Star Trek III

[CaptainMatt]

Okay, so whose first real Trek experience was The Search for Spock? This was largely due to William Shatner and my interest in him in TJ Hooker, but once I saw Star Trek III in all it's cinematic glory I was an instant fan. Who else claims this film as their first Trek experience, and still remembers it well like I do?

 

[Balrog]

Not my first Trek, but beloved. I don't give a crap about the odd vs. even curse. This was a good one.

 

[CaptainMatt]

Good enough for me! I saw later films but they did not captivate my interest as easily, even when I saw STV in theaters or was peparing for STVI suring the twenty-fifth anniversary year. This film was unusually dark for a Trek film at the time, I thought so anyway, but then I had not yet seen The Wrath of Khan.

 

[Captrek]

This film was unusually dark for a Trek film at the time, I thought so anyway, but then I had not yet seen The Wrath of Khan.

This film was unusually dark for any film.

The hero's wife (he was married to that ship) and son killed at the end of the second act? That just doen't happen.

There are films where the hero's family is killed in the first act and revenge is a driving tension of the rest of the film. There are films when somebody sacrifices themselves in the climax, such as Spock sacrificing himself in TWOK (though that film clearly ended on a note of hope for Spock's return) and Vesper in Casino Royale. And occasionally a father figure dies in the second act to force the hero to grow up (Ben Kenobi, Ben Parker). But TSFS's unexpected second-act offing of the hero's wife and son is something very unusual.

 

[CaptainMatt]

No wonder they decided to do something with more light moments in the next film.

 

[Greg Cox]

Star Trek III was by no means my first exposure to Trek (you'd have to go back to the sixties for that), but I have fond memories of seeing it for the first time at a special screening attended by James Doohan--and briefly meeting Doohan afterwards.

 

[sonak]

I have no specific memories of when I first saw this film, but it is a good and often overlooked Star Trek movie.

 

[Balrog]

My memory of this film is skipping school and going to the first showing on opening day.

 

[Tosk]

I knew of Trek before III, but it was my primary experience that stuck. Mostly due to timing. It was the first time one was released where I was old enough to be taken to see it by my father. I remember telling my friends about it the next day at school.

 

[MasuPu'a]

Trek III wasn't my first Trek experience. I had grown up watching Next Generation, so I was familiar with Trek. Then one day my mom comes home with these Trek movies for my sister and I. We watched the first one, not to thrilled, in fact I remember mocking it a bit.

Then she showed us the second one.

Supposedly I had watched TOS as a toddler with my parents, can't remember it, so the Trek movies were really my first experience with the original cast. Within two movies I was in love with the cast, particularly Spock. And then I watched him die in TWOK. I was devastated, crying at the end of the movie. My sister and I were very upset, so our mother told us that there was a third movie. We begged her to rent it, and we all went to the movie store that very night to rent it.

The next night we watched it. Not the very best, but still a solid film, and they brought back Spock. I was ecstatic and went on to watch the other films. While the third film wasn't my first Trek experience, it still was a very important and memorable part of my first TOS experience.

To this day I'm rather fond of watching II, III and IV back to back.

 

[Caesar753]

Wasn't my first experience, but I'm a big fan. Search for Spock of probably the most underrated TOS film.

 

[Mysterion]

I've never liked that ST III and IV spend all their energy un-doing ST II instead of moving things forward.

 

[General_Phoenix]

Star Trek III may have been my first Trek film, I was 6 or so. My mom was a huge Trek fan, so I had been exposed to Trek on TV all of my life. Remember going to the drive-in theater with my parents to see it, I remember we had to come back and see it again because the theater had some technical issues the first time we saw it, so they gave everyone a free pass to see it again.

Years later I would watch it quite a bit, while playing Trade Wars 2002, and other BBS door games.

 

[Gojira]

Wasn't my first experience, but I'm a big fan. Search for Spock of probably the most underrated TOS film.

Yes! I was a long time fan and have never understood why people don't like this movie. It is loaded with a lot of good Star Trek elements.

 

[MasuPu'a]

Wasn't my first experience, but I'm a big fan. Search for Spock of probably the most underrated TOS film.

Yes! I was a long time fan and have never understood why people don't like this movie. It is loaded with a lot of good Star Trek elements.

I think that SfS is often overlooked since it follows the powerhouse Trek film, Wrath of Khan. TWoK is a difficult to follow; one of the best. It's a lot to live up to. And SfS is essentially a film that undoes one of the more emotional scenes of TWoK.

SfS is also directly followed by Voyage Home, again one of the best Trek films, and one that is completely different from the tone of SfS. SfS is a good film, but I think some of of it's flaws are highlighted by the fact that it's sandwiched between two of the best films in the Trekverse.

I like SfS. Christopher Lloyd makes a brilliant Klingon, it's both funny and heartwarming seeing the bridge crew doing what they can to support and help Kirk steal the Enterprise and save Spock. Uhura gets a chance to shine by subduing Mr. Adventure, proving she's more then just a communication officer. And the death of Kirk's son sets up the hatred he holds for Klingons that we see in UC. SfS also sets the stage for VH, you can't have one without the other.

 

[Trek Survivor]

A fantastic film, one of my fave Trek adventures. As somebody else said above, who cares about the nerdy-fans "odd vs even" nonsense.

 

[Jeyl]

I liked it because the film had our crew dealing with issues without one of it's big players, while adding a lot to their dedication and loyalty. That kind of story would never happen nowadays since every movie since has always been fixated upon the two/three leading characters, which is a real pity.

 

[CaptainMatt]

I like how everybody of the central cast had something to do and real moments to shine in TrekIII. Their loyalty to one another was proven by this film almost more than any other, I dare say.This makes the film one of the finest things to ever be released under the Trek banner. Sadly I fear you are right, Jeyl, that the modern features tend to focus on the leading man and the guest alien/villian. Pehaps this can be changed with the rebooted franchise, as there were some great moments for nearly the whole cast in the 2009 film.

 

[SeerSGB]

One of my top 5 Trek movies. And it was great character development. The only downside they KILLED THE ENTERPRISE! It was well done, it was emotional, it was a defining moment for Kirk (Kirk really gets kicked in the nuts in this movie: Ship destroyed, his son killed while he listens, career (as far as he knows at this point) gone, all just to save Spock's "soul". It really drove home how close those two were-- and I don't mean in a K/S way.

 

[Basill]

I had seen bits and pieces of TMP my brother taped off of television. I thought the effects were pretty ok (he failed to copy the first 20 or 30 minutes so I never saw the drydock scene until years later) but it was too brainy for me at that age, and I could never get through it. It just wasn't as amazing as Star Wars or E.T. was to me at the time. I even mocked a friend for gushing about TWOK after he went to see it, and prevented him from entering the "Trek mythos" into our playtime. The summer of TSFS was the first real dive I took into the proverbial pond, and the first Trek film I saw on the big screen. It literally changed my attitude overnight and I've been devout ever since. It's only fitting that I had to wait anxiously several years to see TWOK on TV after telling my friend how dumb Star Trek was.