides down the glass priceless !!! I never saw it at the flicks to young but there,s a bit that bugs me its when spock says REMEMBER i understand it now but did u understand it when u 1st saw it at the flicks .?

 

[Nero's Shadow]

Did it give u hope that SPOCK WILL RETURN !!!!

 

[Mojochi]

Only Nicholas Meyer could get Shat to shut the hell up & act. He is the greatest Star Trek director ever, & not just for the death scene. The one that jumps to mind is Kirk needing his glasses to work the controls, & cursing to himself about it. Jewels like that, all through that movie, with 3 or 4 powerhouse cinema performances, the likes of which, Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, & Montalban had never had, nor would ever get again. True tangible drama

Spock's death might have been one of the most memorable deaths in film history. There has never been a moment like that in Kirk's screen time. Utter heartbroken powerlessness.
It was the most stunned I have ever been, at the end of a cinema experience. We all just sat there, until the lights came on, staring, at each other, at the screen, each other again, just speechless

 

[RobertScorpio]

Only Nicholas Meyer could get Shat to shut the hell up & act. He is the greatest Star Trek director ever, & not just for the death scene. The one that jumps to mind is Kirk needing his glasses to work the controls, & cursing to himself about it. Jewels like that, all through that movie, with 3 or 4 powerhouse cinema performances, the likes of which, Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, & Montalban had never had, nor would ever get again. True tangible drama

Spock's death might have been one of the most memorable deaths in film history. There has never been a moment like that in Kirk's screen time. Utter heartbroken powerlessness.
It was the most stunned I have ever been, at the end of a cinema experience. We all just sat there, until the lights came on, staring, at each other, at the screen, each other again, just speechless

^^ Totally agree. Shatner was really at his best. Even Koenig, at the time not a fan of Shatner, thought he should have an oscar nod.

Rob

 

[KarmicCurse]

Just finished watching this movie for the millionth time. That scene is just as powerful and wonderful as ever.

Serious, dramatic, character driven, adult oriented, and mature. (I'm refraining from a tempting rebuke of the new movie.)

I do wonder though, why did the Enterprise try to escape from the Reliant instead of just blowing it up when they were so close? Should we assume that would have detonated Genesis immediately? This is why one shouldn't watch something for the millionth time.

 

[Mojochi]

I'm not even sure if they still had working weapons at that point. I'll have to look into that

 

[KarmicCurse]

They had just pounded on Reliant hard enough to knock off its nacelle. If Genesis could have detonated immediately, becoming a hazard from furthur strikes, Khan would have set if off right away, right?

Incidentally, there's one moment of satisfaction that was missing in the movie. Imagine if the final shot of Khan was of him watching the viewscreen as Enterprise warped away. We see his shocked look of anger and dismay just before we cut to Reliant going boom. I don't like that he possibly died thinking he got Kirk.

 

[RobertScorpio]

^^ oh but I do. Khan isn't the 'bad guy' we make him out to be. If he was guilty for his past, and I mean his past as a tyrant, then Kirk would have brought him to trial after what happened in SPACE SEED.

They were left on that planet, no one came to check up on their progress, his wife is killed by those ear things. The guy became a crazed angry man. So let him die thinking he "won"...I have no problem with that at all.

Rob

 

[zombieChan51]

Perfect the way it is. Too bad ST3 came along and spoiled it all.

What he said

 

[RyanKCR]

Death scene was perfect. However Shatner should have completely redubbed his audio for the photon burial. "up arms" is complete crap.

That was actually Takei saying "honors hup." If I know the part you are refering to.

 

[Saquist]

It's a real dramatic scene but it didn't make me cry..it was sad though.
Might Joe Young made me cry but...this was honorable not really tragic.

 

[Kain]

Well, the first time I watched "The Wrath of Khan", I was pretty young, so just one scene stuck to my head.

"....KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!"

Then, a few years ago, I saw TOS for the first time.

Really, how can you take a character that is actually trying not to have feelings, and make him the most likable and recognisable character possibly ever created? And then, just kill him! The fact that Leonard Nimoy as Spock is still in the franchise, even when it changed Universe, no less, says it all.

After I finished TOS and TAS, I saw the movies again. And then, I appreciated how remarkably genious was "The Wrath of Khan!". Think about it: It was actually a continuation of one of the episodes, it took the episode's villain and turned him into an arch-enemy, and it had the death of the man you instantly think of when you hear the words Star and Trek together!

But for me, the moment I gasped was not in "The Wrath of Khan", but in "The Search for Spock". In the beginning of the movie, when captain Kirk makes a toast "to the friends who are not here" (or something like that), I gasped at the realisation that "Oh my God! Spock is actually dead!". Even though I knew Spock was going to be resurrected, that moment just scared me by making me realise he died.

I still don't know why, for me, that moment was when Spock really died.


Why couldn't they just do something equally glorious for Data? Data was more that the TNG's mascot, he WAS TNG! And they just poorly copied Spock's death for his last appearance? He sacrificed himself to save everyone, after transferring his mind to someone else, just like Spock. The "just like Spock" part is why that idea was just bad.

 

[RobertScorpio]

Well, the first time I watched "The Wrath of Khan", I was pretty young, so just one scene stuck to my head.

"....KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!!!"

Then, a few years ago, I saw TOS for the first time.

Really, how can you take a character that is actually trying not to have feelings, and make him the most likable and recognisable character possibly ever created? And then, just kill him! The fact that Leonard Nimoy as Spock is still in the franchise, even when it changed Universe, no less, says it all.

After I finished TOS and TAS, I saw the movies again. And then, I appreciated how remarkably genious was "The Wrath of Khan!". Think about it: It was actually a continuation of one of the episodes, it took the episode's villain and turned him into an arch-enemy, and it had the death of the man you instantly think of when you hear the words Star and Trek together!

But for me, the moment I gasped was not in "The Wrath of Khan", but in "The Search for Spock". In the beginning of the movie, when captain Kirk makes a toast "to the friends who are not here" (or something like that), I gasped at the realisation that "Oh my God! Spock is actually dead!". Even though I knew Spock was going to be resurrected, that moment just scared me by making me realise he died.

I still don't know why, for me, that moment was when Spock really died.


Why couldn't they just do something equally glorious for Data? Data was more that the TNG's mascot, he WAS TNG! And they just poorly copied Spock's death for his last appearance? He sacrificed himself to save everyone, after transferring his mind to someone else, just like Spock. The "just like Spock" part is why that idea was just bad.

^^ If the powers that be ever had a "post of the day" award, this would be today's winner.

You have summed up in your last paragraph the two reasons why NEMESIS was such a bad movie, and cost TNG any chance of further movies. It tried to create a "KHAN" for Picard (failed) and tried to copy Spock's demise (failed again)..the result is a movie that even with 2003 dollars could not out earn TREK V in 1989 dollars.

Rob

 

[TheLeastOfThese]

I tear up when Spock dies

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Again, people, if a thread hasn't been posted in for more than a year, please start a new thread on the subject! This thread is way past the use by date! Locking!