Another Home Video Game-Changer
After Star Trek II’s boffo success on home video (it was the studio’s highest-selling at the time, priced at 39.95), Paramount fast-tracked The Search For Spock to be part of their priced-to-own catalog at 29.95.
This is the one where Kirk loses everything, his ship, his career, his son – and he still keeps fighting through the pain. It’s the movie that destroyed the original letter-less 1701 Enterprise, a scene so shattering to us Trekkies that they might as well have killed off another major character. And if you can watch Kirk’s hollow “My God, Bones, what have I done?” without feeling a little verklempt, you might have green blood coursing through your veins.
This was the first “New” Trek film I saw after I became a self aware pre-teen Trek fan and not just a guy who enjoyed watching Star Trek reruns every Sunday morning because there was nothing else on.
And I always unabashedly loved this one. I still find it hard to believe this was the start of the “odd-numbered curse” for trek films. I get that the original was more of a head shop conversation than the expected cosmic adventure. And Star Trek V, well ok, that one still needs some serious retcon re-framing to satisfy cannon. But for me, Search For Spock felt like a proper cinematic version of the TV show, and a worthy middle act to the Genesis trilogy. -Pop
Code zero, zero, zero… destruct… zero.