The Search For Spock

The Search For Spock is not all that well-regarded among critics, fans, or... uh... me. It cheapens Spock's death when you bring him back for the very next movie but I get that you can't have a TOS Star Trek movie without Spock. I've already voiced my opinion on what they should've done with the series after Wrath of Khan.

Anyway, Star Trek III features two deaths. If you're not keen on spoilers having to do with a thirty-year-old movie, maybe you should go read something else instead--maybe this.  Or, you can sit and stare at this picture of Saavik as portrayed by Robin Curtis who I actually preferred over Kirstie Alley:

This is a post about the death of the Enterprise.

From the start, the Enterprise is in a bad way. It's sad. Everything about it is sad. Then, as she limps back to Space Dock, we find out that they're going to decommission the poor thing. It's like watching Old Yeller. Except, instead of spending an hour and a half with the soon-to-be victim, we've spent nearly TWO DECADES. We've loved The Enterprise since we were children. We loved her in animated form. We loved her in reruns. We loved her through two movies and now a third. She is as much a part of Star Trek as any of the cast members. And remember, at the time that Star Trek III came out, we didn't have TNG or any of the rest of the movies to reminisce about and say, "Oh it'll be ok because there'll be another Enterprise."

No, we'd spent nigh on twenty years in a love affair with the ship that launched a thousand (nearly) hours of glorious television and movies. And, suddenly, she is manned only by her core crew. Kirk takes the Enterprise back to the Genesis planet in the hope of saving his best friend, his son, and Saavik (she's kind of a bonus, I guess.) Then, in an hour of despair, the Enterprise is overrun by Klingons and, with no other choice, her captain and her core crew choose her destruction.

Unlike Spock, we would have to go an entire next movie without the Enterprise. Without her, it's going to be a long voyage home.