So I promised some big changes this year, and I'm keeping good on my word. A while back, I switched publication days from Friday to Thursday. This was out of necessity because I had a chaotic Friday schedule due to work. Now I'm in school, and have a chaotic schedule on Thursday due to that. Hence, the big change coming down the pipeline right now is that we're officially going to go back to where we were at the beginning, and publish on Fridays! But wait there's more! Today marks the one year anniversary of this blog! We started humbly with only a handful of readers, but we've grown far beyond what I ever thought we could. I couldn't have done it without all of you fine readers so thank you!
Now, I’ve been mulling over this concept for quite some time as I’ve tried to analyze this conundrum. And certainly I can’t be the only person thinking this, but 1984 was a really good year for movies. Don’t believe me? Chew on this:The Terminator, Ghostbusters, Amadeus, Repo Man, This is Spinal Tap, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Killing Fields, The Karate Kid. What do all of these movies have in common? They’re all rated above 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, and they all from 1984! The list goes on, too. If we keep going down the list based on rating, we’ll bump into classics like The Neverending Story, Romancing the Stone, Once Upon a Time in America, Beverly Hills Cop, Gremlins, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Revenge of the Nerds, Purple Rain, Police Academy, Footloose, Splash, Sixteen Candles, The Last Starfighter, Red Dawn, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Starman,Johnny Dangerously, and Star Trek II: The Search for SpocK, not to mention a film adaptation of the George Orwell classic 1984 because the irony of that situation was lost on no one. If you look at the aggregated Wikipedia page on movies that have a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, 1984 has an astounding 11 films! Go ahead, look it up. What I’m saying is 1984 was kind of a fluke year for Hollywood.
Why then, was 1984 such a stellar year at the theaters? Was it due to our collective fears of this:
Had the studios been executing incompetent executives? I haven’t quite gotten to the bottom of this mystery yet, but that won’t stop me from looking at a few of these films to see if there are any commonalities among them. I don’t think criteria is necessary, but if I start to see emerging patterns over the next few weeks, we’ll start to tabulate things a bit more thoroughly. Now before we do actually move on, just let me say that I know Rotten Tomatoes is not the most ‘scientific’ way of quantifying things, and I’m also aware that 1984 doesn’t even clock in as the year with the most 100% rated movies on the site. That honor would go to 2014 with a whopping 26 movies that carry that rating. However, 1984 has a huge collection of memorable films, and the highest rated films are pure, mundane entertainment, as opposed to documentaries, or foreign art house films. So am I being a little judgy in formulating my examination, sure, but I would like to be entertained through this experience as well. That said, let’s look at our first 1984 film!
Ta DA! Oh, come on, you had to have known this was coming. As far as this Trekkie is concerned, this is the lowest hanging fruit in our 1984 film examination. I could practically quote this movie in my sleep! That doesn’t make this any less exciting though! I love this movie. However, I will attempt to remain level headed about the whole experience. SInce we’re discussing the year this was released already, I won’t bore you with too much background. But we need at least a little bit. So this movie came about because Leonard Nimoy had grown tired of playing Spock for nearly 20 years, and he felt like making a clean break with the franchise would help him overcome his typecasting problems. That’s why Spock dies in Star Trek II. But then TWOK was super successful and Paramount wanted to chase a little more of that sweet, sweet money. That meant that it was time to strike a deal, and as a result of that deal, Nimoy got to write, and direct his own movie. Thus, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock was conceived because it wouldn’t be much of a Star Trek movie without Spock in it.
Hence, after this:
And this:
And this:
We got the Spock is Jesus story. Ok, ok, I jest a little. But basically, after what is considered to be the best Star Trek film of all time, we were treated to the follow-up where everyone involved had to figure out a way to bring back one of the most beloved characters in Sci-Fi history, and undo one of the most poignant moments in cinematic history in a way that wouldn’t royally piss off the fans. That’s no small order. So how did they do it?
Well, TSFS picks up right where TWOK left off. The Enterprise is limping home after everyone narrowly escaped death at the hands of the formidable Khan Noonien Singh, all except a handful that is, and she looks terrible. There are temporary hull plates haphazardly attached to the superstructure, and wires and conduit are hanging out of the ceilings all over the place, and it’s just bad. Kirk and crew are hoping for a hero’s welcome when they return to Earth, but what they get instead is a jumbo sized kick to the junk. They find out that everyone basically has to sign an NDA concerning the events of the previous film, and oh yeah, we’re decommissioning the Enterprise. On top of all that, Bones has been acting incredibly strange since the end of the last film. Kirk is paid a visit from Spock’s father Sarek during which Sarek accuses Kirk of being an uncaring bastard because Kirk left Spock’s body on the Genesis Planet. We find out that when Vulcans are about to die, they can transfer their souls into another vessel, be it artificial, or organic so that the soul can live on. It’s further revealed that McCoy unwittingly became Spock’s soul’s vessel. Weird. However, this explains why old Bones has been acting out of sorts. So armed with this information, Kirk vows to return to the Genesis world and retrieve Spock’s body so that Spock can be properly put to pasture.
In the meantime, Kirk’s son David, and Saavik, played by not Kirstie Alley, return to Genesis to see how it’s developing. There’s a lot of oooh-ing, and aaah-ing as the discover the extent of the variety of climates that exist, and the proximity of each climate to the others. It’s literally unnatural, but breath taking all the same. But wait! There’s a lifeform reading coming from the surface! But wait there’s more! None of the Genesis scientists programmed in lifeforms other than plants! So now David and Saavik want to investigate, which the ship’s snooty captain is completely against. But eventually he relents and they get to do their thing. They discover that it’s just a bunch of space microbes that latched onto Spock’s burial torpedo and evolved to something that would more easily register on ships’ scanners. And they’re bummed. But they’re about to be more bummed because a rogue Klingon ship shows up and blows their science ship out of the stars! Now David and Saavik are stranded. To compound matters, they hear an ominous screaming in the distance.
We jump back to Kirk and crew, and Kirk is trying to get legitimate permission to go back to Genesis and retrieve the body of his friend. Of course the admiral tells him to shove it, but that’s okay because Kirk has a backup plan! They’re going to steal back the Enterprise, violate a treaty stipulation with the Klingon Empire, kidnap a mental patient, and sabotage the Excelsior in order to facilitate their escape. Great plan guys. But they do it anyway. They violate, like, a thousand laws, but they do successfully kidnap McCoy, steal the Enterprise, sabotage the Excelsior, and make their way to Genesis in order to get on that breaking treaty law thing. All sarcasm aside, this whole sequence is one of my favorite Star Trek movie moments. We get to see all of the different crew doing what they’re good at, and everyone plays a role. The entire plan wouldn’t have had a chance of success without the contributions of our heroes. It’s wonderful to see them rally together around their fallen comrade. Oh, and the music is fantastic!. On their way to Genesis, they try to raise the science ship, but get no reply. This leaves us in suspense, at least until they arrive. Then we get a tense battle between the Klingons and the crippled Enterprise.
By this point, Saavik and David have realized that the creature they’ve found is Spock, although he’s pretty young. They postulate that his body reset with the Genesis planet, and that his growth spurts are causing the planet to age rapidly and destroy itself. In actuality, David cut some corners that left the entire process unstable. Anyway, Kirk gets off a lucky shot on the Klingon ship, temporarily crippling them, but absolutely destroying the Enterprise in the process. This prompts the Klingon Commander, played by Christopher Lloyd, to try and force a surrender from Kirk. Lloyd does make one mistake though. As he’s talking about prisoners and their imminent death should Kirk not obey, he kills Kirk’s son. It’s a sad, but touching moment as Shatner tries to articulate the feelings of loss, and despair associated with such an event. To his merit, Shatner does a pretty good job. As a result, Kirk surrenders and tells Lloyd to beam over a boarding party to take the ship. It’s never that easy with Kirk though. He sets the Enterprise to self-destruct, and as the Klingons are beaming over, Kirk and crew beam down to the planet’s surface. The Klingon boarding party all die, and the Enterprise is destroyed in glorious fashion. If this movie has any failings, though, it’s the fact that the destruction of the Enterprise was a more emotional moment for me as a viewer than the death of Kirik’s son. I mean, we only met the guy in the last film, and to be honest, he was a little whiny, but perhaps more effort could have been made to get me invested in the character a bit more. I dunno.
Anyway, now stranded on the planet, Kirk, and his gallant crew must pit themselves against the wretched Klingons. This entire last bit doesn’t take too long to unfold as our heroes locate Saavik and Spock almost immediately. They seize control of the situation, but are again thwarted by Lloyd, who beams down with a disruptor and acts like the bad a that he is. Because prisoners were still a thing to the Klingons at this time, Lloyd has everyone except Kirk and Spock beamed up to the ship. Now at this point, the planet is tearing itself apart. There are flames everywhere, and giant chasms opening up all over the place. It’s pretty spectacular. There are words exchanged between Kirk and Lloyd, and then there’s the fight scene, and eventually, Lloyd falls into one of those chasms, and gets burned alive by magma. Kirk uses Lloyd’s communicator to get himself a Spock beamed up to the Klingon ship where they easily take the one guy hostage. Sulu is able to get the ship moving, and they warp away just as the planet goes up in a fiery ball of awesomesauce. They go to Vulcan, and there’s this ritual thing, and Spock gets his soul back, and McCoy doesn’t have to be two minds about everything anymore, and it just makes me so gosh darn happy. The implication is that now that Spock is back, the universe is as it should be, and we can all breathe a little easier now, and that’s the feeling that I personally have by the end of this movie, no matter how many times I’ve already seen it.
What’s to be said about this classic? Well, it’s not as beloved as TWOK, but I think that’s an unfair rap. TWOK was super intense because it primarily dealt with the themes of self-consuming hatred and revenge. Ricardo Montalban took those emotions and cranked them to 11. Shatner reciprocated tit for tat. There was a palpable feeling of tension in that film that this one didn’t need because thematically, that wasn’t what was being explored. In this film, we explore themes of loss, and anguish, and family. We look at those rare occasions when the universe gives us a second lease on something. We get to explore the ‘what if’ scenario of suddenly getting back something we’ve lost that was deeply important to us, and we get to see just how incomplete Kirk’s crew is without one of their core players. Because this was the focus, the tension was less. There were scenes that were more esoteric; that were meant to make the viewer do a little introspection. There was still a little action, and the heist sequence was really exciting, but it didn’t hit with the same magnitude that TWOK did, and I honestly think that it’s because TSFS didn’t have to. It could be softer because its predecessor played out at a fever pitch. It could take its time because, again, the previous installment had moved at a rather furious pace.I’m not calling the comparison an apples to oranges one, but what I am saying is TSFS benefitted in some interesting ways from the tone, pacing, and themes of TWOK.
From a production stance, I think this movie is really well done. There aren’t any plots that are left unresolved by the end, except what actually happened to that last Klingon that was kidnapped. I’m working on a novel about that right now, actually. True story. I felt like the acting was pretty solid. The special effects were, of course, excellent, and the music was incredible. The lighting, the framing of the shots, and a lot of other easily overlooked aspects were very similar to the previous film, and I wonder if that was done intentionally because it really helps to ground the film in that universe that Nicholas Meyer established in his film. I really enjoy that you could string these two films together and it would basically just seem like one long film. It’s a fun film, and a great ride, and I can’t recommend it enough! We’re just getting started with this series so stick around because who knows where we might go from here!
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