ST3 & ST4

In this installment...

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Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

• "Mr. Scott, have you always multiplied your repair estimates by a factor of four?"
• ILM did multiple new models for this movie, all of which are awesome (in this Trekkie's opinion):  the Oberth- and Excelsior-class starships, the Klingon Bird-of-Prey, Earth Spacedock and the one we see first in the film, the Merchantman.  All of these models will go on to be re-used dozens of times throughout the life of the Trek franchise.
• "She's supposed to have transwarp drive." <-- This sentence sparked a bit of nerd confusion over whether or not "transwarp" for the experimental USS Excelsior was the same as the Borg transwarp technology seen in  TNG and VOY.  Ultimately, the best we can assume from on-screen evidence is that "transwarp" is--as it says in the Memory-Alpha article linked above--just a generic term for any technology that permits relative speeds greater than traditional warp drive.
  
  Although Excelsior's transwarp computer is disabled by Scotty, there's no on-screen evidence of her experimental drive actually being a failure--as is assumed by most fans.  Between TOS and TNG, the warp scale for starships is recalibrated a bit (making Warp 10 the top of the scale, and unachievable by conventional warp drive).  This could be very well be due to the success of Excelsior's new propulsion system (more of an updated version of traditional warp drive than something completely revolutionary).
  
  Then again, the common "fanon" explanation that the transwarp experiment failed, but Excelsior's spaceframe proved so durable and flexible that the Federation continued to produce vessels in the class for nearly a century, makes sense as well.
• "Aye...and if my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a wagon."
• Enterprise returning to Earth and entering the aforementioned, newly-designed Spacedock is one of my favorite sequences in this film (and any of the TOS-era films).  I especially enjoy Janice Rand's cameo, as she looks up at Enterprise entering the dock and is astonished at the damage she's sustained during her encounter with Khan in the previous film.
• I don't need to say it, but DeForest Kelley turns in an exceptionally good performance in this movie.
• Among the Klingon baddies is not only Christopher Lloyd, who plays Commander Kruge, but also John Larroquette as Maltz.
• Speaking of actors, Saavik is portrayed by Robin Curtis in ST3 rather than Kirstie Alley.  Reportedly, Alley--whose star had risen somewhat between the two movies--asked for a much larger salary for the film.  Leonard Nimoy, who directed ST3, opted instead to recast the role.  While a lot of fans didn't like this, I actually prefer Robin Curtis.
  
  Robin Curtis would go on to play a Vulcan-posing-as-a-Romulan named T'Paal in the TNG episode "Gambit".
• You know, for how close they were...isn't it a little odd that Spock never mentioned this katra thing to Kirk before?  The rareness of the fal-tor-pan ritual notwithstanding, it's the Vulcan tradition to preserve the katra (and Sarek mentions as much...that it's "the Vulcan way, when the body's end is near).  And yet Spock was never like "Hey man, if I'm about to die?  Yeah, if there's time make sure I've mind-melded with someone first."
• "The word, sir?"
  "The word...is no.  I am therefore going anyway."
• "Fruity as a nutcake" is still a phrase that I use from time to time :)
• I made this some time back--one of my favorite scenes in the movie...
  
  
  
• "Don't call me Tiny."
• "Gentlemen, your work today has been outstanding.  I intend to recommend you all for promotion...in whatever fleet we end up serving."
• The look on the Grissom helm officer's face when Saavik tells Captain Esteban that they've found Spock's reanimated body?  FRIGGIN' PRICELESS.
• I think we've all learned a lesson today:  If Christopher Lloyd wants prisoners, you give Christopher Lloyd prisoners.  Otherwise you get distruptor'd right up-side your ridged noggin'.
• Unethical use of protomatter:  Rookie mistake.
• That Vulcan two-finger hand-holding thing during pon farr?  Most sterile foreplay ever.
• The auto-destruct sequence involved in the destruction of NCC-1701 is nearly identical to that used in the TOS episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".
• "My God, Bones.  What have I done?"
  "What you had to do.  What you always do--turn death into a fighting chance to live."
• "I...HAVE HAD...ENOUGH...OF YOOOOUUUU!!!"
• "Wait!  You said you would kill me."
  "I lied."
• "But McCoy, you must now be warned:  The danger to thyself is as grave as the danger to Spock.  You must make the choice."
  "I choose the danger...hell of a time to ask."
• "Jim.  Your name...is Jim."
  
  

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Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home

• The opening overture of the ST4 soundtrack always sounds like Christmas music to me.  I think it's the combination of the brass and bells.
• The "whale probe" always looks like a gigantic summer sausage with a volleyball underneath of it.
• Hey, USS Saratoga!  I've got you on my desk.
• I've always enjoyed the generous use of the Sarek character in the TOS-era films and then later in TNG.  I love the character, and I think Mark Lenard does a great job with him.
• "HOW DO YOU FEEL?"
• Saratoga's captain is played by Madge Sinclair, who will go on to play Captain Silva La Forge-- commander of the USS Hera and mother of NCC-1701-D's chief engineer, Lt. Cmdr Geordi La Forge (TNG, "Interface").
• "Not exactly operating on all thrusters" is also a phrase I routinely use.
• Speaking of which, this movie features my all-time favorite interaction between Spock and McCoy:
  
  "Hi.  Busy?"
  "Uhura is busy.  I am monitoring."
  "Well, I just wanted to say that it sure is nice to have your katra back in your head, and not mine.  What I mean is...I may have carried your soul, but I sure couldn't fill your shoes."
  "My shoes?"
  "Forget it...perhaps we could cover a little philosophical ground?  Life...death...life?  Things of that nature?"
  "I did not have time on Vulcan to review the philosophical disciplines."
  "Come on Spock!  It's me, McCoy.  You really have gone where no man's gone before.  Can't you tell me what it felt like?"
  "It would be impossible to discuss the subject without a common frame of reference."
  "You're joking."
  "A joke is...a story with a humorous climax?"
  "You mean I have to die to discuss your insights on death?"
  "Forgive me, Doctor.  I'm receiving a number of distress calls."
  "I don't doubt it."
  
• In a wonderful example of the times in which the film was made, reference to "Leningrad" is made at Starfleet Headquarters when they're reviewing conditions at various cities on Earth.  As we all know now, after the break-up of the USSR the name of that city reverted to "Saint Petersburg".
• The famous "nuclear wessels" scene was reportedly shot using people passing on the street rather than paid extras, including the moustachioed police officer standing by giving Chekov and Uhura the stinkeye the entire time.
• USS Enterprise (CVN-65) is actually portrayed in this movie by USS Ranger (CV-61), a non-nuclear (but no less impressive) aircraft carrier.
• "No ma'am, no dipshit."
• "The keyboard...how quaint."
• "Don't tell me, you're from outer space."
  "No, I'm from Iowa.  I only work in outer space."
• "Our mission?  Spock, we're talking about the end of every life on Earth.  You're half human.  Haven't you got an goddamn feelings about that?"
• "He's a Ruskie."
  "That is the stupidest thing I've never heard in my life.  Of course he's a Ruskie, but he's a retard or somethin'."
  
  Ah, back when you could use the R-word in a movie O_o
• Someone in the Ars Lounge photochopped my head onto the old woman's head from the hospital scene in this movie when I was ill back in '09...but for the life of me I can't think of who it was, or what happened to that picture.  But it was pretty funny.
• "Spock, where the hell's the power you promised me?"
  "On damned minute, Admiral."
• The scene where HMS Bounty de-cloaks above the whaling vessel is a classic example of the Bird-of-Prey Size Paradox.
• "Admiral!  There be whales here!"
• Ladies and gentlemen, we have a bathrobed Spock frolicking with whales in San Francisco Bay.  I repeat, we have a bathrobed Spock frolicking with whales in San Francisco Bay.
• "Do you have a message for your mother?"
  "Yes.  Tell her...'I feel fine'."
• We get our first look at the second Constitution-class USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-A) at the end of this movie, which will go on to star in the final two TOS-era films.  Although never officially stated on-screen, it's widely accepted by fans that this vessel is the re-christened USS Yorktown (rumor has it that this was Roddenberry's own idea, harkening back to the original name he had selected for the ship when TOS was still in development).

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So those are the third and fourth Star Trek feature films.  I find it difficult to watch them without extensive commentary (they're among the Trek material with which I am the most familiar), but there are also moments in these re-watchings when I just wanted to sit back and enjoy them on the sofa...so you may notice some lapses in detailed commentary.

I love both of these movies, for different reasons.  The Search for Spock is a great follow-up to The Wrath of Khan, and although TWoK gets all of the glory when it comes to the TOS-era films (and rightfully so), TSFS is an impressive movie in its own right.  It maybe doesn't transcend into "great film" territory in the same way, but it's still a great Trek movie.

The Voyage Home was the crossover success for the Trek franchise before the '09 reboot was even a twinkle in J.J. Abrams' eye.  Almost everyone--even people who don't care for Trek--know and enjoy "the one with the whales".

Most importantly--and this is something that we see very heavily throughout all of the TOS-era films (with the possible exception of TMP)--there are a ton of great character moments in both of these movies.  One of my favorite things about these flicks is the interaction between that classic crew--especially the Kirk/Spock/McCoy troika.  The interplay between them is what makes so many lines from these movies so incredibly quotable for so many Trekkies--myself included.  That interplay is what gives Star Trek its heart.