The Search for Spock

[Mr. Atoz]

I love Spock dearly, but when they decided to "kill him off" in "The Wrath of Khan", I don't think they should have brought him back by the hokey method of "protomatter".

One -- People die. It's too bad, but there it is. Having people come back to life with using a few mystical passes is fantasy, not science fiction.

Two -- It trivializes Spock's sacrifice. He was willing to risk his life to save the others. He gambled and he lost. The wonderful thing about his gamble is that we know he'd do it again, because the good of the many outweighs the good of the one.

But when Kirk and the others stole the Enterprise to take him back to Genesis, what justification did Kirk use? "The needs of the one outweighed the needs of the many." Bullhockey! They weren't staking their LIVES the way Spock did. All they were risking was the possibility of a reprimand for disobeying orders. And as it turned out, only Kirk got that much!

[andrewlee]

You have brought up a lot of good points about character deaths and bringing them back. I'm glad Spock was brought back, but you are right in saying the way it was done was not the best way to do it!! If a character is going to be brought back, it should be done more realistically within the parameters of the story and not to undermine the honer of the character's death!!

[Mr. Atoz]

But I did like Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon. I liked how the main characters worked together to kind of abscond with the Enterprise out of dock. It probably would have made more sense for them to hire a spaceship, but it wouldn't have been as dramatic.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"
"That's not very d**n funny."

[andrewlee]

I thought the character's interaction were good to. Another reason for stealing the Enterprise to go get Spock was that it was available, was faster, and more powerful than a civilian ship.
It was a dangerous journey. Hiring a ship would have not gotten them into as much trouble as they did.

[Mr. Atoz]

The power didn't count for much when they didn't even have the weapons hooked up!

But this raises another sore point -- in the movies, you get the distinct impression that those seven characters are the only members of the crew, except for the casualties every now and then. In the series, there were always crewmen and crewwomen walking down the corridors, taking a turn at the helm, helping Scotty out in Engineering. You don't see that in the movies.

The Enterprise had a crew of 430. Don't you think there were dozens and dozens of crewmen who loved Spock just as much as they did, and would have volunteered to help rescue him? But sadly that would have seriously bogged down the story they had in mind.

[andrewlee]

MR Atoz. I know what you mean about the lack of crewman in the movie. It makes perfect sense that crew members would also care about Spock and should have been shown. I don't see how having a few extras in a movie would cost the producers that much! they should have been there to make the movie better and more realistic!!

[Mr. Atoz]

Then again, to be perfectly fair, they had established that the Enterprise was a cadet training ship at this time. So there might not have been a permanent crew that stayed on from one mission to the next. And let's face it -- it would have taken a lot of time to get to like Spock that much.

[andrewlee]

You have a good point about the trainee cadet crew and them taking awhile to get to know Spock. Vulcans in general would be hard to get to know because they are closed off and very private!

[Mr. Atoz]

I'm trying to think of other things I liked about this movie, but it's not that easy. It was clever of Kirk to think of luring the Klingons onto the Enterprise and then self-destructing. That's thinking "out of the box" for sure. That image of the Klingon officer listening to the computer count down, and having no idea what it meant because obviously it was counting in English...

But watching the Enterprise blow up didn't have nearly the emotional impact on me that I thought it would.

[andrewlee]

A funny part of the movie is when Kirk and the others beam over to the Klingon bird of prey and capture a lone Klingon who says
" I am is not fit to live." and Kirk responds with "I will kill you later."