Kirk discovers that Spock’s soul is trapped in Bones, so the remaining bridge crew swipe the Enterprise to travel back to the Genesis planet to attempt to put Spock’s mind and body back together. Meanwhile a Klingon captain has set his sights on Genesis as a great weapon and will do anything to get it.
It didn’t take long for the jokes about “every odd number Trek film being bad” to start. I heard that when The Search for Spock came out, and it was solidified when Star Trek IV turned out to be a winner. It isn’t true, and is a bit unfair. The Search for Spock isn’t a bad film (nor is Start Trek: The Motion Picture). It is just a disappointing one. After the height of Wrath of Khan, this good but lesser film felt terrible at the time of its release. This is a smaller film and it doesn’t help that it undoes many of the great moments from Star Trek II. A great death is no more. Two new characters are dumped. Saavik has a new actress and either due to poor acting choices, poor scripting, or bad direction, the character no longer functions. Eliminating her Romulan half (which explained her emotional reactions in The Wrath of Khan) was a mistake.
We also get silly Vulcan mental transference that comes out of nowhere and a camp villain (played with gusto by Christopher Lloyd) who is fun, but a bit too arch, leaving the film feeling goofy. The lower budget is visible in the Genesis planet, which looks like the old series planets—tiny and filled with Styrofoam boulders.
The humor is more plentiful than in the previous two films, which is where Search For Spock works best. This is a very light weight flick. The best moments have nothing to do with excitement or drama or character. When the film tries for tragedy it only manages to be uncomfortable and false. Rather, it is Uhura pulling a phaser on an obnoxious Starfleet officer, Sulu telling a large security guard not to call him tiny, and Kirk stating that he will recommend them all in whatever fleet they end up serving where the film works. Plus there is the fan service unseen sex between Saavak and teen Spock that goes over the heads of the general public, but leaves geeks giggling.
The Search for Spock does complete the Vulcan civilization’s descent into absurdity. It’s hard to fathom what is illogical about returning the mind to a living body (sure, it hasn’t been done “since ages past” but how often do they have ghost minds with living bodies), but at least they have lines of Vulcan babes. For a logical race, they spend a good deal of effort on cute outfits. This is neither good nor bad, just amusing.